BLACK MAGIC

The new moon in Taurus lets me know it's time to sow seeds for rebirth. And that's just what this neglected column needs! So without further ado, or roguish explanations for my absence from the column the past few months ... I hereby pronounce Firebrand Fiction Reviews alive and kicking, with thanks to those brave editors (and enterprising authors) who've supplied me with a steady stream of print pubs despite the lack of fresh reviews.

Those who would like to send (or recommend) material for review should contact me at pitchblack@insightbb.com for further details. Please keep in mind that I'm interested in reviewing speculative poetry, as well as fiction for the column.

It's good to know somebody is reading your stories and poems, isn't it? Yes, as long as you don't come under the knife!

Our first stop on the phantasmagoric trail is Black Gate issue #7, Fall 2004. This print quarterly (presently masquerading as a biannual) is sure to cast a dominating presence on any retail shelf or comic stand. When a magazine projects such a strong professional appearance, it's bound to raise one's expectations before the cover is cracked. And what beautiful covers BG consistently features!

Reading this pub over the years, I've come to truly appreciate the meaning behind its moniker and, perhaps, even begun to fathom the finesse with which editor John O' Neill and his associated crew assemble and present the pub. For, passing through the darkly illumined threshold requires merely swinging open BG's majestic cover and yielding to the delights within.

I allude not only to fiction, but to entertaining editorial content (John O' Neill's "Adventures of a Nuclear Teen" is perilously clever and deserves your attention), solid non-fiction and reviews, as well as interior illos and comic-art. BG reviews RPG materials and features a lively letters column, where in issue #7 you can learn all about Black Gate's operating costs, submissions protocols, and hear what John O' Neill has to say about Warren Lapine's business practices.

The fiction in issue #7 is by far the most colorful and inspired selection of fantasy fiction I've yet seen compiled in a single issue of BG: five original stories, four of them gunning for the true fantasy fan's heart, and a classic reprint for good measure. Certainly, some of the stories are better than others - but this is a strong issue and should assuage anyone's doubts of whether BG is really interested in heroic fantasy. They really are.

Fiction begins with Judith Berman's "The Poison Well," a moody, brooding, intricate tale of necromancy, vanity, and vengeance. Manvayar is a young and gifted necromancer in service of the Temple, who has come, with his seemingly vacuous and decidedly portly master, inquisitor Seppan, to the moldering estate (a la' Usher) of a distressed lord whose household has fallen under the attack of an enemy necromancer. Berman's pace is measured and thoughtful throughout, (as a slow mare approaching a brooding, broken tower) and this pace coupled with the verisimilitude of the tale's magical systems and world-building in general produce palpable suspense.

Eros assumes its proper place beside Thanatos in Berman's tale, as the aforementioned narrative mare speeds to a poisoned gallop directly into the fires of the ruined Anima's heart, perhaps more explicitly (if no more profoundly) than your typical allegorist. In fact, issues of distorted sexuality thread their way throughout issue #7, from the denouement of Berman's highly-effective opening tale, to the closing story "Leather Doll," which we shall address shortly. "The Poison Well" is a study in modern "Arabesque" and I'll leave it to you to wonder what I mean by that! However, I do recommend that you read the tale and I applaud Berman's imaginative and ghostly tale of initiation, which features, in addition to a solid plot and theme, some dynamic minor characters, including a wise-woman who plays counterbalance to both issues of gender and classicism in this socially aware "pulp" tale.

"Luck of the Gods" by Holly Phillips compliments "The Poison Well," with a likewise story of initiation and family-secrets. In fact, the opening paragraphs exude a sharp sense of deja vu, with Onyx the "trover" winding a lonely, desolate path toward the House of Melioch, where she is to meet with a new client, who needs a family curse abated. Phillips weaves (and then disperses) an intriguing mist over the length of her admirably compressed narrative, shading and detailing the hollows and hidden alcoves of her character's psyche and soul. Again, the theme of fallen Eros appears, though briefly, in a ghostly confrontation between Onyx and her grandfather on the island of the dead. Phillips struggles a bit with her minor characters, who seem mere contrivances for the odyssey of her protagonist and the story's climax retrieves itself only in irony: that it is by submission - rather than conquest - that Onyx endures. A good story with visceral elements of fantasy, penned at exactly the right length and pace.

"Point of the Knife: a Kalamar Novel" is a lengthy excerpt from BG games reviewer Don Bassingthwaite's forthcoming novel Point of the Knife. Bassingthwaite's fiction is the closest thing you'll find to RPG-inspired fantasy in Black Gate (Kalamar is an official Dungeons and dragons setting) and, as such, arrives in radiant panoply (in this case, enemy dwarves in "amber metal" armor) and caters to the tactical and strategic indulgences of funny-sided dice-throwers everywhere.

Bassingthwaite's heroine, Imperial agent Narika Gelomas, is "a sil-karg hobgoblin half-breed," who, in this excerpt, becomes entangled with a human sidekick, Leim, who is "a misguided holy warrior." Both of them have been imprisoned on what appears to be the elemental plane of earth by a treacherous Alchemist in league with the aforementioned "amber metal" dwarves. Now that we have the Maguffin in mind - we can safely say that this story will be a winsome success for anyone who loves sorceric spelunking on the outer planes!

I'm a great fan of just this kind of fantasy fiction and Bassingthwaite adds not only a colorful imagination, but a warm narrative zest, to the mix - so I haven't any serious criticism to make of his writing or of this excerpt from his forthcoming novel. If any criticism should be leveled in light of this story, it is one having to with omission - to wit, there are several writers who I can think of who write sword slinging stories who would be well featured in BG's pages, and perhaps do much to extend the happy overture of rollicking heroic-hearted tales that this excerpt extends.

"Leather Doll" by Mark Summer is exactly the type of tale that could have been waived in favor of a stronger piece of heroic fantasy. Never mind that you can see the "twist" of the story coming for a mile away, the brutal, never-really-focused irony of the story's theme hits precisely like an ill-aimed blunderbuss. You'll get the point of this story, no matter how hard you try to evade it, but you won't find any great depth of characterization to protag Meyer or his precocious "Hereford", a Lolita-meets-Deliverance concoction who, despite the story's unconvincing reversal, seems little more than an elaborate bit of fantasy jail-bait. To top it off, the world-building here: a kind of benevolent dystopia would seem to leave no room for happiness, thus no real future for any of the less-than-heroic characters who dwell within it - so the reader's sympathy for poor Lisle-the-Hereford is subsumed (if even subliminally) under the knowledge that the oppressive socio-political system shall endure unhindered.

This tale might have been more successful, at the level of riotous and/or biting satire, if published in another venue, with appropriate flourish. Ideomancer springs to mind, or Strange Horizons. In BG's pages, it's like finding a snail in your box of popcorn.

The classic reprint, "Tumithak of the Towers of Fire," is the third installment of the saga to be reprinted in BG's pages. The tales were penned by Charles R. Tanner and originally published in the nineteen thirties. It's a "classic" reprint for a reason! So get yourself a copy and dig in.

"Amnesty" by popular BG contributor (and BG webmaster) Todd McAulty should please readers who enthused over his past two offerings, and if you like McAulty's fiction, there's a lot to enthuse about. His imagination is vibrant and epical - with a Dante-on-LSD surrealism pitted against some familiar fantasy tropes, but let me stress, weird is the rule here and if you've been looking for something off-beat and quite spirited, McAulty's your man.

My verdict on Black Gate #7 is an enthusiastic thumb's up. Even the story I singled out for criticism "Leather Doll" had some good moments and offered, if nothing else, an unflinching look at the ugliness of hierarchical enslavement; I just feel that there are better modes in heroic fantasy for expressing that same theme - and, indeed, elevating it from pathos to myth.

By all means extend your subscription to Black Gate, begin a new subscription, or purchase a sample copy today. This will be particularly useful to authors who may be looking to sell BG a story. The pub gets better with each issue.

The next pub up for review is Deep Magic an E-zine of "high fantasy and science fiction" available for free download. Now in its third year, the pub seems to be fleshing out nicely and attracting very good semipro talent to its pages. I'd encourage everyone to click over and browse around a bit; in addition to fiction, DM offers book reviews (also archived on site), story challenges, and other bonus material to its readers. This also looks to be a promising market for new and semipro writers, with a recent shift to a small monetary payment for authors.

In addition to Mark Reeder's serial novel, Shadowloom (which I confess I haven't been following and thus won't review) issue #36 offers three selections of short fiction, along with an excellent interview with and profile of SF artist Stephanie Pui-Mu Law, whose art alone makes downloading this issue worth your trouble. The cover for issue #36 was done by Law and the other samples of her work included in the issue are stunning.

Fiction leads off with "Sun and Sky" by Amy M. Smith. This piece pits a trio of "coeds:" Corah, Jana, and Pescha on a mission to write a term paper. Subject? "Write a 150-word essay comparing common housing arrangements in pre-exilic society to modern living."

What follows is a hunt-and-peck revelation of an apocalyptic history, leading back to the "surface dwellers" who believed in such rare things as wood and the sun. A familiar plot and conceit, made difficult by the ordinariness of the story's characters and their activities, set against a strange, fragmented post-apocalyptic background. If you are supposing the girls' research (for a 150 word!? essay) ultimately leads them to the "surface," you're correct; however, I wouldn't say that the story does much to redeem itself even with these glimpses of lost utopia. Bogged down by far too much exposition and underdeveloped characters, Smith's well-intended tale comes off more like a spirited first draft than a polished narrative.

"The Fall" by David R. Eland offers some classic fantasy tropes: a foreboding young prophet, Nanexe, and a rash King, Naharam. With this biblical-esque backdrop, Eland proceeds to sketch out a plot revolving around the fate of the Kingdon "Edom." There's nothing mind-bogglingly surprising in this tale: an infant-heir, the fate of a Kingdom, an unlistened-to Seer - and - in the end, a flood, as well. Nanexe is a sympathetic character and her survival by magic and wits, her resilience, and her fortitude are inspiring. The main problem with this tale is that the average reader is apt to guess most of what lies ahead from the opening scene: there is simply little novelty to be squeezed out of the stubborn King meets determined and precocious child-Seer. In this case, Eland gains just as much as he dares, and produces a tale that will feel satisfactory to some, and woefully predictable to others.

"Soul-Tied Twist" by Chris Przybyszewski - no, I'm not making up that surname, but I probably am misspelling it - is an exposition-laden tale of two "psychosurgery" researchers, Jaena and Lawrence, wherein a smoldering interpersonal relationship is modulated by a lot of techno-speak and a harrowing brush with Death. I found the pace of the story effective, but much of the technological diction (especially when embedded in dialogue) seemed superfluous - rather like dialogue from the old "Altered States" movie. Still, the concept of psychosurgery is an interesting one, and Chris P. manages to balance the human and technological aspects enough to facilitate suspense for most readers, perhaps, even, a few non-hard-SF enthusiasts.

My conclusion about this issue of Deep Magic is that it is a spirited semipro E-zine with a mission to produce entertaining and well-edited fiction, essays, and other SF content. Their circulation numbers are climbing and I think this is a deserved boost. If you haven't test-driven an issue yet, # 36 is a decent place to start, with an extra round of applause for Law's art.

Go ahead, get yourself a free download!

In closing, I'd just like to make mention of Neo-Opsis magazine, a quarterly Canadian print SF pub, with eclectic tastes and a sharp scheme of layout and presentation.

I highly recommend David Soyka's "Talk of the Town," the lead-off piece in issue #4. Raising the epidemic of "reality media" to a satirical zenith, Soyka's dastardly amusing tale, far from another ripple on the "Lifeloop" theme (see the collected works of Mr. Card), shines as a snipe at all of our Warholian tendencies. And the fifteen minutes it takes you to read this tale, may save you a great deal of embarrassment the next time somebody points a video camera in your direction. Imagine reality shows as interactive holograms and then try to see yourself center-stage in whatever cyber-raiment the Producers decide makes you sexy. A great story, replete with laughs and wisdom.

Also good - and quite surprisingly so - was "Tooth Fairies On-line" a cyber-faerie tale that had me thinking "No way..." until I reached the quarter-way point - where I surrendered to the tale's eeriness and inventiveness. Frankly, I usually dislike these kind of Mabinogian-Microsoft mergers, but this one drew me in, despite my pleas - so go read it and see what you think about Rhiannon's e-mailing skills.

I've only received one issue of this pub, issue #4, and - overall - I'd rate the quality of stories better-than-average. Neo-Opsis looks and feels a bit like a cross between Talebones and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine although any all such resemblances are certainly coincidental. If you've been looking for a digest-sized SF print pub with new voices and visions, Neo-Opsis might be what you've been looking for.

That's it for this month. In short, I recommend each of the pubs reviewed above - and especially the issue with a Neptunian number.

May all of your SF travels be guided by a happy star!

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Until Next Time,

Daniel E. Blackston

Firebrand Fiction Reviews: all content © 2004, Dan Blackston