Rikmenspoel's Ramblings

Glen Cook Speaks!

2011-11-19T19:20:00.000-08:00

There's a video interview with Glen posted on youtube. He was at some french convention recently as a guest of honor, and was interviewed in French. Fortunately for the non-Francophones, including myself, Glen was able to provide his answers in English.

The interview lasts for almost an hour. During that time, Glen expands on many of the things he's mentioned in his online interviews. There's added depth, such as learning that the publishers who bought A Shadow of All Night Falling, but failed to release it, were Lancer (went out of business) and Dell (a warehouse fire led them to cancel all books not projected to be best-sellers). However, the real cause for excitement is that Glen mentioned that the two Black Company stories published in the past year, Tides Elba and Smelling Darkness, are really the first two chapters in the long-promised new Black Company novel A Pitiless Rain! The full book is in-progress, and takes place during the five years between The Black Company and Shadows Linger. The equally long-promised Port of Shadows will be a coda to the series, if it ever gets written and published.

Glen didn't say anything about Working the Gods' Mischief. I'm still in the dark about that one, as the recent mass market paperback of Surrender to the Will of the Night makes no mention of it! It isn't listed on the various sites which show publishers' expected list of books to come out in the next six months, so I now wonder if, not when, it will come out. I hope that Tor is simply trying not to compete with Nightshade's release of the three concluding Dread Empire novels.

I picked up the re-issue of Reap the East Wind a few weeks ago. I'm annoyed that its dimensions are smaller than those of the other Nightshade Dread Empire editions. Now they'll look awkward next to each other on the shelf. Yes, I really am that petty. That said, the book turned out nicely, with no noticeable typos to suggest the text was OCR-scanned out of the original. I read the new edition, and if anything, the book was better than I remembered. Many hints were dropped that I missed upon my first reading, all those years ago.

I'll reread An Ill Fate Marshalling when its re-issue becomes available in a couple of weeks. Publishers Weekly did something of a hatchet job on the book, which you can read here. I suppose the reviewer is more accustomed to reading about chick detectives kicking butt, or dating vampires, or some other sort of "hip and modern" story.

The real excitement remains the January 2012 publication of A Path to Coldness of Heart. Follow to link and you'll see that Amazon has made sections of the book available to preview. I'm already intrigued to learn that Kristen and Daal are finding Sherilee quite annoying! I wonder how that will play out. (I always had a fondness for the Sherilee character because at the time I first read An Ill Fate Marshalling, there was a girl in my dorm who fit Cook's description of her perfectly)

Finally, the image to this post is an album cover from Russian folk metal band Arkona. I like them, though they aren't my favorites. The same can be said for Korpiklaani. The two bands play NYC the day after Thanksgiving, and I'll probably be on hand at the Gramercy Theater to catch them. Even if neither is at the top of my list, I still want to seize what may be my only opportunity to see them. It should be a lot of fun. Rock on and read on, everyone!

Winter's Coming!

2011-08-11T08:54:00.000-07:00

The title of this post is meant both figuratively and literally. We're heading towards autumn as I type this, and winter will follow. I don't like winter, even if I know I'd miss it, were I to move to a tropical climate. But this time, I have a reason to look forward to winter's arrival. Nightshade have finally announced the new Dread Empire book, A Path to Coldness of Heart, scheduled for January!

If you click on the link and read the blurb, it states that the conclusion to the Dread Empire series has arrived. It doesn't explicitly say that A Path to Coldness of Heart is the final book. I wonder there will be one more, to tie it all up, much like the "conclusion" to The Wheel of Time is actually three books. Regardless, more kudos to Raymond Swanland for another eye-catching cover.

Note that Amazon list An Ill Fate Marshalling for January 10. Nightshade books tend to appear several weeks ahead of their listed publication date. So I expect Reap the East Wind by mid-September, and An Ill Fate Marshalling by mid-December. A Path to Coldness of Heart then might follow by the end of January. All of this, of course, is just my best guess. At any rate, the wait for new Dread Empire material is almost over...

Ill-Fated Update!

2011-07-25T15:02:00.001-07:00

Good flipping god, Raymond Swanland has topped himself with this one! It's the cover to the reprint of An Ill Fate Marshalling, showing Bragi Ragnarson in all his snarling fury! Nightshade finally added this to their website, along with the full cover to Reap the East Wind.

What will Swanland come up with for the finale? We're getting closer...

Ill-Fated Announcement!

2011-07-15T21:04:00.000-07:00

I know I've told some of this before. I'm a big fan of Ken Kelly's paintings, whether for KISS, for Rainbow Rising, or for various fantasy novels. I've followed him since around 1983, when I already owned Destroyer and Love Gun on LP, and started collecting books with his covers by Robert Adams, Robert E. Howard, John Norman, and others. I was aware of Kelly's work when, during 1987, I saw he had done the cover for Glen Cook's Reap the East Wind. It was announced as being "the new Dread Empire novel!"

I wasn't aware of any previous Dread Empire novels. A few months later, An Ill Fate Marshalling was released, with the Ken Kelly cover attached to this post, again as a new Dread Empire novel. Kelly's covers drew me in, and looking through the books made them seem fascinating. I bought them, and they were my introduction to Glen Cook's writing. I started hunting for the earlier Dread Empire novels in used bookstores, and finally found them, after around six months. I recognized October's Baby as one I had seen in stores some years earlier.

Reap the East Wind was great, if short. An Ill Fate Marshalling was better, and quickly became one of my favorite books. I've waited and waited for the story to continue, and gave up hope for a while. Then, Nightshade began their omnibus Dread Empire reprinting, and it was successful enough for Glen to decide to recreate the lost manuscript that continued the story.

I mentioned last time that Nightshade have changed their plan of releasing an omnibus with Reap the East Wind and An Ill Fate Marshalling along with the newly-rewritten Wrath of Kings (my spell-check keeps telling me that "marshalling" is an error, but my paperback dictionary states that "marshaling" and "marshalling" are both acceptable). My guess is that the last book became too large for this. Originally, the sequel to An Ill Fate Marshalling wasn't going to be the final volume in the sequence, but rather the penultimate one. Now, I believe Cook is writing a massive tome with two books' worth of plot. At least I hope he is!

There's reason to believe that the wait for this final Dread Empire book won't be too long. Reap the East Wind is out in the new edition in October, and now, the reprint of An Ill Fate Marshalling has been announced for December. No cover has been shown yet, and I haven't seen this anywhere but on Nightshade's site. But it suggests that the new book might be available in February or March of 2012. I'll of course pass along further details as I learn of them. Meanwhile, I need to order Ken Kelly's just-released 2012 calendar, to get my fix of heroic fantasy images!

Catching Up

2011-06-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

I visited College Park, Maryland, for the first time, back in February. I fulfilled a dream of longstanding by spending three days at the National Archives (NARA) there, scanning Waffen-SS photos from the captured records department. I scanned nearly 700 photos, most of them concerning non-German foreign volunteers.

My French friend Charles Trang has visited NARA many times. He shared some scans with me last autumn, and these gave me the impetus to start work on a new book! I have many photos in my personal collection that deal with the Wiking, Nordland, and Nederland Waffen-SS divisions. Charles helped me understand that I could find many more at NARA, and so I decided to take a trip there. First, I contacted my friends at Helion, a UK history publishing house. They published my 2004 co-authored work on Walloon collaboration, For Rex & For Belgium. I asked them if they'd like to publish a new, large format photo book by me, about the Germanic Waffen-SS, and they quickly said, "yes!" I signed a contact during January, and a few weeks later was on my way to Maryland.

We have a working title for the project, Sunwheels & Siegrunen: Wiking, Nordland, Nederland and the Germanic Waffen-SS in Photos. Much of my free time this year has gone into researching the topic and organizing the photos. I hope to use roughly 900 in the finished product, but we'll see how that goes. I have begun writing the captions, making them as detailed as possible, but there's a long way left to go. I hope the book can be released by the end of 2012, but it's too early to make any accurate prediction about that.

When I need a break from the serious topic of war studies, I have been reading Conan comics, as mentioned in my previous post. Dark Horse collection #8, Black Colossus, has been added to my collection, and #7, Cimmeria, will probably be next.

But I've also been keeping tabs on Glen Cook's writings. As I've mentioned over the years, I love his Dread Empire novels. I've been waiting quite a while for any news of the final omnibus, which is to include the newly-rewritten Wrath of Kings concluding book. Finally, there's something to report. It seems the three books that would make up the omnibus are being released separately. The first, the long-out-of-print Reap the East Wind, is scheduled for release on October 4 of this year. It is supposed to be graced with another Raymond Swanland masterpiece for the cover, the image that accompanies this post.

I like Reap the East Wind, but I like the sequel, An Ill Fate Marshalling, even more. I hope it is re-released soon after, with the new final volume following closely. I'll pass along details as I find them.

I've heard rumors that Cook has signed a contract to write the 14th Garrett novel. I don't know yet if that is true, but Garrett is getting repackaged. Just a few weeks from now, on August 2, Introducing Garrett, P.I. hits store shelves. It's the first Garrett omnibus, containing Sweet Silver Blues, Bitter Gold Hearts, and Cold Copper Tears. The second omnibus, Garrett Takes the Case, is due on February 7 of next year. It presumably contains Old Tin Sorrows, Dread Brass Shadows, and the very-hard-to-find Red Iron Nights.

I haven't found a scheduled release date yet for Working the Gods' Mischief, but the mass market paperback of Surrender to the Will of the Night comes out on November 1. It doesn't seem like there's any plan for a trade paperback edition, which is odd, since that is now the primary way of acquiring the first two Instrumentalities books, The Tyranny of the Night and Lord of the Silent Kingdom.

It looks like 2012 will be a momentous publishing year for Glen Cook and for me!

Shadows and Shadows

2011-05-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

Look at that cover, fine stuff, isn't it? Cary Nord no longer pencils Dark Horse's Conan comics, but he contributes the odd piece now and then.

I'd been meaning for a while to read more of the modern Conan comics. As I've indicated before, I have a LOT of varied interests. I sometimes let some of them lie dormant for a while, so I'll find something to start (or re-start) reading and collecting at a later date.

I bought the first Dark Horse Conan collection when it was new, and also own the first Savage Sword of Conan collection. I'm a big fan of both the Cary Nord Darkhorse Conan, and the John Buscema/Alfredo Alcala black and white Marvel version of the character. However, other things caught my attention, and only recently did the itch come over me to acquire more Dark Horse releases. I knew this time would come, sooner or later, and the wait is over.

In the meantime, I read some criticisms of the artwork by Tomas Giorello, who took over for Nord along the way. I'd see the collections in the bookstores, and, honestly, the art looked decent enough. Timothy Truman took over as writer, and I've been a fan of his since I acquired Straight Up to See the Sky, many years ago. I also remember Truman as an artist for D&D products back around 1987. Since I'm familiar with the plot to Robert E. Howard's original stories, I decided I should get a book in which Truman and Giorello were able to use a lot of their own ideas. Thus, I bought a copy of The Hand of Nergal, which is expanded from a REH synopsis.

It was a fun adventure, with plenty of bloodshed and grimness. The art is quite good, and I think complainers are only upset that it is different from Nord's work. Giorello is actually a better artist than Nord, in basic terms, but Nord has him beat in making an impact with his work. Both are fine choices for this sort of tale.

I was left with the urge for more Dark Horse Conan, and on the second purchase, I couldn't pass up Iron Shadows in the Moon, with its dynamic cover art. It isn't one of my favorite REH stories, but I was interested in comparing the Truman/Giorello take on it with the version by Roy Thomas and Buscema/Alcala. Both are equally good, overall, but Dark Horse has the advantage of not having Conan wear his notorious "fur diaper!"

I'll probably do a major purchase soon, of all the Dark Horse collections that I'm missing (I now have 1, 6, & 10, out of 10). These books are a worthy tribute to REH and his creations, done with respect and care. They are well-worth buying and reading.

Moonsorrow have long provided a great soundtrack for reading Conan and other REH material. I finally caught up with their latest,Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa, now that a legal American download has become available. The title translates as "As Shadows We Walk in the Land of the Dead," and the album is as cheery as that suggests. Their last full album, 2007's V: Hävitetty ("Chapter 5, Ravaged"), told of the end of the world, as described in Norse and Nordic legends. VKKM is a loose sequel, in that it tells the tale of the fate of a handful of survivors of the cataclysm.

My favorite Moonsorrow song remains Haaska ("Carrion") from 2005's Verisakeet ("The Blood Verses"). That album was the first time the band achieved a really tough production tone that reflected how they sound live. In particular, Baron Tarvonen's drumming was captured at its full potential. This new album essentially takes the template from Haaska, and expands it into four full songs (along with three short interludes that advance the story). This is a leaner, more muscular Moonsorrow than what was heard on Voimasta ja Kunniasta ("Of Strength and Honor") and Kivenkantaja ("Stonebearer"). The drums pummel, the guitars are aggressive, and the keyboards play only a minor role. If you're looking for the "happy" sounds of Voimasta and Suden Uni (A Wolf's Dream"), you'll be disappointed, but if, like me, you enjoy the Tama Ikuinen Talvi ("This Eternal Winter") demo, well, there's echoes of it here, twelve years down the road.

If you're new to Moonsorrow, listen to Huuto ("The Scream") to get a feel for their sound. It's the most accessible song on Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa, and also the most varied. There's some "tribal" drumming, some folk strumming, and plenty of heaviness around those moments. But all four full songs very good, and up to Moonsorrow's high standards.

Back to Conan, in the days since I first started composing this post I bought another Dark Horse collection, volume 9, Free Companions. I think Truman did a great job bridging the events of of Black Colossus (a REH story covered in volume 8) and Iron Shadows in the Moon. Truman himself did a good part of the art in this book, and Joe Kubert handled a bit too. I used to read Kubert's work extensively 25 years ago and more, in DC war comics such as Sgt. Rock. It was fun to see his first Conan work, but his scenes look out of place next to the other material. Truman does a decent job, but, ultimately, his sections and Kubert's pale next to Giorello's half of the book. The pencil samples in the back of the book really make clear how excellent Giorello is. It's good to know that Truman and Giorello are still working together, for adaptations of some of REH's stories of King Conan. The Scarlet Citadel is in-progress now, as a comic book mini-series. I'll definitely be getting the eventual trade paperback collection, whenever it is released. By that time, I'll hopefully own the other Conan volumes that I'm currently missing.

Minor Clen Cook News

2011-04-24T22:51:00.000-07:00

I'm preparing a post on what I've been up to over the past few months. I'm working on a new book of my own, but meanwhile, Glen Cook continues to have his work repackaged and republished.

I was lucky to get a used copy of A Matter of Time thrown in on a purchase from an online auction site. The book was hard to find a couple of years ago, but Nightshade added it to their roster of reprinted Glen Cook titles. I haven't read it yet, but will probably get to it in the next year or so.

Penguin/Roc probably found it difficult keeping Cook's many Garrett books in print. They never did get around to reprinting Red Iron Nights and Deadly Quicksilver Lies (volumes 6 & 7), and have let Cold Copper Tears, Old Tin Sorrows and Dread Brass Shadows slip back out of print (volumes 3-5). Cook's other major series have been collected in omnibus editions, so it is no surprise that Introducing Garrett, P.I. will be out this summer. I'm not fond of that cover, but I like the idea that, in theory, the entire series will be in print again in a year or two. Now, Glen just needs to write two more Garrett books, so that there can be five omnibus volumes!

Finally, a second new Black Company story will be out soon in the anthology Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 2. The book sports another "meh" cover, but hopefully the tale is a good one. I enjoyed Tides Elba, the story in last year's Swords & Dark Magic. I never did finish that book, fwiw, but I may eventually return to it.

The latest, and perhaps final, of Del Rey's Robert E. Howard collections came out since my last post. Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures is essentially an expanded, illustrated version of Lord of Samarcand, one my favorite REH collections. Both bring together the tales he wrote for Oriental Stories/The Magic Carper Magazine. They feature Crusaders and Sultans, Mongol hordes and Cossacks, all caught up in some of the grimmest, saddest stories written by a man who excelled at capturing the dark and tragic in his work.

There's moments of humor too, as REH wrote in many styles, and this new volume adds Spears of Clontarf, the "non-fantasy" version of Howard's telling of the 1014 Battle of Clontarf. That Irish battle had its 997th anniversary a few days ago, and while history books don't record that Odin was physically present, REH could imagine him there, when he re-wrote the story as The Grey God Passes. I prefer that version, but it makes sense that a story-collection that is supposed to be rooted in historical works would use the earlier piece. Anyone reading this who enjoys the dark vibe that Glen Cook injects into his Black Company and Dread Empire books will likely enjoy Sword Woman, even if they aren't Conan fans. If the book is your introduction to Howard, and you like what you've read, The Grey God Passes can be found amid many other REH tales in The Best of Robert E. Howard volume 1.

Back to Glen Cook, I hope to learn of a publication date for NEW full books by him soon. Working the God's Mischeif (Instrumentalties 4) and Wrath of Kings (the final Dread Empire omnibus) can't be too far from being announced, can they? I certainly hope not....

Time Out of Mind

2011-01-01T12:57:00.000-08:00

My first meal of the new year was consumed at one of those mock-bakery restaurants, which feature overpriced sandwiches and baked goods. Still, it was a good sandwich, and the place makes wonderful monster cookies. They use real monster, not the artificial kind so common these days. And the place offers iced tea by the tub, which, no joke, is one of the best ways to attract my business.

The winter holiday season usually makes me reflective, and when I'm in that mindset, my musical taste changes. Man does not live by Metal alone. At least, this one doesn't, even if Metal dominates my listening. But I've been listening to Steely Dan for as long as I've been into harder rocking music. I played a LOT of Steely Dan in the car, when I was in high school. My mom found their material odd, but it must have made some sort of impression on her, as she was eager to attend one of their reunion concerts with me, back around 1993. She had a good time, and it was one of our last bonding experiences before she died a year or so later.

All these years later, the Steely Dan album I listen to the most, the one that really resonates with me, is Gaucho. This is probably the most-maligned of their original seven releases. It is generally considered the worst of the lot, but it works for me better than any of the rest. The band's career can be viewed as a gradual shift from being New Yorkers to becoming out-of-place Californians. I've seen Gaucho, released at the end of 1980, labeled as a concept album on life in the SoCal of that era. In a loose sense, that's certainly true, even if the songs are only related in theme, not storyline.

Mike Powell does an amazing job of echoing my thoughts about the songs in this piece, published a few years ago. I only wish he had commented on my favorite one, Third World Man. I'm amazed at how Walter Becker and Donald Fagen took a stellar Larry Carlton guitar solo, left over from the sessions for a previous album, and constructed a song around it. It fits together seamlessly, with the listener unaware that Carlton had no other involvement in the song or album.

The music is tired and laid back, but the tales it tells are sadder and tawdrier than ever before in Steely Dan's oeuvre. It appeals to the same part of me that loves John Crawford's compositions for Berlin. I won't defend Berlin as great music, but I admire how he wrote songs about sex and lust, rather than about imaginary romantic love. Yet, just as with Becker and Fagen, a bit of real feeling emerges from time to time, and is all the more poignant because of the artists' track record for emotional honesty.

So here's a shout out to Gaucho: Happy 30th Birthday! I'm glad you are finding appreciation, and that Steely Dan continue to play some of your songs on their current tours.

On a different note, regarding the reflection I mentioned above, it was a year ago today that I limped into Bedford, Pennsylvania, on my journey to the East Coast. As related in an earlier post, I became violently sick in the early hours of January 1, 2010. I was exhausted as I drove away from Columbus, Ohio, that morning. I should have completed my drive to New Jersey that day, with just a visit to Patti Bonn in Bedford. But getting to her home, at the halfway point of that day's scheduled route, was all I could manage. Patti is one of my publishers, so we're old friends and business partners, and she had already offered me her spare bedroom for a night. I took her up on the offer, and felt much better on January 2, when I finally made it my friend's house in western New Jersey (and picked up Ember from the kennel that was housing her).

2010 was a very lucrative year for me, and moving was well worth the effort and expense. Now I'm ready to take on even more challenges and changes in 2011. I'm expecting the best, and I hope everyone reading this finds it too! Happy New Year!

Furious Tides and Heavy Metal

2010-11-20T13:49:00.000-08:00

I'm at a big chain bookstore in Union Square, Manhattan, typing this just a few hours before seeing Blind Guardian tonight at the Nokia/Best Buy Theater in Times Square. I took the shuttle over to NYC from New Jersey a few hours ago, and after lunch at Yoshinoya, walked a few blocks to the theater. I'd never been there, and wanted to learn where it was, precisely (I vaguely knew more or less where to look for it). I also hoped that, just maybe, I'd bump into some of the Blind Guardian guys. SevSon1 and I were lucky enough to meet Hansi, Marcus and Fredrik before the Denver show four years ago.

I found the Nokia without difficulty, and across the street from it was the fourth member of Blind Guardian, Andre, using his video camera to film the animated marquee above the theater, which at certain moments was announcing Blind Guardian's show. He was very friendly and gracious when I approached him. We chatted a bit, and he signed my At the Edge of Time and Imaginations From the Other Side booklets (I made sure to bring several booklets and a sharpie with me, for just such an event). I decided not to bother him further by asking for a photo, since he was preoccupied in trying to get the video he sought, and I was distracting him.

Strangely enough, I'm not listening to Blind Guardian as I type this. I'll listen to them later, soon before the show, to psych myself up (make that, further psych myself up!). But yesterday I picked up the new Dio-related releases. These are the Dio band double-CD set of their Monsters of Rock shows at Donington in 1983 and 1987, and the Heaven & Hell concert from the 2009 Wacken Open Air Festival. The latter is available as separate CD and DVD, and I have the ripped-CD playing through my MP3 player. Finally, a modern show that captures Dio sounding as good as he could late in life! He was sick for the Holy Diver Live (2005) and Radio City Music Hall (2007) concerts, but was in magnificent voice when I saw Heaven & Hell later in 2007 and again in 2009. This Wacken concert is just like those, with Dio sounding great and the band far tighter and in-synch with each other than they were for the RCMH DVD.

Surrender to the Will of the Night is out. Officially, the release date is Tuesday, three days from now. However, someone on the Glen Cook email list already picked up a copy at Borders, which often puts books on the shelves early. I have had no luck in a finding a copy in my wanderings yesterday and today, just as I failed to find an early copy of Gilded Latten Bones.

Speaking, or writing, of Gilded Latten Bones, I defied a nasty case of food poisoning to get to the store and buy a copy on the day of release. I then read the book gradually, over the next two weeks. Why rush it? I savored it, since for all I know it could be the last-ever Garrett book. I expect that it isn't, and I certainly hope for more, but I try not to take things for granted. I have some thoughts on the book, but they are full of spoilers, so I'm going to leave some space below, for anyone who wants to avoid them.

Ok, still with me? Gilded Latten Bones is a fine addition to the Garrett saga, but is a really lousy place for newbies to jump in. Not that much actually happens, the mystery is really just a background catalyst and motivator. The book is really about advancing the interactions between the numerous characters in the Garrett universe. They have aged and changed over the 23-year course of the series, and Cook was wise to not have them acting static, as if time was not passing. I'm a big fan of ratgirl Pular Singe, and she is shown to be becoming an adult, and a very responsible one for what it's worth. I've never much cared for Tinnie Tate, but even she is beginning to realize how difficult a person she is. Garrett gets swept away by a Furious Tide of Light, literally and figuratively.

That was the biggest surprise, for me. The in-progress title for the book was Gilden Latten Lovers, and I thought the "Lovers" portion referred to Garrett and Tinnie. Instead, Garrett basically gives up on Miss Tate, and instead starts an affair with Windwalker Furious Tide of Light. She had a small role in the preceding Cruel Zinc Melodies, in which she did nothing to hide her attraction to Garrett. I found her the most memorable part of that book, but it was completely unexpected that she would return in this new book to shake up Garrett's life. Even Tinnie's relatives like her, so perhaps Garrett has found a keeper! We'll see in the next book, if there is one. For now, fans of the series will probably greatly enjoy Gilded Latten Bones, but the merely-curious should go back to the start and read their way up to this one. It's a great ride, and well worth the trip!

German Metal (no, not Panzers)

2010-10-24T18:26:00.000-07:00

I was vacationing back in Colorado this past week, catching up with old friends and reliving some of my old routines. I took in two Colorado State Volleyball matches, and was pleased to see the Rams stomp all over the University of Denver and then Wyoming (never mind that I'm a graduate of DU's Publishing Institute, my BA's from CSU!). I did a lot of reading, finishing John Mosier's The Myth of the Great War, and getting most of the way through Steven Erikson's House of Chains (I just have the final convergence left, it should make those final 150 pages fly by).

I stayed at SevSon1's place, and took the opportunity to listen to a few of his new CDs. I've been lax in acquiring new music, partly because the last efforts by some of my favorite bands were lackluster. I'm still not too fond of Kamelot's Ghost Opera, and so I wasn't too surprised that the new Poetry for the Poisoned did nothing for me. I will admit, however, that the lead song, The Great Pandemonium (video link), is pretty good.

I was more intrigued by Blind Guardian's new At the Edge of Time (video link for A Voice in the Dark). It's gotten mostly rave reviews so far, and SevSon1 was in agreement with those. The predecessor, A Twist in the Myth, was a bit too rock-ish for me, lacking the grandiosity that is Blind Guardian's reason for existence. I understand that they wanted to simplify everything (arrangements, concepts, number of overdubs, etc.) after the over-the-top-and-far-beyond nature of A Night at the Opera. They probably also believed they were going back, a bit, to their roots. But there's a reason the Guardians no longer make conventional Power Metal of the Helloween and Gamma Ray sort. Their particular skill is to make the intricate sound epic and overpowering.

I was pleased to listen to At the Edge of Time (video channel), because it could almost be A Night at the Opera, part 2. The first ANatO took me a good 5 years to fully appreciate, but now I adore it. "Spinal tap go to 11? Let's go to 12!!!" was the philosophy, and that spirit is back. Of course it is cheesy, that's half the fun. No other band can make such complex arrangements actually sound catchy and ass-kicking. If you have no interest in songs about The Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice & Fire, then Blind Guardian might not be for you. Blind Guardian also write about Michael Moorcock's Multiverse again, with a piece about Tanelorn. I didn't notice anything based on Tolkien this time, but I still hope they'll eventually continue their coverage of The Silmarillion, begun in the awesome Nightfall in Middle Earth.

Even if I wasn't crazy about A Twist in the Myth, I still jumped at the chance to see Blind Guardian, when they played Denver on that album's tour in 2006. SevSon1 and I drove up to the venue early, and were fortunate to bump into three of the Guardians returning from dinner. They were gracious enough to chat with us for a few minutes, and sign some CD booklets. Perhaps I'll get to meet them again in a few weeks. They are playing New York City on November 20, and I have my ticket purchased. By then, I'll have my own copy of At the Edge of Time, and will be fully familiar with the songs. We all need some cheese in our diets, Happy Headbanging!

The War You Don't Know

2010-10-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

World War 2 didn't occur as you probably think it did. Oh, the over all outline of the war is known, but popular accounts, until recently, rarely reflected the course of events that led to the known results.

This is particularly true of the events of the Eastern Front, so the so-called Russo-German War (which in fact involved numerous other nationalities on both sides). During the first 25 so years after the end of the war, it was normal to ascribe the Soviet victory to their masses of manpower and enormous number of tanks. This was followed by increased admiration for the Red Army, which was considered to have high quality armaments (especially armored vehicles), and a superior strategic vision. If it never mastered tactics, it still achieved victory through its own means, destroying the fighting capacity of the Wehrmacht. The Soviet Union thus deserved the bulk of the credit for the defeat of Nazi Germany.

I believed this latter view of the conflict, even if I had some nagging doubts. I own numerous rare unit histories and personal accounts from the war. I had trouble reconciling some details with the generally understood course of the war. The turning point, which finally allowed me to start making sense of things, came when Military History Journal, published an article by Eastern Front expert David Glantz. It was a preview of his 1999 book Zhukov's Greatest Defeat, about the fighting near Rhzev in late 1942.

I knew something awful had transpired near Rhzev at that time, because every history of the Grossdeutschland Division makes it clear that this fighting was the worst it faced during the war. Yet most campaign histories of the Eastern Front indicated that the fronts of German Army Groups Center and North were quiet at this time. Glantz had learned, from German unit histories and Soviet archived documents, that a massive Soviet offensive had been utterly defeated there at the same time the Red Army was finding success to the south at Stalingrad. However, the more northerly offensive was erased from Soviet official records because of its failure. Glantz soon realized that other Soviet failures had been similarly covered up, such as the late 1943 fighting around Vitebsk (the first attempt to destroy Army Group Center) and the May 1944 offensive in Bessarabia (subject of Glantz's Red Storm Over the Balkans). Even at the end of the war, the best the Red Army could do along the Oder was to frontally assault Berlin via the Seelow Heights, suffering appalling casualties in the process.

How can this be reconciled with the very real success that the Soviets had in driving the Axis forces back into German and Austria? John Mosier has explained it better than anyone before in his recent book Deathride. He has a repuation for turning history on its head, but this was my first exposure to his work. I came away enthralled by the most mentally-stimulating book I've read in several years.

Mosier demonstrates that fiction was the order of the day in the Soviet Union during Stalin's rule. Stalin was told what he wanted to hear, whether about agricultural harvest yields, or the output of tank factories. Soviet official histories consistently overestimated the casualties inflicted on the Germans, while minimizing Red Army losses and inventing tank production numbers. The Red Army in fact ran out of armored vehicles on many occasions, which explains why they made such extensive use of allegedly-inferior British and American models. They often ran out of men, too, and could not have continued the war without conscripting women, men considered too young/old/unfit for service by other armies, and men from lands that were liberated or occupied during the advance to Germany. Only the most elite units were kept up to strength with fit Russian men of prime military age, the rest had to take whatever they could get or find.

What doomed the Germans, Mosier argues, is that they had to divert substantial resources to the Mediterranean theater, to Western Europe, and to the airspace over Germany. This removed manpower and armored divisions from the Eastern Front, but more importantly, it robbed the armies in the east of most of their air support. Meanwhile, American lend-lease supplied the Red Army with hundreds of thousands of trucks and similar vehicles. Previously, up to mid-1943, the Germans could make orderly retreats, exacting heavy losses from the Red Army. Thereafter, the Soviets could advance faster than the Germans could retreat, so that German defensive efforts became less and less effective, even as they continued to inflict far higher casualties than they suffered. German resources were stretched too thin, which saved the Red Army from the defeat it would have suffered if the Germans could have devoted their full effort to the Eastern Front.

It all makes sense to me. Mosier backs up his ideas with detailed end notes (including a minor reference to one of my own books). I'm familiar with many of his sources, and believe he interpreted them correctly. At the same time, I can understand how this unorthodox view of history will bother some historians. It makes some books on the same topic seem irrelevant. At the same time, the topic is too vast for comprehensive coverage in one book of 300 pages. So Deathride is essentially a guide for how to approach studying the Eastern Front, from now on.

I have since acquired Mosiers earlier The Myth of the Great War and The Blitzkrieg Myth. I've read the latter, and found it to have good ideas, but with execution less successful than in Deathride, which I think benefits from having stronger source material. I assume Mosier acquired much of this material in his research for Deathride's predecessor, Cross of Iron (a study of the Wehrmacht, which I haven't read, but intend to purchase).

This is a golden age in the study of World War 2. Numerous detailed, extremely informative books are easily and cheaply available to anyone who wants to learn about the era. Deathride is a fine addition to this body of literature.

Listen Up, Glen Cook Fans!

2010-10-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

As the publication dates for Gilded Latten Bones and Surrender to the Will of the Night get closer and closer, I noticed something more on Amazon. Audible.com, owned by Amazon, has the entire Black Company series available as audio books for download! The series is split into its original ten volumes, and each sells for $24.95 on Audible, or $18.71 on Amazon. The individual books each take roughly ten to twenty hours to narrate, so that should keep listeners entertained through plenty of commutes and road trips. I haven't listened to any of them yet, but I'm sure I will before long.

The image this time is from another Glen Cook reprint, Nightshade's upcoming omnibus of the Darkwar series. It has all three volumes, Doomstalker, Warlock, and Ceremony. Doomstalker was actually the first Glen Cook book that I can recall seeing in a store, when it was new roughly 25 years ago. I own all three, but have yet to read them. I think a shiny new package can sometimes make a book more enjoyable than reading the same tale via a beat-up old massmarket paperback. Of course, the opposite can also be true, but I still plan to get the Darkwar omnibus to sit on my shelf next to my other Cook collections. It is scheduled for release in December.

Finally, Tor have made available an excerpt from Surrender to the Will of the Night. It's from the first chapter, and no, it doesn't make any sense to me either. Since Lord of the Silent Kingdom resolved most ongoing issues in the series, it makes sense to have new ones introduced. I presume this mysterious excerpt is connected to some new plot development. We'll know more in a matter of weeks, meanwhile, anyone who has listened to the Black Company audiobooks, please feel free to comment.

Finnish Thunder!

2010-09-02T09:33:00.000-07:00

The mighty Moonsorrow have entered the studio to record their next masterpiece! You can follow along with the progress on their blog here. The album is scheduled for release in February of 2011, and I can hardly wait. As it is, Moonsorrow's existing catalog makes great background music for reading Glen Cook and Steven Erikson. You can hear sound samples here and via many other Youtube clips. I hope another North American tour will follow this new album's arrival, bring it on!

Another "Cookbook"

2010-08-23T23:33:00.000-07:00

Amazon now has the cover up for Gilded Latten Bones, the next of Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. series. It's due in stores on November 2, but the previous volume, Cruel Zinc Melodies, was on some shelves a week or more ahead of schedule Will history repeat itself?

Get Ready to Surrender in November

2010-08-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

Amazon now shows the cover design for Surrender to the Will of the Night, the third volume of Glen Cook's The Instrumentalities of the Night series. It uses the same Raymond Swanland image that I displayed a few weeks ago, and I think it is attractive, even if it doesn't really suggest the grittiness of Cook's work in the same manner as Swanland's other covers.

As part of the preparation for Surrender's November release, Tor have reissued the first two Instrumentalities books, The Tyranny of the Night and Lord of the Silent Kingdom, as trade paperbacks. The latter was released this past week, and I was able to examine a copy today. It is a handsome book, and I will eventually get a copy of it and its predecessor to replace my mass market paperbacks. However, this leaves me in a quandary. I'm anal retentive enough to want my books to be in uniform editions, and that would mean waiting for an eventual trade paperback for Surrender to the Will of the Night. But, of course, I want to read the books as soon as possible. I might end up buying the hardcover upon release, and then also buying a copy of the trade or mass market paperback. Sometimes I envy those of you who aren't bothered by such issues, but that envy is more than offset by the collector's feeling of satisfaction I get from looking at my uniform editions of various book series on my shelves ;-)

I hope that Cook will do an interview or three soon, to promote the releases of Surrender and of Gilded Latten Bones. If so, perhaps he'll pass along more information about the forthcoming Dread Empire Wrath of Kings omnibus. Nightshade Books hasn't issued any sort of update, and I'm itching to learn a publication date, even one far off. I recognize the possibility that the book will never come to pass, and I try not to take anything for granted. But I do hope and believe the book will eventually appear.

In distantly-related news, the Malazan re-read continues on Tor.com. It looks to be one of the most popular features on the site, with this week's installment receiving over 100 comments (including #2, by yours truly). Bill and Amanda, the hosts, are roughly 2/3 of the way through Gardens of the Moon, and the discussion is bringing up numerous insights that I missed during my reading of the book. Every Wednesday, I eagerly check the site for the posting of the latest entry. I'd love to see some Glen Cook book receive similar treatment, perhaps the Black Company series, omnibus by omnibus, chapter by chapter. Maybe I should suggest it to Tor!

Turning 29, again!

2010-07-27T21:35:00.000-07:00

Is 40 the new 25? I turned 40 yesterday, and feel great. Mentally, I've finally reached my mid-to-late 20s. Maturity is catching up to me, no matter how hard I try to fight it off. I can understand why my dad was 40 when I, his only child, was born. I'll be even older, of course, when and if I ever become a parent.

I marked the occasion by taking the day off from work. I met up with Jazzy Joe in Queens for a couple of libations, and then did some shopping in Manhattan. I found the book I sought, Knight's Cross Panzers. This is the English translation of Hans Schäufler's history of Panzer Regiment 35, from the 4. Panzer Division, the most highly decorated German division in World War 2. The German edition, So lebten und so starben sie ("How we lived and died," or something close to that), was released in 1973, and I'm surprised it took until 2010 for a translation to appear. The book is full of personal accounts from veterans, both officers and enlisted men. The unit saw more than its share of combat on the Eastern Front, and the accounts seem extremely interesting at first glance. I think Knight's Cross Panzers will be similar to the veterans' histories of Tiger Tank Battalions 503 and 507, which give a human face to campaigns that are not well-known to English language readers.

For anyone interested in the 4. Panzer Division, there's plenty of additional material in existence. Joachim Neumann, a former artillery battalion commander in the division (and a holder of both the Knight's Cross and the German Cross in Gold), assembled a two-volume sort of divisional war diary, which is expensive and hard to find, but follows the unit day-to-day from the invasion of the USSR until the end of the war. This is probably too detailed for most readers, even if the German is easy to follow, even for untrained amateurs such as myself.

More useful for many, and now also hard to find, is a five-volume set by Polish Militaria, which includes an English text summary and photo captions. The archive of the 4. Panzer Division's official photographer ended up in Polish hands after the war, and around 550 of the most interesting photographs were published a decade ago via this set. Soon after, Concord in the USA put out a two-volume distillation of the Polish set, with 200 or so photos in total. This Concord duo, in particular, would make a good companion-piece for readers of Knight's Cross Panzers.

I'm sure it's obvious by now that my attention is constantly being pulled in many directions. On the way to meet Jazzy Joe, riding the NYC Subway, I read most of Red Pearls. This is Michael Moorcock's entry in Swords & Dark Magic, and his latest Elric story. I have a strange relationship with Moorcock, as I love his invention and creativity, but often dislike his writing. The Elric stories, especially the classic early ones from almost 50 years ago(!), are the only work of his I've ever truly enjoyed. Red Pearls is a fine addition to the canon, as it just goes about its business, without trying to mix in outside elements from Moorcock's Multiverse.

Still on the topic of Fantasy, I DMed again this past Saturday, and had what I consider a successful game. I wasn't perfect, but I managed to run several rather large fights without losing track of anyone, or anything. The players had fun in a very challenging adventure (ADAP 1-5: Menace of the Icy Spire), one that I much preferred to the module I was given for my first session. I believe I have been correct in my assessment that the most important thing for a beginning DM, in 4E, is solid preparation. I knew the material and had maps ready, and this made it all progress as smoothly as possible. (I trust all aspects of my DMing will improve with practice!)

Finally, for the Glen Cook fans, Amazon now has the blurb posted for Gilded Latten Bones, the forthcoming 13th volume of the Garrett, P.I. series. It reads as follows:

For Garrett, P.I., loyalty and love come a close second to survival... Garrett's attempt at domestic bliss with the fiery Tinnie Tate is sidetracked when he waylays a pair of home intruders and learns they've been paid by an unknown source to kidnap Tinnie. But as Garrett rushes to find out who is trying to push his buttons, his best friend is attacked. Now, Garrett has to track down both malefactors. Unless they're really one and the same-in which case Garrett might be next...

I hope that between its variety of topics, this post had a little something for everyone.!

To Mega-Therion

2010-07-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

A guy came into my place of employment a few weeks ago, wearing a Sirius B tee shirt. I told him that I am a big fan of Therion. He replied that it was the first time anyone had recognized the shirt and commented upon it, in the two years he had owned it! I guess that shows the band's lack of an audience in the USA.

I don't understand that, as the group is one of the pioneers of operatic, symphonic Heavy Metal music. Actually, Therion is really more of a project, as it consists of founder Christofer Johnsson and a changing, sometimes rotating, cast of supporting players. The brothers Kristian and Johann Niemann held down the lead guitar and bass positions, respectively, from 1999 to 2008. They were joined by drummer Petter Karlsson in 2004, though he also left in 2008. The lineup with those three was probably the best Therion has ever had, so it saddens me that the 2007 double album Gothic Kabbalah was the one studio project to include them all.

Mats Leven and Snowy Shaw assisted as vocalists in this era, with all five contributing to the songwriting. It gave Gothic Kabbalah (and the concert CD/DVD Live Gothic) a dynamic lacking in the band's previous work. The album confounded many listeners upon its release, as the songs were more accessible, and less bombastic, than the rest of Therion's catalog. Were they selling out? Hardly, instead they were bringing the concept to its fullest realization. That's now clear, listing to the material with an experienced ear, three years after its release. The older songs, even many of the great ones, sound plodding and underwhelming by comparison. I would very much like to have heard what this crew could come up with on a second go-round.

Leven left, and Shaw has done so too, though Snowy did contribute vocals and songwriting to the forthcoming Sitra Ahra CD. But Therion is for all practical purposes a new band, and this is perhaps the fifth time in its history that this has occurred. It emerged triumphant from all previous changes, so I need to have some faith, based on Johnsson's track record. But the shoes to be filled were never before so large. I have a nagging fear that Sitra Ahra will somehow be a disappointment. I hope I'm wrong! Eight years ago, I had low hopes for an album by Nightwish, a band heavily influenced by Therion, but Century Child turned out to be my favorite of theirs, so, as Chris Tonozzi likes to say, anything's possible.

Here's a sort of game to play, listen to these two samples, and decide if there's any similarity. The first is Helheim from Therion's Secret of the Runes album. The other is a Waffen-SS March from the World War 2 era. For all I know, both were influenced by some earlier source, but it is also possible that this was a sort of in-joke by Johnsson. If the latter is the case, it would likely be because Secret of the Runes was intended to emulate Wagnerian operas, and Richard Wagner was a favorite of many leading Nazis. As well, Heinrich Himmler and the SS leadership dabbled in concepts based on Nordic Mythology, the subject of the CD. Regardless, please note that I'm not accusing Johnson of any negative associations, but the similarity is there to be heard!

I'm writing this before bed on a Friday night. The plan is for me to DM an adventure known as Menace of the Icy Spire, on Saturday afternoon. I like this one a whole lot, so I'll give it my best and hope the players enjoy it too.

That's MR. DM to you!

2010-07-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

I finally did my turn at DM-ing a 4E D&D game on July 10. I jumped through all the hoops necessary to make it happen, and if I was falling asleep by the end of it, after a very long day, it was worth the effort. I think the players had fun. They recognized that I was dealing with an unusual sort of module, and unusual composition from them.

The adventure apparently presumes that most characters will be human, since it involves being hired by a Dragonborn (a sort of Lizardman, somewhat like Dragonlance Draconians) to shepherd him and an Elven girl to a wilderness location. The twist came from three of the four player characters being Dragonborn themselves. So I ad-libbed much of the initial portions of the adventure, to reflect that Dragonborn players would handle the events differently than what the creators of the module intended. The encounters in the adventure involve insect and worm monsters, rather than two-legged beings of the human or recognizably-similar sort. The actual fighting went rather easily for the players, because they happened to have a perfect set of powers for dealing with their opposition. All in all, I would have chosen a different module for my debut, but it was the one I was given, and the improv moments were certainly fun.

Today, a week later, I ventured back out to the good old Montclair Book Center to see if they had any interesting new acquisitions. I found one book that I had my eye out for, the recent anthology Swords & Dark Magic. I couldn't pass up a like-new copy for only $8. This is the Sword & Sorcery collection filled with new stories by leading names in the field, including Glen Cook, Steven Erikson, Michael Moorcock, and Joe Abercrombie. I've only read the Cook, so far, but look forward to all of them.

Cook's tale is Tides Elba, which tells of a minor adventure of the Black Company during the years between The Black Company and Shadows Linger. I think many fans will enjoy this look at the simpler time, when Croaker was merely the surgeon and annalist, and not the leadership figure he became later on. I happen to prefer the latter-day character (based on the ability to watch his career-arc and see him grow into his role), but I suspect I'm in the minority here. Even if this story isn't of vital importance to the overall storyline, it was good to revisit the characters. It almost feels like another of the lengthy chapters in The Black Company, only set after the climax at Charm. Will there be more such slices of the unit's history forthcoming? I believe the planned future books, A Pitiles Rain and Port of Shadows, are to be continuations from where Soldiers Live left off, and not fill-ins for the existing timeline. It could be a good thing to eventually have a Black Company short story omnibus, similar to the Soldier of an Empire Unacquainted With Defeat collection for the Dread Empire.

Swords & Dark Magic has received excellent reviews so far, so don't let the meh cover art scare you off, if you like any of the authors involved. I'll post additional comments as I read more of the stories.

NYC and Cool, Cool Kitties

2010-07-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

This is the first post I've typed up on my laptop computer. I just got this new toy, an HP and my first ever laptop model, around 10 days ago. I've used my friends' Macs before, that turned out to be good practice for getting accustomed to a different sort of keypad and using my a touch pad in place of a mouse. The most important aspect of this acquisition is that I'll no longer be at the mercy of my desktop computer. That one is over 5 years old, and showing strain from the years of heavy use. It sometimes has trouble contacting the server I access, which left me with difficulty in emailing some people in a timely manner on an important matter.

This new laptop will also aid me in my D&D efforts. I promised a DM-ing update, but my debut was postponed until July 10. Even that ran into a roadblock, but as of this writing, I believe I have sidestepped that. I've been familiarizing myself with an adventure titled Faint Hope, and the gaming should commence roughly 23 hours from now.

There's a trend developing for Ian C. Esslemont books to receive nautical-themed covers. The illustration above is an in-progress design for his forthcoming Stonewielder. It's by Steve Stone, and is even better, IMHO, than his previous fine efforts for Esslemont's Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard. Stone has been Steven Erikson's primary UK cover artist, but only his painting for Deadhouse Gates was used on the American edition. The rest, starting with Memories of Ice, had art by Todd Lockwood. I seem to be in a distinct minority in really liking Lockwood's work. His efforts have been widely derided around the web, and Tor has apparently finally bowed to fan pressure. Already, Tor's Dust of Dreams used a modified form of the book's UK artwork. Now, I see that Midnight Tides and The Bonehunters have been retro-fitted with Stone paintings. I assume this will please many readers. The Stonewielder cover has quickly received acclaim at MalazanEmpire.

BTW, Malazan fans, or the merely curious, should check out the read/reread that just began at Tor.com. It had an abortive start a few months ago, but now seems to be ready for a fun year or more of discussion and commentary. I've already posted a comment in one of the threads, and plan to add many more as it progresses.

Finally, here's an off-topic bit of advice. It's been extremely hot in the NYC area lately, especially in my apartment. I don't have air conditioning, and the heat overwhelmed my usually-reliable fans. My kitty, Ember (you can see her pic if you scroll back on this site to over a year ago) was suffering from the heat. I found her on her side, panting, which meant her little body was overheating. I did a websearch on how to keep cats cool in hot weather. The best suggestion I found was to place a wet towel in the freezer for a while, before allowing the feline to lie on it. This was extremely successful in getting Ember back to normal. Even when the frozen parts thawed, just being atop the dampness kept her in good shape. Cats sometimes have an aversion to wet things, but Ember spent the better part of 48 hours on that towel! So don't hesitate to give this a try, if you think it will benefit your furry friends.

D&D, D&D-er, D&D-est

2010-06-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

I bought a battle mat this weekend. I’ve never owned one before, because I never needed one until now. My experience with Dungeons & Dragons goes back to 1981 or a1982. I had heard mention of the game at school, but was able to examine it for the first time one summery day when my neighbor John came home with the Moldvay Basic Set. This was the famous “red book” with the Erol Otus cover, presented in a box with module B2, The Keep on the Borderlands.

Even at the tender age of 11 or 12, I immediately understood the implications of the game. I didn’t have to actually play it to have fun. Its mechanisms were a tool for organizing my daydreams and stories. How powerful was that heroic warrior? He was a 5th level fighter, and far tougher than that other character, who was merely at the 3rd level. I was fascinated (and still am) by the many worlds created to support (A)D&D and other games. I’ve written before of my love for Mystara, in particular, but many other realms caught at least a bit of my fancy.

I think my friends and I were typical, in that our games were hybrid ones, with rules plucked from here and there. We soon also collected the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books and modules, since they were more comprehensive and there were more of them. But I liked the simplicity of “basic” or “BECMI” D&D. I especially enjoyed Frank Menzner’s Basic and Expert Sets for the way they explained how to play the game, since AD&D essentially had to be taught to novices by experienced players.

I remember playing AD&D into my early 20s. We had a game going my sophomore year of college, and tried getting one going after my senior year, circa 1992. I then drifted away from it. I made new friends, and they weren’t gamers. I was busy dealing with life, with things such as settling my mother’s estate and learning my place in the world. I had no interest in 2nd Edition AD&D, since the layout and artwork seemed unappealing, and the mechanics struck me as clunky. I was aware of Wizards of the Coast taking over the brand and introducing 3E and 3.5, but I never so much as examined a product from those lines (FWIW, I did consider the Open Gaming License a fine idea, and collected the occasional neat product from other companies).

The itch to game again came over me after, say, 2005. I started looking into finding a game, and in Denver, I found a gamer to play against. He wasn’t into D&D, but was a fan of Squad Leader (and ASL) and Axis & Allies. We played those frequently, and in lighter moods, also Zombies!!! and its sequels.

I arrived in New Jersey at the beginning of January this year, as I wrote about below. My first weeks involved using my free time to settle-in. However, by early February I started looking at Meetup to find some sort of gaming that fit my schedule. The best option was the Fourth Edition (4E) D&D gaming that was held on many Saturdays in midtown Manhattan. All I knew about 4E was what I had read online: Grognards didn’t like that it had a heavy focus on gizmos and tricks that could be used in combat. Actual roleplaying was not emphasized, in favor of making D&D seem more like a video game. Most of the activity involved portraying fights through the use of miniature figures on a battle mat. Still, I knew very few people in my new home area, so this was a chance to have some fun and make new friends. I’ve now been attending quite regularly for over four months.

I’ve learned that 4E is indeed based on trying to create the biggest badass of a character that the rules allow. It’s not my first choice for how to game, but it is fun none-the-less. The best aspect, to me, is the way the current generation of designers have invested enormous amounts of imagination into creating character races and classes. No longer do the types out of The Lord of the Rings rule the day. Now there’s psionic collections of animate minerals (the Shard Mind), battle droids (the Warforged) and other interesting races that were never part of the game until recently.

My first 4E character was a Longtooth Shifter Melee Ranger, that I named Growler. Shifters are beastmen, the descendents of were-creatures. Longtooths (Longteeth?) have werewolf ancestry, and they go berserk when wounded badly enough. Rangers these days are either twin-weapon proficient (one in each hand), or archers. My guy isn’t heavily armored, but still enjoys rushing into combat to hack up whatever enemy he can reach. I like him a lot. I’ve recently created a second character, an Eladrin Swordmage known as Korgath (Eladrin are like more mystical Elves, while Swordmages are swordsmen who enhance their attacks with magical tricks, without being true spellcasters).

The website for the New York City D&D Meetup group is here. The games are scheduled at RPG Connect. The latter site tracks karma points, and it is necessary to serve as DM sometimes to keep one’s karma up. Mine is failing badly, as I haven’t felt familiar enough with the new rules to give DMing them a try. However, my time is near, and so in the past few days I bought a battle mat of my own on which to draw maps for encounters, some wet-erase markers, and additional dice. I’m especially pleased with a set I found that has red numbers set into a charcoal-drawing-like grey and white plastic. I also stopped by a local chain bookstore and got myself the 4E Starter Set, a sort of new-era Basic rules. I already owned a used 4E Player’s Handbook, so I now should have all the reference works I need to run a game, and I still have loads of miniatures from 20 or more years ago. I will probably DM my first 4E session on July 3. I’ll post here on how that goes!

If the above leaves you thinking, hey, that could be me, then don’t hesitate to try out a 4E game, wherever you can find one. D&D is still fun, even if it is different. And if the above left you confused, yet intrigued, the 4E Starter Set is a worthy investment of only $17. Roleplaying gaming, under most circumstances, is a healthy way for friends and families to interact and use their imagination, and doesn’t have to be expensive. D&D and its competitors have given me countless hours of fun, over the course of almost 30 years, so I’m very pleased that it has found a way to capture my interest anew. I think I’ll create a Shard Mind character soon…

Inevitable Glen Cook side note: At the chain bookstore I also bought the paperback of An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat. This is the Dread Empire short story collection, which was released in hardcover in 2009. The trade paperback wasn’t due until July 13, but Nightshade has released in ahead of schedule. Good for them. I waited for the paperback because I own the predecessors in that format, and I’m retentive enough to want my set to match. I’ll be really torn on what to do when The Wrath of Kings is finally released, as I may not be able to stand waiting for the paperback ;-)

Glen Cook Update Time!

2010-06-12T21:07:00.000-07:00

I again have bits and pieces of Glen Cook news that I haven't seen reported elsewhere. We begin with the picture attached to this post, by the great Raymond Swanland. He's been Cook's primary cover illustrator for the past five years, providing awesome pieces for the Instrumentalities of the Night series, and for the Black Company and Dread Empire reprints. The work seen here I found on his site, under the title "Surrender to the Will of the Night," and so it is presumably the cover art for the third Instrumentalities volume, which is due on November 23. Amazon now has the jacket blurb for that book available, it reads as follows:

Piper Hecht’s first and greatest secret is that he knows how to kill gods. What’s not a secret is that he knows how to win wars

Piper Hecht’s secrets make him dangerous, but his skill and his reputation put him in danger—from his enemies, who fear what he might do, or who want revenge for what he has already done; and from his friends, who want to use his military gifts for their own purposes. His sister Heris and his living ancestor Cloven Februaren, the Ninth Unknown, have made Hecht part of their fight against the return of the dark god Kharoulke the Windwalker. At the same time, the half-mad Empress Katrin wants him to lead the armies of the Grail Empire eastward on a crusade against his old coreligionists the Praman.

Meanwhile, all around them, the world is changing. The winters are growing longer and harder every year, and the seas are getting shallower. The far north and the high mountain ranges are going under the ice, and fast. The Wells of Power, everywhere, keep getting weaker. And the old evils, the Instrumentalities from the Time Before Time, have begun to ooze back into the world. As ever, the genius of Glen Cook’s storytelling lies in his common touch: in soldiers who are like real soldiers, in men and women who love and laugh and sweat, with real hopes and real fears, united only in their determination to face the oncoming night.

Meanwhile, speaking (or writing) of the Dread Empire, I saw at a chain bookstore today the recent Third Printing of the paperback of A Cruel Wind, the first Dread Empire omnibus. It was good to see that book reach a third printing, but more exciting was that Nightshade Books had edited the listing of Cook's works, found in the front. Previously, the forthcoming final Dread Empire omnibus, The Wrath of Kings, was shown to include The Wrath of Kings as the third volume (following Reap the East Wind and An Ill Fate Marshalling). This is the book that Cook is rewriting, to replace the manuscript stolen over two decades ago. It is now shown to have the title A Path to Coldness of Heart, which was Cook's working title for it back in the day (it comes from the final six words of An Ill Fate Marshalling). I think this is a good decision, to have different titles for the omnibus itself and for the new final volume.

Finally, as I discussed below, the latest Garrett book, Gilded Latten Bones, is also scheduled for release in November of this year. Perhaps this influenced Roc to finally reprint Angry Lead Skies, the tenth Garrett volume. Get it while you can, if you need it, as some of the recent reprints are again out of print. A couple of the older titles have still not seen recent reprints, and I wonder if Roc has any intention of making the entire series available when the latest one comes out in a few months. I certainly hope so, since, while I have them all, many other fans of the series still need to complete their collections. Regardless of how this shakes out, Glen Cook fans still have plenty to look forward to in the months ahead!

What a Rush!

2010-06-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

The new Rush Digital/CD-single Caravan came out today, and I already bought it off of Amazon. Two good, aggressive songs with complex arrangements, essentially a continuation of the sound of 2007's Snakes & Arrows CD. I like both songs, Caravan seems good, while BU2B ("Brought Up To Believe) I like even more, especially for its biting lyric:

All is for the best
Believe in what we're told
Blind men in the market
Buying what we're sold
Believe in what we're told
Until our final breath
While our loving Watchmaker
Loves us all to death

I hope the rest of the eventual Clockwork Angels CD, due in 2011, lives up to this standard! Rock on, kids!

Ladies is Pimps Too!

2010-05-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

Has it all just been wasted time? Nah, I don't think so, but I was reflecting recently that I hadn't heard the song Wasted Time, one of the best by the Eagles, in quite a while.

Meanwhile, my Saturday quest began from the realization of something else I hadn't partaken in quite a while, a burger from Smash Burger. My last year in Colorado involved working a schedule that left me eating dinner very late most nights, usually after 9:30pm. There weren't too many places still open at that hour, at least in my part of Denver, so I found myself eating entirely too many burgers and fries. The best burgers were at the new, Colorado-based chain Smash Burger. They are all-over along the Front Range, and are expanding rapidly around the country. There's only one in New Jersey, with another due to open soon. That first one is not too far from where I live, but still too out of the way for me to have gone there before today.

I had seen its location on the map, and knew it was close to a good used bookstore, the Montclair Book Center. When I did a Google map check, I realized the two places were actually within a mile or so of each other, and so I decided to scratch two itches on one trip. I hoped I might find some old Harold Lamb biographies, or other pulpy treasure.

I found the Smash Burger easily, and my lunch was a wonderful flashback to the burgers I had enjoyed back in Colorado. I've been preaching the Smash Burger gospel to my new coworkers, who are mostly Five Guys disciples. One of them tried it so far, and he loved it, so there's hope I can convert the others.

The Montclair Book Center didn't have any Lamb that I needed. However, I found more than enough good reading material. I bought a used mass market paperback of The Bonehunters, Book 6 of The Malazan Book of the Fallen, continuing my streak of finding quality pre-owned versions of Erikson's books. In trade format, also used, I acquired R. Scott Baker's The Darkness That Comes Before. This is the first volume of his Prince of Nothing series, a set of books that is often recommended to Erikson and Glen Cook fans. I've never read any of it, but I'm aware of it, and seized this opportunity to have it at hand for eventual consumption. I also picked up a recent used Doonesbury collection that I didn't own yet.

The real gem for me was the fourth book I found. I was looking in the humor section, and had just added the Doonesbury to my stack. I noticed Wasted Time playing from a nearby speaker, and stopped to listen to that sad tale of too much hard living. That's when I realized that one of my long quests had ended. Facing me on the shelf was Anka Radakovich's Sexplorations.

I doubt many people remember Radakovich these days. Her heyday was 1996, when the sex columnist for Details Magazine was a regular guest of late-night TV hosts such as Conan O'Brien. Her book The Wild Girls Club, a collection of her magazine articles, was a best-seller in hardcover. I bought the paperback and found it wildly amusing. I loved her bawdy adventures among the allegedly-hip and cool crowd on both coasts. They pushed the same buttons for me as Berlin's music, with it's lurid, tawdry depictions of the nightlife of the coked-up, over-sexed party set in LA. I generally like my music and my reading to be full of epic, manly adventure, but I'm occasionally a sucker for a woman embracing her inner sex-kitten.

Sexplorations was released in hardcover in 1997. I planned to wait for the paperback, but the book apparently tanked, and never came out in a cheaper edition! I'm not sure what went wrong, and why Radakovich dropped off societal radar. I did a web search on her, and she's still writing articles here and there. Be that as it may, I've kept an eye out for many years for a used hardcover copy, but it took me 13 years to bump into one! I read a good chunk of it at various stops this afternoon, and was again amused and entertained (it's not a long book). I'm not sure the wait was entirely worth it, but it put a smile on my face none-the-less.

Minor Glen Cook Update: Later in the day I had a look at a Barnes & Noble, and saw that Angry Lead Skies, Book 10 in the Garrett, P.I. series, has been reprinted. This is good news for those who still need the book, and weren't looking forward to paying the $17 or more (plus shipping) that the book commanded on ebay. I don't understand Penguin/Roc's plans for this series, since several of the recent reprints are again out of print (Old Tin Sorrows, Dread Brass Shadows, and Whispering Nickel Idols), and two of the back titles haven't been reprinted at all (Red Iron Nights and Deadly Quicksilver Lies, which often sell for over $20 each on ebay). The next Garrett volume, Gilded Latten Bones, is still scheduled for release in November of this year. Perhaps some of the out of print volumes will be re-released to coincide with this.

More Malazan Musings

2010-05-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

I keep plugging along at Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, of which nine volumes are currently available. Somewhere back on this blog I discussed Gardens of the Moon, the first book. I may have mentioned reading the second volume, Deadhouse Gates, on my visit to New York City last October. I had plenty of time to read, while riding the coach 75 minutes each way, to and from my friend's house in western New Jersey. Fortunately, Deadhouse Gates was engrossing. I liked it quite a bit more than I did the debut.

Why? Because the characters and locales were more to my taste. The series is built in layers. The first book takes place on the continent of Genabackis. The second introduces many new characters, mixes in a few returnees, and sends them all to the Seven Cities sub-continent. The third then returns to Genabackis, before the fourth picks up the Seven Cities storyline, with the events being concurrent. The fifth introduces the continent of Lether, and again mostly new characters. The remaining books then blend the various storylines.

Why did Erikson do things in this back-and-forth manner? I saw in an interview that much of his in-progress manuscript for Memories of Ice (which became the third volume) was lost due to computer trouble. This depressed Erikson to the point that he felt the need to step away from the Genabackis setting for a while, and start to tell the Seven Cities portion of his overall arc. This made Deadhouse Gates the second book, when it was originally intended to be the third one. If that had happened, then Gardens of the Moon and Memories of Ice would have been one and two, telling a complete portion of the arc. House of Chains would be book four in either case, and would have continued directly from book 3, instead of from book two, as it now does.

I almost wish the books had been written and published in the originally intended order. Upon finishing Deadhouse Gates, I was eager to see what happened next in the Seven Cities storyline. I didn't really want to return to Genabackis, but I did. I read Memories of Ice bit by bit, over the winter. It is certainly a good book, but I don't share the often-expressed view that it is the best Malazan tale. It is too melodramatic for my taste, and too contrived in places, especially in Whiskeyjack repeatedly refusing to allow magical healing of his injured leg. Deadhouse Gates seems better written, which makes sense in that it is, to an extent, Erikson's third Malazan book. Meanwhile, I know from personal experience that recreated lost writing is never as strong as the original. A bit of magic disappears forever, and that magic was missing from Memories of Ice, even if Erikson had grown in experience since his first attempt at writing the book.

I'm now reading House of Chains, and it is enthralling. I'm near the halfway point, and so far it is the best of the Malazan books. For me. Opinions on its merit seem to vary widely on review and discussion sites. I like that the groundwork has been laid in earlier volumes, so that now the bigger picture is emerging. Erikson is taking fewer heavy-handed shortcuts to play with readers' emotions. I hope the understated quality continues.

It'll be a while yet before I get to book five, Midnight Tides, but I'm looking forward to it. A segment of Malazan fandom considers it Erikson's finest moment. My taste might well match theirs, since it doesn't for those who champion Memories of Ice. Of course, there's no true right or wrong in the arena of opinion. Ultimately, the lack of consensus on which Malazan book is best is really a praise to the strength of the series. I expect Erikson's works, and those of his colleague Ian "Cam" Esslemont, will continue to entertain me for many months to come.

The Butler Did It

2010-05-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

Terry "Geezer" Butler, bassist for Black Sabbath and Heaven & Hell has posted a wonderful tribute to Ronnie James Dio, on his site.

You can read it all via the link, but here's a few lines that stood out:

"Most people who were there for those last days chose to keep their thoughts private. I wanted to keep my thoughts private, too, but I’ve been overwhelmed by emails, and requests from the media and fans for comments.

I can truly say I’ve never known anyone to have such loyal, loving friends, fans, and family as Ronnie. He really was a special person, blessed with a unique voice and presence. He loved his fans- he would stay meeting and talking to them until the early hours of the morning. One of my fondest memories of him comes from last year, at the Sonisphere Festival,Knebworth. He noticed my sister and her husband at the side of the stage. During our opening song, he took the time to go over and hug them. Just a little thing like that made him special to me. Of course his music will live on forever, as will his influence. I have never seen so many tributes from so many musicians and fans, so many good wishes, no cynicism, just pure love and appreciation for a great man.

God bless you Ronald – thank you so much for the wonderful memories."

RIP RJD

2010-05-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

Ronnie James Dio died this morning, at the age of 67. He had been battling stomach cancer for perhaps 6 months, and had recently canceled touring plans for this summer. I knew that couldn't be a good sign, so his passing was not unexpected. I'm sad right now, but not really for Ronnie himself. Like Jaws a year ago, he had lived a good long life. He was a professional musician for 50 years, doing what he loved. Such longevity is a sign of blessing. He was always the first to state in interviews how fortunate he'd been in life.

It is a little surprising to realize that I saw Dio live, fronting Heaven & Hell (Black Sabbath), as recently as August 15 of last year. It was my fourth time seeing him, and my second Heaven & Hell show, after twice seeing his solo band. Ronnie sounded great, and seemed poised to continue on forever. It turned out to be around that time that he started feeling the stomach pangs which lead to his eventual diagnosis.

Tribulations are pouring in from around the world, the best I've read so far comes from Lars Ullrich:

"Dear Ronnie,

I just got off stage in Zagreb. I was met with the news that you've passed on. I'm kind of in shock, but I wanted you to know that you were one of the main reasons I made it onto that stage to begin with. When I first saw you in Elf, opening for Deep Purple in 1975, I was completely blown away by the power in your voice, your presence on stage, your confidence, and the ease with which you seemed to connect to 6,000 Danish people and one starry-eyed 11 year old, most of whom were not familiar with Elf's music. The following year, I was so psyched when I heard the results of you joining forces with my favourite guitar player. You guys sounded so right for each other and I instantly became Rainbow's #1 fan in Denmark. In the fall of 1976, when you played your first show in Copenhagen, I was literally in the front row and the couple of times we made eye contact you made me feel like the most important person in the world. The news that you guys were staying in town on your day off somehow embedded itself in my brain and I made the pilgrimage to the Plaza Hotel to see if I could somehow grab a picture, an autograph, a moment, anything. A few hours later you came out and were so kind and caring... pictures, autographs and a couple minutes of casual banter. I was on top of the world, inspired and ready for anything. Rainbow came to Copenhagen a couple more times over the next few years and each time you guys blew my mind, and for a good three years were my absolute favourite band on this planet. Over the years I've been fortunate enough to run into you a half dozen times or so and each time you were as kind, caring and gracious as you were in 1976 outside the hotel. When we finally got a chance to play together in Austria in 2007, even though I may not have let on, I was literally transformed back to that little snot nosed kid who you met and inspired 31 years earlier and it was such a fucking honor and a dream come true to share a stage with you and the rest of the legends in Heaven & Hell. A couple of weeks ago when I heard that you were not going to be able to make it to the Sonisphere shows that we would be sharing this June, I wanted to call you and let you know that I was thinking of you and wish you well, but I kind of pussied out, thinking the last thing you needed in your recovery was feeling obligated to take a phone call from a Danish drummer/fan boy. I wish I'd made that call. We will miss you immensely on the dates, and we will be thinking of you with great admiration and affection during that run. It seemed so right to have you out on tour with the so-called Big Four since you obviously were one of the main reasons that the four bands even exist. Your ears will definitely be burning during those two weeks because all of us will be talking, reminiscing and sharing stories about how knowing you has made our lives that much better.

Ronnie, your voice impacted and empowered me, your music inspired and influenced me, and your kindness touched and moved me. Thank you.

Much love,

Lars."

I couldn't put it any better myself. I'll close with some of Ronnie's lyrics, from the Black Sabbath song Over & Over:

Too many flames, with too much to burn
And life's only made of paper
Oh, how I need to be free of this pain
But it goes over, and over, and over, and over again

The More Things Change....

2010-05-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

I was born in Albany, New York, and raised in Guilderland, between Albany and Schenectady. My maternal grandparents lived to the north, first in Fort Edward and then just south of Lake George. Many battles or skirmishes took place in the 17th and 18th Centuries close to roads I frequently traveled. So it is natural that since childhood I've had an interest in the French and Indian Wars and the War of the American Revolution. My recent return to the Northeast has rekindled my desire to read about this era. It helps that bookstores here in New Jersey have "local interest" titles that simply aren't available in Colorado (and of course, many Colorado titles aren't stocked here). I found one such title, Bloody Mohawk - The French and Indian War & American Revolution on New York's Frontier, at a nearby chain bookstore, and couldn't pass it up.

I was first captivated by the magnificent Don Troiani cover art, which is from his painting The Oneidas at the Battle of Oriskany. I had been thinking about Oriskany, and its reputation as one of the most horrific engagements of its era. I wanted to learn more about this battle, which I first read of as a child in Paul I. Wellman's Indian Wars & Warriors East (Paul was the brother of imaginative fiction author Manly Wade Wellman, who is better-known today). Allan W. Eckert's The Wilderness War furthered my interest. Many fictional battles are based on ones from real-world history, and I thought Oriskany might be a good source of inspiration for a story I may someday spin. Bloody Mohawk includes a chapter on the fighting there, and that was enough for me to purchase the book on the spot.

Bloody Mohawk isn't an exhaustive study of the Mohawk River Valley between 1754 and 1783. Author Richard Berleth didn't consult archival sources for his research. Instead, he synthesized the best secondary works, and applied his excellent writing to create a solid introductory work on the subject. He pays more attention to the later years of the era, showing how the conflict became a civil war that left the countryside devastated, and largely depopulated. The Iroquois were split, as the Oneidas and some elements of the other tribes sided with the American Patriots. Much of the White population became Loyalists Tories, forced to abandon their homes, only to return as brutal raiders.

It was an age of cruelty, something not widely recognized or understood today. Berleth doesn't touch on earlier precedents, but by the 1750s Robert Rogers was leading his Rangers on horrible raids against Indian and French settlements, in retaliation for bloody French and Indian raids on British settlements. Both sides regularly killed and scalped as many enemies as they could get their hands on, both because of blood lust, and in order to collect the scalp bounties paid by French and British colonial officials. Twenty years later, Bloody Mohawk explains that the Tory Butler's Rangers were frequently hard to distinguish from their Iroquois allies, as together they attacked every settlement west of Schnectady. American forces burned down numerous Iroquois towns in return, with only occasional pitched battles such as Oriskany and Newtown.

This makes for compelling, if depressing, reading. For me, it was a good reminder that "total war" was not invented during World War 2. The partisan war behind German lines in the occupied USSR had similar cruelties and divided loyalties, and, of course, was on a much larger scale. I am apparently not the only person to share an interest in both the New York frontier fighting and World War 2, as I've seen the listing for Michael O. Logusz's new book, With Musket and Tomahawk - The Saratoga Campaign and the Wilderness War of 1777. Logusz is also the author of Galicia Division - the Waffen-SS 14th Grenadier Division 1943-1945, a decent study of the Ukrainians in the Waffen-SS. I've owned the latter for many years, and now look forward to acquiring his book about the decisive year 1777 in New York.

You Had Me at Hello!

2010-04-16T20:21:00.000-07:00

Moonsorrow (or as we fans often say, "The Mighty Moonsorrow!") kicked all sorts of butt at the Gramercy Theater in New York City last week. I'm glad I was there, to finally see one of my favorite bands in concert. They played as part of a quadruple bill, one that was originally to be all-Finnish in composition.

Moonsorrow were the third band to play, serving as a sort of co-headliner to the full headlining act, Finntroll. Swallow the Sun were the second band, and the openers should have been Survivors Zero. However, the latter couldn't get their work visas, and had to drop off the tour. Their replacements were local acts, changing from site to site. At the Gramercy, I was able to see the decent New Jersey project Operatika.

Swallow the Sun were pretty good. They have a good reputation, and I respect the occasional song of theirs that I've heard. Finntroll were good too, loud and aggressive in a way that their studio albums can't capture. But ultimately, I'm not a true fan of either band. I was there for Moonsorrow, and they delivered big time. It seemed that much of the crowd was also present for them, as the audience was eating out of their hands (well, figuratively) from the moment they took the stage. The guys were pleased with the reception, and poured their hearts into their performance (again, figuratively, of course). You can watch a clip of The Mighty Moonsorrow from this show here and here.

I arrived before any band had taken the stage, so I went to the basement to look over the merchandise and grab a beer. I bought a Moonsorrow shirt that features an axe-wielding Viking/Pagan warrior, standing over a crusader who has already been pierced by several arrows. I'm told it's just the thing for making small talk with the ladies. Be that as it may, I was correct in my hunch that some band members would be hanging out at the bar. Ville Sorvali and Janne Perttilä were in the company of a couple of Finnish journalists, and graciously made time to chat with me. They signed the booklets I had brought along for Voimasta ja Kunniasta and Tulimyrsky.

Moonsorrow hope to be able to tour North America yearly. If nothing else, they are like many other foreign bands, in that they play New York City every time they come to the USA. So I expect to see them again eventually. I just hope it is sooner, rather than later!

Never So Happy to Admit I was Wrong!

2010-04-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

Amazon is now showing November 23, 2010 as the release date for the long-awaited Surrender to the Will of the Night, Book 3 of Glen Cook's Instrumentalities of the Night. I've been saying for a while that the trade paperback reprinting of of the first two books of the series, scheduled for this month and for August of this year, suggested that the series would be continued in only that format, with it likely that this third volume, and the in-progress fourth volume would never see hardcover release.

I'm delighted to be proven wrong. The Amazon listing says it will be a hardcover release, and only a hardcover release, unlike, say, Steven Erikson's and Ian C. Esslemont's Malazan books, which see simultaneous hardcover and trade paperback release (from the same gallies, for which a small percentage receive a hardcover, while the majority get a softcover). I would guess that the trade paperback for Surrender... would come out in 2011, and perhaps there won't be a massmarket paperback, or that might come still later.

Speaking of Esslemont, I just picked up the massmarket edition of his Night of Knives. I read the trade paperback last year, and enjoyed it. However, since I'm collecting Erikson's Malazan books in massmarket format, I wanted my copy of Knight of Knives to match them, even though the trade version was recently offered at a remaindered price. Esslemont's second Malazan novel, Return of the Crimson Guard, comes out in around ten days. I look forward to reading it, but I've seen suggestions that readers ought to be through at least Book 6 (The Bonehunters) of Erikson's series, for Return... to fit in place properly, and I'm only ready to begin Book 4 (House of Chains). I have plenty of time to continue with Erikson's books at a leisurely pace, before the eventual massmarket edition of Return... comes out to look good on my shelf with the other Malazan titles.

Back to Cook, November of this year should be an exciting time for his fans, since Gilded Latten Bones will be out at the start of the month, and Surrender to the Will of the Night three weeks later. I'm not a fan of November, in general, but I'll be looking forward to it this year!

This Ain't No Diet Plan!

2010-04-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

I learned about the Battle of the Bulge, the German counter-offensive of December 1944, differently from how many Americans get their information. The successful stand of the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne has been widely written about, and was filmed in a realistic fictional manner in the Band of Brothers series. Studies of George S. Patton's campaigns examine the way he turned his Third Army north, from Lorraine, to strike the flank of the German advance and relieve Bastogne. But while these elements of the campaign are the best-known ones, I first learned about the more northerly fighting around Elsenborn Ridge.

My primary source was the masterly memoir Company Commander, by Charles B. MacDonald. His unit was Company I, of the 23rd Infantry Regiment, in the American 2nd Infantry Division. He earned a Silver Star on December 17, 1944, for the defense he and his men made (in conjunction with the rest of their battalion) against heavy German attacks made by the 277. Volksgrenadier and 12. SS-Panzer Divisions. This effort made possible the withdrawal of the rest of the 2nd ID, and associated elements of the 99th ID, into the joined farming villages of Krinkelt and Rocherath. It further gave time for the 1st ID to assume positions around the Bütgenbach Estate, and for the 30th ID to defend near Stavelot and Stoumont. Other parts of the 99th ID also made defensive contributions in the first days of the German offensive, which further aided the American side in containing a German operation that expected to cleanly break through the American lines on its first day.

Mac Donald's account is full of exciting reading, but he was one man, at one point, in a large campaign. A similar level of excitement is found in the many personal accounts in John Toland's Battle: The Story of the Bulge, but it covers the entire course of the Ardennes fighting, and this limits how much attention can be given to each part. I was 11 or 12 when I found Company Commander, circa 1982, and it was soon after that I was able to read a library copy of Toland's work. Toland included especially good detail about Krinkelt and Rocherath, from 2nd ID veterans, and reading about this at such a young age left images forever burned into my imagination.

In later years I was able to acquire some expensive, highly-specialized books about the Ardennes. Jean-Paul Pallud's Battle of the Bulge: Then and Now, provided thorough photographic coverage of the campaign, and the English translations of Munin-Verlag Waffen-SS unit histories told of the fighting at Krinkelt-Rocherath, Bütgenbach, Stavelot, and Stoumont from the German perspective (I was fortunate enough to be able to serve as a proofreader for Hubert Meyer's History of the 12. SS-PD, and for a portion of the Rudolf Lehmann/Ralf Tiemann History of the 1. SS-PD).

All of this reading allowed me to develop a good understanding of the early stages of the northen sector of the Battle of the Bulge. I've retained my interest up to the present, and I became aware some years ago that Dutch researcher Hans Wijers shared it. In the late 1990s, he self-published six volumes on the battle, combining accounts he collected from veterans and civilians with material from unit histories and after-action reports. Recently, Stackpole Books reissued four of these in two omnibus volumes titled Battle of the Bulge. Volume One comprises The Loshiem Gap and Holding the Line, while Volume Two includes Hell at Bütgenbach and Seize the Bridges (hopefully, Wijers's remaining titles, on the Schnee Eiffel and the defense of St. Vith, will be collected in a future Volume Three).

The Loshiem Gap covers the largely-successful American defense of the area around Loshiem, to the south of Krinkelt-Rocherath and north of the Schnee Eiffel. The 99th ID was able to hold out here against heavy attacks made by low-quality German infantry, until a retreat could be made in organized fashion to defensive positions farther west. This helped create a fatal delay to the overall course of the German offensive. Holding the Line tells of Krinkelt-Rocherath, and how the 9th and 38th Infantry Regiments of the 2nd ID were able to withdraw from their own attack area to assume defensive positions there. The actions of MacDonald's battalion are put into the context of the overall course of operations. Hell at Bütgenbach is by far the shortest work, as it describes the successful defense of the Bütgenbach Estate by the 26th IR of the 1st ID, against elements of the 12. SS-PD which were not at Krinkelt-Rocherath, or that had been rerouted from there. Kampfgruppe Peiper of the 1. SS-PD figures into the last chapters of The Losheim Gap, but its operations are described more fully in Seize the Bridges. This last, and longest, work follows the battlegroup from its breakthrough of the American defenses until it had to abandon its heavy weapons at Stoumont a week later. Also included is a chapter on Otto Skorzeny's Panzer Brigade 150 and its failed attack on Malmedy.

These were all decisive engagements which blunted the attack of the 6. Panzerarmee, and thus doomed the Ardennes Offensive to failure. I have gone to some effort to give the background on the bigger picture of the Battle of the Bulge, because none of Wijers's works do so. They look at their particular portion of the battle with a tight focus. This means that these works aren't suitable for beginners to the study of this campaign. Beginners will be lost amid all the details, especially of the many small towns and villages of the region. The maps are inadequate, to the point that I made use of Gerd J. Gust Cuppens fascinating book Massacre a Malmedy? to trace the routes of various units. Cuppens' volume is very difficult to find, and a more realistic alternative for most readers is Michael Reynold's works The Devil's Adjutant and Men of Steel, both of which have extensive sections on the 6. Panzerarmee in the Ardennes.

Wijers' Battle of the Bulge books are, instead, of most use to those who have read extensively on the battle, but want to learn what the men at the sharp end experienced. Most of the documentary material has not appeared elsewhere, and what has is often presented in greater length. The source material is roughly 2/3 American. One published source, Michael Schadewitz's The Meuse First and Then Antwerpt, provided a substantial amount of the German content. Since this is a rare book in English, translated from a far-scarcer German original, few readers of these Stackpole editions of Wijers will be familiar with it. Perhaps this will generate some sales for Schadewitz's fine study of the 150. Panzer Brigade.

In sum, The Battle of the Bulge, Volumes One and Two, are a fine supplement to the body of literature on this famous campaign. They'll be less useful as introductory works, but those who enjoy personal accounts may find them a gateway towards further study. At worst, they provide some exciting, if confusing reading. I'm just glad that such specialized books, created as a labor of love, are now widely and easily available.

It's called disclosure, ya d--- h---

2010-03-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

That line, from Miss Mona Lisa Vito, seems appropriate to a post written in New Jersey. The disclosure arises in my stating, for the record, that I've become a friendly acquaintance with Chris Evans.

Who is that? Evans is the Military History Editor at Stackpole Books, and is also the author of The Iron Elves, a fantasy series. I began reading his novels after seeing them compared with Glen Cook's Black Company. Meanwhile, I've watched as Stackpole released affordable paperback editions of books first published in hardcover by J.J. Fedorowicz, Helion, and other companies. I've had one of my books published each with JJF and Helion, so I keep tabs on what happens with those companies' titles.

I read the first Iron Elves volume, A Darkness Forged in Fire, last summer while attending the Denver Publishing Institute. Soon after, I started planning my late-October reconnaissance-in-force to New York, and contacted Evans via email. We arranged a meeting, and had a pleasant lunch together, discussing many book topics.

We met up again this weekend, at Luna Con, a science fiction and fantasy convention held in Rye Brook, New York. Evans was a guest of the con, and held a reading and book signing. In and about those, we had further discussions, and I was introduced to an author whom Evans had met earlier in the day.

It was Peter Brett, author of The Warded Man (also known as The Painted Man, in some editions). Brett proved to be a great guy, as we got to know each other a bit, and he read a section from his short story collection The Great Bazaar and other Stories. I was intrigued enough to seek out the paperback of The Warded Man, but as the preceding link shows, that will not be released for a few more days.

I'm currently reading the second Iron Elves novel, The Light of Burning Shadows, and I'll discuss this series in a future post. I'll also soon be posting reviews of a couple of Stackpole books provided to me as review copies. When these posts are available, feel free to take them with as many grains of salt as necessary. I feel better mentioning the above from the outset, rather than hide it all, and have it somehow revealed later to my adoring public. However, if any of you out there are truly not aware that most reviews on the web are solicited, well, there's this bridge in my new part of the world that just might be for sale. You read it here first ;-)

Wedding Bells in TunFaire?

2010-03-17T11:21:00.001-07:00

Amazon is showing something I haven't seen reported anywhere else. The thirteenth of Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. novels is scheduled for release on November 2nd of this year! Glen had mentioned a year ago in an interview that he was writing his next Garrett novel under the working title of "Gilden Latten Lovers." Now, it seems the actual title will be Gilded Latten Bones.

I'm glad to see one of Glen's projects attain a publication date. He also has a new Black Company short story due for release soon in this anthology. There's no sign yet of the Dread Empire sequel to An Ill Fate Marshalling, or the third and fourth Instrumentalities of the Night books. At least for the latter, Tor are reissuing the first two this spring and summer, as trade paperbacks. This suggests to me that they will continue the series in this format, and that there will be announcements about this soon. I can at least hope so.

In the meantime, I'll be continuing to read through Steven Erikson's Malazan books, but a discussion of that can wait for another time. For today, I'll close with the advice to avoid green beer, and instead stick with GOOD beer. I have some Sierra Nevada Torpedo on hand that comes with a green label, that's close enough to Irish for me ;-)

Life and all that

2010-03-15T10:47:00.000-07:00

Now that it's March I'm finally finding time and motivation to update this site. What's happened since October? Well, I was preparing to move to the New York City area, to break into New York publishing. But to move required LOTS of small matters being attended to.

The first was to make sure I still had a job when I got to the area. It wouldn't do any good to be a starving would-be editor, even if that would offer motivation for my job search! So, I had to arrange a transfer with FedEx, and find an appropriate situation. As I looked at FedEx's internal job site, I found a good opportunity in Clifton, New Jersey. I went through the process, and was hired as the evening Lead Production Coordinator (LPC) for the store. I arranged to begin work on January 4, 2010.

My old friend Lisa lives in New Jersey with her husband. I stayed with them, about an hour outside of New York City, when I visited the area on a scouting trip the last week of October. That trip went well, which persuaded me to go ahead and make the move, and arrange my transfer. In early December I began sending boxes of my books to Lisa's house. This process continued up through the morning I left Colorado, on December 30th! I ultimately sent 57(!) boxes to her house, and loaded my car up with everything else that would fit. I paid to have my bed hauled away, gave away my beloved blue leather recliner, and threw out many other items.

I was worried about how to move Ember, as she's too high strung to ride in the car for three days. But first, I had a more important concern. I was driving home from work late at night on December 8th when an idiot kid drove over some ice, lost control of his car, and knocked mine like a bumper car into the ditch on the side of Parker Road. My driver-side door was ruined, and I had to have a rental car through December 28th, when my car was finally fixed and ready for use. Fortunately, the kid's uncle or cousin had insurance, so I was eventually reimbursed for my expenses, but it took until late January for that to shake out.

No sedation I tried worked on Ember. My last resort was to use the U Ship It website, and through it, I found a guy who transported Ember to New Jersey for $450. Lisa and her familiy would be out of town when he arrived, so I had to arrange to keep her at a kennel near by. This too all worked out.

I hit the road on December 30th, and drove to my friend Russ's house in Columbia, Missouri. It was good to see Russ and Katie again, however briefly, and have a place to spend the night. I drove away the next morning, stopping outside St. Louis at a Pizza Hut for lunch. They had the $10 for-any-pizza special going, so I had half a large for lunch, and saved the rest for dinner. I arranged for a motel room in Columbus, Ohio and got there in the evening. It was New Year's Eve, so I watched the ball drop on TV, and went to sleep just after midnight. Two hours later, I woke up and was violently ill. Over the next five hours, I was sick again every thirty to fortyfive minutes, leaving me exhausted and dehydrated.

I should have pushed through all the way to Lisa's house on January 1st, but I was too tired. I had planned to stop in Bedford, Pennsylvania, to visit Patti Bonn at Aegis/Aberjona. Bedford was at the halfway point of my remaining drive, but getting there was all I could manage. I decided to take up Patti's offer of spending the night in her spare bedroom. We chatted pleasantly for a while on this occasion, our first face to face meeting after years of working together on book projects via phone and email! A good night's sleep had me ready to finish the trip on the 2nd.

I did indeed arrive at Lisa's house in the early afternoon of my fourth day on the road. That evening, I collected Ember from the kennel, much to her relief. She was so happy to see me, but had to stay in Lisa's basement, due to cat allergies in Lisa's family. I would visit Ember several times a day, in between working my new job and finding a place to live.

Craigslist seems to be the current best way of locating a place to rent. I spent a week at Lisa's, making a 45-minute commute to and from work, and checking on rentals on my days off. I found a place in Union City on Sunday, January 12th, and moved in that night. Ember was very happy to no longer be cooped up! Weekly trips back to Lisa's followed, for the next five or six weekends, until I at last had all my possessions in my room. That room overlooks the Manhattan skyline, and is just over the Lincoln Tunnel. In fact. I live atop a hill above the Weehauken little league baseball field, a landmark I rode past every day during my October visit to the area!

By mid-January I had a room of my own, a job, and a short commute to work. The reimbursement of my expenses for my car being hit seemed to be coming together, and I was gradually collecting my boxes of books into my room. My car needed an alignment before the accident, and it was supposed to be done as part of the repair. In fact, it was not done, and the long drive, in a weighed-down car, did my tires no favor.

As you might imagine, all of the above was extremely expensive. I held off getting new tires in order to increase my bank account first. There was plenty of other matters to keep me busy, such as updating my address with credit cards, banks, my cell phone carrier, and so on. I had new neighborhoods to explore, by where I live and by where I work. I also did some unpacking, though I'm typing this next to stacks of boxes. But at last, a week ago, the time was right, and I got my car an alignment and new tires.

That hurdle is in the past, and spring has sprung in the NYC area. The weather is warming up and daylight savings time means later daylight. The "settling-in phase" is declared over, and I announce its replacement by the "get a publishing job phase." Happy St. Patrick's Day, let the games begin!

Music that Bites!

2009-10-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-10T18:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-26T18:45:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-28T20:25:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-03T18:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-12T18:18:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-06-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-13T18:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-01-30T12:27:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-01-26T15:21:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-18T20:40:00.000-08:00

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

Stop the world, I want to get off?

2009-01-06T19:36:00.000-08:00

I've been dreaming lately of another dimension, perhaps an alternate universe. It is less bright than this one I experience when awake. That is, is isn't so clear and sunny as the atmosphere her in Colorado. It is also less crowded and busy, with plenty of peace and calm. It's probably paradise ;-)

To get there, I find my dreaming self driving on a road up Poudre Canyon, west of Fort Collins, Colorado. Gradually, the road gets steeper, until I'm driving upside down! Fortunately, the gravity of this other dimension holds me in place until everything "drops down" around me, and I feel "upright" again. I have no idea yet how I get back, but I eventually wake up, and here I am.

All this, without any substance stronger than beer....

Thought for the day: I'm now reading and enjoying The Fire in His Hands, the first part of the A Fortress in Shadow omnibus of Glen Cook's Dread Empire series.

It's All Rush and it's ALL GOOD!

2008-12-31T15:28:00.000-08:00

Many of my interests in the way of music and books are on new highs of popularity. Along with the writings of Robert E. Howard and Glen Cook, and the music of many Heavy Metal bands, the music of Canadian power trio Rush is finding a new audience, while maintaining its longstanding one. I've been an active fan of the band since 1989, and a casual one far longer, so this pleases me greatly. Between kids hooked on Guitar Hero/Rock Band, and folks of all ages becoming aware that many dinosaur bands still put on a far better show than most newer bands, Rush have become, dare I say it, "hip." It helps that they are still at the top of their game live, putting on great hard-rocking concerts during their 2007-2008 touring in support of the Snakes & Arrows album (with the tour captured for posterity on the Snakes & Arrows Live CD and DVD releases). I was fortunate to be able to see the band at Red Rocks on both legs of the tour.

Rush have been around since 1968, and put out their first album in 1974. That same year, soon after, Neil Peart ("peert," not "purt") joined as the new drummer, and with the second album in 1975, he took over the bulk of lyric writing. Guitarist Alex Lifeson and bassist/singer (and eventually, keyboardist too) Geddy Lee have always handled the writing of the music. The trio have tremendous chemistry, whether working together, or playing, and this has helped them endure for roughly 35 years. Snakes & Arrows was Rush's 19th studio album, and a host of live albums, DVDs, and best-of compilations are also available.

In this internet age, all of Rush's prodigious output is subject to reviews and criticisms, and I've noticed a trend over the past decade or so. Many who attempt to review the band's work only really enjoy a certain portion of it. Some like the proggy sci-fi epics of the mid-70's. For others, the polished, accessible early 80's material is the best. A few prefer the later 80's keyboard-heavy sound. Most are dismissive of the band's 90's output, though the two studio CDs released in the new millenium get a measure of respect.

I find it curious that I often read that a reviewer's prefered era of Rush music is "the real Rush." These reviewers tend to feel that the band "got away from what made them great," even as others provide similar sentiments for other eras of the band. I'm suprised by the lack of broad appreciation for Rush's music.

To me, it is very much a strength that the band has changed and evolved over the course of 35 years. We already have Motorhead to provide an example of sticking to your guns year after year. Such a lack of concern for trends and fashion is admirable, but Rush have been equally steadfast in their determination to write and play what they are feeling at a particular moment in time. They also haven't cared about being trendy, while still being aware of new influences capable of adding subtle growth and change to their sound. Once the listener gets past the notion of "this and only this is what Rush is," it becomes possible to realize that it is ALL Rush, on all 19 studio albums. Of course they have a different sense as composers at age 53 than they did at 23. The 19 albums give the opportunity to watch the band improve as songwriters and players, as they gradually come to the understanding that it wasn't necessary to show off on every song, all the time.

This change, in approach and in results, means that, for me as a listener anyway, the various albums appeal to different moods on different days. This gives the music great staying power, as I rarely tire of the band, since at least one release will likely feel appropriate on any given day. This may not be as true for those less given over to Rush geekdom, but the point remains valid that the changes in Rush's sound over the years is a strength, not a weakness. Those who are already fans of the band may have their opinion set in stone, but I hope this discussion has been useful to curious readers and casual fans. Happy listening!

Thought of the day: I finished Cruel Zinc Melodies, so I completed the entire 12 book Garrett, P.I series between mid June and late December of 2008! I'll gradually read them again the years ahead, but I have other works by Glen Cook to tackle first. I may try and make reading a bunch of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series my pet project for 2009, but then again, something else might surprise me (as Garrett did) and seize that position. I'll find out in the days to come, Happy 2009 to all!

In Praise of Joseph Altsheler

2008-12-26T17:03:00.000-08:00

I suppose most of you reading this will be familiar with the movie The Last of the Mohicans, more than with any other reference I could make. These days, it is considered the classic story of Native American Indians and frontiersmen in the American Colonial era. The story was of course first a book, one of James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, originally published in 1826. That age shows, because by 21st Century standards, Cooper’s prose reads horribly. Actually, Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, was already making fun of Cooper over a century ago, just search online for a version of his essay on "Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences."

Cooper was successful in his day because he was creating a new form of fiction. He was the first author to build a reputation on writing stories set on the frontier of American advancing settlement, and in the wilderness beyond. Others naturally followed up on this premise, and some such as Robert W. Chambers, also found success. The concept of telling a tale full of ambushes, canoe chases, forest-lore, and a celebration of nature, found appeal then, and still can captivate readers today. At least it can still captivate me ;-)

Joseph Altsheler also tried his hand at writing historical novels, publishing a variety of books at the turn of the 20th Century. These varied in setting from the French & Indian War, through the American Revolution, up to the American Civil War. They were aimed at an adult audience, and found limited success. Kentucky-born Altsheler was a newspaper man, writing and editing for publications based in New York City. By 1907 he was editing the thrice-weekly magazine of the New York World, which published adventure stories for adolescent males. These were supposed to have exciting events told with historical accuracy and in a wholesome way that would not offend any sensibilities. Altsheler had difficulty finding suitable stories, so he started writing them himself. With this he had found his niche, and over the next dozen years, till his death in 1919, he wrote enough material to form over 25 books (the serialized storylines formed full novels once they were collected in hardcover book format, much as happened with Charles Dickens’ storylines decades earlier).

Certain Altsheler stories were stand alone novels, but most of his output formed part of one of his several series. The most famous of these were the three longest. First was The Young Trailers, with 6 volumes written between 1907 and 1912, with two more books added a few years later. These told of the American Revolutionary War era in Kentucky, as the British and Indians tried to drive the settlers out. Next was The Civil War Series, which over the course of 8 books written between 1914 and 1916 told of Kentucky descendents of the Young Trailers, some of whom fought for the North, while others chose the South. Finally, the French & Indian War Series (1916-1919) followed two New York frontiersmen and their Onondaga Iroquois boon companion from before the war broke out through the British victory at Quebec.

I was lucky as a child that my maternal grandmother was a small town librarian. I found many of Altsheler’s books there when I was perhaps 10, and quickly became a fan of his writing. This was circa 1980, and Altsheler’s series titles had remained in print until roughly 1960, so it isn’t surprising that this library would have them. My Middle School library also had some Altsheler, as did the Fort Collins Town Library, when I moved to Colorado for college in 1988. One Altsheler book, The Masters of the Peaks, remained available for order as late as roughly 1985, and I was able to buy a “new” copy, printed many years earlier, at a B. Dalton’s in 1983. Altsheler’s works are all in the public domain, so today many of them can be had in a variety of modern reprintings. But as a potentially cheaper option, Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/) has made available free e-books of many Altsheler titles, including every volume of the three series I mentioned. These come as pdf files, and there can be some expense if you choose to print the books out, but at least the files themselves are free of charge.

Who would enjoy these books in 2008 (or 2009, as of next week)? Fans of Cooper’s books would probably enjoy the settings, and the much more approachable writing style. People who share my enthusiasm for the parts of The Lord of the Rings that involve the Rangers of the North, and Faramir and his Rangers of Ithilien, would also be likely to enjoy Altsheler’s Indian warfare volumes. So would readers of contemporary authors of mountain man novels, such as Richard S. Wheeler, Earl Murray (RIP), and Terry C. Johnston (RIP). Civil War buffs are a natural audience for that series. Back to Fantasy, Altsheler was an influence on Robert E. Howard, which can best be appreciated in Conan stories such as Beyond the Black River and The Black Stranger.
I earlier mentioned the “wholesome” quality of Altsheler’s work, so it is worth keeping in mind that his books are “chaste” to roughly the same degree as Tolkien’s. This means there is violence and killing, but each story is told tastefully, without the sex of Johnston, or the grimness of Howard. And most volumes reach a reasonably happy ending, with nary a hint of irony along the way. This could turn off some modern readers, but to me, Altsheler’s writing feels old fashioned in a “classic” sense, rather than seeming quaint and off putting. Like Howard’s, it still reads well to most modern readers.

Here’s the titles to the three mentioned Altsheler series. As discussed above, all can be found on Project Gutenberg, or in various used and new conventional printings (and even sometimes on CDs). I hope this discussion has intrigued you, happy hunting!
The Young Trailers Series:
1. The Young Trailers
2. The Forest Runners
3. The Keepers of the Trail
4. The Eyes of the Woods
5. The Free Rangers
6. The Riflemen of the Ohio
7. The Scouts of the Valley
8. The Border Watch

The Civil War Series
1. The Guns of Bull Run
2. The Guns of Shiloh
3. The Scouts of Stonewall
4. The Sword of Antietam
5. The Star of Gettysburg
6. The Rock of Chickmauga
7. The Shades of the Wilderness
8. The Tree of Appomattox

The French & Indian War Series
1. The Hunters of the Hills
2. The Shadow of the North
3. The Rulers of the Lakes
4. The Masters of the Peaks
5. The Lords of the Wild
6. The Sun of Quebec

Thought of the day: I'm currently reading Cruel Zinc Melodies, the 12th and most recent of Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. novels. My goal is to finish it by the end of 2008. The thought of being done with the series, until the already-contracted 13th volume appears, leaves me both happy and sad. I'll explore those feelings, and the series in general, in future ramblings.

Glen Cook and the Dread Empire

2008-12-05T22:07:00.000-08:00

I intend to give fantasy and science fiction author Glen Cook considerable attention on this blog. I’m a longstanding fan of his, and I’ve watched his popularity grow and decline. Currently, he’s on a new high, with the first omnibus of his Black Company books going through five printings in under year, and his latest Garrett, P.I. novel Cruel Zinc Melodies on its third printing just six months after release.

I’ll write about Garrett, and perhaps about the Black Company, on another occasion. Today I’m thinking about his earlier Dread Empire series. With a little online research, checking various websites, it can be found that the first Dread Empire novel, A Shadow of All Night Falling, was in existence as a manuscript as early as 1972. The original Dread Empire trilogy consists of it, followed by October’s Baby and All Darkness Met. The three books were published a few months apart during 1979 and 1980.

Later, during 1984 and 1985 (at the same time the original three Black Company books were released) Cook issued two prequels, The Fire in His Hands and With Mercy Toward None. While the original trilogy was published by Berkley, the first prequel came out via Pocket Books, and the second via Baen. Perhaps in an attempt to capitalize, Berkley reissued the original trilogy in 1984. Finally, in 1987 and 1988, Tor released two sequels to the original trilogy, Reap the East Wind and An Ill Fate Marshalling. There was to be a third sequel, but the manuscript was stolen from Cook’s home by a visiting “fan.” Cook has indicated that each book was accepted for publication by same editor, as he moved from company to company, but that the series never found the mass audience of some of his other series.

I discovered the Dread Empire series in early 1988, when I saw the sequels in stores. I noticed them immediately because the covers were painted by Ken Kelly, one of my favorite cover artists. Both books were labeled “the new Dread Empire novel,” which I found puzzling, since I could recall no previous Dread Empire novels. In looking through the books, they seemed fascinating, as they portrayed realistic characters who seemed far removed from the stereotype of “a farm boy discovers he has secret royal blood, and leads an overthrow of the evil lord with the help of an unlikely group of companions.” The military aspects of the Dread Empire sequels rang true to me, and the characters seemed particularly haunted by the memory of a battle fought in an earlier book at Palmisano. I bought the sequels and became eager to seek out the original trilogy and catch up on the back story.

Even in 1988 the first three Dread Empire books were difficult to find. I was in Albany, New York that summer, having just graduated from high school and preparing to head west to Colorado to begin college. A thorough scouring of the used bookstores in Albany and Fort Collins finally turned up all three original volumes, and I then realized that I had seen October’s Baby in the stores, without paying it any special attention.

I then quickly read through the five Dread Empire books in my collection, following Bragi Ragnarson from mercenary captain, to general, and finally to a kingship, as he fought many battles and usually had luck on his side. I enjoyed them immensely. Indeed, they were a powerful influence on the fantasy stories in my head, as I realized that flowery pseudo-old fashioned language was unnecessary, and real-world motivations for the characters was acceptable. They didn’t need to aspire to saving the world, wanting to survive the next battle was good enough. I’m not the only one to feel this way about the books, Jeff VanderMeer and Steven Erikson have written recent essays (for the Dread Empire omnibus series) in which they confess to very similar feelings of awe. They and other writers also took such inspiration from other Cook projects, such as the Black Company, and as I write this in late 2008, it has become common to find “gritty, realistic” military fantasy. However, 20 years ago and beyond, it was a revelation to read stories told in this way, and I’m glad Cook is getting his due for his early work.

By 2005, Cook had many popular books in print, but none of the Dread Empire novels had been available for many years. Nightshade Books decided to get most of Cook’s back catalog back into print, and announced their intention to collect all of the Dread Empire material into four omnibuses. The first, for 2006, would be A Cruel Wind, which would include the original trilogy. This was to be followed in 2007 by A Fortress in Shadow, which would have the two prequels. Both volumes were published as scheduled, originally in hardcover, and with a trade paperback following the next year.

For 2008 was supposed to be The Wrath of Kings (the two sequels), and then the set would conclude in 2009 with An Empire Unacquainted With Defeat (with the several short stories that Cook wrote in the Dread Empire universe). But something changed in early 2008. Suddenly, The Wrath of Kings was on hold, and the short story collection became the next volume. The schedule was pushed back by six months or so, and now An Empire Unacquainted With Defeat is due in the last weeks of 2008 (and will probably become available from stores in early 2009). This got me and others wondering at the reason for the postponement and rearranging of The Wrath of Kings. Someone asked on the Nightshade Books message board whether the lost third sequel manuscript had been recovered, and he was never given a meaningful reply. I raised the same question myself on a Glen Cook fan email discussion list, and got no answer from any of the people there who are in contact with Cook. This lack of denial anywhere suggests that the third sequel will indeed be part of The Wrath of Kings, but that the announcement is being kept under wraps. Teasingly, the trade paperback of A Fortress in Shadow, which was released during September of 2008, seems to list three books as part of the The Wrath of Kings omnibus, as under the omnibus title heading it mentions, “Containing Reap the East Wind, An Ill Fate Marshalling, and Wrath of Kings.” Hmmm…

I bought the trade paperbacks of A Cruel Wind and A Fortress in Shadow a few weeks ago, and have already read the former. I again found those stories enthralling, even as I can see that they are an earlier stage in Cook’s development. I think each Dread Empire book in the original trilogy and the sequels is better than the last. I desperately hope that the lost manuscript of the third sequel has been recovered, because An Ill Fate Marshalling ended on a sort of cliffhanger, and I want resolution for the story!

I actually never read The Fire in His Hands and With Mercy Toward None. It’s often the case with series that I like, that I’ll leave a book or two unread for a long while, so I know that in the future I’ll have something I can expect to enjoy. I expect to read the A Fortress in Shadow omnibus of these two books in the near future.

If you like Erikson’s Malazan Empire novels, or Robert E. Howard’s tales of medieval warfare (see Lord of Samarcand, for example), or Cook’s Black Company and Instrumentalities of the Night series, then don’t hesitate to give the Dread Empire books a try. They may be marginally less polished than what he wrote later, but they are darned good none the less, and they give the reader hundreds of pages of time in that unique atmosphere that Cook always creates through his writing.

Thought of the day: I recall the immortal words of Nuke LaLoosh, who pointed out years ago, “I like winning…you know, it’s like…better than losing…” Congrats to Colorado State Volleyball on their win today, and best wishes for success on Saturday against Florida!

What's on my mind today

2008-12-02T19:45:00.000-08:00

Hi folks, I'm Marc Rikmenspoel, the author of various books of World War 2 history and articles on many subjects (craft beer, Northern Colorado business, military history, and other things).

I'll be using this spot to discuss what is on my mind at the moment of writing, whether it be an under-appreciated book series, or a beer I enjoyed, or the state of Colorado State Volleyball (who begin postseason play in the NCAA Tournament a few days from the moment I'm typing this).

A blog like this always takes on a life of its own after a while, and I'm not sure what to expect, except of course to expect the unexpected! So tune in often to read what transpires, meanwhile, welcome aboard!