The Forest of the Hanged (Thurvok, Book 4) by Richard Blakemore and Cora Buhlert

Release date: March 6, 2019

Subgenre: Sword and Sorcery

About The Forest of the Hanged:

 

According to the laws of the Rhadur, whenever one of their own is killed in one of the cities they have conquered, twelve citizens chosen at random must die in turn. Now the Rhadur governor of Greyvault has been murdered and in retaliation, his successor plans to hang twelve innocent maidens.

One of the women to be hanged is Lysha, the childhood sweetheart of Meldom, thief, cutpurse and occasional assassin. When Meldom learns of Lysha's fate, he immediately sets out to rescue her, accompanied by his friends Thurvok, the sellsword, and the sorceress Sharenna…

This is a short story of 6500 words or 24 print pages in the Thurvok sword and sorcery series, but may be read as a standalone. Includes an introduction and afterword.

 

Excerpt:

 

The trouble started, as it sometimes did, with a message. It was delivered to Meldom, cutpurse, thief and occasional assassin, at the breakfast table at the Long Drop Tavern, though Thurvok the sellsword had no idea how the messenger had even found his friend and companion here. After all, very few people were supposed to know where they were staying. It was simply safer that way.
While Thurvok nibbled on a joint of ham, Meldom broke the wax seal — plain candle wax and not proper sealing wax — with his dagger and read. His expression darkened.
“Business?” Thurvok asked between two bites.
Meldom shook his head. “No, private.” The dagger was still in his hand, clutched so hard that Meldom’s already pale skin become even paler.
At this moment, Thurvok’s other travelling companion, Sharenna, the flame-haired sorceress, appeared, carrying a jug of milk, a basket of fresh bread and a chunk of cheese. She set down her burden on the table, flashed Thurvok a private smile and settled down on the chair opposite the two men.
Sharenna filled up her cup with milk and helped herself to some bread and cheese. It was only now that she noticed that the normally chatty Meldom was uncharacteristically quiet. For once, he wasn’t plotting grandiose plans for making ridiculous amounts of money. Nor was he making pointed remarks about sleeping arrangements.
Of course, eating normally shut Meldom up, but then he wasn’t eating either. He was just staring at that letter and clutching his dagger, clutching it so hard Thurvok briefly worried that the hilt would shatter.
“What’s wrong?” Sharenna asked.
Meldom looked up, his grey eyes troubled. “Nothing. Just a message from an old friend. I’ll have to leave for a while, though. I have business in Greyvault.”
“I thought you said you couldn’t go back to Greyvault, because you’re wanted for something or other there,” Thurvok pointed out, still gnawing on his joint of ham.
“Well, in theory I can’t go back,” Meldom snapped, “But in practice, I’ll just have to risk it and hope that the constabulary doesn’t catch me.”
In response, Thurvok laid down the joint of ham or rather what was left of it. “We’ll come with you then.”
“It’s private business,” Meldom replied.
“We’ll still come with you,” Sharenna said, her voice softer than usual, “After all, we’re friends. And friends help each other when they’re in trouble.”
“How do you even know I’m in trouble?” Meldom snapped, “Are you using your magic to read my mind or what?”
Sharenna sighed. “For the last time, I can’t read minds. Not that I need to, considering you’re making a face like soured milk.”
Meldom finally put the letter down, though he still clutched the dagger in his hand. “Yeah, I’m sorry. It’s just…”
“Bad news?” Thurvok suggested.
Meldom nodded. “Very bad. An old… friend of mine is in trouble. The sort of trouble that tends to leave you swinging on the end of a rope.”
Thurvok patted his friend on the shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“You want to help your friend, don’t you?” Sharenna asked.
“If I can.” Meldom replied. “I have to try, at any rate. I owe her my life, after all.”
Across the table, Thurvok and Sharenna exchanged a look. For though Meldom talked a lot, he rarely spoke about his life before he became a wandering mercenary, selling his skills to whoever was willing to pay him. Still, whatever was behind this message had left Meldom rattled, more rattled than Thurvok had ever seen him.
“Then it’s settled.” Thurvok rose to his feet. “We’ll go to Greyvault and save this friend of yours.”
Meldom shot him a warning look. “It’s going to be dangerous.”
Thurvok sighed. “Isn’t it always?”

 

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About Richard Blakemore:

Richard Blakemore (1900 – 1994) was a prolific writer of pulp fiction. Nowadays, he is best remembered for creating the Silencer, a masked vigilante in the vein of the Shadow or the Spider, during the hero pulp boom of the 1930s. But Richard Blakemore also wrote in many other genres, including an early sword and sorcery series about the adventures of a sellsword named Thurvok and his companions.

Richard Blakemore's private life was almost as exciting as his fiction. He was a veteran of World War I and II as well as a skilled sportsman and adventurer who travelled the world during the 1920s. He may also have been the person behind the mask of the real life Silencer who prowled New York City between 1933 and 1942, fighting crime, protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty, though nothing has ever been proven.

Richard Blakemore was married for more than fifty years to Constance Allen Blakemore and the couple had four children.

 

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About Cora Buhlert:

Cora Buhlert was born and bred in North Germany, where she still lives today – after time spent in London, Singapore, Rotterdam and Mississippi. Cora holds an MA degree in English from the University of Bremen and is currently working towards her PhD. 

Cora has been writing, since she was a teenager, and has published stories, articles and poetry in various international magazines. She is the author of the Silencer series of pulp style thrillers, the Shattered Empire space opera series, the In Love and War science fiction romance series, the Helen Shepherd Mysteries and plenty of standalone stories in multiple genres.

When Cora is not writing, she works as a translator and teacher. She also runs the Speculative Fiction Showcase and the Indie Crime Scene and contributes to the Hugo-nominated fanzine Galactic Journey.

 

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Interview with Carole McDonnell, author of The Constant Tower

Today on the Speculative Fiction Showcase it gives us great pleasure to interview Carole McDonnell, author of The Constant Tower. 

You are a prolific writer in several genres - fiction, non-fiction and poetry, to name but a few. Do you have a favourite genre, and is it helpful to write about different things at different times?

My favorite genre is probably time travel. That encompasses so much, doesn’t it? Speculation, science fiction (if the time travel was done by scientific means), fantasy if the mechanics of the time travel is unexplainable or merely caused by some spiritual power or human wishing. It is often a puzzle too and I like puzzles. It is the genre of regret, a woulda-shoulda-might-ve genre. And the time disorientation, time loops, and puzzling out the exact key to a better outcome of life is fun to watch. That’s the genre I love to watch. I’ve written some time-travel stories. Those are in my anthology, Turn Back O Time. The genres I love to read are non-fiction and poetry. I avoid science fiction because I don’t know enough about any particular hard science to write convincingly or intelligently about them. I like writing fantasy, however, because of the worldbuilding, the folklore and the culture of those worlds. I can create these worlds and live in them and not have to worry about science.

Tell us about your writing process, and your writing day. Do you prefer to work on one project at a time, or to move between books?

I work on several books at the same time. Sometimes one feels like editing, sometimes one feels like writing, sometimes one is blocked on a particular book, and sometimes one wakes up with the scenes of a particular work-in-progress in one’s mind.

Does your interest in poetry infuse your writing to a certain extent?

Oh yes, definitely! I was a poetry nut as a kid and still am. Mostly English and Irish poetry from all eras, and Chinese poetry.

You have contributed to a number of anthologies. How does that experience  differ from writing a novel or series of your own?

Writing to a theme is either very easy if you know what the editor wants , but it is also very challenging because if you don’t usually write steamfunk or dieselfunk, for instance, then you have to really think about it. Also, they are short stories, at the most novellas. When I create worlds, I tend to really get into everything about that world so the readers have an idea of that world. But this can lead to stories that are really novels or to stories that are too complicated and confusing and which feel incomplete. So I have to learn how to measure the story.

Tell us about your stand-alone novels. Two of them, Wind Follower and The Constant Tower, are fantasy novels. The most recent stand-alone, My Life as an Onion, described as African-American Christian Fiction, is closer to literary fiction. Can you talk about the differences between the books, and what prompted you to write about such a different theme?

Yes, I generally write about other worlds and other cultures. Wind Follower is about imperialism and is very infused with Christianity. The Constant Tower doesn’t seem religious at all but if someone knows the Bible she will see that the book is full of Bible verses. With My Life as an Onion, I wanted to write a story about real life as I have experienced it. Real life is full of the surreal, especially for a little Christian kid raised in Jamaica. I’ve always loved magical realism and, having experienced some odd events in life, I wanted to put them in a kind of fictional memoir. I also love Korean dramas and I wanted to write a reverse harem new adult for dark-skinned women. When I say “reverse harem,” I’m talking about the Asian variety where a girl has several men around her who may like her but she has to choose one. Not the American version which is often overtly sexual. I was raised by my Methodist Minister grandfather and his sister who was a former Catholic nun. To the best of my ability, I wanted to write a story about a Pentecostal Black girl who has to discover what part of her Christian culture she will keep and what part she will toss.  Most Christian fiction often feel unreal and preachy and there is a kind of distance between it and non-Christian readers. And most Christian romance avoid interracial relationships and supernatural events.

In the Editorial Review for My Life as an Onion, you mention your interest in Korean dramas. Can you tell us about these and what is particularly good about them?

Korean dramas use a different kind of storytelling than American dramas. The muism – Korean folk religion-- of Korean culture touches the dramas. Everything is interconnected, interwoven, and aims for harmony and redemption. For westerners, the coincidences might seem like easy plotting but for Koreans, those coincidences are the universe working out some issue to produce harmony. Also, Korean TV is concerned with stories with a beginning and an end (usually a happy or redemptive ending) but American TV is primarily character-based where there are the same characters in sit-coms for years. Korean TV trusts its viewers – mostly older women-- to have the patience and intelligence to enter any world the writer might create and to wait to see how the story goes. Each channel has stories and each story is about 16 episodes. This means a lot of stories throughout the year, stories that are truer to the meaning of “story” and purer to some extent than western TV where the characters, settings, themes are already established because the western shows are so long-standing.

What do you do when you are between writing projects, and how do you like to relax?

I go to my English Country Dance, I go for walks, I design fabrics, I listen to music.

You have written about several different fantasy universes. One series concerns Malku and the Faes. What is distinctive about this world, and the characters who inhabit it?

In all my stories, I am fascinated by culture, races, and how everyone works together. In the Malku universe, there are standard humans, merfolk, fae, and the children of such unions. In some regions everyone gets along, in others not so much.

The blurb to The Charcoal Bride, the first book in the series - a collection of three short novels - describes it as chronicling “the rise to power of Hanrisor’s King Skall and the family curse –called ‘The Hanrisor Legacy’--that troubled him and his descendants”. What is the importance of the curse, without giving too much away, and how does it affect Skall and his adventures?

It’s a vengeance curse. There is the old Biblical idea of a generational curse. Deuteronomy 27 and 28, and the ten commandments for instance are about curses. For instance, Abraham lied to Pharoah about his wife, Isaac lied to another king about his wife, Jacob lied to his father, Jacob gets lied to by his wife’s father, Jacob ends up being lied to by his son Reuben.  Or King David committed adultery and killed the husband of his co-adulterer, and ends up causing bloodshed in his own family where his son rapes his daughter, and another son ends up raping David’s concubines. It also occurs in Greek literature. Everyone in Laius’ family had some sexual issue – falling in love with a bull, marrying one’s mother, etc—because an ancestor raped a young boy. In my story, Hanrisor is a kingdom where the king’s family is under a curse. Prince Arvid’s biological father was murdered by a king who loved Arvid’s mother. Arvid makes a vow to the God of wrath to kill the king. However, he doesn’t kill the king because he loves his mother and half-brother.  He has broken the vow he made to a god. This curse of wrath between the son and father goes on through the generations until it works itself out.

The Fae themselves play an important role in this and other stories. They are not exactly benign as an influence - is that a fair summation?

The faes are indifferent to everything for the most part. They are otherworldly and powerful. They tend to live and let live unless they are bothered. Malku has encountered several disasters because humans dared to war against the fae. In The Charcoal Bride, we hear about such a war and we discover why Skall becomes king.

Tell us about the second book in the series, SeaWalker...

In The Charcoal Bride, we are mostly concerned with Skall. SeaWalker is about his best friend, a child who was once disabled whom the fae raised. Skall has arrived in Hanrisor as king now and he and the SeaWalker, who is named Nohay, go on a road trip throughout Hanrisor to learn about the culture and to see what damage the war with the fae has done. Of course there are resentments and would-be murderers.

The Nephilim Dystopia Series has two books to date: The Daughters of Men and The Chimeran Queen. What aspect of the stories is dystopian?

In this world, there are different kinds of humans. There are standard humans. There are chimeric humans who look more or less human who have had their genetics manipulated by scientists. There are the prototypes who cannot die but who continually age. There are the Nephilim. The Chimeran Queen is Medusa. She is quite hideous and worms continually come from under her flesh. She has been raised and trained by the Nephilim and in book two has now been given the rule of Otaura. The Chimerans have different categories which include equine chimera, bovine chimera, avian chimera, etc.  Some are ashamed of their genetics, others proud. They are supposed to be living on a terraformed planet but some hide their genetics and continue to live on earth. Most of these groups hate, envy, or curse others in other groups.

What is the significance of the Nephilim in this world?

The Nephilim are beautiful, powerful, telepathic. Some are more human than others because of continued intermarriage. Others, like Prince Woden and Duke Siddhart, have had only one human female ancestor. Nephilim who are human-demon hybrids who rule the world because of some great disaster because their spirit fathers revolted against God.

The protagonist, Ellie, who is human, finds herself torn between two different men, and also the subject of a prophecy. How does this conflict affect her and her world?

Some humans want to be free from the power of the Nephilim, others are fine with it. The Nephilim think they are doing good in the world because they helped earth recover from the great disaster. But although the Nephilim love women, they disdain human evil and there is that nasty pesky human sacrifice every year so one could question how much they truly like humans. The Nephilim are also looking for a savior. As in the supposed Book of Enoch, they are constantly seeking God’s forgiveness. After all, they may be monsters in God’s eyes but they didn’t ask to be born.  

What are you working on at the moment? And what are your plans?

I’m writing the first draft of Chimeran Queen, editing SeaWalker, and working on a nonfiction Christian book.

The influence of the Bible is inescapable, whether one is Christian, Jewish, or simply English-speaking. It informs so much of our discourse, and writers who disagree with it, like Phillip Pullman, are nonetheless deeply influenced by its language. What are your thoughts about this?

I’m not sure if one can really say that writers disagree with the entire Bible. There are many books in it. There is Ecclesiastes, for instance. I really can’t see any atheist writer disagreeing with it. The thing is many cultures have a holy book. It is part of human folkloric culture to speak of a lost book and a need for a sacrificed savior. Job, the oldest book in the Bible, speaks of desiring a book and looking for a savior who could put one hand on God and the other hand on a human. So culturally the Bible is the western version. Ashok Banker is an Indian writer who acknowledges and honors his culture’s religious stories, and Bryan Thao Worra is a Laotian poet who honors his culture’s mythos. Whether one is religious or not, cultural landmarks should be acknowledged and honored during our time. I’ll just say that for me, the language of the Bible and all those tragic princes one finds in it has affected my writing, and its philosophy and concept of the nature of man has definitely been the lens through which I see the world. And thank you so much for interviewing me.

Amazon

About Carole McDonnell:

Carole McDonnell is a writer of Christian, supernatural, and ethnic stories. She writes fiction, non-fiction, poetry and reviews. Her writings appear in various anthologies, including Griots, edited by Milton Davis and published by MV Media, Steamfunk, edited by Milton Davis and published by MV Media,  So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonialism in Science Fiction, edited by Nalo Hopkinson and published by Arsenal Pulp Press; Jigsaw Nation, published by Spyre Books; and Life Spices from Seasoned Sistahs: Writings by Mature Women of Color among others.

Her reviews appear at various online sites.

Her story collections are Spirit Fruit: Collected Speculative Fiction by Carole McDonnell and Turn Back O Time and other stories of the fae of Malku.

There are also stand-alone novels: Wind Follower, My Life as an Onion, The Constant Tower

Her novels also include books in the following series:

The Nephilim Dystopia Series: The Daughters of Men, The Chimeran Queen

And Novels of the Malku Universe: The Charcoal Bride, SeaWalker

She lives in New York with her husband, two sons, and their pets. When not writing, she teaches English as a Second Language to refugees and migrants or can be found dancing English Country Dances.

Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for March 22, 2019

It's time for the weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with Star Trek Discovery, Captain Marvel, Love, Death + Robots, season 2 of American Gods, Captive State, Us and much more. 

Speculative fiction in general:

• Eric Brown offers a round-up of the best recent science fiction and fantasy. 
• Ada Palmer, Jo Walton, Jack McDevitt and David Pedreira share their personal best science fiction books of all time.
• R.E. Stearns shares five books about running away to join the space pirates.
• Joseph Hurtgen talks about gender roles in Revenger by Alastair Reynolds.
• Charlie Jane Anders recommends five books that aren't by men. 
• Meredith Borders lists the thirteen best women writing horror today.
• Ben H. Winters talks about worldbuilding, invented bureaucracies in speculative fiction and what they say about us. 
• Namwali Serpell talks about the predictive abilities of science fiction. 
• Matthew Reardon talks about Sir Terry Pratchett and philosophy.
• Vivian Shaw shares her appreciation for the works of Robin McKinley.
• Nicole Hill shares lessons from fantasy novels about surviving a trip into the dark woods.
• Sarah Pinsker shares five speculative fiction books which gave her unreasonable expectations about post-high school life. 
• Tor.com shares seven books that reimagine favourite classics. 
• Frankie Thomas recalls an encounter with Madeleine L'Engle as a child and explains why most of her novels no longer work for her as an adult. 
• Thomas Ling reports that J.K. Rowling felt compelled to let us know that Dumbledore and Grindelwald once had a physical relationship. 
• Jonathan Crowe talks about fantasy maps.
• Parvati Sharma explains what happens when a book finds you.
• Laura Benedict shares a brief history of unlikeable protagonists.
• Alison Flood reports that there is still a gender gap regarding reviews and general coverage of works by male and female writers. 
• Christopher Maverick takes a look at the symbolism of superhero costumes and logos. 
• Ross Johnson celebrates Batman's 80th birthday by picking the ten greatest Batman stories from Detective Comics.
• Bill Ward attempts to explain what sword and sorcery is.
  
• Ryan Harvey discusses the influence of Steve Reeves and the Italian sword and sandal epic on the sword and sorcery genre. 
• Alec Nevala-Lee offers an overview of the iconic cover and interior art of Astounding Science Fiction. 
• Cora Buhlert takes a look at post-WWII architecture and its science fictional implications.
• Katy Waldman discusses the recent cancellations of YA books just before publication.
• Richard Lea reports that Francis Stufford has penned an unauthorised Narnia novel entitled The Stone Table. 
• Arkady Martine finds some unexpected links between Byzantine literary culture and modern fanfiction. 
• Ana Valens reports about the links between Gamergate, 8chan and the mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand.
• Cartoonist Tom K. Ryan has died aged 92.
• Artist Ellen Vartanoff has died aged 68.
• Radio announcer, fanzine editor and longterm science fiction fan Frank Johnson has died aged 65.
  

Film and TV:

• Evan Narcisse calls Little Monsters a parade of the usual zombie comedy clichés that works depsite itself. 
• Carrie Vaughn shares her thoughts on the film version of Mortal Engines.
• Ellen E. Jones wonders what precisely Russian Doll is about. 
• Katherine Mack praises the accurate physics of The Expanse. 
• Emily Asher-Perrin shares four theories about what Pepper Potts is doing in Avengers: Endgame.
• Keith R.A. DeCandido revisits the 1990 TV version of The Flash. 
• Jessica Holmes revisits the 1964 Doctor Who episode "Marco Polo". 
• Rosemary Benton revisits the 1964 movie The Last Man on Earth.
• Nicholas Barber asks if Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune is the greatest film never made. 
• Michael Heilemann untangles the thorny history of how Chewbacca came to be. 
• Cheryl Eddy shares the ten most monstrous horror movie parents.
• Rebecca Lewis reports that according to Winston Duke, who plays M'Baku, many members of the Black Panther cast had no idea initially which film they were auditioning for. 
• Charles Pulliam-Moore interviews Clark Gregg who plays Phil Coulson in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• Richard Jordan reports that James Gunn has been rehired as director for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
• Andrew Pulver reports that Bryan Singer has reportedly been fired from the latest adaptation of Red Sonja.
• Andrew Pulver reports that Danny Boyle quit the still untitled 25th James Bond film over a script dispute.
  
• Michael Schneider reports that Neil deGrasse Tyson's show Cosmos will return soon.
• Andrew Pulver reports that Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter have confirmed that a third Bill and Ted movie called Bill and Ted Face the Music is in the works. 
• Actress Emilia Clarke, best known for playing Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, shares her experiences surviving two life-threatening brain aneurysms.
• Matthew S. Schwartz reports that Disney now officially owns 21st Century Fox. 
• Larry DiTillio, story editor on Babylon 5, has died aged 79.
• Film editor Norman Hollyn has died aged 67.
  

Comments on Star Trek Discovery and Star Trek in general (spoilers):

• Zack Handlen shares his thoughts on "Project Daedalus", the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery.
• James Whitbrook shares his thoughts on "Project Daedalus".
• Keith R.A. DeCandido shares his thoughts on "Project Daedalus".
• Camestros Felapton shares his thoughts on "Project Daedalus".
• Cora Buhlert shares her thoughts on "Project Daedalus".
• Kayti Burt shares her thoughts on "Project Daedalus".
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw shares her thought on "Project Daedalus". 
• Ryan Britt points out that "Project Daedalus" also explains why Kirk and Picard never trust holograms. 
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw interviews Gersha Phillips, costume designer for Star Trek Discovery.
• Camestros Felapton runs a poll regarding the identity of the mysterious Red Angel in Star Trek Discovery.
• Marissa Martinelli reports that US politicians Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Stacey Abrams have both outed themselves as longterm fans of Star Trek Voyager.
  

Comments on Captain Marvel (potential spoilers): 

• Meredith B. Kile calls Captain Marvel an Avengers origin story like no other.
• Charles Pulliam-Moore discusses the complicated political messages of Captain Marvel.
• Angie Dahl declares that the depiction of female friendship in Captain Marvel is exactly what the Marvel cinematic universe needed. 
• Inspired by Captain Marvel, Clara Mae points out that many Marvel movies fall into the pattern of featuring a white hero and a sidekick, sometimes superpowered themselves, of colour. 
• Scott M. Sandridge points out that the Captain Marvel vs. Alita: Battle Angel conflict is fabricated and completely unnecessary, because there is room for both movies. 
• Narayan Liu shares director Anna Boden's explanation for the smile scene in Captain Marvel.
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw explains why Nick Fury doesn't use the Captain Marvel pager for twenty years. 
• Renaldo Matadeen feels that Captain Marvel features the best villain in the Marvel cinematic universe so far. 
• Sam Adams points out that Captain Marvel takes a shot at True Lies, which Adams considers one of the most sexist movies of the 1990s. 
• Based on new information uncovered in Captain Marvel, James Whitbrook creates a timeline of a certain important artefact in the Marvel cinemate universe.
• Brandon Zachary traces the history of the Infinity Stones in the Marvel cinematic universe.
• The Nerdist interviews Clark Gregg who plays Phil Coulson in Captain Marvel and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. among others.
• John Boone interviews Kevin Feige, mastermind behind the Marvel cinematic universe.
• Erin Nyren reports that Captain Marvel has passed the 200 million US-dollar mark in the US alone.
• Pamela McClintock reports that Captain Marvel continues to soar at the box office.
• Renaldo Matadeen reports that Gal Gadot, best known for playing Wonder Woman, has congratulated Brie Larson on the success of Captain Marvel, proving once more that there is no rivalry between the two.
  

Comments on season 2 of American Gods: 

• Emily L. Stephens is stunned to find that American Gods has a backstory.
• Jamie Sugah shares her thoughts on the latest episode of American Gods. 
• Cheryl Eddy reports that American Gods has been renewed for season 3 and will get yet another showrunner.
  

Comments on Love, Death + Robots:

• Nick Schager calls the anthology series Love, Death + Robots a sex-filled science fiction extravaganza.
• Ben Travers calls Love, Death + Robots hyper-masculine, half-baked and all too often style over substance. 
• Graeme Virtue calls Love, Death + Robots prestige TV with added sexbots.
• Camestros Felapton shares his initial impressions of Love, Death + Robots. 
• Camestros Felapton also shares an epiode by episode viewing guide to Love, Death + Robots.
• Terry Schwartz reports that the anthology series that eventually became Love, Death + Robots was originally intended to be a Heavy Metal reboot. 
• John Scalzi explains how three of his stories got adapted for Love, Death + Robots. 
• Ross Johnson explains where you can read the stories that were adapted for Love, Death + Robots.

Comments on Captive State:

• Germain Lussier claims that Captive State is not the science fiction movie we think it is.  
• A.A. Dowd calls Captive State a curiously dour alien occupation drama. 

Comments on Us:

• A.A. Dowd calls Us an expertly crafted horror film. 
• Peter Bradshaw calls Us a brash and brilliant beach holiday horror.
• Evan Narcisse interviews Jordan Peele, director of Us.
• Mike Ryan interviews Jordan Peele.
• The BBC interviews Lupita Nyong'o, one of the stars of Us.

Awards:

• The winners of the 2019 Lord Ruthven Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2019 Darrell Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2019 Philip K. Dick Film Festival have been announced.
• The winner of the 2019 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award has been announced.
• The finalists for the 2019 Rita and Golden Heart Awards have been announced with some love for genre novels. 
• The finalists for the 2019 Premio Italia have been announced. 
• The shortlist for the 2019 Tolkien Society Awards has been announced.
• The finalists of the 2018 Self-published Fantasy Blog-off have been announced.
• The winners of the 2019 science fiction in translation poll have been announced. 
• The finalists for the 2019 Colorado Book Awards have been announced.
• The finalists for the 31st Annual IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards have been announced.
• Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials books, has won the J.M. Barrie Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia, has won the E.B. White Award for Literature.
• The 2019 Bertram A. Chandler Award is open for nominations.
• The nominees for the British Academy Games Awards have been announced.
• Camestros Felapton takes a look at the rather strange rules for the Dragon Award.
• Mary Robinette Kowal shares some tips for new authors who have been nominated for an award.
  

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Annie Neugebauer asks if there is such a thing as trying too hard, when it comes to writing. 
• Rachel Gardner tackles the dilemma of having too many ideas and not enough time to write them all. 
• Rayne Hall shares some tips for writing novel opening scenes.
• Sarah Kuhn points out that stereotypes only become a problem, when a character has no other traits beside the stereotypical ones. 
• Phil Parker explains how to use the western zodiac for characterisation.
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch talks about punctuation and voice. 
• Alma Katsu explains why she chose to write about the infamous Donner party. 
• Sarah Pinsker shares the music that inspired her various stories.
• Tonya Thompson shares ten tips for writing great flash fiction. 
• Patrick LeClerc offers some tips for dealing with bad reviews.
  

Interviews:

• Emily Wenstrom interviews Charlie Jane Anders.
• Ilana C. Myer interviews Kameron Hurley.
• Her husband Peter interviews Zen Cho. 
• Locus interviews S.A. Chakraborty.
• A.C. Wise interviews Sarah Pinsker.
• The Qwillery interviews Sarah Chorn.
• Jonathan Maberry interviews Chris A. Jackson.
  

Reviews:

• Paul Weimer reviews Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik.
• Aidan Moher reviews The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley.
• Publishers Weekly reviews The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley.
• Publishers Weekly reviews This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. 
• For Winter Nights reviews Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey.
• Liz Bourke reviews Luna: Moon Rising by Ian MacDonald.
• Liz Bourke reviews Queen's Shadow by E.K. Johnston and Farmer's Crown by M.C.A Hogarth.
• Liz Bourke reviews The Perfect Assassin by K.A. Doore. 
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse. 
• Paul Weimer reviews Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds.
• Ross Johnson reviews Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds.
• Rachael McKenzie reviews The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley. 
• Nicole Hill reviews Miranda in Milan by Katharine Duckett.
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Burning Bright by Melissa McShane. 
• JJ at File 770 reviews Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett. 
• Amy Goldschlager reviws Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett.
• Colleen Mondor reviews Bluecrowne by Kate Milford. 
• Marion Deeds reviews Shadowblack by Sebastien de Castell. 
• Kat Hooper reviews Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi.
• Martin Cahill reviews The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson.
• Tadiana Jones reviews The Fever King by Victoria Lee.
• Publishers Weekly reviews Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone. 
• Nicole Hill reviews The Witch's Kind by Louisa Morgan.
• Ian Mond reviews I Am The River by T.E. Grau.
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews Uncommon Miracles by Julie C. Day. 
• Tim Pratt reviews The People's Republic of Everything by Nick Mamatas. 
• Erik Henriksen reviews Radicalized by Cory Doctorow.
• Joseph Hurtgen reviews Radicalized by Cory Doctorow.
• Bill Capossere reviews The Municipalists by Seth Fried. 
• Michael Patrick Hics reviews Boomtown by James A. Moore. 
• Amy Goldschlager reviews The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley. 
• Paul Di Filippo reviews Break the Body, Haunt the Bones by Micah Dean Hicks. 
• Smart Bitches, Trashy Books reviews We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia.
• Mahvesh Murad reviews New Suns - Original Speculative Fiction by People of Colour, edited by Nisi Shawl.
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews Readymade Bodhisattva: The Kaya Anthology of South Korean Science Fiction, edited by Sunyung Park and Sang Yoon Park.
  

Classics reviews:

• Joshua Glenn revisits the 1909 prehistoric adventure La Guerre du Feu a.k.a. The Quest for Fire by J.H. Rosny. 
• Sandy Ferber revisits the 1940 space opera Gray Lensman by E.E. Smith.
• Paul Fraser revisits the June 1943 issue of Unknown Worlds.   
• Jen Zink revisits the 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
• Mark Yon revisits the 1963 science fiction novel Way Station by Clifford D. Simak.
• Gideon Marcus revisits the April 1964 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. 
• Charlie Jane Anders revisits Ursula K. Le Guin's 1969 science fiction novel The Left Hand of Darkness for its fiftieth anniversary. 
• Sam Jordison revisits the 1969 science fiction novel Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
• Will Errickson revisits the 1975 horror novel The Manitou by Graham Masterson. 
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1976 non-fiction book A House in Space by Henry S.F. Cooper Jr. 
• Bogi Takács revisits the 1979 science fiction collection Fireflood and Other Stories by Vonda N. McIntyre.
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1983 science fiction novel Startide Rising by David Brin. 
• Rich Horton revisits the 1985 historical fantasy novel Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart.
• Summer H. Paulus revisits the 1996 fantasy novel The Son of Summer Stars by Meredith Ann Pierce.
  

Crowdfunding:

• Common Bonds, an anthology of speculative fiction featuring aromantic characters and platonic relationships, edited by Clausie Arsenault, is looking for funding.
• Kickstarter is running a digital conference about the future of publishing. 
• Hope Nicholson talks about creating a graphic novel budget for Kickstarter. 

Con and event reports:

• Mike Glyer looks ahead at the Vintage Paperback Collectors Show in Glendale, California, and shares the signing schedule.
• SyFy Wire shares videos of several panels at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, Washington.
• Donnie Lederer shares the best cosplay photos from Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, Washington.
• Cecilia Tan reports about a panel on Writing the Other at the 2019 International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Florida. 
• Cecilia Tan also shares G. Willow Wilson's guest of honour speech at the 2019 Internation Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts.
• Mike Glyer reports that comic artist Sana Takeda and playwright Rosaleen McDonagh will be coming as special guests to WorldCon 77 in Dublin, Ireland.
• Will Hunt reports about a three day expedition to walk across Paris entirely underground through the famous catacombs.
• Steven McIntosh reports that the musical Frozen is coming to London's West End and will open at the Drury Lane Theatre in autumn 2020.
• Steve Fjeldstaed reports about the Ray Bradbury Live (Forever) event in South Passadena, California.
  

Science and technology:

• Paul Rincon reports that a huge meteor has exploded in Earth's atmosphere over the Bering Sea. 
• Paul Rincon reports that Ryugu, the asteroid explored by Japan's Hayabusa-2 probe, has turned out to be a pile of rubble.
• Paul Rincon reports that Ultima Thule, the distant object explored by NASA's New Horizons probe, offers a unique window into the formation of the solar system. 
• Paul Rincon reports about a planned NASA mission to explore the metallic asteroid Psyche.
• Frontiers reports that dormant virusses activate during spaceflight.
• Thomas McMullan explains how swarming drones will change warfare.
• The BBC reports that robots will assist wheelchair users at the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
• Sam Blum remembers Pan Am's plans to offer commercial moon flights. 

Free online fiction:

• "Example" by Adam-Troy Castro in Nightmare Magazine.
• "A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime" by Charlie Jane Anders in Lightspeed.
• "The Blanched Bones, the Tyrant Wind" by Karen Osborne in Fireside Fiction. 
• "A Hundred Thousand Arrows" by Ashok K. Banker in Lightspeed.
• "Curse Like a Savior" by Russell Nichols in Apex Magazine. 
• "O Have You Seem the Devle with his Mikerscope and Scapul" by Jonathan L. Howard in Apex Magazine. 
• "Every Song Must End" by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam in Uncanny Magazine.
• "Tideline Treasures, or Growing Up Along the Mile-High Dyke" by Jaap Boekestein and Tais Teng in Future Science Fiction Digest. 
  

Odds and ends:

• Watch a trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
• Watch a trailer for season 3 of Stranger Things.
• Watch a trailer for Toy Story 4. 
• Watch a Star Wars themed parody of the song "Shallow" from A Star Is Born.
• Read In Ovens Baked, a parody of ordering a pizza in the style of David Weber.
• Diana Whitney shares some recipes for dishes inspired by Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn novels. 

SYNTH #1, an anthology of Dark SF edited by CM Muller

Release date: March 5, 2019

Sub-genre: Cyberpunk, Dystopian SF

About SYNTH #1:

SYNTH is a new anthology series of dark SF published quarterly, with each issue containing eight thought-provoking visions of the future . . . tales of utopia and dystopia, of inner and outer space; tales that are bleak, tales that are bold . . .

Issue #1 features the dark visions of Dan Stintzi, Steve Toase, Virginie Sélavy, Charles Wilkinson, Farah Rose Smith, Jeffrey Thomas, Christopher K. Miller, and Joanna Koch.

If you are a fan of Black Mirror, Philip K. Dick, J.G. Ballard, Alphaville, and the like, then SYNTH may well be your next literary fix

Excerpt from Surrogate by Dan Stintzi:

Out in the city, the snow was so thick Emmons was practically swimming. He followed back roads between the rubble of the old hospital, beside toppled smokestacks, weaving past homes reduced to steel and foundation. The route through the outskirts was impassable. The river had not frozen fully and the bridge was out again. That left the path through the city. He would have to pass the settlement, and possibly engage with and possibly maim or murder at least some of its inhabitants. He brought with him a hunting rifle he believed could still fire and a revolver he was sure could not. He had not seen the locals in years. He had heard the noises they made, but he had not seen them. The noises were difficult to classify. They came to him at night, in half-dreams, bounced off the city’s ruins, carried over the empty fields, over the snow. The sound was human—labored and sundry—rising up in unison like a chorus, but it was rigid too, mechanical, the noise an engine might make if it had a mouth and the desire to sing.

Emmons saw the settlement in the distance. The walls were made of wood; sharpened spears, aimed out at the road, jutted from the stockades. The settlement was built in the carcass of some ruined structure. Smoke rose in black plumes from the settlement’s center. The afternoon sky looked flat and hollow. It was a gray piece of paper that could be torn through. The smoke had a flavor that made Emmons’s stomach bubble. 

He followed the old road through the ruins, through the snow, until he came along a cleared path. He followed the path, climbing over concrete and metal, winding through the burnt out car frames, the piles of frozen garbage. He saw a purple hand in one of the piles, an unblinking eye in another. The ice never melted so the bodies never broke down. He sent his mind searching for memories of the days when bodies were piled up on street corners, when cars were left to rust on highways and sidewalks, but he came back empty. His brain had been strip-mined long ago, those old nightmares replaced with white space. 

He arrived outside the settlement where a man in a camouflage jacket sat hunched on a metal folding chair beside the settlement’s gate. Across from the gate was a series of wooden sawhorses placed in a line blocking the path forward. The man looked up and gripped the shotgun in his lap. Metal rivers ran in crisscross stitches across his face skin. The rivers were mercury colored, they flowed and rippled as if windblown. The man’s eyes were black orbs. His left leg was made of metal. 

Emmons wondered if this was a normal way for people to look. He could not remember. He stuck the rifle in the crook of his shoulder and took shuffling steps, walking parallel to the settlement’s gate, moving toward the barricade.

Excerpt from The Object of Your Desire Comes Closer by Joanna Koch:

Fay-Lin swathed my body with black hair and nervous energy. Barely sated by the last half hour, she spun a thread of hair around her index finger, a spider considering her mate. Happily trapped, sexually inexpert, I waited for the spider to strike. Instead of feeding me poison, she fought to keep me by her side.

I said, “You’re the most fearless person I’ve ever met.”

The forerunner of a wrinkle marked her brow. “What you did for us, alone for thirty years, that’s true courage, real strength.”

I smoothed Fay-Lin’s impatient frown with my rough hands, clumsy worship. “Send someone else. You’ve proved yourself before.” Around us, the evidence hummed. Our ill-equipped vessel sailed through the vacuum, eating up space. The unlikely survival of our ship was the last miracle I still believed in: the miracle of Fay-Lin.

“This is different. Damage, some sort of external growth. I don’t know what I’m dealing with until I get out on the hull and sample it. Too many unknowns. I need to make decisions in the moment, not manage from a distance.”

“Don’t go. For me.”

Fay-Lin twirled a black lock around her finger. I’d first witnessed this gesture of steeping ire when she was eight. It was our practice as teachers to let the children experience the full consequences of their actions. We stopped short of irreversible damage, but many suffered injuries. They had to learn there were no second chances on an orphaned vessel. At twenty-three, I was an old man to Fay-Lin and a double father figure, both teacher and chaplain. I didn’t intervene when her team failed the exercise. She spun a black lock and glared at me as she marched to her simulated death.

My stasis rotation came up soon after. I didn’t see Fay-Lin again until we were the same age. I missed watching her grow up. Age twenty-one, ascended to the rank of commander, Fay-Lin woke me to render aid as Minister of the Earth. We were adrift. Food supply ran low. The horror of waking from stasis made me useless to her at first. Some vital part of my soul seemed lost in that long void.

Fay-Lin roused me with her bold touch. How was I to resist? She was my first and only earthly love, though she wasn’t born on the earth. Let me say she was my first and only fleshly love.

Our love grew with the crops in the greenhouse. When she revived me, she bade me build a farm from nothing in space. For Fay-Lin, my answer is always yes.

Equal in passion, younger than I am now, I was immune to the mortifications of time. After months of mutual labor and love, I begged her not to send me back to stasis.

“The ship needs me. We can have a life together.”

Amazon US | Amazon UK

About CM Muller:

CM Muller lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the editor and publisher of the award-winning anthology series Nightscript, and his own stories have appeared in venues such as Shadows & Tall Trees, Supernatural Tales, Vastarien, and Weirdbook. His debut story collection, Hidden Folk, was released in late 2018.

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