A new online fantasy magazine has made a strong appearance, deubuting earlier this month. Heroic Fantasy Quarterly publishes short works (poetry and stories) of heroic fantasy and strives "to hearken an older age of storytelling - an age when a story well told enthralled audiences." The premier issue was an impressive one, and I highly recommed checking them out. I will bestow the small honor of adding their link to this blog site.
"The Black Flowers of Sevan" by James Lecky - Tulun serves the Melik in Sevan as a mercenary, captaining soldiers in various skirmishes as he attempts to bring peace to the Ten Kingdoms. When Tulun hustles one of his soldiers, Abbas Bedvian, out of a considerable amount of gold, Abbas asks for a final wager as a double-or-nothing. The stakes are that Tulun must bring Abbas black poppy from around the neck of Lady Shimshal, who is the Melik's woman. It is a risky proposal, and as Tulun considers the beautiful and secretive lady, he finds himself more interested in her than in the wager itself.
This was an intriguing tale of passion. Though somewhat predictable, the characters and well-written prose carried the story along quite well. Everything came together nicely for the ending.
"Man of Moldania" by Richard Marsden - The last dragon slayer, Golorus von Zekwit, follows rumors into the east in hopes of finding employment. The aged man enters the small town of Moldania, boasting of his experience with slaying dragons and offering to solve their problem with a local dragon for a certain fee. Dimitru, the town's leader, has his doubts, but he's willing to let Golorus try so long as he can accompany him. When the two men find the dragon's lair, Golorus finds that his previous experience cannot compensate for the beast he encounters.
It isn't often that I come across original dragon slaying tales, but this is a good one. I liked the limitations an older dragon slayer and felt his surprise at the dragon he attempts to slay. Humorous at times with ample tension, Marsden shares a fun story.
"Beyond the Lizard Gate" by Alex Marshall - After watching his father slain at the hands of his older brother, Agenor, Prince Inarus has sought revenge for the past eleven years, draining all of the resources of his kingdom to the point of poverty. With the final battle won, his sister begs him not to pursue Agenor further, but the hatred Inarus feels for his brother overrides his reason. Unable to dissuade him, his sister joins the other forty soldiers who follow Inarus into a valley for a final confrontation with Agenor.
This was my favorite story of the issue. Great tension, flow and angst. Highly entertaining.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Beneath Ceaseless Skies – Issue #19
“The Mansion of Bones” by Richard Parks – Lord Yamada and the fleshly priest Kenji explore the ruins of the Fujiwara compound. In addition to being guarded by murderous ghosts, a demon lurks within the area, keeping close watch on the treasure Yamada seeks for his client.
I’ve read other stories by Parks that feature Yamada and Kenji, and this one fits right in with the others. Parks has a way of building tension by leaving the reader in the dark with each mystery presented, and then he carefully reveals their secrets, leaving you with an admiration of Yamada’s cleverness. If Sherlock Holmes lived in historic Japan replete with demons, ghosts and the unexplained, his name would be Lord Yamada. Great fun!
“Havoc” by A. C. Smart and Quinn Braver – Marcoen the bard travels to find the best stories that he can translate into song, experiencing things first-hand as much as possible. His latest adventure is to accompany a legendary Roen scout named Havoc. Havoc is a young man with about a dozen followers who pesters the Cumberan enemies through assorted pranks and tricks.
This tale has well-written prose (by that I mean that it has a poetic quality about it), but I had difficulty in keeping track of the characters and plot. It took me a long time to get a sense of who Havoc was allied with and what he was doing. I never felt secure with where I was at in the story, and the uneasiness kept me detached from the characters.
I’ve read other stories by Parks that feature Yamada and Kenji, and this one fits right in with the others. Parks has a way of building tension by leaving the reader in the dark with each mystery presented, and then he carefully reveals their secrets, leaving you with an admiration of Yamada’s cleverness. If Sherlock Holmes lived in historic Japan replete with demons, ghosts and the unexplained, his name would be Lord Yamada. Great fun!
“Havoc” by A. C. Smart and Quinn Braver – Marcoen the bard travels to find the best stories that he can translate into song, experiencing things first-hand as much as possible. His latest adventure is to accompany a legendary Roen scout named Havoc. Havoc is a young man with about a dozen followers who pesters the Cumberan enemies through assorted pranks and tricks.
This tale has well-written prose (by that I mean that it has a poetic quality about it), but I had difficulty in keeping track of the characters and plot. It took me a long time to get a sense of who Havoc was allied with and what he was doing. I never felt secure with where I was at in the story, and the uneasiness kept me detached from the characters.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Insert Title Here
The title is an important part of a story. It’s the first thing a reader will see and creates a point of reference for your tale. I don’t think there’s an exact science to creating the title, but I do have some thoughts on the matter.
The most obvious title is one that describes what the story is about. “Matt’s Workday” would hopefully involve a character named Matt in a work setting (assuming we’re using this method). Similar methods include titling the story after a character or setting.
Some titles that seem cool to me are ones that are part of a sentence from the story. Think “The Catcher In The Rye.” Okay, technically that might be a reference to the protagonist, but when I read it years ago, I thought it was interesting how the title suddenly made sense towards the end of the novel. The only caution I’d throw out is to not choose something completely unrelated to the story as a whole. Just because you came up with an impressive metaphor on page seven doesn’t mean you should flash it at the top of the story in bold print.
Another approach is to reference another literary work. One of the fun things you can do with this is to reference something in hopes of connecting with others who also read the work. It’s like you’ve put a secret message into your story that only like-minded people will understand! Unfortunately, you may quote or paraphrase such an archaic passage in the referenced work that no one catches your allusion. Then again, perhaps you enjoy creating titles that are an esoteric enigma in order to flaunt your sublime cleverness to yourself.
Regardless of the method used for creating your title, it should at least be interesting and somewhat unique (if possible). The goal is to create one that sticks with the reader without annoying the reader. I don’t read the title of most stories and think, “My, what a wonderful title,” but if I come across a bad one, I cringe.
The most obvious title is one that describes what the story is about. “Matt’s Workday” would hopefully involve a character named Matt in a work setting (assuming we’re using this method). Similar methods include titling the story after a character or setting.
Some titles that seem cool to me are ones that are part of a sentence from the story. Think “The Catcher In The Rye.” Okay, technically that might be a reference to the protagonist, but when I read it years ago, I thought it was interesting how the title suddenly made sense towards the end of the novel. The only caution I’d throw out is to not choose something completely unrelated to the story as a whole. Just because you came up with an impressive metaphor on page seven doesn’t mean you should flash it at the top of the story in bold print.
Another approach is to reference another literary work. One of the fun things you can do with this is to reference something in hopes of connecting with others who also read the work. It’s like you’ve put a secret message into your story that only like-minded people will understand! Unfortunately, you may quote or paraphrase such an archaic passage in the referenced work that no one catches your allusion. Then again, perhaps you enjoy creating titles that are an esoteric enigma in order to flaunt your sublime cleverness to yourself.
Regardless of the method used for creating your title, it should at least be interesting and somewhat unique (if possible). The goal is to create one that sticks with the reader without annoying the reader. I don’t read the title of most stories and think, “My, what a wonderful title,” but if I come across a bad one, I cringe.
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