An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic artistocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets.… From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico — “fans of classic novels like Jane Eyre and Rebecca are in for a suspenseful treat” (PopSugar).After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find — her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region. Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom. Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.
Writers frequently marry other writers, but it is a lamentable fact that often fame descends more on one than the other. To address this injustice, I have put together a list of some notable husbands of science fiction.
The oldest example of what I am thinking of is Mary Shelly. She is revered for having arguably created the science fiction field with her classic Frankenstein. Her husband, failed swimmer Percy, was also an author, apparently. By all accounts as easy on the eyes as he was unable to master certain animal urges, Percy reportedly dabbled in poetry of one sort of another. Perhaps best known is Percy’s Ozymandias, about an old damaged statue that someone has failed properly maintain. Men like simple household tasks like spackling and carpentry; one can see why poetry about statue maintenance would appeal.
C. L. Moore needs no introduction, but her charming husband Henry Kuttner might. Impressed by Moore’s writing, Moore’s fan sought her out via an intermediary, an effort rewarded with marriage and even better, the chance for Kuttner to partake in his spouse’s talent. Thanks to the couple’s habit of poorly documented collaboration, it’s often difficult to untangle who wrote which pieces published under their entangled bylines. Nevertheless, it’s widely agreed some of the stories that appeared under the Kuttner byline were solo efforts by Moore’s husband. If you can track down a copy of the collection Two-Handed Engine, I recommend it; if Kuttner’s work fails to entertain, the book includes lots of Moore’s pieces so your time will not be wasted.
Similarly, Leigh Brackett was in her day a household name for her SF and film work, but modern readers may be interested to know her hunky husband Edmond was also a writer. Although contemporary readers may find “space operas” (a term inspired by the then-popular “soap opera” radio shows) like Crashing Suns and The Star Kings unsubtle and dated, no Empire Strikes Back, but A for Effort.
When one says “Vinge”, of course one thinks of Joan D. Vinge, the author of such works as The Snow Queen, Catspaw, and Eyes of Amber. Interesting, the former Mr. Joan D. Vinge also dabbles in science fiction, in works like The Witling, and The Peace War. Readers may see parallels between Vinge’s Heaven Belt and her ex-husband’s later Zones of Thought books, which just goes to show that men can write acceptable books, provided a woman is there to show them the way.
Judith Merril had many paramours1 and husbands; men often age badly, so replacing them frequently is simple common sense. A few of Merril’s boys were drawn into science fiction. Arm-candy Walter M. Miller, for example, penned the post-apocalyptic fix-up A Canticle for Leibowitz, widely regarded as a book. Former husband Fred Pohl found work in the field as editor and author; not bad for a fellow who was only married to Merril for about four years2. He even won a Best Fan Writer Hugo; below the fold but still a Hugo!
Perhaps the oddest example of male writers is Walt Richmond. Almost all of Leigh Richmond’s works were presented as collaborations with her husband Walt. Wife-spouse collaborations are nothing new; what catches the eye with the Richmonds was the means by which he contributed to the creative process. According to writer/critic Thomas Disch, Walt would “would sit with a quiet smile on his lips and telepathically project his inputs to Leigh, who would translate them into their prose at the typewriter.” I have seen, but cannot now place my hands on, a further elaboration that Walt’s faith in his wife’s receptivity was such that he didn’t double-check the printed page that resulted. Well, presumably the arrangement pleased Leigh in some way.
1: The social customs of fandom at the time did not frown on serial assignations, provided the men had no legally designated guardians such as a mother or wife whose interests might placed at risk by male promiscuity. Indeed, it was not unheard of for a few soiled doves become long-term companions.
2: Pohl collaborated on occasion with Science Fiction Showcase editor Mary Beyer’s fellow, Cyril. There are probably other examples of collaborating husband pairs in SF, although none come to mind just now.
Originally for tor but ultimately they didn’t run it.
A fundamental principle upon which all serious futurologists agree is that a large fraction1 of the human population spends a lot of time thinking about sex. Consequently, if a new technology can be used to facilitate the thinking and doing of sex, it will be. If it cannot, good luck getting investment funds. Thus, we have an internet but no moon bases. The internet facilitates all manner of activities relating to sex, but moon bases do not. Helium‑3 fusion may be hot2 but the human libido is much hotter3.
Something that was not possible when I was a teen (because the technology didn’t exist) is the adult-content webcomic. You probably won’t be surprised to discover that there are many such webcomics; you will be even less surprised to discover, like most things, they vary in quality. To spare you a lot of furtive googling, I’ll suggest some adult webcomics that are decently drawn, essentially cheerful, and fun to read.
(Who is going to do it, with whom, and how, and what the participants think about it afterward, is a perfectly reasonable alternative to violence as a source of plot. Lamentably, authors will get a lot less pushback over graphic violence than they will for sexual content.)
In any case, here are five examples of adult web comics, three spec fic and two non-fiction comics that are arguably related to spec fic. I think they’re worth your time, if your tastes incline that way.
I look forward with some curiosity as to what, if any, examples of the content that Tor’s art department will provide you.
Mists of Time houses reviews from those long ago days before James Nicoll Reviews existed, from the Millennial Reviews (which Martin Wisse was kind enough to host for … how can it be twenty years?), to Lost Voices to World Builders to the more recent Haikasoru Reviews.
No attempt to edit these relics of the ancient past will be made, aside from running them through the spell checker evidence suggests they never saw when I first posted them. Enjoy!
A sweeping historical novel about a dancehall girl and an orphan boy whose fates entangle over an old Chinese superstition about men who turn into tigers.Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for.Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master’s dying wish: that Ren find the man’s finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever.As the days tick relentlessly by, a series of unexplained deaths wracks the district, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Ji Lin and Ren’s increasingly dangerous paths crisscross through lush plantations, hospital storage rooms, and ghostly dreamscapes.Yangsze Choo’s The Night Tiger pulls us into a world of servants and masters, age-old superstition and modern idealism, sibling rivalry and forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzling, propulsive novel is the intimate coming of age of a child and a young woman, each searching for their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible.
A riveting story of discovery, forbidden romance and idealism against all odds, set in a fantasy world inspired in part by Indian history and myth. For fans of Sabaa Tahir and Tomi Adeyemi.Gul has spent her life running. She has a star-shaped birthmark on her arm, and in the kingdom of Ambar, girls with such birthmarks have been disappearing for years. Gul’s mark is what caused her parents’ murder at the hand of King Lohar’s ruthless soldiers and forced her into hiding to protect her own life. So when a group of rebel women called the Sisters of the Golden Lotus rescue her, take her in, and train her in warrior magic, Gul wants only one thing: revenge. Cavas lives in the tenements, and he’s just about ready to sign his life over to the king’s army. His father is terminally ill, and Cavas will do anything to save him. But sparks fly when he meets a mysterious girl — Gul — in the capital’s bazaar, and as the chemistry between them undeniably grows, he becomes entangled in a mission of vengeance — and discovers a magic he never expected to find. Dangerous circumstances have brought Gul and Cavas together at the king’s domain in Ambar Fort … a world with secrets deadlier than their own. Exploring identity, class struggles, and high-stakes romance, Hunted by the Sky is a gripping adventure set in a world inspired by medieval India.
Let’s call the history of Runequest from the Avalon Hill deal to the early 21st century “troubled”. Its history after 2003ish was…convoluted seems diplomatic enough, but at least there were versions of Runequest available, albeit not from Chaosium itself. I think there have been seven, maybe eight, editions of the game over the decades. Annoyingly the companies don’t seem to have used a consistent numbering system.
As for Chaosium itself, it underwent what was likely an excessively interesting process in which it essentially broke into component companies, and then re-accreted back into a unified body1. In 2018, Chaosium finally produced a new, in-house edition of their venerable RPG. Huzzah!
I’ve owned a copy since 2018 and at some point I really need to read it.
1: I would draw a parallel with a gas giant moon thought to have been disrupted by an impact, then reformed, but I can’t recall which moon that was.
In general, early RPGs tended to treat gods as a convenient source of mojo for clerics (or as something for high level player characters to fight). There was no particular need for non-clerical characters to claim affiliation with any particular deity.
Runequest in contrast used religious affiliation to bind characters into particular social networks. Which god a character followed defined to a fair degree where they fit into society, who they got along with and who they did not, and provided them with cult-appropriate training in skills and magic. A character with no cult affiliation was at considerable disadvantage. This was part of the general pattern in Runequest for characters to exist in a specific context, rather than springing up out of nowhere like little murder hobo mushrooms.
Traveller is 43 years old. Over the decades, GDW, its successors, and its licensees have produced a metric fuckton of worlds, thousands upon thousands of strings of numbers denoting the characteristics of thousands of worlds.
Traditionally, these were presented to gamers in the form of printed matter. We live in the modern world, however, where personal computers light enough to be moved by four burly men are inexpensive enough to be owned by landed gentry, where information may be conveyed across great distances at speeds of 1200 Baud or more. This presents an opportunity.
Joshua Bell’s Traveller Map is a searchable, scalable map providing decades of world data in convenient online form.
The Official Traveller Universe (OTU) is the primary setting for various editions of the Traveller game, controlled by Far Future Enterprises (FFE). This is the universe described by publications from GDW, FFE and Mongoose Publishing, and by past licensees such as Digest Group, FASA, Imperium Games and others, The setting includes the Third Imperium, Zhodani Consulate and Solomani Confederation, alien species such as the Aslan, K’kree, Vargr, Hivers and Droyne, and a history from the Ancients through the New Era.
Under the FFE Fair Use Policy, the Traveller Map presents an interactive view into the OTU, making use of official data approved and provided by FFE — as well as apocryphal and unofficial data.
