recent read; GODS OF FIRE AND THUNDER

With GODS OF FIRE AND THUNDER, Saberhagen delved into Norse myth and legend to weave a novel.

Haraldur the Northman once joined Jason on his fabled quest for the Golden Fleece, but now he wants nothing more to do with gods and adventure. Returning to his homeland for the first time in many years, he hopes only to settle down on a farm of his own—until he comes across an impenetrable wall of Eldritch fire and a lovesick youth determined to breach the wall at any cost.
Behind the towering flames, he is told, lies a beautiful Valkyrie trapped in an enchanted sleep, as well as, perhaps, a golden treasure beyond mortal reckoning. It is the gold that tempts Hal to agree, against his better judgment, to assist the youth in his quest.

Declared as 'Book One of the Norse Gods,' the novel is also the fifth book in Saberhagen's 'Gods(Masks)' series. The first four novels deal with Greek myth and legend.

If you've come for a hard-hitting Viking tale, this isn't it. Saberhagen's story concerns the gods, ghosts, gnomes, and other trappings of the Norse myths. The gods aren't truly gods--they are people who have acquired magical masks which transform them into gods. The Masks are a good hook and the characters and their interactions are enjoyable. (I still wonder if the series is in any way connected to Saberhagen's SWORDS world. It has a similar setup.)

It's a solid time-passer as a fantasy story. If you seek blood & thunder and clashing Viking hordes, you need to look elsewhere.

The Masks concept is interesting. Not enough for me to rush out and immediately find the other books in the series. But enough that I might return to the series sometime in future.

If I spot them cheap enough during my bookstore travels I would probably grab them.

3 out of 5 stars.

recent read; The Dracula Tape

THE DRACULA TAPE by Fred Saberhagen

I am a traditionalist. I like my good guys good and my bad guys bad. But, in the hands of Fred Saberhagen, the flipping of traditional roles in THE DRACULA TAPE, I was still entertained. You see, Dracula isn't all bad. Yes, he's a vampire and he's no saint. But Bram Stoker's novel was a bit of a smear campaign built on misunderstanding. Van Helsing was a bumbling fool.

Saberhagen did a great job of following the original novel and inverting everything a reader thinks they know. Saberhagen drops wonderful bits of history along the way. Some of the deconstruction of the Dracula myth goes beyond mere misinterpretations. Crucifixes? Vlad fought the Muslim hordes! Why would the cross bother him?

I enjoyed the first half of this novel which is very clever indeed with turning all the elements of DRACULA 180 degrees. I did feel, though, that as the book progressed, and Saberhagen created scenes and conversations completely outside the realm of the original novel, the effort lost steam.

And his conceit on how Dracula survived his staking missed some salient points of Stoker's folklore, in my opinion.

Fun, worth a read. You do need to have read DRACULA to fully appreciate what Saberhagen was doing. Looking forward to more entries in Saberhagen's Dracula series now that the beginning has been established.

p.s. - I listened to the audiobook via Audible, and the narration by Robin Bloodworth is excellent.

semi-recent read: The (First) Swords trilogy

Fred Saberhagen is one author I made a point to read more of this year.

I didn't think I'd read three of his in a row, but seeing as how I had them in omnibus form, I went ahead with reading the entire first trilogy of his Swords novels. (I did take some breaks between to read other material.)

Twelve magical swords, forged by Vulcan himself, are the focal point of the series. But this is not the ancient god, Vulcan, that we know. Rather, the Swords tales are set centuries into Earth's future, generations after Saberhagen's sci-fantasy trilogy, Empire of the East.

The gods have returned, and they want to play a game. What the game is and what they might win or lose is never made clear. That is intentional. The gods themselves don't entirely understand their own nature. That is just one intriguing mystery of the trilogy. The Swords are dispersed among men. Struggles and battles ensue as both men and gods attempt to acquire the Swords and harness their powers - for good and evil.

The first tale's hero is named Mark. (I get a kick out of Saberhagen's use of such commonplace names in a fantasy setting.) Under magic compulsion, Mark's own father, Jord, helped Vulcan to forge the swords. Jord also sacrificed an arm in the process. Mark's lineage is somewhat uncertain and he seems to have a connection to the swords, but he doesn't fully understand that connection. Forced to flee home, Mark becomes entangled in swords, princes, seers, dragons and villains. He makes fast friends among a group of dragon hunters, two of whom, Ben and Barbara, become the major secondary characters in the trilogy.

The second novel is almost a classic dungeon crawl, as Ben and Mark join with a group of treasure looters. Everyone wants to get rich, but Mark also wants to secure Swords for his liege's cause. Their choice of raid is fraught with peril. The Blue Temple see the worship of money as a religion, and they don't look kindly upon thieves.

I really enjoyed the third book. It had an intriguing opening, and lots of variety to the plot. Very unexpected things happened. The Blue Temple return for revenge, the gods become much more directly involved in the struggles of men. A new villain, the Dark King, is wonderfully creepy.

The first strong point of this trilogy is its variety. Saberhagen keeps changing things up. Each book does not follow immediately in the world. Four years or so pass between each book, and things happen between the tales, that shift settings, balance of power, and even how and where the characters are and where they have been.

I was surprised that the story was not wrapped up neatly. At the end, some gods have died, some have disappeared, two Swords have been destroyed, and the fate of the main human characters in their last ditch battle is unknown.

I know the Swords tales continue for the eight novels of the Lost Swords series. I guess I thought the Lost Swords might take place between the lines of this first trilogy, but it appears that is not the case. The world goes on, the gods go on, characters, gods and swords come and go.

I look forward to reading some of the other titles, just to see what Saberhagen threw into the mix with each story.

Lost Swords no longer lost

A few times per year, I look over my bookcase and if there are titles I am interested in replacing with eBooks, I start poking around Amazon (I have a Kindle.)

Sometimes, I am reminded of books I am searching for, or authors I want more of - and if they have out-of-print titles, I'll take a stab.

I've posted before about my tardy discovery and enjoyment of Fred Saberhagen's work.  Over the past few years I have been collecting his Berserker tales, Empire of the East, The First Swords trilogy and The Lost Swords series.  I have two books in the Lost Swords series to find.  Sometime during the year (summer, maybe) I happened upon Kindle editions of the first four.  As luck and timing would have it, the Swords books have been (re-)released in eFormat over the course of this year.  The covers are primitive, even for eBooks, so I was mildly suspicious.  But, they have all been released now (except, I believe, An Armory of Swords, which was an anthology.)  The eBooks are being created and published by Saberhagen's literary estate, JSS Literary Productions (which, I think is essentially his wife.)

Too bad there is a disconnect as JSS L. P. also run the Berserker website - the official Saberhagen site, and I see no news announcements about the eBooks.  So, I'm spreading the word for the curious, or fans, or fans who have lost their original print Saberhagen books.

I will still find hard copies of my missing two novels, but it's nice to know I can at least fall back to the eBooks if I really am desperate.

Book buying

Another long weekend flew by, and the month is nearly closing. Time for a post! ;)

Nothing much here. I want to increase my reading amount this year, but February has been a tight month on my time. I started, and I am still reading, Eric Brighteyes by H. Rider Haggard.

Friday, I had an afternoon free (1/2 day vacation to burn) so I treated myself to book shopping. I went to an independent book seller in my area - a huge warehouse with thousands of books, The New England Mobile Book Fair - which is neither mobile, nor a fair (they are open year round.)



It's a great place, with new books. Sometimes, though, it's as good as a used book store because you might find something out-of-print hidden away. Once I stumbled on a mint, unsold, Conan of the Isles. It must have been there for twenty years before I grabbed it.

Of course, as time goes by, such finds are less likely. But, on Friday, I stumbled on a handful of Saberhagen's Lost Swords novels. No idea where they've been hiding - I guess somewhere in the back, though, being a warehouse, most stuff is out on the shelves. Very happy to acquire those. Also bought a couple of more Warhammer novels, and finally Robert E. Howard's Sword Woman (the new Del Rey edition.)



The business is up for sale (the family owning it would like to retire and move on.) They've been at it 54 years. Everyone hopes someone buys and keeps their model and makes no changes to the store. It's a real treasure, especially in this time of dwindling brick-and-mortar stores.

I decided to curb my spending and left the four TOR re-issues of Moorcock's Hawkmoon on the shelf. I was very tempted, and they are nice. But they are thin books and even with the illustrations the cover price $13.99 seems steep. Lots of folks have said they enjoy these more than Elric, and I am very tempted to read them. But I think I'll just keep an eye out for used editions. The tales have been through a few different publishers.

After all that, Friday night I received the official "your local Borders store is closing" email. 20% off starting Saturday, so I went and bought yet more books. This time, some Dr Seuss for my daughter, a Warhammer omnibus and two titles by A. Lee Martinez, (In the Company of Ogres, The Automatic Detective.) I haven't read Martinez, but I've heard good things about these books. I'm usually not one for comedic fantasy, but these sound like I would enjoy them.



As usual, I now need to find room to squeeze these titles on my bookcases, and find time to read them all!

October to November and beyond

Despite my ever growing Kindle wishlist, I still thoroughly enjoy the “used book” hunt. During my week off, I managed to shop at a nearby branch of The Book Rack. I could have come out with a lot of books. I kept under control, though, and came out with six. Two Saberhagen Berserker titles, Berserker Fury and Berserker Base. Two Poul Anderson books, The Armies of Elfland and Hrolf Kraki's Saga. Lastly, I completed Andrew Offutt's “War of the Gods on Earth” trilogy by picking up the second and third volumes.

As mentioned in previous posts, I'm enjoying discovering Saberhagen, so grabbing the Berserker titles was a no brainer. There were more Saberhagen titles, but I held off.

As for the Offutt tales, I know he was a mid-mid-list writer of sword-&-sorcery, but I'm still curious about his work, though not expecting much. These knock-off/pastiche/homages like Offutt and John Jakes' Brak the Barbarian would really be the perfect Kindle reads (if they were cheap enough.) I'm curious enough to read them, & grab them when I see them, but I don't go out of my way. If there were e-versions available, I'd let the print editions go to make room for better works on my bookcase.

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I'm currently (finally) reading Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword and it is an amazing piece of work. If you don't know its background, here's the long story short. Anderson, like Tolkien, went into the past of the North for ideas and inspiration. Unlike Tolkien, who (from all I've gathered) delved deep into Old English and, by inheritance, used elements from Norse myth, Anderson went straight to the sagas and eddas. (I am no Tolkien expert - if I'm wrong, I'm sure I'll be corrected ;) )

The Broken Sword is a dark, gloomy piece and arrived about the same time as Tolkien. Anderson's work was overshadowed by the first wave of Lord of the Rings hoopla, and that is too bad. The Broken Sword is a very different destination from many of the same influences. For that alone, it's worth reading and comparing to JRR Tolkien's work.

The Broken Sword has been cited by Michael Moorcock as a huge influence on his Elric tales, and its obvious when you read Anderson's work.

(Yeah, don't let the “gay elf” cover fool you. The publisher was attempting to emulate artwork used for Lord of the Rings covers at the time. This other cover is more representative of the content.)

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Writing? Nah. For those who don't know, my son was born last month. With a toddler and an infant, I've just about managed to do some reading. I am plugging away at one short tale though. I hope to get the rough draft done this week. If I can, then I just might manage a polish and submission by the end-of-month deadline. If not, I have other ideas to execute once I get back into routine.

Onward with Saberhagen

Finally cracked open Of Berserkers, Swords & Vampires by Fred Saberhagen today. It's a posthumous collection with stories that sample across his different series settings - and some stand-alone tales.

In honor of October/Halloween, I jumped to the vampire (his version of Dracula) tales at the end. Now, aside from the introduction (which I also read) I'm ready to start at the beginning.

I finally finished Stephen King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes. I was not as enraptured by this collection as his earlier collections (Night Shift and Skeleton Crew) but there were some solid tales. King certainly knows how to bring characters to life and pull a reader in - even in stories where things are left unexplained. My favorite tale from this collection isn't even a horror tale. I enjoyed the fantasy tale, "The House on Maple Street" the most, I think.

Currently writing a Lovecraftian historical tale. It's slow going because of real life distraction, but I hope to get enough headway on it. The deadline goes until Dec 1st.

Other writing ideas - big and small - are piling up. I am going to need to add some writing New Year Resolutions to the list for January!

Last reads of 2009

My last reads of 2009 were...



Brother Berserker by Fred Saberhagen.

Another entry in Saberhagen's long Berserker series. This story featured time travel, as the Berserkers attempt to change the history of a world. Nice touches, interesting time combat, and Saberhagen just has a knack for storytelling that I really enjoy. An enjoyable, if short, entry in the series.

(note: this novel is more commonly known as Brother Assassin - I think I read the British edition/title)

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The Sun Over Breda by Arturo Perez-Reverte

The third adventure in the Captain Alatriste series. I liked it but the constant asides and poetry quotations disrupted the narrative. It does have sharp characters that pop off the page and some memorable combats scenes.

I think without the asides, it might have been better served as a novella.

Empire of the East

For my last two readings, I entered Fred Saberhagen’s Empire of the East. I tore through The Black Mountains and continued on with Changeling Earth. (I had read the first novel, The Broken Lands a year or two back.)

I am not entirely clear on the history of this work. Like Moorcock’s Elric stories, Saberhagen had Empire of the East repackaged and edited a few different times (and some of his Berserker stories apparently fall into that camp, as well.)

The third novel, originally entitled Changeling Earth (the DAW edition I read) was re-titled to Ardneh’s World when Baen took it over. I don’t know if there were any changes

After that, Baen yet again repackaged the entire trilogy into an edited omnibus, Empire of the East.

In my web travels, I have seen Ardneh’s Sword which I believe is a later fourth novel, but could be yet another rework, I don’t know.

Anyway…

I enjoyed the books. The trilogy is a bit different to me, as it uses a post-Apocalyptic setting where both magic and science/technology operate. I.e.: unlike most science fantasy pieces where super-science is the equivalent of magic, here they are two separate entities. For the most part Saberhagen makes it work if you just allow yourself to go along for the ride.

I have only recently started reading Saberhagen and I’m really enjoying his work. There are touches of Bradbury without the purple prose. He has a natural storytelling ability that flows through the tales. I miss these types of fantasy where you can visit well-crafted worlds and characters and yet do it without slugging through a thousand page novel.

There are some nice descriptions of demons and conjuring, an interesting reveal in the last book (as to how the magic came to exist with the technology) and just enough lost technology to keep a reader interested.

I recommend them. They are quick reads, but have nice depth. Choose an edition to your liking and budget ;)

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On the writing front, things are going well, if not quickly. I am about 1000 words away (a scene or two) from finishing my current short story. It will definitely need a polish draft after this – I’m really shaking the rust off. And now I have the lump of raw clay in hand to sculpt. I don’t know how many details can be revealed this early, but the story is for a specific upcoming anthology in which I was invited to participate. It was just the sort of real (non-self-made) goal I needed for a kick in the pants to get back on the writing wagon.

It feels good! :) (So good, in fact, I want to get this one finished and start on another one for a possible second anthology!)