Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

A Collection of Short Stories in the tradition of pulp horror master H.P. Lovecraft by Michael Vance with illustrations by Earl Geier

Reviewed by Michelle Souliere

Weird Horror Tales, despite its generalized title, collects 13 tales very specifically centered around the fictitious town of “Light’s End” in Maine. While varying in their historic timeframe and even at times in their style, they are all crafted in the weird tales tradition. A great find for fans of this field of fiction!

Unlike many writers who claim to be inspired by Lovecraft, Vance is not afraid to produce stories using an efficient and sparse storytelling technique, which suffers nothing from omission, and lends itself to the very Lovecraftian theme of cosmic horror that rears its indescribable head throughout. The reader is more likely to encounter a poetry-like flow of Bradburyesque proportion than the purple prose of Lovecraft’s fantasy pieces, especially in such stories as “Wishful Thinking.”

His characters are normal, desperate, deranged, owners of strange agendas, people who want basic and harmless lives, and people who want to cause harm to enrich their lives. The settings are reflective of the strange arrangement of the townspeople’s history and continued existence. They live in the shadow of “the Great Secret Hidden Openly.” The length and breadth of the human betrayal taking place in Light’s End is brought into sharp focus when the reader is reminded of the simple, honest need for a good life, even as communicated via the otherworldly narrative in the award-nominated* story “The Lighter Side.”

Humor, the likes of which fans of Tales from the Crypt will appreciate, creeps in from time to time. There is something rottenly appealing in the idea of the faux lighthouse restaurant in “Knock-Off,” with ever-popular tourist-attracting features such as the “irritating moaning of ‘the alien dead, giddy with hunger’, that incessantly gibbered from hidden speakers in the floor,” décor inscribed with “symbols and mermaids with needle teeth,” and “wallpaper that illogically seemed to creep across the wall.”

The wonderful thing about independent publication, and the use of short stories, is the freedom that both give an author to pursue a variety of storytelling techniques, while the collected format allows a common ground for tales to form from. In more ways than one, this collection reminds me of Bradbury. Vance seems to feel a similar need to tie together the ingredients of tragedy and transcendence, and a brave daring to try new storytelling techniques and voices pulled from the fringe of the genre. I can only imagine what will happen if he finds a really keen editor with the ability to help him shape this series into the crescendo it could become (this is the first of 3 planned volumes).

Weird Horror Tales really winds up working as the title for this collection, and Vance’s years of writing experience show in his Jack-of-all-trades approach to fantastic fiction. Take a solid, squirming bedrock of horror, throw in some satellites of sci-fi, a generous helping of Twilight Zone plot twists, lace it with the eldritch horror of H. P. Lovecraft’s favorite poisons, and you have yourself a hefty volume of entertaining and engaging stories which will surprise you with its variety, and reward you with each re-reading.

While I may not be completely sold on Maine as the setting for this series, I understand the effort given to make these stories come alive in a Maine that Vance has never seen, and I more than understand his love for the weird tale, and the honor given Maine by choosing it as the place for these stories, outside of their Midwestern author’s experience of his home state of Oklahoma. Maine is an “other” place. These stories certainly are alive in their other place, a place with a unique kind of strangeness that I think Lovecraft would have been well pleased to see spawned from his legacy.

I would really like Michael Vance to visit Maine as he completes work on the next collection in the planned trilogy of Light’s End anthologies. But then again – maybe if he came here he’d be too charmed to write more Maine-based horror! Perhaps we should simply invite him to come during February to prevent such a tragedy.

* “The Lighter Side” was nominated for the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Fountain Award for Best Short Story in 2004.

This review originally appeared on the Strange Maine blog

Buy Weird Horror Tales now from Amazon.com

By Jay L. Young

Perhaps you’ve been enjoying the TV series Legend of the Seeker and find yourself wondering how similar it is to the Sword of Truth novels on which it’s based .  Perhaps you’ve even gone so far as to peruse the Terry Goodkind rack at Barnes & Noble and balked at the thought of committing yourself to an eleven-book series, each of which is the approximate length of the Bible.  So if you’ve already fallen in love with Richard, Kahlan, and Zedd, I’ll be breaking down the book series for you so you can go in with eyes open.

The T.V. series is loosely based on the first book – Wizard’s First Rule.  The main characters are reasonably faithful representations – Richard is the handsome and brave Seeker of Truth, Kahlan is the strong and beautiful Mother Confessor, Zedd is the quirky, old First Wizard, and Darken Rahl is an evil magician looking to screw things up for everyone.  Oh, and the Mord Sith are dominatrixes in tight, red leather and understandably play a large role in the series.  Most of the T.V. episodes are not based on events in the book, so aside from a few spoilers it should be a fresh read.  More good news – the book series is complete so you won’t be subjected to waiting months for the next book to come out then trying to recall everything you’d forgotten from the previous books during the wait.  But what, exactly, will you be getting yourself into?  Well …

Wizard’s First Rule:  Sword of Truth Book 1
WFR really is a charming Fantasy romp.  It doesn’t break any ground in the genre, but it spotlights Goodkind’s strength as a storyteller.  Story, after all, is king.  At over 800 pages it’s a long read but it moves along at a consistent rate with a rich cast of characters and interesting world building.  If you’re a fan of the TV show, invest the time and read this first book.   I should mention that the series is not for the squeamish.  There’s no shortage of torture, rape, mass murder, and sexuality, often in graphic detail.  Regular readers of Fantasy may find the book derivative, but regular readers of Fantasy are probably used to it.

Stone of Tears:  Sword of Truth Book 2
SoT is the crown jewel of the series.  At nearly a thousand pages it’s a true epic and Goodkind expands the small country he built in WFR into an entire world with an intriguing history.  The cast grows exponentially but Goodkind takes the time to keep the reader close to each character.  The plot, filled with moral conundrums and magical mysteries, moves along at a healthy clip and builds to a great ending.

Blood of the Fold:   Sword of Truth Book 3
After the magnificent SoT, Goodkind takes a detour to introduce a new kingdom and cast of characters in Blood of the Fold.  He does keep us abreast of the main cast (Richard, Kahlan, Zedd) and eventually merges the storylines.  It’s a solid novel and doesn’t shy away from sometimes graphic violence and sexuality.  At 640 pages, it feels shorter than the two previous novels but the plot continues to gain complexity.  Goodkind continues to display a patience in his storytelling while not getting bogged down in too much descriptive narrative.

Temple of the Winds:  Sword of Truth Book 4
While I felt the series lost a little bit of steam with BotF, it rebounded in Temple of the Winds, a gritty and focused continuation of the main storyline.  At 992 pages, it never dragged or veered off the path and was entirely satisfying.

Soul of the Fire:  Sword of Truth Book 5
SotF struck me as being similar to BotF.  Again, Goodkind spends a large portion of the book introducing a new city and new cast of characters while the main cast is relegated to side-stage.  While the stories ended up being complimentary in BotF, I was ultimately left a little flat by SotF.  After five books the loose ends were really starting to pile up and the “one new Wizard’s Rule and one new piece of magic for Richard per book” paradigm was wearing a little thin.  Still, the writing and story were very crisp and moved along at a good pace and the ending was excellent.

Faith of the Fallen:  Sword of Truth Book 6
Here we get to a major division within the SOT readership clan.  Half seem to hate Faith of the Fallen and half seem to rank it among the best of the series.  Personally I rank it as the second best, right behind SoT and I’ll tell you why – it marked both the height and the end of Goodkind showing vs. telling.  In this extended and tightly focused story, Richard is taken into the communist dictatorship of the Old World and forced to live as an ordinary citizen and learn its values.  This is indisputably the  turning point in the series where it goes from a Sword and Sorcery romp to a heavy-handed, endlessly repetitive condemnation of communism and religious fanaticism.  What makes FotF work is Goodkind’s patient storytelling as he immerses the reader in Richard’s world.  He’s showing and it’s wonderful.  It’ll also be the last time.  If you’ve stuck with the series this far, I give you full permission to take your good memories as a parting gift and quit now.  Because next is . . .

The Pillars of Creation:  Sword of Truth Book 7
This is where the series officially jumps the shark.  The main cast barely makes an appearance while we’re subjected to a tedious and unnecessary further plot complication in the form of Richard’s unknown half-brother and half-sister whose very existence threatens the world of magic.  It’s what The Ropers was to Three’s Company or what After M*A*S*H was to M*A*S*H – a needless spinoff, but in this case it was a total derailment of the series as the unresolved perils and plotlines continued to pile up.

Naked Empire:  Sword of Truth Book 8
Naked Empire continues the PoC storyline but unites it with our main cast of characters.  Unfortunately this is where Goodkind falls in love with … THE ENDLESS SPEECHES!  Envision characters pontificating for ten, fifteen, twenty pages at a time on the same basic evils of communism and religious fascism, not to convince people out of their opposing views, but simply restating the same thing they all already believe.  And if that’s not enough to nail-gun it into the reader, the narrator now gives up on “showing” and undertakes the arduous task of reminding the reader of all the loose ends (none of which are going to be answered) and reiterating how bad religious fascism is.  Oh and there’s a goat in the story which everyone hates.  And a new two-dimension villain.  And fascism is bad.

Sensing that it’s time to wrap up the series before the peasants revolt, Goodkind brings us not a final book, but a final three books called the Chainfire Trilogy

Chainfire:  Sword of Truth Book 9
I give Goodkind credit for trying to jump start the series, but ultimately this tack didn’t do much for me.  In the final trilogy, Kahlan has been erased from everyone’s memories except Richard’s.  And even more insurmountable obstacles are placed before Richard in addition to an unbeatable enemy and, you know, all the loose ends from dozens of previous storylines.  You’d think this would make for some fast moving adventure but unfortunately it’s another rehash of … speeches against religious fascism.  By now you should have skimming down to an artform.

Phantom:  Sword of Truth Book 10
Kahlan’s still missing, but now Goodkind undertakes the task of dredging up every loose end (along with every neatly tied end) from the series and setting us up for the end of the series.  It starts to feel like the final episode of Sienfeld where every character from the series is paraded through the court for nostalgia’s sake.  Oh, and about a quarter of the book is still about the evils of religious fascism.  In case you weren’t sure whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing.  It’s a bad thing.

Confessor:  Sword of Truth Book 11
Sweet heavens I really wanted to like this conclusion but … it was just okay.  It was all telling, not showing.  It was about as convincing and satisfying as a teenage daydream.  The pacing was all wrong, spending endless chapters on the evils of religious fascism and then blowing through the action like a fast-forwarded commercial on DVR.  I’ll give him credit, Goodkind did tie up all the loose ends (at least all the ones I could keep track of), but I really wish the series would have ended five or six books ago when it was actually about swords and sorcery instead of self-indulgent pontification.

So that’s my opinion.  I know some folks like the whole series, although I suspect none of them are religious fascists or hardcore communists.  Fans of the Legend of the Seeker T.V. series should buy the books one at a time and commit to reading the first two.  Three through six are optional.  Seven through eleven – that’s your prerogative.  Religious fascism is bad.

Jay L. Young is the author of the Heroes Series and agrees that religious fascism is a bad thing, but doesn’t discuss it at his website:  www.jayyoungweb.com.

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Jay Young’s Heroes Series is Available at the Axiom’s Edge Webstore

By Sharon Bogart

On Meeting Astronaut Fred Haise:

It’s March 7th, 2009 and I’m in Jackson, MS for the 2009 Region 2 Summit Meeting for Star Trek. I had the pleasure of meeting the famous astronaut Fred Haise who was the lunar module pilot on the almost fatal Apollo 13 mission with astronauts Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert. Haise gave an excellent presentation with slides and videos showing actual footage of the Apollo 13 mission and of the shuttle Enterprise. He covered a lot of information about his career, especially the Apollo 13 mission and he compared the actual mission to the movie. He stated it was not as bad as the movie depicted it. Most of the vulgar language was not true and there was not all that conflict between the crew. That’s all Hollywood. What he remembers most about the mission are the views from the window and the weightlessness and then of course there was the trauma from the explosions. He talked about his work after the mission, including a terrible accident that occurred when his plane crashed, resulting in over 65% of his body being badly burned. He even showed photos of himself after the crash, which were quite graphic.

In his early years, while in college, he thought about becoming a journalist, but then enlisted during the Korean War, went through the Naval Aviation Cadet program, and became a marine fighter pilot. After 20 years of this, and also hearing Kennedy’s speech about man going to the moon, he decided to become an astronaut. Haise also flew 5 test flights on the space shuttle Enterprise in 1977 and continued to work with NASA including 17 years with Northrop Grummann. He is now retired and enjoying his grandchildren.

After the presentation, there was a Q & A session and then he autographed pictures of which I am the proud owner of one. I found him to be an excellent and interesting speaker and very down to earth. It was an honor and a privilege to meet him.

On another note, he stated that he is a Star Trek fan and enjoyed all the series and movies.

Meeting My First Klingon:

I also met my first Klingon at the Region 2 Summit meeting. I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into, but I had my suspicisions. When I entered the room, there she was, a female Klingon warrior; dark skinned with head ridges and wearing leather. She was what I imagined a Klingon to be. Was I nervous? Absolutely! First, she had us all sit in a circle and proceeded to give us some background information concerning Klingons and their customs. One custom was that Klingons never hide their hands. They should always be visible, never hidden behind their back, or in their pockets. This shows you have nothing to hide and that you are ready for anything. She also demonstrated how a female Klingon showed her interest in the opposite sex: by going up to him, much like a cat, and in a low, guttural voice start purring. If the male shows no interest, one of his responses would be to say “My blood runs cold” in a low deep voice, turning his head away at the same time. She then went into teaching us some basic Klingon words and had each of us in turn repeat them. Some got it the first time, some didn’t. I must be part Klingon, because I didn’t receive her wrath like some did. Next, a Klingon chef showed us some of her culinary delights and we all had the pleasure of partaking. Don’t ask me what they were, because I couldn’t tell you. Not in Klingon words that is. To show our appreciation and how good the food tasted, we were expected to make these low, growling noises that sounded something like “Argh”. By the way, you never, ever make a Klingon cook mad or show displeasure. Finally, the Klingon warrior demonstrated some self defense moves, and which I had the honor of participating. Personally I think it was the Federation uniform that did me in. I mean, come on, a Klingon give up the opportunity to show their strength and cunning in front of puny humans? At one point, I think I surprised her by my strong grip, but she had more experience than I and, well, you get the idea. It wasn’t a pretty sight!

All in all, it was a fun, informative experience and one I will never forget. My favorite part was learning the Klingon language, and I hope to learn more.

Starfleet and Region 2 Links:

http://www.region2.org/usscontinuum/mainpage.html (USS Continuum website)

www.region2.org (Region 2 website)

www.sfi.org (Starfleet website)

See Also:

Starfleet Region 2 Meeting 6-8 March 2009