Part seventy-four in my ongoing retrospective as I read the fiction in the back issues of Realms of Fantasy and offer my thoughts, right up to the present. This time around I’ll be putting a cap on 2006 as I discuss the December 2006 issue.
The cover to this one is by Joseph Corsentino. If you take a look at our cover gallery, I think you’ll agree that with this cover, things started moving in a different direction over at Sovereign Media in terms of how they handled their covers. Chicks in chain mail covers went out the window, as did high fantasy covers (mostly). Instead, things started trending toward a lot more urban fantasy. A number of covers also incorporated fairies, and media covers also remained prevalent going forward. There were other covers that popped along the way, but I’d say these were the most common types of covers during the rest of RoF’s run under Sovereign. There were signs of this transition happening back in 2004 & 2005. The covers became a lot more media heavy during this time, a couple of covers with fairies popped up, and I’d say the October 2005 cover falls more into the vein of December 2006 and on. But at the same time, there were still a number of high fantasy covers and chicks in chain mail covers during this time, so I’d say 2004-2006 represented a time of transition for RoF’s covers. With the December 2006 cover, that transition under Sovereign seems to have reached its end.
It’s also worth noting that the image to this cover also appears in the artist gallery. This is the first time an imagine in the artist gallery was used on the cover, but it wouldn’t be the last. This said, I should also point out that the cover to the April 2006 cover of RoF appeared in a different edition of the artist gallery, though I don’t have the information on hand as to which issue it was.
A rundown of this issue’s nonfiction is as follows:
In the movie/TV column, Resa Nelson covers The Prestige and The Fountain; in the folkroots column, Terri Windling discusses the personification of Death; in the adult books column, Gahan Wilson reviews The Ruins by Scott Smith, Renfield, Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly, Havoc Swims Jaded by David Schow, and Paul Witcover reviews Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer, Soldier of Sidon by Gene Wolfe, and The Stolen Child by Keith Donahue; in the YA books column, Michael Jones reviews Wuthering High by Cara Lockwood, Braced 2 Bite by Serena Robar, Chance Fortune and the Outlaws by Shane Berryhill, Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye, Now You See It by Vivian Vande, The Wizard, the Witch, & Two Girls From Jersey by Lisa Papademetriou, and The Dark in the Woods, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling; in this issue book review Paul Witcover also conducts an interview with Laurell K. Hamilton; in the artist gallery, Christine Colby covers the artwork of Joseph Corsentino; and in the games section, Eric T. Baker reviews Dungeon Siege II: Broken World for the PC, Prey for the Xbox 360 and the PC, Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light for the PSP, the RPG, Kobalds Ate My Baby!, and the D&D Eberron supplement, Secret of Xen’drik.
On to the fiction …
The lead story is “Lost Wax” by Leah Bobet, which marks her second appearance in the magazine. In this high fantasy tale, we are introduced to a world where magic is a rather wild and untamed thing. However, there are way to shape and mold this magic. The method Bobet introduces us to is in a wax factory, where wizards, casters, and molders shape the magic through the wax. In this factory, we are introduced to our young protagonist, Simon Lake, who helps sweep, shine, clean up the loose bits of wax, etc. All agree this is a great honor. However, Simon yearns for something more. Like so many adolescents, he dreams grand dreams that seem so real and attainable at his young age. He believes magic is the way to achieving something more than the life he lives. Each day he secretly sneaks loose bits of wax from the factory and spends his nights shaping the wax, trying to capture the magic. Always his efforts meet with failure. But there are other ways of finding the magic …and sometimes, the magic finds you. And when it finds Simon, he gets far more than he ever bargained for. This story was reprinted in The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy, edited by Mike Ashley. Art in RoF was provided by Hyejeong Park.
Next up we have “In the Lair of the Moonmen” by Jon Hansen. Jon is another slush survivor of mine. The story could be classified as sword & planet, a near-extinct sub-genre of sword & sorcery. It was rather popular in the days of the pulps. For those who haven’t heard of this sub-genre, sword & planet is basically sword & sorcery, with the protagonist being transported by some means from earth to another world, where s/he then proceeds to undergo a sword & sorcery adventure. Some people could trace its roots back to Edgar Rice Burrough’s John Carter of Mars. Robert E. Howard tried his hand at this with his novel Almuric (posthumously completed). Other authors who have dabbled in this area are Leigh Brackett, C.L. Moore, and Michael Moorcock. I haven’t heard much about sword & planet in some years, as most of the champions of this brand of literature have passed on, and few have stepped up to carry on the torch. So it’s probably not a surprise this this is the first sword & planet story to be published in RoF.
As to the story itself, as you might expect from a tale in this sub-genre, this one is firmly in the tradition of the pulps. Being as I love the pulps, I should mention that I mean this in the most complimentary way. Basically, we have a land that has been subject to air raids by the moon men. When it’s discovered that these raiders are in fact laired on the moon, by order of his king our princeling protagonist joins forces with a wizard to lead an enchanted hot air balloon expedition to the moon to strike back at these raiders. So while a moon is not quite a planet, for the purposes of this retrospective I’ll say it’s close enough that I’ll term this tale as sword & planet. There is a lot of wit and dry humor in this tale that brings Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Gray Mouser to mind . Leiber was another one of the acknowledged sword & sorcery masters and was churning out S&S back when sword & planet was still kicking. I’m honestly not sure if Leiber ever wrote a sword & planet tale, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. Art to this one was provided by Tom Kidd, which marks third illustration in the magazine.
Then we have “Echoes of Me” by Michelle Thuma. This is another piece that was accepted back when Carina was with the magazine. The story itself deals with a woman is mired in the past after the losing the love of her life. In fact, she has become so mired in this past that phantoms of her have become physical manifestations, thus enabling her to “stay in the past” as opposed to dealing with her grief. Art to this one was provided by Chi-Yun Law.
After this we have “Of Swords & Horses” by Carrie Vaughn, which marks her fourth appearance in the magazine. This one deals with a daydream that so many of us might have had when we younger: what if there was a fantasy world we could go to? Would you go? Would you leave everything behind to enter a world that until now you only entered through words? It’s not a new idea, but what is new (at least to me) is how Carrie handles it. Instead of focusing on the youth faced with this choice, instead she focuses on the mother, after her child has left. Only as far as mom knows, her baby is missing and possibly dead. The possibility that she has left for some greater destiny in a magical realm hasn’t occurred to her. Everything is handled in a rather believable manner, including how someone from our would could suddenly adapt to this fantasy world. But I’ll stop right there for fear of providing too many spoilers. Art to this one was provided by Zela Lobb, which marks her second illustration in the magazine.
Following this we have “The Valhalla Job” by Sandra McDonald, which marks her third appearance in the magazine. This one is a humorous take on home makeover programs, as one of them sets out to to give Valhalla a makeover. However, along the way the crew gets embroiled in the lives and politics of Valhalla’s inhabitants. Makes perfect sense to me. After all, what’s a reality TV show without a little drama? Art to this one was provided by David Leonard.
Then we have “Shelf Life” by Thomas Seay, which marks his second story in the magazine. This was another story that was accepted back during Carina’s time. It’s also the last story that was in inventory from her time. So being as I mentioned with the covers that this issue marks something of a transition, I suppose it’s fitting that with the same issue the fiction department should finish publishing the stories that were accepted during the time of my predecessor. As to the story itself, it’s another vignette. This one is a story for writers and folks who absolutely love to read, as it tells the charming little tale of one little book who dares to be different, calling himself 1985 (among other names). Art to this one was provided by John MacDonald.
Finally we have “Infants in the Lake of Fire” by M.K. Hobson. This is a tale of innocence and unfortunate knowledge. In this tale, we are taken to Limbo, a place for the souls of various folks who don’t belong in Heaven or Hell. In this story, the souls in question are a pair of very young children. As you might expect, such young souls are rather innocent and have limited self-awareness. And while this may not be Hell, there are still dark and terrible things to be found in Limbo …or at least they are dark and terrible when you come to understand them. And the more you understand, the more awareness this unlocks, which in turn leads to a loss of innocence. And as with Adam & Eve and the Tree of Knowledge, such knowledge and loss of innocence comes with a cost. And not even a very young child can avoid paying it. Art to this one was provided by Erin & Kelly Carty.
So that wraps up this issue, as well as 2006. Next time we’ll start delving into 2007 when I take on the February 2007 issue. Until then …
