Phil Giunta's Blog, page 21

Book Review: The Philip K. Dick Reader

This marvelous collection of 24 stories includes such gems as “Fair Game,” “The Hanging Stranger,” “The Last of the Masters,” “War Veteran,” “Exhibit Piece,” “Sales Pitch,” “The Chromium Fence,” and several tales that were adopted into film, such as “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale” (Total Recall, 1990), “The Minority Report” (Minority Report, 2002), “The Golden Man” (Next, 2007), and “Second Variety” (Screamers, 1995).

Additionally, “Sales Pitch,” “Exhibit Piece,” “The Hanging Stranger,” and “Foster, You’re Dead!” were dramatized in the 2017 Amazon Prime anthology series, Electric Dreams, based on the works of Philip K. Dick.

In the Wake of Things to Come…

As with everything else disrupted by COVID-19,  my publishing schedule has also been affected to some degree. Here is a list of my stories that have been accepted and are on their way to publication.

Had it not been for the pandemic, I would have had four short stories published across two anthologies by now.  My ghost story, “Burn After Writing,” was accepted by Oddity Prodigy Productions for their anthology, SCARY STUFF, an homage to the vintage EC Comics titles Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Haunt of Fear. I hope to see the book published before the end of 2020 or soon into 2021.

 

Three more of my stories will be released in MEANWHILE IN THE MIDDLE OF ETERNITY, the third and final book in the Middle of Eternity anthology series that I created and edited for Firebringer Press. The book, delayed until Q1 2021, will feature reprints of two of my paranormal tales, “Take a Cue from the Canine,” and “So Hungry…” and the debut of my Finnish fantasy tale, “Forest for the Trees.”

Among my most recent stories, “Help Me Rise” was accepted by the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group for their March 2021 anthology, WRITES OF PASSAGE. I am also serving as one of the content editors on this book. More info to come!

I’m also excited to announce that my story “Where It’s Needed Most” was accepted into the charity anthology LOVE ON THE EDGE by Year of the Book Press. All content for this book was written by members of the annual Mindful Writers Retreats that are held in Ligonier, PA three times per year.  More info soon!

Back in May, I wrote and submitted a story to Chicken Soup for the Soul for their upcoming anthology, MAKING ME TIME. No idea if or when I’ll ever hear from them.

I currently have two stories awaiting judgement in a contest sponsored by Nowhere travel magazine. Those are “All That Matters is What You Believe” and “Before She’s Gone Forever.”  I hope to hear the results in late September or early October.

Recently, I learned of a contest at Sunspot Literary Journal called Inceptions. They’re looking for opening scenes / lines / panels from novels, short stories, poems, graphic novels, etc. I submitted the openers to three of my stories including the two I sent to Nowhere magazine plus my detective story, “Pearl of Great Price,” which is featured here on my website for free.

I just finished rewriting a ghost story that was originally penned in 2015 for a small press anthology that never materialized. Hopefully, “Break and Enter” might find a new home in a paranormal anthology being compiled by Gravelight Press. I’m awaiting comments on the story from a few critique partners.

I also have a space pirate story in the works for an open call by Zombe Pirate Publishing and I’m brainstorming a reincarnation or possibly resurrection tale for another open call by Antimony and Elder Lace Press. Although, depending on my schedule, I might decide to skip these in favor of completing the second draft of my science fiction novel before it develops abandonment issues. I have not touched it since April!

In between all of this, I continue to record short story readings from my backlist titles on my YouTube channel.

Oh, and tomorrow (September 1), Screencraft’s Cinematic Book and Cinematic Short Story contests open. I intend to submit to both.

So that’s what’s happening and I hope to have more information on these projects soon. Thank you for supporting independent and small press writers.

Book Review: The Dying Earth by Jack Vance

One of Jack Vance’s most influential works and the first in a series, The Dying Earth is comprised of six fantasy adventures that are tangentially connected. They take place in Earth’s far future, during a time when the sun is approaching the end of its life and has become, it seems, a red dwarf. The human population has diminished significantly and most of the planet’s history long forgotten.

Each story involves magic and sorcery with a loose foundation in science. Some level of technology still exists, but it is not always well understood by the characters.

The six thoroughly enjoyable tales include:

“Turjan of Miir” – Although skilled in creating humanoid life, a magician seeks the necessary spells to imbue it with intelligence. To do so, he must travel to another realm and seek the legendary sorcerer known as Pandelume.

“Mazirian the Magician” – The diabolical Mazirian captures Turjan and tortures him into revealing the necessary spells to imbue his creations with intelligence. However, Mazirian is distracted by the appearance of a beautiful young maiden who visits his property each day on horseback but flees whenever he confronts her. Eventually, Mazirian decides to set off in pursuit.

“T’sais” – An artificial woman created by the wizard Pandelume, T’sais once despised all living beings, including herself. This personality flaw made her combative, unreasonable, and violent. After speaking with her “twin sister” T’sain—created by Turjin to be gentle and kind—T’sais is persuaded to end her treacherous ways. She journeys to Earth to find love and encounters a benevolent man named Etarr who once made the mistake of falling in love with an evil witch. The witch exchanged his face for that of a demon, forcing Etarr to wear a mask. Together with T’sais, Etarr sets out to confront the witch and reverse the spell.

“Liane the Wayfarer” – In order to win the heart of a beautiful but reclusive young witch, an arrogant, callow adventurer undertakes a quest to retrieve the other half of a tapestry that hangs in the witch’s home. To do this, he must steal it from the castle of the dreaded creature known as Chun the Unavoidable.

“Ulan Dhor Ends a Dream” – An apprentice wizard arrives in the city of Ampridatvir on a quest to recover a pair of ancient tablets that, according to myth, provide access to ancient and powerful magic. Ulan is immediately mistaken for a raider due the color of his clothing and soon learns that color has meaning in this strange land. He meets the lovely Elai, who instructs him on the ways of her people and accompanies him on his quest. After a series of mishaps, the pair awaken the high priest of the region who is perturbed by the population’s lack of intellectual progress and decides to do something about it.

“Guyal of Sfere” – Rather than continuing to vex his father and the other elders of Sfere with his unquenchable thirst for knowledge, young Guyal sets out in search of the legendary Museum of Man and its omniscient curator. During his journey, Guyal encounters several dangers, including a hovering ghost on his way into the village of Saponce, where he inadvertently breaks a law and is sentenced to a strange punishment—he must choose the fairest maiden in the village during a pageant. He chooses Shierl, the daughter of a high-ranking Saponce official. In doing so, Guyal unwittingly dooms Shierl as a sacrifice to the demon that resides in the Museum of Man.

 

About This Writing Stuff…

This week, Debbie Burke lists a dozen ways to tighten our prose while Jael R. Bakari provides an insightful guide to story development.

Dana Isaacson offers advice on keeping track of our story’s timeline, Paula Munier shows us ways to make readers fall in love with our protagonists from the first scene, and Chris Winkle discusses why some protagonists are unlikeable.

If you’re perplexed by the true meaning of premise, let Larry Brooks clear up the confusion and explain how the facets of premise should be applied to every story.

All that and a little more. Enjoy!

12 Tips to Write Tight by Debbie Burke via Anne R. Allen

Suspense in Books: 6 Ways to Grow Anticipation by Now Novel

Charting a Fictional Timeline by Dana Isaacson

Writing Process: Developing a Coherent Story by Jael R. Bakari via Jami Gold

The Grand Entrance: How to Introduce Your Protagonist so that Readers Care by Paula Munier

Seven Common Reasons Protagonists Are Unlikable by Chris Winkle

Why I Actually Prefer Stories with Prologues by Vaughn Roycroft

How to Start Writing Again When You Haven’t in a While by Sarah Gribble

How to Use Vivid Verbs to Bring Your Scenes to Life by J.D. Edwin

How to Mine the Facets of Premise for Story Gold by Larry Brooks

How to Use Simple Psychology and Basic Common Sense to Sell More Books by Barb Drodzowich via Anne R. Allen

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review: The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance

Perhaps the last remnants of the human race eke out a meager existence on the unforgiving world of Aerlith, on which much of the terrain is little more than a craggy, mountainous wasteland. The two major and opposing settlements on Aerlith are concentrated in two valleys, each containing the only fertile soil on the planet. These forces are led by the cunning and logical Joaz Banbeck and capricious, volatile Ervis Carcolo, respectively. Carcolo, ruler of Happy Valley, is intent on destroying Banbeck and laying claim to his territory, known as Banbeck Vale.

Banbeck, however, is hardly concerned about the bumbling Carcolo. Rather, he fears that an aggressive reptilian race known as the Grephs will soon return to attack them and offers a truce to Carcolo. Although Carcolo agrees to unite with Banbeck against their common enemy, he soon decides to invade Banbeck Vale, but is effectively thwarted.

In years past, the Grephs occasionally invaded Aerlith in a large ship, abducting a number of humans and laying waste to the villages in order to keep mankind in its place and prevent them from advancing. An ancestor of Banbeck’s managed to capture several Grephs and began experimenting on them, breeding them into various species of fighting dragons known as “Juggers,” “Termagants,” “Murderers,” and more.

Among the inhabitants of both valleys lives an enigmatic and reclusive cult known simply as the “Sacerdotes.” Their members live and travel completely nude and live in the caverns and passages between the valleys. The passive Sacerdotes remain aloof from the affairs of mankind, awaiting the day when all barbaric, warmongering humans are annihilated so that they might rise and spread their message throughout the galaxy.

Banbeck learns that the Sacerdotes are constructing something in their caverns that will not only help them achieve their goal but might also be useful in defeating the Grephs—who arrive shortly after Carcolo mounts a second and more vicious offensive against Banbeck Vale!

Jack Vance excels at building his worlds methodically as the story progresses, revealing new details with every chapter. The Dragon Masters presents a milieu rich in culture, history, and action with characters that are developed adequately enough to convey a rousing story of treachery, survival, and triumph.

Book Review: Jack Vance’s The Miracle Workers

What began as a human refugee camp on the Earth-like world of Pangborn 1,600 years ago has long since evolved into a global colony. Most of the planet is ruled by Lord Faide. His only remaining opponent is Lord Ballant. On the eve of war, Faide and his troops march to invade Ballant’s kingdom. However, their way is obstructed by a forest, recently planted by the First Folk, Pangborn’s indigenous people.

The First Folk were all but slaughtered by the original human settlers and they continue to harbor a grudge against mankind. Their forest is replete with traps, but Faide and his telepathic mystics known as “Jinxmen” negotiate with the First Folk for safe passage, explaining that they have no qualms with anyone but Lord Ballant.

The First Folk guide them through safely and Faide invades Ballant-keep using a combination of weaponry and the voodoo practiced by his Jinxmen. After soundly defeating Ballant, Faide turns his attention to the First Folk who, he soon learns, are plotting against him in an attempt to take back Pangborn from the humans.

Faide and his Jinxmen soon learn that the First Folk are all but invulnerable to telepathy and voodoo. Their minds do not function as do those of men. They are also far more resourceful than anticipated.

The Miracle Workers is a brief but engaging exploration into imperialism and colonialism with an interesting twist. While Faide and his contemporaries are, in some ways, more advanced than their ancestors, they have lost the scientific and engineering prowess of the early colonists, until an apprentice Jinxman—viewed as an incompetent fool by his elders—begins experimenting with various solutions to aid Faide in his war against the First Folk.

The only disappointing aspect of the story is a lack of exposure to the First Folks’ plight. In the beginning of the story, they are merely an obstacle between Faide and Ballant. Later, they become Faide’s enemy, but are themselves never fully developed as characters. As such, it is difficult to sympathize with them. There are no individuals, only the horde. They have few lines and are mostly referred to in the third person by Faide and his men. Yes, the First Folks’ motives for destroying the humans are clear enough, but they are depicted as little more than two-dimensional creatures with bizarre physical abilities and exceptional cunning.

About This Writing Stuff…

This week, Anne R. Allen reminds us that a story is more than just a series of disjointed, tragic episodes. Brian Andrews encourages us to use strong opening lines while Dana Isaacson, Barbara O’Neal, and Kim Bullock offer ideas for writing through these disconcerting times.

Jami Gold lists various ways a character’s occupation can be used to enhance a story and Terry Odell urges us to foreshadow some of our character’s skills before revealing them in a pivotal scene.

All that and a little more. Enjoy!

Promoting Your Sci-Fi or Fantasy Novel on Social Media by Erica Verrillo

The Biggest Writing Craft Issue New Novelists Face, and 7 Ways to Avoid It by Anne R. Allen

How to Write a Powerful, Enticing, Intriguing, Amazing Opening Line for Your Novel by Brian Andrews

How to Write (or Not Write) about the Pandemic by Dana Isaacson

How to Write During a Pandemic, Even if it Feels Like You Can’t by Barbara O’Neal

What’s Our Character’s Job? by Jami Gold

If They Buy the Premise by Terry Odell

Description Makeover: Creating Magical Atmosphere by Chris Winkle

Crime Fiction is Complicit in Police Violence—But It’s Not Too Late to Change by Aya de Leon

Trademarks and the Writer’s Brand Strategy by Matt Knight

Writing Througnh Turbulent Times: Using Uncertainty to Enhance Your Story by Kim Bullock

A Plotstorming Technique by Jan O’Hara

 

 

 

Book Review: The Pnume by Jack Vance

In this fourth and final installment of Jack Vance’s Planet of Adventure series, astronaut Adam Reith is nearly finished construction on a spaceship that will allow him to escape the dangerous world of Tschai and return to Earth. It has been at least a year since Reith crash landed on the planet when his scout ship was shot down while attempting to land.

Since then, Reith has made both allies and enemies through his various escapades across the planet. Two of his closest companions, Traz Onmale and Anacho the Dirdirman—both outcasts from their respective societies—decided long ago to assist Reith in his efforts, as long as he takes them with him when he leaves Tschai.

After Reith obtains materials and warehouse space from the wealthy Aila Woudiver, the cunning crime lord betrays Reith and his companions to the Dirdir, who are seeking them on the charge of murder. However, Reith manages to thwart Woudiver and shackle him in the warehouse while the technicians finish building the ship.

Woudiver is not so easily defeated. He manages to signal members of the Pnume, the oldest native race on Tschai. The Pnume abduct Reith in the middle of the night and transport him to their underground lair to become a permanent addition to their Museum of Foreverness. Reith promptly escapes with the reluctant assistance of a young woman with no name. Rather, she is designated as a member of the Zith group in the Athan area of the Pagaz zone, with a rank of 210. As such, Reith names her ZAP210.

Reith and ZAP210 narrowly escape the Pnume underground and, despite various obstacles and shocking spectacles, attempt to make their way back to the city of Sivishe, where Reith’s spaceship was nearly completed before he was captured. The question is… what will he find when he arrives?

In my humble opinion, The Pnume was the weakest of the books in the series, with a thin plot that consisted mostly of Reith and ZAP210 trekking across Tschai to get back to the warehouse where Reith hopes to find a finished spaceship awaiting him. Vance uses the bulk of the story to continue building this complex and treacherous world of Tschai by introducing the reader to an entirely new spate of races and cultures that were unexplored in the first three books. He does a fair job of presenting a coming of age story for ZAP210 as she unwillingly transforms from a sheltered, frail waif into a courageous voyager in her own right.

Book Review: UBIK by Philip K. Dick

In a time when cryo-technology allows the recently deceased to maintain brain activity for years in cold storage, successful businessman Glen Runciter consults with his late wife, Ella, who has been dead for over two decades. Glen and Ella manage a company that employs a team of anti-telepaths with a unique ability to seek out and neutralize telepaths who pose a danger to society.

Many of the best telepaths work for Ray Hollis, Runciter’s main competitor. When several of Hollis’s top employees go missing all at once, Runciter fears a plot is afoot and seeks Ella’s advice.

Meanwhile, one of Runciter’s senior recruiters, the perpetually penurious Joe Chip, brings in a new prospect with a unique ability to telepathically travel into the past and alter history. Shortly after, Runciter takes on a high-profile billionaire client who fears telepaths have infiltrated his business on the moon.

Runciter rounds up his entire staff of anti-telepaths for the mission, yet shortly after they arrive on Luna, a bomb explodes, leaving Runciter mortally wounded. Suspecting Hollis, Runciter’s team manages to get him back to their ship and into cold storage. Joe Chip assumes immediate control of the firm and flies directly to a moratorium in Zurich to have Runciter placed into cryo storage so that he can be connected with Ella and made available for consultation.

However, the moratorium is unable to stimulate the necessary brain activity and Runciter is declared dead. Almost immediately, Joe Chip and his team begin experiencing time regression, slowly at first, then accelerating until they end up in 1939. All the while, cryptic messages begin to appear, presumably from Runciter himself. Is the man truly dead, or is this a mind game inflicted by Hollis’s telepaths? How does a mysterious product called Ubik play into this nightmare?

Ubik is one of the most brilliant and exciting stories I’ve ever read and now ranks among my top five favorite SF novels along with Flow My Tears, Said the Policeman, another masterpiece from the unrivaled genius of Phil K. Dick.

Book Review: The Dirdir by Jack Vance

American astronaut Adam Reith, stranded on the alien planet Tschai for at least a year and desperate to return to Earth, has no choice but to find a way to build a new spaceship from scratch. The scout ship in which he and his late colleague, Paul Waunder, crashed on Tschai was long ago confiscated by one of the alien races and stripped for its technology. Reith’s previous two attempts to acquire a ship failed (as chronicled in City of the Chasch and Servants of the Wankh).

After acclimating as much as possible to Tschai’s motley cultures and customs, Reith sets off through treacherous Dirdir territory with friends Traz Onmale and the fugitive Anacho in order to raise enough funds (called sequins) to construct a vessel.

After killing a group of Dirdir hunters who tracked them, Reith, Traz, and Anacho take their attackers’ sequins, bury a percentage of them in a secret location, and venture to the shipyards of Shivishe where they strike a deal with an unsavory and obese opportunist named Woudiver. The investor rents them space in his warehouse and assists in acquiring the parts to build their vessel—at the highest prices, of course. Woudiver threatens to turn the trio over to the Dirdir authorities unless they concede to his demands.

Will Reith finally be successful in constructing a vessel to take him home or will he, Traz, and the Dirdir traitor, Anacho, be executed for murder?

The Dirdir is the third book in Jack Vance’s Planet of Adventure series, which has the feel of John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This time, much of the story sees Adam Reith negotiating and haggling over costs of travel, lodging, and information with various strange and eccentric beings as he makes his way to Shivishe, where his skills of negotiation are put to the test against the repulsive and dangerous Woudiver.

As with the previous two installments in the series, Vance masterfully builds the world as the story unfolds, often through dialogue between Reith and Anacho or another indigenous creature who instructs Reith on the ways and philosophies of the four major races who rule the planet Tschai.