Michael Moorcock's Elric: The Balance Lost comes to life this May with sensational art by Francesco Biagini & written by Superman's Chris Roberson

Experience the all original Free Comic Book Day prequel this May & Elric: The Balance Lost #1 this July

Beginning this May, BOOM! Studios brings action, adventure and fantasy like never seen before with ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST! Featuring sensational art by Francesco Biagini (DINGO, DEAD RUN) and written by New York Times bestseller Chris Roberson (SUPERMAN, STAN LEE'S STARBORN), this Free Comic Book Day the most action-packed name in comics is ELRIC!

“After seeing Francesco's pages for ELRIC there is no doubt in my mind that Michael Moorcock's legendary Multiverse is in great hands,” says BOOM! Studios Editor-in-Chief Matt Gagnon. “Francesco takes any story he's working on and turns it into a kinetic thrill ride on every page. It's only fitting that one of sword and sorcery's greatest characters is in the hands of comics' brightest talents!”

“Comics and fantasy fans will be blown away when they feast their eyes on the Free Comic Book Day ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST prequel!” says BOOM! Studios Marketing Director Chip Mosher. “With a true visionary of the comic arts medium like Francesco Biagini lending his talents to the already fantastic story penned by white-hot talent Chris Roberson, ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST will be the Free Comic Book Day grab no comic fan should miss!”

Francesco Biagini joins New York Times bestselling scribe Chris Roberson(SUPERMAN, iZOMBIE, STAN LEE’S STARBORN) beginning this May in an all-new, all-original ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST FCBD EDITION that’s not simply a preview of the July series, but a prequel that will excite longtime Elric fans and serve as an accessible entry point for the curious who have never experienced Moorcock’s saga.

For 40 years, comic book fandom has thrilled to the exploits of Elric since his introduction in Marvel Comics' CONAN THE BARBARIAN in the early 1970s. Neil Gaiman called Elric’s creator Michael Moorcock “my model for what a writer was” while Warren Ellis said he is one of the “eight core sites in my creative genome.” Now the godfather of the Multiverse teams up with hot New York Times bestseller Chris Roberson (SUPERMAN, iZOMBIE, STAN LEE'S STARBORN) for an ongoing series that sees a crisis break out across multiple worlds with Moorcock's other two most famous fantasy franchise characters, Corum of the Scarlet Robe and Dorian Hawkmoon! The workings of Fate are being tampered across the Multiverse, upsetting the Cosmic Balance. Elric is on a quest to restore The Balance and save the Multiverse from ruin! Elric, Corum, and Hawkmoon are forced into action far and wide, but will they fight on the side of Law...or Chaos?

ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST FCBD EDITION ships this May for Free Comic Book Day, featuring an original prequel story by New York Times bestseller and SUPERMAN writer Chris Roberson with art by Francesco Biagini and cover art by Erik Jones that leads directly into the first issue of the new ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST this July.

About BOOM! Studios

Award-winning "Best Publisher" BOOM! Studios (http://www.boom-studios.com/) generates a constellation of bestselling comic books and graphic novels with the industry’s top talent, including Mark Waid series IRREDEEMABLE, Stan Lee's SOLDIER ZERO, THE TRAVELER, and STARBORN (the first new series in print from the industry icon in 20 years), new HELLRAISER comics written by Clive Barker as well as 20th Century Fox's PLANET OF THE APES, 28 DAYS LATER, and DIE HARD, Philip K. Dick's DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, and The Henson Company's FARSCAPE. BOOM!'s recently rebranded all-ages imprint, KABOOM! will see publication of PEANUTS, SPACE WARPED, Roger Langridge's SNARKED!, Scholastic's WORDGIRL and DUCKTALES, as well as continuing to publish fan-favorite Disney Afternoon series DARKWING DUCK, CHIP 'N' DALE RESCUE RANGERS along with Disney standards MICKEY MOUSE, DONALD DUCK, UNCLE SCROOGE, and WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES.

2010 Aurealis Awards nominees

The finalists for the 2010 Aurealis Awards, the annual award for the Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction, have been announced. The winners of the 2010 Aurealis Awards and the Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award for Excellence will be announced at the Aurealis Awards ceremony, sponsored by Harper Voyager, at The Independent Theatre, North Sydney on 21st May 2011.

Science Fiction Novel
“Song of Scarabaeous” by Sara Creasy (EOS Books)
“Mirror Space” by Marianne de Pierres (Orbit)
“Transformation Space” by Marianne de Pierres (Orbit)

Science Fiction Short Story
“The Heart of a Mouse” by K.J. Bishop (Subterranean Online, Winter 2010)
“The Angaelian Apocalypse” by Matthew Chrulew (The Company Articles Of Edward Teach/The Angaelian Apocalypse / Twelfth Planet Press)
“Border Crossing” by Penelope Love (Belong / Ticonderoga Publications)
“Interloper by Ian McHugh (Asimovs, Jan 2011)

“Relentless Adaptations” by Tansy Rayner Roberts (Sprawl / Twelfth Planet Press)

Fantasy Novel
“The Silence of Medair” by Andrea K Höst (self‐published)
“Death Most Definite” by Trent Jamieson (Orbit)
“Stormlord Rising” by Glenda Larke (HarperVoyager)
“Heart’s Blood” by Juliet Marillier (Pan Macmillan)
“Power and Majesty” by Tansy Rayner Roberts (HarperVoyager)

Fantasy Short Story
“The Duke of Vertumn’s Fingerling” by Elizabeth Carroll (Strange Horizons)
“Yowie” by Thoraiya Dyer (Sprawl / Twelfth Planet Press)
“The February Dragon” by LL Hannett & Angela Slatter (Scary Kisses / Ticonderoga Publications)
“All the Clowns in Clowntown” by Andrew McKiernan (Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears / Brimstone Press)

“Sister, Sister” by Angela Slatter (Strange Tales III / Tartarus Press)

Horror Novel
“After the World: Gravesend” by Jason Fischer (Black House Comics)
“Death Most Definite” by Trent Jamieson (Orbit)
“Madigan Mine” by Kirstyn McDermott (Pan Macmillan)

Horror Short Story
“Take the Free Tour” by Bob Franklin (Under Stones / Affirm Press)
“Her Gallant Needs” by Paul Haines (Sprawl / Twelfth Planet Press)
“The Fear” by Richard Harland (Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears /
Brimstone Press)
“Wasting Matilda” by Robert Hood (Zombie Apocalypse! / Constable & Robinson Ltd)

“Lollo” by Martin Livings (Close Encounters of the Urban Kind / Apex Publishing)

Best Anthology
“Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears” edited by Angela Challis & Dr Marty
Young (Brimstone Press)
“Sprawl” edited by Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press)
“Scenes from the Second Storey” edited by Amanda Pillar & Pete Kempshall (Morrigan Books)
“Godlike Machines” edited by Jonathan Strahan (SF Book Club)

“Wings of Fire” edited by Jonathan Strahan & Marianne S. Jablon (Night Shade Books)

Best Collection
“The Library of Forgotten Books” by Rjurik Davidson (PS Publishing)
“Under Stones” by Bob Franklin (Affirm Press)
“Sourdough and Other Stories” by Angela Slatter (Tartarus Press)
“The Girl With No Hands” by Angela Slatter (Ticonderoga Publications)
“Dead Sea Fruit” by Kaaron Warren (Ticonderoga Publications)

Best Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel
“Shakespeare's Hamlet” by Nicki Greenberg (Allen & Unwin)
“EEEK!: Weird Australian Tales of Suspense” by Jason Paulos et al (Black House Comics)
“Changing Ways Book 1” by Justin Randall (Gestalt Publishing)
“Five Wounds: An Illustrated Novel” by Jonathan Walker & Dan Hallett (Allen & Unwin)
“Horrors: Great Stories of Fear and Their Creators” by Rocky Wood & Glenn Chadbourne(McFarlane & Co.)

Young Adult Novel
“Merrow” by Ananda Braxton‐Smith (Black Dog Books)
“Guardian of the Dead” by Karen Healey (Allen & Unwin)
“The Midnight Zoo” by Sonya Hartnett (Penguin)
“The Life of a Teenage Body‐Snatcher” by Doug MacLeod (Penguin)
“Behemoth” (Leviathan Trilogy Book Two) by Scott Westerfeld (Penguin)

Young Adult Short Story
“Inksucker” by Aidan Doyle (Worlds Next Door / Fablecroft Publishing)
“One Story, No Refunds” by Dirk Flinthart (Shiny #6 / Twelfth Planet Press)
“A Thousand Flowers” by Margo Lanagan (Zombies Vs Unicorns / Allen & Unwin)
“Nine Times” by Kaia Landelius & Tansy Rayner Roberts (Worlds Next Door / Fablecroft
Publishing)

“An Ordinary Boy” by Jen White (The Tangled Bank / Tangled Bank Press)

Children’s Fiction (told primarily through pictures)
“Night School” by Isobelle Carmody (writer) & Anne Spudvilas (illustrator) (Penguin Viking)
“Magpie” by Luke Davies (writer) & Inari Kiuru (illustrator) (ABC Books)
“The Boy and the Toy” by Sonya Hartnett (writer) & Lucia Masciullo (illustrator) (Penguin Viking)
“Precious Little” by Julie Hunt & Sue Moss (writers) & Gaye Chapman (illustrator) (Allen &
Unwin)

“The Cloudchasers” by David Richardson (writer) & Steven Hunt (illustrator) (ABC Books)

Children’s Fiction (told primarily through words)
“Grimsdon” by Deborah Abela (Random House)
“Ranger's Apprentice #9: Halt's Peril” by John Flanagan (Random House)
“The Vulture of Sommerset” by Stephen M Giles (Pan Macmillan)
“The Keepers” by Lian Tanner (Allen & Unwin)
“Haggis MacGregor and the Night of the Skull” by Jen Storer & Gug Gordon, Aussie Nibbles(Penguin)

Congratulations and good luck to all the nominees!

A trilogy in my own way

The day when I started my blog seems like yesterday, but paradoxically, it also seems like a long time ago. There were three years with good and bad, but fortunately the downside was scarcely present and passed in the blink of an eye. The reading experience became richer, but I’ve also become more pretentious with the books I read. I know that through time I accumulated a certain number of debts, in reviewing and interviewing terms, but I can only hope that someday I will be able to pay them back. But enough with the past and let’s look a bit to the future. Writing and updating this blog remains a joy and I miss it when I am not able to do it. I am conscious that in the past few months my priorities and schedule shifted due to the most delightful of reasons and I am not able to maintain the same rhythm as in the past three years. Still, although in the near future Dark Wolf’s Fantasy Reviews might suffer a bit in consistency and schedule I will continue to put effort behind it, because it still brings me joy and fulfillment.

Therefore, if you bare with me I hope we will see each other again for the time being :)

Title spotlight - "The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2011" edited by Paula Guran

In the tradition of the anthologies gathering the best works of a particular genre for a certain period we’ve seen last year the appearance of the first collection of dark fantasy and horror edited by Paula Guran. “The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2010” edited by Paula Guran and released by Prime Books contained stories first published in 2009 and featured authors such as Ekaterina Sedia, Gary McMahon, Sarah Pinborough, Lucius Shepard, Peter Straub, Joe R. Lansdale, Ramsey Campbell, Catherynne M. Valente and Margo Lanagan just to name a few. This year, “The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror” features stories published in 2010 and as we can see in the line-up of the collection Paula Guran’s selection looks as powerful and appetizing as that of the previous year. “The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2011” will be released by Prime Books on August.

- “How Bria Died” by Michael Aronovitz (Weird Tales #356)
- “Frumpy Little Beat Girl” by Peter Atkins (Rolling Darkness Revue 2010)
- “The Broadsword” by Laird Barron (Black Wings)
- “Thimbleriggery and Fledglings” by Steve Berman (The Beastly Bride)
- “The Dog King” by Holly Black (The Poison Eaters and Other Stories)
- “Tragic Life Stories” by Steve Duffy (Tragic Life Stories)
- “The Thing About Cassandra” by Neil Gaiman (Songs Of Love And Death, Tales Of Star-Crossed Love)
- “He Said, Laughing” by Simon R. Green (Living Dead 2)
- “Hurt Me” by M.L.N. Hanover (Songs Of Love And Death, Tales Of Star-Crossed Love)
- “Oaks Park” by M.K. Hobson (Haunted Legends)
- “Crawlspace” by Stephen Graham Jones (The Ones That Got Away)
- “Red as Red” by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Haunted Legends)
- “Mother Urban's Booke of Dayes” by Jay Lake (Dark Faith)
- “A Thousand Flowers” by Margo Lanagan (Zombies vs. Unicorns)
- “Are You Trying To Tell Me This Is Heaven?” by Sarah Langan (Living Dead 2)
- “The Stars Are Falling” by Joe R. Lansdale (Stories)
- “Sea Warg” by Tanith Lee (Full Moon City)
- “The Mystery Knight” by George R.R. Martin (Warriors)
- “The Naturalist” by Maureen McHugh (Subterranean Magazine, Spring 2010)
- “Raise Your Hand If You're Dead” by John Shirley (Dark Discoveries #17)
- “Lesser Demons” by Norman Partridge (Black Wings/Lesser Demons)
- “Parallel Lines” by Tim Powers (Stories)
- “The Moon Will Look Strange” by Lynda E. Rucker (Black Static #16)
- “You Dream” by Ekaterina Sedia (Dark Faith)
- “Red Blues” by Michael Skeet (Evolve)
- “Brisneyland by Night” by Angela Slatter (Sprawl)
- “Malleus, Incus, Stapes” by Sarah Totton (Fantasy Magazine, 20 December 2010)
- “The Return” by S.D. Tullis (Null Immortalis)
- “The Dire Wolf” by Genevieve Valentine (Running With the Pack)
- “The Things” by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, January 2010)
- “Bloodsport” by Gene Wolfe (Swords & Dark Magic)

In the mailbox

Two new books arrived this week in my mailbox, one a new collaboration between Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert and a new novel by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. I have to admit that “Hellhole” sounds really interesting and I am very curious about it. On the other hand, “An Embarrassment of Riches” is the 24th novel in the author’s “Saint Germain” series, but I am not sure about it. It is true that my previous experience with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, “Beastnights”, was a very pleasant one, but here the vampire theme is not exactly appealing. Therefore I am not yet entirely sure if I pick the novel for a reading soon.

- "Hellhole" by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert (through the courtesy of Tor Books);

Only the most desperate colonists dare to make a new home on Hellhole. Reeling from a recent asteroid impact, tortured with horrific storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and churning volcanic eruptions, the planet is a dumping ground for undesirables, misfits, and charlatans…but also a haven for dreamers and independent pioneers.

Against all odds, an exiled general named Adolphus has turned Hellhole into a place of real opportunity for the desperate colonists who call the planet their home. While the colonists are hard at work developing the planet, General Adolphus secretly builds alliances with the leaders of the other Deep Zone worlds, forming a clandestine coalition against the tyrannical, fossilized government responsible for their exile.

What no one knows is this: the planet Hellhole, though damaged and volatile, hides an amazing secret. Deep beneath its surface lies the remnants of an obliterated alien civilization and the buried memories of its unrecorded past that, when unearthed, could tear the galaxy apart.

- "An Embarrassment of Riches" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (through the courtesy of Tor Books).

More than two decades strong, the Saint-Germain cycle is one of the most compelling works of dark fantasy and horror of our age. Historically accurate, often involving key events or figures from throughout world history, these deeply emotional novels have a devoted readership. Each novel is written as a stand-alone and they are not chronologically consecutive, so readers may enter the saga with any book and move backward or forward in time as they choose, from Pharaonic Egypt to Paris in the 1700s, from the fall of the Roman Empire to World War II Europe.

In An Embarrassment of Riches, the vampire Count finds himself a virtual prisoner in the Court of Kunigunde in Bohemia in the 1200s. Rakoczy Ferncsi, as Saint-Germain is known, passes his days making jewels to delight Queen Kunigunde and trying not to become involved in the Court's intrigues. In this, the vampire fails. Handsome, apparently wealthy, and obviously unmarried, he soon finds himself being sexually blackmailed by Rozsa, an ambitious lady-in-waiting. If he does not satisfy her, she will denounce him to the priests and he'll be burned at the stake, resulting in his True Death. Despite his care, the vampire makes more than one enemy at the Bohemian Court, and by the end of An Embarrassment of Riches, the Count can see only one road to freedom...through death.

Thank you very much!

Cover art - "Die Tore zur Unterwelt" (Tome of the Undergates) by Sam Sykes

I cannot say too much about the cover artwork of Sam Sykes’ debut novel, “Tome of the Undergates”, featured on both UK and US editions, because I am not a fan of it. But looking over the German cover artwork for the same novel I cannot ask myself what went wrong. It is true that the cover of the German edition of Sam Sykes’ “Tome of the Undergates” (Die Tore zur Unterwelt), due to be released in April by Penhaligon an imprint of German Random House, features yet another hooded figure, but on the overall it looks far more better than the UK and US cover artwork. At least for me. The scene overlooked by the character is interesting enough and the color scheme is truly appealing. It is definitely the winner of the comparison. I believe that the German cover was made through the Hilden Design agency, by the artist Isabelle Hirtz.

"Temple of the Serpent" by C.L. Werner

"Temple of the Serpent"

by C.L. Werner

Format: Paperback, 416 pages

Publisher: The Black Library

Review copy received through the courtesy of the publisher, The Black Library

After a series of failures, Grey Seer Thanquol is offered a chance to redeem himself by going to the island of Lustria to kill the Prophet of Sotek. Dogged by assassins and stranded in a foreign land of giant lizards, temple cities and endless jungle, Thanquol must use all of his cunning and magic if he is to come out alive.

Last year, among my readings I discovered a character of repulsive nature, but that proved in the end to be surprising and a fun encounter. That character was Grey Seer Thanquol and after my initial meeting with him I was quite pleased to find him again in another novel, C.L. Werner’s “Temple of the Serpent”.

As was the case with the first novel featuring Thanquol, “Grey Seer”, where C.L. Werner deals with one of the least present races of the immense Warhammer universe, this time we can explore one of the least visited locations, Lustria. At least for me since I am not familiar with another Warhammer novel set on the island of Lustria. The reader discovers a luxuriant setting inhabited by the lizardmen, exploring dense jungles, hidden cities and vast pyramids. Lustria looks very much like a reflection of a Mesoamerican culture on the Warhammer universe, boosting one of its races with elements of the said culture such as topography, architecture, science or mythology. There are benefits aplenty from this mix, the reader running into plenty of occasions in which the locations inflict a claustrophobic and discomforting sentiment upon the characters, bringing more danger to the adventure and transforming it into an even more savory one.

I opened “Temple of the Serpent” with the hope of meeting again Grey Seer Thanquol and my expectations were not only fulfilled, but also surpassed. Because, once again, C.L. Werner gives voice to a disagreeable presence with great mastery, changing the skaven character if not into a pleasant one (that is still hard to do considering Thanquol’s nature), at least into a more tolerable one. “Temple of the Serpent” offers plenty of plots, twists and politics in the unmistakable style of the skaven race. The constant bickering between the members of the same expedition, the ever-present paranoia of Thanquol, his scheming and dreams of grandeur are the core of the adventure. All these and a few more elements set the story into motion, bringing a few twists and turns along the way and also plenty of hilarious situations and humorous thoughts from the part of Thanquol that make “Temple of the Serpent” an even more entertaining novel.

C.L. Werner’s “Temple of the Serpent” is fast paced and moves quickly, without downfalls in the rhythm. Plenty of action awaits the reader within the pages, fighting scenes, zombie pirates, dark corridors and giant snakes, all for the pleasure of that reader. However, like in the first “Thanquol & Boneripper” novel, the human characters do not rise to the same level as the rest of the cast and the story. The entire human cast seems rather flat, driven by a single purpose, pinpointed from the beginning of the story for each of them and without any element that will give them a strong presence. Most of the time I felt that they were a crutch for Thanquol and the skaven group to use at the times of need and nothing more.

There are characters that become legend and given the time and space needed Thanquol can turn into one in his own way. Luckily, we will get a chance to follow Thanquol in another adventure with a new novel, but I am not sure if that is not the last one considering its title, “Thanquol’s Doom”. Anyway, whatever Thanquol’s fate might be I am looking forward to the next novel, because as was also the case with “Grey Seer”, C.L. Werner delivers an extremely fast and fun story with “Temple of the Serpent”.