I remember when I first encountered Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. I was still in high school and a family friend was working his way through the five ‘Swords’ story collections that had been published at that point. On his recommendation I picked up an anthology with “Ill Met in Lankhmar”. I was immediately sucked in by the dark, weird story and by the relationship between the seven foot tall Northern barbarian and the small, mercurial thief and former wizard’s apprentice.

As soon as I’d finished the story, I forced my mother to take me to the nearest bookstore where I could get Swords and Devilitry, Swords Against Death, and the other books in the series. The adventures of this unlikely pair have always seemed to me to be the purest stuff of swords and sorcery, the best the subgenre has had to offer. The only book that ever really competed was Michael Shea’s 1982 collection Nifft the Lean. The stories were if anything darker and weirder than the adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, and Nifft wasn’t especially likable, but it too was the pure quill, the real deal.

Looking back after nearly seventeen years reading for reviews and I guess twelve years reading for year’s best anthologies, I’m struck by the fact that these were cycles of short stories. The modern swords and sorcery, as exemplified by Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch and so on, is very much a thing of long novels and longer story cycles. Very few writers are attempting to put the kind of depth and complexity into their swords and sorcery short stories today that Leiber, Shea, Moorcock with Elric and others were a quarter century and more ago.

Well, last year Garth Nix wrote a story that may be the beginnings of something very special indeed. The April 2007 issue of Baen’s Universe included his novelette “Sir Hereward and Mr Fitz Go to War Again”, a wonderful piece of stuff about the tall and reasonably handsome Sir Hereward and his partner in crime, the weird sorcerous puppet Mr Fitz. I won’t go into any details about the story, other than to say it’s been nominated for a handful of awards already, is in at least one year’s best anthology, and you can read it here for free.

And that brings us to Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s forthcoming pirate anthology, Fast Ships, Black Sails. The book closes with a long novelette (or short novella), “Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarskoe”. It’s the second “Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz” adventure and is probably my favorite story by Nix to date. A swords and sorcery tale very much in the mode of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, it opens with our two heroes attempting to resurrect a mission gone awry by taking ship with a particularly fearsome pirate who has intercepted some of the equipment that the pair need in order to traverse the Secret Channels, storm the Sea Gate built by the scholar-pirates of Sarskoe, and enter their long hidden fortress. Much follows – cannibalism, betrayal, sorcerous battles and even deicide – in what really is a marvelous story.

How good is it? Well, it’s worth the $14.95 price tag for Fast Ships, Black Sails by itself. Quite honestly, were you to hate every other story in the anthology (and you won’t) you’d still be in front.  I’ve heard that likely we will hear more from Hereward and Fitz, so pre-order the anthology now, and join me in the wait for more from this intrepid duo.

As readers of this blog know, I was happily inundated with submissions for Eclipse during February.  I am slowly and carefully working my way through the submissions, and hope to get them finished by the end of the month, though it might take a little longer.

By way of an update, I’ve just sent the second round of responses out to authors. If you’ve not heard from me by today, that means I’ve read your story, considered it, and have set it aside to read it a second time. I hope to get back to you, one by one, over the next few weeks.

As to how things overall are progressing, I received a total of 438 valid submissions during February, and a further 47 after the closing date.  The 47 received after the closing date were returned.  Of the 438 valid submissions, I have responded to 391 authors and still have 47 submissions on hand.

If you have not heard from me by tomorrow and have any queries regarding your submission, please do not hesitate to email me.

Last Saturday I’d decided I wasn’t going to go to the Denver WorldCon. This was not a decision which seems to have taken well. On Sunday I was talking to CHARLES, and made a just-in-case room reservation because all of the hotels for WorldCon are filling up.  On Tuesday I decided I’d go.  There are lots of reasons, but it became a very good idea all of a sudden.  This morning I booked and paid for my flights, in what seems to me to be unprecedentedly short period of time.  Maybe it was last year’s experience of booking without a travel agent, but I’m done.  I fly into Denver with the Locus crew just after lunch time on Tuesday 5 August and fly out just around dinner time on Monda 11 August.  All I need to do now is buy my membership, and I’m done (though I wouldn’t mind switching my room res. for one in the main hotel).  I’m actually a little shell-shocked.  If you’re going to be in Denver for the big crazy fest, drop me a line and we can try to get together.  I’m eager to see as many people as possible.

Tired.  I was just thinking about what kind of metrics I’d post on this blog, if I were a metrics-posting type: stories read, words edited, books completed? I dunno.

This week is turning into a good news week, mostly stuff that I’m not getting round to telling you about. Monday I came home to a finished copy of The Starry Rift. It feels like I have been working on this project forever.  My memory is notoriously crap, but I’m pretty sure that it was at Noreascon in September of 2004 when I met up with Sharyn November to sign the contracts and toast our newest venture.  That means we probably were discussing the book in February of 2004 – four years from proposal to book. God!  Well, it’s here and it’s beautiful. Viking have done a lovely job with it, and it will be headed out into the world over the next month or so. Reviews are starting to trickle in: they’re mostly very positive, which is lovely, but you keep waiting for them to kick your baby.  A review comes along, and you’re smiling and wincing at the same time.  Well, whatever happens out there, I’m proud of the book and feel like I’ve done all that I can on it.

That, of course, means that it’s time for Sharyn and I to discuss our next venture.  I’ve got a proposal for a book with her now, and I’m betting if we can get things worked out we could have it in shops in 2010. That’d be cutting two years off the process, which would be swell .

The other news is that my travel plans for the year are becoming clearer.  After lengthy discussions here at the home office, I’m going to be headed to Denver for WorldCon after all.  While World Fantasy will always be my first love, and while I will be in Calgary, I’ve persuaded the family to do without me for the ten days that it’ll take to make the journey to Oakland then Denver, and home. It should be a lot of fun.  I’m hoping to catch up with everyone, though I may miss a few people. If you’re going to be there, let me know and maybe we’ll get to catch up.

I’ve read some books lately, listened to music, watched a few things, and basically been busy, so more soon…

This is the book that I mentioned reading a couple posts back. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’d be interesting if someone were to post the story “The Witch’s Headstone” online so you could get a taste for it. Or, you could read it in Jack and Gardner’s Wizards or my own year’s best, which is just out.  I like the book a lot, and can’t wait to see McKean’s illustrations.