Realms of Fantasy: April 2010 (Issue 93)
Part ninety-three in my comprehensive retrospective as I read the fiction in Realms of Fantasy and offer my thoughts, right up to the final issue. This time around I’ll share some thoughts regarding the April 2010 issue.
The cover to this one is a reprint of Dominic Harman’s cover art to Blood of Ambrose by James Enge. It marks his second illustration in the magazine. If it looks a bit different from the cover to the original book, Warren Lapine flipped the artwork when doing the design and layout for the cover. As mentioned in the previous retrospective, while the last issue was out we changed the website address to www.rofmag.com and provided a redirect link. With this issue, the new website address began appearing on the cover. Building on this thought, there is also one change to the masthead this issue, as E. Jay O’Connell is now listed as Web Master.
A rundown of this issue’s nonfiction is as follows:
In the Games column, new columnist Tony Sims reviews Heroes of Gaia for the Firefox browser and Duels of the Planeswalkers: Expansion for Magic: The Gathering for the Xbox 360, and Matt Staggs reviews Borderlands for the Xbox 360, The Dungeon Alphabet by Michael Curtis, and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary. With this issue, we also introduced Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) ratings in the product information for all electronic games. When Tony handed an old review column of his while applying to be Matt’s co-columnist, I noticed that he included the ESRB with his review. This struck me as a good idea, and when I asked myself why RoF hadn’t been doing this all along, I couldn’t come up with a good answer. Its inclusion also struck me as a sensible precaution, because if a child wanted his or her parent to buy a game based on our magazine’s review and the ESRB for that game was “Mature,” no irate parent would be able to accuse us of failing to provide the ESRB. Put all this together and including the ESRB going forward struck me as a no-brainer.
In the Movie/TV column, Resa Nelson examines how the unexpected success of the movie Paranormal Activity rodes the coattails of various ghostly TV series; in the Folkroots column, Maggie Secara writes about the rings of ancient times; in a special feature, Publisher Warren Lapine conducts an interview with the musical fantasy band, Blackmore’s Night; in the Artists Gallery, Karen Haber conducts a Q&A with artist, Silvano Braido. As memory serves, this was something that had been planned with Sovereign Media and I gave Karen the green light to follow through on this. In the Books column, Paul Witcover reviews Sasha: A Trial of Blood & Steel by Joel Shepherd, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg, and Matt Staggs reviews The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory, Total Oblivion, More of Less by Alan DeNiro, and Spellwright by Blake Charlton.
There is actually a bit of a story how we came to review Spellwright. Back in 2009, I was attending the World Fantasy Convention. As often happens at conventions, I ended up sharing a room with a few other people to split costs. One of those people was Blake Charlton. I had never met him at that point, but he was friends with another of my con roommates, editor and anthologist, John Joseph Adams (who got terribly sick at that convention, though on the bright side he also met his future wife there). In talking to Blake, I learned that his first novel was coming out with Tor Books. In addition to this, I learned that Blake had dyslexia, and that his protagonist experiences something of a magical equivalent in Blake’s novel. I found all of this fascinating, so upon returning home from the convention I contacted my reviewers, explained the situation, and asked if either of them would be interested in reviewing the book. Matt volunteered and the rest is history.
In the Young Adult Books column, Michael Jones reviews Ice by Sarah Beth Durst, Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor and illustrated by Jim Di Bartolo, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia, The Doom Machine by Mark Teague, The Shifter, Book One of the Healing Wars by Janice Hardy, Lockdown: Escape from Furnace by Alexander Gordon Smith, and The Seven Rays by Jessica Bendinger; and in the Graphic Novel column, Andrew Wheeler reviews This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, Volume 1, original story by Gainax/Konomini Project, art by Ashita Morimi, Moyasimon 1: Tales of Agriculture by Masayuki Ishikawa, Time and Again, Volume 1 by JiUn Yun, and Raiders, Volume 1, by JinJun Park.
On to the fiction …
The lead story is “Just Another Word” by Carrie Vaughn, which marks her eighth appearance in the magazine. In this short piece, the rockstar Janis Joplin is presented with a chance to run away with the fairy queen and spend a life serving her with songs, but in the end she rejects it. Art to this one was provided by Peter Ferguson, which marks his fifth illustration in the magazine.
Next up we have “Hanuman’s Bridge” by Euan Harvey, which marks his fourth appearance in the magazine. This is another short piece, in which ancient Hindu mythology comes to life in the real world and ushers in nuclear war when Sri Lanka is connected to India via bridge. Art to this one was provided by Frank Wu, which marks his second illustration in the magazine.
After this we have “The Hag Queen’s Curse” by M.K. Hobson, which marks her fifth appearance in the magazine. This one is a funny fantasy that starts off in Maryland in 1798, operating under the assumption that magic is real. A witch known as the Hag Queen is enjoying her meal in her tavern, when her dinner is interrupted and ruined by a pair of men going at it. One is John Rodgers, Warlock First Class, United States Navy. Rodgers is attempting to apprehend Hide-Pirate Captain Flâneur, a man who plunders bodies, essentially spirit-hopping from one to the next, staying in it until he must find a new host before the old body crumbles into dust. So for interrupting her meal, the Hag Queen sends these adversaries hurtling into through space and time, all the way to Newport, Oregon in 1986. Enter Kat and her best friend, Jeff. Kat and Jeff have been best friends since childhood and share a secret telepathic link, so when the hide-pirate inhabits Jeff’s body, Kat immediately can tell that something is terribly wrong. Kat ends up joining forces with Admiral Rodgers to stop Flâneur and save Jeff. Along the way, they smoke some weed (or as Rodgers puts it, “General Washington’s herb), eat some culry fries, and endure the annoying antics of Kat’s stoner boyfriend, Brody. Kat also happens to be a gay man in a woman’s body, and while it’s a less-than-friendly term, this makes Kat a “hag,” making her the key to breaking the hag queen’s curse. This story was reprinted in audio form as podcast 99 on the PodCastle website.
I don’t by any means want to sound like I’m accusing the author of anything discriminatory. Quite the opposite; the story is a lot of fun and Hobson is quite respectful in her handling of the terms and all the characters (including Jeff, who is gay, and Rodgers, who develops a mutual attraction toward Kat). Art to this piece was provided by Peter Ferguson, which marks his sixth illustration in the magazine. Of additional interest is the fact that this artwork includes the magazine’s first illustration with drug paraphenelia, as you can see Admiral Rodgers sitting on a couch with his eyes closed and holding a bong, clearly stoned out of his mind. When Peter first handed in the sketch for this one, I thought it was hysterical and a perfect representation of the story. However, I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t cause any problems because of the paraphenlia depiction. So I ran this past Warren. His basic response? “I don’t care.” At that point, I went back to Peter and suggested we up the ante. Since he made Rodgers look so high, I suggested that he add some smoke floating around the ceiling to indicate the copious amounts of marijuana that had been smoked. Peter loved the idea, and we ended up adding in. A big thanks to Warren for allowing this illustration, as it is simply perfect for the story in question.
Then we have “A Close Personal Relationship” by Thomas Marcinko, which marks the 550th story to appear in the magazine. This story comes with an interesting back-story. Back in the early days of the magazine, Shawna had accepted for the magazine. However, the publishers overruled her, refusing to publish it in the magazine as they believed it too controversial. A few months after Warren took over as the new publisher, Thomas got in touch with Shawna to see if she still might be interested in using this for the magazine, as almost fifteen years later it remained unpublished. Normally I would see just about every story before it found its way to Shawna, but in this case Shawna asked the author to email the story to her directly. So Shawna gave the story another read and still wanted it. But given what happened last time, she understandably wanted a second opinion. So she emailed the story to me and told me about the story’s interesting past (and to the best of my knowledge, this was the only time in the magazine’s history where a publisher overruled Shawna’s desire to purchase a story). So I read the story, liked it, and agreed that we should buy it. I also doubted that publishing it would stir up any controversies (which it didn’t) and said as much. But as with the art in the previous story, I erred on the side of caution and suggested to Shawna that she show the story to Warren and clear this with our publisher. So Shawna sent it along to him, explained the back-story, and Warren gave it a read. His basic response? “I don’t care.” This makes twice in this issue that Warren said “I don’t care” when asked if something was all right. But don’t take that to mean that he didn’t care about the magazine in general. He simply trusted his staff and believed in allowing us much creative freedom as possible. It’s something we all very much appreciated.
As to the story itself, basically Jesus has returned to Earth, and it turns out His values and ideas match up with those of right wing Christian conservatives. Since Jesus now walks the Earth, everyone is expected to worship Him, and at some point everyone has a private meeting with Him so that He a “Close Personal Personal Relationship” with them. This includes folks who were Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and yes, atheists and agnostics. In this piece, our protagonist Ted is a good person who has a deep affection for dinosaurs. His faith also deserted him long ago. Needless to say, Jesus (or as he’s referred to in this story, “Junior”) has a problem with this. It is not enough for Ted to live his life as a morally good person when he doesn’t give his worship to Jesus. Feel free to take a guess which of the two loses when they confront the “problem.” To be clear, I put the word “problem” in quotes not to disparage religion, but more because whether it’s a problem or not really depends on who each particular reader is siding with. At first glance, this piece is a contemporary fantasy. However, this is also a matter of interpretation. I’m an atheist, and I found that reading this piece was rather like reading horror story. Again, I don’t say this to disparage religion, but I’ve been a non-believer for many years. If were confronted with the idea in real life that Jesus exists, and more than that I have to worship him (even though I was raised Jewish), well I won’t be shy in saying this is a pretty scary notion. I rather imagine it would be the equivalent of someone devoutly religious being presented irrefutable proof that God in any shape or form does not exist. If I can wax philosophical for one more moment, I would add that just as beauty can be found in the eye of the beholder, so too can horror or fear. Art to this one was provided by John Kaiine, which marks his second illustration in the magazine.
Finally we have “The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara” by Christopher Kastensmidt. This sword and sorcery piece was another one of my slush survivors, and its discovery marks one of the high points of my career with Realms of Fantasy. Sometimes I come across something in the slush that I just know Shawna is going to take for the magazine. This was such a piece (despite the fact that Shawna was always a tough sell with sword and sorcery). This was reason enough to make me smile. Then the story got nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. Slush stories very rarely never get nominated for Nebula Awards. Sword and sorcery almost never receive such nominations. So when you put these things together, this nomination very much defied the odds. And on top of this, it also marked Christopher’s first pro sale. Yup-he pulled the trifecta on this one. Nice job, Chris. Added bonus? It was also the co-winner for the Realms of Fantasy 2010 Reader Choice Award for Best Fiction. My understanding from Chris is that this story and its success have also opened a number of doors for him in Brazil. Put all this together and it’s with good reason that this is one of the prettiest feathers in my cap.
As to the story itself, it takes place in a colonial Brazil where magic is real. Gerard van Oost is an adventurer from Europe who wishes to carve a name for himself as an adventurer in the new world. However, the only European company in Brazil worth joining belongs to Antonio Dias Caldas, and he refuses to let Gerard join his company because of Gerard’s Protestant beliefs. It is around this time that Gerard meets Oludara, a recent slave fresh off the boat from Africa. Gerard is struck by the man’s bearing and intelligence and believes he would make an excellent traveling companion in the wilds of Brazil. He then endeavors to to acquire enough money to purchase Oludara, not to be his slave but rather to free the man in the hopes that he will join Gerard as a companion, friend, and equal. In order to acquire the necessary coin, Gerard must outwit a forest creature out of Brazilian mythology, and after he buys Oluadara’s freedom, Oludara agrees of his own volition to travel with Gerard for five years if at the end of this time Gerard helps him return to Africa. With an agreement struck, the two of them form their own two-man company, under the Elephant and Macaw Banner.
As you might expect based on this summary, this is the first in a series of adventures for the dynamic duo. I’ve since read a few of the others, and there is even a chance that down the road a sword and sorcery story of my own-one read and critiqued by Chris long after he published in Realms-might be appearing alongside another one of Chris’s van Oost and Oludara, in the same venue. Chris would probably lay a curse on me from distant Brazil if I say more than this, but if it does happen it would be something that I would get a kick out of as an editor, a writer, and subsequently as Chris’s friend. Art to this one was provided by Federico Piatti, and it marks another piece that was part of the inventory inherited from Sovereign Media.
So that wraps up this issue. And my favorite story? “The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara” by Christopher Kastensmidt (and honorable mention to “The Hag Queen’s Curse” by M.K. Hobson for making me breathless with laughter). And my favorite artwork? Peter Ferguson’s illustration to “The Hag Queen’s Curse.” Next time around I’ll dive into the June 2010 issue.
Until then …