British Fantasy Society News

Published by Penguin, 2nd October, £6.99

Midnight’s Daughter is the first in a gripping new urban fantasy series by author Karen Chance who hit the Number 6 spot on the New York Times betseller list with her previous book, Embrace the Night.

Dorina Basarab is a dhampir, half human, half vampire, subject to uncontrollable rages. Most dhampirs die quickly as madness over takes them but Dorina has survived for 500 years by taking out her fury on demons and vampires who deserve killing.

Claire, Dorina’s best friend and healer is missing and without her Dorina’s rational self is being consumed by her dhampir rages. Even worse, in her hunt for Claire, Dorina has become entangled in a war between her dysfunctional ancient family… Sparks fly and blood gushes as Dorina battles her rage, her past, mages, elves and a whole host of beasts. Will she find Claire, can she survive and is she capable of love?

Without a doubt the biggest news in fantasy this week: Dark Horizons, the journal of the British Fantasy Society, will now accept short story submissions by email.

Every time I look at my recycling box I’m filled with guilt, not to mention my feelings about the pile of unused SAEs that now threatens to overwhelm my office. It’s time for a change!

So send your brilliant works of short fiction to darkhorizons@britishfantasysociety.org and we’ll get back to you – eventually. The current submission guidelines can be found here on the BFS forums.

We’re grateful to any writers who report their submissions, rejections and acceptances to www.duotrope.com.

Postscripts 15 is, like every issue of that fine magazine, a work of art. It features a huge selection of science fiction from the likes of Brian Stableford, Eric Brown, James Lovegrove, Terry Bisson, Mike Resnick and Stephen Baxter, plus sixty pages devoted to Paul McAuley. The cover art by Al Feldstein is lovely, as is the interior art from Ben Baldwin, Liz Clarke, James Hannah and Ian Simmons.

However, what caught my eye more than any of that was the note preceding Michael Moorcock’s contribution, "Sumptous Dress: a Question of Size at the End of Time", where Moorcock writes:

Publishing new Elric books in French with my friend Fabrice Colin is quite probably the project which most tickles me at the moment.

Fabrice Colin is a French writer who has built a remarkable bibliography since the publication in 1997 of his first novel, Neuvième cercle. Michael Moorcock won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel four times during its inaugural decade, and his bibliography isn’t too shabby either.

If their collaboration leads to new Elric novels, I’ll count the decade I spent studying French as having been very well spent indeed. Any Elric fans who can’t read French might want to start taking lessons!

A seaside home, a school, a fantasy castle, a lighthouse, a wooden hut, a run-down tower block – all are tainted by an unnatural atmosphere. Be wary of what’s beyond the entranceway. For we have six dwellings eager to molest the human spirit at its lowest ebb, its most vulnerable time. Welcome… please step across the threshold…

So ends the introduction to the latest special publication from the British Fantasy Society, currently being sent out to members.

Houses on the Borderland, edited and introduced by David A. Sutton, is a three-hundred page book containing six novellas from some of the best British writers in the field today:

• "Today We Were Astronauts", Allen Ashley
• "The Listener", Samantha Lee
• "The School House", Simon Bestwick
• "The House on the Western Border", Gary Fry
• "The Retreat", Paul Finch
• "The Worst of All Possible Places", David A. Riley

Discuss the book here on the BFS forums.

Variety is reporting that Kenneth Branagh is in negotiations with Marvel Studios to direct Thor (the movie), from a script by Mark Protosevich. Branagh’s previous films as a director have included Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing and the four hours of bottom-numbing brilliance that was his Hamlet.

So far Marvel’s decidedly offbeat approach to making movies (whoever heard of picking the most appropriate actor for a role, instead of the most famous one?) has paid dividends, most notably with Iron Man.

Presumably in this case Marvel have decided that the best way to avoid cod-Shakespearean dialogue is to get the real deal. Forsooth and verily, etc.

An interesting fact about the Marvel version of Thor (shown here on the cover of Thor: Vikings): he cannot fly (or at least he couldn’t in the most recent issue this correspondent read). Instead, he throws his hammer very hard and then hangs on to it as it flies through the air…

The second book in the Vampire Apocalypse trilogy from Irish author Derek Gunn, has been released by KHP Industries under their Black Death Books imprint.  Descent into Chaos follows A World Torn Asunder, Derek’s debut novel (September 2006) which was widely praised on both sides of the Atlantic and is in development as a movie.

According to the author, the Vampire Apocalypse stories are set in the near future in a world grown insular after a brief war has left the world depleted of resources. Fuel is rationed, States close their borders, communities die and technology stagnates. It’s not too improbable anymore either. As the world struggles to cope with such problems, the vampires come from the shadows and quietly begin to take over community after community. They offer power to those who will join them and death to those who don’t. It doesn’t take long and, after a brutal but brief war, they take control. They use a serum and Thralls to control the population, wall the cities off and breed humans as stock.  The Thralls are humans who have been bitten but have not fully become vampires. They have enhanced speed and strength and guard the vampires during the day when they could be vulnerable.

Both books are widely available from online booksellers and (or can be ordered from) high street book stores.  Sample chapters from both books are available at the author’s website.

Here are the wonderfully photogenic winners of this year’s British Fantasy Awards, or the people who accepted on their behalf. (Photo © Peter Coleborn).

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Standing L to R: Stephen Jones, Jo Fletcher, Pete Crowther, Ramsey Campbell, Christopher Teague & Joel Lane. Kneeling L to R: Chris Fowler, Conrad Williams & Vincent Chong.

The British Fantasy Awards for 2008 have now been awarded, and it’s time to start thinking about next year. So we’re asking members to start sending in their recommendations for material they consider to be among the best this year.

Members of the BFS, Fantasycon 2008 and/or Fantasycon 2009 (once they have booked) can put forward as many items as they like, and you don’t have to send in all your recommendations at the same time. Recommendations can be sent by email to bfsawards@britishfantasysociety.org, or by using the form included in the bags at Fantasycon 2008 (though please note that the deadline for recommendations has been moved forward and is now 31 January 2009). A form and reminder will be sent out with our next mailing. Where relevant and if possible, please include the author, title, publication and publisher when making your recommendations.

We are seeking recommendations in the following categories:

• BFS Special Award (the Karl Edward Wagner Award)
• The Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer
• Best Novel (the August Derleth Award) (over 40,000 words)
• Best Novella (10,000-40,000 words)
• Best Short Fiction (under 10,000 words)
• Best Collection
• Best Anthology
• Best Non-Fiction
• Best Artist
• Best Small Press
• Best Magazine/Periodical
• Best Television Programme
• Best Film
• Best Comic/Graphic Novel

Although recommendations are requested for the Karl Edward Wagner Award and the Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer, the winners will be decided by the committee of the British Fantasy Society and by a panel of judges, respectively.

Eligibility in relevant categories is decided by the date of first publication in the English language. (Graphic novels or trade paperbacks collecting work published in previous years are eligible.) Fantastic works of all kinds are eligible: heroic fantasy, science fiction, horror, ghost stories, fabulation, alternate history, and so on. The new category of Best Magazine/Periodical is designed to to credit both fiction and non-fiction publications whether they be in print or online.

The recommendations period will remain open until 31 January 2009. The longlist will be sent out to members for voting in our March mailing. Voting on the longlist will remain open until 31 May 2009. The shortlist of nominations will be sent out to members in our June mailing, and members will then have until 1 August 2009 to vote upon the nominated works. Finally, the winners will be announced on 19 September 2009 at the Fantasycon awards ceremony.

You can discuss your recommendations – and the awards in general – here on the BFS forum.

Deborah J. Miller (author, member of the Write Fantastic, and founder of Wonderlands) and Stan Nicholls, author of the Orcs trilogy (and interviewed here on the same website), have been in touch to announce that preparations are underway to present the inaugural David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy for the best fantasy novel of the year (2008). The award has the official support of Stella Gemmell, and has been instigated by friends and professional colleagues to celebrate David’s life and literary legacy.

Nominations are currently being sought from editors of every major genre fantasy list for full-length novels, in the English language, first published in 2008. The nominated novels must be deemed fantasy in the spirit of David Gemmell’s own work. All nominated work will be added to a longlist, which will then be voted upon by the reading public on the award website.

Voting will not close until March 2009, to give readers a chance to read, and vote upon, all the nominees. The top five novels will go forward to the Shortlist phase, with the winner decided by a panel of fantasy experts (to be announced on the website). The award trophy – a replica of Druss the Legend’s famous battleaxe, Snaga – will be presented in June 2009, at a ceremony in London. The organisers hope that the DGLA will soon become the most prestigious award for authors working within the genre fantasy field.

Keep an eye on the David Gemmell Legend Award website for further information. Or contact the Awards Administrator by email: Admin@GemmellAward.com

You can discuss this new award here on the BFS forums.