Fantasy Books

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along […]

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Jonathan Maberry

Since the publication of his first novel Ghost Road Blues, Jonathan Maberry has been a mainstay in genre fiction circles. Whether its for one of his multiple series, comic book writing, or the numerous anthologies he’s edited over the years, audiences have come to know and love his work.

With the completion of his 57th novel right around the corner, Maberry is still going strong. The five-time Stoker Award winner joined me for a chat about the past, present, and future. From his childhood in the rough Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia to being editor of Weird Tales, here’s what Maberry had to share with Black Gate magazine in an interview so big we had to split it in two.

You’ve been writing and editing for decades, how has the industry changed since you made your fiction debut?

My first novel came out in 2006 which is just around the time that digital was rising, so a couple years from then on we saw the end of CDs and cassettes for audio books and the rise of digital downloads.

Also, we saw the rise of independent publishing going from what looked like cheap work to much more sophisticated work. Because, it’s kind of a sad event but had a good benefit, during the economic downturn a lot of people in publishing a lot of editors agents and so on lost their jobs. And those folks, a lot of them went freelance. So the indie crowd is now able to hire professional freelancers that worked in traditional publishing to be able to edit their books, design their books and so on which raised the quality of indie to be somewhat comparable to traditional publishing.

I’m 100% traditional published but you’ve seen so many books come out that are definitely top quality from the indie world and that’s happened during that phase.

We’ve also had the rise of CGI and AI which can be good or can be really bad. I’m not a fan of generative AI at all-I’m part of that big Anthropic lawsuit in fact. We’ve also seen the rise of E-book, though for a while a lot of industry folks thought that was going to explode and be the dominant form for books, but it turned out to be in third place. First is still print, audio is next, and for guys like me audio is actually more, and then e-books are a smaller group. I think that will change especially during the economic crisis we’re going through now. Because print relies on oil and everything from the chainsaws that cut down trees to the paper mills and trucks that drive them to the book store that’s all oil.

The 10-volume Joe Ledger series, written by Jonathan Maberry and published by St. Martin’s Griffin, began with Patient Zero in 2009

My personal favorite part of this is building a community because I’ve always been a community builder in the writing world anyway. For the last 26 years I’ve been actively building communities in various places so that writers of all kinds can share knowledge and mutually benefit. I started the Writers Coffeehouse back then and it’s since spread out to other parts of the country. I run the San Diego chapter and it’s thriving. It’s a free 3-hour networking group for writers of all kinds.

And that’s something that’s really wonderful. I can use these utilities like Zoom, Facebook Live, and others to talk to people, I can do classes, I do a writing masterclass as a charity fundraiser every month online. I do virtual panels, book events. All of that has happened in the 20 years since I started fiction.

The friends of mine who don’t like it, who are very much analog in their approach to writing, got left behind. And I’m sorry for them as a person but not sorry for them professionally because business has always changed and you have to change with it. That’s a fact of life. Business will not ask you whether it’s comfortable for you to change its going to change based on its needs and we’ve got to change with it.

Before you wrote your first novel in 2006, you’d written other books. What was it that made you want to become a writer and storyteller?

Honestly, I think I was born that way. I can remember even before I could write I was telling stories with toys. Storytelling was always baked into my DNA in some way. What changed over the years is the kind of writing. As a kid, I wanted to write comics and stories because that’s what I was reading and that’s what I understood. And my mentors, the people I met along the way at the time, were very encouraging of that.

But in high school I was very political. It was right after Watergate, right after the Vietnam war. Journalists had risen to become like rock stars. Woodward Bernstein, even Walter Cronkite, people like that were the voice of truth that we were hearing and I wanted to be that. So I shifted from fiction, probably in 10th grade, and then for the next 30 years that was my focus, nonfiction.

I went to school on a journalism scholarship through Temple University with every intention that I would expose the corrupt whatever, tear that down and expose the truth and all of that. Investigative journalists were like rock stars. But…I never actually did that. Halfway through college I took a course on magazine features and decided that was more fun, and I did that as part time work for decades.

Judo & You: A Handbook for the Serious Student, by John Earl Maberry, 5th dan, and Dr. Chuck Rinear, 1st dan (Kendall Hunt Pub Co, 1991)

My day job was always teaching martial arts in various ways including teaching martial arts history at Temple University for 14 years along with teaching jujutsu classes and women’s self-defense and other things. So I was writing about that sort of stuff, my first book was a judo textbook I wrote for a friend of mine who was a judo instructor at Temple University. That book came out in 1991.

My breaking away from that kind of writing happened in stages. I started out with the ‘write what you know’ and since I’d been doing martial arts since I was five, I wrote about that. I then started writing about what I liked: skydiving, music, I wrote about travel, theater, bartending, holidays, parenting, all sorts of stuff. I did about 1200 feature articles and maybe 3000 reviews and filler pieces.

Then around 2000 I wrote a nonfiction book about supernatural folklore  – The Vampire Slayers Field Guide to the Undead — about what people actually believed about monsters throughout history. It was the only thing I ever published under a pen name – Shane MacDougall — because my martial arts book publisher was afraid that such a dramatic genre shift would negatively impact sales of those other books. It did not, as it turned out.

The Vampire Slayers’ Field Guide to the Undead by Shane MacDougall,
AKA Jonathan Maberry (Strider Nolan, October 1, 2003)

While researching folklore it made me want to find novels that use the folkloric versions of monsters but they were very hard to find, at least back then. Now they are more common. But back then my wife said, “Why don’t you just write it.” And you know I actually never considered that, so I spent five years learning to write a novel and trying to understand the carpentry used to build a novel. You know, the elements of craft: pacing and tone, voice, point of view, figurative and descriptive language, the three act structure, all that.

And then I wrote a novel just to get it out of my system more than anything else. I got an agent really quickly, and it sold to the second publisher who looked at it. The book Ghost Road Blues is still in print. In fact June 6th will be the 20th anniversary of its release. June 6th is also when I’m getting the lifetime achievement award from the Horror Writers Association.

Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry (Kensington Books reprint edition, May 2016)

Just as publishing changes I’ve changed with publishing. I’ve had to learn about the business of publishing, about marketing and promotion, about business etiquette, and about the ways these things had changed and would continue to change.

I eventually wound up getting into comics, too. I’d grown up reading comics. Mostly Marvel, but other stuff as well, but I’d never seen what a comic script looked like. That was something else to learn, and I was there for it. ‘It’ was my novel Patient Zero that got Marvel interested enough to reach out and ask me if I would like to write for Marvel which is, by the way, a silly, silly question. Of course I want to write for Marvel. I’ve met very few writers that would say ‘oh I wouldn’t bother with that.’ No, we all want to write for Marvel.

I’m glad you mentioned all your other interests because that ties very nicely into my next question. How do you balance being a martial artist, a teacher, having all those different interests with being a writer. And how do you leverage those interests to help your writing?

These days I actually don’t teach martial arts anymore. I’d been doing it for 60 something years and it takes a toll on the old bones, you know? I do workshops on how to write fight scenes and I do some consulting on Spec-Ops and SWAT but that’s a smaller part of what I do. Everything else is writing now. It’s my day job, it’s what I do.

As far as balancing things, I look at my process all the time. I want to understand what makes me happy as a writer, because happiness has to be a big part of that; what makes me most efficient and what gets in the way of that and you tweak the process. It took me three and a half years to write the first draft of my (first) novel and then a year and a half to revise it. Now I write a long novel every three months.

Marvel Comics by Jonathan Maberry: Captain America: Hail Hydra, Marvel Universe vs. The Avengers, and Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher

I think a lot of that pace has to do with being trained as a journalist. When you’re trained to be a newspaper reporter you’re not trained to write slow. Editor says go out and give me 2,000 words on that 5-alarm fire and phone it in. That isn’t waiting for the muse to whisper to you, or going out and waiting for the fire to speak to you. A reporter goes there, gets the information, finds a hook that makes that article different from every other article on the subject, writes it quick and dirty, fixes it in the rewrite and moves on. I applied that mindset and process to my fiction. So it allows me to be very productive but also, it allows me to be efficient enough so that I have family time.  Without that balance what the hell are you working for?

As far as other jobs, I teach writing masterclasses online, I teach at writers conferences all over the country, and I do in-person things like the Writers Coffeehouse. These are kind of built into my schedule. Everything goes on my calendar. I run my writing career like a business because it is a business. I have an assistant who is a contract worker. I hire her by the hour when I need her and everything else is a one man show. And she is a working writer herself – Dana Fredsti. She’s a novelist and freelance editor.

If you’re running a business you’d better be efficient at it and you’d better be able to let it evolve with the times. Being willing to change as the publishing world changes has allowed me to have a rich writing career and a rich family life.

The Pine Deep Trilogy: Ghost Road Blues, Dead Man’s Song, and Bad Moon Rising (Kensington Books, 2006 – 2008)

You’ve written in a wide range of different genres: supernatural thrillers, science fiction, horror, etc. Do you find it easy to hop from genre to genre? Is there a certain frame of mind that you have to get into to write a zombie horror story as opposed to a dark science-fiction one?

I actually find jumping from genre to genre is like a palate cleanser. It freshens up your mind; it allows you to let the other things sit and think for a little bit while you go in and do something else, and then when you come back it’s ready for you to work on it.

My schedule works like this: I write one novel every three months as I said. During that three month period I’ll have maybe five or six short stories I have to write, I have a couple comics I’ll have to come back and do another issue of every couple of weeks, I have a packet I have to write for my online workshops, and I have appearances I need to do.

I just came back from the Las Vegas Writers Conference where I kept pretty busy with programs but soon as each program was over I went back up to my hotel room and I would write. I need t get at least 3,000 or more words done every day, even while teaching multiple classes at a writer’s conference. Its efficiency. It’s not that I’m the fastest writer in the world, I’m fast but I’m not the fastest. I’m just very focused on my process, my time management, and growing my career. I want to make sure that when I’m on the job I’m the best version of my own employee and my own boss that I can be. And that also makes it fun because then the business thrives.

The Wolfman, Jonathan Maberry’s first bestseller (Tor, February 2010)

Through tie-in works and comics you’ve had the opportunity to write some classic characters including Doctor Doom, Deadpool, the Xenomorph. Is it difficult to add your own spin and style to these classic settings? How do you approach that when compared to writing your own characters?

I have people write in my literary worlds as well. There’s an organization called the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers. It’s for people who write in other people’s licensed worlds – like Star Wars, Star Trek, CSI, as well as movies and even video games. I’m currently the president of that organization. I’ve been able to write short stories, comics, and novels about other people’s amazing characters. I’ve done work with Hellboy, Planet of the Apes, True Blood, John Carter of Mars, Aliens vs Predator, X-files — some of that stuff was written because I went after it. Some of it was written because my very first best-seller was a tie-in to The Wolfman.

I enjoy exploring those worlds. Marvel really got me started with that because when they contacted me and asked me if I wanted to write, the first thing they offered me was a short (8-page) Wolverine script. I’ve read a lot of Wolverine comics, and those comics were not all written by the same person; they were written by dozens of writers. So it’s a matter of learning what is kept as bedrock by all writers working on that license and then to find an entry to tell something new without reinventing someone else’s character.

Like, you’re never going to turn Wolverine into someone who is just passive, that’s not him. Punisher is never going to start regretting killing a bad guy. So what you’re looking for is another element of their life that you would like to add another note to. With Wolverine, I ended up having him have to kill the Japanese woman he was in love with. That scenario was created by another writer years back, but like all stories there are untold “moments” that invite new ideas. My focus was on what the psychological effect on him was, and the inner turmoil that resulted from so tragic an act.

With The Punisher they don’t want you to change The Punisher’s personality so I gave him side characters who served the role of bringing personality, humor and other points of view somewhat into it.

Read Part Two of our interview with Jonathan Maberry next week!

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

The Dorians by Nick Cutter

Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars 

Genre: Horror

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Gallery Books (May 19, 2026)

Length: 400 pages

Author Information: Website

A few years ago, I read about Canada’s expansion of its MAiD program, which stands for Medical Assistance in Dying, allowing eligible patients with grievous medical conditions to legally seek physician-assisted death. What struck me most though, is that its framework is considered one of the most permissive in the world. While many countries strictly limit this option for terminally ill adults, Canada does not. And ever since learning about it, I had a feeling authors would eventually begin writing stories related to the emotional and ethical implications, and I was right. The Dorians is probably the second or third book I’ve read recently that explores themes surrounding right to die, bodily autonomy, fear of decline, and how far people are willing to go in order to end their personal suffering. Nick Cutter, the pseudonym for critically acclaimed Canadian author Craig Davidson, takes those themes and pushes them into full-blown horror science fiction territory.

The story follows a group of elderly characters nearing the end of their lives for different reasons, who have all independently sought out MAiD. Each of them is approached by a mysterious doctor named Astrid Marsh, who offers them the chance to participate in a highly experimental but life-altering treatment at her secluded research facility on a remote island. Some of these individuals are terminally ill and out of medical options, while others are simply exhausted by old age and feeling like they have become a burden to society. What they all share, however, is regret. That lingering hope of a chance at a do-over is what drives a lot of them to at least hear Dr. Marsh out, even for those who have already made peace with the idea of assisted death.

And indeed, it turns out what the brilliant doctor has planned is nothing short of revolutionary. In her research, she has discovered a way to not only stop aging, but to reverse the biological clock completely, restoring youth to those willing to participate in her study. Of course, the treatment comes with enormous risks, and it is definitely not for the squeamish. The experiment centers on the hydra, a primitive multicellular organism known for its apparent biological immortality as they do not age due to their stem cells existing in a constant state of renewal. And now, Dr. Marsh and her team have found a way to harness those regenerative properties and integrate them into human hosts. Despite the uncertainty and hideousness behind the process, it’s not hard to see why many of the participants would take her up on the offer.

After his last few novels, Nick Cutter feels fully back in his element with The Dorians. As much as I admire some of his weirder, more ambitious work, I truly think he’s at his strongest when he’s tackling straightforward body horror with a tightly managed cast of characters and a more focused premise. After all, what’s more anxiety-inducing than the idea of aging? Losing control of your body is terrifying enough, but losing your mind right alongside might be even worse. That fear sits at the center of this novel, and the author digs into it with all the grotesque detail he’s become known for.

And yes, the body horror absolutely delivers. I simply love it when horror novels incorporate a biological component, and if you’ve read Nick Cutter before, you already know he has a talent for making certain biological processes feel disturbing in the most skin-crawling ways possible. But what really makes the novel effective, and also what I think is its greatest strength, is that the horror here isn’t necessarily of the “jump scare” variety, nor would I say it is scary in the traditional sense. Instead, it’s unsettling on an idea level, paired with vivid and sometimes nauseating imagery that becomes harder and harder to look away from.

But while Cutter clearly had a lot of fun exploring the nightmarish possibilities of Dr. Marsh’s hydra experiment, we still have a strong emotional thread running beneath all the biological ick and gore. For one, the elderly participants all came to the island thinking they were staring down the final stretch of their lives. Many of them carry deep loneliness, resentment, or fear about what’s coming next. In some ways, I wish the story had spent more time unpacking these ideas related to the characters’ anxieties and regret about aging, which might have helped flesh them out more as individuals. Instead, the plot spends a lot of time delving into the backstory and psychology of the main antagonist. While important and interesting in its own right, it also pulled the focus away from the others, and by the end, the villain was honestly the only character who really stuck with me.

Ultimately, The Dorians was for me a really entertaining return to form for Nick Cutter. It’s gross and packed with the kind of body horror that gets under your skin, but it’s also thoughtful and emotionally messy. The novel does have some issues, but I still feel like it’s one of his stronger works and well worth checking out if the premise speaks to you.

A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (Troma Entertainment, 1990)

A veritable cornucopia of dodgy barbarian and barbarian-adjacent movies that I have never watched before, and will probably never watch again. Enjoy Parts One and Two here and here.

A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (1990) – USA

I can’t help thinking that this one must have disappointed many a randy teenager when they smuggled it out of the video store, only to learn that ‘nymphoid’ doesn’t mean the same as ‘nymphomaniac,’ and were instead subjected to a good hour of aimless wandering before even a glimpse of prehistoric knockers was on the cards.

This is another quick buck-maker from the Troma crew, who surely saw a return on their meagre investment thanks to the aforementioned teen suckers, but it really doesn’t feel like a Troma flick. There’s no sign of the inventive weirdness or inappropriate humour to be found in the usual Kaufman joint; it’s all replaced by a dull story in which the last woman on Earth after the apocalypse, (Linda Corwin) has to contend with wandering gangs of bestial chads, while trying to avoid larger critters in the form of daft-looking dinosaurs.

No real goal, just a bit of rambling. It doesn’t help that Corwin has a permanent expression on her face like every single living creature she encounters is farting in her direction. Having said all that, apart from a hilarious toothed sausage type thing (called a Tromasaurus), there are some very fun stop-motion monster moments, flung together by director Brett Piper in a matter of days, that hold up very well and almost redeem the rest of the snoozefest.

I said ‘almost.’

4/10

Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (Concorde Pictures, April 1985) Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (1985) – USA/Argentina

Here’s one that always caught my eye, but I never got around to watching, and I had mistakenly thought it was a fantasy film of the same caliber of semi-respectable S&S flicks such as Krull (1983), or Dragonslayer (1981). Oh, gentle reader, it is not.

It’s actually part of the multi-picture deal that Roger Corman struck with the Argentinian studios (that kicked off with the afore-critiqued Deathstalker), albeit given a few dollars more for production design and laser effects. The tale concerns a sorcerer’s apprentice, Simon (Vidal Peterson) who must locate his magic macguffin and save the teenage princess he plans to marry. The obstacle in his way is the evil wizard Shurka (Thom Matthews, the budgie-headed guy from Buck Rogers) who wants the frankly underage princess to himself, plus to commit other assorted naughtiness.

Simon is aided on his quest by a rogue warrior, Kor the Conqueror (Bo Svenson, having fun) and a ridiculous Chewbacca stand-in, Galfax, who looks like a tightly-permed yeti with the head of a bichon frise, and who does bugger all. Much derring-do ensues.

The humour is pushed to the forefront during the jam-packed adventure, and I doff my cap to the filmmakers who chose to throw everything into this one, no matter if it makes sense. It’s ultimately as daft as a kettle of chipmunks, but I didn’t hate it.

6/10

Ilya Muromets (Mosfilm, September 16, 1956) Ilya Muromets (1956) – Russia

From the stable of epic fantasy director Alexandr Ptushko comes this retelling of a classic bit of Russian folklore. Ilya Muromets (Boris Andreyev) is a gentle giant of man, seemingly unable to walk until an ancient sword is presented to him by a band of wandering pilgrims, and he takes up arms against the invading Tugars who are rampaging through the lands of Mother Russia, led by the fearsome Tsar Kalin (Shukur Burkhanov). These Tugars are a little like the Tartars, but different, thus thwarting my plans to make a Tartar source joke.

It is up to Ilya to unite the lands, work with Prince Vladimir of Kiev (Andrey Abrikosov), and defeat various magical creatures along the way. It all culminates in a showdown including his own son (who had been adopted by Kalin) and the three-headed grandpappy of King Ghidora.

The three-headed dragon in Ilya Muromets

As with many Russian films of this period, Ilya Muromets has a dreamy ‘magical realism’ feel to it, as if we are watching a stage play on a monumental scale. Actual landscapes are enhanced with beautiful paintings and fantastic model work (Ptushko started out as an animator and model maker), and glorious puppetry is employed throughout in the depictions of animals, birds, and even Ilya’s own mighty steed.

This version (on Tubi) is the original, not the hacked up version that Corman presented as The Sword and the Dragon, that ended up as the butt of a plethora of Finnish jokes by the MST3K crowd.

Recommended.

8/10

The Seven Magnificent Gladiators (Cannon Italia, August 31, 1984) The Seven Magnificent Gladiators (1983) – USA/Italy

A community is terrorized by a nefarious leader of soldiers and cutthroats, and must recruit a small band of defenders to save their crops and their lives. Yes, this is a blatant rip-off of Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). Someone should do a samurai version.

Anyhoo, a wise old elder (as opposed to a wise young elder), reveals a hidden sword that will ‘choose’ a hero to wield it, and a gaggle of ladies takes off for the big city to find such a hunk. It eventually ends up in the hands of good-natured lunk Han (Lou Ferrigno, dubbed), a gladiatorial barbarian who is no fan of injustice. Han then recruits a bunch of other warriors, and the film then proceeds to follow the original(s) beat for beat. Half the fun is figuring out which warrior is meant to be James Coburn. I did realize that Julia (Sybil Danning), was the Brad Dexter one.

Anyhoo, swords are swung, villagers are trained, and some of the magnificent gladiators kick the bucket — all par for the course. It’s a bit laborious, but ultimately good for a laugh, and there’s no way any film with Sybil in it is getting less than 5 out of 10 from me.

5/10

Hawk the Slayer (ITC Entertainment, December 18, 1980) Hawk the Slayer (1980) – UK

I concluded this watch-a-thon with an old British classic that I somehow managed to never get around to seeing, much to my shame. Hawk (John Terry — as stiff as a dead ferret) is the younger brother of Voltan (Jack Palance — having a blast), and the two of them have had a severe falling out over their rivalry for Eliane (Catriana McColl) — their squabble ending in the fair lady’s death and Voltan getting a crispy makeover.

Since then, Voltan has gone on to terrorize the land with dark magic and a bad attitude, while Hawk has lent himself out as a goodly fighter for hire. When Voltan kidnaps a nun (Annette Crosby!) Hawk decides it is time to put an end to his brother’s wicked ways once and for all, and recruits a group of tropes in order to rescue her.

This group includes Crow (Ray Charleson) an elf with the power to shoot arrows remarkably quickly through the power of editing, Baldin (Peter O’Farrell), a cheeky dwarf, and Gort (Bernard Bresslaw) a giant. Yes, in the space of three years, Bernard Bresslaw played a giant in a fantasy film (Krull), albeit this time with twice as many eyes. They are also joined by Ranulph (W. Morgan Sheppard), a crossbowman who has just lost one of his hands to Voltan.

Plenty of sorcery and shenanigans take place on the way to the inevitable showdown, some heroes die, others ride off into the sunset, and Jack Palance hangs up his Vader-inspired helmet vowing never to make another fantasy film (until the producers of Gor coax him back with a sack of gold).

Lots of fun, stuffed to the gills with beloved British character actors, and a bonkers synth score from Harry Robertson means I finish on a high note. Huzzah!

8/10

Previous Murky Movie surveys from Neil Baker include:

Fauxnan the Barbarian, Part One
Fauxnan the Barbarian, Part Two
Probing Questions
My Top Thirty Films
The Star Warses
Just When You Thought It Was Safe
Tech Tok
The Weyland-Yutaniverse
Foreign Bodies
Mummy Issues
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Monster Mayhem

See all of Neil Baker’s Black Gate film reviews here. Neil spends his days watching dodgy movies, most of them terrible, in the hope that you might be inspired to watch them too. He is often asked why he doesn’t watch ‘proper’ films, and he honestly doesn’t have a good answer. He is an author, illustrator, teacher, and sculptor of turtle exhibits.

Experience Literary Magic: 5 Novels on Film that Won The Top Prize at the Academy…

The post 5 Stunning Novels On Film That Won Best Picture Academy Awards! appeared first on LitStack.

Welcome to Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Reading Reality.

This is my haul of books that I bought and borrowed for the last 5 months! Click on the book image to go to Goodreads to learn more about them.  Hope you all got some great books and that you have a great week (or many months) of reading ahead of you! Purchased Books:

Audiobook Books:

Borrowed Books:

I consider myself lucky to have been reading science fiction for a long while (And since you didn’t ask, it’s over 50 years!) One of the things that keeps me reading is that I appreciate how much the genre has changed. Like many of my age, my first introduction to science fiction novels was through…

If you missed the second of my 2026 book recommendations events with the Ashland Public Library last night, you can watch the video on Youtube here. While last year’s program focused on both fantasy and science fiction, I’m primarily focusing on fantasy book recommendations this year. (But if you’re looking for more science fiction books this year, Elizabeth Bear has you covered!) This time, I highlighted the following: A Song of Legends Lost by M. H. Ayinde, an epic science […]

The post May 2026 Virtual Fantasy Book Recommendations first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.

Pauline Whitby/Pauline Ashwell/Paul Ash

Pauline Whitby was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire on January 25, 1926 to the headmaster and headmistress of Merchant Taylors’ School in Ashwell, the village from which she would gain her pseudonym. Whitby had a younger sister named Marie. Both of them attended the school their parents ran.

Whitby began publishing in 1941 when she was 15 years old, with the chapbook Little Red Steamer, a fantasy for children, which published by Methuen under the pseudonym Pauline Ashwell.

In July of 1942, her story “Invasion from Venus” appeared in the British magazine Yankee Science Fiction. She used the pseudonym Paul Ashwell for the story. Later, her first novelette, “Unwillingly to School” appeared in Astounding under her most famous pseudonym, Pauline Ashwell and earned her a Hugo nomination. Nine months later, her story “Big Sword” also appeared in Astounding, but again as by Paul Ash.

Little Red Steamer

In 1958, Whitby, under her Paul Ash pseudonym, was one of three women nominated for the Best New Author Hugo, along with Rosel George Brown and Kit Reed. Brian W. Aldiss and Louis Charbonneau were also nominated for the award which went to No Award (with Aldiss finishing second).

White published a handful of stories on her various pseudonyms through the mid-sixties before disappearing, partly because she found it difficult to sell to British magazines. She attended St. Hilda’s College, Oxford where she studied zoology. After taking her degree, she was a lecturer at University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Medicine.

Following her time as a lecturer, Whitby traveled to Africa, where she worked for the United Nations and a Nutrition Officer in Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Zambia. She retired from this work in the mid-1970s.

She made a reappearance as an author in 1982, when her story “Rats in the Moon” was published in the November issue of Analog. This second phase of her career lasted for fifteen stories and 19 years. All of her professional sales were to either Astounding or Analog, purchased by both John W. Campbell, Jr. or Stanley Schmidt. In 1992, she collected her four stories about Lysistrata Lee, two from each phase of her career, into the collection Unwillingly from Earth. Her third book, Project FarCry, was a fix up of the “Paul Ash” stories “Big Sword” and “The Man Who Stayed Behind.”

Whitby died on November 23, 1915 in Baldock, Hertfordshire. About five years before she died, sf fan Roy Kettle tracked Whitby down after learning that she lived near him. Kettle wrote about the experience in an article that appeared in the August 2010 issue of the fanzine Sense of Wonder Stories, edited by Rich Coad.

Steven H Silver is a twenty-two-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. His most recent anthology is Alternate Peace and his novel After Hastings was published in 2020. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference numerous times. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 4 hours and 25 minutes
Publisher: Sittin’ on a Goldmine Productions LLC
Release Date: November 05, 2021
ASIN: B09L55TBDK
Stand Alone or Series: 6th volume in the Mitzy Moon Mysteries series
Source: Audiobook from Audible
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Mitzy Moon struggles to put snooping on the back burner and help launch the Duncan Restorative Justice Foundation. But her good-girl routine leaves the station after a deputy crashes the Grand Opening with a search warrant. And she’s full-steam ahead on the case when she discovers her father’s railroad is the target for a heist.

Never one to play it safe, Mitzy blatantly ignores the warnings of her entitled feline and risks everything. She even cons her interfering Ghost-ma into helping her with an alarming undercover plan. And now she promises just a few more shifts at the seedy roadhouse and she’ll have the crooks stopped in their tracks.

Can Mitzy pull off the double cross of a lifetime, or will more than her investigation be derailed?”

Series Info/Source: This is the 6th volume in the Mitzy Moon Mysteries series. I got this on audiobook from Audible to read.

Thoughts: This was an entertaining and well-done installment in the Mitzy Moon series. While these books don’t really “wow” me, they are fun little diversions. I originally started this series because I wanted an audiobook to listen to during a regular 6 hr (round trip) car trip I need to do monthly. These are the perfect length to get done during that commute. I think this was my favorite book in this series yet. I really liked seeing Mitzy and Sheriff “too hot to handle” Erick starting to work together on cases.

Mitzy is trying to be a dutiful daughter and support her father during the launch of the Duncan Restorative Justice Foundation. Then Sheriff Erick shows up with a warrant! Mitzy’s father’s railroad is being targeted by a ring of thieves. Mitzy decides to go undercover at a seedy bar to help sort out the truth.

All of our favorite characters are in the story, I really enjoyed watching Mitzy continue to mature. I enjoyed even more watching her and Erick finally start to work together on cases. When poor Piwackett injures himself bringing Mitzy of piece of evidence, I was happy to see that Mitzy finally took Piwacket seriously and paid attention to his efforts!

I listened to this on audiobook and it is well done. The narrator does character voices well and consistently, and it’s fun to listen to. This book is an easy one to listen to while driving. I don’t have to pay attention too hard and there is some humor and fun.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I thought this was the best book in the Mitzy Moon series so far. I continue to enjoy the town of Pincherry Harbor and enjoy watching Mitzy find a place she can call home. I love that people are finally starting to accept Mitzy’s detective abilities and pulling her into cases. It was fun to watch her and Erick work together. If you are looking for a light-hearted novella paranormal mystery series, this is a decent one. It takes a few books to get moving, but once it does, it is a lot of fun.

The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) by Byron Leavitt
(Brain Waves Press, 2026.) Cover created by Miblart with interior illustration by the author.

A contemporary, cosmic-horror take on portal fantasy!

The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) is a young-adult, portal fantasy written by Byron Leavitt.  It’s a contemporary, cosmic-horror take on the sub-genre that was a gateway for many of us. Recall the books like A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1962), The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (1961), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (1950), The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1900), and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)?

All of the above have adult followings as much as their young adult readerships. Which portal fantasies grabbed you and helped you become addicted to fantasy?

These share fun tropes, usually involving a band of children being quickly transported to a magical realm that reflects their child-like perspectives. Readers get talking animals and landscapes made from toys (and manifestations of Rhyme and Reason). Oftentimes, the children are out to rescue family members. There is usually an evil, sorcerous entity hell-bent on destroying the children (IT, Wicked Witches, Queen of Hearts, etc.). Of course, the party of kids makes friends with goofy-alien things like scarecrows, empty-hearted tin puppets, Mad Hatters, and strange entities that guide them (three cheers for Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which).

The beauty of portal fantasies with child protagonists is that those journeys resonate with adults too, who, after decades of trying to make sense of the world,  miss their younger, naive, adventurous take on life.  When I heard Byron Leavitt, best known as a horror writer for Diemension Games’ Deep Madness and Dawn of Madness (including the Deep Madness: Shattered Seas spin-off novel reviewed on Black Gate), released a young adult adventure, I had to check it out. We interviewed Byron Leavitt in 2021 (Interview link), and it is wild to revisit the Q&A five years later and see foreshadowings of this book.

This post shares details of Jonah’s journey, art from the author, and excerpts. But wait, there is more! We used this opportunity to reconnect with Byron Leavitt and get answers to crazy questions about salmon, and discover lost connections of Black Gate with Jonah’s inception.

The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle Back Cover Blurb

The demon ate their parents. They intend to get them back.

Jonah Hutchins didn’t think twice about finding a salmon in a puddle in his backyard. He already had a dapper troll lurking in his basement and a snarky harpy roosting in the trees out front, after all. He didn’t even flinch when the fish named Stuart announced that several nearby puddles were portals to other dimensions.

But a demon also lurked in Stuart’s puddle — and it swallowed Jonah’s parents whole.

Jonah and his sister Debbie refuse to let the demon make them orphans. So they gather Jonah’s strange friends and plunge through the puddles into the worlds beyond on a wild rescue mission.

They discover wondrous places like a cardboard kingdom where spilled water could end everything and a crumbling world full of ghosts and mouths. They meet weird new allies, including a massive plastic dragon and an octopus-headed prophetess. But the demon is still hungry, and it won’t stop until it devours them all.

This book combines the awestruck adventure of Impossible Creatures with the dark, hungry dread of Coraline. It is a celebration of the imagination’s power and a whirlwind ride you won’t soon forget.

Welcome to The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle. Are you ready?

Wardrobes, Phone Booths, Rabbit Holes, and Tornadoes, clear room for demonic Puddles! The Weird Fellowship & Key Allies

Let’s get acquainted with the children’s party.

• Jonah Hutchins: a boy with wild creativity, and as the title suggests, our key protagonist.
• Debbie Hutchins: Jonah’s younger sister, who initially thinks her brother is “weird”.
• Stuart: A highly mannered, angelic talking-salmon who appeared in a puddle within Jonah’s backyard after a trans-dimensional storm.
• Humphrey: A monstrous, but gentle, troll who can travel through shadows.
• Calisto: A harpy with powerful wings and a beautiful face framed by long black hair and jagged teeth.  She can be grumpy and is a fierce fighter.
• Ms. Finch (Loretta): A six-foot-tall prophetess with an octopus head who lives in a cozy, grandmotherly dimension. She provides critical counsel, opens the “ways” between worlds.
• Sir Reginald: A brave tin soldier with a melted left foot who initially tries to stop the party in Toy Land but joins them after realizing their honorable intentions.
• Pete: A massive, plastic red dragon that Jonah befriends and names in Toy Land.
• Dave (Lord Davros von München-Bellyweather the Fourth): A survivor living inside the demon who is part crab, squid, and man.

Art

The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle features about ten drawings by the author.  The cool thing is that Black Gate previewed some of these in 2021 with our interview with Byron Leavitt. Here’s the quick link to our discussion about his non-writing muses: OTHER DARK ARTS, YOUR DRAWINGS. Revealed there are images of Dave and Ms Finch. Those illustrations are shown in this article, with Humphry and Calistro now joining them.

Locations

• Jonah’s House and Backyard: The story begins here after a cosmic “trans-dimensional storm” leaves the yard littered with “deep puddles” that serve as portals to other realities.
• Ms. Finch’s House: Her abode can be reached through a puddle; it is a cozy, grandmotherly residence featuring a sitting room with floral prints and warm cherry wood furniture.
• Toy Land: Accessed via Ms. Finch’s front door, this world is constructed entirely of playthings; the ground is cardboard, the trees are plastic, and the sky has the texture of coarse paper.
• The Royal Castle: Situated within Toy Land, this is a massive hodge-podge fortress built from Lego bricks, Lincoln Logs, and sharpened #2 pencils. It houses a puppet theater that serves as the throne room for the realm’s rulers.
• The Dark City (Inside the Demon): This is the dark dimension within the demon’s soul. It is a bleak, “dead city” characterized by crumbling black skyscrapers, ankle-high grimy water, and a sky filled with ghostly green wisps and lightning.

Ms. Finch and David, illustration by Byron Leavitt Weird, wild, and darkly funny, The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) is a portal fantasy where imagination is dangerously good! Excerpts Creativity Actually Creates! “I wonder if your mind can sometimes access them. Which would make the division between your world and others thinner near you.” “Huh,” Jonah said. “Care to elaborate?” “What were you thinking about when Humphrey appeared?” “I…” Jonah’s gaze darted around, and he winced. “It was a long time ago, and I was young, okay? But… I was pretending that I was a knight who had just discovered a massive troll. And then we teamed up and conquered an evil king.” … “Oh, man,” Debbie said. “Does that work for anyone? If so, I would bring my Flufferblooms to play with me. That would be incredible!” … “Flufferblooms?” Calisto asked. “What are those?” “They’re the flower people I draw.” Calisto guffawed. “And you call them… Flufferblooms?” Consuming Wonder Bread

[Debbie] picked up Jonah’s slice of wonder and shoved it into his mouth. Jonah’s senses erupted. It wasn’t that new colors appeared. Instead, those already present became so vivid they almost burst with brilliance. The world seemed so alive— so vibrant. Sounds and melodies filled the air, shimmering with details Jonah had never noticed before. The taste, too, was an explosion of flavors that danced across his tongue like a parade of sweet, sour, salty, and tangy. These sensations were unlike anything he had experienced before.

The Maw

The meaty flooring soon formed an uneven shelf that stretched as far as Jonah could see in either direction. Then, it curved upward before him into a gooey, living wall. Jonah’s gaze traveled up the surface and finally landed on the mouth that pierced it. The Maw was big enough to devour buildings. Its needle teeth were more like swords, and it had so many. Maybe a dozen tentacles slithered out like tongues from inside it, wriggling as they quested across the shelf below. The mouth ate greedily. However, it didn’t consume meat, bone, or any physical matter. Instead, it devoured light and chewed on souls.

Any Biblical Undertones Are Subtle

The biblical account of Jonah (Old Testament) describes that character as being swallowed by a “great fish” (often thought to be called a whale nowadays). He survived for three days and three nights in its belly before being vomited onto dry land. His journey and survival are linked to obeying “the Lord’s” will.  In The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle,  there is a boy Jonah who is guided by a fish (a salmon named Stuart) who enables transportation to strange realms. Near clueless agnostics (i.e., me) detect some possible connections. However, Byron Leavitt steers clear of overt religious allegories (i.e., I recall feeling hoodwinked as a youth when I learned about Aslan being more than a lion in C.S. Lewis’s Narnia). Anyway, it is wild to note that creative horror writers (like Stephen King or Anne Rice) are often religious.

This tracks with Byron Leavitt’s style. He admits his reverence for a higher power and is inspired in many ways, but his spiritual muses are masked so well that most readers would never know. His stories feel pleasantly agnostic. From our 2021 interview, we cornered him on how he reconciled his weird art with perspectives on God; check out his answers to these prompts there: (1) DO YOU THINK GOD ENJOYS HORROR? (2)  RELIGION IN WEIRD ART.

Interview Reconnect – Exclusive Arcana Revealed

We just had to connect with Byron Leavitt to ask a few questions. I’m very grateful that he was available and willing, since he revealed fascinating bits about the history of Jonah, Black Gate, and Jellyfish stomachs.

I’m curious if you eat salmon or have ever had a pet fish?

Actually, we eat salmon a lot, though our kids protested a bit after I first read the book to them. Ha! My kids have had pet fish. I’m not sure if I ever had one, but I had many pet crayfish—including one who had babies and then ate them. Her sole surviving offspring was an albino named Little Squirt who became translucent whenever he molted. He was a great crayfish. I’ve also had several pet jellyfish, one of which was named Peanut Butter the jelly. The other jellies died, but Peanut Butter lived on. Then, before her death, she gifted me with dozens (maybe more) of asexually produced baby jellyfish, which have clung to the sides of their aquarium in polyp form ever since. I was told jellyfish never have babies in home aquariums, particularly when there’s only one. But at one point in her life, Peanut Butter had five stomachs instead of the usual four, so she was never completely normal.

Also, any Easter eggs or cross-over secrets infused from your previous work in Jonah’s tale? Perhaps some of the same muses you had for so many years inspired Jonah and other characters. Any tidbits or treats for your Deep/Dawn-Madness fans?

I don’t think there are any connections with Deep or Dawn in this book. (I’ve saved those for a forthcoming novel called Under the Iridescent Sea.) However, that’s at least partially because this book predates them. The idea for this book came to me when I was a teenager. I then turned it into a novelette, which, interestingly enough, I submitted to Black Gate way back in the day when it was still a print magazine. In the end it was just a little too long and a little too different from the other stuff Black Gate was publishing to make it fit. So having the book reviewed in Black Gate is kind of a full-circle moment. The story sat for years after that. But I always wanted to turn it into a book. Jonah’s dad had mentioned there were no trolls in the basement or harpies in the trees, so I knew there had to be.

Finally, I launched a small Kickstarter for it and turned it into a very short novel. However, once it was finished, the book sat again. I had just been hired full-time at Diemension, so I didn’t have time for it. Eventually, I realized I either needed to put it out there or go back and fix a glaring error in the book: Jonah’s lack of a sister. I finally decided to do one more big rewrite. The book grew 50% longer, hopefully added more emotional heft, and got a final battle that I think is much more climactic and fulfilling than the original one. So, anyway, that’s a little peek into the 25-year epic that was this book’s journey from conception to print. It is physical proof that, if you have a trunk novel, there’s still hope it will see the light of day.

Expect More Jonah

This novel is nicely self-contained, but Byron Leavitt has more to share as he indicates in the Afterword of his book:

I hope you enjoyed The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon). Assuming you did, you may be interested in reading another adventure featuring Jonah and his strange group of friends. Well, I’ve got you covered— and I’m going to give it to you for free. … You can also go to byronleavitt.com/more-jonah/ … Then, I’ll send you a free short story set in Jonah’s worlds. I’ll also email you once in a while to keep in touch and let you know what’s going on with me and future stories, but you can unsubscribe at any time. What are you waiting for? Get your free story right now! About Byron Leavitt

Byron Leavitt is a creator of weird fiction who lives to cultivate wonder. He wrote all the story content for the hit board games Deep Madness and Twisted Fables by Diemension Games, plus either wrote or co- wrote all eight books for the story- driven game Dawn of Madness, which one reviewer called “the best narrative I’ve ever read.” Byron also wrote the books Deep Madness: Shattered Seas and The Art of Deep Madness, as well as the true story Of Hope and Cancer, about his battle with stage- four Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He’s currently working on many more projects, including the long- gestating epic dark fantasy novel Alayaka and the science fiction novel Under the Iridescent Sea. Byron lives in a centennial Swiss- style house in Tacoma, Washington, with his wife, Sarah, his daughters Aurora and Eden, many jellyfish babies, his butler, Egad, several gremlins, and the Gargoyle Baby. When he’s not writing stories, publishing books, or making games, Byron also serves as a copywriter and editor. You can learn more about him on his website at byronleavitt.com and on his Substack newsletter at byronleavitt.substack.com.

Calisto and Humphrey; Art by Byron Leavitt Listen to the talking Salmon! Follow Jonah into the Puddle!

S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor at Blackgate.com, regularly reviewing books, interviewing authors on ‘Beauty & Art in Weird-Fantasy Fiction’, and running Dark Muse News. He has taken lead roles organizing the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium (2020-2023) and the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group; he even interned for Tales from the Magician’s Skull magazine and is an Assistant Editor for Battleborn magazine. As for crafting stories, he has contributed eight entries across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell and Heroika series, and has an entry in Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies. He independently publishes novels under the banner Dyscrasia Fiction®; short stories of these have appeared in Whetstone and Swords & Sorcery online magazine, Rogues In the House Podcast’s A Book of Blades (Vol. I and Vol. II), DMR’s Terra Incognita, Tales From the Magician’s Skull (Issue #9), Savage Realms Magazine (July 2025), and Michael Stackpole’s S&S Chain Story 2 Project.

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I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

The Franchise by Thomas Elrod

Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Tor Books (May 12, 2026)

Length: 368 pages

Author Information: Website

At first, The Franchise seemed exactly like the kind of speculative fiction I’d go for. While Thomas Elrod’s debut joins an increasingly popular vein of cautionary sci-fi tales about the dangers of technology, what really makes it stand out is the way it portrays reality entertainment to almost grotesque extremes.

The story begins with the meteoric rise of a beloved fantasy series created by an author who spent his lifetime fiercely protecting his work from studio executives eager to cash in on adaptations, merchandising, and every other possible spin-off opportunity. However, after his death, the rights fell into the hands of an heir far more interested in profit than artistic integrity, and before long, the franchise saw itself ballooning into a massive multimedia machine. Movies and toys were only the beginning. Using cutting-edge technology, corporations eventually figured out how to create a fully immersive fantasy world populated by real participants who have had their memories altered and identities rewritten. Some volunteered willingly, at least at first. Others became involved under far murkier circumstances.

The result is something that goes far beyond your typical theme park experience. The people inside this manufactured reality truly believe in the new roles they are given, whether they are queens, knights, wizards, or peasants living in this medieval fantasy kingdom. Meanwhile, outside the illusion are the producers, scriptwriters, hired actors, and handlers working behind the scenes to turn this entire enterprise into marketable entertainment.  An entire ecosystem is required to manipulate events in order to maintain interest and increase profits, all the while trying to stop the entire operation from collapsing under its own weight. As you can see, the comparisons to The Truman Show, Westworld, and even Game of Thrones are apt.

And really, that’s where the novel shines most: the concept itself. Elrod clearly has a lot to say about fandom, capitalism, exploitation, as well as the toxic aspects of our entertainment culture in general. The book utilizes satire in a lot of it commentary, presenting a near future where spectacle and profit matter more than basic humanity. As the story progresses, the lengths corporations are willing to go for ratings and audience engagement become increasingly absurd, but intentionally so. There’s a darkly funny thread turning through much of the book, and much of it actually works surprisingly well.

That said, a concept, even a fantastic one, can only carry you so far. Eventually, the story started losing me. As the focus shifted more heavily towards individual narratives, leaving behind the more intriguing mechanics of the plot, The Franchise gradually became less engaging instead of more. Structurally, it was also laid out in a way that was inconducive to maintaining momentum. Eventually, all the time jumps and rotating perspectives took their toll, breaking up the flow and making things feel increasingly disjointed.

Ironically, I also found myself far more invested in the happenings outside the fantasy world than within it once the situation became clear to readers. After the curtain is pulled back, revealing the inner workings of the system, the actual fantasy story line loses a lot of its appeal. Instead, more important questions are brought to the forefront relating to the ethics, psychological consequences, and horrifying implications of a society willing to normalize all this for entertainment. Exploring those speculative elements is where the novel feels strongest and most at home, and this is what I mean when I say that the concept is consistently stronger than the story built around it.

That said, I really enjoyed The Franchise, even though I found myself less invested by the end than I was at the beginning. At the end of the day, though, this is one of those novels I admire more for its ambitions than for the actual reading experience. The ideas are genuinely great, the scope is impressive, and there are stretches that absolutely work, like the intrigue in the early chapters and some of the later thematic explorations. I just don’t think the novel ever fully balances all its moving pieces into a cohesive whole. Still, for a debut, there’s a lot to like here, and I’d definitely be curious to check out Thomas Elrod’s future work.

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The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories, volumes 1-9, edited by Lin Carter and Arthur Saha (DAW Books, 1975-1983)

While people disagree on the quality of Lin Carter’s writing, most people agree he was a fine editor and tireless supporter of the fantasy field. Volumes edited by Carter brought quite a few new authors to my attention, as well as feeding me a steady diet of works by writers I already loved.

From 1975 to 1988, DAW books presented a yearly anthology called The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories. Lin Carter edited the first six and I own and have read all but #3, which I ordered recently but was sent the wrong book.

Arthur W. Saha took over as editor after that. I only have one of his volumes. I don’t know why the editorial switch, but Carter may have been suffering from ill health around that time. He died in 1988. I first read the three with Robert E. Howard content, but later read a couple of others. Here are my thoughts.

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 1, edited by Lin Carter (DAW, October 1975). Cover by George Barr

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 1

Contains “The Temple of Abomination” by Robert E. Howard, a Cormac Mac Art story, and pieces by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Lloyd Alexander, Clark Ashton Smith (fragment completed by Carter), Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd/Gray Mouser), Lin Carter (Thongor), Hannes Bok, L. Sprague de Camp, Pat McIntosh, Charles R. Saunders (Imaro, & apparently the first story Saunders ever wrote), and Jack Vance (Dying Earth).

Most of these are decent stories. The Saunders tale shows a lot of power and promise but also feels like a very early effort. The de Camp tale is told in his often used tongue-in-cheek style, which I have to admit doesn’t do much for me.

It’s generally considered a faux pax these days to include your own story in such an anthology, particularly in something called “Best,” but Carter often did and the publisher didn’t seem to have a problem. He was probably a decent sales draw.

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 2, edited by Lin Carter (DAW, August 1976). Cover by George Barr

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 2

Contains:

The Year in Fantasy, by Carter
“The Demoness” by Tanith Lee, beautifully written and probably my favorite story in the collection
“The Night of the Unicorn” by Thomas Burnett Swann, very short and something of a magical realism story; it was quite good
“Cry Wolf by Pat McIntosh, a werewolf tale
“Under the Thumbs of the God”s by Fritz Leiber, a good Fafhrd/Gray Mouser tale
“The Guardian of the Vault,” by Paul Spencer, a very good story with a twist ending
“The Lamp from Atlantis,” by L. Sprague de Camp, which was interesting but far longer than needed
“Xiurhn,” by Gary Myers, a Lovecraftian tale
“The City in the Jewel” by Lin Carter, a long and quite good Thongor story
“In ‘Ygiroth” by Walter C. DeBill, Jr., a decent piece
“The Scroll of Morloc” by Clark Ashton Smith & Lin Carter, which wasn’t terribly well done
“Payment in Kind” by Caradoc A. Cador, which was well written and intriguing but with an ending I didn’t get
“Milord Sir Smiht, the English Wizard” by Avram Davidson, which was glacially slow and left me scanning it

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 3, edited by Lin Carter (DAW, November 1977). Cover by Josh Kirby

The Year’s Best Fantasy 3

I haven’t read this but thought I’d include the TOC for those who are interested. Contains:

The Year in Fantasy essay by Carter
“Eudoric’s Unicorn” by de Camp
“Shadow of a Demon”  by Gardner F. Fox (Niall of the Far Travels)
“Ring of Black Stone,” by Pat McIntosh
“The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr” by George R. R. Martin
“Two Suns Setting” by Karl Edward Wagner (Kane story)
“The Stairs in the Crypt” by Clark Ashton Smith and Lin Carter
“The Goblin Blade by Raul Garcia Capella
“The Dark King,” by C. J. Cherryh
“Black Moonligh” by Lin Carter
“The Snout in the Alcove” by Gary Myers
“The Pool of the Moon” by Charles Saunders
and the usual essay by Carter on the year’s best fantasy books.

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 4, edited by Lin Carter (DAW, December 1978). Cover by Esteban Maroto

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 4

Contains “Nekht Semerkeht” by Robert E. Howard, which was a partial story completed very well by Andrew Offutt. It also has stories by Poul Anderson, Grail Undwin, Clark Ashton Smith, Lin Carter, Avram Davidson, Phyllis Eisenstein, Tanith Lee, Ramsey Campbell, Pat McIntosh, and Philip Coakley.

Other than “Nekht Semerkeht,” the two best tales were Campbell’s (which appeared in Swords Against Darkness), and Anderson’s story, “The Tale of Hauk.” Avram Davidson’s story was “Hark! Was that the Squeal of an Angry Thoat?,” which was a play on Edgar Rice Burrough’s work. I found it pretty goofy. Smith’s story was “Lok the Depressor,” good but not outstanding.

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 5, edited by Lin Carter (DAW, January 1980). Cover by Penalva

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 5

It contains “Lord of the Dead” by Howard, which is primarily a crime story with fantastic elements. It also contains a Conan pastiche by de Camp and Carter, and stories by T. H. White, Tanith Lee, Pat McIntosh, Craig Shaw Gardner, Adrian Cole, Janet Fox, David Malory, Grail Undwin, Marvin Kaye, and Evangeline Walton.

“Astral Stray” by Adrian Cole was the best thing here outside of Howard. I’ve always liked Cole’s work a lot.

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 6, edited by Lin Carter (DAW, November 1980). Cover by Josh Kirby

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 6

This is a pretty good collection, even if it doesn’t contain a Robert E. Howard tale. We have:

The Year in Fantasy by Carter
“Garden of Blood” by Roger Zelazny (Dilvish)
“The Character Assassin” by Paul H. Cook
“The Things That Are Gods” by John Brunner
“Zurvan’s Saint” by Grail Undwin
“Perfidious Amber” by Tanith Lee
“The Mer She” by Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd/Gray Mouser)
“Demon of the Snows” by Carter (Thongor)
“The Pavilion Where All Times Meet” by Jayge Carr
“Cryptically Yours” by Brian Lumley
“Red as Blood” by Tanith Lee
“Sandmagic” by Orson Scott Card
The Year’s Best Fantasy Books by Carter

“Sandmagic” is worth the price by itself.

Now for a surprise about The Year’s Best Fantasy series. You may notice that Grail Undwin appeared in a bunch of these Carter edited collections, although I remember nothing about the stories. Well, this fact actually calls into question Carter’s suitability as an editor for this kind of “Best of” collection, because — it appears — Grail Undwin was a secret pseudonym of Carter.

I first heard this from G. W. Thomas but it certainly has the ring and scent of truth. If it is, Carter managed not only to get one of his stories under his own name into each of these anthologies, but he got a secret one in as well (and no doubt got paid for it).

The The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 9, edited by Arthur W. Saha (DAW, October 1983). Cover by Sanjulian

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 9

Edited by Art Saha. Cover by Sanjulian.

Contains stories by John Kessel. R. A. Lafferty, Michael Shea, Harlan Ellison, Richard Christian Matheson, Parke Godwin, Jor Jennings, Jane Yolen, Suzette Haden Elgin, and Tanith Lee.

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories, volumes 8-14, edited by Arthur Saha (DAW Books, 1982-1988)

Saha took a much wider view of fantasy than Lin Carter and some people probably liked that. I didn’t. I wanted adventure and this presented very little of that, and most of the stories were set in much more modern milieus and tended toward the humorous.

In retrospect, I’m sure these were perfectly good stories but they just weren’t what I was looking for and were a drastic change from the stuff Carter had chosen. I haven’t picked up any more of the Saha edited volumes.

Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. His last article for us was a a review of Superman/Tarzan: Sons of the Jungle by Chuck Dixon and Carlos Meglia. See all of his recent posts for Black Gate here.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Length: 766 pages
Publisher: Dandy House
Release Date: May 12, 2026
ASIN: B0GJJDXG4L
Stand Alone or Series: 8th book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley for Review
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

“As chaos and mass panic spread outside the dungeon in the wake of Faction Wars, Carl and Donut find themselves on the tenth floor, where they’re forced to compete in a surprisingly normal set of tasks. Well, normal for the dungeon.

Races. Get from point A to point B, and don’t come in last. After each race, they pick an upgrade for their vehicle and the track gets more challenging. It all seems a little too normal, a little too simple.

Ignore those strange glitches that are occurring with increasing frequency. Don’t listen to those whispers about what’s happening on the mysterious eleventh floor, something the system AI calls A Parade of Horribles. Nobody, not even the showrunners, knows what that means. Just that the AI has ominously dubbed it “a coming-out party for the ages.”

Everything is fine, Crawler. I repeat, everything is fine.

Carl hates that it’s business as usual. The rules of this floor have taken away his agency. That just will not do.

So Carl is planning a party of his own. It’s a plan so dangerous, so insane, he can’t even consult his friends lest the AI put a stop to it. Because if it goes wrong, it’s not just the end of Carl and Donut. No. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 8th book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I got this on ebook through NetGalley for review.

Thoughts: I was incredibly excited to get a review copy of this. This is fast-paced, action packed, and full of all the wonderful characters from throughout the series. However, I can’t help feeling like the story is a bit forced and contrived at points.

Carl and Donut are on the tenth floor. A strangely “normal” floor where they go through multiple heats of races. As more and more crawlers are eliminated Carl, Donut, and team desperately look for a way to help both NPCs and crawlers escape the dungeon completely. The AI has gone a bit wonky, and the Gods are free…so, things aren’t exactly going as planned. If they can make it through the races of the tenth floor they will have to face the mysterious eleventh floor, A Parade of Horribles.

I have a couple of small quibbles right from the start. First, the intro from Samantha’s point of view was confusing to say the least. Second, this series is starting to feel strangely repetitive despite the creative craziness. The formula is always the same…something crazy horrible happens, but our heroes figure out a way to survive! Then the situation gets even more crazy horrible…and yet they survive again!

I still enjoyed the characters and the ludicrous situations they are put into. A lot of the things that happen are unpredictable, weird, or just flat out gross. I also really liked that we get to learn more about the Primals and the AI. There are many previous plot points that really come to a climax in this book as well.

The chapters here are action packed and fairly short, which really pulls you through the story. It still took me over a week to read this massive book, but I did finish it, which is saying a lot. I have been struggling to stay focused on some of the books I have picked up, and I genuinely looked forward to sitting down and reading this one.

I have listened to the majority of this series on audiobook, and I definitely prefer that. I think the only books I have read in print form are the first book and then this one. While I do feel like I remember things better when I read them, I also am more prone to skimming things in print form. The audiobooks just bring a whole additional level of fun to the story because they are done so well. I already picked up a copy of the audiobook so I can listen to this as well.

My Summary (4.5/5): Overall I enjoyed this. I love the characters and the concept here; the story is fast-paced and action-packed. The story line is getting harder to follow and more convoluted, though. I am also starting to feel a tad bit irritated by how formulaic some of this is. Yes, there are surprises and crazy things that are constantly happening, but the core of the story is the same: something horrible happens, Carl comes up with a crazy plan to save the day, something more horrible happens, Carl comes up with a new, more dangerous plan to save the day…somehow these plans always work out in the end. Will I keep reading the series? Of course, I am this far in, and I am a huge fan of many of the characters in here.

Thundarr the Barbarian (Ruby-Spears Productions/ABC, October 4, 1980 – October 31, 1981) Thundarr the Barbarian (21 episodes; 1980-81)

Created by Steve Gerber (Howard the Duck; The Defenders).

The look of the main characters was designed by Alex Toth. After he was unavailable to continue working on the series, Jack “King” Kirby was brought in, at the recommendation of Gerber and Mark Evanier (who would later write a biography of Kirby). Kirby designed the look of most of the villains and supporting characters.

What is it?

What is it?? Lords of Light, it’s awesome, is what it is!

It’s an animated series that aired on ABC on Saturday mornings between 1980 and 1981. It aired in reruns on NBC in 1983.

Created in part by the legendary Jack Kirby and Alex Toth, it brought a Conan-style barbarian warrior to a distant, post-apocalyptic future, teamed him with a sorceress and a monstrous ally, and pitted the trio against all sorts of menaces that combined super-science and sorcery.

Thundarr’s companion Ookla Noteworthy

The show is worth it just for the character designs by Toth and Kirby. Warriors, wizards, mutants and monsters all clash amid the crumbling remains of our own civilization.

The network insisted Gerber include a monstrous Wookie-like ally for Thundarr. Gerber reluctantly agreed, but needed a name for the character. When he and writer Martin Pasko went to dinner in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, Pasko looked up at the front gates of the UCLA campus and suggested the name “Ookla.”

Thundarr The Barbarian issue 1, by Jason Aaron and Kewber Baal (Dynamite Entertainment, February 4, 2026)

As of 2026, there’s a new Thundarr comic book being published by Dynamite Entertainment, featuring various artists and written by Jason Aaron (Avengers; Conan).

Cartoon Network aired the show in the 1990s. The complete series was released on DVD and Blu-ray home video as recently as 2021.

The world of Thundarr the Barbarian Quick and Dirty Summary

The opening credits of each episode present us with an origin story for Thundarr’s world, but not so much for the character himself.

The world is our own, two thousand years in the future, after a “runaway planet” (likely a comet) tears our moon in half and brings down Earth’s civilization. We are left with a world of super-science, sorcery, and savagery.

Thundarr breaks free of the slave pens and somehow acquires the “fabulous Sunsword,” enabling him to go toe-to-toe with the mightiest monsters and evil beings. Teamed up with his allies, Ookla the Mok (a furry, savage beast, in the Chewbacca mold) and Princess Ariel (a sorceress who never reveals much of anything about her past), they travel across the wrecked remains of Earth, battling evil at every turn!

Thundarr the Barbarian Fantasy/SF/Sword and Sorcery Elements

Because the show is set in the far future, after a massive, worldwide catastrophe, it is able to blend elements of science fiction (flying vehicles, lasers, and so on) with more traditional elements of fantasy and magic. The result is a particularly appealing type of Sword & Sorcery, in which the familiar tropes of the genre stand side-by-side with the ruins of contemporary settings and futuristic characters and weapons, in a sort of goulash of everything that’s cool.

There’s a proud tradition in Sword & Sorcery of that one really extra-cool weapon in a story, from the famous sword Excalibur (as in Excalibur and other films) to the Glaive (Krull) to the awesome, three-bladed rocket-sword we discussed previously (The Sword and the Sorcerer). Thundarr has just such a weapon: “the fabulous Sunsword.” We never learn exactly where he acquired it, but it’s a hilt that generates an energy blade, and is remarkably similar to the lightsaber of Star Wars. It also magnetically attaches to his wristband for easy transport when he’s not using it to hack giant rat-men to pieces.

Thundarr’s fabulous Sunsword

Thundarr’s two companions are familiar Sword & Sorcery archetypes. Princess Ariel is able to cast all sorts of offensive and defensive spells, and Ookla is a mighty warrior who needs no weapons to wreak havoc on his enemies (or on helicopters, when he gets frustrated trying to fly one). All three heroes ride horses, though Ookla’s is alien in appearance and is called an “equort.”

Thundarr and company confront a wide variety of foes familiar to all sword and sorcery fans. There are mutated humanoid rats and lizards, giant monsters, werewolves, and a number of colorful wizards and sorcerers. There’s even an alien monster in the mold of The Thing! (Think Kurt Russell, not Ben Grimm.)

The intermingling of these fantasy elements with the technology of post-apocalyptic science fiction makes for an irresistible combination.

Thundarr the Barbarian, Episode 1: “Secret of the Black Pearl” High Point

For me, the high point of the series is the premiere episode, “Secret of the Black Pearl,” in which Thundarr’s team clashes with the villain called Gemini.

One thing that perhaps held this show back a bit was its lack of an iconic recurring villain. Gemini had the potential to be that, and he did make a second appearance later in the series.

The two faces of Gemini

He is such a perfect Jack Kirby villain, and a perfect Thundarr foe. He wears a sort of combination space-suit and Medieval armor that would let him fit in at a New Gods or Eternals family reunion. Beneath his space helmet, his face is exposed. Normally, it’s a benign face; perhaps even jolly.

But when he’s angered, his entire head swivels around 180 degrees and a different visage is revealed: One with burning red eyes that fire energy beams! Gemini embodies the “super-science meets sorcery” idea arguably better than anyone else on the show. And nobody conveys such scorn for his opponent as Gemini, when he addresses Thundarr as, “BARBAAAARIAN!!”

Thundarr the Barbarian: The Complete Series (Warner Archives, April 6, 2021) Low Point

All of the episodes are written primarily for a younger audience. So, while the series is of very good quality compared to most of the shows that aired on Saturday mornings during that era, they still lack a bit in terms of stories. The potential is tremendous, but the show mostly fails to live up to the very heights it was clearly capable of reaching.

The fashionable villains of Thundarr the Barbarian Standout Performance

Robert Ridgely, a “that guy” actor who appeared in nearly everything over the years, provided the voice of Thundarr, unleashing famous catchphrases such as “Demon Dogs!” “Lords of Light!” and of course, “Ariel–Ookla–RIDE!!”

With his supremely heroic voice, Ridgley also played the title character in the fantastic 1979 animated New Adventures of Flash Gordon series.

Nellie Bellflower voiced Princess Ariel, as well as a number of other female characters.

The road goes ever on Overall Evaluation as a Movie and as Fantasy/SF/Sword & Sorcery

It’s not a movie, but Thundarr the Barbarian is as Sword & Sorcery as you can get. The genre comes in a number of sub-forms, and I’d call this one the “post-apocalyptic fantasy world” variety, where you’re as likely to encounter a giant, sorcery-animated Statue of Liberty as a werewolf or a rat-man.

Blackthorn Thunder on Mars, edited by Van Allen Plexico (White Rocket Books,‎ November 26, 2011)

For a Saturday morning cartoon, the writing is surprisingly intelligent and clever. It’s unfortunate they never gave us more backstory to the characters, but that was a common thing among TV shows and cartoons of that era: Minimal information to get us up to speed, and then off we go.

Unfortunately, we never did encounter those danged Demon Dogs!

Van Allen Plexico once edited an anthology of tales set in a Thundarr-style post-apocalyptic future of super-science and sorcery, called Blackthorn: Thunder on Mars. He is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a Grand Master of Pulp Literature (2025 class) and a multiple-award-winning author of more than two dozen novels and anthologies, ranging from space opera to Kaiju to crime fiction to superheroes to military SF. Find his works on Amazon and at www dot Plexico dot net.

Zompoc

When the world ended Vicki was quite happy drinking herself into oblivion. Until her neighbor hammered on her door and asked her to look after her two young girls, Gabby aged 5 and Tina aged 2 while she went out looking for her sister. Her neighbor never returned and now Vicki a borderline alcoholic has found herself looking after two young children the oldest of whom is quite happy pointing out her flaws.

As they navigate the fallen world they make friends and lose friends, they encounter bandits and live with the ever present threat of zombies as they search for a safe place to be.

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If you enjoy Post-Apocalypse / Zompoc there aren’t too many better than this series. I read her previous <i>Sundown</i> series, well I read the first two books and the novella and didn’t like it nearly as much. Babysitter of the Apocalypse is right up there with Sarah Lyons Fleming. Great and it joins my list of “must read” books when the next instalment comes out.

 

Book links: Amazon, Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Publisher: St. Elmo (July 14, 2024) Length: 385 pages Formats: ebook

Raymond St. Elmo’s Colleen the Wanderer is the second book set in the same world as Barnaby the Wanderer. It’s a tighter story with fewer pages, fewer characters, and a much more personal focus. For me, that shift worked well. We spend most of the time following Colleen as she moves through a strange world full of saints, monsters, and the occasional odd conversation.

I liked it. That’s not exactly a surprise. I generally like St. Elmo’s writing, and this book delivers many of the things that make his work distinctive.

Colleen herself is a good lead. She’s practical to a fault. She doesn’t want adventure, destiny, or glory. She wants people to leave her alone so she can make pots. Alas, the world has other plans. Saints interfere, monsters appear, dreams intrude, and somehow she ends up wandering whether she wants to or not.

The wandering really is the point. The plot exists, but it’s loose and often takes a back seat to encounters along the road. Colleen meets a steady parade of odd creatures, hermits, and supernatural oddities ("miscreates," as the book calls them) Some are funny, some unsettling, some just strange.

The tone sits somewhere between classic fantasy adventure and something more whimsical. St. Elmo has said he was aiming for a style similar to Andre Norton’s Witch World books, but he admits he can’t quite write without humor creeping in. That’s obvious here. The world may be full of saints and fate and mysterious forces, but the dialogue often undercuts any attempt at solemnity. Characters talk like people who are aware that the situation is absurd. It keeps the book lively.

As always with St. Elmo, the prose is one of the main draws. It’s sharp, playful, and occasionally very funny without trying too hard. The dialogue in particular works well.

That said, the structure is a little uneven.

The opening takes a while to settle in. The first stretch is slightly confusing and slow, partly because the world operates on its own strange logic and the book doesn’t rush to explain it. Things improve once Colleen properly hits the road and the story finds its rhythm.

The ending goes the other way. After spending so much time wandering and meeting odd characters, the conclusion arrives fairly quickly. It ties the threads together, but it felt a bit abrupt. I wouldn’t have minded another chapter or two.

Still, the experience of reading the book is enjoyable. The story has a dreamlike quality where events make just enough sense to keep you moving forward. You don’t always know where things are going, but you trust the author to get you somewhere interesting.

If you’ve read Barnaby the Wanderer, you’ll notice a few familiar faces showing up briefly. They’re more like cameos than major roles, though, and the book mostly stands on its own. The focus stays firmly on Colleen.

In the end, Colleen the Wanderer is imaginative, occasionally funny, and full of peculiar creatures and conversations. The pacing wobbles a bit at the beginning and end, but the middle stretch - the actual wandering - is consistently engaging.

Book links: Amazon, Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Luke Dumas is the USA Today bestselling author of Nothing Tastes as Good, The Paleontologist, and A History of Fear.
He is the winner of a 2024 ITW Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original, was nominated for the Silver Falchion Award for Best Supernatural, and his work has been optioned for film and TV.
He received his master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Edinburgh, and has worked in nonprofit philanthropy for more than a decade with organizations including San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and the American Red Cross.
Luke was born and raised in San Diego, California, where he lives with his husband and dogs and works for a biomedical research institute.
Publisher: Atria Books (March 31, 2026)  Page count: 352 Formats: audiobook, ebook, paperback Genre: Horror (ish)

I ended up liking Nothing Tastes as Good quite a bit. It’s easy to fly through it. I listened to the audiobook and kept telling myself "just one more chapter" most of the time. 

This leans much more toward thriller than straight horror for me, even with the body horror and cannibalism stuff lurking in the background. The story follows Emmett and how badly the world treats him because of his weight. That part felt believable. The book does a really good job showing how exhausting it is to constantly feel judged, dismissed, or turned into a "before" picture by society.

Emmett worked well as a protagonist too. He’s funny, insecure, and desperate to finally feel comfortable in his own life and body. When he joins the clinical trial for the weight loss drug Obexity, you immediately know this cannot possibly end well. And yet I completely understood why he kept going even after things started getting very weird and very bloody.

The horror elements are there, but they’re sparse. This is more about paranoia, obsession, body image, social media, and the realization that people suddenly treat you better once you look different. Actually, some of the most uncomfortable moments weren’t the gore. It was seeing how differently people reacted to Emmett after he lost weight.

I also liked the mixed format with blog posts, interviews, and reports scattered throughout the story. It kept things moving and made the audiobook especially fun to listen to.

The final act gets pretty over-the-top, and I can't say I was a fan. The villains and their motivations turned paper-thin and shallow and the rushed ending disappointed. I'm ok with Emmett's fate, but not of the road that led to it. 

Anyway, it's a good book, and very engaging most of the time. Luke Dumas clearly had a lot to say about diet culture and self-worth, but never forgot to make it entertaining too. Maybe not especially scary, but definitely engaging, gross in places, and very hard to stop listening to.