The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien
S.E rating: 5 of 5 stars
In short, The Children of Húrin is very Tolkien... but much more dark/grim than most people have read. I own the Alan Lee illustrated version and the audiobook narrated by none other than Saruman-actor Christopher Lee. Extremely dark! A dense read made easier by the narration and tenor of Lee. Listening to C.Lee while looking at A.Lee's illustrations (who was concept artist for the movies too) is a great experience.
Audible Book Link - click to listen to sample
If anyone thinks JRR only wrote happy fairytales, then they will be surprised by this ultradark tale. On the other hand, Tolkien-tropes/style are still very much present:
1) A dragon, Glaurong, terrorizes Middle Earth (reminiscent of Smaug in the Hobbit)
2) Evil villain-god Glaurong is a servant of Morgoth, once named Melkor whose lieutenant Sauron appears in LOTR; Morgoth has a large role in this book.
3) Forbidden man and elf-woman relationships, in this case Turin has a few relationships with women, and elves, but one relationship echoes that of Aragorn & Arwen from LOTR ... which echoes that of Bereth and Luthien in and Tale of Tunuviel
4) Abandoned Dwarf place: in the Hobbit and LOTR we were treated to ruined Dwarf holds (Erebor and the Mines of Moria); here we have the petty-dwarf Mim and his abandoned hold Amon Rûdh.
5) Secretive Elf places: in the Hobbit and LTOR, we had Rivendell and Lothlórien... here we are graced with Doriath and Nargothrond)
These Tolkien-tropes reinforced my take on the Hobbit and LOTR's themes; if you've read those and are entertaining reading the Silmarillion, I suggest reading Hurin first. It is easier to read than The Silmarillion and expands the milieu well.
The Children of Húrin really extends the World of the Hobbit and Return of the King. Easier to read than the Similarion, but still pretty thick. From this I learned lots of nuances (like Elrond is half-human). Would make an awesome movie (which will not happen :( ). Highly recommended.
View all my reviews
This focuses on Beauty in Weird Fiction, with interviews. S E Lindberg is the creator of Dyscrasia Fiction, a Managing Editor at Black Gate, once an intern for Tales from the Mag.’s Skull & moderator of the Goodreads Sword and Sorcery Group
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Saturday, April 15, 2017
Rypel's Gonji Sabatake returns in "Dark Ventures"
GONJI DARK VENTURES is now available as
eBook/Kindle & Paperback!
Rypel's Gonji Sabatake is back on stage with new tales! The original 1980's Gonji Trilogy is great fun, a mashup of Sword & Sorcery and Godzilla-like monster movies. They were released recently, but there has been no published new Gonji for decades... until now. And this one promises even more!
Contents of Dark Ventures
(paraphrased from the book blurb):
Hear the rallying cry for fans of the popular 1980s heroic-fantasy series. Here are two new tales of GONJI SABATAKE, the itinerant samurai-Viking warrior.. and an excerpt of another forthcoming novel! An ideal entry point for new readers.
1) The novelette "Reflections in Ice" -- picking up a mature Gonji, already well into his ca. 1600 A.D. European adventures, ensnared in a desperate crossfire between monstrous oppressors: the undead assassins of the Dark Company; and mysterious horrors residing in remote caves of the snowbound Pyrenees…
2) The novella "Dark Venture" -- the most intense, action-packed and classic-pulp-worthy Gonji tale in the canon. The first-ever story of "young Gonji," in dishonored exile from his native land. Now facing deadly peril during a bizarre and ghastly sea voyage; caught in the clutches of a hell where corrupted spells of evil magic go to die…
3) A generous preview of the coming new forthcoming Gonji novel "Born of Flame and Steel": the audacious origin tale of Gonji’s world.
Gonji Series:
The initial Zebra books of the 1980’s essential split one long novel into a trilogy (I suspect the split was arbitrary). T.C. Rypel’s 1980 series has been released in a more complete forms (more books, eBooks, audiobooks). The newer releases from Borgo Press seem to have maintained this split.1) Gonji: Red Blade from the East: The Deathwind Trilogy, Book One
2) Gonji: The Soul Within the Steel
3) Gonji: Deathwind of Vedun: The Deathwind Triology, Book Three
4) Gonji: Fortress of Lost Worlds
5) Gonji: A Hungering of Wolves
6) ... and now in 2017... Gonji: Dark Ventures
7) ... and soon to follow ... Gonji: Born of Flame and Steel
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Sword and Sorcery Groupread poll for May-June 2017
Goodreads Poll
Everyone can vote and partcipate
May-June 2017
The Last Magicians by John Jakes
Ill Met in Lankhmar and any other Fritz Leiber
Shadow by K.J. Parker
The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien
A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
Dark of the Gods or any other P.C. Hodgell
Elric of Melniboné series by Michael Moorcock
Wolf of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume One or any other Harold Lamb
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Mouth of the Dragon - Review by SE
Mouth of the Dragon: Prophecy of the Evarun by Tom Barczak
S.E. rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mouth of the Dragon: Prophecy of the Evarun is surreal, angelic warfare
Enjoy walking in cemeteries? This book is for you. If Edgar Allen Poe or Clark Ashton Smith were to rewrite Tolkien, they would produce something like Tom Barczak’s Evarun series. There are no elves here, but there are angels who have abandoned a land to susceptible humans. Disembodied forces and corporeal possession abound. The author’s dark, poetic style keeps bringing me back to his portfolio.
Mouth of the Dragon: Prophecy of the Evarun continues the royal Chaelus’s journey from Veil of the Dragon, which readers will want to read first. His body has become a puppet in war between good and evil. He is currently possessed by good-natured angel(s) tasked to confront the demonic, disembodied evil that was mastered him. The major conflict is between Chaelus (and the spirit Talus within him) versus the titular Dragon that has corrupted land of the Theocracy and his betrothed Faerowyn. The war escalates to epic, apocalypse. It closes well but sets up for another book.
Deep and Poetic: As revealed in many interviews, Barczak is an architect by day and writer/painter by night; he also experienced the death of a 2yr old daughter named Olivia. His artistic flare shows through with wonderful architectural descriptions including “clerestory lights” and “dark pools of cenotaphs.” He paid homage to Olivia with a character of the same name who first appeared in the Awakening Evarun set. Olivia appears in Mouth of the Dragon as Revered Mother over the Servian Order, centuries old. This echoes other instances of children saving adults. From the prelude book Veil of the Dragon, “Al-Aaron,” a child priest-warrior, saved and mentored Chaelus. Barczak continually explores the role of children saving or superseding adults: in Mouth the main duo for this interplay is Login and Maedelous.
Style: Barczak style defines his writing. He writes with entertaining paradox. In one sense, the conflict could not be more stark: good angels vs. evil demons; yet both are presented as reflections, or veiled versions of the other. The author is fascinated with sensing strange/beautiful things, such as the ailment synesthesia which refers to a secondary stimulus of senses. For instance, a subset is called chromesthesia, in which hearing certain sounds will trigger recoloring of whatever is being viewed by eye: one could be looking at a white wall and it would change to red or blue as certain music is played. Such dissonance is similar to one making sense of Rene Magritte’s Ceci n'est pas une pipe (this is not a pipe). Barczak intentionally provides beautiful synesthetic observations. Here are example excerpts:
Poetic Style: There is an obvious rhythm. This is done in part with oft repeated words (azure, veil, Happas…which is an archaic word for a Roman highway), and with repeated phrasing such as:
Evarun series: Evarun’s audience and backing is deservedly growing. The serial Awakening series was an independent endeavor, but not Barczak now has the backing of Perserid Press who provided the book with a Roy Mauritsen designed cover (elegantly embedding the author’s sketch).
Judging by the author’s blog, the next installment is to be called “Hands of the Dragon,” which would refer to several wizards serving all-things-dragon: Vas Ore and Vas Kael. The author has drawn them too.
View all my reviews
S.E. rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mouth of the Dragon: Prophecy of the Evarun is surreal, angelic warfare
Enjoy walking in cemeteries? This book is for you. If Edgar Allen Poe or Clark Ashton Smith were to rewrite Tolkien, they would produce something like Tom Barczak’s Evarun series. There are no elves here, but there are angels who have abandoned a land to susceptible humans. Disembodied forces and corporeal possession abound. The author’s dark, poetic style keeps bringing me back to his portfolio.
Mouth of the Dragon: Prophecy of the Evarun continues the royal Chaelus’s journey from Veil of the Dragon, which readers will want to read first. His body has become a puppet in war between good and evil. He is currently possessed by good-natured angel(s) tasked to confront the demonic, disembodied evil that was mastered him. The major conflict is between Chaelus (and the spirit Talus within him) versus the titular Dragon that has corrupted land of the Theocracy and his betrothed Faerowyn. The war escalates to epic, apocalypse. It closes well but sets up for another book.
Deep and Poetic: As revealed in many interviews, Barczak is an architect by day and writer/painter by night; he also experienced the death of a 2yr old daughter named Olivia. His artistic flare shows through with wonderful architectural descriptions including “clerestory lights” and “dark pools of cenotaphs.” He paid homage to Olivia with a character of the same name who first appeared in the Awakening Evarun set. Olivia appears in Mouth of the Dragon as Revered Mother over the Servian Order, centuries old. This echoes other instances of children saving adults. From the prelude book Veil of the Dragon, “Al-Aaron,” a child priest-warrior, saved and mentored Chaelus. Barczak continually explores the role of children saving or superseding adults: in Mouth the main duo for this interplay is Login and Maedelous.
Style: Barczak style defines his writing. He writes with entertaining paradox. In one sense, the conflict could not be more stark: good angels vs. evil demons; yet both are presented as reflections, or veiled versions of the other. The author is fascinated with sensing strange/beautiful things, such as the ailment synesthesia which refers to a secondary stimulus of senses. For instance, a subset is called chromesthesia, in which hearing certain sounds will trigger recoloring of whatever is being viewed by eye: one could be looking at a white wall and it would change to red or blue as certain music is played. Such dissonance is similar to one making sense of Rene Magritte’s Ceci n'est pas une pipe (this is not a pipe). Barczak intentionally provides beautiful synesthetic observations. Here are example excerpts:
There was nothing to see here but a sullen whisper.Everything is veiled and unsettled: A surreal milieu pervades the book. The best example is of the gossomar covered blades of Servian knights who vowed to kill only non-blooded humans (i.e. wraith like Remnants). The cover of Veil of the Dragon drawn by the author displayed this. It highlights the paradox of a military legion representing a benevolent religious organization. Again, Barczak intentionally blurs what is superficially clear. The Servian Order plays a large role again in Mouth, of course. However the cloth “veil” over the blade resonates with myraid other veils: ghostly phantoms, smokey tendrils obscuring vision, memories bleeding into dreams and reality. There are two contrarian, prophetic forces running in parallel: two sets of Servian knights, two sets of prophets, two armies…etc. It is like both good and evil are personified and stare through a window at each other; the reader is watching too, trying to figure out which one is real… or are they reflections of the reader in a mirror?
Darkness seared her vision. It bled down her cheeks like oil. It drained from her mouth, like every soul she had ever taken it from.
The gray morning light, sullen, settled in full over the golden city of Paleos, the glimmer of its domes struck mute by its haze.
Poetic Style: There is an obvious rhythm. This is done in part with oft repeated words (azure, veil, Happas…which is an archaic word for a Roman highway), and with repeated phrasing such as:
The man’s eyes stared up at her from somewhere beyond, where he cradled himself at her feet. The stain of blood and darker things colored his chin, his face, his chest. Black tendrils had begun to lace across his pale skin. Soon, the Dragon’s Sleep would take him. Soon, the Dragon’s Sleep would take them all. Even the one she had just let go. Even her lover who was coming for her, for she knew it was the only way he could save her.
He could still see them, all of them. He could still see the knights’ faces staring back at him with their dead eyes, staring back at him from the edge of the encampment; seven of them, each of them with arms and legs flayed out upon a prostrate cross, staring back at him, staring through him long after they had passed from his sight.
Evarun series: Evarun’s audience and backing is deservedly growing. The serial Awakening series was an independent endeavor, but not Barczak now has the backing of Perserid Press who provided the book with a Roy Mauritsen designed cover (elegantly embedding the author’s sketch).
Judging by the author’s blog, the next installment is to be called “Hands of the Dragon,” which would refer to several wizards serving all-things-dragon: Vas Ore and Vas Kael. The author has drawn them too.
View all my reviews
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Saunders and Gemmell - Mar-Apr 2017 Groupreads
Everyone is welcome to participate in the next two-month, two-topic groupreads. The polling was tight, but we have our Mar-Apr Topics selected:
(The third topic was very close: Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon, Deadhouse Gates or Forge of Darkness; those voters are encourages to read those too...perhaps try out the Buddy Read Section.
Banner credits for cover art of books by : Charles R. Saunders and David Gemmell; Cover Artists:
The Quest for Cush (no. 2) 2007 Vince Evans
Legends of the Drenai Ken Kelly 1990
Sword in the Storm (The Rigante Series, Book 1) 2001, Artist Doug Beekman
The King Beyond the Gate 1995, Louis Royo
Imaro 2006 Vince Evans
Any David Gemmell is fair game! Newcomers will likely want to grab hold of Legend. His work is easy to find.
And it's Sword & Soul time! This is for anything Charles R. Saunders wrote. Some of his books are difficult to track down, but they are worth it...and... he has been writing many short stories (those count too for Dossouyediscussion...so if you can't find the books, look into the anthologies he contributed for....list below).
We had a related group read in 2013 Imaro Groupread (link to that discussion)
Finding Books
There is at least one eBook version of Imaro available via Lulu...and ~$20USD version of most of his library; there are two pages.
1) The spotlight page for Charles R Saunders has most (link)
2) The page for Charles Saunders (no "R") has Dossouye available (link)
Imaro
The Quest for Cush
The Trail of Bohu
The Naama War
Dossouye: the Dancers of Mulukau
Dossouye
Short stories: From his website we have a list of Charles R. Saunders's short stories and the collection they appeared in (link). We had a related group read in 2013 Imaro Groupread (link to that discussion)
Finding Books
There is at least one eBook version of Imaro available via Lulu...and ~$20USD version of most of his library; there are two pages.
1) The spotlight page for Charles R Saunders has most (link)
2) The page for Charles Saunders (no "R") has Dossouye available (link)
Imaro
The Quest for Cush
The Trail of Bohu
The Naama War
Dossouye: the Dancers of Mulukau
Dossouye
Monday, February 20, 2017
Jerome Stueart Interview - Author of Angels of Our Better Beasts
It is not intuitive to
seek beauty in art deemed grotesque/weird, but most authors who produce
horror/fantasy actually are usually (a) serious about their craft, and (b)
driven my strange muses. These interviews engage contemporary authors & artists on the theme of "Art & Beauty in Weird/Fantasy Fiction." This one
features Jerome Stueart, author of many books including The Angels of Our Better Beasts S E Review (Link). Let's learn about his muses...and his Better Beasts!
Jerome Stueart |
The Angels of Our Better Beasts |
SEL:
The Angels of Our Better Beasts invites
readers to reconsider what it means to be a human (angel or beast). Most are
weird, fantasy and sci-fi tales, and the relationships span the gamut from
lemming-to-researcher, to husband-to husband, and wife-to-husband, etc. The
variety is great and writing evocative. Please identify/discuss your own
angels and beasts. Are these your muses?
JS: Thanks, Seth. I think animals are the muses of many people---they seem so wise (because they can't talk) and so we give them the words we think they should say. I've often believed that writers who include animals in their works usually make them wiser than the people. I was also one of those kids that went and made friends with your dog before I made friends with your kids or you... I felt very comfortable with a pet. As for beasts, yeah, growing up mine was a werewolf. I used to think of him as a mentor---if I could just find him, or he find me. I think I still feel compelled to explore the relationship we have to beasts--both animal and monster--in stories. Are these our way of trying to reach a higher plane of wisdom or morality? Or our way of trying to escape civilization and become more wild? Certainly our pets give us a bridge to the animal kingdom--and many stories that have animals as a focus try to make us better people through those animals. Maybe our monsters are trying to help us too.
Select Better Beasts by Jerome Stueart |
SEL: You
illustrated the whole book too! How does your drawing and writing work
processes interplay?
JS: I usually do the illustrations after I do the story.
In fact, I mapped out the illustrations on a sheet to see if I could do
something interesting with them when they are together. Kind of evoke
different themes. I tried that! LOL. I had the first column
focus on inanimate objects: the box of ashes, the bottle of wine, the heart on
the table, the gold; the second column do a close up of people in relationship;
the third was to show movement; the fourth got all messed up--it was supposed
to be about body parts: hand, foot, and well, a canyon and large gorilla got in
there [see inset image]. So that failed. But I still think they work in harmony
somehow.
Whenever I do illustrations I try to capture the essence of the
story: wonder for "For a Look At New Worlds" and disembodied
horror for "The Moon Over Tokyo" and the weird juxtaposition of a
werewolf playing the banjo, not necessarily a scene from the story (as the
werewolf doesn't play the banjo in his werewolf form). I also had fun
with imitating famous works of art or poems. My box of ashes tries to
echo Keats' "Ode to a Grecian Urn" and the illustration for Bondsmen
is "James Bond descending a staircase" --- hey, I try to keep it fun.
I had the most trouble trying to illustrate "You Will
Draw..." because I wanted to emphasize the relationship--but once I
had the figures, I didn't want to muddy the background. So I settled on a
sort of blank canvas, or window behind them. The story might be better
served, but I didn't want to give away any surprises. And doing the art of the
main character--who is a famous artist--felt daunting. To pretend to be
one of his illustrations, my art needed to be amazing, and I wasn't at his
caliber--so I settled for a portrait of him.
SEL: Are
you secretly a changeling or hybrid/chimera?
JS: Well, technically, I'm a changeling because I'm adopted (if
you're referring to the babies switched by fairies idea), but I think of myself
probably more as a chimera--a mixture of things and ideas. I'm not one
kind of writer, and I don't have one kind of theme or style. This
collection is me trying to show all sorts of ways to tell a story. I'm
going to be hell for an agent someday, but I love trying new things and seeing
what kinds of stories and styles I can do.
SEL: Okay
this one will make more sense for those who already read the book, but here
goes a question posed by yourself: “Young painters might be
asking if there is a place for art in politics… What do you say to them
about the nature of true art and its neutral place outside the quagmire of
human rivalry?”
Auguste Renault - by Jerome Stueart |
In my own opinion, art is an excellent way of speaking
truth---sometimes the perfect illustration encapsulates a change that is
needed, a flaw that is nearly hidden, or even model a way of being. It is
the purpose of art to bring truth and beauty and yes, controversy, and wisdom
to society. There is a place for beautiful flowers and landscapes to
bring peace to a troubled world--but isn't that influencing society too?
SEL: At
World Con 2016 in Columbus OH (Writer-Artist Panel coverage
link) you shared the history of Angels Of Our Better Beasts. Can you recap
that here? Did the drawings come before the tales?
JS: I wrote the stories over the last ten years or so. I
found the stories I loved best--the ones that seemed to work--had a beast in
them, or a monster, or something someone might think was a monster.
Something that made us afraid, or made us wonder, or connected us to animals in
the sense that we wanted to listen to them. So I put the collection
together--most of it and proposed it to ChiZIne and they liked it. I then
wrote a couple of stories for it, and decided to illustrate it too. So
definitely the illustrations came afterwards--and that process is something I
spell out above.
Jerome Stueart's Better Beasts - for fans! |
SEL: You have been known to
draw personalized “beasts” for fans. Is that like doing a tarot card
reading?
JS: HAHA. No. But it was enlightening to me what
they wanted as a beast. And I think it was enlightening to them
too. Many just wanted to see their beasts "come to life" and so
they had crazy wonderful requests. It was a good way to build a rapport
with my readers--or with people who just fellow beast-lovers! Here are a
few of those beasts people wanted.
SEL: Do
you find your own art “weird” or “beautiful”?
JS: I think my work is weird, but I strive for beauty. I strive for harmony and balance in composition. Even as it is weird. I do not always love my own art, but I do find I work hard at creating something that will be nice to look at. Or a good illustration of the story. In many ways my stories are trying to make the weird beautiful. I want to move a reader to care about a beast, or to consider that the beasts are beautiful. My vampires in "How Magnificent" are beautiful in their perfect takeover of the medical profession, their efficiency, their marketing. My werewolf hopes that the beauty and power of his Christian music can overcome the horror of his mistakes, his primal nature. He does not see anything redeeming about being the werewolf--only that it must be contained. There is beauty in the mandalas of "For a Look at New Worlds" and in their fragility. There's a lot of art in this book--- whether it's the young king who will be a better king because he is artistic, or the artist who tries to use his fame to help others, or the writers who try to make sense of their lives... so many of these stories are a statement on the place of art in the world.
SEL: Any
future endeavors to share?
JS: Well, I'm finishing up a story about sisters and their rival
gods, and another one about a chef on a starship. I'm also writing One
Nation Under Gods--my alternate American history with religious
nationalism--and two kids trying to escape to Canada. You can see more
about that on my Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/jeromeWstueart).
For a couple of bucks you can see the illustrations I'm working on for this
novel. It comes out from ChiZine in June of 2018.
Friday, February 17, 2017
Pirates are coming to Hell!
Pirates in Hell
Coming Spring 2017 from Perseid Press, the next installment in the long running Heroes in Hell series. Cover design by Roy Mauritsen.
When is a good time to go to Hell? Well it always is. But don't believe me, review the minutes from the 2015 death panel!
Pirates in Hell Contents:
1.) Bitter Business, Janet Morris & Chris Morris
2.) Pieces of Hate, Andrew P. Weston
3.) Evil Angel, Chris Morris
4.) Who's a Pirate Now? Nancy Asire
5.) Curse of the Pharaohs, Seth Lindberg
6.) Lir's Children, Paul Freeman
7.) Unholiest Grail, Larry Atchley Jr.
8.) Bitter Taste of Hell's Injustice, Jack William Finley
9.) Serial Recall and Beautiful Tortures, Michael H. Hanson
10.) Drink and the Devil, Rob Hinkle
11.) The Pirates of Penance, Joe Bonadonna
12.) Muse of Fire, Janet Morris
Bonus Excerpt from Hell Hounds, a Heroes in Hell novel by Andrew P. Weston.
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