Music that Bites!

I'll be spending the last week of October in the New York City area, going on as many interviews as possible as I try to land a job in the publishing industry. Wish me good luck!

As part of my early preparation, I'm adding more music to my MP3 player. I'm ripping songs off of my CDs, mainly from my collection of European Heavy Metal. But I'm also revisiting some other CDs that I haven't listened to in a while. I play some songs, or parts of songs, in my car on the way to or from work.

Today I listened to The Very Best of Asia. I mostly find the classic output of the band can be summarized as "Geoff Downes dumbing down the talent of John Wetton, Steve Howe and Carl Palmer," but there's individual songs I like quite a bit. Only Time Will Tell is probably the best known of their hit songs that I actually like. Open Your Eyes is another good one, and I'm sure Sole Survivor and Wildest Dreams will make the cut. I'm still not sure whether I'll add The Heat Goes On.

Listening to the Asia CD this morning had the same effect it has had on me on other occasions. It left me "itchy" inside. I had the uncomfortable feeling of needing to listen to something heavy and ass-kicking, something with some bite! I found the right song for the moment in The Will to Give, from Woods of Ypres' The Pursuit of the Sun and the Allure of the Earth CD.

I find very heavy rock and metal music to be extremely soothing. I thrash around on the inside while listening to it, and that becomes therapeutic. Conversely, calm and peaceful music, even upbeat tunes like Asia's, fill me with pent up energy looking for release. I have friends who experience music the same way, but my impression is that the majority of people actually find aggressive music to be agitating, and gentler music to be calming. As a guess, Metalheads may be more likely to share my reactions, while non-metal/punk fans may be the opposite.

Regardless of hows and whys, I know what works for me, and most of the songs I'll be adding to my MP3 player kick serious tail!

Another Volleyball Update

Colorado State University Volleyball played great this weekend (well, sort of a weekend), in getting 3-0 sweeps of both New Mexico and TCU at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. The Rams beat the Lobos Thursday night in what Coach Hilbert called "the most complete match of the season." Redshirt Freshman Megan Plourde particularly shone, with 10 kills and a massive .786 hitting percentage.

The Rams then put away the Horned Frogs Saturday afternoon, with Plourde again playing well. The whole team is coming together well, and playing at a high level. The chemistry among these mostly-young players has been a pleasant surprise this fall. I like CSU's chances of winning the Mountain West Conference and returning to the NCAA Tournament. They should get a chance to work some bench players into the mix this week, when the Rams host Northern Colorado on Wednesday (a good, but lesser team), and then travel to Wyoming on Friday (an okay team that seems down this season). Go Rams!

Read about Plourde here.

Volleyball Update

As I Tweeted recently to my legions of Twitter followers, “Nothing could be finer than three wins in Carolina!” Colorado State University Volleyball this weekend won a tournament in Chapel Hill. The Rams lost just a single set in the event, sweeping previously undefeated Marshall, beating Tennessee 3-1, and sweeping host North Carolina. CSU played very well, especially since this was the first road trip for a bunch of young players. The Rams did lose at Duke to begin the trip, a few days earlier, but showed they quickly figured out how to stay composed and competitive on the road. This will be a valuable lesson for the rest of the season. Danielle Minch was named MVP of the North Carolina Tournament after racking up an impressive kill total in each match, so congratulations to her and to the entire team.

I’m writing this now so I’ll have something to look back on in the weeks and months ahead. I could be wrong with my prediction, but I think the Rams have a good shot at winning the Mountain West Conference and returning to the NCAA Tournament for the 14th consecutive season. Yes, the Rams are breaking in a bunch of young players, who are new at their roles, but they are settling in and, after finding success at home, now also started to win away from the friendly confines of Moby Arena, as mentioned above.

CSU is fortunate that all the traditional powers in MWC Volleyball are also in rebuilding mode. Utah, like CSU, lost to graduation some of the best players in their program’s history. The new players have struggled, losing to teams Utah normally beats. BYU lost good players, and their coach in only in her 2nd season, so they’ve struggled too. New Mexico graduated one of the best hitters in the country. And I’m not sure what is up with UNLV, but they have played poorly so far this season.

CSU seems to have reloaded and forged ahead sooner than their rivals, the teams that will be their primary opponents in the weeks ahead. From all I have seen or read so far, I expect the Rams to lose a few matches along the way, but to emerge in late November at the head of the pack in a league where the automatic bid to the NCAAs is up for grabs. Go Rams!

See Ram Volleyball for more about the team.

Edited to add a link to a nice article about Minch

The Case for Garrett

Glen Cook is best known as the creator of the Black Company series. His Instrumentalities of the Night series is in-progress, and his Dread Empire series is back in print in nice omnibus editions. He has written other series over the last 30 years, including Darkwar and the Starfishers. Yet since 1987 there’s been one constant to Cook’s writing: Garrett, P.I.

Garrett debuted Sweet Silver Blues. That book introduced readers to the human investigator in a fantasy world. He was a modern character, based on the hard-boiled dicks of American 20th Century detective fiction. His city, Tun Faire, and the surrounding kingdom of Karentia, were similar to 17th Century London and Britain, only with the existence of magic and non-human races such as Elves, Dwarves, and Ogres. Thus, familiar elements were made fresh by an unusual setting and the mixing of genres.

Cook has been writing about Garrett ever since. He has mentioned in interviews that he generally has a Garrett book in progress all the time, no matter what he is focused on writing at a given moment. The series continued in the late 80’s, through the 90’s, and into the new millennium. The twelfth volume, Cruel Zinc Melodies, came out in 2008, and the thirteenth is under contract for eventual release.

Most of the earlier titles have been reprinted recently, and Cruel Zinc Melodies is on its fourth printing in a little over a year. The series has benefited from Cook’s latest round of popularity, which was touched off by the Black Company and Dread Empire omnibus versions. In fact, there’s a visible correlation between how successful Cook’s other books are, and how well Garrett sells. Cook’s success grew through the 80’s as the Black Company books became word of mouth successes. This led to the continuation of the Black Company series, with three new books coming out in 1989 and 1990. The first five Garrett books were available by this time, and each had several printings. The final four Black Company volumes were released between 1996 and 2000, and so 1999’s ninth Garrett book, Faded Steel Heat, went through at least four printings. Cook then didn’t write much for several years, so that 2002’s Angry Lead Skies and 2005’s Whispering Nickel Idols each had but a single printing (the latter was recently reprinted). But as mentioned above, the success of the Dread Empire and Black Company omnibuses, which debuted in 2006 and 2007, respectively, helped renew interest in Garrett, and helped the latest Garrett book sell very well.

Cook was ahead of his time in writing the gritty, militaristic fantasy of the Dread Empire and Black Company books. Just as those helped influence a generation of writers such as Steven Erikson, the Garrett books helped set the stage for the current poularity of urban fantasy. Authors such as Jim Butcher wouldn’t be writing their own fantasy detective stories if Cook hadn’t shown that it could be done successfully.

Why does this mix of detective and fantasy work? In Garrett’s case, it is because Garrett IS Glen Cook, just as Croaker is in the Black Company. The stories are told first person by Garrett, as if he was relating them to some buddies at the bar while downing a few pints of ale. Garrett is a good guy who means well, but who sometimes makes mistakes and falls prey to his weaknesses. He likes to sleep late, chase redheads, and avoid work as much as finances allow. He has a sarcastic sense of humor, and interesting friends such part-Elf rogue Morley Dotes and a physically dead (yet psychically alive) elephant man. Garrett’s cases involve murder, kidnapping, and a criminal underworld.

The cast of supporting characters grows and evolves over the course of the series, and becomes quite large. By the time of Cruel Zinc Melodies the actual plot isn’t as important as simply spending time with all of these familiar inhabitants of Garrett’s world. I thought Cook mixed them all together successfully, though some reviewers wanted more action in the book. But the Garrett, P.I. series has never really been about action. It’s about showing how fantasy can be fun even without the clichés of swords and dragons and faux-medieval settings. If you like Cook’s other books, or think this premise sounds promising, don’t hesitate to give Garrett a try. I predict you’ll soon be like I was a year ago, frantically trying to hunt down all twelve books in the series.

See Wikipedia for a good summary of the individual books.

Malazan Musings

I should like The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson's 10-volume series of epic doorstopper fantasy novels. Erikson is influenced by authors I enjoy, such as Glen Cook, and takes the notion of "gritty fantasy" to the nth degree in his works, which often top 1000 pages per book. He is a trained archeologist, as is his friend Ian C. "Cam" Esslemont. Together, the two put their love of exploring cultures and history into the creation of the Malazan world for their GURPS roleplaying, and eventually began writing fiction in that mileu. Erikson just released the ninth entry in his series, while Esslemont has published two of a projected five or six Malazan books of his own.

I became aware of Erikson (and then, by extension, of Esslemont) because of the mutual admiration society that he forms with Cook. They have been quick to praise one another over the past few years, as can be seen on book cover blurbs and in interviews. Erikson has become extremely popular with fantasy readers over the last five years, and this fandom has often suggested that those who enjoy Erikson's books ought to give Cook's works a try. I encountered this notion often enough on various websites that, in a reversal of the pattern, I sought out Erikson's series.

I've been collecting the mass market paperbacks of The Malazan Book of the Fallen for a little over a year. I bought the first, Gardens of the Moon, new, and volumes 2, 3 and 5 in gently-used copies from stores where I have trade-in credit. At this writing, I have Erikson's books 4, 6, 7 and 8, and Esslemont's debut borrowed from the library, all in trade paperback format (Erikson's 9th volume, and Esslemont's 2nd, aren't released in the USA yet).

I very much enjoy having all the books of a series together at once. It greatly enhances my enjoyment to be able to look at volumes I haven't read yet, and collect hints and ideas about what is to come. Far from being "spoilers," as this information is to some readers, it allows me to to function as an observer as to how the author gets characters from the situations I am currently reading, to those I read later. For Erikson, I know from the cast list that several inhabitants of the city of Darujhistan, that I'm presently following in Gardens of the Moon, are still alive and kicking in Book 8, Toll the Hounds. From what they are experiencing in this first book, they shouldn't survive until that later one!

I'm almost done with Gardens of the Moon. Its story has become engrossing in the second half. I was expecting this, as it is widely reported online that the book is initially quite difficult to get into. First-time readers are encouraged to put in the effort to reach the "juicy" parts, and so I perservered, and now I'm enjoying the payoff. I can see the Cook influence, which is supposed to be much less pronounced in later volumes. The Bridgeburners unit of soldiers bears a resemblance to the Black Company, and Kruppe seems to be Erikson's take on Mocker from the Dread Empire series.

There's lots of high powered magic flying about in Gardens of the Moon. Reviews I've read suggest that this only increases as the series progresses. This is a problem for some readers, since they feel it defies logic. My guess at this point, as a neophyte Malazan reader, is that, in a sense, Erikson is retelling the roleplaying adventures of high-level game characters. I know that when I was around 13, my friends and I used to pretend that our AD&D characters met up with various demons and devils from the Monster Manual, Asmodeus for example. We'd roll the dice, and every now and then, we'd manage to do sufficient damage to kill these powerful creatures. I suspect that Erikson is having his own form of fun by putting enounters of this sort into writing.

I had tried off and on to get into Gardens of the Moon, and this time it finally worked. I now expect to continue to enjoy Erikson's books for years to come. Each is so massive that it will take weeks to get through. I read all twelve of Cook's Garrett, P.I. series between June of 2008 and January of 2009, but those average under 300 pages per book, and I'm ready for a long, pleasurable haul through the Malazan world. Esslemont's books will only prolong the experience, in a good way. I'm ready for the challenge, bring it on!

See Malazan Empire for background on the works of Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont.

Pre-pub offer on Polizei Division Book

Fedorowicz, who released my first book over a decade ago, have finally put up a pre-publication offer on the long-awaited second and final volume of their translation of the veterans' history of the 4. SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier Division. Read about it here.

The Polizei-Division has been maligned for decades as a second-rate unit. In fact, it was equal to the best divisions in the German Army, and, in the last two years of the war, was as good as other SS-Armored Divisions. It only fell short in comparisons circa 1940-41, when its human material wasn't as special as the very carefully selected manpower found in the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler (the eventual 1. SS-Panzer Division) and the SS-Verfügunstruppe (the eventual 2. SS-Panzer Division). The Polizei-Division was originally intended to be like a first-line Army infantry division, and then, from 1943, to be the equivalent of an Army Panzer or Panzergrenadier Division, and the unit succeeded admirably in attaining those goals.

There's a myth about the World War 2 Eastern Front, which holds that after the late 1941 German defeat before Moscow, everything important up to the summer of 1944 took place in Ukraine and the sector of German Army Group South. This is because Soviet accounts ignored the Red Army's defeats on the Army Group Center front, west of Moscow, and the Army Group North Front around Leningrad. The Soviet (now Russian) archives have become available to researchers over the past 20 years, and their records corroborate German records of massive, important battles on the central and northern sectors.

Fedorowicz have been making rare German books available in English for over 20 years. Their books have regularly turned up in bibliographies, along the way to expanding the understanding of the war for historians who struggle with the German language. This has subsequently helped expand the understanding of the war for the readers of the works of the aforementioned historians.

This second volume of the Polizei-Division history will continue the trend. The first volume gave some of the only detailed descriptions in English of the dreadful Battle of the Volkhov Pocket (first half of 1942, it was where Andrei Vlassov was captured by Dutch volunteers of the Legion Nederland) and the First Battle of Lake Ladoga (autumn 1942). Now this second and concluding book will allow English language readers to learn about the Second Battle of Lake Ladoga (early 1943), the Third Battle of Lake Ladoga (late summer 1943), the retreat from the Volkhov River (early 1944), the anti-partisan war in Greece (summer 1943-summer 1944), and the defense of the Tisza River in Hungary (autumn 1944).

The latter campaign was recently covered in English in Perry Moore's chaotic (but informative) Panzerschlact, and the Polizei-Division's history will be a useful supplement to this (see also Fedorowicz's recent translation of the History of the 23. Panzer Division, which was in this campaign).

The Polizei-Division then fought in the little-known Pomeranian campaign of early 1945, before being assigned a section of the Oder River defenses during the last weeks of the war. Its participation in so many little-known, yet very important campaigns, means that anyone who enjoys studying the Nazi-Soviet portion of World War 2 in detail, will benefit immeasurably from this book, and from its companion first volume. Together, they advance the cause of learning.

Black Company Back in Print!

I haven't seen this news posted anywhere, but I had a look recently on Tor's website, and noticed, to my surprise, that the entire 10 book Black Company series was available again as single volumes. This is Glen Cook's most popular series, and Tor had let the individual books go out of print, other than the first eponymous release (for those wanting to try the series out cheaply) and Water Sleeps (the 9th volume, which I had assumed would soon follow the rest into being unavailable). In their place, the company has been releasing omnibuses, with the first three books in the first collection, and the next three in the second one. The thrid collection is due in around two weeks, and the final one in January (see earlier posts to read about both).

As the later Black Company volumes went out of print, they began to become expensive on secondary markets such as e-bay, and next to impossible to find in used bookstores. I had thought Tor wanted this, as it would drive up interest in the omnibus versions. The first two collections have proven extremely popular (the first is on its 6th printing in under two years), and the next two will likely sell well too. (The Raymond Swanland covers have helped draw in casual readers, to go by comments I've read online, even if Cook has stated that he doesn't like Swanland's art!)

I'm now confused as to why and how Tor has reprinted the out of print Black Company individual books. I know that Cook has expressed displeasure at not having them available, perhaps they wanted to placate him. Water Sleeps now lists for $1 more than its original and long-standing price, but the others sell for the same cover price as they did 5 years ago and more. So my guess right now, until I learn otherwise, is that most of these books haven't been "reprinted." Rather, they've been made available as Print on Demand titles, printed from computer files (instead of set type) in versions that are roughly 80-90% as nice as conventionally printed mass market paperbacks. If this is the case, it will be most noticeable in the covers, which will have a pixelated quality and a lack of depth in the art. Further, if these are POD editions, they will probably be sold only online, via Tor's website and vendors such as Amazon.

Regardless of the specifics, this is a cause for rejoice for the many who have been desperately trying to complete their Black Company collections for the past couple of years. I'm lucky to have bought the books years ago, when they were readily available. But those who are interested in these individual volumes are advised to get them while they can. These new copies turned up quite suddenly, and perhaps they'll disappear equally quickly. Carpe the Diem!

Thought for the day: Better luck this weekend to the CSU Volleyball team, after today's first home loss in two years! Go Rams!

Almost Volleyball Season!

Colorado State University Volleyball begins its 2009 season in a few days. I'll have to miss Friday night's match against Pepperdine, but I plan to be in Fort Collins Saturday and Sunday for the matches against Oregon State and Cal Poly.

I don't know what to expect this season. The Rams graduated three of their best players ever: Ashley Fornstrom, Jaime Strauss, and Mekana Barnes. Fornstrom was the setter all four of her seasons, and will be the toughest act to follow. Sophomore Evan Sanders played sparingly last season as Fornstrom's backup. There may well be a learning curve for her early this season. Several new players are competing for playing time, and it can take a few weeks for players to gel in their on the court performance. So the start of the season may be rougher than I and the rest of Ram fandom hope.

On the positive side, CSU has probably its best overall height ever. Tall and talented young women have arrived on campus, and reported are already giving the established players runs for their money in practice. The Rams could be a formidable team by the end of the season. At this point, I'll hope for the best while repeating the mantra "Go Rams!"

To read more about the team, check out their blog at Ram Volleyball Blog.

Final Black Company Omnibus Announced!

Pat beat me to this, even though I checked as recently as 24 hours ago on Amazon and on Tor's site ;-) Tor has announced January 5, 2010 as the release date for The Many Deaths of the Black Company, which compiles Water Sleeps and Soldiers Live. This completes the series, until the promised follow up volumes eventually appear. I'm glad there's more kick-ass Raymond Swanland artwork, this omnibus series has a fantastic look.

I'm fortunate to have the individual books in their original version, but I'll still be getting the last two omnibuses to put on my shelf next to the first two. They're
just so attractive and compact! So get those Xmas gift cards ready, if this interests you, as business on it will be brisk in the new year...

This Time the Indians Win!

The Priest Kings brought the planet Gor into our solar system at some unspecified point in time. They then brought humans from Earth to Gor, and allowed them to carry on or recreate their Earth cutures. Thus in Marauders of Gor, Tarl Cabot journeys among Vikings, and in Tribesmen of Gor, among Arabs. My favorite example of this pollination is the Native Americans who are given a territory similar to the North American Great Plains.

These "Gorean Indians" are presented in the two-part story told in Savages of Gor and Blood Brothers of Gor. Tarl Cabot travels to their lands, known as The Barrens, on a quest to locate the Kurii military leader Zarendargar (Kurii are highly intelligent beasts, a bit like a meaner version of Chewbacca, who seek to conquer Gor and Earth). A Kurii death squad has been sent to Gor to eliminate Zarendargar for his failure to complete an important mission in the book Beasts of Gor. Cabot decides to try to warn his old foe, since they became friendly during the course of that book. Thus the series retains an element of science fiction, even as Cabot travels, more or less, into the Old West.

The Priest Kings forbid advanced weaponry on Gor, so the Gorean Indians have a weapons parity with the mainstream culture of the planet. This allows them to hold onto their lands with no real threat of being defeated and overrun. But the tribes know this happened to them in the past, on Earth, so they collectively maintain what is known as "The Memory," even as they raid and fight each other. The Memory dictates that Whites are to be viewed with suspicion, and can only enter the Barrens in small groups with two Kaiila per man (Kaiila are the equivalent of horses).

Cabot enters the Barrens in the company of a respected trader, known as Grunt. Cabot had earlier encountered a mercenary company of 1000 men, hired by the Kurii death squad to escort them into the Barrens. This was near a border town, and word in the town is that a foolish group of settlers had entered the Barrens in search of free land. In the event, the soldiers and Kurii overtook the settlers, and the combined force was attacked by a coalition of tribes, setting aside their differences to remove this white invasion of their lands. This happens off scene, but Cabot and Grunt are able to establish that roughly 400 soldiers were able to fight their way free and escape.

Gor author John Norman wrote the book Ghost Dance around the same time he wrote the earliest Gor novels, many years before the Gorean Indian volumes. Ghost Dance is set in 1890 during the Ghost Dance troubles on the Pine Ridge Lakota reservation in South Dakota. His research was carried forward for these Gorean books, because the Indains Cabot and Grunt deal with speak authentic Sioux. The Dust Legs tribe they first encounter speak Santee Dakota, while the Kaiila tribe, related to the Dust Legs, speak Teton Lakota (Dakota and Lakota are very similar, with certain words, like the tribal names being spelled alternately with a "d" or "l" so that the color red is "duta" in Dakota, as in the Wapikute renegade Inkpaduta (Scarlet Plume, or Red-on-top), but is "luta" in Lakota, as in the Oglala war leader Mahpiyaluta (Red Cloud)).

Savages of Gor sets the story up, but events only get going full-swing in Blood Brothers of Gor. Cabot and Grunt spend that novel in the company of Kaiila tribe, and aid them in a time of great trouble. This includes the soldiers appearing again, but Cabot helps to orchestrate their defeat. Thus, he gets to be the lone white man who helps the Indians beat the evil soldiers once and for all. This may not mean much to some readers, but I know from talking with friends that I'm not alone in usually rooting for the Indians in various fictional and non-fictional stories from history. So it is a vicarious thrill to be part of an eventual decisive Indian victory, and I imagine that Norman was pleased to be able to tell such a story.

Of course, these are Gor novels, so these books won't be for everyone. Many who find the idea of the Indians as good guys to be attractive will be turned off by the constant presence of slave girls and master-slave philosophy. But these sections can easily be skipped with a bit of judicious skimming, leaving a rip-roaring story of adventure in the Gorean Old West. I'm a fan for sure, and read these books, or sections at least every few years. Maybe I should seek out some alternate universe fiction where the Indians also win here on Earth!

The REST of Middle Earth

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (and even The Silmarillion) concern events in the Northwest of Middle Earth. Tolkien never did more for the rest of his world than sketch the outlines for a few maps, which are found amid the ephemera in The History of Middle Earth. The good professor didn't identify countries or name the peoples to the east and south of the maps in LoTR, other than to mention that the Elves and men awoke in the east, and that two of the Istari disappeared there.

From 1982 till 1997, Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) held the license to produce board and roleplaying gaming materials set in Middle Earth (the latter known as MERP). They released dozens of adventures and sourcebooks, most of which dealt with the regions of the Northwest that were familiar to readers of The Hobbit and LoTR. These were carefully though out, in most cases, so that they expanded upon Tolkien's own creativity and gave the user a fuller understanding of their topic.

One of ICE's first products was a map of all of Middle Earth. This was an original creation, unrelated to Tolkien's sketches. The topography was based on rational principles of weather and geography to extrapolate the lands of the south and east. Names were made up and placed throughout all of this new territory, including the mysterious use of "Mur Fostisyr" off the coast of the central arctic. (The Mur Fostisyr was a group of islands in the far north of ICE's own gaming world, featured in their product The Iron Wind. Was there meant to be a connection?)

ICE decided to create adventures and sourcebooks for southern Middle Earth, but to leave the lands east of Rhun and Harad unchronicled. This way, gamers could make up their own ideas of what life was like in these areas. The exception to this was that ICE did create a background for each of the Nazgul (Ringwraiths), with several hailing from Eastern Middle Earth. These backgrounds contained small details on conditions in the relevant realms. Gamers have used the map and these hints as a starting point to create "fan modules" that can be found online with a bit of searching, for those who want to read an interpretation of Chey Sart or Urd.

The officially released ICE MERP sourcebooks on Southern Middle Earth included two about Harad, Far Harad (the area south of Umbar) and Greater Harad (due east of Far Harad, and far southeast of Umbar and Mordor). The ICE map projected that Harad ended in the south at the Yellow Mountains. South of these were jungle lands, with The Shadow in the South covering the extreme Southwest of Middle Earth, and The Court of Ardor dealing with lands across a large bay to the east.

The area around Ardor was controlled by fallen High Elves, who had become servants of Morgoth in the First Age. The other lands in these products still felt the effects of scarring during the Second Age. ICE went to great lengths in these, and some related supplements, to discuss how Numenoreans conquered kingdoms and holdings on the west coasts of Middle Earth, something that Tolkien mentioned in only slight detail in the appendices to LoTR and in Unfinished Tales. Even before the fall of Numenor, most of these colonies became "Black Numenorean" as the settlers abandoned Elvish ways and became tyrants. Umbar was the best known of these holdings, but there were many others. The tension built into these lands was for characters to seek adventure while battling the Nazgul and other minions of Sauron in the Third Age.

All of ICE's MERP products are long out of print. They can only be had as very expensive hardcopies, or as illegal downloads. I was fortunate to purchase many of them new at the time of release, and I have no intention of selling them now. They make fascinating reading, even if they are never used for actual gaming. It is a situation similar to that of the Mystara products I discussed a few weeks ago. And as with those, as I mentioned above, there's also fan produced material for gaming in Middle Earth (or reading about gaming ;-)). It is well worth the effort to seek this MERP material out, if it sounds at all of interest. It's almost like a score for the Middle Earth junkie!

Return of the Black Company artwork!

Tor has posted the cover art to Glen Cook's The Return of the Black Company. This is the omnibus of Bleak Seasons and She is the Darkness, the two novels with Murgen an annalist. The painting looks to again be the work of Raymond Swanland, and lives up to the standard he set with his many previous covers for Glen Cook's works.

The Return of the Black Company is scheduled for release on September 15 of this year. I've read the books already, but I look forward to getting the omnibus anyway, since it will look good on the shelf next to the first two Black Company omnibuses and the ongoing series of Dread Empire omnibuses.

Now I want Tor to finally set a release date for Surrender to the Will of the Night, the next in Cook's Instrumentalities of the Night series!

A Barnaby Skye Timeline - Happy 20th Annivesary!

As I wrote a few months ago, I'm a big fan of Richard S. Wheeler's Skye's West/Barnaby Skye novels. I've long sought to work out the chronology of these books, and June of 2009 seemed to be an ideal time to discuss the topic publicly. The first of the series, Sun River was released in "July 1989." In book publishing, the listed month of release is normally the month that follows that in which the book actually hits the shelves. So it was twenty years ago this month that Barnaby Skye made his debut in bookstores.

The first eight books about the mountain man and his family were released through 1994, as original mass-market paperbacks. The series was known as "Skye's West." Wheeler then took a break from the character, but in 1996 began a new series, now known as "Barnaby Skye novels." These were first published in hardcover, and began by detailing Skye's arrival in the Rocky Mountains and his early days there. This series has continued up to the present, with its ninth volume, the seventeenth overall, seeing release in 2009. Over the years, the characters have overtaken the events of the first eight books, so that Skye is an old man in the latest (he's 64, which isn't so old in the 21st Century, just ask Ronnie James Dio, who turns 67 in a few weeks, yet is still fronting his version of Black Sabbath on a long tour. But spending decades in the wilderness has aged Sky considerably).

This much is know for sure about Barnaby Sky. He was born in 1806 in London, to a well-to-do merchant family. He was 13 in 1819 when a Royal Navy pressgang caught him and dragged him off to a harsh life at sea. Seven years later, in 1826, a roughly 20 year old Skye jumped ship at Fort Vancouver (modern Portland, Oregon) and made his way inland, seeking to escape British justice. He succeeded in reaching American territory, and gradually adapted to life as a mountain man, while marrying into the Absaroka (Crow) and Shoshoni tribes.

Skye met Many Quills woman of the Crow soon after arriving in the mountains. She was born about 1811, and was 15 when she met Barnaby. He named her Victoria, and they had many adventures together, as their family grew to include the unique blue roan, Jawbone (an evil horse that never-the-less loved Barnaby and Victoria). Victoria eventually convinced Barnaby to take a second wife. She helped arrange his marriage to Mary, of the Shoshoni, a niece of Sacagawea. Mary was much younger than her new husband and fellow wife, and was probably born around 1830, though this is hard to pinpoint. The precise timeline of events becomes hazy in the second series, which I'll demonstrate below, as I indicate the year in which each of the novels is supposed to occur. Before that, it should be mentioned that Barnaby and Mary have a son together, Dirk, who is also known as North Star. He's an infant in some novels, and a child at school in Missouri in some others.

Skye's West (in order of publication):

Sun River - 1855, introduces Barnaby Skye, Victoria, Mary, Dirk, and Jawbone. All but Dirk are present in all eight of the first series. The Skye family has been guiding parties through the west for some years already.

Bannack - 1863, sequentially the last of the first series. Skye and Jawbone are getting old, and Dirk is away at school.

The Far Tribes - 1852, Dirk is an infant.

Yellowstone - 1850, Barnaby and Mary are recently married, and she is pregnant with Dirk by the end.

Bitterroot - 1853, Dirk is a toddler.

Sundance - 1856, Dirk is a child.

Wind River - 1854, Dirk is a toddler.

Santa Fe - 1851, Dirk is an infant.


Barnaby Skye Novels (in order of publication):

Rendezvous - 1826, Barnaby jumps ship, reaches the mountains, and meets Victoria.

Dark Passage - 1831, Barnaby and Victoria have been married for several years.

Going Home - 1832, Barnaby and Victoria are the only recurring characters.

Downriver - 1838, Barnaby and Victoria are the only recurring characters.

The Deliverance - 1841, Barnaby and Victoria are the only recurring characters.

The Fire Arrow - 1853, Barnaby and Victoria meet the new born colt, Jawbone. He is present in the following books.

The Canyon of Bones - 1857, Barnaby meets and marries Mary at the start, Mary is pregnant with Dirk by the finish.

Virgin River - 1858, Dirk is an infant, and the Skye family have built a reputation as guides.

North Star - 1870, Dirk is a young adult, and Barnaby is an old man.

The Owl Hunt - not yet published, this and at least one more novel are to feature Dirk "North Star" Skye as the lead character.

How can these dates be reconciled? Ultimately, it doesn't especially matter, as the indications of the year that appear in each story can easily be ignored. But I find games like this entertaining, so I'll have ago at it anyway. The first stage is easy. Barnaby's adventures begin in 1826, and continue up through 1841, when he's 35. That covers Rendezvous straight through The Deliverance. The Fire Arrow can then be moved forward to 1845 or so. In my imagination, Mary joins the clan about 1848, and Dirk is born in 1851. The original series can then follow in the same years for which they are listed, with The Canyon of Bones and Virgin River being slotted in before Bannack (pretend the wedding in The Canyon of Bones was a flashback ;-)). The timeline would then conclude with North Star, The Owl Hunt and any future additions.

That leaves the overall story arc as follows:

Rendezvous - 1826
Dark Passage - 1831
Going Home - 1832
Downriver - 1838
The Deliverance - 1841
The Fire Arrow - 1845
Yellowstone - 1850
Santa Fe - 1851
The Far Tribes - 1852
Bitterroot - 1853
Wind River - 1854
Sun River - 1855
Sun Dance - 1856
The Canyon of Bones - 1857
Virgin River - 1858
Bannack - 1863
North Star - 1870
The Owl Hunt - ?

Do I suggest reading the books in this order? Not at all! As with many series, the characters and their development are best realized and understood if the books are read in the order in which they are written. Several volumes are officially out of print, but all can be rather easily found at online or brick & mortar used book outlets, or via libraries. I heartily recommend that anyone interested in Native American or Old West fiction make the minor effort required to sample some of these novels. I'm sure that those who do will quickly join me in toasting Barnaby Skye on his 20th birthday in print!

Lawyers, Guns & Money (well, no guns that we know of)

I like to follow the discussions on the forums at www.black-sabbath.com and www.bravewords.com. A popular recent topic of discussion has been the lawsuit that Ozzy Osbourne has brought against his former Black Sabbath bandmate, guitarist Tony Iommi. Iommi owns the legal rights to the name “Black Sabbath,” and Ozzy is asking for 50% of it, in order to force some sort of settlement in which the rights to the name would end up evenly split between the original members of the band: Iommi, vocalist Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward.

The original lineup last put out an album of new material in 1978. It was their eighth release, and had the ironic title of Never Say Die. Ozzy left the next year, through a combination of jumping ship and being pushed off. He sold his rights to the name Black Sabbath to Iommi in 1980, and Ward sold his rights in 1985. Butler also sold his rights to Iommi, though he worked with him in Black Sabbath occasionally as late as 1994.

This has become an issue because the original lineup reunited in 1997, and continued to play together during Ozzfest tours until 2005. They had an arrangement with promotional company Live Nation to sell Black Sabbath related merchandise. Iommi filed a lawsuit against Live Nation late in 2007, claiming that the arrangement ended in 2006, but that Live Nation had continued to sell Black Sabbath merchandise, without authorization. Iommi asked for $80 million in damages. The paperwork revealed clearly that Iommi held sole rights to the name Black Sabbath, since it contained copies of the agreements by which the other three original members signed away their rights.

This would suggest that Osbourne has no grounds for his suit. So why is he pursuing it? Well, as Damien, a moderator at Black-Sabbath.com has pointed out, Ozzy’s voice, and even his overall health, are in poor shape. He’s not up to extended touring anymore, and this shows badly in comparison with Ronnie James Dio, his first replacement as Black Sabbath singer. Dio will turn 67 this summer, and still has a very decent voice, and can still tour extensively. In fact, Iommi and Butler recently recorded a well-received album of new material with Dio (and with Ward’s first replacement, Vinny Appice, on drums). They are currently touring in support of this album, and previously had toured together in 2007 and 2008. Meanwhile, Ozzy’s attempt at a new TV show was cancelled, and his wife and manager Sharon’s talk show failed. The attempt of Ozzy to record an album of new material with the original Black Sabbath lineup, back around 2001, ended in failure, with only the new song Scary Dreams being played live. So this lawsuit by the Osbournes would seem like a way to both try and grab a share of the $80 million suit against Live Nation, and also to give the figurative finger to Iommi and Butler for having renewed success with Dio.

This current project with Dio is recording and touring under the name “Heaven & Hell,” which was the title of the first Black Sabbath album they made together, back in 1980. Ward had left after that, to be replaced by Appice on 1981’s Mob Rules and 1992’s Dehumanizer. Using a new name for the band served several purposes. It kept the Dio-fronted lineup distinct from the Osbourne fronted version, which had been inducted into several halls of fame. Audiences would know not to expect any Ozzy-era material to be played. And it allowed band members to continue to make good on past promises, such as Dio’s claim that he would never rejoin Black Sabbath and Butler’s insistence that he would only ever work again with Dio in a project separate from Black Sabbath. Yet now, this Osbourne lawsuit suggests a further motive in using the name Heaven & Hell. If the band isn’t called Black Sabbath, then Ozy can’t attempt to grab any piece of the pie.

There’s been no official word from the Iommi and Butler camps about the publicly announced Osbourne suit against Iommi. I imagine that lawyers are having a field day behind the scenes, sending messages back and forth. I’m very curious to see how this eventually plays out. While awaiting further developments, I’ve had a thought on the abortive album the original lineup tried to create in 2001.

Butler has indicated that six or seven songs were written, but that the material wasn’t very good, and thus was scrapped. This led me to realize something I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere. I believe that Iommi’s head, metaphorically, wasn’t in the right place to write music for an Ozzy-fronted album. Ozzy stated publicly that he didn’t want to release any new music that would tarnish the reputation of the original albums by being sub-par.

Of the eight albums the original lineup recorded, only the first five or six are regarded as classics (opinions vary on the sixth, Sabotage). The final two are mostly panned, and those who praise them do so from a very defensive point of view. Already by Sabotage, Iommi (the principal writer of Black Sabbath music), was trying numerous experiments to the band’s sound. He was seeking to stretch and do different things with his music, but only really found artistic and commercial success for his expanded range once Dio joined him for the ninth Black Sabbath album, Heaven & Hell, and the tenth, Mob Rules.

Iommi worked with a large array of players in the years up to the 1997 reunion. A host of knowns and unknowns were in Black Sababth, but none of them were Ozzy clones. After working with Dio’s powerful, operatic voice, Iommi continued to recruit singers with strong vocal abilities. The list includes Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Ray Gillen, and Tony Martin (who sang on five different Black Sabbath albums). Dio came back for Dehumaizer, and Iommi made non-Black Sabbath albums with Glenn Hughes in 1996 and 2005.

At the same time, on the drum front, no effort was made to duplicate Ward’s “jazzy” style. Instead, heavy hitters who played with a lot of power were the order of the day. This list includes Eric Singer, Cozy Powell, a returned Appice, and Bobby Rondinelli. This all suggests to me that Iommi wanted to make the sort of music that came out under the Black Sabbath name post-Ozzy (and that he made with Hughes). He wasn’t forced into it, he could have tried to recreate the past, but he chose not to do so. When he did reconvene the Mob Rules and Dehumanizer lineup, as Heaven & Hell, there was no writer’s block or difficulty. Their 2009 album, The Devil You Know, came together quite easily, by all accounts (the title is a sly reference that, in a sense, they are still a form of Black Sabbath)

So my best guess is that Iommi had great difficulty in writing the simpler, more basic sort of music he had created for the first five or six albums with the original lineup. Many fans have chosen to blame Osbourne for the failed attempt at a 2001 album, and perhaps he was obstinate in various ways. But the real truth may be simply that the writing chemistry was no longer there the way it was thirty years earlier.

Perspective from the Dio Mix

In celebration of the new Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell CD The Devil You Know (which debuted at #8 on the Billboard chart!), I took all my Dio-related CDs and ripped them to my computer and then to my MP3 player. That means the three Rainbow albums, the three Black Sabbath albums (plus the three new songs on the Dio Years compilation), and the ten Dio band albums (and even Time to Burn, from Intermission). I added the songs from The Devil You Know, so I’m only missing a few soundtrack/charity items and Japanese bonus tracks. As it is, there’s a total of 155 songs. I’ve been playing those on random shuffle, to put new and old songs into some perspective, relative to Dio’s career since 1975.

I expected to be surprised in some ways, as this sort of exercise always brings out nuances that aren’t fully realized in listening to one CD at a time. I found that the new songs hold up well in the catalog. They aren’t Rainbow-esque- but they fit right in with many moments in Black Sabbath and Dio’s body of work from 1992’s Dehumanizer onward. That wasn’t a surprise to me, but it was nice to have confirmation for the feeling I got upon first listening to The Devil You Know. Also, The Devil Cried, from the 2007 The Dio Years, now sounds better than ever to me.

What was a bit surprising was to hear how solid Craig Goldy’s contribution was, over the years. I had always rated Goldy a bit behind Vivian Campbell and Doug Aldrich, but hearing his songs randomly in the mix of other Dio-related pieces made them become highlights, in many cases. Goldy isn’t flashy, his playing isn’t ostentatious, it simply serves the songs effectively.

I’ve tried many times to get into Angry Machines and Lock Up the Wolves, and it still just isn’t happening. There’s good moments and good songs on both, but they are at the bottom in my preference for the 17+ albums mixed together on my player.

I also ripped the five Tony Martin fronted Black Sabbath albums, and the Ozzy fronted compilation We Sold Our Soul For Rock ‘N’ Roll. I don’t have them in the same mix with the Dio fronted material described above, but I can still make comparisons. Riff-wise, the Tony Martin stuff sounds very much in the Black Sabbath tradition, much more so than it is usually credited for. The Ozzy material still sounds crude to my ears, and my dislike of his voice hasn’t been overcome yet. The only songs I really enjoy are Tomorrow’s Dream and Snowblind (I do like N.I.B. when Dio sings it on Live Evil, but I haven’t added any live tracks to these mixes yet).

I’ve now owned The Devil You Know for just over a week. My opinion could well change with time, but at this point I’m ready to declare it as being as good as anything its players have done in their careers. It isn’t the single best album any of them have recorded, but it is in the top tier of their work, alongside such famous albums as Heaven & Hell, Holy Diver, and Headless Cross (and it doesn’t even have an “H” in the title!). Rock On, everyone!

Dio's Deep Purple Whitesnake Rainbow

One of the great things about this current era of downloaded music and MP3 players is that album sales are no longer relevant to the quality of a given piece of music. It used to be that only records or CDs that sold well were considered "successful" and stayed in print for new listeners to hear. But now, most any song ever recorded can be found somewhere, whether in legal downloads, illegal torrents, or on Youtube and Myspace. New listeners can easily discover a band or artist, and usually their only context for judging now is whether or not the music is any good. Media hype, press releases, and so on have far less influence than ever before.

An example of this is that many media outlets such as Rolling Stone Magazine like to pretend that the history of Black Sabbath begins and ends with Ozzy Osbourne. It is vaguely acknowledged that Ronnie James Dio played with the band for a bit, but any other albums are forgotten. But a kid just discovering heavy music can explore various torrents, and find a host of Black Sabbath albums to download, and decide for his or her own self what they like and dislike. Awesome (IMHO) Tony Martin-sung releases such as Headless Cross and Tyr are now on an equal footing with Paranoid and Dehumanizer.

This widespread access to music makes it possible for music fans to explore vast, interconnected discographies. There's various ones out there, as musicians switch between bands and projects, but my favorite one is what is sometimes referred to as "the extended Deep Purple family." Deep Purple were one of the founders of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The second lineup of the band included Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Ian Gillan on vocals, Jon Lord on keyboards, Roger Glover on bass, and Ian Paice on drums. The third lineup saw Glenn Hughes replace Glover, and David Coverdale replace Gillan.

Ronnie James Dio's band Elf toured with Deep Purple, and Dio performed on Glover's Butterfly Ball project while Glover helped produce Elf's albums. When Blackmore left Deep Purple, he took on Dio and Elf (minus the guitarist) as his backing band to form Rainbow. After the debut Rainbow album, Jimmy Bain joined the band on bass, and Cozy Powell took over drum duties.

From this start, it gets really crazy, and I won't go into it all at this time. But here's a taste of what occured in the following 30+ years. Ozzy Osbourne left Black Sabbath, and Dio took over the vocals. He then left and was succeeded by Ian Gillan. Ozzy formed his own band with Bob Daisley on bass (Bain's replacement in Rainbow), and Dio formed his own band with Bain on bass. Dio's band included Vinny Appice on drums, after Appice had met Dio in Black Sabbath.

Roger Glover had joined Blackmore in Rainbow after Daisley, and Joe Lynn Turner took over vocals in place of Graham Bonnet, who had succeeded Dio. Bonnet then formed Alcatraz with Swedish guitar wizard Yngwie Malmsteen. Yngwie then launched a solo carer, which saw him work at times with several former Rainbow members, including Turner and Powell. Meanwhile, Coverdale had formed Whitesnake, and was eventually joined by Lord and Paice, and then by Powell. Neil Murray was Whitesnake's bassist for a time.

By 1989, Powell had joined guitarist Tony Iommi to bring a new focus to Black Sabbath. Murray joined them an album later. Powell was eventually replaced, twice(!), by former Rainbow drummer Bobby Rondinelli. Dio kept plugging along on his solo career, with Rudy Sarzo settling in as bassist in recent years. Sarzo had earlier replaced Daisley as bassist in Ozzy's solo band, after even earlier having played with Ozzy's first solo guitarist, Randy Rhoads, in Quiet Riot. By the time Sarzo joined Dio, Craig Goldy (aka Goldie) was on his third stint as the band's guitarist. Sarzo and Goldy knew each other from the early 80's LA scene, when Sarzo was in the reformed Quiet Riot, and Goldy was in Rough Cutt. They had later formed a project together while Goldy was out of Dio's band the first time. Goldy's third stint in Dio's band was as the replacement for Doug Aldrich, who had left to join Coverdale in a reformed Whitesnake!

There's dozens of further connections I could point out, but I mentioned what I did to illustrate that, for fans of any one of these bands or performers, there are loads of releases to seek out. Someone who enjoys Turner's singing in Rainbow will probably equally enjoy his work with Yngwie Malmsteen, or on the one Deep Purple album he recorded. Whitesnake fans might well enjoy the Deep Purple albums with Coverdale on vocals. In that version of Deep Purple, Hughes also provided some vocals, and listeners who enjoy his sound can then check out the one Black Sabbath album on which he sang, and the two later albums he recorded with Iommi.

Not everyone will like everything, of course. I've stated a number of times in various forums that I can't stand Ozzy's voice. That doesn't stop me from admitting that he's produced a lot of wonderful music with Black Sabbath and his solo band. I need to explore his catalog more than I have. There's hundreds of hours of music out there for fans of any and all of these cross pollinating hard/heavy bands to enjoy. Go to sites such as Encyclopedia Metallum to find discographies and band rosters. Or check out books such Garry Sharpe-Young's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - The Battle for Black Sabbath, and Martin Popoff's studies of Black Sabbath, Rainbow, and Dio's solo career.

If the above was new to you, I hope it opened your eyes and ears to a different world. If you were already in on the story, I hope it made you aware of some additional possibilities. Happy investigating, and happy listening!

Black Sabbath = Heaven & Hell!

Old School Heavy Metal fans are eager in anticipation for the new "Black Sabbath" CD that comes out on April 28. Fans of Black Sabbath know that the Mob Rules lineup of the band, with Ronnie James Dio on vocals and Vinny Appice on drums, has been playing together for the past couple of years as "Heaven & Hell" (the title of the first Dio-fronted Sabbath album, which saw Appice take over the drums during its touring). The 2007 and 2008 tours went so well that the Heaven & Hell guys decided to record an album of new material, which they titled "The Devil You Know" since fans know it really is Black Sabbath (why not simply call themselves Black Sabbath? Well, the Ozzy-fronted lineup is in the R&R Hall of Fame, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler might play with Ozzy again someday, and Butler was never happy with various non-Ozzy lineups using the Black Sabbath name, so this works out all around, and fans don't expect to hear Ozzy-era songs in concert).

I've indicated numerous times on various Metal boards that I "worship at the altar of Dio" and that I greatly dislike Ozzy's voice. I respect the legacy of the early Black Sabbath albums, but my full interest begins with 1980's Heaven & Hell. I like almost all of the band's work that follows, whether with Dio, Ian Gillan, or the massively underrated Tony Martin. Only the last album, 1995's Forbidden, falls short.

I was quite excited to get 2007's Black Sabbath - The Dio Years because it had three new songs recorded in the autumn of 2006. The songs were written by Iommi and Dio, and Butler and Appice then joined them for the recording. I found the songs quite worthy, and it was a good sign that Black Sabbath fans couldn't decide on which was the best of them.

This is happening again with The Devil You Know. Most Black Sabbath fans have probably heard the album by now. This isn't from illegal dowloading, at least not necessarily so, because the full album has been streaming on various sites (one for the USA, another for Europe). Lots of reviews and opinions are appearing, and many listeners are slightly underwhelmed. Few state that the album is poor, but "mediocre" seems to be common. There is no consensus on which songs are good and which are lousy, and again this is a good thing. It means the music holds a wide appeal, "saying" different things to different listeners. And the lukewarm praise indicates that the album hasn't fully sunk in yet for most.

I'd be more concerned with widespread adulation. Since at least 1992's Dehumanizer album, anything by Black Sabbath (or solo projects by its members) has required numerous listens for the quality to truly emerge. I expect that in a few months, The Devil You Know will start to be regarded as a masterpiece, at least among Sabbath and Dio fans. As I listen to the stream for perhaps the fourth time, I hear bludgeoning power, fantastic guitar, and Dio's voice in fine form. There's doom, a bit of speed, and an overall sense of darkness, and the songs are slightly better than the new Dio Years tracks because they were written as more of a full band effort. As another commentator indicated, the 1970 Black Sabbath album Paranoid was perfect for its troubled time, and The Devil You Know is perfect for our current troubled time.

If you are interested in The Devil You Know, and somehow haven't heard a stream of it yet, check out USA or Europe. You'll find an album with song structures rather like those on Dehumanizer, with playing and singing often reminiscent of Mob Rules. I am delighted with it, and can hardly wait to own it on CD in roughly 48 hours. I expect it will ultimately please all fans of Dio-fronted Black Sabbath!

Another one bites the dust...RIP Steve Tompkins

I've been coping well with the loss of my beloved feline friend, but today I discovered another death of which I had been unaware. I learned that Steve Tompkins passed away on March 23 at age 48. He had a heart attack after being hospitalized for severe food poisoning that led to anemia.

Steve was THE world authority on heroic fantasy fiction, with an unmatched style of witty, informative writing in his many posts to various sites. I especially enjoyed his discourses found on The Cimmerian Blog, and his pieces can be accessed here http://www.thecimmerian.com/?author=3. No one else ever put Robert E. Howard and J.R.R. Tolkien into context with one another in such well thought out ways.

Everyone who knew Steve personally felt he was a great guy. I only knew him through his writings, and those were pretty great too. My condolences to his family and friends, his memory will stay alive as long as people continue to read and enjoy his writing. I'll drink a fine India Pale Ale in his honor, even as I'm sure he's now hoisting a few flagons in the company of Robert E. Howard in the afterlife. Cheers and goodbye!

Kitty Update

I'm gradually feeling better this week, as I keep in mind that Jaws lived longer than could reasonably have been expected, and had a charmed life in every way and at every stage. She was a wonderful cat when it came to dealing with humans, but she never accepted Ember, the other cat I brought into our little family on August 11, 1999. I've been curious these past couple of days to observe how Ember handles the changed dynamic in our home.

Ember, who is in the photo, was around 11 weeks old at the time I acquired her. A guy standing in front of the supermarket was holding her, looking for someone to adopt the kitten. I planned to get Jaws a companion, so she wouldn't be alone when I was away on trips, but I didn't expect to do so for a few more months. However, when I drove into the parking lot and spotted the man holding the kitten, I heard a voice in my head state, "that's your cat!" I tried to argue, but the voice persisted. I chatted with the man holding the kitten, but told him I wasn't ready yet for a second cat. As I began to shop, the feeling that I should take the kitten continued, so I decided that if I thought of a name for the female kitty before I was done shopping, I would indeed take her home with me.

I had lately started collecting the new line of Elfquest comics "Readers Collections," and I almost instantly realized that the character of Ember would be the perfect namesake for a kitten. Ember was a brash, brave tom-boy, who took no nonsense from anyone. That was it, the kitten would be Ember, and I brought her home with me!

As soon as we got home, I noticed that 11 week old Ember's tail was already a fair bit larger than 7 year old Jaws' was! Uh oh, I realized, this is going to be one large cat. And indeed, she grew to be huge, with a very long body, and a weight of over 20 pounds as an adult. She is the size of a Maine Coone, but has no other obvious signs of being that breed. I think she is a mongrel who just happened to inherit the genes to be very large. She also inherited incredible smarts. I came to realize that Ember is a genius among cats. She observes her surroundings, takes mental notes, and sometimes I can almost hear the gears cranking in her head. Like her namesake, Ember the cat is also very bold, and from the get-go, she refused to show Jaws any sign of respect. Jaws, therefore, never liked her, and up to a week before her death, still gave Ember the occasional hiss.

Ember has never been a good listener, unlike Jaws, who loved attention so much that I could speak to her for hours. But Monday night, Ember sat still and listened as I explained to her that she was now Senior Cat in the household, and would have priority rights to food (and my lap, and similar things) if and when I get another cat. Ember has never been a noisy purrer, but since Monday night she's been giving me the loudest purrs of her life. I think she is delighted to no longer have Jaws around, and to be receiving my full attention.

Ember was high strung, even for a cat, when she was younger, but she's mellowed a lot in middle age. I think she and Jaws were the proverbial oil and water, and that Ember would have gotten along better with most other cats. I expect the 10 year old Ember will get along fine with any kitten I bring home in the future. Ember never tried to take advantage of a sick and weak Jaws this past week, so I believe she'll be considerate of a small and fragile kitten when the time comes. In the meantime, I'm glad that Ember and I seem to be getting along better than ever, and I hope that won't change.

RIP my Beloved Kitty

Jaws died this morning at not quite 17 years of age. She was born on or about July 1, 1992 on a farm in Utah as the runt of her litter. The owners of the farm took her into their home, but soon realized they couldn't keep her. She was too friendly, and her attempts to cuddle disturbed their newborn child. Therefore they sought a good home for this affectionate kitten, and asked their old friend Mark the Shark if he wanted her. He was one of my roommates at the time, and knew that another roommate, Erik, and I planned on getting a kitten once Erik returned to Fort Collins from spending the summer in New York. Erik was due back in late August. Mark decided to surprise us with the cat.

One day in the middle of August, Mark the Shark drove up to Vail to meet his old friend for lunch. She drove over from Utah with the kitten, and Mark brought her home with him in a wine glass! She was that tiny! I worked the day shift delivering pizza that day, and in the evening I met up with Mark. He showed me the bottles of beer he had gotten for me at the Hubcap Brewpub, and then...surprise!

Here was this perfect little cat! She was tiny, but could eat solid food and use a litter box. She would zip up and down the stairs, and was always on the lookout for a lap upon which to nap. Everyone loved her, and thought she was the best cat ever. We held off naming her until Erik was back a week or so later, and then remained stumped. When we played with her, she would start to chew on our hands like a little Tasmanian Devil, or a shark from a cartoon, so our roommate Matt suggested we call her Jaws. The irony of naming such a sweet little thing "Jaws," along with its uniqueness, convinced us to go with that name.

I've had her ever since, until today. She seemed to get sick a few days ago, she stopped eating, drank a lot of water, and had difficulty relieving herself. At first I thought it was something like a cold that she'd get over, but she got weaker and weaker. Yesterday, I looked up veterinarians, and found one just a quarter mile or so from my home. I left a message for them, and this morning finalized an appointment for Jaws for 11am. Jaws and I then sat together for half an hour or so while I used my computer. I knew it couldn't be good that her usual loud purr was more like a murmur, but at least she was purring and happy. At 10:50 I carried her down to car, and drove to the vet office. I brought her in, filled out a form, and quickly was able to bring Jaws into an examination room.

I set her on the table, and the vet came in. He started examining her, and they took her temperature. He was worried about her breathing, which sounded very poor. The thermometer showed her temperature to be dangerously low, and just then, the vert told me he couldn't find her pulse. She still responded to his touch, for a moment, but then her eyes lost their recognition for the first time ever. she was staring into space, and I knew she had expired right then and there. She lived as long as she possibly could, and I'll eternally be relieved that I never had to make the call to euthanize her. I'm also grateful she didn't die alone, with me to find her later, but had my company up to the final milisecond.

A sign of affection from many cats is to wink at someone they love. Jaws had often winked at me over the years, and she did so again several times over the past few days. I'll always treasure that we parted on good terms. My other kittie, Ember, is almost 10. Ironically, one reason I got her is because I knew that Jaws, at age 7, wouldn't live forever. I hoped to soften the blow of her eventual demise, never imagining that she'd live for another decade. Jaws and Ember didn't get along, but Ember was very respectful towards Jaws these past few days, so they went out on good terms too. Jaws had a very long and happy life, and I'm devestated to lose my little buddy, but I can't be too sad about the overall situation. She had more than her share of years, love, shelter and food. She'll be cremated, and I'll eventually bring her ashes up to South Dakota to spread in the area where, years ago, I spread my parents' ashes in the Black Hills

I'll get Ember a new companion sooner or later. Ember came as a sort of surprise in her own way, so I'll sit back and wait, and see if fate surprises me a third time with a feline friend. Rest in peace, Jaws, you had such a good life that I doubt you've passed on to a better world. But I hope you are finding times just as good in Kittie Heaven. I love you, Baby Girl!

Thought for the day: If you are a cat fan, check out my Lol Cats (photos to which humorous captions are added) at http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/pictures-by-BigWade57/

The Dungeons and Dragons Dilema

Wow, what strange timing. A week ago I discussed older forms of Dungeons & Dragons, and mentioned the easy availability of legal pdf downloads of product for these games. As of Monday, April 6, 2009, Wizards of the Coast (owners of the D&D copyright) revoked the license of the various sites that sold these files. For the moment, no legal pdfs exist for any version of D&D prior to the new 4e (and not for that version either, if I understand correctly).

The internet gaming community has been discussing this at length, usually quite angrily. WotC hasn't issued much in the way of explanation, other than to state that they are trying to crack down piracy. Of course, this isn't done by denying access to paying customers, so speculation on the real reason has fallen into two camps. On the one hand, some feel that WotC are trying to shore up the position that they aggressively defend their copyright, as they commence with legal action against eight individuals believed to have illegally shared scans of the new 4e Players Handbook 2. Eventually, WotC will open their own online shop to sell pdfs. The other, more cynical view, is that WotC want to force those with an interest in D&D into playing 4e, and so have removed the availability of products through which the company competed with itself.

I'm hoping the rationale is the former, while I suspect it is really the latter. I don't know the actual state of affairs, and can't make even an educated guess. I do feel strongly that removing the availability of old school D&D pdfs will ultimately only lead to more people downloading pirated versions. This material isn't hard to find on file sharing and bit torrent sites. Just do a web search for the name of any older D&D product, and you'll see all sorts of illegal results. It really is that far out in the open, at least for the moment.

I know that those who seek long enough can find old Middle Earth Role Playing products, and those are items the designers WANT to be available to potential players! MERP was always far more obscure than D&D, so older D&D products are not going into hiding, despite what WotC may want. Perhaps this will all blow over soon, or possibly the outcry among gamers will be great enough to force some sort of change. I'll be watching curiously from the sidelines in the weeks ahead.

Mystara, Yourstara, OD&D

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the original Fantasy Roleplaying Game, is in the midst of releasing material for its 4th Edition (4E). You might have seen the books for it in various bookstores, with hardcovers and colorful artwork. And with $30+ pricetags per book.

I haven't played, or even really read much of 4E. I do know it is getting very mixed reviews online from gamers who have used it. Many people my age (I'll be 39 this year) are starting to have kids old enough to play D&D with, and they are daunted by the idea of spending $100 on new rule books, and then having to learn hundreds of pages of rules. They just want some quick, relatively cheaper fun.

For this reason, many old timers ("grognards" is the polite term) are rediscovering Original D&D (OD&D) and Classic D&D. OD&D is the game as it was first released in 1974, and in five supplemental booklets in the two years that followed. Classic D&D is the revision of OD&D into Holmes-edited Basic Set, the Moldvay-edited Basic Set (followed by the Cook/Marsh Expert Set), and the Mentzer-edited Basic Set (followed by 4 expansion sets also edited by Mentzer). Most of these products are available cheaply as legal pdf downloads from sites such as Paizo.com and can also be had in hardcopy format from auction sites such as ebay (where prices vary greatly depending on the condition and scarcity of a particular product). What these versions have in common is a much smaller body of rules, and the implicit acknowlegdement that those rules are merely guidelines, with the players free to adapt their own "house rules" as they see fit.

A related popular choice, both as a used book and as a download, is the Rules Cyclopedia (RC). It was an edited compendium of the rules Mentzer presented in his Basic, Expert, Companion, and Master D&D Sets, with a hint of his final Immortal Set. This gives a very playable and comprehensive game within the bounds of one book, and in the back, it has a chapter on what had evolved into the default campaign setting for the D&D, the world of Mystara.

Mystara began years earlier as a small sample campaign area presented in the Cook/Marsh version of the Expert Set. David Cook and Tom Moldvay mixed together a variety of cultures in a relatively small area, and gave just a few paragraphs of description to give players a head start in customizing the area portrayed. Frank Mentzer then expanded that world a bit, and it was further expanded through the course of several adventure modules.

Finally, Bruce Heard oversaw the release of a line of "Gazetteers" that examined in detail each of the lands of the "small area" mentioned above. A backstory was created, which explained how this situation, of unrelated cultures being shoehorned in next each other, came about. The Gazetteers were full of the trade and diplomacy of the lands they covered, and this encouraged the players to spend years of game time in visiting new lands and exploring the wilderness in between. This was a much more cerebral way of playing than the usual "hack and slash" mode of dungeon crawling, and these Gazetteers have since been hailed as some of the best gaming materials ever made.

Most of the Gazetteers are now available as pdfs. Also available in that format is the inside of Mystara. Following pulp fiction tradition, the Hollow World Setting explains in detail the various cultures found within the planet. These are mostly unknown to surface dwellers, and add yet more areas for players to explore and find adventure. An additional boxed set, still not legally available as a pdf, concerned a "war of the gods" on Mystara. This Wrath of the Immortals set had rules for playing immortal characters, somewhat revised from Mentzer's Immortal Set, and a massive, world-shaking campaign, which changed the map of Mystara by its conclusion. An on-going storyline of the war's aftermath was covered in a series of supplements (most available as pdfs), but eventually, Mystara was discontinued as an active D&D "world."

When Wizards of the Coast became the owners of D&D around the year 1999, they announced that fans were now free to publish not-for-profit online Mystara material however they saw fit. A site for Mystara fans was already running at pandius.com, and it 2009 it remains the center of an active fan community. Between the published materials and fan additions, one can lose themselves for countless hours in Mystara, either by reading the descriptions of the lands simply for fun, or by actively gaming through them.

I've never played D&D in the lands of Mystara, I've only dreamed my way through them via the many available materials. However, I do hope at some point to Dungeon Master some players in that world, using a version of Classic D&D modified by my own house rules. All of the online resources give me a sense of relief and pleasure in knowing i'm not alone in my interest. Happy reading and gaming to all Mystara explorers!

The Return of the Black Company

The first six of Glen Cook's Black Company novels are available in two omnibus editions, released in November of 2007 and June of 2008. Three of the remaining four books are out of print, and command exorbitant prices from online auctions and sellers. Water Sleeps is the exception, it is still in print for the moment, but I doubt Tor is printing any more copies anytime soon.

People who read the first two collections have been chomping at the bit to get the next one, and today I noticed on Amazon that there is a listing for The Return of the Black Company, due to released on September 15, 2009. At 672 pages and $15.99, this is almost certainly the omnibus of Bleak Seasons and She is the Darkness, the two books that continue the story of the Black Company after Dreams of Steel.

I freely admit that I consider Bleak Seasons the weakest of all the Black Company novels, but I still enjoyed it. Many other reviewers are not so kind. They seem to dislike Murgen, who serves as the narrator of it, and of She is the Darkness. I thought he was a great way of showing that the prior narrators were not always completely candid in telling us their story. But he does lack Croaker's very particular voice, and this upsets some readers. It will be interesting, come September, to read the reviews of those encountering these stories for the first time. And then, the wait will be on for the final omnibus, for those not lucky enough to own copies of Water Sleeps and Soldiers Live, the final Black Company novels to date (though Cook is working on another one).

Thoughts of the Day: Hilbert remained as CSU Volleyball Coach, and I've lately been spending a lot of time in Mystara. More on that latter point soon!

More Glen Cook, More Dread Empire!

Over on http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/ Pat has posted a new Q&A email session he had with Glen Cook. By the end, Cook reveals that he has completed and turned in the manuscript for the third Instrumentalities of the Night book (as has been reported elsewhere, though no publication date has yet been announced). At present, he has four manuscripts underway. A Garrett one is no surprise, he always has a Garrett one chugging along in the background, and this one is under contract. Next is the fourth Instrumentalities book, something he had, a few years ago, hinted might come about. He also suggested a few years ago that he had titles in mind for two more Black Company books, and one of these is in progress. Finally, he at last confirms that there indeed will be another Dread Empire novel, as he is working now on A Path to Coldness of Heart! That phrase is actually the final words to the last Dread Empire novel, An Ill Fate Marshalling, so it seems that Cook is recreating the stolen manuscript that continues the storyline of the Dread Empire sequels!

I was so happy about this last news, when I read it at work, that I actually danced in a circle clapping my hands for a minute or so! I'm glad no one was around to watch, even if the moment was caught by the security cameras in place ;-)

The dam has been broken, and hopefully more concrete news of these various projects is made available soon!

Thought of the day: The Fort Collins Coloradoan is reporting that Colorado State Volleyball Head Coach Tom Hilbert has put himself in the running for the vacant volleyball Head Coaching position at CU Boulder. Weird. I wonder if this is serious, or just a fun testing of waters?

When is a Western not a Western?

What is a "Western" novel? Definitions vary widely, yet the average person would likely tell you that they define a Western as being a story about cowboys. It could revolve around a gun fight, or a range war for herds and grazing land, and the hero would probably be looking for "justice" in way or another.

Cowboy stories have never really appealed to me. I was always more interested in the Indians, and in the frontiersmen who lived similarly to the Indians. There's actually a long tradition in English language literature of writing about Indians and frontiersmen, going back to the Leatherstocking Tales of James Fenimore Cooper. As I wrote in this space a few weeks ago, Joseph Altsheler was creating such tales a century ago, and finding an enormous audience. Later, A.B. Guthrie wrote six novels that portrayed east-central Montana from the 1820s through World War 2, with two of them, The Big Sky and Fair Land, Fair Land, dealing with mountain men and Indians (and a third, the Pulitzer Prize winning The Way West, being about one of those mountain men becoming a wagon train guide). At roughly the same time, Frederick Manfred penned his Buckskin Man series, which followed "Siouxland" (parts of Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas) from the 18th Century into the late 1800s. Even the notorious L. Ron Hubbard's first novel, Buckskin Brigades, was about the Canadian fur trade at the time of Louis & Clark's expedition.

There's other examples with which I'm less familiar. The point remains that plenty of fiction set on some American frontier has been published over the past 150+ years. This genre, often referred to as a "Western" even when it was set east of the Mississippi River, reached a new height of popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. By then, it was often referred to simply as "historical fiction," which put it alongside novels about any and every epoch. These "frontier novels" were often found in bookstores mixed in with general fiction, as Bernard Cornwell and Jack Whyte's near-fantasies are today. Jameson Books published a line of Mountain Man novels, Bantam created the "Domain" sub-label, and Tor created the Forge sister-label (which handled all non-science fiction/fantasy, but focused on historical fiction). Terry C. Johnston's mountain man and Indian wars books reached best-seller status, and similar works by Earl Murray, Win(fred) Blevins, Richard S. Wheeler, Norman Zollinger, Don Coldsmith, and Jory Sherman weren't far behind.

These authors found their audience among people who enjoyed the study of history, and who were sympathetic towards Native American causes. Some of the dwindling fanbase for traditional cowboy yarns probably also read these frontier novels, but most of the frontier novel readership were, like I was, relatively uninterested in stories of cowpokes and gunfighters. By 2000, I was overjoyed to have so many interesting options available. But then Zollinger, Johnston, and Murray passed away. I had gotten to know Terry Johnston and Earl Murray, and these friends of mine were only 54 and 52 when they died far too young, with too many stories left untold. Sherman switched to writing ranching stories, and Coldsmith's output slowed as he eased into old age.

This has left just Blevins and Wheeler to carry the torch for this sort of fiction. They continue to release new works on a regular basis, but no newer or younger writer has reached the heights of success of those no longer writing (with Mike Blakely as a possible exception). So frontier novels are in a state of decline in 2009, at least in mass market editions. I haven't looked into the University Presses, but Wheeler (a prolific blogger) has noted that various western American ones are publishing more and more frontier fiction by younger, little known writers. This seems to be the future for the genre, along with print-on-demand outfits which let authors get their works sold via Amazon and similar sites (Wheeler has been a leader in getting his out of print back catalog available again via POD).

The good news for those with an interest in reading frontier novels is that used bookstores have vast stocks of such books available. All of the authors I've mentioned, except Altsheler, should be easy to find in most used bookstores (and Altsheler can be had for free online via Project Gutenberg). Some have separate sections for "historical fiction" and "westerns" and it can be a toin coss that determines in which section a given author is placed, so it is worth looking through both, if a store is set up that way. While browsing, you are likely to find many interesting authors beyond those mentioned above, and countless hours of reading await the novice to the field. In the meantime, this piece has gone on long enough, so I'll post separately about one of my favorite series of frontier novels, one that is still successfully ongoing. Happy reading until then.

Thought of the Day: I've now finished A Fortress in Shadow, which seems a bit rushed in places, but was otherwise quite good. I'm glad Glen Cook now writes longer, more fleshed out stories in a similar fashion, such as his Instrumentalities of the Night series. I'm still hoping for news of the missing last Dread Empire manuscript being recovered or recreated for release in the Wrath of Kings omnibus!

The Strange Case of the Planet Gor

John Norman is the pen name of Psychology Professor John F. Lange. “Norman” is notorious as the author of the 27-book long Gor science fiction series (26 volumes published so far), as well as other less well known titles. His books depict situations in which strong men have adventures, while women are subservient to them, and in many cases are actual slaves. This has offended the sensibilities of some readers. Perusing comments about the Gor books in particular, on various forums, however, is to get the impression is that many people are offended by the notion of Gor, without having read any of the books.

 Norman’s career as a science fiction writer started innocently enough. In 1966 and 1967, Ballantine published Tarnsman of Gor, Outlaw of Gor, and Priest Kings of Gor. These were an homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose writings were finding a new audience after being reprinted a few years earlier. In particular, the first three Gor books mirror the first three of Burroughs’ Mars books. An Earthman is transported to another planet, where he becomes a mighty warrior and wins the love of a princess. He is then cast back to Earth, and spends the second and third books trying to regain his station, confronting the rulers of the planet in the third. Norman wrote in an era of “free love” and greater tolerance for sexuality in entertainment, so he spiced up his books with slave girls and hints of dominance and submission play.

 The first Gor books were very popular, so Norman continued the series. His hero, Tarl Cabot, engaged in two further adventures, Nomads of Gor and Assassin of Gor, with a new lady by his side. The real change in the series began with Book 6, Raiders of Gor. Norman now started to give psychological issues a greater role in the stories. Cabot finally failed on one of his missions, and when captured, chose to become a slave instead of accepting an honorable execution. Until that time, he had considered himself a man of honor, but after regaining his freedom, he turned to a career as a merchant and slaver.

 Book 7, Captive of Gor, was the first to not be related by Cabot. The earlier volumes had been told by his character, in the first person. This time, a young woman kidnapped from Earth by slavers wrote her first person account of arriving on Gor, and gradually learning to accept her place as a slave girl who pleasures men. In the course of her story, she meets up with Cabot’s lost princess from the first book, and eventually comes to be owned briefly by Cabot. He instigates her writing of her experiences, and upon reading her manuscript, is motivated to go on a quest for the princess, who is being held captive in a far away wilderness.

 Ballantine had had enough by this point. They wanted adventure stories, even ones with a little spice, but not accounts supposedly written by enchained women who learned to enjoy their lot in life. Book 8, Hunters of Gor, related Cabot’s journey to the Northern Forest, his enslavement of his former partner from Books 4 and 5 along the way, and his ultimate failure to regain his princess. She is herself enslaved, and by a cruel twist of fate, becomes the property of Cabot’s best friend, after one of his ships happened to purchase her at a trading location. Cabot is left half paralyzed, after a sword fight, in which he feels he “recollected” his honor for a moment, but was cut by a poisoned blade.

 Ballantine rejected the manuscript for 1974’s Hunters of Gor, and Donald Wollheim’s new DAW Books science fiction house became Norman’s publisher. Ballantine kept the first seven books in print into the 1980s, and sold millions of copies. DAW had similar success, publishing the series through 1988’s Magicians of Gor (Book 25). A 1986 DAW catalog states that through 1985 the company had sold over 5 million of Norman’s books, which included two non-Gor titles. Along the way, three more Gor novels had been told by Earth women turned Gorean slaves, and three others were told by Jason Marshall, an Earth man who was brought to Gor while trying to rescue his girlfriend from Gorean slavers. Along the way, Cabot had adventured among cultures transplanted from Earth, including Vikings, Arabs, Inuit, Black Africans, and Native Americans. Five of the last six books had seen him caught up in a version of the Second Punic War, and the storyline wasn’t finished with Magicians of Gor.

 Donald Wollheim was an old man by 1988, and his daughter Elizabeth took over running DAW Books. She had already considered the Gor series offensive some years earlier, as artist Ken Kelly relates in his book Escape. He discusses the issue briefly while giving some background to his cover painting for 1981’s Guardsman of Gor. The series was very popular, but DAW now refused to publish any more Gor novels, and it took another 15 years before Book 26, Witness of Gor, was finally released. Norman had to essentially start his own publishing house to do this, and at this writing, Book 27, Prize of Gor, has yet to come out, despite the manuscript existing for many years.

 As I stated, the series was popular, selling millions of copies. The perception was, and still is, that the books were read by horny adolescent males, who found the slave girls titillating. I was one of those adolescent males myself, back in the day, but most such readers were lost along the way, as the amount of action and adventure decreased, and the discussion of the merits of female slavery became more and more prevalent. I know from my point of view at the time, that reading a book narrated by a slave girl didn’t interest me.

 The open secret was that reading about slave girls, especially from their own point of view, held great appeal to many women! Norman came to accept that, as the series wore on, he was writing a version of Romance novels. These were stories in which a strong, roguish man makes a frigid woman finally feel some sexual heat. There was such a market for this action-oriented science fiction version of the Romance novel that Sharon Green has made a successful career out of writing very similar books with an obvious Norman influence (and also published by DAW, until they dropped her too). It amuses me to think that Elizabeth Wollheim thought she was ridding the world of books that offended women, when she actually was depriving many of her fellow women of what they wanted to read!

 I’m also amused by the politically correct comments made mainly by men on various blogs and sci-fi review sites. They assert that they have no interest in these “macho-BS fantasies,” without having a clue that men were and are a minority among Norman’s readers (and even more so among Green’s). If you doubt me about Norman’s audience, do a quick websearch for the sites of where people role-play being Goreans. Look up some reviews on Amazon. Modern print on demand and ebook publishing have finally, in the past two years, made it cost-effective for the first 26 Gor books to be easily available, without a publishing company having to worry about getting politically correct hate mail or calls for boycotts (Green, meanwhile, sells her books mostly in electronic format, via her own website). Norman is still alive, and in his late 70s is having the last laugh! 

I'm editing this to note that I'm pleased to discover a mistake in my post! Prize of Gor was in fact released in late November of 2008, so not quite two months ago! You can read about it on the publisher's website, from which I've linked this particular post by the company's Editor: http://www.ereads.com/2007/10/are-john-normans-gors-boy-books.html