Monthly Archives: October 2018

Kaboul; Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the End Times

Posted on by

The French and so far only edition of Michael Moorcock’s Kaboul found it’s way, direct from Paris, into my happy hands.

This gorgeous volume with magnificent illustrations by Miles Hyman collects six stories from the My Experiences in the Third World War sequence, three previously published stories plus three new tales. The brilliant series tells the story of World War III through the eyes of the Russian KGB spy, Tom Dubrowski, who poses as antiquarian cover, a discreet Jew in a world not devoid of anti-Semitism.

The first of these stories appeared in 1979 with the latter two in 1980 and offered a  Moorcock at perhaps his most prescient. Years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, he predicted the world of post-Soviet Russia with it’s oligarchies, territorial rivalries, and attempts to remain relevant on the world stage. On a more individual level, Dubrowski struggles with what it means to be a citizen of the world, one who understands much of the reality that swirls around him, but feels powerless to do anything about it. In other words, for most of us, a lot like living in the 21st century.

The previously published novellas (“Going to Canada”, “Leaving Pasadena”, “Crossing into Cambodia”) are all currently available in The Best of Michael Moorcock. The new stories (“Kabul”, “Odysseus Came Home”, “Dancing in Rome”) appear here for the first time. Yes, in French. I believe this is the first major work of Moorcock’s to appear initially in French.

I’ve been lucky enough to have read the new stories in English, natch. All three of them were written within the last decade and when combined with the previous, make up some of the best work of Moorcock’s illustrious career. He maybe writing about the end times, but after nearly seven decades, these stories showcase a creator at the peak of his skills, who does not appear near his creative end. I only hope the final three stories will find their way into an English-language edition so everyone else can share in the experience.

Sci-Fi Book Probe: Drizzt, Pathogen Protocol, Secret Scouts

Posted on by

RevolutionSF’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Probe provides you with new books, eliminating all that troublesome freedom of choice. Book Probe’s choices are best. Book Probe is your friend. 

Timeless: A Drizzt Novel by R.A. Salvatore

RA Salvatore has done more for Dungeons & Dragons than the 20-sided dice industry, and now he’s doing more with his most famous character, the dark elf Drizzt.

These stories are epic fantasies, with all that the genre requires: magic, monsters, fighting. All good things. The immense world of D&D’s Forgotten Realms is put to excellent use, again, and I found myself flipping through player’s handbooks, DM’s guides, and Monster Manuals as I read.

These books will make you want to start up a D&D campaign. If you already are playing or running one, they will make you want to stop what you’re doing and get back to it.

For veterans of the Drizzt stories, this one is a welcome return. All the parts still work great.

For folks reading the Drizzt character for the first time, the book works great, too, which is nice. Also nice: Those folks will now have a few dozen other Drizzt appearances to catch up on, once they get pulled in.

 

 

A Deep Horror That Was Very Nearly Awe by JR Hamantaschen

You need more weird fiction, and this book has it. This one is a collection of 11 short stories, all of them crammed with horror, suspense, humor, and an underlying sense of disquietude. I mean that as a compliment.

Hamantaschen also has a particular skill with story titles that I wish others would emulate. Far from using one word (“Dark,” or “The Tunnel” are two books I just made up but probably exist) or from clearly describing what is going to happen in the book, Hamantaschen gets goofy. And by that I mean, excellent.

For example, “No One Cares But I Tried.” “I’ve Read With Some Interest About…” Here is my personal favorite: “Story Title Revealed About Halfway Through.”

My favorite story is “I Will Soon Be Home and Never Need Anyone Ever Again.” I hope it’s embarrassing for Hamantaschen to hear this: but this story is sweet. Its characters are outright charming. So, unlike many stories that call themselves “weird fiction,” not every story here ends with staring into the gibbous moon while the abyss consumes your mortal soul.

Just give it a read. You’ll dig it.

Secret Scouts and the Lost Leonardo by Mr. and Mrs. Kind

This book both made me feel smarter and reminded me of 1980s movies, so that’s a double-thumbs up from me.

It’s about a gaggle of kids, who, as kids in 80s movies were prone to do, stumbled onto a mystery. In this case, it’s a mystery about Leonardo Da Vinci, and the book proceeded to school me on Da Vinci stuff that I did not know about.

Sure, Dan Brown named a whole code after Da Vinci, but there’s more. Da Vinci kept busy.

The story’s setup is very much in the style of Explorers, or even E.T., and I mean that as a compliment. It’s also crammed full of factual stuff, which is a good way to cram education into a book about kids and historical mysteries.

This book, the first in a series, is fun for the young ones and the old ones and any variety of age, really. It’s just fun.

For more about the series, check out Secret Scouts. 

Pathogen Protocol by Darren Beyer

This one is a hard-science space adventure story, crammed with true-to-life space science details by someone who would know: Author Darren Beyer, has been a Space Shuttle experiment engineer, who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope launch and was part of Shuttle recovery crews.

Beyer knows his stuff, but also can tell a terrific story. That’s a drawback that faces some folks with real science experience: how do you translate the one thing into the other? Beyer does it by having the real science parts as the launch pad for the sci-fi adventure parts.

It’s part 2 of a series, so you’ll need to pick up part 1. But that’s a good thing in this case. It’s just more neat stuff for you to read. I’m anxious to see what’s next.

Barren by Peter V. Brett

 

This one is a novella set in the author’s “Demon Cycle” storyline. You need to check those out for the covers alone, but inside the covers are cool stories about good guys fighting demons. “Barren” is also that, with an excellent female hero and a story that could be a TV series. By that, I mean, I wish it was a TV series, right now.

If you’re just discovering Brett with this book, you’ve got lots more to read ahead of you. Get on that. If you’re a “Demon Cycle” fan already, well, I don’t need to tell you to pick this up.