ThReads Must Roll: the new, improved rolling fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction &c. thread

Loved We.

Read an Elizabeth Jane Howard ghost story and it's pretty good. She only wrote 4 stories but she has a fair number of fans considering that. She was buddies with Robert Aickman, they did a split collection and that's probably a big part of why she is still known.

wasn’t he her first husband? we are for the dark (if i’m remembering rightly) was a collection of their collaborations (again, i’m hazy on this). but from what i’ve read she wrote stuff that added to the english ghost story.

Before Kingsley?

She wrote more than 4! I have a collection of her stories here.or do you mean pure supernatural stories?

I guess but I didn't know she wrote anything but that and a children's book.

ah they were lovers not married (tho yes, she was married twice before kingsley). there were six stories in “We Are For The Dark” and although all are officially collaborations i think three are credited to her.

i’ll have a read again today. my general (not unproblematic) view is that the english ghost story strand of the victorian period maintained its formal, stylistic and imaginative characteristics to become a specific subgenre in the U.K., until US science fiction and horror, itself a branch of that same victorian strand, got taken up by UK writers (inc TV).

iirc We Are For The Dark is an early, non-US innovation on the standard. the pastoral is uncanny and dangerous in abstract, structural ways, to do with time and space and fabric. a sort of immanence. they’re interesting and good.

I read it in the first volume of Aickman's Fontana anthologies of Great Ghost Stories, which he ballsily puts stories by himself and EJH in. It's generally frowned upon to put your own stories into anthologies, but that he put them in anthologies of all-time greats is another level and many would say he stands up well in them.

i just had a quick read of the first two stories – my memory of the whole set was clearly dominated by the EJH (I assume) short story The Trains, which is really excellent. The first, Perfect Love overextends its premise I think, but is sinister enough.

The Trains is Aickman -- one of his best

There you go. Had it completely wrong – thanks Brad. It really is very good as you say. I've seen Aickman is almost thought to have started his own subgenre - 'Aickmanesque'. Do you know what characterises that? I haven't read enough to spot its elements.

As far as I've read, it's when there's not just the question of some supernatural incident but everything seems off and ambiguous.

Yep, ok that makes sense. 'Everything just seems off' is good. It's close in one sense to that Roald Dahl/Tales of the Unexpected Stuff - uncanny rather than supernatural. But I find his stuff actively unpleasant (not always in a bad way) and its uncanniness gaudy and cruel.

Walter De La Mare is similar but less gaudy and cruel. Oliver Onions and Henry James are not too distant. The type of horror that is going to disappoint a lot of people by being far too vague for most tastes.

There's a guy I know online who is particularly obsessed by this mode and he often has Elizabeth Jane Howard as his forum and twitter avatars

i *love* WdlM short stories. i think Lispet, Lissette and Vaine is one of my all time favourite stories.

*Lispett

She's quite different in style and material from Aickman, but I get a similar feeling of stylish unease from Isak Dinesen's Seven Gothic Tales

The Elizabeth Jane Howard story was "Three Miles Up", about the two canal boater guys finding a mysterious young woman to join them on their trip. Something that interests me about it is how her confidence varies, and wondering why.

are you talking about EJH or the character? (its a feature of the trains as well. if EJH i’d say it’s because her confidence as a person varied. extraordinarily talented, beautiful and uncertain. because in a v male world where she was sought after.

The character. She could have been powerful and mysterious the whole way and it would have lessened the effect.

yep - i mean that’s a feature throughout that book regardless of RA or EJH accreditation. it feels like the collaboration status is meaningful. EJH and K Amis used to write bits of each other’s books to see whether anyone noticed which i always found quite fun and touching.

Some recent purchases, despite my slowness in getting through everything I've got, I think I've made some peace with buying more just to get a little buzz and increase my options. I did actually buy and read Aliya Whiteley's (very short) The Beauty in this period so hooray for me.

New Voices Of Fantasy edited by Peter S Beagle & Jacob Weisman
Weirdbook (a large pile of issues)
Drowning In Beauty edited by Justin Isis & Daniel Corrick
Year's Best Weird Fiction vol1 edited by Laird Barron & Michael Kelly
Mantid Magazine 1-2 edited by Farah Rose Smith

Farah Rose Smith - The Visitor
James Champagne - Autopsy Of An Eldritch City
James Champagne - Grimoire
Adrian Cole - Oblivion Hand
Paul Hazel - Finnbranch (a trilogy omnibus)
Nathalie Henneberg - The Green Gods
Priya Sharma - All The Fabulous Beasts
Tanith Lee - Tanith By Choice: Best Of
Brian McNaughton - Throne Of Bones
Silvia Moreno Garcia - This Strange Way Of Dying
Martha Wells - The Cloud Roads (book 1 of Raksura)
Anne Sylvie Salzman - Darkscapes
Nina Antonia - The Greenwood Faun
Paul StJohn Mackintosh - Echo Of The Sea
Neil Williamson - Moon King
George MacDonald - Complete Fairy Tales

Tanith By Choice rather than by coercion or just the inevitability of circumstance?

Story selection choices of her friends and her husband.

She’s a new enthusiasm of mine, reading the flat earth vol. 1 and loving the tone

As far as I've read, it's when there's not just the question of some supernatural incident but everything seems off and ambiguous.

Huh, that's pretty much what I think of weird fiction as.

Depends whose definition really. I think Joshi might have popularized using it perhaps interchangeably with supernatural horror.

Still don't know if the last two Flat Earth books are coming out, maybe they're too unfinished.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) announced the winners of the 2017 Nebula Awards at an awards banquet during the 52nd Annual Nebula Conference held May 19, 2018 at the Pittsburgh Marriott Center in Pittsburgh PA
Here they are: https://locusmag.com/2018/05/2017-nebula-awards-winners/
And I ain't read a one. Although am reading Best American Science Ficion & Fantasy 2015.

@tordotcom
21 hours ago

Nice touch. There’s one at every seat at the Nebula Awards banquet. #Nebulas2018
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdmCv5LVQAIds-z.jpg

If it doesn't show up, it's a button that says "Thank you, Ursula."

The only Nebula nominee i have read was the Martha Wells, but it was very good.

Now reading The Wandering Earth, a fat collection of Cixin Liu's novellas. Combines astonishing and amazing physics and cosmology ideas with seriously cardboard characterisations and dialogue. Like Golden Age SF written with access to 21st century theories.

Good thing I stopped buying books: this is hella expensive---but still nice to be tempted:

https://subterraneanpress.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/h/o/houses_under_the_sea_by_caitlin_r_kiernan.gif

We've just received another ten copies of Caitlin R. Kiernan's mammoth Lovecraftian collection, Houses Under the Sea, likely the last time we'll be able to reorder from Centipede Press.
In our estimation, this is the collection of the year thus far, both from content and presentation standpoints. Look for copies to be rare on the secondary market.
About the Book:
Since H.P. Lovecraft first invited colleagues such as Frank Belknap Long and Robert Bloch (among others) to join in his creation of what has come to be known as "The Cthulhu Mythos" (over Lovecraft's less invocative name of "Yog-Sothery"), dozens of authors have tried their hand at adding to this vast tapestry with varying degrees of success. Some, like the then teen-aged Ramsey Campbell, used the Mythos as a starting point to his own career while still finding his own authorial voice (The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants, Arkham House 1964); others, like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, did so at the height of their careers, paying homage to an author who had been such a tremendous inspiration to them. But no one, absolutely no one, has contributed such a body of brilliant and profoundly original work to the Mythos as has Caitlín R. Kiernan.
The stories are fully illustrated with over 30 new full page illustrations by Richard A. Kirk, John Kenn Mortensen, and Vince Locke. The full wraparound dustjacket and frontispiece are by Piotr Jablonski.
In this remarkable collection the author has selected over two dozen of her best Lovecraftian tales ranging from 2000s "Valentian" to her more recent classic "A Mountain Walked" as well as including the complete Dandridge Cycle, as well as a new story, "M Is for Mars." In short, this is a cornerstone volume for Kiernan fans and Mythos devotees alike. This edition is limited to 500 signed copies, each signed by Caitlín R. Kiernan, Michael Cisco, S.T. Joshi, and the artists: Piotr Jablonski, Richard A. Kirk, John Kenn Mortensen, and Vince Locke.
Edition Information:
-- Limited to 500 copies, each signed by Caitlín R. Kiernan, Michael Cisco, S.T. Joshi, and the artists: Piotr Jablonski, Richard A. Kirk, John Kenn Mortensen, and Vince Locke.
-- Oversize at 6½ × 11 inches.
-- 552 pages.
-- New introduction by S.T. Joshi.
-- New afterword by Michael Cisco.
-- Full Dutch cloth with two color stamping on spine and blind stamp on front board.
-- Clothbound slipcase.
-- Printed endpapers.
-- Ribbon marker, head and tail bands.

Subterranean Press

Kiernan is v impressive and I would read the shit out of that

Does any other literary genre besides SF make so much of its interesting work almost unavailable except to those with incredible wealth?

idk, making nice things in limited quantities is expensive - you think Subterranean Press is raking it in?

Not at all, but hardly anyone is reading the books, either.

At least it's keeping ST Joshi in 'yet another lovecraft introduction' work.

Lol

This has a lot of things I liked and found interesting, like these Vietnamese space empires having their architecture and clothing a lot like what I'm guessing ancient Vietnam may have been like. The virtual ancestors and the names of ships & places were pretty cool too.

But I think the prose was a bit too weak and the story wasn't quite interesting enough and it got very repetitive the way we're told about the characters manners.
I would have liked more description of the ships, some of the places and the Harmonization Arch but I'm guessing some of these are detailed in earlier Xuya stories and you don't want to have these things described in every installment.

The excerpt from an earlier Xuya novel seemed like it might be better.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that House Of Shattered Wings is much better.

Sorry, that was a review for Aliette De Bodard's Citadel Of Weeping Pearls.

Just checked the price for a new Zagava press book that interested me. Cheapest version is 98 Euros.

Is there gonna be an ebook of that kiernan mythos doorstop?

The Count Stenbock book by David Tibet kept getting delayed so Snuggly Books have ended up releasing their version first. Don't know if the contents are identical though.

James- are there any specifically science fiction oriented presses that are more expensive than Zagava, Raphus, Ex Occidente, Centipede and Pegana? I used to think £30 presses like Tartarus, Ash Tree and Egaeus were outrageous but now I buy them without crying too much. Most of them are leaning weird/ghostly/decadent.

Subterranean editions aren't necessarily exclusive sources, if you look around, especially with prolific authors like Kiernan---sure are a lot of mentions of her on this ol; thread, for instance;
MacMillan's got Kiernan and a bunch of others "starting at $2.99"---all ebooks in this ad, though prob have at lease some of 'em in other formats as well; seems to be the thing for a lot of F&SF publishers, judging by Amazon: http://view.mail.macmillan.com/?j=fe5c17767c650c797510&m=feee1c737d6c02&ls=fdc71576716401747712747567&l=fe5f15777d63047c7413&s=fe1d1674746c0d74721579&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe2711707267007a721370&r=0

― dow, Monday, 27 February 2017 19:56 (one year ago) Permalink

I've downloaded a few cheapo ebooks via MyKindle to read on my laptop, but one reason for reading books is to get away from screens, so...

― dow, Monday, 27 February 2017
And! Check the ebook price on this CK slab:
What exactly is the difference between a love letter and a suicide note? Is there really any difference at all? These might be the questions posed by Dear Sweet Filthy World, Caitlín R. Kiernan's fourteenth collection of short fiction, comprised of twenty-eight uncollected and impossible-to-find stories.

Treading the grim places where desire and destruction, longing and horror intersect, the author rises once again to meet the high expectations she set with such celebrated collections as Tales of Pain and Wonder, To Charles Fort, With Love, and the World Fantasy Award-winning The Ape's Wife and Other Stories. In these pages you'll meet a dragon's lover, a drowned vampire cursed always to ride the tides, a wardrobe that grants wishes, and a lunatic artist's marriage of the Black Dahlia and the Beast of Gévaudan. You'll visit a ruined post-industrial Faerie, travel back to tropical Paleozoic seas and ahead to the far-flung future, and you'll meet a desperate writer forced to sell her memories for new ideas. Here are twenty-eight tales of apocalypse and rebirth, of miraculous transformation and utter annihilation. Here is the place where professing your undying devotion might be precisely the same thing as signing your own death warrant—or worse.

The stories in Dear Sweet Filthy World were first published in the subscription-only Sirenia Digest, run by Caitlín for her most devoted readers. This publication marks the first availability to the general public for most of these rare tales.

From Publishers Weekly:

“The 28 stories (most previously available only in her e-zine, Sirenia Digest) in Kiernan’s newest collection of dark fiction (after Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea) explore the human and inhuman conditions in all their filthy glory, and bravely wallow in the effluvia of mythology, murder, and depravity…her many fans will be overjoyed to have these works collected.”

From Kirkus Reviews:

“Horror blends with love, obsession, transformed bodies, and terrifying mysteries in this collection of stories. Kiernan's surreal and often unsettling fiction derives much of its power from the way it causes characters and readers alike to question reality via a shroud of narrative ambiguity… At their best, these stories are sinister and beguiling in equal measure, tracing the border between fear and obsession and asking powerful questions about desire along the way.”

From Locus Online:

“Although Kiernan has produced three fine novels, I think it’s safe to say that most of her fans think of her as one our finest and most productive writers of short stories. And so this new collection, her fourteenth, will certainly be received with much delight and acclaim. Containing nearly thirty tales, this handsome volume incidentally proves once again that Subterranean Press continues to be one of the most generous, savvy, elegant and creative publishers around.”

From SFRevu:

“Any fan of dark fiction should be reading Kiernan, and if you haven't discovered her yet this collection is a chance to see what you have been missing.”

Table of Contents:

Werewolf Smile
Vicaria Draconis
Paleozoic Annunciation
Charcloth, Firesteel, and Flint
Shipwrecks Above
The Dissevered Hearts
Exuvium
Drawing from Life
The Eighth Veil
Three Months, Three Scenes, With Snow
Workprint
Tempest Witch
Fairy Tale of the Maritime
– 30 –
The Carnival is Dead and Gone
Scylla for Dummies
Figurehead
Down to Gehenna
The Granting Cabinet
Evensong
Latitude 41°21'45.89"N, Longitude 71°29'0.62"W
Another Tale of two Cities
Blast the Human Flower
Cammufare
Here Is No Why
Hauplatte/Gegenplatte
Sanderlings
Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)

$4.99! I'm gonna get this.

― dow, Friday, 13 October 2017

I never did, but still.

Oops, that MacMillan ad's link has expired, sorry, but check Amazon.

Amazon bio

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31lLLP3h5JL._UX250_.jpg

Caitlin R. Kiernan was born near Dublin, Ireland, but has spent most of her life in the southeastern United States. In college, she studied zoology, geology, and palaeontology, and has been employed as a vertebrate palaeontologist and college-level biology instructor. The results of her scientific research have been published in the JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY, THE JOURNAL OF PALAEONTOLOGY and elsewhere. In 1992, she began writing her first novel, THE FIVE OF CUPS (it remained unpublished until 2003). Her first published novel, SILK (1998), earned her two awards and praise from critics and such luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, and Poppy Z. Brite. Her next novel, THRESHOLD (2001), was also an award-winner, and since then she has written LOW RED MOON (2003), MURDER OF ANGELS (2004), DAUGHTER OF HOUNDS (2007), and, forthcoming, THE RED TREE. She is a prolific short fiction author, and her award-winning short stories have been collected in TALES OF PAIN AND WONDER (2000), WRONG THINGS (with Poppy Z. Brite; 2001), FROM WEIRD AND DISTANT SHORES (2002), and TO CHARLES FORT, WITH LOVE (2005), ALABASTER (2006), FROG TOES AND TENTACLES (2005), TALES FROM THE WOEFUL PLATYPUS (2007), and, most recently, the sf collection, A IS FOR ALIEN (2009). She has also scripted comics for DC/Vertigo, including THE DREAMING ('97-'01), THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE DEATH ('98), and BAST: ETERNITY GAME ('03). Her short sf novel THE DRY SALVAGES was published in 2004, and has published numerous chapbooks since 2000. Caitlin also fronted the goth-rock band Death's Little Sister in 1996-1997, once skinned a lion, and likes sushi. She lives in Providence, RI with her partner, Kathryn, and her two cats, Hubero and Smeagol. Caitlin is represented by Writer's House (NYC) and United Talent Agency (LA)

B-b-but what about new one, Black Helicopters? I bought it when it came out but have yet to read it. Think maybe it appeared earlier in shorter form

That's an old bio, she's had a lot of books since then.

She's got a Very Best Of coming out soon.

Gloria Anzaldúa deployed the Nahua word/concept nepantla to describe the space and experience of in-between-ness. Author Daniel Jose Older has built on this work in his fiction to frame Brooklyn as a multicultural frontera capable not only of resisting the gentrifying monoculture of whiteness but also of defying its associated ontological boundaries, including such binaries as life/death, human/inhuman, and natural/unnatural. How far can The Weird run with this model, and can it do so without co-opting the roots of Anzaldúa’s thought in mestizaje, queerness, and feminism?

Is it fair that I think this sounds really daft?