Long Looks at Short Fiction: The Last Rune by David A. Hardy

"The Last Rune"
David A. Hardy
Sorcerous Signals

Sorcerous Signals and its sister publication The Lorelei Signal are a pair of online publications I'd not encountered before.  I'm going to check them out after reading "The Last Rune" by David A. Hardy.

This one was a little different than the short fiction I've looked at in the last month or so.  Most of the stories this series has focused on lately have been fairly straightforward with relatively few named characters.  "The Last Rune" is by far the most complex.  While having a central viewpoint character, there are a number of named secondary characters and a multi-layered plot.  This is not a bad thing.  Quite the contrary, although it means you shouldn't read it if you're tired or sleepy; you need to pay attention.  But do read it.  It's a good blend of fantasy and vikings.

The story starts out with an attack by vikings on the feast hall of King Hugleik of Upsalla.  Among those defending the hall is Ulf Bloodeye, the protagonist.  Set against him among the attackers is Starkad Stovikson.  These two have a history which is recounted in another story, "Vikar's Doom" not available online. It is available in Mystic Signals 9, but I don't have a copy yet or I would have reviewed it as well.

Where the story really picks up is in the aftermath of the battle.  It seems King Hugliek possesses a powerful rune.  Starkad takes off with it, and Ulf (who barely manages to survive the battle) tracks him down.  That's a vast simplification, of course.  I'm not sure I can summarize everything without giving some stuff away.  Hardy kept me on my toes with this one, and I was never certain where he would go next.  There are some figures (human and animal) I presume to be from Norse myths, although I'm not certain.  My knowledge of Norse mythology isn't as extensive as my knowledge of Greek and Roman. 

There's plenty of combat and action in this one, and the pace is relentless.  One of the things I liked most about this story was the attention Hardy paid to detail.  The storyline was a well-woven tapestry where small things that didn't seem to be such a big deal at the time, such as when one of the warriors has a private word with teh skald before the battle.  Turns out this little exchange, which the reader isn't privy to, is a major plot point. 

"The Last Rune" was fun, and I'm looking forward to more adventures of Ulf Bloodeye. 

Update on Life

We went back to the doctor yesterday to go over test results.  Whatever this mass/cyst/something is, it doesn't appear to be anything to panic about according to the doctor.  It could be anything from a benign cyst to the start of something serious, but at this point there's no way to be sure without doing something invasive. There's currently nothing to indicate the whateveritis is serious.  Kathy is still thinking about it, but she's leaning heavily on waiting and doing another MRI in six months and see how things look then.  She'll have to have the MRI anyway.  It's possible that this thing is the result of the hormones she's been on since her hysterectomy a year ago.  If that's the case, then it could shrink or (hopefully) go away altogether.  The doctor has taken her off hormones, and if it shrinks, that will be a good indication the hormones caused this thing in the first place.

Anyway, we're much more relaxed than we've been for the last few weeks.  I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support.  We've really appreciated them.

Life Happens...

...and sometimes "life" is spelled with an "S" if you get my meaning.  Fortunately, that's not the case (yet), although I was preparing myself for it to be.

A few weeks ago, my wife Kathy went in for her annual mammogram, although she later told me she was thinking about skipping it this year.  Well, the mammogram, done at our PCP's office, or rather the large clinic he works at, showed something that wasn't there last year.  He referred her to a breast health specialist in town, an wonderful woman who is a breast cancer survivor herself.  This doctor did a followup mammogram on the breast in question (the right), saw the same thing, and ordered an MRI and a biopsy. 

We got the results back today.  The biopsy showed the new growth (something called calcification) to be benign.  But the MRI showed a small mass (about the size of the tip of my little finger) in the left breast which didn't show up on the PCP's mammogram.  It didn't show up on the followup mammogram we did with the specialist this afternoon.  And let me tell you something.  The difference in quality of the two mammograms was amazing.  The specialist's showed much more detail than the PCP's.  Lesson: not all mammograms are created equal.  Make sure you're getting the best quality you can.

Anyway, we go in for a followup visit on Thursday morning to discuss options after the doctor has had a chance to examine the sonogram we also did late this afternoon.  We'll probably do another biopsy.  The doctor is fairly certain this is benign, but she doesn't want to take chances.  Neither do we.  If they do find something, I may start blogging erratically until we get things cleared up.  I'll post a notice if that happens.

Blackbirds Coming Home to Roost

Blackbirds
Chuck Wendig
Angry Robot Books
UK/RoW
3 May 2012
320pp B-format paperback
£7.99 UK

US/CAN
24 April 2012
320pp mass-market paperback
$7.99 US $8.99 CAN

eBook
24 April 2012
£4.49

This is a novel that will most likely appeal to fans of Joe R. Lansdale.  It's a high octane ride through the dark recesses of humanity, a smashing blend of noir and the supernatural that combines the best of classic crime novels with downright genuine creepiness.

I absolutely loved it.  With one small exception.

Long Looks at Short Fiction: Pekra by Tom Doolan

Pekra
Tom Doolan
Kindle format, 0.99

If I didn't already know that he was, I would guess by reading this that Tom Doolan is the father of a teenage girl.  He seems to capture the viewpoint quite well.  At least I think he does, never having been a teenage girl myself.

"Pekra" is Tom's latest piece of short fiction.  Like the previous"Blackskull's Captive", reviewed here, this is an orc story, only this time it's not set in space.  It's also significantly shorter, making it the perfect thing to read while taking a quick lunch break.

This is also a little different than most orc stories.  It's a love story of sorts.  Pekra is a young orc whose parents are on her case because her sister has found a mate and is with child.  Why can't she do the same?  So she does, or at least tries to.  In orc society the females choose the mates.  If two females fight over a male, the male is stuck with the winner, like it or not.  As you might expect, Pekra is challenged when she tries to choose her mate (chosen in part because her choice will annoy her parents).  The result is a cat fight, orc style. 

This was a short tale, but thoroughly enjoyable.  Both Pekra and her choice of mate are well characterized, and the fight scene is a blast.  (Not literally, the two orcs don't have any explosives.)  As Tom said in his announcement on his blog, this one would have been hard to market.  I'm glad he published it himself.  It focused on an aspect of orc society that isn't usually shown, the mating ritual.  I wouldn't mind seeing more of these characters in a longer tale.  Check it out. 

RIP, K. D. Wentworth (1951-2012)

Kathy Wentworth

Damn, damn, and double damn.  I just found out that author K. D. Wentworth passed away from pneumonia yesterday after a battle with cervical cancer.  She was a longtime friend, and she will be missed. 

Kathy got her start in writing by winning the Writers of the Future contest in 1988.  She later became one of the judges for the contest.  More details of her professional life are available at Locus Online. 

I first met K. D. Wentworth in Tulsa at the second Conestoga in 1998, where she was on the Con Committee..  We saw each other each summer until the convention moved to April in 2009 (I wasn't able to attend) as well as at other conventions, most notably Armadillocon and ConDFW.  The last time I saw her was at Armadillocon in summer 2009.  She joined a group of us for dinner on Friday night. 

Kathy was a friendly, outgoing person and one of the most generous and kind people in the field.  The greatest kindness she did me was on the way home from the World Fantasy Convention in 2000.  The convention was in Corpus Christi that year, which meant it was close enough for me to attend.  I flew down from Dallas.  Since it was the first large convention I'd been able to attend, I took three suitcases, one tucked inside another, with just enough clothing and personal items to make it through the weekend. 

On the way back, all three suitcases were packed with books.  I was flying Southwest airlines, which at that time had a limit of two carry-on items per person.  All the flights out of Corpus were with Southwest, and all of them went through Houston.  Kathy and I were on the same flight.  I was trying to decide which suitcase to check when Kathy offered to carry one of the suitcases on for me since she only had one carry-on bag.  I accepted.

Kathy and the rest of her party from Tulsa changed planes in Houston while I continued on to Dallas.  Both legs of the flight were packed.  You can imagine the dirty looks I received when I deboarded the plane with three bulging suitcases.  That's the sort of generous person Kathy was.  I also have a signed manuscript of an unpublished short story set in her Black/on/Black universe she gave me at a convention.

She was a great writer, being a three time finalist for the Nebula.  I've not read all of her novels, but I've read most of them, and I've enjoyed all of them immensely.  In my opinion she was one of the more under appreciated writers of the last two decades.  She wrote across multiple subgenres of science fiction and fantasy.  In addition to novels, she wrote numerous short stories, the most recent short work being "Alien Land" in the January/February issue of F&SF.  If you've not read her work, do.  She was good and she had her own unique voice.

Relaxing with the Fireside

Fireside Magazine
electronic, $3.99 single issue, $8/yr subscription

No, that isn't a typo in the title of this post.  That really is the word "with" rather than "by".  I'm not talking about a literal fireside, but a figurative one.  In this case the first issue of Fireside Magazine, which went on sale just a few days ago as I write this. 

This is a new illustrated nongenre fiction magazine I told you about a couple of months ago. And by nongenre, I don't mean a literary magazine.  Instead, the stories aren't restricted to a particular type of genre.  Editor Brian White is looking for good stories, regardless of genre.

I think he succeeded.  Let's take a closer look at what the issue contains, shall we?