Blog Archives

This month saw some monstrous reads: supernatural shenanigans on spaceships, goblin libraries, medieval massacres and insider tales of the publishing industry. Enjoy?

Fiction

Enjoy Your Stay at the Shamrock Motel by Andrew Kaufman

The Shamrock Motel is a magical place that can only be found by those who are lost — both geographically and emotionally. The tales in this collection follow an eccentric cast of characters who all reach some crossroads in their life and end up checking in to the Shamrock Motel.

That’s when things get weird.

A woman embarks on an affair with a bear, a child lives inside a piece of furniture, a man’s penis turns into an extension cord, a woman is confined and cleaned by hundreds of smaller women and so on. It’s as if Schitt’s Creek was directed by David Lynch as an X-rated movie.

Enjoy Your Stay at the Shamrock Motel probably won’t appeal to those who take comfort in a Best Western. But those who have a little more eccentric tastes will never want to check out.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216838651-enjoy-your-stay-at-the-shamrock-motel

Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove

Of Monsters and Mainframes is a fantastic mashup of space opera, quirky AIs and pulp horror — like if Murderbot had a dream of Halloween.

The tale follows the voyages of Demeter, a sentient spaceship that hauls passengers around the galaxy. But something goes wrong on one of Demeter’s voyages and hundreds of passengers die. Only Demeter knows the truth — the passengers were killed by Dracula!

If that’s not bad enough, Demeter’s next voyage features a werewolf running amok and killing most of the passengers. And the voyage after that has a strange bunch of cultists hijack the ship in an effort to find their sleeping god. And after that… well, you get the idea.

If it sounds absurd, that’s because it is. Of Monsters and Mainframes delights in playing genres against each other — science vs. supernatural, cold corporate bureaucracies vs. emotional AIs, and so on. Yet it’s also an intriguing mystery about consciousness — what can a ship actually perceive, and what if the AI is delusional — as well a warm found family tale.

If you’re looking for a little supernatural in your sci-fi, then this one is a monstrously good read!

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216540053-of-monsters-and-mainframes

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

A lyrical nightmare of a tale that follows a disgraced knight wandering through an apocalyptic, plague-ravaged Europe that is populated with genuine monsters and demons — and angels?

Buehlman is one of the most creative and original fantasy writers of this generation and perhaps ever. While he may be best known for The Blacktongue Thief and its prequel, The Daughters War, Between Two Fires is a masterpiece of psychological horror and visionary madness.

Think The Road meets Hieronymous Bosch and you’ll have an idea of what lurks between the covers of this book, waiting for you.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13543121-between-two-fires

A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library by Chris Willrich

If your ideal fantasy tale is a magically written, literary labyrinth infused with Calvino, Borges, Lovecraft, necromancy, demons and supernatural libraries, then check out “A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library” by Chris Willrich.

Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/a-random-walk-through-the-goblin-library/

Nonfiction

The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem by Tajja Isen

Is publishing’s obsession with sales numbers hurting publishing?

Link: https://thewalrus.ca/the-publishing-industry-has-a-gambling-problem/

Distribution and the Terror of the Backorder by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

What happens when a book is popular but there are no copies available? Silvia Moreno-Garcia discusses how distribution trends are hurting writers.

Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/distribution-and-141904814

Posted in Journal, Reading List

On the Bookshelf: The Scroll of Years by Chris Willrich

Aug 23

Posted by Peter Darbyshire

I thought I’d resume discussing my current reads here on my journal, as I try to resist the irresistible trend of social media becoming the default platform for all conversations. (See my reasoning here.)

First up On the Bookshelf: The Scroll of Years by Chris Willrich.

I fell in love with Chris Willrich’s tales at first read, after coming across them in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. I was so excited about them I messaged BCS editor Scott Andrews to let him know, and he pointed me to Willrich’s novels.

I recently finished The Scroll of Years, and I still don’t know how to talk about it. Perhaps because it’s one of those books that defies categorization. A risky move for a genre book, sure, but one that’s paid off in this case.

It’s as if it were a fantasy novel co-written by the ghosts of Italo Calvino and Fritz Leiber and transcribed by a dragon monk who sees only in ethereal. This is a tale that revels not only in unconventional characters and unexpected twists but also in storytelling itself. In fact, this is very much a novel about storytelling at every level — the characters’ greatest powers are their abilities to tell tales, the narrative ventures into one different genre after another, and the idea of being able to escape into a good story is actually key to the plot here.

The book mostly follows the thieves Bone and Gaunt, lovers that are trying to escape their pasts and find a safe spot to raise their coming child. But the narrative often shifts away from them to explore other characters’ tales that intersect with the story of Bone and Gaunt. And it’s a wildly imaginative cast of characters — weird magical assassins, a band of mysterious thieves, and even an unconventional dragon. To say any more would be to reveal too much!

The Scroll of Years isn’t traditional fantasy — it’s certainly not high fantasy or grimdark. Nor is it an easy read, as it demands your attention at all times. But it is a unique read and unlike anything else being published at the moment. The literary magic and originality of it alone are enough to earn five out of five scrolls from me.

Related Links:

Website – http://www.chriswillrich.com

X: https://twitter.com/librariangoblin

BCS Stories by Chris Willrich: