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I hate my life.

Shouldn’t that be “hat” your life?

Festive hats and puns. Kill me now.

I am feeling hat anxiety.

I got this!

DIE HAT, DIE!

“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.”

– Raymond Chandler

Spider-Noir is the best thing to happen to Marvel streaming since…well, Daredevil: Born Again. So yeah, not that long ago. I’ve only watched the first three – of eight – episodes so far. Because this is too good to binge. It should be savored. It may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but I LOVE that it’s an homage to hardboiled Pulp and Noir. Which you might know I blog about once in awhile…

No spoilers here (if I can help it). I just wanna talk about the Noir vibe a bit. I’ll do a full blown post after I watch it all (and when some spoilers will be okay). These folks absolutely know their source material. And I’m talking about Pulp, not Marvel.

A little Spider-Man Noir history first. The character appeared in a short comic book run in 2009, which I had certainly never heard of. But I’m not a comic book guy.

Then, back in 2018, the first of the animated Spider-Verse movies came out, with Miles Morales as the main Spider-Man. In the same scene with Spider-Ham (he still cracks me up), Peter and Miles meet a Nicholas Cage-voiced Spider-Man Noir. He has a few scenes after that.

I knew nothing about that mysterious character, but I was immediately intrigued by the obviously hardboiled private eye iteration. Flash forward to 2026, and Spider-Noir is the coolest new thing from the Marvel-verse in years. Cage is back in a live-action version, and his Spider-Man Noir is played differently than in the animated movie. But that’s fine. You should look at the ‘Verse version as just a starting point to introduce the character.

Spider-Noir is an eight episode series streaming on Prime (Screw MGM+ and yet another money-grab by Amazon). Cage is Ben Reilly a nineteen-thirties private eye in a Spider-Verse New York City. He was the only superhero in the city, and a tragedy in his past has led him to forsake his powers (though his Spidey-sense still goes off). This Spider-Man hero is known as The Spider, which was an in-house name for the character. The Spider was a Pulp hero, whom Stan Lee cited as an inspiration for creating Spider-Man. I’m not ready to delve into that influence, yett.

Okay. Go watch the first episode if you want more.

COLOR OR B&W?

You can choose whether to watch in color or black and white. You can even switch during an episode. Because of the Noir nature of the show, this is a really cool feature. And both ways look great.

I am watching an episode in black and white. And after each one, I go back and re-watch it in color.

There’s something to the vibe in b&w that isn’t present in color. Noir is meant to be – but it is NOT completely mandatory – to be in black and white. And I think it suits Spider-Noir. Especially in enhancing the other homage elements.

I like it in color. It’s akin to The Untouchables, to me. It’s a black and white era, but it looks GOOD in color. And it totally works. I honestly feel you get two different experiences from the two methods. And both are worthwhile. As a noted Pulp guy, I let the b&w sink in. I get immersed in that Black Mask-style hardboiled PI vibe.

I would not dis someone for only watching it in color. It’s a terrific series that way. But for anybody who likes that old-style PI genre, Marvel really accomplished something in 2026. I appreciate it.

CARMEDY

Reid is a typical under-employed shamus, barely keeping the business going and buried in bills. Which his secretary reminds him of. A man named Carmedy comes in and hires Reilly to get proof his wife is cheating on him. My Pulpy Sense was tingling.

The b&w vibe obviously screams Pulp movies of the thirties and forties. As a committed Bogie guy, I was getting Philip Marlowe’s Raymond Chandler (Cage isn’t playing Reilly with a Sam Spade toughness).

Carmady was an early version of Marlowe, in Chandler’s short stories for Black Mask (following his Mallory character). He more-or-less became John Dalmas when Chandler moved to Dime Detective. And Dalmas was pretty much what we got with Marlowe, for the novels. There were a LOT of names they could have used, and a one-letter difference from one of Chandler’s early gumshoes, seems more than just coincidence. And we get it right out of the gate.

HOW ABOUT CAT HARDY?

We are used to damsels in distress in Spider-Man. They figure prominently in Noir, though they are frequently up to something, and they aren’t exactly just looking to be rescued. Often they’re manipulating the PI.

Cat Hardy is that Noir staple, the femme fatale. Being a torch singer adds to her allure. Her character has a couple different roles, and Reilly has to figure out ‘who she is,’ as it were. (No spoilers, remember?)

I quickly got an impression of Anna May Wong. Wong was the first Chinese-American movie star. She rose to prominence in a time when Caucasians were used for Asian parts. And she was a woman to boot. Wong was a trailblazer, decades ahead of her time.

I know her from Reginald Owens’ A Study in Scarlet. Which has nothing to do with Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel of the same name. It’s actually Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians (and a few other names).

This is my first time seeing Li Jun Li (I quit the opening scene of Babylon). She soars as Cat. And watching Reilly be ensorcelled by her singing at the club, is a testament to both actors. It’s a great scene. She’s not clearly copying Wong in look or manner, but I do get a sense of the influence. And she’s absolutely shining in her scenes.

BOGIE

Cage is playing a world-weary private eye, just getting by. This is Philip Marlowe, not Sam Spade or the Continental Op: and DEFINITELY not Mike Hammer, or Race Williams. And while Bogart defined Sam Spade in John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon (the third attempt to get it right, and one never to be bettered), Cage isn’t doing Spade. He’s channeling his inner Bogie, from Chandler’s The Big Sleep.

It’s there in the first two episodes. And I about jumped out of my seat near the end of episode two, when Reilly pretends to be a maintenance man to get inside his old apartment.

There’s  the popular ‘You do sell books, hmm?’ scene in The Big Sleep. Bogie turns up his hat, puts on glasses, and acts like a total book collector nerd, to get info inside AG Geiger’s bookstore. He finishes with the ‘Hmm’ bit again and hurries off. It’s a terrific scene with Sonia Darrin (Agnes).

And they TOTALLY used this scene for Cage at his old apartment. He turns up the brim of his hat and emulates Bogie, swapping out book banter for building maintenance shop talk (Bogie researched his info. Cage is making his up). And Cage even finishes on “Mmm” and walks out of the room. It’s frigging brilliant homage! You don’t have to know The Big Sleep to appreciate Cage’s scene. It’s fun, and it leads to a key plot point. But knowing they chose a Bogart scene to move the story along, is simply wonderful to me.

In episode 3, Cage’s baggy cheeks (a Bogart trademark) looked more evident, and his voice even sounds more like Bogie in that one. The series is wearing Ben Reilly down, and I think that’s part of how his character is changing. And it’s leading to more of a Bogart vibe.

It’s not a straight ‘copy Bogie.’ Bogart always played it tougher than Cage does. But of all the hardboiled dicks they could have modeled on (and there are a LOT), I can see the Bogart Marlowe here.

SILVERMANE

Brendan Cleeson is a mix of Al Capone and Kingpin. Which is not a bad combo for a Marvel Noir series. He’s a big guy, though not physically imposing like Kingpin. But he’s a ruthless gangster determined to crush his enemies. Reilly is going to have to beat him with smarts. He’s not a shootout with the bad guy type-of-PI. There are no layers to Silvermane. He’s a terrible guy and we hope he gets what he deserves.

MUTANTS

Continuing to minimize giving away info, the Marvel element is present in that there are mutants. The Spider was the only hero in town, and when he quit, Silvermane ran amuck pretty much unchecked. So, superheroes are rare. And it’s not an X-Men world with schools of mutants. I’ll let you explore the rest of the mutant line, yourself. But it fits in with me. This is Marvel Noir. It works.

MISC

The tagline is ‘With no power, comes no responsibility.’ That’s a pretty cool twist on the famous Spider-Man line. It’s clear early on that there’s a redemption/restoration theme coming, with Reilly/The Spider. I’m only three episodes in, so I’m not giving anything away here. But as Reilly both grows increasingly worn down, and re-engages with his superhero past, something is happening. He’s not just gonna drink himself away into oblivion (kinda like Dashiell Hammett did).

I come to Spider-Noir from a different place than most people do. And while I have repeatedly said I hated WandaVision (even though I’m a fan of those old TV shows it incorporated), I don’t necessarily dislike something for being different from the ‘formula.’

This is definitely not most people’s Spider-Man. And it’s not the normal Marvel. But I’m more excited about this than I’ve been about any other Marvel thing for a while; and I really liked season one of Loki.

We’ll see how the Spider-Man arc plays out. But Marvel gave this to people who know Noir, and the Pulps. And I think they’re doing a terrific job utilizing the genre. I’m picking up on this stuff as I watch. I’m not actively looking for it. But it’s there. And I’m sure there’s more to come.

I’ll surely have watched a couple more episodes by the time you read this. (Well, I did manage to watch ep 4, anyways).

Spider-Noir is 5/5 for me so far.

And back in 2024, I shared a lot of Marvel thoughts in this Ten Things. Includes a link to the follow-up.

Prior Posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2026 (2)

Elliott Gould Reads Chandler
All My Steeger Books Intros

Prior Posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2025 (12)

Will Murray on Dash(iell Hammet) and (Lester) Dent
Shelfie – Dashiell Hammett
Windy City Pulp & Paper Fest – 2025
Will Murray on Who was N.V. Romero?
Conan – The Phoenix in the Sword in Weird Tales
More of Robert E. Howard’s Kirby O’Donnell
More Weird Menace from Robert E. Howard – Conrad and Kirowan
Hardboiled Gaming- LA Noire
Western Noir: Hell on Wheels
T.T. Flynn’s Mr Maddox
Dashiell Hammettt’s The Scorched Face (my intro)
Will Murray on Raymond Chandler’s Other Lost Stories?

Prior Posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2024 Series (11)

Will Murray on Other Lost Raymond Chandler Stories?
Will Murray on Dashiell Hammett’s Elusive Glass Key
Ya Gotta Ask – Reprise
Rex Stout’s “The Mother of Invention”
Dime Detective, August, 1941
John D. MacDonald’s “Ring Around the Readhead”
Harboiled Manila – Raoul Whitfield’s Jo Gar
7 Upcoming A (Black) Gat in the Hand Attractions
Paul Cain’s Fast One (my intro)
Dashiell Hammett – The Girl with the Silver Eyes (my intro)
Richard Demming’s Manville Moon
More Thrilling Adventures from REH

Prior Posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2023 Series (15)

Back Down those Mean Streets in 2023
Will Murray on Hammett Didn’t Write “The Diamond Wager”
Dashiell Hammett – ZigZags of Treachery (my intro)
Ten Pulp Things I Think I Think
Evan Lewis on Cleve Adams
T,T, Flynn’s Mike & Trixie (The ‘Lost Intro’)
John Bullard on REH’s Rough and Ready Clowns of the West – Part I (Breckenridge Elkins)
John Bullard on REH’s Rough and Ready Clowns of the West – Part II
William Patrick Murray on Supernatural Westerns, and Crossing Genres
Erle Stanley Gardner’s ‘Getting Away With Murder (And ‘A Black (Gat)’ turns 100!)
James Reasoner on Robert E. Howard’s Trail Towns of the old West
Frank Schildiner on Solomon Kane
Paul Bishop on The Fists of Robert E. Howard
John Lawrence’s Cass Blue
Dave Hardy on REH’s El Borak

Prior posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2022 Series (16)
Asimov – Sci Fi Meets the Police Procedural
The Adventures of Christopher London
Weird Menace from Robert E. Howard
Spicy Adventures from Robert E. Howard
Thrilling Adventures from Robert E. Howard
Norbert Davis’ “The Gin Monkey”
Tracer Bullet
Shovel’s Painful Predicament
Back Porch Pulp #1
Wally Conger on ‘The Hollywood Troubleshooter Saga’
Arsenic and Old Lace
David Dodge
Glen Cook’s Garrett, PI
John Leslie’s Key West Private Eye
Back Porch Pulp #2
Norbert Davis’ Max Latin

Prior posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2021 Series (7 )

The Forgotten Black Masker – Norbert Davis
Appaloosa
A (Black) Gat in the Hand is Back!
Black Mask – March, 1932
Three Gun Terry Mack & Carroll John Daly
Bounty Hunters & Bail Bondsmen
Norbert Davis in Black Mask – Volume 1

Prior posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2020 Series (21)
Hardboiled May on TCM
Some Hardboiled streaming options
Johnny O’Clock (Dick Powell)
Hardboiled June on TCM
Bullets or Ballots (Humphrey Bogart)
Phililp Marlowe – Private Eye (Powers Boothe)
Cool and Lam
All Through the Night (Bogart)
Dick Powell as Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
Hardboiled July on TCM
YTJD – The Emily Braddock Matter (John Lund)
Richard Diamond – The Betty Moran Case (Dick Powell)
Bold Venture (Bogart & Bacall)
Hardboiled August on TCM
Norbert Davis – ‘Have one on the House’
with Steven H Silver: C.M. Kornbluth’s Pulp
Norbert Davis – ‘Don’t You Cry for Me’
Talking About Philip Marlowe
Steven H Silver Asks you to Name This Movie
Cajun Hardboiled – Dave Robicheaux
More Cool & Lam from Hard Case Crime

A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2019 Series (15)
Back Deck Pulp Returns
A (Black) Gat in the Hand Returns
Will Murray on Doc Savage
Hugh B. Cave’s Peter Kane
Paul Bishop on Lance Spearman
A Man Called Spade
Hard Boiled Holmes
Duane Spurlock on T.T. Flynn
Andrew Salmon on Montreal Noir
Frank Schildiner on The Bad Guys of Pulp
Steve Scott on John D. MacDonald’s ‘Park Falkner’
William Patrick Murray on The Spider
John D. MacDonald & Mickey Spillane
Norbert Davis goes West(ern)
Bill Crider on The Brass Cupcake

A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2018 Series (32)
George Harmon Coxe
Raoul Whitfield
Some Hard Boiled Anthologies
Frederick Nebel’s Donahue
Thomas Walsh
Black Mask – January, 1935
Norbert Davis’ Ben Shaley
D.L. Champion’s Rex Sackler
Dime Detective – August, 1939
Back Deck Pulp #1
W.T. Ballard’s Bill Lennox
Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Phantom Crook (Ed Jenkins)
Day Keene
Black Mask – October, 1933
Back Deck Pulp #2
Black Mask – Spring, 2017
Erle Stanley Gardner’s ‘The Shrieking Skeleton’
Frank Schildiner’s ‘Max Allen Collins & The Hard Boiled Hero’
A (Black) Gat in the Hand: William Campbell Gault
A (Black) Gat in the Hand: More Cool & Lam From Hard Case Crime
MORE Cool & Lam!!!!
Thomas Parker’s ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’
Joe Bonadonna’s ‘Hardboiled Film Noir’ (Part One)
Joe Bonadonna’s ‘Hardboiled Film Noir’ (Part Two)
William Patrick Maynard’s ‘The Yellow Peril’
Andrew P Salmon’s ‘Frederick C. Davis’
Rory Gallagher’s ‘Continental Op’
Back Deck Pulp #3
Back Deck Pulp #4
Back Deck Pulp #5
Joe ‘Cap’ Shaw on Writing
Back Deck Pulp #6
The Black Mask Dinner

Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every Summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, and founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.

 

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: June 2, 2026
ASIN: B0FPL1PXN6
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 5/5 stars

“Anne of Brittany was a child when France invaded and drove her royal father to his death. Now she is a young woman, sovereign duchess of an occupied realm, and France means to crown their conquest by marrying her to their king. Such an alliance would put her title, her lands, and her body forever in the hands of her enemies.

But Anne refuses to be the last duchess of Brittany.

Her only hope of resisting conquest is another alliance sealed with marriage, so Anne arranges a daring last gambit: a secret betrothal to Charles of France’s greatest rival. But secrets are hard to keep in a world where rival courts spy on each other with diviners.

The forest of Brocéliande was once the haunt of Merlin the Enchanter and the long-lost faerie queen. But magic is long gone from Broceliande, except for the occasional sight of a unicorn and one critical quirk: This ancient forest is completely hostile to divination.

While pretending compliance with France, Anne plans a unicorn hunt in Brocéliande. A bit of pointless pageantry. A diversion so she can wed in secret.

Or so she thinks.

In this rich and epic novel, the author of the acclaimed Winternight trilogy turns the real history of a remarkable woman into an unforgettable tale of mystery, enchantment, and the price of power.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this on ebook from NetGalley.com.

Thoughts: This was an amazing fantasy read. It reminds me of a more classic fantasy read with kings and duchesses, wars and adventures, faerie and sorcerers. This was impossible to put down, and I absolutely loved the characters and world here. Prior to reading this I had read Arden’s Winternight Trilogy (loved it), Small Spaces series (liked it) and “The Warm Hands of Ghosts” (loved it). So I was thrilled to read this book as well.

Anne of Brittany was a child when France invaded, and then her father passed away. Now Anne is doing all she can to come up with a strategy to keep Brittany independent from France. She has a plan to delay the machinations of the French, who want to force her to marry their king. She has arranged a secret betrothal to France’s greatest enemy and convinced France’s general to go hunting for unicorns while she sets things in motion. Unfortunately, she never could have planned for some of the magical elements she accidentally set in motion; the unicorn is real and a man who was lost for hundreds of years has returned from the haunted forests of Broceliande.

This was a wonderful read. I love the world here; this is very much historical fiction with a touch of faerie magic. I also really love the characters. Anne is saddled with a big task, and she performs her duties with intelligence, grace, kindness, and a toughness that most don’t expect. I loved how supportive everyone is of each other and enjoy that Anne does find people to help support her. This really tackles the issue a strong woman faces when having to stand on her own and support a whole kingdom while being limited to the bounds of her era.

This is beautifully written; the plot keeps you guessing, the characters are intricate, and the writing flows seamlessly. I enjoyed every second of reading this book. I have really enjoyed all of Arden’s books, and this one was another fantastic story by her.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I absolutely loved everything about this book. The beautiful writing, the complex characters, the world, and the story were all masterfully done. I would highly recommend this read, especially if you enjoy a more classic historical fantasy featuring a strong female lead. I can’t wait to see what Arden comes up with next.

In May I read 10 books. You can see the reviews for all of them, which ones were my favorite, etc. below. Hope you all had a great month of reading!

I started the following series:

• The Art of Piracy (Inspector Davidson Steampunk Mystery, Book 1) by Cecilia Dominic, Narrated by Alicia Foreman (3/5 stars)
• The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club, Book 1) by Theodora Goss (2/5 stars)
• Letters from the Last Apothecary (Tressport Magic, Book 1) by Bita Behzadi (4/5 stars)
• The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton (4.5/5 stars)

I finished the following series:

• None

My Favorite Books of the Month Were:

• A Long and Speaking Silence (The Singing Hills Cycle, Book 7) by Nghi Vo (5/5 stars)
• A Parade of Horribles (Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 8) by Matt Dinniman (4.5/5 stars)
• First Sign of Danger (Haven’s Rock, Book 4) by Kelley Armstrong (5/5 stars)
• The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton (4.5/5 stars)

– Goodreads Reading Challenge (Progress: 39/150)

The full list of books that I read this month are shown below:
1. The Art of Piracy (Inspector Davidson Steampunk Mystery, Book 1) by Cecilia Dominic, Narrated by Alicia Foreman (3/5 stars)
2. The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club, Book 1) by Theodora Goss (2/5 stars)
3. A Long and Speaking Silence (The Singing Hills Cycle, Book 7) by Nghi Vo (5/5 stars)
4. Charms and Firearms (Mitzy Moon Mysteries, Book 5) by Trixie Silvertale, Narrated by Coleen Marlo (4/5 stars)
5. Letters from the Last Apothecary (Tressport Magic, Book 1) by Bita Behzadi (4/5 stars)
6. A Parade of Horribles (Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 8) by Matt Dinniman (4.5/5 stars)
7. Bars and Boxcars (Mitzy Moon Mysteries, Book 6) by Trixie Silvertale, Narrated by Coleen Marlo (4/5 stars)
8. Witch Hat Atelier Vol 14 by Kamome Shirahama (4/5 stars)
9. First Sign of Danger (Haven’s Rock, Book 4) by Kelley Armstrong (5/5 stars)
10. The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton (4.5/5 stars)

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

The Temptation of Charlotte North by Camilla Bruce

Mogsy’s Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Genre: Horror

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Del Rey (May 19, 2026)

Length: 448 pages

Author Information: Website | Twitter

I confess, I was a little surprised at the mixed reviews for The Temptation of Charlotte North. As a fan of Camilla Bruce who has half a dozen of her books under my belt, this one ended up being one of my favorites! It had the same deliciously unsettling vibes that made You Let Me In such a standout for me, while also capturing the oppressive atmosphere and creepy dread that I loved in In the Garden of Spite. This one seemed to have it all. ‘

The story is set in the early twentieth century on Margaret’s Keep, a small and isolated fishing island. Charlotte North is the restless, strong-willed second daughter of the wealthiest family in the village, feeling trapped by the narrow future laid out before her now that she is of age to be married and plans are already being made to send her to the mainland. The problem, however, is that Charlotte is already pining over someone else: the island’s handsome new reverend, despite the inconvenient fact that he is already married. Her infatuation does not go unnoticed, least of all by the minister’s wife, who makes her displeasure abundantly clear to Charlotte’s parents. Mortified by the potential scandal, Mrs. North becomes determined to rein in her troublesome daughter. Already frustrated by Charlotte’s rebellious streak, she escalates her punishments by locking her away in a shed for hours at a time as if she were a prisoner.

But during one such confinement, a powerful earthquake strikes the island, toppling its namesake, an ancient tower that had stood on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the sea for centuries. For many islanders, its destruction actually comes as a relief. The tower has long been tied to local legends and whispered superstitions, and plenty are happy to see the cursed structure gone. Yet not long afterward, strange disturbances begin occurring in the North household. First, Charlotte notices odd noises within the walls. Next comes the needles appearing in impossible places, putting her on alert at all hours of the day. It’s as though someone, or something, is playing tricks on her. And then, there are the knocks. Something appears to have made this place its home, and Charlotte names it the Knocker because that’s how it communicates. Before long, she finds herself fascinated by the entity, intrigued by its supernatural powers and the secrets it knows. But is Knocker friend or foe? Regardless, it seems specifically drawn to Charlotte, making her wonder if it might be her key to escaping the life she never asked for while obtaining everything she has ever wanted.

One of the things I loved most about this novel was its structure. The Temptation of Charlotte North is told through three distinct points of view. Charlotte is the central figure, occupying that difficult space between victim and instigator. She’s strong and determined, but her youth also makes her impulsive, selfish, and motivated by desires she doesn’t fully understand. Another POV belongs to Ruth, a schoolteacher who had grown up on the mainland. As an outsider, she provides a fresh perspective on the island’s strange customs, as well as a grounded counterbalance to the increasingly chaotic events plaguing the North family. Finally, there’s Jasper Hill, the village’s idealistic minister and the object of Charlotte’s desires. Through him, the author explores guilt and temptation and the ways human beings rationalize our mistakes and bad decisions. Together, these three viewpoints create a fuller picture of both the mystery and the community of Margaret’s Keep itself.

Speaking of which, the setting is absolutely stunning. Margaret’s Keep isn’t merely a backdrop but serves as the very foundation upon which the story is built. Bruce does an excellent job capturing the feeling of a tiny, isolated community cut off from the wider world, where traditions, beliefs, and old ways of thinking have endured for generations. The islanders live deeply religious lives, yet many also cling to centuries-old folklore and old wives’ tales, taking them far more seriously than outsiders ever could, and are quick to show disapproval when customs are disrespected. All of this creates an atmosphere thick with unease from the very beginning, and the isolation is palpable.

Even though the pacing is slow, it’s very much by design. The story follows classic gothic fiction conventions, prioritizing mood and character psychology over action. The prose takes its time building tension, unfurling layers upon layers of mystery and unease, and in that regard, the novel reminded me quite a bit of the work of Laura Purcell, whom I consider the queen of modern gothic horror. In fact, if there’s one thing I wish had been different, it would be the ending. For my tastes, it was a little too open-ended, the kind of conclusion you’d expect from a book setting up the next installment in a series, but as far as I know, that’s not the case here. It didn’t ruin my experience by any means, but I did come away wanting a bit more closure.

Ultimately, The Temptation of Charlotte North won’t be for everyone. If you’re looking for fast-paced thrills, this probably isn’t it. But if you enjoy books that slowly wrap themselves around you and tighten their grip, there’s a lot to love here. Fans of Camilla Bruce’s darker, moodier novels should be especially pleased, and for me, this was exactly the kind of gothic horror I love to immerse myself in.

 Ayeyup!

Got it back this morning, it just went live.

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Eugene Ryans and his beautiful native wife Queen Deidra have had a lot of adventures and rescues since they have met. Their latest crisis involves a crew of a PBY Catalina that pirates had shot down off their island home. The crew had been captured and was being used as slaves to upgrade the pirate technology.

The pirates are allied with the Grand Duke of Medicini and both kingdoms are in a race to catch up to the technological levels of the Imperium. The grand duke, ever the spymaster has been stealing what tech secrets he could for years.

For the Imperium's part they have to contend with finding a way to rescue their people while stopping the pirates from raiding their coastline. This leads to a lot of… Building Intrigue…

 There is an AI generated video of the cover but it is hilariously out of wack. I'll see if I can get around to remaking it later.

Amazon: Building Intrigue

B&N: Building Intrigue

Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane paperback editions

Karl Edward Wagner (1945 – 1994) is one writer I make a concerted effort to collect. I think I have almost his entire output, which is — unfortunately—not extensive. The man was a genius and I wish it was more. I met him briefly at a conference and corresponded with him some. He was only 48 when he died and that’s way too young.

The first work I found by Wagner (KEW) were his Sword & Sorcery stories of Kane, sometimes called “The Mystic Swordsman.” In my opinion, Kane is the most outstanding character creation in heroic fantasy, for he is Cain of the Bible, of Cain and Abel fame, although in later years Wagner seemed to be reinventing the character.

[Click for larger images.]

Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin (Penguin English Library, 1985). Cover by Henry Fuseli

When I first read the Kane stories, I assumed the character was influenced by Howard’s Conan and said so in public.

I actually received a letter from KEW where he indicated that he’d started writing about Kane in high school, before he’d ever heard of Howard, and that the character was much more influenced by Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin, published in 1820, which was part of the development of “Gothic” literature. KEW was certainly strongly influenced by the gothic and even referred to the Kane stores as “Acid gothic.”

The Kane paperbacks I’ve shown above are as follows.

Novels

Bloodstone (Warner Paperback Library, March 1975). Cover by Frank Frazetta
Dark Crusade (Baen Books, May 1991). Cover by Frank Frazetta
Darkness Weaves with Many Shades… (Powell, 1978). Cover by Bill Hughes

Story collections

Death Angel’s Shadow (Warner Paperback Library, June 1973). Cover by Frank Frazetta
Night Winds (Warner Books, August 1978). Cover by Frank Frazetta

All these have Frazetta covers and all but Dark Crusade were published by Warner Books. My copy of Dark Crusade is from Baen. My image of Kane will always be from the cover of Night Winds.

Darkness Weaves With Many Shades, by Karl Edward Wagner (Powell, 1978). Cover by Bill Hughes

The one non-Frazetta cover volume from the picture is a pretty rare collectible. This is the first publication of Death Weaves With Many Shades, from Powell Books, 1970.

Whoever edited the book at Powell made internal changes apparently to try and match the cover and Karl did not like it. He much preferred the later publication from Warner. The Powell cover, by Bill Hughes, isn’t horrible but it certainly does not represent the Kane that KEW described.

Back cover, with map, for Darkness Weaves by Bill Hughes

The Powell version did have a map on the back, above, and has a couple of interior pencil illustrations, seen below. The first illustration is definitely more how I’d envision Kane and is signed “Mayer.” I didn’t see a signature on the second one.

Red Harvest is a specialty item I picked up from the Sidecar Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Karl lived much of his life and where he died. It’s a side stapled pamphlet containing 14 poems about his most famous character, Kane. Some of these are fragments. The collection is illustrated by Stephen Jones, who also wrote an introduction. Scott F. Wyatt is listed as editor.

Interior art from Darkness Weaves by Bill Hughes

Red Harvest is a revised and expanded version of a KEW poetry collection published in 1981 called Songs of the Damned, which had been edited by Vern Clark and Bob Barger, two fellows I’m acquainted with.

There’s a lot of power in Karl’s poetry but he was not generally the most lyrical of poets. I’ve written a long essay in the past comparing Karl’s poetry to Robert E. Howard’s, and REH’s is quite a bit better to my mind, although Howard also just wrote a lot more poetry.

Red Harvest by Karl Edward Wagner (Sidecar Preservation Society, October 2002). Cover by Stephen Jones

One KEW piece with a pretty good rhyming scheme is “Death Angel’s Shadow.” The first stanza is,

I wander through a desolate land,
On a cold and barren day;
I wander beneath a shadow,
Under light so chill, so grey;
My thoughts beneath a shadow,
That will not pass away.
Death Angel’s Shadow.

I like this, but the repetition of “shadow” three times in seven lines seems weak to me. Indeed, “shadow” appears ten times in this twenty-eight line poem.

There is one piece from Wagner that I really like, and it’s included in Red Harvest. It’s probably his best known piece of poetry. The rhyme scheme is simple, yet effective, and nary a word is repeated except for “In their.” Best of all, it trips like sweet water off the tongue.

In their castle beyond the night,
In their dungeon’s evil light,
Gather Gods while even fades,
And Darkness weaves with many shades

Much more on KEW to come.

Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. His last article for us was a review of The Eternal City, edited by David Drake, Martin Greenberg, and Charles Waugh. See all of his recent posts for Black Gate here.

Monday is the thirteenth anniversary of House of Blades (which now has a hardcover edition in bookstores, by the way), and therefore I have now been a professional writer for thirteen years!

With that milestone, I will achieve untold power. As part of my ascension ritual, we have arranged the following ARCANE and DISTURBING rites (number twelve will shock you!):

1.) Hardcover edition of House of Blades! I mentioned this before, but it's out now! A precursor of things to come. The Crimson Vault and City of Light will be available later this year, once the mystical energies are attuned to their frequency.

2.) A new, special, Tenth Anniversary Edition of Cradle is coming to bookstores! It's got a new, fancy cover and everything. And in this case, by "bookstores" I mean "just Barnes & Noble." Get it from Barnes & Noble.

Unless you're in Canada, and then it's available from Indigo Books!

I didn't have any idea how big of a deal Indigo was, since I live in the Southlands and not Canada, but they're awesome. They will be honored when I complete my ritual and emerge from my runic cocoon.

3.) Two signings this week, both in Orlando! My neck of the woods!

The first will be at Barnes & Noble on June 5th, and I'll be signing alongside someone who definitely shops at Indigo Books: Michael Chatfield, author of the Ten Realms series.

However, the second will be at indie bookstore Writer's Block on June 8th, and this time I will instead be joining the author of Restarting the Apocalypse, Sir Michael Chatfield. 

3a.) Did you notice I didn't include specifics about when or where these things will occur? That's because it's a riddle for you to solve on your own. This trial will test you intellectually and spiritually. Maybe even physically, but let's not get crazy.

​Wow, you passed those tests so great. Here's a Linktree. It has all the information you could possibly want to know about my upcoming activities. All of them. Every upcoming activity. Everything I will ever do is contained in this one link.

12.) Eating pineapple on pizza.* Are you shocked?

Thanks for thirteen years, everybody! Honestly, as much as this blog is an attempt to spread the word of all the stuff we've got coming up (and really I only got to half of it; we've got a lot of stuff coming up), I am grateful for the opportunity to continue writing and have people actually read it.

It's been a great thirteen years, and I couldn't do it without you! Gratitude!

-Will

*For legal purposes, I am required to disclose that I do not actually like pineapple on pizza. I do not have a hot take in this regard. Pineapple on pizza sucks. Anchovies are great, though.

A few of the many comics Gerry Conway wrote for Marvel over his long career: Amazing Spider-Man #129, first appearance of the Punisher, illustrated by Ross Andru, October 30, 1973; Tomb of Dracula #1, illustrated by Gene Colan, November 16, 1971; and Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #1, illustrated by Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito, September 28, 1976. Cover art: Gil Kane & John Romita, Neal Adams & Sam Rosen; Sal Buscema

Having ‘come into’ comics as a child in the very early 80s, the Bronze Age of Marvel was probably the genre-defining era for me.

And given my dual penchant for Spider-Man and The X-Men, that meant that the two most defining voices of the Bronze Age were Gerry Conway and Chris Claremont.

I grew up reading a lot of Gerry’s writing some 8-10 years after he originally wrote it and I always found it more centered and engaging than most of what was on the newsstands in the mid-late 80s. He had an amazing sense of earnestness when it came to depicting the inner workings of his characters and his voice was seminal in the fragile humanization of many superheroes that went hand in hand with the decade of the Bronze Age.

Ms. Marvel #1 by Gerry Conway and John Buscema (October 5, 1976). Cover by John Romita

It would be fair to say that Gerry Conway probably informed my interpretation of and love for comics more than almost any other writer.

I just recently finished re-reading his very early Daredevil run (far from his best work) as well as his runs on Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man (which were top shelf) and had been musing over whether I might be able to catch him at a convention sometime in the next year. Alas, it seems not to be. 73 feels so damned young.

Anyway, that’s that. We lost a real one on April 26, 2026. Pour one out for kid who had the huevos to kill Gwen Stacy stone-ass dead, no matter how many goddam times they brought her back. He was barely 21 when he rang that bell and he still gave another 50 years to the industry in the decades since.

Marvel’s official tribute, Remembering Gerry Conway, 1952-2026, is worth the read.

Joshua Dinges’s last article for Black Gate was a review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Other Titles by Guy Gavriel Kay We’re also recommending these other titles by Guy Gavriel…

The post “The Lions of Al-Rassan” A Masterclass in Weaving the Slow Burn appeared first on LitStack.

One of the trends I have noticed in recent years is the mainstreaming of science-fictional or fantasy tropes in mainstream fiction, crime novels, police procedurals, urban fantasy and the like. David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and yes, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, amongst others. At the same…

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Chapter 5

 

Corvis cranked the handle the required thirty times and then clicked the microphone three times. After a moment, he tried again. After a moment, the speaker clicked back. He felt relief when it repeated so he hadn't imagined it.

The AM radio worked best at night; he wasn't certain as to why. Each time he cranked the handle, it gave the generator a few seconds of power as the flywheel spun. He began to crank at a steady pace with one hand as he tapped out the message with his transmitter.

Recently his handler had complained that his last four messages had been badly garbled. He was to report in at night at the required hour. His message frequency had stepped up to twice a hafta even though he didn't have much to report.

They wanted information that the Imperium spy wasn't able to gather. He wasn't about to stick his neck out further to get it too. Stuff like the status of the royal family, movement patterns, information about their armies, technology, and so on.

He had confirmed that the spy that had been flushed out and captured had died in an accident. They had passed orders for him to cooperate and not resist if he was ever caught. He hoped it never came to that sort of a scenario though.

He confirmed the previous report he'd made that more spies had headed south some time ago. He also confirmed that other spies were reporting in with things that were making their way across the border. Where he wasn't certain.

It took a few patient minutes to tap the order out. Once he was done, he stopped.

Once his message was complete, he waited for the acknowledgement. It came in with a series of beeps. He hastily used the side of his hand to wipe the slate clean and jot out the response.

He grunted and then tapped out a quick okay and then shut down for the night.

The radio was disguised. He broke it down and hid the pieces under the floorboard and behind a hidden cubbard. The one thing he couldn't hide was the very long antenna. That was tacked to the underside of the eaves and up to the point on the roof. He'd painted the copper wire though so it matched the honey color stone and the wood on the building. He had covered parts of it with trim to hide it further.

Just as an extra precaution, he had tied the end he plugged into to a stake in the ground. If anyone asked about it, he had a ready cover story; it was a lightning rod. It was to ward off lightning strikes.

He hoped he never had to use that cover story however.

He sat back and checked the slate. There were two more spies coming in. Both would need temporary lodging. He was fine with that, though it was hoped that they never came to him and instead went to an inn. There was a lot of safety in not knowing each other and not congregating.

He had a cover story in case they did come to his door; they were cousins looking for work after their farm had burned down. They were going to need a place though … he frowned.

They would hopefully bring that to him, he thought. He grimaced and then went to make dinner.

One of the things that sucked about being a bachelor was being on his own to cook and clean. He didn't like it. He could go to the tavern, but that got expensive quickly. If he was there too often, people started to wonder about his finances. He had to limit his visits to when he had just finished a job or once a mens.

Since he was alone, he took out a block of cheese, carefully unwrapped it, cut off a slice, rewrapped it tightly, and then did the same for some dried sausage. A bit of butter and a couple slices of bread toasted and he had a nice sandwich to eat by the fire as he planned his next day activities.

Of course it all hinged on the weather, he thought with a weather eye to the small window nearby. He couldn't tell. The sky wasn't red so he would only be able to tell in the morning.

---+--+-{0}-+--+---

Khalia finished reading the pamphlet from the Imperium University again and sighed. It was a copy and already a bit dog-eared from its wear. She got up, stretched and then went to find her father.

He was watching the grandchildren at play and she smiled. Her possible wedding was on hold; Torinus had fallen ill. She was avoiding his home because she didn't want to catch whatever he had. There had been requests by the medicus for some of the gaijin medicines and knowledge. The duke had not provided any.

She had to wonder sometimes if the alliance was off. Possibly.

Her first marriage had been something of a farce. Her father or someone else, no one had voluntarily come forward to say that they were the guilty party, had arranged her first mate's death. Her lips twitched. His holdings had been looted, and the lands and rusticus returned to the duke's personal holdings since she hadn't born any heirs to the family.

Pity about that, she thought in amusement.

"We need to find a proper tutor soon. One who knows the ins and outs of the new gaijin knowledge," her father rumbled thoughtfully. He nodded once.

She realized that his comment was what she needed. It was the opening to a topic that needed to be broached. She decided to take the plunge.

"Father, we need to do that with the whole kingdom," Khalia said as she sat down next to him.

He blinked in surprise and then one eyebrow lifted in inquiry.

"You know that the Imperium has their universities."

He nodded.

"We need to find ways to catch up. We cannot hoard knowledge; it must be spread about," she said. "Like seeds, we need to cultivate the knowledge or it will be lost. And we need to get it into the right hands so we can make some of the machina that the Imperium is making."

He frowned.

Khalia saw his intransigence begin to build. "We have to match them. We can't do that with some things being in secret."

Her father's frown deeped.

"We have started to make up ground with the medicus and hygiene, but you and I both know it isn't enough," she warned.

He nodded. She had been the one to do a lot there. She had also gotten him to pass laws to ban the pests that were known to cause diseases. Cats and sprays were being used to keep the pests down to a minimum. It was making people healtheir.

"They will find out we have some of this eventually, right? If they have not already? Why not put it out there? Learn from it, figure out what we can, and then sell it to the rusticus?"

"Them?" he asked in distaste.

"Yes! And we can sell it to merchants who will sell it too. Right now they are buying it from traders who cross the border into the Imperium or into Duluth. Why not learn to make it here?" She implored.

He frowned again. He had heard of some things being bought and brought over or traded for the products of his kingdom. The guilds wouldn't like it though.

His duchy's wool exports were not worth as much as it had been. Their textiles too. Metal was highly prized but heavy, and the carters therefore didn't like to haul it long distances. That economic downturn bothered many of his merchants. They wanted improvements.

"Why shouldn't we employ our own people to do the work and profit from it?" she asked as she sened another opening.

Her father grunted. She had a point. After a moment, he nodded.

She saw the opening and smiled.

"You yourself were looking for things to trade with the pirates, right? Things to offset the costs of paying them tribute? Things to get them to give up the secrets of the guns?"

He nodded again.

"They don't need engines or steam engines; they have those from the reports Dominic has passed on," she reminded him. "They have aircraft. They have better ships …"

"You aren't telling me things I don't know."

"I'm listing what they have while trying to look for something that they don't have. Such as the metals we have in the mines around here," she said patiently.

He cocked his head and then made a slight go-on gesture.

"Well, what if our people develop something that they crave? Something important enough to get them to trade the secrets of the weapons for?" she said slyly.

He sat back and stared at the ceiling as he gamed that out. It was a long shot but she had a point. He had been trying to trade them sabotaged copies of material from the Imperium. But what if his people developed the ideas further and applied them here and sold copies of working machina to the pirates? Would they trade the secrets of gunpowder to him? He finally looked at her and nodded once.

"Besides, introducing change isn't a bad thing. If it makes our industry better, that is good. We have better mines, more timber. We have artisans who are the best."

"Were," Harbard stated gloomily from the nearby door.

She glanced at her brother and then back to their father. "Then as a bid for our pride, I say we push to make them the best again. What say you, father?"

He nodded.

Harbard cocked his head slightly.

"The Imperium and Duluth both have these universities, these higher places of learning. Caliope had something similiar. We need to match them," he said slowly. He studied his granddaughter with interest. She gave a bright sunny smile and then went back to playing with the puzzle in front of her.

"Passing on the information to the next generation is imperative if we want to adapt and survive, father," Khalia said quietly.

"She is right," Harbard stated as he turned to see Avery, their steward, arrive with the treasurer, Clive Deluise, in tow. Both men took in the conversation and took on artful thoughtful expressions.

The duke nodded after a moment.

"It will be expensive," Clive warned after a long moment of thought. He knew that it was time to get on board with the plan.

"All endeavors worthy of change are. But they pay off many times the initial start-up costs later," Khalia stated firmly.

"Start small. We will find those who can learn and adapt and others to train them. A … think tank I believe they call it?" Harbard asked. He looked to his sister who nodded.

The grand duke grunted but then nodded. "See to it," he ordered with a look to Avery. The steward placed his bad arm over his abdomen and bowed slightly.

"There are spies coming back with more things from the festival, correct?" Clive asked. "Should we wait until they return?"

"That is a long time away." Harbard stated with a dismissive wave of a hand. "We need to lay the groundwork now for the university. We can start with what we have and identify what needs to be a focus."

"Such as the gaijin weapons," Avery stated with a look to the grand duke. "And ways to stop them. The old armor versus offense battle," he said.

The grand duke grunted.

That had ever been the way with warfare; offense would look for a new weapon to kill and get through or around armor. Then the armorers would see the weakness and find a way to cover it over. Then the whole system would start anew like an ever-rotating wheel.

There had to be ways to defend against the gaijin weapons. They just needed to find them.

"Put an emphasis in looking through the old archives. There are some gaijin who came and settled here in the past. They spoke of such things; there are a few examples. Find them."

"We have looked," Avery stated.

The grand duke frowned thoughtfully and then noted the clock. It was ticking away on the mantle. He indicated it. It was made out of slate and was beautiful. "Perhaps them?"

Heads turned to the clock.

"Find the clockmaker. Ask them what they know. Perhaps the ancestor kept records? Or passed down stories?" Khalia suggested with a nod to her father.

"Exactly," the grand duke said with an answering nod.

"The artisans can be recruited to the university as well," she said.

"Yes, that too," the duke murmured.

"Younger minds are the best. Fresh ideas demand fertile ground and fresh energy," Khalia stated. Her father and Avery both nodded.

---+--+-{0}-+--+---

On Monday, June 1st, at 7 pm, Ilona will be joining Caitlin Rozakis at Barnes & Noble Arboretum in Austin to chat shop, ask questions, and help celebrate Caitlin’s new release, STARTUP HELL.

Tickets are free and available at TicketLeap.

Purchasing the book from B&N Arboretum on event day will grant you access to the signing line. If you have any other questions or arrangements you need to make in advance, you can contact the venue at this link. More details about Caitlin’s signing tour dates in both the US and UK can be found on her website.

About STARTUP HELL

STARTUP HELL by Caitlin Rozakis is a contemporary fantasy office comedy about a junior sales witch stuck in (corporate) hell, who has to juggle devilish pacts, her kickass demon-slaying mother, and one inconveniently hot demon, all while trying to hit her quarterly target.

It was released on May 19th from Titan Books, in ebook, audio and paperback format.

Morgan Blackwater-McKey is a junior salesperson for a tech startup that can’t even decide what its product is. Sure, her mom might be a kickass, world-saving, demon-slaying Shadow Council wizard. But with magic dyslexia and a disinclination to kick ass, Morgan’s life is more about sales leads than case leads.

That is, until her boss summons a demon to try to trade his soul to make his quarterly target. And dies without sending the demon home.

Now Morgan is stuck with an inconveniently attractive junior salesdemon sleeping on her couch. Other than that whole souls thing, turns out the infernal realm is not so different from startup culture. If all corporations are hell and their bosses are ruthless monsters anyway, why not team up?

Morgan just has to stay ahead of her demon-hunting mother, her amoral tech bro CEO, and her growing attraction to a certain demon. And a quarterly target that threatens to damn them both...

Corporate life: somehow barely worse when you add actual demons, amirite?

I have only managed to read the sample so far, because moving house stress and back pain (always lift with your legs, Horde!), but Morgan’s reaction to the classic Faust-style “deal with a summoned demon” situation gave me a chuckle. We stan a woman with boundaries, professional burnout, and absolutely no time for infernal nonsense. Goethe could have saved himself a lot of time with that one.

If that sounds like your kind of chaos, this is your chance to hear Caitlin and Ilona talk all things fantasy, writing, demons, and corporate despair.

Come for the author chat, stay for the infernal office comedy, and bring your best fluffy Horde energy!

The post Austin event with Caitlin Rozakis first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Rog Phillips

Roger Phillip Graham was born in Spokane, Washington on February 20, 1909 to John Alfred Graham and Abbie Susan (née McCalmont). His family moved often, spending time in Oklahoma, among other places. He returned to Spokane to attend Gonzaga College, from which he graduated in 1931 and did some graduate work at the University of Washington. Most of his sf work appeared under the name Rog Phillips.

During the pre-war years, Phillips held a variety of jobs, including working as a farm worker,  plumber, construction worker, and carpenter. During World War II, he worked as a power plant engineer and a shipyard welder.

Graham married Eleanor Cora Smith on October 8, 1938 in Spokane, although they were divorced by 1950, when he married sf fan and author Mari Wolf. They divorced in 1955 and the following year, he married another fan, Honey Wood, to whom he remained married until his death. Wood and Phillip were members of the Outlanders, a subset of LASFS fans who lived just outside Los Angeles.

Mystery Stories #20

Phillips published his first short stories in Mystery Stories in 1939 under the name Roger Graham. His next story, “Let Freedom Ring,” appeared after the war in the December 1945 issue of Amazing Stories, a magazine which would be his main place of publication, along with its sister magazine Fantastic Adventures.

His first novel, Time Trap, was published in 1949. His other novels appeared in 1950 and 1951. Later novels appeared in magazines, with one of them, These Are My Children, which first appeared as a serialization in Other Worlds Science Stories in 1952 seeing its first stand-alone publication in 2018. Other small presses have published collections of his work in the twenty-first century, most recently Rog Phillips, Ace of Science Fiction Digests in 2023.

During the 1950s, he lived in Chicago and wrote “The Club House” a column covering science fiction fan gatherings and short reviews of fanzines, first for Amazing Stories from 1948-1953 and later in Universe Science Fiction from 1954-1955, and finally in Other Worlds Science Stories from 1955-1956. “The Club House” introduced fannish culture to people, including a young Robert Silverberg.

Phillips wrote under a variety of house names, including Craig Browning, Franklin Bahl, Peter Worth and Melva Rogers, in addition to his own name. He also used the pseudonym John Wiley for mystery and detective stories. He used other pseudonyms as well.

In 1956, Phillips was a Hugo finalist in the “Best Feature Writer” category in the only year it was awarded. He lost to Willy Ley. Other nominees included L. Sprague de Camp, Robert A. Madle, and R.S. Richardson. Three years later, his story “Rat in the Skull” was nominated for Best Novelette, losing to Clifford D. Simak’s “The Big Front Yard.”

Phillips served as best man at SF author Chad Oliver’s wedding. He also served as godfather to Earl Terry Kemp, the son of Earl Kemp, who chaired the 1962 Chicon. The younger Kemp has revived “The Club House” and has also edited collections of Phillips’ work.

He died on March 2, 1966 in San Francisco.

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.

 

Book links: Amazon, Goodreads
GENRE: Adventure Epic Fantasy
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: S. A. Chakraborty is the author of the critically acclaimed and internationally best-selling The Daevabad Trilogy. Her work has been nominated for the Locus, World Fantasy, Crawford, and Astounding awards. When not buried in books about thirteen-century con artists and Abbasid political intrigue, she enjoys hiking, knitting, and re-creating unnecessarily complicated medieval meals. You can find her online at www.sachakraborty.com or on Twitter and Instagram at @SAChakrabooks, where she likes to talk about history, politics, and Islamic art. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, daughter, and an ever-increasing number of cats.
Publisher: Harper Voyager (May 12, 2026) Page count: 494 pages Formats: audiobook, ebook, paperback

The Tapestry of Fate was easily one of my most anticipated books of 2026. I loved The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, but sequels are difficult. Especially sequels to books built almost entirely on charm, chemistry, and an awesome adventure featuring people addicted to making terrible decisions. Sometimes the magic disappears the second everyone comes back for round two.

Not here.

This is, imo, a masterclass in writing a sequel. The stakes are higher, the story gets darker, the world expands naturally, and yet it still feels like its own complete adventure. Also, the ending caught me off guard. Shannon Chakraborty clearly looked at readers peacefully enjoying closure and decided that was unacceptable.

The story sends Amina after another magical artifact, this time a spindle capable of rewriting fate itself. You know, the sort of thing nobody should touch under any circumstances, but, naturally, everyone immediately sails toward it. The island at the center of the story is eerie, dangerous, full of strange magic and shifting loyalties. The deeper Amina gets into the mission, the clearer it becomes that the peris are hiding far more than they admitted.

This book is noticeably darker than the first one too. There are some genuinely brutal scenes here, more violence, more heartbreak, and more tension between the characters. Amina’s relationship with her daughter gets more complicated - Marjana is older now, smarter, and increasingly tired of being lied to about her mother’s life and her own heritage. Fair enough. If your mother keeps disappearing on magical pirate missions while refusing to explain anything, eventually you start asking questions.

Amina and Dalila's friendship is the main focus of the story. It's crazy how deeply these two women care about each other while also being stubborn enough to make everything infinitely harder than necessary. So, we get lots of emotional scenes between them, but also demons, sorceresses, sea monsters, and people getting stabbed at alarming speed.

It's worth noting that even when things get darker, it never becomes emotionally miserable. There’s heartbreak, yes, but this is still fundamentally a story about adventure, friendship, found family, and larger-than-life characters doing wildly reckless things for reasons that usually make emotional sense at the time. 

And the characters really are the magic here. Amina remains one of the most entertaining protagonists in fantasy right now. Brave, stubborn, overprotective, occasionally very wrong, but always compelling. Raksh continues to cause chaos like an immortal being who genuinely wakes up every morning asking himself how to make today everyone else’s problem.

Shannon Chakraborty somehow managed to make the world feel bigger while keeping the story personal, which isn’t easy in epic fantasy sequels. The Tapestry of Fate feels richer, darker, and more confident than the first novel without losing the warmth and sense of adventure that made me love the series in the first place.

Now I just need book three immediately. Which, judging by that ending, is probably exactly what Chakraborty wanted.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Romance/Humor
Length: 378 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: July 23, 2024
ASIN: B0CLN6XSD7
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Love’s Academic series
Source: Borrowed ebook from library
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

“Beth Pickering is on the verge of finally capturing the rare deathwhistler bird when Professor Devon Lockley swoops in, stealing both her bird and her imagination like a villain. Albeit a handsome and charming villain, but that’s beside the point. As someone highly educated in the ruthless discipline of ornithology, Beth knows trouble when she sees it, and she is determined to keep her distance from Devon.

For his part, Devon has never been more smitten than when he first set eyes on Professor Beth Pickering. She’s so pretty, so polite, so capable of bringing down a fiery, deadly bird using only her wits. In other words, an angel. Devon understands he must not get close to her, however, since they’re professional rivals.

When a competition to become Birder of the Year by capturing an endangered caladrius bird is announced, Beth and Devon are forced to team up to have any chance of winning. Now keeping their distance becomes a question of one bed or two. But they must take the risk, because fowl play is afoot, and they can’t trust anyone else—for all may be fair in love and war, but this is ornithology.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 1st book in the Love’s Academic series. I borrowed this on ebook from the library.

Thoughts: This started a bit slow but picked up the pace about 25% of the way in. This is a Victorian alternate history sort of fantasy romance. It is set in England (mostly) but an England where the birds are deadly and magical, and ornithologists play a major role in the safety of people in general.

Beth is a rare female ornithologist professor and, when a contest to capture the rare caladrius bird is announced (with tenure as the prize) she must participate. Unfortunately, all the ornithologists dive right into this challenge, including the incredibly smart and handsome Professor Devon Lockley. As Devon and Beth are forced to team up, they are incredibly attracted to each other, and both are forced to admit there are more important things in life than winning Birder of the Year (of course, nothing is more important than the birds). As the chase for this rare bird continues, they both realize that there is more behind this contest than they initially thought.

This is a very fun and cute read. The beginning missed the mark for me a bit. Beth was just too timid and the characters felt a bit too stereotypical, however that was quickly remedied as we got further into the story. There is a lot of action here, and a lot of the story is a bit tongue-in-cheek. I mean the ornithologists are so famous and so important, at times it all feels a bit over characterized and silly, but in a fun way.

The story does jump between a few different POVs. However, the majority of the story is told from Beth’s and Devon’s points of view. I enjoyed both Beth and Devon as characters. At first, they seem a bit stereotypical to this type of alternate history Victorian story, but I think that is part of the point. As they get to know each other better, we also get to know them better. They are both exceptional characters with deep intelligence and interests.

This was a fun romp, was effortless to read, and was well written. I enjoyed it immensely.

My Summary (4.5/5): Overall, though the start of this was a bit rough for me, I thought the story really hit it’s stride about 25% of the way in and I really started to love it. I loved this alternate history Victorian London setting with deadly magical birds, the quirky characters, the fast pace, the romance, and the mystery that is unraveled. I would recommend to those who enjoy alternate history Victorian romance with some magic, adventure, and mystery in it. I will definitely be picking up the second book in the series, “The Geographer’s Map to Romance.”

Marrying Mr. Darcy, designed by Erika Svanoe, art by Erik Evensen (Erika Svanoe Games, 2013)

One of my local gaming friends told me about Marrying Mr. Darcy, and brought his copy to a recent session, where we played it. I thought it was a lot of fun and have acquired a copy.

This is a game based on Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice. I think it could be played without having read that book, by anyone who has some familiarity with the courtship customs of the past. On the other hand, such players will miss some of the jokes that add to the pleasure of the game.

[Click the images to engage with larger versions.]

Some of the cards in Marrying Mr. Darcy

Up to six people can play Marrying Mr. Darcy. At the outset, players roll a die for first choice, and each chooses a young woman to play, from a set of eight, who are more or less all the named marriageable women in the novel: its heroine, Lizzie Bennet, and her four sisters, plus three others with disparate backgrounds. These women start out with certain personal traits; a dowry, which doesn’t count as a “personal trait,” but which many suitors are looking for; and a set of base scores to be earned by marrying different suitors.

Darcy, the hero of the novel, for whom the game is named, is usually worth a fair number of points, but is only the top ranked choice for Lizzie, for example. Cards are put out for suitors, showing what traits each requires before he would consider proposing to a woman. Note that some of the women are sisters of some of the men, who won’t propose to them — though there’s an optional rule where the women turn out to have been adopted (a plot twist H.G. Wells actually used in Joan and Peter, written about a century later).

Back cover of Marrying Mr. Darcy

The first phase of play, courtship, involves drawing event cards, which represent something that could happen in the characters’ social milieu, such as a party, a family scandal, or simply learning to play a new piece at the pianoforte. I could think of an incident in the novel for nearly every “event.” Many event cards grant the ability to draw and/or play one or more character cards; they may also produce direct benefits or problems.

Character cards, in turn, often add to a characteristic. There are five of these. Four can be played face up: Beauty, Friendliness, Reputation, and Wit. These accumulate as played, giving each young woman the ability to appeal to various suitors; the strategy of the game involves knowing that Mr. Darcy, for example, favors young women with Wit, while Mr. Collins cares about Beauty and Reputation.

The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen and David M. Shapard (Vintage, March 13, 2007)

Cunning is played face down, and can be used to undercut another young woman’s advantages by removing a card she has played face up, making her less able to compete for a suitor you want.

Character cards can also add to Dowry, which is not a characteristic but is important to some suitors. Reputation and Dowry, in particular, are important in ways that no longer apply in our era; players may need to have read some Austen or Heyer to be seized of the point that men usually expect a young woman to bring some of her family’s wealth into a marriage, and that they avoid a woman who might be feared to be unchaste or unfaithful — perhaps because her sister has eloped with a man she wasn’t married to (how did their family bring them up?).

The Nonesuch by by Georgette Heyer (Sourcebooks Casablanca, April 1, 2009)

In the second phase of play, proposal and marriage, players’ turns are decided by Cunning scores: The most cunning young woman goes first. (If two young women are tied, the one with the higher Dowry goes first.)

All the suitors whose standards a young woman meets are identified, and the dice are rolled for each one to see if he proposes. The player can either accept or reject each proposal; acceptance removes that suitor from the pool available to other young women.

A young woman who turns down all her suitors, or receives no proposals, acquires the Old Maid card — a social disaster, but one some young women might prefer to a really bad marriage!

The final score is the sum of a character’s scores on Beauty, Friendliness, Reputation, and Wit and the point value of her suitor for her. The highest score determines the winner; ties are broken by Dowry or by Cunning — so that these two traits can still matter, in a less obvious way than the characteristics.

Marrying Mr. Darcy can be played in an hour or a bit less. It can be quite an entertaining game, as characters raise their standing in the marital competition or suffer dramatic reversals; each game is effectively a new drama about the Bennets and their social milieu.

The cards are also attractively designed: Erik Evensen did a good job of suggesting that milieu. And between quickness and lightness, this was a perfect palate cleanser to be played after a complex, tactically challenging game, like having a salad after a main course. I look forward to playing it again.

William H. Stoddard is a professional copy editor specializing in scholarly and scientific publications. As a secondary career, he has written more than two dozen books for Steve Jackson Games, starting in 2000 with GURPS Steampunk. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas with his wife, their cat (a ginger tabby), and a hundred shelf feet of books, including large amounts of science fiction, fantasy, and graphic novels.

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The Faraway Innby Sarah Beth Durst
What is it about:After a devastating heartbreak, a teen girl decides to spend her summer helping her eccentric great aunt manage her quaint Vermont inn--but this fixer-upper is hiding a magical secret--in this cozy and irresistable new fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop.
Sixteen-year-old Calisa is desperate for a change of scenery after her lying ex ruins her perfect Brooklyn summer. When her parents suggest she head to rural Vermont to help her great-aunt run her cozy bed and breakfast for a few months, she jumps at the chance.
But when Calisa arrives at the B&B, she's shocked to find a rundown inn with only a handful of guests. And to make matters worse, upon meeting with her great-aunt it quickly becomes clear that Calisa was not invited. Auntie Zee is determined to keep anyone from messing with her beloved inn…even if it is clear she needs the help.
To earn her keep, Calisa sets to work fixing up the inn, enlisting extra help from the groundskeeper's (handsome) son. But the longer she stays, the more it becomes evident that there is something strange about the B&B—and its residents. Something almost…otherworldly.
The inn is keeping a magical secret—but to protect the place she's come to love, Calisa must unravel the truth of it, and her aunt, before it's too late.
What did I think of it:After the fluffy happy coziness of The Spellshop series I totally had to get this YA Cozy Fantasy.
And it doesn't disappoint!
I loved every minute I spent with this book. Together with Calisa I got to explore the Faraway Inn and discover its many wonders. Having read my fair share of Magical Realism and Fantasy books I picked up on the hints dropped throughout the story, which made sure I kept ahead of Calisa in discovering what was going on. It was fun to see where things started to click into place with Calisa.
Overall this is a wonderful and cozy read. You bet I'm keeping an eye out for more books by Sarah Beth Durst.
Why should you read it:This book is like a cup of hot chocolate on a chilly day.