Dark Muse News: The Legend of Top-Shelf Books Open Mic

 Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: The Legend of Top-Shelf Books Open Mic

Ever hear of the legend of Top Shelf Books? Gene Wolfe did!

I first heard about the legendary Top Shelf Books from four people who had frequented that mythical venue. However, they were not together when they mentioned the place, and the interval between tellings was years and across many locations. What I eventually learned was that it was a used book shop that hosted open-mic readings for writers. The “open-mic” writer’s group ran from ~2007-2013, in Top Shelf Books in Palatine, Illinois. It was uncanny that Top Shelf kept creeping into conversations, so I had to find out the history and then share it! Here are those who introduced me to the legend.

2015: Author Joe Bonadonna was the first. Back in 2015, he had reviewed my first novel and, by serendipity, we both joined forces as Perseid Press contributors for Heroika and Heroes in Hell, sharing six volumes; we even jointly wrote a story for Monsters in Hell. I adore Joe’s Dorgo the Dowser (Mad Shadows) books and interviewed him in 2022. Several times over the last decade, he mentioned Top Shelf.

2016: Chief editor of Black Gate, John O’Neill, was another Top Shelfer. I met John in person at the 2016 World Fantasy Convention, the same year and event in which Black Gate won the World Fantasy Special Award.  I began contributing to Black Gate in 2018, with one of my lead articles being coverage of Todd McAulty’s Robots of Gotham (spoiler alert: Todd McAulty is a pseudonym for John O’Neill). In 2019, at a Gen Con event with John and Howard Andrew Jones, I heard about the editing opportunity at Black Gate that led to becoming the Managing Editor.

2012 – 2022: David C. Smith’s Oron and Red Sonja books were hot topics in the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery group that I led for a decade. In fact, one of my better-cited Black Gate articles evolved from reading his work: Tales of Attluma: Review and Oron Series Tour Guide. Of course, David is still very active and just released his perspective on writing Sword & Sorcery in 2026 with Dark Muse News: Reviewing Arcane Arts and Cold Steel.

2021-2023: While leading the Gen Con Writers symposium and moderating panels, I met C.S.E. Cooney (Claire), a lead champion of Top Shelf. C. S. E. Cooney is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author: first, for Bone Swans: Stories (2016), and most recently for Saint Death’s Daughter (2023); she also has a 2011 Rhysling Award! Before this recognition, she was helping other authors. Ha! She actually revealed all the secrets back in 2011, before I was Black Gate reader: Writers’ Nights, Open Mics, Literary Soirees: The Importance of Community.

These four all mentioned Top Shelf books to me across the last decade in disparate venues! Cripes, I kept saying: “Wait, you were there too?” Now, I feel like a want-to-be member trying to sign up after the show is over. Truthfully, I feel blessed to have met these folks. Their desire to better their craft while helping others is contagious and top-notch.

Top Shelf Books is closed now, but take heed. These visitors were largely meeting at Top Shelf before their writing careers/recognition took off, and they have all been actively helping other authors continuously for decades! Their infectious gratitude and creativity still spread.

Writer’s groups can very well be fun, providing camaraderie and legendary donuts. Let us learn from these role models and from their time at Top Shelf.

Time to re-read CSE’s “Writers’ Nights, Open Mics, Literary Soirees: The Importance of Community.”

Top Shelf Books Open Mic: where John O’Neill first heard the rough drafts of Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney’s SAINT DEATH’S DAUGHTER, Patty Templeton’s THERE IS NO LOVELY END, Dennis Depcik’s WOULDN’T IT BE SOMETHING, Jeffrey Westhoff’s THE BOY WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, Brendan Detzner’s WEIRD STORIES trilogy, and wonderful new stories by Gene Wolfe, Michael Penkas, Tina Jens, Joe Bonadonna, David C. Smith, and many others. Behind the counter (bottom right), doing God’s work selling books, is the one and only Claire Cooney, who masterminded it all with Katie Redding.

First, a note from Top Shelf Owner Katie Redding

If anyone was a “mastermind” behind our literary salon, it was Claire. We met at Harper College in January of 2022 in an anthropology class.  We hit things off immediately, and things developed from there.  My main role was to operate the business and I wanted to support artists. I can’t take much more credit than that.  I guess I am the person who said, “YES, we can do that.”

The Top Shelf Years, by C. S. E. Cooney

I met Katie in a Native American anthropology class while completing my Gen Eds at Harper Community college in 2002. She mentioned that her mom owned a used bookstore in Palatine. I don’t think she believed me when I enthusiastically screamed how I’d always wanted to work at a bookstore! A used bookstore particularly! I think she got that a lot.

But I showed up for the interview and was hired. I’d worked at Crown Book previously, so I at least had some experience. When I moved to Chicago the next year to attend Columbia College Chicago for Fiction Writing and Acting, Katie mentioned that no one who ever moved to Chicago comes back to work in the Northwest suburbs. But I kept returning, every Saturday, to work at least one day a week throughout my college career, and to help run our once-a-month open mics as well.

I graduated in 2006, and Katie opened a second store in Chicago, just a few blocks from where I lived, called Kate the Great’s Book Emporium. It became a beacon for the arts. My co-manager J9 Vaughn and I, along with Katie, hosted art galleries, new plays festivals, open mics, poetry nights, concerts — the gamut. It was a wonderful place and certainly honed our hosting skills. Alas, Kate the Great’s Book Emporium never brought in as much foot traffic as we wished, and Katie had to close it after a few years.

Happily, the closing of Kate’s marked my return to Top Shelf Books! I started reverse-commuting back to the suburbs, and running more events there. I loved every minute of working hip-deep in dusty books, and meeting readers every day. These last three years, from 2008-2011 were when the open mics really started happening with greater regularity. We began to pull in people who used to attend Kate the Great’s events, as well as horror writing friends from Twilight Tales, a weekly reading series run by Tina Jens.

My friend and mentor, Gene Wolfe, who lived a few miles away in Barrington, IL, sometimes came to our events with his wonderful wife Rosemary, and would read from whatever short story or novel he happened to be working on.

In that time, John O’Neill would read, chapter by chapter, as he wrote The Robots of Gotham under his (then SUPER SECRET) pseudonym, Todd McAulty. I’d read from early drafts of Saint Death’s Daughter (in those days titled Miscellaneous Stones: Necromancer), or sometimes recite poetry.

My time at Top Shelf Books ended when I packed everything up and moved to Westerly, Rhode Island, which I’d visited once as a child and kept meaning to return to. It was the best and wisest move I’d ever made, even though it was the middle of a recession, and I was moving to a town where I had no job and few prospects. Though it was the adventure of a lifetime, and opened so many doors to me I could not at the time imagine, I will always regard my time at Top Shelf Books as formative. It was my favorite retail job I’ve ever worked, and certainly one of the most vibrant reading and writing communities I’ve ever been a part of. I’ll be grateful forever.

Gene Wolfe and his wife, Rosemary, at Top Shelf Books

Gene Wolfe

As C.S.E. Cooney revealed, Gene Wolfe (yes, one of the Grand Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, SFWA!) would sometimes attend Top Shelf Books. C.S.E. Cooney interviewed Gene Wolfe in 2010 for Black Gate where he provided writerly advice and explained the evolution of the New Sun series. John O’Neill explains the legend.

Interesting footnote to these photos, and the saga of Top Shelf. Rosemary had dementia, and Gene was her primary caregiver. He used to bring her to conventions with him, but that gradually became more challenging. One day, he was talking to his friend Rory at church, asking if he knew anyone who could help. Rory suggested his daughter, who eventually came to work for Gene, helping him and Rosemary travel to conventions. Over the years she got to meet and dine with numerous writers and publishers, including more than a few who offered writing advice and helped nudge her toward a stellar writing career. That hard-working young woman? None other than your friend and mine, C.S.E. Cooney…

In Gene Wolfe’s foreword, “Introducing C. S. E. Cooney” for her Bone Swans book, he detailed their fascinating relationship, and more amazingly, he described Top Shelf books! BTW, my daughter Erin Lindberg, who is a bibliophile and was studying Claire’s work because I was drafting this article, found this wonderful excerpt from Gene Wolfe (2015).

Picture me sitting in a small used-book shop with a banana cream pie on my lap. The young man reading at the lectern has given us a short-story that is certainly publishable and has now launched upon one that is not. We have had the poetry that suggests a poor article in Reader’s Digest cut up into uneven lengths, and the heart-wrenching personal memoir of the sister of a soldier killed overseas. And others. You know.

The readers are kept in order by Claire Cooney, a startling young blonde with a smile capable of lighting up a good-sized theater. At last she reads herself, a poem that rhymes and scans and grabs you from the opening line. The hero is a disfigured corpse floating down a city sewer, and it is funny when it is not horrible. (And sometimes when it is). She chants it, and her voice is clear and musical. I couldn’t be prouder of her if I were her father.

Reflections from John O’Neill

In November 2007, I attended the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, New York. There I met two young women from Chicago, Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney and Katie Redding, who ran Top Shelf Books in Palatine. They invited me to join their small monthly reading group that met once a month.

The Top Shelf Open Mic evenings changed my life. It featured some enormously talented writers – including Gene Wolfe, Tina Jens, Michael Penkas, Joe Bonadonna, David C. Smith, Brendan Detzner, Dennis Depcik, and Patty Templeton. And of course, C.S.E. Cooney herself, who would later win a World Fantasy Award for the book she workshopped at our gatherings, Saint Death’s Daughter.

At the time I was writing and publishing short stories in Black Gate under the name Todd McAulty, but the support and encouragement I received at Top Shelf gave me the courage I needed to try something much more ambitious. I started working on a series of stories set in a near-future Chicago after a robot apocalypse, which eventually became my first novel The Robots of Gotham. I wrote the first chapters in hotels while traveling for business, and read them out loud every month to the welcoming and enthusiastic attendees at Top Shelf.

If it wasn’t for Claire, who emailed me relentlessly until I finally came to my first Top Shelf Open Mic, and who was an incredibly astute and supportive listener, Robots would not exist. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude for that, and for much more. Claire eventually became our first website editor at Black Gate, and many of the talented folks I met at Top Shelf – including Michael Penkas, Joe Bonadonna, and Patty Templeton – became regular bloggers for us.

Katie eventually sold Top Shelf Books in 2011, and it closed shortly thereafter. Claire moved to Rhode Island at the same time. The Open Mic carried on for a while, booking space in libraries and police stations, but it didn’t last long without a permanent home — or Katie and Claire behind the scenes. I miss it very much. To this day, when struggling writers ask for advice, I tell them the same thing: find a supportive writer’s group. If you’re very lucky, and find one that supports and energizes you the way the Top Shelf Open Mic did for so many of us, the results can be magical.

TOP (Left to Right): Lindsey Dayton (at podium), unknown, unknown, J9 Vaughn, Karin Thogersen, Sarah Detzner, Cynthia Glasson, Patty Templeton, John O’Neill.  BOTTOM: Joe Bonadonna reading from Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser (circa  2011)

Joe Bonadonna: BOOKS, DONUTS, SNACKETY SNACKS & THE TOP SHELF SCRIBBLERS

I can’t recall the exact year when friend and fellow author David C. Smith took me to Top Shelf Books in Palatine, Illinois for a “browse and buy.” Katie Redding’s mother was the owner and manager at that time. Anyway, Dave’s wife, Janine, was working next door at the art supply store and she tuned us in to Top Shelf. At that time the bookstore had an adjacent room, Kindred Spirits, an arts-and-crafts store that sold a varietyof gift items and some antiques, where I often purchased some cool items. Sadly, Kindred Spirts closed, and the entrance leading from Top Shelf into the shop was walled off to allow for a small tea room that operated for some time.

Anyway, Top Shelf remained a favorite haunt for Dave and me. Memory fails me as to when we learned of the writer’s group that met there every second Thursday of the month, but in late 2010, Dave brought me there and introduced me to many of the regulars. At first, I was just spectator, and Dave was reading from his previously published works, as well as works in progress, such as Coven House and the revised, new edition of his trilogy, The Fall of the First World. Eventually, when my first novel — Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser — was published in 2011, I finally joined in and read excerpts from it, and later I’d read from my current works-in-progress.

Author Claire (C.S.E.) Cooney ran the show in those days and delighted us with excerpts from her World Fantasy Award Winning, Bone Swans. Then she moved on and Janelle Bada took over and remained our ringmaster until Top Shelf closed permanently. After that, she searched for other places where we could meet, such as the Palatine Police Department (true) and then the Palatine Public Library. Sadly, we could not find a suitable meeting place and the group disbanded, although many would continue to meet in downtown Chicago and even Oak Park, if memory serves me.

Top Shelf holds a special place in our hearts and in our memories. I made many friends and associates there, and pigged out on all the great snacks everyone brought to the monthly gatherings, especially Spunky Dunkers Donuts, courtesy of John O’Neill, who would then read excerpts from his novel, the terrific The Robots of Gotham. (I eventually became a contributor for Black Gate magazine.) Besides John, Dave Smith, Brendan Detzner (The Orphan Fleet), Janelle Bada, and Jeanine (J9) Vaughn entertaining us from their works-in-progress, there was also Michael Penkas, whose weird and wild short stories were worthy of the original Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Patty Templeton read from her wonderful, There Is No Lovely End. Jeffrey Westhoff read from his then work-in-progress, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, and Tina Jens introduced us to her The Blues Ain’t Nothin’: Tales of the Lonesome Blues Pub.

The Top Shelf Books Open Mic Writers’ Group: This photo was taken by John, I believe. It’s not at Top Shelf. It’s either at the Palatine Library or the Palatine Police Department (we weren’t arrested for disturbing the peace; it was simply a small meeting room in the department’s new building). STANDING LEFT TO RIGHT: Janelle Bada (nee McHugh), then Dennis Depcik (author of Wouldn’t It Be Something), Karin Thogersen, Shawna Flavell, the lady with red hair and blue scarf is Patty Templeton (author of There Is No Lovely End). The woman with a white stocking cap and a leather jacket is Katie Redding. The tall guy behind Katie is Brendan Detzner (author of The Orphan Fleet). Seated is Joe Bonadonna. By the door in the back is David C. Smith,  the lady in the wolf-head hat is Julie Barnett (Mike Penkas’s “better half”), beside Michael Penkas (author of Mistress Bunny and the Cancelled Client). Lastly, Jeffrey Westhoff (author of The Boy Who Knew Too Much).

Sometimes there were book discussions and Q&A sessions, but never any harsh criticism that I recall. These evenings proved to be helpful, constructive, and even enlightening. It was a great group of people and those Thursday nights were made of pure magic.

There were also other forms of entertainment: Sally Tibbets would read poems from her favorite poets. Her daughter, Cynthia Glasson, would sing and play her ukelele. Julie Barnett (Mike Penkas’s gal), belonged to a choral group — The Sweet Adelines — and still does, I believe — and she would touch our emotions with many a song. I think Katie Redding also read from some of her favorite authors.

I remember meeting Arminzerella Smith, the late author Gene Wolfe, and a couple of guys named Dave, whose last names I, unfortunately, cannot recall. I did not meet Jason Waltz at Top Shelf but at Windy City Pulp and Paperback Convention (the exact year escapes me.) Also, while I had already exchanged a few emails with the late master of heroic fantasy, Howard Andrew Jones, we did not meet at Top Shelf but at the Windy City Pulp and Paperback Convention in 2011, where we exchanged copies of our first novels; we met again at Chicon 7 in 2012, I think it was.

Those were halcyon nights, for sure and we all wish they could have gone on forever. I miss the people, the conversations, the readings, the smell of old, used books, the variety of used books… and of course I miss all those great Snackety Snacks . . . especially the donuts.

David C. Smith

Joe recalls far more folks who used to attend the Top Shelf readings than I do, so I’m confident he has that part handled for you. The famous Patty Templeton! Mike Penkas! Howard Andrew Jones came by one time! Others!

My recollection is that they were held once a month on — the second Thursday of the month? John usually brought in two boxes of Spunky Dunkers donuts, famous here around Palatine and the general northwest environs of Chitown, which made John a very special member of our loose association. That and his robots.

I miss those evenings, miss them, miss them, miss them! Every time Janine and I drive past that plaza (we are close by) and see the building with part of a private school since having taken over the building, damn, I swear out loud.

I found two photos of myself, attached. There’s a group photo that I was sure I had somewhere, but now I can’t find it, *grrrr.* I even checked the old thumb drives I have in the filing cabinet drawer here. Nada.

[Editor’s sidebar: don’t worry, David, the others had you covered]

But look at those overloaded bookshelves behind me in both of those snapshots. An honest-to-God real live used-book store made for loafing and smiling in.

Now, Black Gate readers, it is time to soiree!

Start more legends!

S.E. Lindberg Knighted an Honor To-Shelfer by Joe Bonadonna!

 

Butter Bu - Good Vibes from a Review!

 Three Cheers for Butter-of-Antimony Stones

Twenty-three minutes into Jason M. Waltz's 24 in 42 with C.S.E. Cooney on Rogue Blades Presents a call out was granted toward my interview series.

C.S.E. Cooney has a great flare for brilliant names in he rSaint Death series, and I was honored to be identified as "Butter-of-Antimony Stones"  during my interview/review of C.S.E. Cooney regarding her Saint Death's Daughter book. Here's the link to theBlack Gate interview : New Treasures and Interview: C.S.E. Cooney’s Saint Death’s Herald - Feb 2025; Simulcast on this Blog as part of the Beauty in Weird Fiction series.

Saint Death's Herald is just releasing, so jump into Claire's crazy fun world of necromancy and cozy darkness. 

A snippet from the interview capturing the "Stones Naming Ritual":

Book Blurb for B J Swann - Good vibes from reviews

I am currently reading Scott Crawford's Besting the Beast and Other Fantasy Tales which is a collection of grim fairy tales. 

Enjoying that, I recalled the uber-grim Crimson Crown tale by B J Swann [reviewed on Black Gate Fringe Grimdark: Crimson Crown by BJ Swann [2021], so I went to check out his collection [Aeon of Chaos which contains Crimson Crown] and was honored to see my review incorporated into the description.

Praise for B.J. Swann's The Crimson Crown

"The Crimson Crown is Intense, Emotive, Dark Fantasy; Equally Enjoyable and Discomforting." - S.E. Lindberg, author of Lords of Dyscrasia and Helen's Daimones

Grimnir personally insults S.E. Lindberg! Or perhaps just the Fat One is slandered

Cheers to Scott Oden (and his live-in companion, Grimnir)! I've reviewed his books over the years (see below) but those were all electronic versions. Having the chance to get signed copies from him (apparently known as the "fat one" by Griminir), I pleaded for Grimnir to contribute.... and the orcish bastard delivered.  I am proud to have been personally trolled by the brute. 

Scott Oden wished me "All the best!" but Grimnir expounded on that:

- "Nar! All the Best What? Wine? Women? The fat one [Oden]  makes no sense!"

- "Bah, You Wretched Kneeler! This is the good one! This will put hairs on your arse!"

- "Faugh! The fat one [Oden] said you wanted an insult!? Ha! Only an idiot would give good coin for this tripe!"

My reviews of Scott Oden's Grimnir Series:

• Goodreads A Gathering of Ravens - Grimnir #1  [April 2016]
• Black Gate The Doom of “Oden”: Twilight of the Gods (Grimnir #2) [April 2020]
• Black Gate Lord of a Shattered Land and The Doom of Odin: Howard Andrew Jones and Scott Oden Deliver High-octane, Euro-Mediterranean Adventure  [June 2024]

Good Vibes from Demons: Re-release and Commentary

Rogue Blades Presents Demons: A Clash of Steel Anthology ISBN-13: 9798863079608 (print) ASIN: B0045Y1LMS (Kindle); Cover Artist: Johnney Perkins. Interior Graphics: M.D. Jackson

• Dec 2012, I reviewed Demons: A Clash of Steel Anthology.

• Dec 2023, through Black Gate, I broadcasted the re-release of Demons, which updated its electronic version (link):  ROGUE BLADES ENTERTAINMENT RE-UNLEASHES DEMONS: A CLASH OF STEEL ANTHOLOGY

• Jason M Waltz (Publisher of RBE/RBF) had dedicated the re-release to Robert Mancebo, author for several Rogue Blade Entertainment anthologies, who sadly passed away in 2023.

• For this "Good vibes from Reviews" tag, note the response from Robert Mancebo's daughter in the Black Gate commentary. Breathtaking. Reviews and announcements rarely are emotive. Writing and reading is often a solitary hobby, but as Rachel points out, books bring us together in ways often not told.

Here is my mini-review and re-release notice:

In 2010, Black Gate announced Rogue Blades Entertainment Conjures DEMONS. This October 2023, the third edition has been issued and with it a revamped Kindle version! The original Kindle edition lacked a functioning, linked Table of Contents, but that’s all brought up to modern standards. It is dedicated to Robert Mancebo, author for several Rogue Blade Entertainment anthologies, who sadly passed away in 2023.

Jason M Waltz is well known amongst adventure fiction readers, especially the Swords & Sorcery crowd. With his Rogue Blades Entertainment Books and associated Foundation, he’s brought us the epic Return of the Sword (BG review) and then Rage of the Behemoth, and Demons.  He’s edited/published a variety of other anthologies with themes of Weird Noir, Pirates, and Sword & Planet with Lost Empire of Sol (BG review), and splendid nonfiction like Writing Fantasy Heroes (BG review) and recently Robert E. Howard Changed My Life (BG review). He recently ran a successful Kickstarter for another anthology as spotlighted on BG: “Neither Beg Nor Yield – A Sword & Sorcery Anthology with Attitude.” As you await Neither Beg Nor Yield, you’ll want to revisit Demons.

Demons: A Clash of Steel Anthology – Blurb

When the gates of Hell open, who stands between Man and the Abyss? From mankind’s infancy, people have huddled in the dark, drawing signs in the air, muttering quiet prayers, quivering with dread at what roams in the night. Demons. Creatures of the Darkness. Evil spirits riding dark winds. And mankind trembled. Yet a few stood, drew steel imbued with magic to hue spirit as well as flesh, and walked out into the night to meet the foes of mortal men. Join the struggle in these 28 masterful tales of adventure and mayhem as heroes, forged as ‎strong as the steel they wield, defy foes from the realms of nightmare.‎

Mini-Review

In Demons: A Clash of Steel Anthology, Rogue Blades Entertainment (RBE) delivers what it claims: a sampling of demon stories and adventure. Your chance of finding appealing stories is decent with 28 entries. Chock full of demons, champions, possession, witches, etc.. Kudos to RBE for keeping these tales alive from a 2006 publication (Carnifex Press). The purpose of an anthology is to provide an array of options, allow new readers to explore the genre, allow self-described “veteran readers” to identify new authors, and enable reading in small doses (i.e. great for traveling or parents with small children constantly interrupting their activities). “Demons” delivers this.

For anthologies, we expect to experiment with doses of new material/authors. For me, three stories that emphasized personal demons (or personal challenges) were outstanding. They stuck with me and are worth rereading; my favorites are in bold below in the Table of Contents listing. But you may have your own favorites! Check them out:

Demons: Table of Contents

• “Foreword” by Armand Rosamilia
• “The Man with the Webbed Throat” by Steve Moody
• “Imprisoned” by Carl Walmsley
• “Toxic” by Steven L. Shrewsbury
• “Azieran: Bound by Virtue” by Christopher Heath
• “Bodyguard of the Dead” by C.L. Werner
• “Kron Darkbow” by Ty Johnston
• “The Vengeance of Tibor” by Ron Shiflet
• “The Beast of Lyoness” by Christopher Stires
• “Fifteen Breaths” by Phil Emery
• “The Pact” by Jonathan Green
• “Blood Ties” by Trista Robichaud
• “Zeerembuk” by Steve Goble
• “The Fearsome Hunger” by Rob Mancebo
• “The Furnace” by Sandro G. Franco
• “The First League Out from Land” by Brian Dolton
• “The Sacrifice” by Jason Irrgang
• “Son of the Rock” by Laura J. Underwood
• “Into Shards” by Murray J.D. Leeder 
• “Through the Dark” by Darla J. Bowen
• “Joenna’s Ax” by Elaine Isaak
• “The Lesser: A Swords of the Daemor Tale” by Patrick Thomas
• “When the Darkness Grows” by Frederick Tor
• “Demon Heart” by Bryan Lindenberger
• “Azieran: Racked upon the Altar of Eeyuu” by Christopher Heath
• “Born Warriors” by TW Williams
• “Mistaken Identity” by Robert J. Santa
• “Box of Bones” by Jonathan Moeller
• “By Hellish Means” by Bill Ward

 

Servants of War by Correia and Diamond - Review by SE

Review originally posted on Black Gate:

NEW TREASURES: SERVANTS OF WAR BY LARRY CORREIA AND STEVE DIAMOND

Cover blurbs used by Baen!

Servants of War by Larry Correia and Steve Diamond (Baen Books, 2022. 424pages).

 Cover art by Alan Pollack

Veteran fantasy readers may yawn if they hear about an epic fantasy about a farm boy in a remote village rising to power, and the first few pages of Servants of War dangles that trope before readers. And then horror rushes in like a tidal wave, and before Chapter 1 can end, the worn trope is burning with hellfire billowing alchemical smoke, a Grimdark spirit rises out of the book to slap the reader in the face, crank the head back, and pour gasoline-action down a thirsty throat.

Welcome to Servants of War.

The combination of military-fantasy veteran Larry Correria with horror-guru Steve Diamond promises “military fantasy with horror” and you’ll get trenches full of that. Baen released this masterpiece that opens The Age of Ravens series in hardcover and audiobook in March 2022; the paperback is due February 2023. Without spoiling, this post covers a summary, excerpts, and a small hint as to the forthcoming sequel.

OFFICIAL SUMMARY:

NEW MILITARY FANTASY FROM THE CREATOR OF MONSTER HUNTER INTERNATIONAL LARRY CORREIA AND MASTER OF HORROR STEVE DIAMOND

The war between Almacia and the Empire of Kolakolvia is in its hundredth year. Casualties grow on both sides as the conflict leaves no corner of the world untouched.

Illarion Glaskov’s quiet life on the fringes of the empire is thrown into chaos when an impossible tragedy strikes his village. When he is conscripted into the Tsarist military, he is sent to serve in The Wall — an elite regiment that pilots suits of armor made from the husks of dead golems.
But the great war is not the only — or even the worst — danger facing Illarion, as he is caught in a millennia-old conflict between two goddesses. He must survive the ravages of trench warfare, horrific monsters from another world, and the treacherous internal politics of the country he serves.

MILIEU & STYLE

The setting resembles an alternative earth on the Eurasia continent. A never-ending war continues between the Almacian state (West) and the Kolakolvia (East); cities and named battle zones resonate with pseudo-Eastern European flare: Rolmani, Praja, Transellia. Both sides disrespect (or forsake) the old ways and religions which are explicitly and overtly present, albeit repressed. Golems, ghouls, and blood storms haunt both armies. The clearest sacrilege is the repurposing of golem bodies to make Objects, the name for the mechanized war-suits Kolakolvia employs (how else can one defile another species than to tap its magical potential while playing in their corpses?). In short, there are three conflicting entities: the East, the West, and the Others. Each is manipulated by a Sister goddess. The variety of conflicts keeps this interesting, expect: human vs human; state vs state; human vs. state; and heroes vs supernatural.

If a dystopian, war-ravaged alternative earth feels too familiar, don’t worry. You’ll be salivating for a trip to an even darker realm, and you’ll get that too. That jolt reminded me of the beauty of the Silent Hill games in which players experience a terrifying ghost-town for a while until an air siren blares, paint peels off walls, Hell arrives, and players yearn to find a way back to the relative safety of the ghost-town.

Stylistically, this felt like a mashup of Warhammer’s gritty sci-fi battles, with Silent Hill’s weird world-building and exploration-of-Hells, with the demon-confronting Solomon Kane leading the sorties. Somehow the warfare was never portrayed as a giant chess board; instead, the combat was intimate, frontline adventure. Localized views of battle felt like episodes of Sword & Sorcery focused on the hero(ine). I kept thinking, this is what I’d expect if Mary Shelly teamed up with Robert E. Howard to rewrite Frankenstein for BattleTech fans.

WHO ARE THE SERVANTS OF WAR?

One didn’t think about war and politics when you had a mill to run, cows to tend, and crops to plant. The greatest question in Ilyushka every year had been how deep would the ground freeze? – Illarion character’s thoughts

Humans are just the puppets of the Three Sisters, but they comprise the titular servants of war. You’ll be rooting for them in a heartbeat. There are many characters, but the primary ones are below. Their paths intertwine, of course, as some become comrades and others enemies.

• Illarion Glazkov – a farm boy who evolves into an awesome soldier; he’s trailed by ravens as he seeks atonement
• Scout Specialist Natalya Baston (once in the 17th Sniper Division) – she’s an outstanding rogue motivated to free her family
• Arnost Chankov – a ghoul-tattooed, low-ranking officer over Illarion
• Oprichnik Kristoph Vals – Secret Service Agent under Chancellor and Tsar of Kolakolvia – no one can trust this guy, and all fear crossing him
• Amos Lowe – a mysterious prisoner seeking to remain anonymous and lost

EXCERPTS Reveal What to Expect

Mechanized Melee:

…More soldiers rushed out of the fog, swarming his legs. The hatch rattled as soldiers tried to pry it open. If they got that open he’d end up a red, oozing skeleton like the last pilot he’d seen.
Only Illarion’s Object did not react in the lumbering, clumsy fashion they’d come to expect. He brought the empty cannon barrel down on the head of one, crushing his skull and snapping his spine. Inside the coffin of rapidly dwindling air, Illarion twisted the controls. 12 spun and kicked. Frail bodies were crushed underfoot. Instinctively, he crouched as low as the braces around his legs allowed, then launched his body up. He’d never seen anyone jump in the suits before, and didn’t know if it was at all possible, be he had to try something.

12 was briefly airborne. The ground shook when he landed, and most of the soldiers were thrown free. He stomped down, popping skulls and driving bodies deep into the mud. A punch from his gun arm caved in a chest. A sweep of his halberd cut three bodies into six pieces. The last man hanging onto the latches was hurled free, but unfortunately for him, he left one of his gloves behind. He hit the ground, flesh already smoking, and quickly tried to bury his hand in the mud to save it. Illarion would’ve killed him, but that would’ve taken another second or two worth of air….

Horrors of War, Confronting Weird Creatures:

The doors were being torn to splinters. Kristoph watched, fascinated and appalled, as a monstrous head snapped through a window and bit off a trencher’s face off. A scorpion tail, but big around as his arm, zipped through a window lightning quick and stabbed another soldier in the chest. He fell near Kristoph’s feet. Kicking and twitching.

Kristoph looked up to see the monster trying to squeeze through the gap nearest him, despite two other soldiers spearing it with their bayonets. Somehow, its body was still slick and pale, as if the blood snow slid right off. Jaws snapped at him. Spittle hit him. Kristoph aimed his pistol and shot through the gap, and another immediately took its place.

As he looked down to reload, the man who had been stung was grasping at Kristoph’s boots. It was hard to understand him, with all the foam coming out of his mouth, but Kristoph suspected he was begging for a quick and merciful death. Anything to be spared the torture of this poison. It was so piteous that even Kristoph was tempted to aid him, but he might need the ammo, so he kicked the dying man’s hand away….

NEED MORE OF The Age of Ravens?

Noir Fatale, an anthology edited by Larry Correia and Kacey Ezell (Baen, 2019), has a prequel to Servants of War called “The Privileges of Violence” by Steve Diamond. It’s a grim homage to the Maltese Falcon featuring at least three of the same characters. Highly recommended.

Servants of War focused on the machinations of two of the three Sisters. Subsequent books promise to highlight the remaining goddess as all the servants of war resolve their tension with the Tsar of Kolakolvia and the Sisters. Book 2 in The Age of Ravens is forthcoming and has a tentative title of Instruments of Violence.

Immortal Muse - Review, Stephen Leigh Interview, and Prelude to a Deleted Chapter Reveal

IMMORTAL MUSE BY STEPHEN LEIGH: REVIEW, INTERVIEW, AND PRELUDE TO A SECRET CHAPTER - New Black Gate article posted, and the deleted chapter is posted too: A DELETED EXCERPT FROM IMMORTAL MUSE, REVEALED AND ANNOTATED BY STEPHEN LEIGH

Left, Paperback cover (artist unknown); Right cover art by Tim O'Brien.

Stephen Leigh is a Cincinnati-based, award-winning writer of science fiction and fantasy, with thirty novels and nearly sixty short stories published. He has also published fantasy under the pseudonym S.L. Farrell. He has been a frequent contributor to the Hugo-nominated shared-world series Wild Cards, edited by George R.R. Martin. Stephen taught creative writing for twenty years at Northern Kentucky University, and has recently retired (but not from writing). His most recent novels have been Amid The Crowd Of Stars, the SunPath duology of A Fading Sun and A Rising Moon, The Crow of Connemara, and Immortal Muse. His latest novel, Bound To A Single Sun, will be published by DAW Books next year. Stephen is married to Denise Parsley Leigh; they are the parents of a daughter and a son; he is a musician and vocalist too, active in several Cincinnati bands.

In 2014, Stephen Leigh published his Immortal Muse novel (check out the 2014 Black Gate release), an alternative-history, fantasy fictionalizing alchemy's role in artistic muses. Wow! Of course, Leigh had to be interviewed as part of the "Beauty in Weird Fiction" interview series. Indeed he was interviewed in 2016 before the interview series merged into Black Gate. If you are interested in the aesthetics of horror and weird fantasy, check out the thoughts of our recent guests like Darrell Schweitzer, Sebastian Jones, Charles Gramlich, Anna Smith Spark, Carol Berg, & Jason Ray Carney (full list of interviews at the end of this post).

This post wraps up (1) a review of Immortal Muse, (2) the interview with the author on Leigh's muses, and (3) teases readers within an announcement. Okay, we'll cover that last one first. There is a missing/deleted chapter from Immortal Muse that Stephen Leigh will be posting on Black Gate soon, over 11K words with annotations on (a) why it was left out of the final book and (b) how facts were woven into this fantastical alternative-history. It serves as both a stand-alone short story and an engaging behind-the-scenes look at writing. The article with the missing chapter is posted here.

Let this review and interview stoke your creative fires (link)

BTW, interviewing is rewarding in itself, but receiving kind feedback from the interviewees and readers really hits home. 

“Seth, I honestly think that's one of the best interviews anyone's ever done with me: great questions that forced me to answer in depth. If anyone wants a glimpse into "how I write", your interview would be an excellent choice! Thanks for reminding me of it, and for giving everyone the link!” - Stephen Leigh

The Last Wish -- Being Helpful

Amazon: The Last Wish 

Holy cow, every now and then there comes across a fun confluence of events.

In this case, the recent 2019 Netflix series The Witcher increased interest in the Sword & Sorcery series. Of course, I moderate the S&S group on Goodreads (all are welcome to join), and we do a lot of reviews to help future readers. Turns out my 2016 review of The Last Wish is the highest helpful rank, at >300 helpful clicks.  

Cool beans. It was ~2yrs ago when I captured a few rewarding feedback instances from my reviews (Good Feelings about HATE post). 

So... Toss a coin to your Witcher!

HATE - feelings good about reviews

Wanted to capture two rewarding instances for writing reviews. Apart from the occasional "helpful" review click on Amazon.com (after ~7yrs, I have 281 helpful marks on 109 book reviews;  ~50,000 reviewer ranking), there is little feedback from other customers.

1) HATE is good 

Being an avid board gamer too, I was combing board game geek for an update on CMON's HATE game.  CMON and artist Adrian Smith have been in league together for some time.  Adrian Smith's graphic novels are being adapted into a boardgame, and I was looking for an update when lo-and-behold the chat room in Board Game Geek had my review of Vol.#1 posted to explain the context of the series (link).  Of course, my credit is identified as "Amazon Reviewer" which is ok. I was thrilled my review was useful and shared.

Expect a Kickstarter from CMON on HATE in a year or so.

2) We Are All Legends

That experience reminded me of a Facebook interaction several years ago.  A few of us Sword & Sorcery aficionados were discussing Darrell Schweitzer's  We Are All Legends (click for review: it's a collection of weird adventure by a master of weird fiction).

I lamented in a comment that only two of us had reviewed the book at the time (2008, 2012).  Then Caleb chimed in to say he was the other! I did not know Caleb, and the Facebook group was rather obscure (I believe it was one dedicated to Karl Wagner). In any event, it was a rewarding moment to stumble across another reviewer! In 2015, another reviewer stepped up for this book.  Really, We Are All Legends deserves to be read (and reviewed) more.