Green Man Review

Don’t be scared. All of this is new to you, and new can be scary. Now we all want answers. Stick with me — you might get some. — She Who is The Thirteenth Doctor

Spring isn’t that far away with lambing season upon us, a sign of the coming warmth always, but you wouldn’t know it right now as we’re going a major clusterfuck of a snow storm starting yesterday and expected to be here ’til tomorrow. It’s kept the staff of Gus, our Estate Head Gardener and Groundskeeper, up around the clock. My Several Annies, the Library Apprentices, are off helping him out by watching the soon to give birth ewes. So I’m putting this Edition together by myself.

We’re avid fans of The Doctor here, and the Thirteenth incarnation has quite pleased nearly everyone saved reactionary fanboys, many of whom frankly hate the entire rebooted Who. Denise reviewed Her first season thisway and even looked several of Her figures including the Funko Rock Candy one. And Cat has a spoiler filled review of a Thirteenth Doctor episode that’s as much about the nature of spoilers as it is about that episode. So let’s get started. Oh and Warner looks at Doctor Who fanfic by an earlier Companion as well.

A novel set in post-Katrina New Orleans  by Tim Lebbon & Christopher Golden is definitely rated adult by Richard: ‘Readers who come to The Map of Moments looking for something similar to Mind the Gap are in for a rude shock. Where the first novel of the Hidden Cities was essentially YA, The Map of Moments is steeped in sex and death, a whirlwind ride through centuries of secret history marked by murder, cannibalism, and lust.’

Robert takes us into the adventures of a very unusual detective agency: ‘Daemon Eyes is an omnibus edition of Camille Bacon-Smith’s two novels of the half-demon Evan Davis; his father, known to mortals as Kevin Bradley; and Lily Ryan, another demon. The three set themselves up as detectives, doing business as Bradley, Ryan and Davis, specializing in cases that are, shall we say, something out of the ordinary. In addition to the two novels, this edition includes a prologue that fills in Evan’s history (which is very helpful).’

Warner has a sort of fanfic for us: ‘There is a long history in the Doctor Who franchise of actors taking on writing credits. Colin Baker, Mathew Watterhouse, Nicholas Briggs, Tom Baker, and others have written or co-written adventures featuring their characters. Sophie Aldred has (with the assistance of Steve Cole and Mike Tucker) joined this company with At Childhood’s End, a tale of her screen character Ace long after her adventures in the TARDIS have ended and she has instead taken to running A Charitable Earth. Starting as the story of a former companion still investigating, the book becomes an examination of coming to grips with the past.’

Next up is something a bit more toothy. (Sorry I couldn’t resist.) He says: ‘Carrie Vaugh has been writing urban fantasy for many years, and her Kitty Norville series is only one example of her work. It is a series focusing on a werewolf, and like many werewolf stories, vampires come into play. Feeling a bit like a side step away from the main narrative, and indeed barely dealing with Kitty or her other friends, The Immortal Conquistador deals with a particular vampire from the series.‘

You know that there are lots of cool and unusual flavors of KitKats out there, don’t you? Well, if that’s news to you, let Denise start you on the road to knowledge with her review of Nestlé’s Kumamon Ikinari Dango KitKat. Though you may want to use her review as a way to discover other flavors… ‘I’d seen their delicious Matcha flavor…but missed out by not picking them up immediately. So here we are, with Dango “flavored” candies as a consolation prize. And to quote an old meme, I am disappoint.’ 

Cat brings us his thoughts on another Dr. Who episode, “Fugitive of The Judoon” — but he starts with a warning: ‘Understand right now that if you really, really don’t like spoilers and you’ve not watched this episode, that you should go away now and do something else as this review consists of nothing really but spoilers. I’m serious — just go away.’

April was not quite so enthusiastic about the eighth volume of Fables: ‘Wolves, the eighth installment of Bill Willingham’s long-running series of fairy tale characters alive and well in our world (and at war with a fierce Adversary) finds Mowgli of Jungle Book fame still hunting down the Big Bad Wolf on behalf of Prince Charming, embattled mayor of Fabletown. Mowgli’s travels take him to Russia, then back across the Bering Strait to Alaska. We get to see him show off his buff body, unarmed combat skills and preternaturally keen tracking skills. To Bigby’s dismay, he’s found all too easily (by his standards), and made a offer: perform a task for Prince Charming and a way will be found for Bigby to live with Snow White and their cubs on the outskirts of the Farm.’

We lost another great one as Scott notes: ‘In the fall of 2017, South African singer Johnny Clegg released what he knew would be his last album.  Clegg had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and while he’d already managed to complete a world tour after getting the diagnosis, the disease was winning.  King of Time is appropriately titled.  The album is very short — it has seven songs spanning 24 minutes — but Clegg was a busy man trying to get as much done in whatever time he had left.’

Gary says up of Quake, a  sort of trad Nordic recording from Den Fule that: ‘When I was trying to find something that my good friend, a Breton girl of 22 who loves nu-metal music, would like, I pulled out Den Fule. Her assessment: “That’s really fun, kinda’ like Irish music, but it rocks.” This accomplishes in ten words what will take me at least 300 to re-iterate.’

Joselle doesn’t like this time of year but a recording called An Ancient Muse cheered her up: ‘Normally, I can’t stand winter. It’s cold, it’s dismal, and I tend to get sick a lot. Nonetheless, winter 2006 has made me one happy woman, in spite of the general nastiness. This is largely thanks to an event that I and several other folk/Celtic/world/eclectic music fans have been anticipating for nine years?’

The self-named recording  that turned out to be the only recording by a Scottish group caught the ear of Naomi: ‘The sound of the CD really does reflect this large cast of musicians, revealing a broad spectrum of styles and influences with forays into country and pop music. However, the overall feel of this recording is remarkably unified and thoroughly Scottish at its core, although the members of Cantychiels clearly have the knack for injecting a pleasant modern sensibility into their music. Fans of early ’80s Clannad will not be disappointed with this CD.’

Richard wraps up our music reviews with high praise for a Maddy Prior album; ‘Flesh & Blood is one of the finest CDs I’ve heard in years. Prior’s voice, always angelic, has never sounded better; and, with the able help of Nick Holland and Troy Donockley, she has picked material that does her vocal talents justice. Indeed, the collection is so captivating that I’ve had to take it out of my work rotation; after all, I don’t get paid to stand around and gawk dreamily to music.’

As some gear up for the annual football prom that is the Super Bowl, many of us here settle in to enjoy the commercials. One that’s gotten some advance notice is from Planters, who have decided to kill of their beloved mascot Mr. Peanut after 104 years of nutty service. (Gotta admit there were giggles when Michael Che did a “CREAM-ated” bit on the January 25th SNL.) But then Kobe Bryant, his young daughter, and seven other individuals died in a horrific plane crash…and death as marketing just isn’t feeling great right now. Planters is even pulling the social media hype for the commercial, though it may still play during the game as those spots cost companies millions and I’m guessing Planters doesn’t want to eat that loss.

Killing Mr. Peanut was a rather morbid stunt from the jump –  even though it’s sure to be a temporary thing –  and now it feels tacky too. Mr. Peanut dying in a fiery crash in one ad, then another for his funeral? It’s certainly bound to put an uncomfortable moment in this Sunday’s festivities. Cashew, anyone?

So let’s have some music from what I consider the best electrified folk band ever that Great Britain gave birth to, Steeleye Span. Over forty years of live performances have produced a lot of excellent soundboard recordings. so let’s  start off with a perennial favourite of fans: ‘Tam Lin’ as performed at Fairport Convention’s Cropredy Festival, August of 2006, before finishing with  ‘Long Lankin’ from the same festival. Lovely, isn’t it?

All that anxiety and anger, those dubious good intentions, those tangled lives, that blood. I can tell about it or I can bury it. In the end, we’ll all become stories. Or else we’ll become entities. Maybe it’s the same.  — Margaret Atwood’s Moral Disorder

Ahh, that coffee. Yes, it’s cardamom spiced, which I admit that you Yanks most likely haven’t encountered. The Kitchen staff here’s been making it for those of us addicted to it since, oh, I think Alexandra Margaret Quinn was Head Gardener here, and I usually drink it every day. Ours is Turkish in origin. Well, Ottoman really. Nibbles to go with it, of course, are good. I favour freshly baked chocolate rugelach which Kitchen staffer Rebekah from Israel gave us.

We like chocolate a lot here, as you can tell from our reviews of many things chocolate, and we’re always pleased to see a new way of appreciating it, but even I was surprised by the amazingly good dessert Mrs. Ware and her Kitchen staff served up this past eventide meal: dark chocolate bread pudding with cardamon flavored ice cream! Sounds weird but actually tasted great!

Now  I suggest we  had down to the Kitchen as there’s Toll House cookies right out of the oven being offered up with eggnog per the recipe of Jennifer, one of our Winter Queens offered up once upon a Winter evening.

Robert here. In honor of Mike Resnick, one of the most awarded authors in the field of speculative fiction, who passed away on January 9, 2020, this week’s book section is devoted to reviews of several of his works.

If I remember correctly, the first of Resnick’s novels that I read was Santiago. Just to give you a taste of this one, here’s the opening: ‘They say his father was a comet and his mother a cosmic wind, that he juggles planets as if they were feathers and wrestles with black holes just to work up an appetite. They say he never sleeps, and that his eyes burn brighter than a nova, and that his shout can level mountains.’ It gets better.

Resnick’s imagination was — well, rich, I guess, is the best way to describe it. He wrote several novels set in the ‘Weird West,’ an American West, peopled by characters who are part of our folklore, with a distinct twist. Cat got dibs on the first in the series: ‘Though billed as steampunk, The Buntline Special: A Weird West Tale is far more original than most of that genre, as it is tightly focused on a small set of characters and what they will do over a fairly short period of time, so the technology never overwhelms the characters in this tale.’

The first of this series that I ran across was The Doctor and the Kid: ‘Mike Resnick’s The Doctor and the Kid is an installment in his stories of the Weird West — an alternate universe in which the westward expansion of the United States has been halted at the Mississippi River by the magic of Indian medicine men. That doesn’t stop a few intrepid souls from making the journey to what would become the American West.’ I liked the series enough that I went to on read The Doctor and the Rough Rider and The Doctor and the Dinosaurs.

Resnick wasn’t finished with alternate history. Faith got to read and comment on The Other Teddy Roosevelts: ‘There are seven stories in the collection, all plausible (well, maybe except for the vampire and the extraterrestrials in Cuba), all nicely-researched to make them fit in with documented events in Roosevelt’s life, all fascinating. The eighth piece, “The Unsinkable Teddy Roosevelt,” consists of facts and anecdotes about Roosevelt.’

And yet again — Denise dove into Dragon America and emerged smiling: ‘I’d bet that early colonists were surprised, even frightened, by some of the strange new creatures America had to offer. But I’m sure nothing surprised them more than seeing dragons soaring overhead. Wait, you never heard about the dragons? Looks like schools just don’t seem to teach anything really important nowadays. Or maybe that’s because dragons don’t exist in the history we know. But what if they did? Well, they’d probably be pretty close to what Mike Resnick describes in Dragon America.’

Next in my adventures in the protean Mike Resnick was his series about John Justin Mallory, who — well, this, from my review of Stalking the Unicorn and Stalking the Vampire, should explain it: ‘“Protean” I say, because now Pyr has issued two of Resnick’s entries into the “fantasy noir detective” subgenre, tales of John Justin Mallory, a private investigator in a Manhattan that parallels our own and sometimes intrudes. Unless we’re intruding on it.’ And after that, of course, I had to go on to Stalking the Zombie.

Michael also had a go at the first volume in this series: ‘It’s supernatural investigation with a surreal twist, filled with sly humor, comic undertones, and pulp sensibilities. In short, it’s as though Ross MacDonald and Monty Python had gotten drunk with Lewis Carroll, and written a book together. Stalking the Unicorn is clever and funny, and one of those books I return to every so often just for the satisfaction of a familiar, well-told semi-urban fantasy.

Kilimanjaro could be considered a departure for Resnick, had he not already demonstrated a phenomenal range in his work. It’s a hard book to describe, so let me just give you this summation: ‘Kilimanjaro is a gentle book with a hopeful attitude and a somewhat dated moral, deeply concerned with good people in conflict for the best of reasons. For some readers, that may be enough, or it may be nothing at all.’

Dreamwish Beasts and Snarks is a collection of stories that, once again, is hard to describe, although there is a unifying theme: ‘The overriding metaphor of this collection is “on safari.” Take that in the widest sense: although there are a couple of stories that do deal directly with safaris (“Hunting the Snark” and “Safari 2103 A.D.”), the stories are about the hunt in a much wider sense.’

Resnick didn’t limit himself to fiction, as evidenced by a collaboration with Barry N. Malzberg. Faith lays it out for us: ‘The Business of $cience Fiction: Two Insiders Discuss Writing and Publishing is a collection of essays from “The Resnick/Malzberg Dialogues,” a regular feature of the SFWA Bulletin. (The SFWA is the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.) It’s another excellent example of WYSIWYG in the area of titles, because this is exactly what you get, a discussion of the business of writing and publishing science fiction by two experts in the field, for other authors and would-be authors.’

Another example of Resnick’s forays into non-fiction is a collection of WorldCon Guest of Honor Speeches, co-edited with Joe Siclari. Kellly got to wade through this one: ‘The World Science Fiction Convention is the most venerable of all the various annual gatherings of SF fandom, and it’s arguably the most important of them all, as it is at each Worldcon that the highest awards in SF, the Hugos, are awarded. Since the first Worldcon in 1939, there have been 66 such gatherings, with the only non-Worldcon years coming during the final three years of World War II. At each Worldcon there has been a Guest of Honor, usually selected on the basis of lifetime achievement in contributions to the genre; much of the time the Guests of Honor are authors, but there have also been illustrators, publishers, and editors named as Guest of Honor. The position of Worldcon Guest of Honor carries with it a single requirement: the recipient must deliver a speech to the convention. This book, therefore, gathers more than thirty of these speeches.’

That’s just the tip of the iceberg that is the work of Mike Resnick. As you may have gathered, he’s worth looking into if you haven’t already.

And now, back to Reynard for the rest of this week’s edition.

Welcome welcome!  Denise here, and I’ve got a beer for you that’ll warm up a cold January night. Oliver Brewing Co.’s Creator Destroyer is a lovely espresso brown ale, with lots of twists and turns. ‘As the name suggests, this brew is a mix of contradictions. Sweet nose, peppery bite. Smooth pour, saucy bubbles.’ Ah, but what did I really think? Read the review to find out all the info!

Cat looks at Doctor Who’s The Unicorn and The Wasp episode, a Tenth Doctor Story: ‘One of my favourite episodes of the newer episodes of this series was a country house mystery featuring a number of murders and, to add an aspect of metanarrative to the story, writer Agatha Christie at the beginning of her career. It would riff off her disappearance for ten days which occurred just after she found her husband in bed with another woman. Her disappearance is a mystery that has never been satisfactorily answered to this day.’

April has a look at the next two collections in Bill Willingham’s Fables: ‘Bill Willingham’s wonderfully developed series about fairy tales living among us today extends two more volumes with Homelands and Arabian Nights (And Days).’ Dive in and enjoy.

Barb exclaims that ‘If there are superstars to be named on the Swedish music scene, I would like this opportunity to nominate Lena Willemark (vocal, fiddle, viola, whistle, drone whistle), Per Gudmundson (fiddle, viola, bagpipes, vocal), and Ale Möller (octave mandola, overtone flute, cow’s horn, drone whistle, folk harp, shawm, harmonica, vocal), otherwise known as Frifot. The group’s CD Sluring is most certainly a masterpiece.’

The intersection of Finnish and Balkan folk music for women’s voices is where Gary found Finn Emmi Kujanpää’s new recording Nani. ‘On this project, Kujanpää combines her strong, clear soprano with voices of the Bulgarian group on songs that address women’s lives – their joys and longing and sorrows, as well as what are now known worldwide as #MeTo topics.’

Jayme says that ‘Clannad is quickly becoming one of the most compiled bands in Celtic music. Already boasting two “Best Of” collections and a soundtrack collections, Clannad now adds An Diolaim to the list. Fortunately, An Diolaim isn’t just another opportunistic knock-off, for it repackages the majority of songs from Clannad’s hard-to-find second and third albums, Clannad 2 and Dulaman, respectively

A number of years into their career Lunasa got a best of treatment in The Story So Far of which Robert says ‘It’s easy to be enthusiastic about this collection. Yes, there is solid tradition here, from the haunting, intricate pipes that begin “Eanáir” to the intense fiddling that opens “The Floating Crowbar,” but there is a lot of contemporary sensibility that leads new places, not so much a matter of “hey, look, we’re being modern” as an integral part of the approach – guitar passages that could have come from R.E.M. (“Morning Nightcap”), a hint of Fauré by way of new age, perhaps (“The Miller of Drohan”), a bit of a jazz riff from time to time, never obtrusive, never really calling attention to itself, but undeniably there.’

For this week’s What Not, Robert takes on a tour Inside Ancient Egypt, courtesy of the Field Museum of Natural History.

In Roger Zelazny’s Isle of Dead, there’s a character frozen at the edge of death who has no heartbeat but instead always has music playing as a sort of substitute for the silence in his chest. If you visit me in the Estate Library, you’ll always find something playing and recently I’ve been listening to a lot of music by a Scottish neo-trad band called The Iron Horse who were active starting some thirty years ago. I’ve got two cuts from them performing live at the Gosport Easter Festival early in their existence,  ‘The 8-Step Waltz’ and ‘The Sleeping Warrior’.

Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not today. Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair, and the Doctor comes to call… everybody lives. — River Song in the Eleventh Doctor story,  “Forest of the Dead”

I think Our Library is at its very finest in the deep of Winter.  Yes, I’m the Librarian ‘ere so I like it all the time, but it somehow seems warmer, more friendly now. The travelers that visit us now tend to be readers who enjoy spending many hours in the warm comfort of the Library, with either a old favourite book or a soon to be favourite book. I overheard two readers discussing Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer’s novel which is an expansion of her ‘Cat Pictures Please’ which won a Hugo Award for Best Short Story.  It’s now in my To Be Read pile after hearing their conversation.

Now I’m off to the Kitchen to see if I can snag a large mug of hot cocoa and one of those oversized chocolate chip brownies, as you Yanks call them. Yes I’ve the jones for chocolate, and may  I suggest the Toll House cookies also, which are right out of the oven, being served with eggnog per the recipe that Jennifer, one of our Winter Queens, offered up once upon a Winter evening, and will bee perfect for you as well this afternoon?

Cat leads us off with an alternative history novel, The Peshawar Lancers, where the British Empire decamps to India: ‘The much more Indian than English culture is a brilliant re-visioning of British history that reads like vintage Poul Anderson, particularly his Dominic Flandry series. It features rugged heroes — male and female — vivid combat scenes, exotic locales, and truly evil villains. Hell, it even has Babbage machines, the great analytical engines that Sir Charles Babbage never built but which also play an important role in William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s The Difference Engine.’

Mia looks at a Charles de Lint novel: ‘Seven Wild Sisters advertises itself as a modern fairy tale. Including the seven sisters, it certainly has all the trappings: an old woman who may be a witch, an enchanted forest, a stolen princess. But Sisters is not just borrowing the clothes of fairy tale. It sings with the true voice of fairy tale: capricious, wild, and not entirely safe, but rich and enchanting.’ If you’ve read The Wood Wife by Terri Windling, you’ll get a treat as you’ll spot de Lints authorised use of a setting from there.

Robert brings us two companion volumes to two series by Gene Wolfe, Michael Andre-Driussi’s Lexicon Urthus: A Dictionary of the Urth Cycle and The Wizard Knight Companion: A Lexicon for Gene Wolfe’s The Knight and The Wizard: ‘Together, these two volumes, the product of dedication, if not downright obsession, are, I think, valuable tools for the Wolfe scholar (yes, there truly are Wolfe scholars) and, what’s even better, fun to read in their own right.’

Warner has a great SF collection for us to considered reading: ‘Gideon Marcus’ collection Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women (1958-1963) represents a narrow slice of writing from a historically marginalized group within the genre. Featuring stories by both forgotten and known authors, this volume plumbed the depths of old magazines to find women’s stories and present them to the reader.’

Kathleen and her sister Kage wrote up the matter of Two Fat Ladies whose DVD series documented that they were brilliant English cooks who rode a motorcycle with a sidecar, drank excessively, smoked and cooked using bloody great hunks of meat, butter and anything else that isn’t good for you. And funny as all Hell as well. Which the review is as well. Like so many similar English series, there is a companion book which we’ll get around to reviewing someday.

Robert has a second look at the second volume in an anime series: ‘I’m not sure why, but I remember The Devil’s Trill, the second chapter in the story of Asato Tsuzuki, his partner Hisoka Kurasaki, and the doings of the Summons Section of the Ministry of Hades, as being my least favorite segment of the season. It was a good idea to take a second look.’

April continues our trek through Bill Willingham’s Fables series, starting with a volume that Robert reviewed last week: ‘These three volumes continue Bill Willingham’s fascinating tale of fairy tale denizens exiled to our own world, a story he began spinning with Legends in Exile and Animal Farm. Spanning issues 11-33 (albeit slightly out of order), these volumes provide further character development and some intriguing plot advancement, as The Adversary extends his reach far and wide to destroy those who escaped him.’

Gary reports back on Songs from Auleja, Latvian music by a women’s vocal group, Tautumeitas, whose name means folk maidens. ‘Their focus is the musical tradition of Auleja, a village in the eastern region of Latgale, which has a rich folk tradition, particularly in multipart singing of graceful, melodic song.’

Gary also reviews The Filter Bubble Blues by David Dondero: ‘The unjustly obscure blue-collar troubador who was once rated as one of the “best living songwriters” by NPR’s All Songs Considered, has made a good old-fashioned album of political folk songs to greet 2020.’

Hedningarna’s Karelia Visa gets this comment from Kim: ‘It’s an odd thing — one of the words which keeps coming to mind when I listen to this CD is “evocative.” But that raises the question, what exactly does it evoke? And I can’t really give you an answer, as I am not of Nordic origin and have never visited the area. So, it is indeed an interesting phenomenon to listen to a CD of a Swedish band travelling to the now-Russian province of Karelia, collecting the songs from that region to include on this recording, and to find it both exotic and evocative at the same time. Ah, the mysteries of music…’

Scott has more Latvian music for us: ‘Kitka are an all-female vocal ensemble from the the San Francisco Bay area that started in 1979.  While members have come and gone over the ensuing forty years, Kitka remain firmly committed to promoting and celebrating the rich and diverse musical traditions of Eastern Europe and the women who shaped many of these traditions with their voices. This past year, Kitka decided to revisit the musical themes they explored on Wintersongs with a new CD called Evening Star. Both albums are worth a close look, not simply to assess the quality of the music but to see how Kitka have evolved over time.’

Our What Not is our perennial question: ‘What’s your favourite Tolkien?’ Catherynne picked The Silmarillion: ‘I love The Lord of the Rings. I was once a hardcore Sindarin-speaking LoTR geek, in the days of my misbegotten youth. It is a vast and important book. But I have to say that I feel the book is incomplete without The Silmarillion, which provides a depth and mythology, an understanding of the forces at work, a breadth and beauty that LoTR does not have on its own. I am one of the few who loves The Silmarillion for itself, devoured it in one sitting, had no trouble with the archaic language. It should get more love than it does.’

Our music this time is ‘Out in the Ocean (Jig and Reel)’ from Rambling House, one of the bands founded by Brisbane based Paul Brandon, author of two very excellent novels, Swim the Moon and The Wide Reel.

Let the fairy tale begin on a winter’s morning, then, with one drop of blood newly-fallen on the ivory snow: a drop as bright as a clear-cut ruby, red as a single spot of claret on the lace cuff. ― Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint

It snowed three feet in the past week here which means that no one, and I mean no one is coming or going from from this Estate. Fortunately we’ve but a handful of guests and all assure us that they have nowhere that they need be. It allows for just enough visitors to make it just a bit more lively here without being annoying.

We’ll likely be this way for at least a fortnight, so we do a few impromptu special things like a pouring of a reserve cider from my private Pub stock,  and assisting the Kitchen staff in baking sweet treats. Don’t laugh — it’s a great honour here to be allowed to be part of the Kitchen community! Rugelach made perfect is a hard thing to do right…

We’ve got Good Stuff for you including a look by Robert at all of Ellen Kushner’s Riverside works, two covers of Jesse Colin Young‘s ‘Darkness, Darkness’, some recipes to tempt you and…

Ellen Kushner came up with one of the most captivating fantasy series in the history of the genre — at least, that’s Robert’s humble opinion. As he says in his opening remarks on Swordspoint: ‘Every once in a while, being a reviewer offers a special perk, whether it’s a new book by a favorite author, a new find who stands head and shoulders above the crowd, or the chance to take another look at an old favorite. So, when the Chief asked for a fresh look at Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint, I was more than happy to agree. Call it “mannerpunk,” call it “fantasy,” call it what you will, it is still one of the best examples of speculative fiction I’ve ever read.’

Vonnie was equally enchanted by the audiobook: ‘A fantasy novel without overt fantasy elements, Swordspoint was written and now is narrated by Ellen Kushner, with some scenes dramatized by Dion Graham, Katherine Kellgren, Robert Fass, Nick Sullivan, and Simon Jones. It is a witty book, and an engaging audiobook. . . .’

The next episode in the story of Riverside is, indeed, history, or at least, the discovery of the history, as told by Kushner and Delia Sherman: ‘The Fall of the Kings is set sixty years after the events in the first novel, and with Delia Sherman as collaborator Kushner has broadened and enriched the context and created a story that still rings with the bustle of a vibrant city and adds an element of darker, more mysterious past to a time bathed in reason.’

Robert was equally impressed with a sequel: ‘If Swordspoint is a perfect gem, The Privilege of the Sword is the gem in its full setting: elegant, wicked, funny, intelligent, and fluent. There is, as is so often the case with truly good books, much more to this one than I can possibly discuss here.’

Next up for Robert was a novella in the series: ‘Ellen Kushner, in the tradition of writers of fantastic literature everywhere, has built an amazingly detailed and appealing universe in her series of novels and stories about the nameless City that contains Riverside and the Hill and those who inhabit it. The Man With the Knives takes us out of the City for a tale that takes place between The Privilege of the Sword and “The Death of the Duke.”

The final offering in the series — so far — is a multi-author collection: ‘Tremontaine is the latest foray into the world of Swordspoint, but it is not, as I had at first supposed, a collection of stories. It is, rather, an ongoing narrative with chapters by a group of writers, most of whom are new to me. . . . One thing that deserves mention, given the number of people working on this story, is the stylistic consistency: if there are differences in style or diction, they are so subtle as to escape notice.’

Cat ran across an omnibus in the form of an audiobook, including Swordspoint and more: ‘I discovered on Audible that it was the start of forty-five hours of listening pleasure called The Swords of Riverside, which also contains, if anything so mundane can contain such superb novels, The Privilege of the Sword and The Fall of the Kings.’

There — that should keep you occupied on those long winter evenings.

In keeping with our book reviews this edition, Ellen Kushner has published a group of recipes that are more or less inspired by the Riverside novels.  She notes:  “On this page, you’ll find everything from recipes and menus created by fans of the series to delight the Mad Duke Tremontaine and his Riverside friends, to ones created by friends of the author to keep her at her desk.”  You can find them all here.

David looks at the The Three Musketeers  and The Four Musketeers, both directed by Richard Lester: ‘The two films stand on their own merits individually but also form a wonderful whole when viewed together. The characters develop from the first to the second film. The relationships grow convincingly, and the action never lets up. There is sex, romance, and true love. There is action, and wit, and slapstick comedy. The scripts are glorious models of the screenwriter’s art, and there is not a bad performance to be seen. The sets are rich and faithful to the time, and the score (by Lalo Schifrin) underpins it all.’

For our Graphic Literature offering this week, Robert has a look at a collection in Bill Willilngham’s Fables series: ‘Storybook Love is the third collected volume of Bill Willingham’s Fables, and given the somewhat mordant cast of the first two volumes, one might guess that the love of the title is not all it’s cracked up to be — it’s certainly not anything you’re going to find in a fairy tale.’

Brendan has a tasty recording from Finland for your consideration: ‘JPP — short for Järvelän Pikkupelimannit (” Little Folk Musicians of Järvelä”) — originally formed in 1983 as a local fiddle orchestra in the small town of Järvelä, Finland. Formed around the nucleus of 3 fiddlers, including leader Arto Järvelä, a harmonium player, and a bass player, they spent most of the Eighties and early Nineties gathering a devoted following in Finland and across the world and the reputation of being particularly inventive interpreters of Finland’s rich folk heritage. With the publication of Kaustinen Rhapsody, JPP proved itself to be excellent performers of contemporary music as well.’

Jayme looks at what I’d say is essential listening for Celtic music fans: ‘There’s no gloss and polish here like you’d find on, say, an Altan disc, no studio jiggery and double-tracked harmonies that are so commonplace on a Clannad release. Not that those are necessarily bad things, mind you, but every one of the 11 tracks on The Best of Silly Wizard sound like they were recorded in one take in the studio, with the entire band playing at once, rather than the more common practice of laying down each instrument separately and mixing later. Now, I don’t know if that’s actually the way Silly Wizard recorded the music here, but the end result.’

Mike went off to see a legendary group: ‘The Dubliners are true legends of folk music, having now performed together as a group for 44 years. Many of the stories they tell of Dublin, are of a city that has all but disappeared in this day and age, and they are now as much a part of folklore as the songs and tunes that they perform.’ The band would disband six years after this concert and on their 50th year of being together. They’ve done some re-unions, but who doesn’t?

And Michael  looks at an album from Maddy Prior: ‘An icon of English folk rock, Prior knows how to set her impressive vocal talents among supportive instrumental accompaniment. I won’t repeat the history of her career with Steeleye Span and Carnival, because Lahri Bond has already done that in his retrospective review which gives a great summary of personnel changes and albums, while Naomi de Bruyn covered her decision to leave the band after 28 years in her review of Prior’s compilation album Memento. Known and loved for her sweet, clear voice, Prior continues the tradition of fine vocal delivery with Ravenchild.’

One of my Several Annies found this week’s What Not in the Archives: Ellen Kushner’s Winter Queen Speech on The City in Winter: ‘Once, not so long ago – but longer ago now than it was then – it snowed in the city, and did not stop until everything changed. When we woke up, all the usual sounds were gone. No one was begging for loose change, or yelling for help from muggers, or telling her husband everything was all his fault. Some children were laughing and building snowmen in the courtyard of our building. There were no cars.’

The Infinite Jukebox, our Media Server, says it’s ‘Darkness, Darkness’, the Youngbloods song written by Jesse Colin Young way back in 1969, here performed by the Irish-American group Solas at State Theatre in Ithaca just eighteen years ago. Now it just happen that we also have Robert Plant doing the same song, so let’s give that a listen as well. Well that’s awesome.

Did she form out of the leaf- litter? Did wild animals carry sticks together and shape them into bones, and then, over the autumn, dying leaves fall and coat the bones in wildwood flesh? Was there a moment, in the wood, when something approximating to a human creature rose from the underbrush, and was shaped to perfection by the intensity of the human will, operating outside the woodland? — Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood

As I write these words up a few days before publication, all the windows on the three sides facing the outdoors of the four story cube that’s our new Library, well a century and some decades old new, are reflecting the snow that’s coming steadily down as the lights inside illuminate it. Even many of the Estate felines are intently watching it fall.

In scattered groups, Estate residents are reading or conversing; in the Robert Graves Memorial Reading Room, a book group’s enjoying the roaring fire there with Kushner’s Riverside series getting the liveliest commentary; and I see Ingrid, our Estate Steward, sitting with a cup of tea with Reynard, our Pub Manager who’s her husband, who’s  in turn enjoying a wee dram of his private stock, conversing quietly as they watch the snow fall from their seats on the fourth floor of the Library.

So let’s see what’s my Several Annies who helped my select the contents of this edition found for you to consider for your pleasure over the holidays.

Gary leads us off  with a truly epic novel: ‘The world is groping for a new mythology, one that makes sense in a world that has seen nuclear devastation and sent humans to the moon; a world that encompasses both communications satellites and children starving to death in the midst of plenty. Perhaps the new mythology will be found in the multiple collisions of cultures, histories, arts and religions; maybe it will be birthed through the agency of pop culture, which has supplanted classical music and art. Or so Salman Rushdie seems to be saying in his sprawling, entertaining and challenging novel, The Ground Beneath Her Feet.’

Donal Hickey’s Stone Mad for Music gets reviewed by John: ‘Subtitled “The Sliabh Luachra story,” this book attempts to demythologize the heartland of Sliabh Luachra, a legendary area where Irish traditional music is concerned. To fans of Irish music, Sliabh Luachra will need no introduction. Something of a mini republic in Irish music terms, Sliabh Luachra, translated from the Gaelic as ‘the mountain of the rushes,’ is an area that has written its own rule book within the Irish traditional lexicon and produced its share of masterful exponents. The music is characterized by a wild reckless energy, which somehow symbolizes the rugged nature of the area.’

Autumn passing into Winter which is a time of  parting all too often so it’s apt that Richard has a look at this work: ‘Even before the untimely passing of author Robert Holdstock, it would have been impossible to read Avilion as anything other than a tale of partings, a resolution to many of the threads woven through the Ryhope Wood cycle. Now, it reads as a fond and graceful farewell to Ryhope and the Huxley family, an affectionate gift of endings to characters who, in their own ways, have all earned peace.’

Warner concludes his review of Nicholas Meyer’s The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols by saying ‘ This volume is easy to recommend to fans of Sherlock Holmes, and fans of period mysteries in general. To anyone who enjoyed The Seven Percent Solution this book represents an obvious must read. To those looking for an interesting novel of the great detective featuring historical evils, it is similarly easy to recommend.’ Now read his review to see how he came to those conclusions.

Liz has a tasty offering for us: ‘Fairy Tale Feasts presents 20 classic fairy tales from around the world masterfully told by ace word slinger Jane Yolen. The tales are accompanied by recipes written by her daughter, Heidi E.Y. Stemple, and illustrations by Philippe Béha. The book includes fairytales from European, African-American, Ashkenazi Jewish, Arabic, Turkish and Chinese cultures. Sidebars give quick facts regarding the stories and the foods mentioned in them.’

Robert takes a look at a sequel to one of his favorite anime series: ‘Given how much I enjoyed (and still enjoy) Gensomaden Saiyuki, the first anime series based on Kazuya Minekura’s manga, getting my hands on the sequel, Saiyuki Reload, was a foregone conclusion. It’s only half the length of the first series, and left me with some mixed reactions.’

Robert thoroughly enjoyed two collections of Gail Simone’s Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation and Unhinged: ‘Gail Simone’s Secret Six is actually the third superhero team under that name. The first two were really, truly heroes; this group, not so much. They are, in fact, all bad guys from the DC Universe, some recycled from other stories, some created for this series, and brought together for the first time in Villains United.’

Our sole music entry this week is Gary’s look back at his favorite music from the decade that’s just about to end. He says he found the 2010s something of a turbulent decade, and that seems to be reflected in the nature of the music he enjoyed the most. ‘That probably helps explain why so much of my favorite music from the 2010s has been … not comforting, but evocative. Capable of arousing deep emotions of a pensive nature; inviting of contemplation; challenging but at the same time welcoming.’

Our What Not this time is an authors’ look at his work, a work deeply infused with Arthurian, Celtic and English folklore, to wit Robert Holdstock on his Mythago Cycle. Richard reviewed for us the entire Mythago Cycle as the author calls it here  but it’s illuminating to hear what the author has to say: ‘It came as a shock to realise that 2009 is the 25th anniversary of Mythago Wood, the novel I wrote from my dreams, and under the influence of my grandfather’s eerie tales, told to me when I was a child. I loved his stories: frightening and vivid. They shaped me.’ You can read his article here.

And what shall we part company with for music on this Winter night? Something spriteLy I think, how about ‘Take This Waltz’? which is well not quite upbeat perhaps but interesting as this was Leonard Cohen some ten years ago at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. I won’t say more about it as it’s based off a Spanish poem which you can do a search on it after you listen to it.

Most dragons don’t know how to read. They hiss and fume and guard their hoard. A tasty knight is what they need For dinner (they spit out the sword), Then go to sleep on heaps of treasure. They’ve no use for the written word. — Ursula K. Leguin

It’s a bitterly cold and quite snowy December afternoon, so I am hankering for a lunch that was contained in a bowl, and that was warm and comforting, preferably with a tomato and garlic stock. Fussy, aren’t I? Let’s see what the Kitchen is up to…

Yes, that’s Kathleen tending the stockpot over in the corner of our Kitchen. She has a journal where she talks about her late sister Kage Baker, author of the  exceptionally good  Company SF series. This entry, which you can read here has her reminiscing about Kage during the Christmas season. And her stockpot smells delicious! I wonder what’s in it?

There’s a veritable bevy of books, music, films and yes, even hot chocolate, to keep you warm and hopefully cheery as the Winter sets in this week. Now excuse me while I go enjoy a soup of smoked garlic pork sausage and navy beans with grated cheddar cheese on it with floating herbed croutons.

Cat leads off our book reviews with a novel he really loves: ‘Emma Bull hasn’t written many novels in her career but all of them are superb in their own way. Be it Bone Dance, Finder or War for The Oaks, my favorite of her novels, all are superbly written. So when I recently was looking for a novel to read on one of the many cold, rainy nights we’ve had this Autumn, I turned to Finder, a novel I enjoy re-reading every few years.’

Robert weighs in with a look at a pair of novels by C. J. Cherryh: ‘C. J. Cherryh is known mainly as a science-fiction writer who sometimes writes fantasy. And then there are the times that she seems to be doing both at the same time. Rider at the Gate, the first of her Finisterre novels, is, strictly speaking, science fiction, and is marked by Cherryh’s characteristic density of plot and solid universe-building. It reads, however, like a particularly frightening fantasy.’

Warner likes this series and book a lot: ‘M.C Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series has been around for decades, and has permuted into both the television and radio series. The titular character, a public relations expert who finds herself increasingly drawn into crime solving, serves as an intelligent but odd and entertaining lead. The latest volume in this series is Beating About the Bush featuring the rather clever hook of the lead and her associate Toni finding fake body part disguised to look like that of a real woman, it is a volume that continues on a comic detective vein which Beaton has proven so well able to tap.’

Another mystery likewise appealed to him: ‘Another Sherlock Holmes tale has been released, in the form of Mercedes Lackey’s The Case of the Spellbound Child. Lackey is a very experienced author, known for her Valdemar series and this, the Elemental Masters, series amongst others. She has also written three prior volumes in this particular series which featured Sherlock Holmes, and 13 prior volumes in the series overall. Once again the reader is given a tale where Holmes plays something of an auxiliary role, and Watson, his wife Mary, and Nan and Sara must take the case.’

Hot chocolate becomes very popular with folks here when the weather turns cold, with or without a measure of brandy in it. Richard had a recommendation on where you can find great hot chocolate in a place called Matthews: ‘Now, North Carolina’s not what you’d call a hot chocolate hotbed, at least east of the mountains, on account of the fact that it’s generally pretty warm. Which is why I never expected the hot chocolate in this shop which my wife practically dragged me into (she’d done some scouting, having previously infiltrated Hillsborough with friends on a yarn-shopping expedition) would blow my socks off.’

Speaking of mysteries, an English country house murder mystery gets reviewed by David: ‘As traditional as the genres he chose might have been, in Altman’s hand they were turned upside-down, and sideways. Warren Beatty and Julie Christie became anti-hero and opium addict in Altman’s “western” McCabe & Mrs. Miller, set to the music of Leonard Cohen! A laconic Elliott Gould became Raymond Chandler’s private dick Phillip Marlowe in an updated LA for Altman’s “detective” classic The Long Goodbye. Robert Altman has been the most American of directors, and now, in Gosford Park, he takes on the English country house murder mystery. Altman’s Agatha Christie film? What could this mean?’

Kathleen looks at a work by another well-regarded composer: ‘Indeed Claude Debussy is one of my favorite composers, but I hadn’t heard ‘“Noel des Enfants Qui N’ont Plus De Maisons” (“Christmas Carol for Homeless Children”)’ until recently. It’s on soprano Carmen Balthrop’s lovely CD The Art of Christmas, Vol. 1. Strange, disturbing (and possibly disturbed) thing – Debussy wrote it in 1915 during World War I as a plea for vengeance, a prayer from the French children that the Germans should have no Christmas.’

Let’s have Michael say a few words about the next recording: ‘It would be easy to say that a collaboration between Steeleye Span and Terry Pratchett was always inevitable, given their respective histories and their proclaimed admiration of each other’s work. It may be an example of retrospective inevitability now that it has actually happened in the form of the Wintersmith CD, however. In any case, the end result is one that is overwhelmingly a credit to all concerned; worthy of the names involved and their reputations.’

Patrick says of the Solas concert he saw that ‘I went to bed with their music in my head, and when I woke up the next morning, it was still there. That’s just how good Solas’ March 21 show at Rosebud in Pittsburgh was. Strains of “Black Annis,” “Darkness Darkness” and “Dignity” ran through my dreams all night, haunting me with melodies I could clearly hear but not quite grasp in the darkness of sleep.’

Robert has an omni review of a group that somehow escaped our notice until recently: ‘Somehow, we’ve never reviewed any recordings by the Anglo-Swedish folk-roots group Swåp here at GMR. The four musicians who compose Swåp (Ola Bäckström, fiddle; Ian Carr, guitar and vocals; Carina Normansson, fiddle and vocals; and Karen Tweed, accordion and vocals) met in 1995 and, being musicians, jammed together for a bit. And then jammed some more — they had the distinct feeling they were on to something.’

Our What Not is Ellen Kushner’s Winter Queen Speech on The City in Winter: ‘Once, not so long ago – but longer ago now than it was then – it snowed in the city, and did not stop until everything changed. When we woke up, all the usual sounds were gone. No one was begging for loose change, or yelling for help from muggers, or telling her husband everything was all his fault. Some children were laughing and building snowmen in the courtyard of our building. There were no cars.’

So let’s leave you with some seasonally apt music. Or at least what I consider such which in this case would a steller performance by Loreena McKennitt of her “Dickens’ Dublin”. It’s from ‘A Loreena McKennitt Christmas’ on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic program from December 1994. McKennitt announced putting her performing career on hold to devote her time and energy to fighting the harmful effects of technology and the threat of global warming.

Oh and I should note we make our own Christmas music as well, which you can see in this letter to Ekaterina by Gus on “Carols and Other Matters”.

I cursed him in my heart. “Um, what day is it?” With the infinite patience of someone used to dealing with drunks, musicians, and techies, he replied, “Sunday.” — Sparrow in Emma Bull’s Bone Dance: A Fantasy for Technophiles (First chapter is here.)

Yes I’m covered with kibbles and bits of straw. It’s the time of year that we make new scarecrows, bodach ròcais in Scots Gaelic, to replace the ones created the previous Autumn as they only last a single growing season. No, they don’t go out until Spring but the straw’s available now and the Several Annies assist in the creation of them. There’s a minor magic placed upon them to keep the mice from eating them, plus the Estate cats are very good at keeping the mouse population way down.

Give me a few minutes to get clean clothes on and I’ll serve you. I’ve got a whisky that I think you should try, it’s Toiteach, which is a wonderfully peaty single malt from the Bunnahabhain distillery. Served neat with neither water nor ice is how we do it, as there’s no single malts here that shouldn’t be appreciated that way.

If you’re interested in knowing more about Scots whiskeys, take a look at the review by Stephen of the late Iain Banks’ Raw Spirit: In Search of The Perfect Dram as I believe it’s simply the best look at single drams ever done.

Iain M. Banks’ The Hydrogen Sonata according to Gary is ‘a book of equal parts jaw-dropping wonder and world-shattering violence, relief is offered by the Ships: their names themselves and the droll and witty dialog between and among them as they go about debating their course of action and concocting rationalizations for once again meddling in the affairs of another civilization.’

Marian looks at a trilogy by Jane Yolen that deserves to be a classic. First up is ‘The Books of Great Alta  which is the compilation of Yolen’s two books in the series,  Sister Light, Sister Dark and White Jenna. It is the story of the women of Dale, who worship Great Alta, the mother goddess and what happens to them for better or worse.’ If you’ve read these already, then do read Marian’s review of  the final volume, The One-Armed Queen, but otherwise do not as it has major spoilers about what happens in the first two novels.

Naomi has what could considered what’s called a cozy mystery for us: ‘In Cat on the Edge, the first novel in a delightful series of fast-paced mystery and whimsical fantasy by Shirley Rousseau Murphy, we find tomcat Joe Grey undergoing a strange metamorphosis. Not only is he able to understand human speech, he can actually speak! This is enough to shake a cat out of at least eight of his nine lives, but then Joe Grey witnesses a murder in the alley behind his favorite delicatessen, and it could very well cost him his final ninth life!’

Warner has the newest edition of a classic for us: ‘There is something to be said for the extremely fine additions being put out at small presses today. An example of such would be the new edition of H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau  released by Beehive Books, featuring an introduction by Guillermo del Toro and illustrations by Bill Sienkiewicz.”

Jennifer Stevenson substitutes a fancy brand of all vegan, all gluten-free, all dairy- and nut-free, all singing, all-dancing chocolate mega chunks in her whisky-cherry brownie recipe and reports on the results.

Gary reviews an album of trance and drone by a group called Nous. ‘Nous is a New York-based experimental music project with a fluctuating group of artists “exploring ritual and spontaneity,” and Nous II is an album of improvised instrumental works that seamlessly blend acoustic and electronic instruments and percussion.’

Gary also liked the two-disc vinyl LP reissue of Mal Waldron Trio’s Free At Last: ‘This package is a perfect way to put a wrap on ECM’s 50th Anniversary celebrations and to introduce Waldron to a generation of jazz fans who may have forgotten his unprepossessive genius.’

Kim sees an Irish singer sans her usual band: ‘If you are a fan of Solas’s early work, or if you’ve heard Karan Casey in one of her guest spots on other albums, you know why you will love Songlines. She’s simply got an amazing voice that is unique among Irish singers. I suspect this somber album will also work for those of us who long for more and find tales of like-minded, discontented types soothing. It certainly works for me, and I look forward to hearing Casey’s more recent work.’

And Tony sees Steeleye Span sans Maddy: ‘True of all Steeleye members is a good sense of humour; and Gay is no exception, during the inevitable ‘Hat’ instead of singing ‘a small sprig of thyme,’ Gay changed it to ‘a small sprig of logic’ which I found most amusing. If I was going to make any criticism of the evening it would-be that I would have liked to have heard more of the new album, and maybe a few more really old classics from years gone by, but I am nitpicking really, It was an excellent gig and a relief to know that Steeleye Span, despite a major upheaval, have lived to tell the tale, and here’s wishing them every success for a good few years to come.’

Vonnie really likes this recording: ‘Eivør Pálsdóttir has an astounding voice. I was speaking with two of my folk-music heroes at a folk festival the first time I heard her sing, and I stopped mid-conversation to find out who had hit that range of notes with such a clear and pure sound. In fact, the entire album of Eivør is about clarity and purity of sound, tempered by human concerns.’

Tis the season to hit the theater!  From Rockettes to your local school’s holiday concert, there’s a whole lot to enjoy. (Or sometimes to be dragged to, if we’re talking your distant relation’s piano recital…) But there’s one show that you’re gonna wish you could get to; Signature Theater’s A Chorus Line. Why am I excited about a musical that’s been around since 1975? Well, because this musical is incredible – don’t take my word for it, Line earned a Pulitzer in ‘76 – and in this production, the choreography has been modernized.

That’s right; except for ‘homage paying’ at the introduction and that epic kick-line ending, Signature’s choreography gives a fresh spin on the musical numbers, fitting perfectly in the smaller-ish theater. It’s the very first production to gain approval for a dance makeover in this musical’s history. And it’s outstanding. The production could easily go straight to West End or Broadway with little more than re-setting a few marks here and there to adapt to a larger stage. This Line is that good. And it had this Grinch’s heart growing three times when I saw it. Sadly, the rest of the run is completely sold out, but here’s hoping an extended run is in the cards. Trust me; it’d be a lovely holiday gift to any theater lover.

Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ is a definitely dark take on the Sandman myth for which vocalist and rhythm guitarist Hetfield wrote the lyrics, as it deals with the concept of a child’s nightmares. The lyrics such as this stanza, ‘Hush little baby, don’t say a word/ And never mind that noise you heard / It’s just the beasts under your bed / In your closet, in your head’ are as dark as any tale was that the Brothers Grimm collected oh so long ago.

This hour long concert was played acoustic outside with the sound transmitted to the listeners on wireless headphones so as not to disturb the the residents who weren’t human. Here’s what their website had to say about it:

This was the most unique show Metallica has ever done. The band, contest winners, research station scientists (from Russia, South Korea, China, Poland, Chile, Brazil and Germany), and the ship crew, all crammed in this little dome out on the helipad of Carlini Station in ANTARCTICA! The energy in the little dome was amazing! Words can not describe how happy everyone was.

The band cranked out 10 songs for the small crowd including Creeping Death, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Sad But True, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), Master of Puppets, One, Blackened, Nothing Else Matters, Enter Sandman, and Seek & Destroy.

No word on if there were any penguins were attendance.

Once upon a time there was what there was, and if nothing had happened there would be nothing to tell. — Charles de Lint’s ‘The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep’

I’m  listening to ‘The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep’ while doing paperwork in the Library. It is superbly narrated by Kate Reading, who has narrated a number of de Lint’s works, including the Memory & Dream, Widdershins and The Onion Girl novels. I rather like this because it’s a short story and therefore easily listened to in a short span.  Not that I don’t mind getting lost in one of his novels such as Memory & Dream  which Jayme reviewed for us.

It’s our usual grey late Autumn here in the Scottish Highlands: rainy, cold and blustery winds to boot. Even the most hardy of Estate staff aren’t outside unless their duties require to them to be. I myself are spending some of my time off duty in the Kitchen quite content to nosh on whatever the staff there feels we should be eating, such as blackberry cobbler or the very last of the fresh fruits (save the ubiquitous apples).

Now let’s see what I’ve for you in this Edition…

Kate has a look-see at Jethro Tull: A History of the Band, 1968-2001: ‘Scott Allen Nollen has proven his devotion as a Tull fan in the countless miles travelled and the hours passed collecting details and interviewing band members and other associates. He has included nostalgic pictures of the band, some of which were borrowed from Ian Anderson, the often frenzied flautist who, despite some controversy, became the Fagin-like front man for the band. After ten long years of research, here is a comprehensive and entertaining story of the much misunderstood Jethro Tull. The authenticity is underlined by the thoughtful and honest foreword written by Ian Anderson himself.’

Kestrell looks at The Grin of The Dark: ‘Ramsey Campbell demonstrates the power and eloquence of horror as a mode of highlighting the uncanniness of modern technology and the dark side of human monstrosity. Campbell is a master at developing strange menacing images, whether it is the creepiness of the silent laughter of actors in an old film or the eeriness of the flickering glow of a television screen transforming the faces of those we love into white-faced staring zombies.’

Robert brings us a look back at early — well, fairly early — Charles de Lint, with a review of one of his novels set in and around Tamson House. This one is Moonheart: ‘Moonheart may very well be the first novel by Charles de Lint that I ever read. I can’t really say for sure — it’s been awhile. It certainly is one that I reread periodically, a fixture on my “reread often” list. It contains, in an early form, all the magic that keeps us coming back to de Lint.’

Warner ran across a slightly spooky collection of short stories for those long chilly evenings: ‘Algernon Blackwood is a  formative influence in the weird fiction genre, with his works “The Wendigo” and “The Willows” being staples. Editor Xavier Aldana Reyes collects not only those stories but two less well-known novellas by the author in Roarings From Further Out: Four Weird Novellas by Algernon Blackwood‘

It’s that time of year when nights are falling earlier and there’s a definite chill in the air — at least for those of us north of the Equator. Robert has a recipe for something guaranteed to be warm and filling on those nippy evenings — how does a nice bowl of hot potato soup sound? And for those of you heading into longer days and higher temperatures, it can make a nice summer dish. Get your kitchen in order and be ready to get creative.

Mia says of Frazetta: Painting With Fire that ‘Documentaries are like the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead: when they are good, they are very, very good, and when they are bad, they are horrid. You might think that a production company formed initially by fans to create a documentary about their favorite artist would create something that would fall into the latter category. And, when the film is Frazetta: Painting With Fire, you’d be really, really wrong.’

Ahhh, Steeleye Span. Chris notes that ‘This is one of those situations that throw into sharp relief the difficulties of writing live reviews. Lahri, one of our US reviewers, went to one of the American dates on the current tour and found it a significantly less than satisfying experience. Just a few days later I went to one of the UK dates at the Daneside Theatre, Congleton and was knocked out by the gig.’

David looks at the output of Johnny Cash’s daughter between 1979 and 1996: ‘Rosanne branched out, writing books, taking a long time between albums. Her work is thoughtful and moving. You can see from the pictures included in the insert booklet, from the informative liner notes, and from the development of the music through the 21 tracks Raven has selected that she was searching for her voice. By the time this collection ends, she had found it. But it’s there throughout this collection. Sure Rosanne Cash has a new CD out this month, but if you aren’t familiar with where she’s been, Blue Moons and Broken Hearts is a good place to start.’

Meredith saw not one but but two great groups at the Town Crier: ‘After a delectable meal of impeccably prepared Southwestern fare, the main event begins: usually a contemporary folk or traditional music act, such as you’ll see at the Bottom Line in New York City or the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, MA. It’s one of the best places to experience live music in the Northeast. And on Sunday, June 27 an intriguing double bill was on the menu: Susan McKeown and the Chanting House, and the up-and-coming “Irish-tribal” group Kíla.’

Robert once upon a time commented that ‘Well, as it happened, while checking out my mail cubby at the GMR offices, I ran across Oysterband’s Granite Years: Best of. . . 1986-97 with a scribbled note from the Chief that I eventually translated as “Check this out. Let us know what you think.” I took that to be a request for a review.’ Now read his review to see what he though of this compilation.

Well, looks like it’s the season to think about holiday gift giving. And Denise has an option for you; Folkmanis’ Chipmunk in Watermelon puppet. While she’s as entranced as ever by this company’s creations, there’s one quibble. ‘Mine looks as if he’s suffering from agoraphobia. Exo-karpoúzi-phobia, maybe?’ Read her review to find out what’s going on…

So we’re well past the time of year when there’s even the chance of the day holding a bit of warmth which means music becomes a needed matter of comfort for most of us here. And I for one turn to Celtic music.  So what shall we hear this time as we take our leave? Hmmm… So how about ‘Old Hag You Have Killed Me’ by the legendary Bothy Band as recorded rather well at the Lisdoonvarna Folk Festival some forty four  years ago.

Variants on Old Hag tunes are so common that they actually figure into the narrative of at least one Charles de Lint story,  ‘The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep’, which is collected in his Dreams Underfoot anthology and you can purchase the digital edition of your choice here.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta 

As Christopher Fowler has bitterly complained, Guy Fawkes Day has fallen out of favour in Britain being called now Bonfire Night more often than not, and Halloween, that holiday started long ago by the Irish, has become way more popular than Guy Fawkes.  Of course The Kirk has more or less mostly fallen across all of Britain so it’s hardly surprising that an anti-Catholic holiday is fast waning in popularity.

Now we don’t do fireworks here on Guys Fawkes Day or any day as it spooks the companion animals, the livestock, and the wildlife all too much. The loudest ‘fireworks’ you’ll see here is a roaring bonfire. Now I know it’s quite nasty out there, so let’s get you a cider and you can hunker down by the Pub fireplace while I get this Edition ready for you…

Jack leads off our book reviews with a look at a novel he really didn’t like: ‘I’m a fiddler. I like Steven Brust. I love most any novel with folk music as a theme, particularly when musicians are the characters. So why the fuck did I find Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grill to be not even worth finishing? Good question — and one that I will answer in some detail. Perhaps more detail than this badly written novel deserves.’

Robert brings us a book for curling up with the little ones on a chilly night, Helen Ward’s The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse: ‘You’ve undoubtedly heard this story, or at the very least heard of it, probably under some variation of “The Country Mouse and the City Mouse,” or the reverse. It’s a well-loved children’s story that has received innumerable treatments throughout the years. Author/illustrator Helen Ward has brought us the latest version.’

Warner really liked this book: ‘A tribute to Golden Age mystery fiction is always welcomed, and a specific tribute to Peter Wimsey is a welcome surprise. What Would Wimsey Do? is Guy Fraser-Samson’s tribute to that great detectives, in the form of a more contemporary murder mystery. It is worth noting that the book had been previously published as Death in Profile in the United Kingdom, and that this new publication by Felony & Mayhem represents its first American publication.’

He also loved this novel: ‘Overall Always Coming Home is at an impressive achievement in storytelling, and World building. It is a staple of future history, and the work of obvious influence. And this is possibly the most thorough and dedicated interpretation of the texts assembled, included many related pieces throughout. I can highly recommend this volume, particularly it to those with any interest in the work of Ursula K. Le Guin.’

‘…Buckle up and I’ll tell you about pumpkin cupcakes so delicious my friend told me to never buy them again, because they were way too dangerously good. Yes, supermarket brand cupcakes so good my friends threaten my life.’ With an opening like that, Denise’s look at Aldi’s Village Bakery’s Mini Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes is definitely worth a look. Because Fall is just getting good, and you want to enjoy the best, don’t you?

Grey turns her attention to The Two Towers: ‘Yes, I had a press ticket. Yes, I went to the earliest possible showing yesterday, opening day (December 18), and refused to eat any popcorn or drink any soda, lest I be distracted even minutely from the film. Yes, I am an obsessed fan of J.R.R. Tolkien. Actually, I prefer “devoted.” (There are different sorts of obsessed, err, devoted fans. Cat, our Editor in Chief, collects all sorts of special editions of Tolkien’s work, and has reviewed the extended-release DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring for this issue. I, on the other hand, have among my most prized possessions the tattered paperback of The Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham that I first read as a child, and a copy of “The Red Book” in which some of my dearest friends have written their favorite passages or quotations on the fly leaves and end papers. I think of Tolkien as one of my grandfathers.) The point being that if you want an unbiased opinion from a viewer who came to the movie yesterday without any preconceived notions as to what it ought to be… well, I’m sure they’re out there.’

Gary says Historia Natural is the third release by the Colombian trio Los Pirañas, “which deftly and excitingly mixes South American rhythms of cumbia, tropicalia, salsa and more, with psychedelic rock, surf guitar, dub, and computer effects for a sound and style that’s all their own.”

Lars says of Western Wall and The Tucson Sessions: ‘For me, this is very much a case of old heroes returning. Who could help but be infatuated by the lovely Ms Ronstadt in the middle of the Seventies? She had it all: looks, voice and a clever choice of songs. Ronstadt was one of a wave of American female singers on the borders between rock, country and folk. Emmylou Harris was another of those singers. But she was definitely more country, carrying on Gram Parson’s vision of a marriage between rock and country.’

No’am has a review of Maddy Prior’s Arthur The King: ‘The practice of writing quasi traditional songs may horrify some, but it’s been my experience that such songs are much richer to our ears than the “finger in the ear” standard diet. Whilst I imagine that this fine disk will be labeled as “contemporary folk,” it’s difficult to picture any of these songs being played in a folk club by one person with an acoustic guitar. Modern technology is necessary in order to present these songs in their full majesty, and we are all the richer for Maddy and her merry men having done so.’

The concert season, for those who follow such things, is in full swing, and Robert has a look at an album of chamber works by Henryk Wieniawski: ‘Henryk Wieniawski, like his countryman Frédéric Chopin, was in great demand as a soloist — so much so that his performance schedule seems to have seriously impacted his work as a composer. Another prodigy, he entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of eight, in spite of being underage and not French. By age thirteen, he had completed his course of study on the violin (with gold medal), written his first compositions, and met Chopin at his mother’s Paris salon.’

Vonnie looks at a darkly tinged album: ‘An Echo of Hooves has June Tabor returning to what, in my mind, she does best, delivering ballads or songs that tell a tale. For this she has chosen eleven Medieval ballads. Some of them are very well-known, like “The Cruel Mother,” “Hughie Graeme,” “Sir Patrick Spens” and “Bonnie James Campbell”. Others are new to me.’

Winter is not far out,  so a Winter Queen of ours from some years back,  Josepha Sherman, talks of it and its folktales in her Winter Queen Speech: ‘What is Winter? A time to fear? A time for darkness and death? No. Winter is merely part of the endless cycle of sleep and awakening, dying and rebirth. The trees know it: they don’t die each year. They merely sleep through the coldness and put out new leaves in the spring. The birds know it: they come and go by the seasons. The snow is merely a blanket that protects the earth, insulating it against the cold and providing it with moisture in the spring. The darkness doesn’t last throughout. It ends in the middle of the winter, with the solstice in December, and the light returns even in the deepest cold of winter. No, Winter is nothing to fear.’

Our music for you as our Coda is quite naturally is The Men They Couldn’t Hang’s ‘Homefires’, their look at Guy Fawkes Day and what it means to British culture. Where and when they recorded it seems to have been lost right now though I’ll add in if I find out that information. There’s a trove of live recordings they sent us, so expect more music from them.

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!

Traditional Scottish prayer

I’ve also seen that prayer credited to Cornish, Welsh, and “Celtic” sources — nothing specific, but you get the idea.

Robert here, with some thoughts on the traditions of the holiday. Yes, as you might guess from our opening quote, Halloween is approaching, when all the neighborhood ghoulies and ghosties (and hobos and witches and Darth Vaders) are going door to door demanding treats as a sort of ransom. It wasn’t always like that: Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, is what happened to the old Samhain holy day of the Celtic Pagan year, one of the two days in the year when the veils between our world and the Otherworld are thinnest and the spirits wander the earth — some say looking for the way home.

And that’s the origin of the Jack O’Lantern, from the old Irish custom of putting a candle in a hollowed-out turnip (they didn’t have pumpkins before Europeans discovered the New World) and ensconcing it in the window to guide the spirits on their way.

As for the rest of it — well, the early Church, as was its wont, appropriated that holiday as All Saints Day (actually the day after the Pagan holiday, which, like most Pagan holidays, was celebrated at night) and tried very hard to make it a Christian holiday, with varying degrees of success. (In Mexico, it became Dias de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, in which the Christian holiday got a strong infusion of traditional Indian customs.)

As for the “trick or treat” part, that also goes way back to Pagan times, when villagers would dress in scary costumes to drive the spirits away and would be rewarded for their efforts with a banquet. It may have also been conflated with the Wren Boys, an ancient Irish observation around Christmas, when children would dress in costume and go door to door collecting money. Its present incarnation is recent, as late as the mid-twentieth century — some even credit Walt Disney with popularizing it, but I’m not going to go there.

Oh, and speaking of appropriation — well. candy manufacturers have a vested interest in pushing the whole trick or treat thing, driving a final nail into the coffin of what was once one of the holiest days in the Pagan year.

Now, it’s almost upon us, and I’m going to hand this back over to Reynard, with a nod for the excellent job he’s done on putting together our Halloween edition. Enjoy.

Cat starts off our book reviews with Ernest Hogan’s Smoking Mirror Blues. Cat says of it that ‘In the very near future, the citizens of Los Angeles are preparing to celebrate Dead Daze, a bacchanalian rave of a holiday that’s an over-the-top merging of All Hallows Eve, the Mexican Day of the Dead, and Mardi Gras. The reawakened Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, riding the body of a human, is feeling quite well, thank you! And let’s not forget that the Day of the Dead, which forms part of Dead Daze, is at its heart a time when the barriers between the dead and the still-living are all but completely erased. So maybe the gods do walk again … And this holiday, not dissimilar to the one in the Strange Days movie, needs National Guard troops to prevent rioting!’

So how about a Day of The Dead set story that involves a small town mechanic called Grace who discovers the man she loves is dead? And that she can cross over when the veils are thin to see him? Such is the premise of Charles de Lint’s The Mystery of Grace which Cat notes that ‘It is a perfect introduction to de Lint, as it doesn’t requite you to have read anything else by him at all, but gives you a good feel for what he is like as a writer, as it has well-crafted characters, believable settings, and a story that will hold your interest. And it is a novel that you will read again to get some of the nuances that get missed in the first reading.’

Craig has a review of a horror novel set on a closely related holiday: ‘Brian A. Hopkins is an acclaimed writer and editor (he has won Bram Stoker Awards under both guises) who also operates an innovative publishing company (Lone Wolf Publications, which produced the multimedia anthology Tooth and Claw, Volume One and another Stoker winner, The Imagination Box), yet who still has time to crank out terrific work for other smaller houses like Earthling Publications. El Dia de los Muertos (“the Day of the Dead”) is his most recent Stoker recipient, winning the 2002 award for best novella.’

Halloween is the time for vampires, and so Denise takes a look at Gross and Altman’s Slayers & Vampires: The Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Buffy and Angel. She found an detailed “oral history” that is sure to please fans of both shows.  ‘I can feel the authors’ love for their subject, and their excitement is contagious.  … [A] fun read that’ll keep you in party anecdotes for this coming holiday season, and into the next one.’

One of our Garys has a look at Christopher Golden and James A. Moore’s Bloodstained  Oz: ‘If you like lots of violence and gore, and you’re a fan of The Wizard of Oz, then you’ll like this book. The evil manifestations of Baum’s characters are one of the highlights of the book. If you like a book with an ending, prepare yourself to write your own, as the authors apparently intended.’

Neil Gaiman’s Day of the Dead: An Annotated Babylon 5 Script gets the lead-off note in Grey’s review: ‘Whenever two Babylon 5 fans meet, whether it’s at a used book store, a sci-fi speakeasy, or somewhere else that’s safe for our species, it doesn’t take long for conversation to turn to the required topics: “Who’s your favorite character?” “What’s your favorite season?” “What’s your favorite episode?” and so on. And whether your favorite character is Commander Sinclair (the real Commander) or G’Kar, whether your favorite season is the first or the third, it’s almost universally agreed that Season Five, Episode Eight, “Day of the Dead,” is one of the show’s top ten episodes.’

Jack looks at a Diane Wynne Jones novel that befits this holiday: ‘It’s a good solid book with memorable characters and an engrossing plot which got read in one rather long sitting on a cold, rainy afternoon late in October. Several pots of Earl Grey tea and a number of the the Kitchen’s excellent scones were devoured in the reading of Fire & Hemlock.’

Love, hate, or baffled by The Wicker Man, there’s no denying it’s a horror classic.  No, not the horrendous 2006 remake, but the original 1973 film starring Christopher Lee.  The original film has caught the eye of many, including many academics. Kestrell takes a look at Benjamin Franks’ The Quest for The Wicker Man: History, Folklore, and Pagan Perspectives, a collection of articles from a conference that focused on the film.  ‘The Quest for The Wicker Man is highly recommended for any dedicated Wicker Man fan and especially for academics writing about this classic cult film.’  Read more about this collection in her review!

Nellie looks at The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween: ‘Through Jean Markale’s book we can find the real legitimacy for Halloween as a holiday. It is not simply about children traipsing from door to door looking for candy (or else! Trick or Treat!). It is not simply about a reverence for ancestors, or a time to let go of all inhibition. There is a reality to it that gives it a deeper presence, and which beckons us to seek its true meaning, in addition to its true history.’

A fine version of the Tam Lin story is reviewed by Richard as he looks at a Pamela Dean novel: ‘An early part of Terri Windling’s Fairy Tale series, Tam Lin is by far the most ambitious project on the line. The story of Tam Lin is one of the better known ones to escape folklore for the fringes of the mainstream; you’ll find references scuttling about everywhere from old Fairport Convention discs to Christopher Stasheff novels. There’s danger inherent in mucking about with a story that a great many people know and love in its original form; a single misstep and the hard-core devotees of the classic start howling for blood. Moreover, Dean is not content simply to take the ballad of Tam Lin and transplant it bodily into another setting.’

We next look at Ray Bradbury’s quintessential Autumn novel and film which gets an appreciative review by the previous reviewer: ‘By right and nature, all October babies should love Something Wicked This Way Comes. It is a love letter to autumn, and to the Halloween season in particular, a gorgeous take on maturity and self-acceptance and all the dark temptations that come crawling ‘round when the calendar creeps close to October 31st.’

Just in time for the festivities a couple of nights from now, Robert has a look at Alex Irvine’s The “Supernatural” Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons, and Ghouls: ‘I seem to be faced with another one of those television spin-offs, this time from the series Supernatural, about two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, who hunt demons and other nasty customers not entirely of this world …. Alex Irvine has taken this basis, and the various creatures the brothers encounter, drawn from myths, urban legends, and folklore, and turned it into a “bestiary of the unnatural”.’

Thomas has a guide to this holiday for us: ‘Halloween, an unofficial holiday, is nonetheless celebrated by millions of people in North America and the British Isles, rivaling only Christmas in popularity. In the heavily illustrated Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, York University professor of history Nicholas Rogers traces the history of this holiday from its alleged beginnings as a Celtic festival, Samhain, marking the end of summer, to its many and various manifestations today. ’

And Warner wraps up our book reviews with a look at a collection from Steve Rasic Tem, The Night Doctor and Other Stories: ‘Centipede Press is known for putting out quality volumes, and The Night Doctor and Other Stories by Steve Rasnic Tem is no exception. A long-running, highly celebrated author, Rasnic here offers a collection of his more recent short stories, including two new tales previously unpublished. These run the gamut of dark subject matter, ranging from dark fantasy to horror and back again.’

Horror films have been part of the Halloween experience in the States for a very long time now. And we’ve had our share of wonderful seasonal treats, as well as time-wasting tricks.

Denise takes a look at a ‘trick’ of a tale with her review of Halloween III: Season of the Witch. She doesn’t hold back on her distaste: ‘If the folks responsible for this garbage really wanted to depart from the first two films and create something authentic, this basic story could have been an interesting movie …. Happy Halloween? Not with this clunker.’  Read her review for exactly why she’s nonplussed.

Another trick-y tale is The Haunted Mansion, a film based on a ride at the Disney resorts. Denise thinks that all the beautiful set design can’t make up for a film that can’t quite figure itself out.  ‘This is a lovely film to look at, but there’s not a lot of substance. Just double-check to make sure any young children you take are up for a pretty good scare.’

A choice bit of British horror is next.  Jekyll is ably reviewed for us by Kestrell who says that ‘this version is not so much a remake as a retelling of the Jekyll/Hyde story. The story is relocated from Victorian Edinburgh to contemporary London and follows one of Jekyll’s descendents, a research scientist named Tom Jackman (James Nesbitt).’ Kestrell concludes that ‘While I found this re-telling of a traditional story exciting and exceptionally well done, I would suggest that this series is not for everyone. Viewers looking for a remake of the original story will not find it here; those viewers who prefer American Hollywood effects may also be disappointed.’

Festive Samhain, everyone! Denise here, and I’ve stolen away the food and drink section this issue. Why? Because ghoulish delights abound! I’ve stuffed my face with all sorts of seasonal delights … though not everything was particularly delightful. Come along and see, won’t you?

First off, in a nod to the spirit of the season, Dunkin’ Donuts released a slew of themed donuts. I tried their Spider Donut, but I wasn’t particularly impressed. “It’s a mess. Somewhere, Mary Berry is sobbing.” Read on to learn more!

Still got a touch of a sweet tooth? Well, why not try a Cadbury Screme Egg? “…I prefer the protoplasm look of that gooey sugar goodness. I’ve always been a weird kid.” Check out this treat to see if it’s something you’d fancy!

Want something savory instead?  How about Transylvanian cheese?  Happy Farms Preferred Transylvanian-Romanian Cave Cheese, to be exact. Let’s just say that if you’re able to get your hands on some, you should. There’s more to be had in the review, but for now let’s just leave it at this; ‘Thank you, Transylvania.’

And what better way to wash things down this spooky season with a Harry Potter themed drink? Flying Cauldron’s Butterscotch Beer is just the thing. ‘A nice quaff when you’re feeling Potterish. And this time of year, especially with #HarryPotter20, who isn’t?’

Cheetos’ Bag of Bones is a suitably spooky entry into the holiday snack aisle, and a perfect go-to for the season. And I’m pleased: ‘When you queue up a spooky movie this season, grab some of these to really get into the spirit.’

Robert looks at the Justice League Dark film: ‘Once I got started on the Justice League Dark comic, I had to go back and check out the 2017 animated film. If anyone is expecting a film version of the new comic series, guess again: the film was released before the new series was even announced, and while there are similarities, they are very different sorts of critters.’

Robert has a look at a suitably scary graphic novel from a story originally penned by Robert E. Howard: ‘Pigeons from Hell is an adaptation by Joe R. Lansdale of a story by Robert E. Howard, with art by Nathan Fox and color by Dave Stewart. Lansdale is at pains to point out, in his “Notes from the Writer,” that it is really an “adaptation” — updated, exploring some new facets of Howard’s story, and not to be confused with the original, all of which leads me to treat it as its own creature.’

And what would Halloween be without demons and ghosties and that sort of thing? Well, that’s what we get with the latest incarnation of John Constantine, in Hellblazer, Vol. 1: The Poison Truth. Says Robert: ‘I’ll be honest: John Constantine is not a comic book hero who has ever really grabbed me. I can’t think of any particular reason for that, unless it’s his rapid-fire delivery and glib personality. Maybe it’s because he’s a sociopath, and I’ve learned to be wary of those — even comics. (It’s a wonder how many of the characters in this collection really don’t like Constantine very much, but they go along with him.)’

Robert has a look at a fairly tale full of goblins, ghosts, and witches — it’s Philip Glass’ The Witches of Venice, based on the book by Beni Montresor: ‘The King and Queen of Venice are bemoaning the lack of an heir. Sure enough, two fairies appear from the Lagoon with a plant: if the King plants it in his garden, a child will be born. The King is not impressed and throws the plant out the window.’ You can guess what happens after that, but read the review anyway.

Gary tells us about an album of what’s called ‘dark polar ambient’ music by a Russian musician who performs under the name Ugansie: ‘If you like drone or ambient or dark experimental music, Border of Worlds is for you. If you just want something spooky to play in your haunted house at Halloween, ditto.’

Iain says ‘Philip Glass, one of my favourite composers, and his fellow composer Robert Moran, whom I had not encountered before, collaborated magnificently in equal measure on the composition of The Juniper Tree Opera. Each Glass scene is followed by a Moran scene, with transitions composed by each. The result works a lot better than I expected, though the styles of each composer are quite different and neither surrenders anything of his own identity. If you like Glass, you’ll want to hear this opera.‘

Robert has a What Not for us in keeping with the holiday — after all, what would Halloween be without bats flying around? In this case, another cutie from Folkmanis. You can read about it here.

Very long after the band recorded Leige and Leif, which Deborah plays proper homage to in, “Trad Boys, Trad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do….?” Liege & Lief remembered, Fairport Convention played the entire album live at their own summer bash, the ‘07 Cropredy Festival. Everyone who was on the 1969 recording save Sandy Denny who had passed on was on stage so with Chris While doing the vocals for this epic experience. The soundboard recording is stellar, so here’s ‘Tam Lin’ as performed on a warm summer night.

Never trust the storyteller. Only trust the story.
Neil Gaiman’s Fables & Reflections

Québécois style pork pies, spiced with nutmeg, are the main entree for the eventide meal somewhat later on this Autumn day, along with roasted carrots, beets and onions, as the weather turned decidedly nippy over the past week, with even some nasty periods of freezing rain and sleet. Ironic, as I was putting together the invitations to Sixtieth Annual Estate Croquet Invitational which will be held here next Summer.

Before heading into the Pub for my evening shift, I was assisting Gus, our Estate Head Gardener and all around groundskeeper, with the gathering of the squashes, which had to be harvested before a hard frost harmed them beyond them being usable. And I do so look forward to the squash and smoked pork with pickled ginger soup that’ll be served for some cold Winter eventide meal!

Now shall I pour you a Conor McGregor’s Proper Irish Whiskey to enjoy while I put the finishing touches on this edition? And if you’re feel at all peckish, I recommend one of the apple and cheddar tarts that are still warm in the basket on the Pub bar. They’re quite excellent.

I’ve picked some fiction for you that I feel is perfectly Autumnal in nature. Even the Babylon 5 script is, though I’ll let you figure out how.

Triskell Press has released a digital edition of Charles de Lint’s Yarrow: An Autumn Tale, which Grey delightfully notes is ‘set in de Lint’s Ottawa, the one he first envisioned for his novel Moonheart, and expanded in its sequel, Spiritwalk. Those readers who have fallen in love with the wonderful Tamson House of these two novels will be delighted to note its brief appearance in Yarrow as well. However, the characters in Yarrow are part of different story than the residents of Tamson House and their associates, and Yarrow is a stand-alone novel.’

Neil Gaiman’s Day of the Dead: An Annotated Babylon 5 Script gets the lead-off note in Grey’s review: ‘Whenever two Babylon 5 fans meet, whether it’s at a used book store, a sci-fi speakeasy, or somewhere else that’s safe for our species, it doesn’t take long for conversation to turn to the required topics: “Who’s your favorite character?” “What’s your favorite season?” “What’s your favorite episode?” and so on. And whether your favorite character is Commander Sinclair (the real Commander) or G’Kar, whether your favorite season is the first or the third, it’s almost universally agreed that Season Five, Episode Eight, “Day of the Dead,” is one of the show’s top ten episodes.’

A fine version of the Tam Lin story is reviewed by Richard as he looks at a Pamela Dean novel: ‘An early part of Terri Windling’s Fairy Tale series, Tam Lin is by far the most ambitious project on the line. The story of Tam Lin is one of the better known ones to escape folklore for the fringes of the mainstream; you’ll find references scuttling about everywhere from old Fairport Convention discs to Christopher Stasheff novels. There’s danger inherent in mucking about with a story that a great many people know and love in its original form; a single misstep and the hard-core devotees of the classic start howling for blood. Moreover, Dean is not content simply to take the ballad of Tam Lin and transplant it bodily into another setting.’

A review from William finishes off my picks: ‘In his typically enlightening and always entertaining style, Ray Bradbury puts his cold hand in ours and leads us through the darkness of a million wind-swept October nights in The Halloween Tree, a classic novel of dark fantasy. Recognized as a living legend of imaginative fiction, Bradbury is one of those few, precious authors who delivers the thrills he promises. Revered for such novels as Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, and Fahrenheit 451, the author breathes such life into his fictions that we can’t help but share the enthusiastic energy exploding from his pen.’

Brownies anyone? Jen makes her whiskey, yes whiskey, soaked cherry brownies in big batches so she give them out as she so desires. Are they good? Oh YES!: ‘Eat them warm for a terminal chocogasm, alone or with ice cream and a glass of red wine.’

Robert got something rather nice from Bissinger’s Chocolates, a company founded in 17th Century France: ‘The example of their products that crossed my desk (well, landed on it) is the Caramelized Blood Orange, covered in dark (60%) chocolate, with hazelnuts. Being somewhat of a chocolate purist, I’m often dubious about additives, but since orange and chocolate are one of the classic combinations, I decided to give it a try.’

April says of a Matt Wagner graphic novel that ‘As far as character re-imaginings go, Madame Xanadu: Disenchanted is a lively, lovely read and more is definitely something to look forward to!’

She goes on to tell us about that second volume, Matt Wagner And Michael Wm. Kaluta’s Madame Xanadu: Exodus Noir: ‘ This second collection in Matt Wagner’s back story of Madame Xanadu has a more intimate focus than the first, which spanned a number of centuries and exotic locales.‘ Read her review for all the details on this story.

A sad note to lead off our Music section. Ciarán Carson, author of Last Night’s Fun: In and Out of Time with Irish Music, has passed away just recently. Both a keen trad Irish musician and a writer of quite some note about that music and all things Irish in general, he was a native of Belfast who died at seventy of lung cancer. A brilliant poet by trade, which you can see in our review of  his translation of Táin Bó Cúailngne:The Cattle Raid of Cooley).

The Oysterband are certainly a folk rock band but Ed has a review of their very early years when they weren’t: ‘I stumbled onto the Oysterband several years back via a copy of Little Rock to Leipzig, received as a premium during a college radio station’s fund drive. This was blind good luck. The two CDs I had originally wanted were gone, so I picked this one based on its “folk-rock” label. I haven’t stopped listening to this band and now own ten of their CDs. As a devoted and possibly obsessed fan, when the chance came to review some of their earliest and long out-of-print albums, I jumped. I now feel blessed to have acquired this piece of their history. In short, these LPs prove that the Oysters were always good, but have nevertheless gotten much better.

Norwegian singer and songwriter Jens Carelius has turned a legendary figure in his ancestry into a unique album, Gary says. ‘Opsi is a song cycle based on the diaries of Carelius’s great-great-grandfather Fritz Doerries … a German naturalist who spent much of his young life collecting butterflies and other animal specimens in the sub-arctic lands of eastern Siberia.’

Istanbul psychedelic rockers BaBa ZuLa have a new recording out, their first new release in five years but following close on the heels of their 20th anniversary retrospective called XX. Gary says the new CD, Derin Derin has ‘plenty of transcendant sound packed into each song and tune.’

A Parcel of Steeleye Span — Their First Five Chrysalis Albums 1972-1975 contains Below the Salt, Parcel of Rogues, Now We Are Six, Commoner’s Crown, and All Around My Hat! which was released as a set. Iain, our Librarian, got to review that impressive set which is taken from some of their early albums. ‘So the bottom line is that this is a near perfect introduction to one of the finest folk rock groups ever to grace Albion. Hell, you even get to hear the original recording of the song which they end nearly every concert with — ‘All Around My Hat’, off (obviously) the album of the same name.’

Our What Not this week is another treat from Folkmanis. Says Robert: ‘I seem to have another Folkmanis puppet lurking around, this one the Rat In a Tin Can. The Folkmanis website describes him as being ready for a playful picnic (note the napkin in one paw). However, it seemed to me that he might just as easily be a waiter in an upscale rat restaurant: his black-and-white pattern might almost be taken for formal wear.’

Steeleye Span is rather appropriately providing our taking leave song for this Edition. Not their ‘Tam Lin’ as that’d be more a Halloween thing, but rather their ‘One Misty Moisty Morning’ which seems so Autumnal in nature. It was recorded at My Father’s Place in Roslyn, NY on the twentieth of April forty six years ago.

She is our moon. Our tidal pull. She is the rich deep beneath the sea, the buried treasure, the expression in the owl’s eye, the perfume in the wild rose. She is what the water says when it moves. ― Patricia A. McKillip’s Solstice Wood

They’re sort of linked, so may I recommend McKillip’s Winter Rose and Solstice Wood for your Autumnal reading pleasure on a rainy, cold afternoon? They’re elegant novels full of  very interesting characters involved in stories both fantastical and believable at the same time. The latter novel even has a lot of stitchers in it!

Needless to say they’re always on heavy circulation here at the Kinrowan Estate Library. The Library has been particularly busy this week as we’ve gotten that wet, wind and frankly cold weather which means outside chores are in abeyance. So I  asked for recommendations on what to read, a task I delight in doing.

The Kitchen staff under the watchful eye of Mrs Ware has been doing all things apple right now. Apple muffins, apple pie, chicken stuffed  with apples and bacon, apple ice cream… you get the idea. And of course we’re pressing cider as well, some of it destined to be what you Yanks call hard cider. If you’re interested in learning more about that process, I recommend Simon McKie’s Making Craft Cider: A Ciderist’s Guide. Now let me finish off this Edition so you can read it…

April has a truly horrific folktale for us: ‘In Deerskin, Robin McKinley delves into a dark tale of royal incest, derived from Frenchman Charles Perrault’s “Donkeyskin”. At its simplest, this oft-neglected, disturbing tale revolves around a deathbed promise extracted from a King by his Queen, to marry no woman not at least her equal. The Queen may have had good intentions, or may simply have been petty; either way, the result is inevitably the same: the King dutifully promises, remains unmarried for a number of years, then notices the striking resemblance of his daughter to her late mother.’

We usually give you a blurb from the review that we’re linking to but Chuck’s look at Steven Brust & Megan Lindholm’s The Gypsy, Steven Brust’s The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, and Boiled in Lead’s Songs From The Gypsy recording is quite resistent to being blurbed as it is a magnificent, sprawling review that is well worth you reading, so just go read it over a mug of hot cider with an apple and cheddar cheese tart to nibble on.

Robert has a trip back in time, sort of, to the days of Andy Warhol and The Factory, with a book that has more than a few surprises: ‘Imagine, for a moment, that it is the 1960s – the last half of them, actually – and that you are a small-town boy attending a major Midwestern university in a major Midwestern city, where you are majoring in theater and art. One thing that is very big in your circle is Andy Warhol’s movies. Michael Ferguson’s Little Joe Superstar: The Films of Joe Dallesandro is a little bit more than nostalgia, and a little bit more than dèja vu: it is a lot that you never knew at the time, that in a way you wish you had known then but, in a way, you’re glad you didn’t.’

Warner looks at a story about a story about a story — or something like that: ‘Stories about stories can be interesting, whether they fail or succeed in their own right.  Clay McLeod Chapman, in The Remaking, has given us a story about ghost stories which is itself a ghost story in which the tale of Ella Louise and her daughter Jessica is being relived over and over again through different eras of telling. The particular focuses are the classic campfire tale, the 1970s low budget horror film, the self-aware 90s remake, and the modern podcast.’

Robert’s always on the lookout for something easy and filling for dinner, and came across one that fits the bill: ‘I like Mexican food almost as much as I like Indian food. Well, I like food, especially if it’s easy to prepare and filling. It’s even better if it’s something I don’t have all the time — as in, I made a huge batch of it and now I have to eat it. One of the recent additions to my fast dinner repertoire is Jose Ole’s Steak and Cheese Chimichangas.’

Good thing Robert has us covered, because Denise gave Reese’s Wasabi Horseradish a try, and was none too impressed. ‘No. No no no no no. NO. This isn’t wasabi, it’s an abomination.’ Read her review to see exactly why you should give this a wide berth.‘

Grey starts off her review of The Fellowship of The Ring in this most proper manner: ‘When a reviewer makes specific comments about plot elements in a book or a movie, it is a common internet convention to say, “Spoilers ahead!” I cannot think of a single movie made in recent years for which that warning has been less necessary. J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic The Lord of the Rings is the cornerstone of modern fantasy, the trilogy that most readers of fantasy under sixty either cut their teeth on or discovered as an already well-established and well-weathered feature on the landscape of fantasy fiction.’ Go read her ever so delightful review thisaway.

Ed says this is a weak excuse for a Greatest Hits compilation: ‘If you missed the Horslips the first time around — they disbanded in 1980 after 10 years together — here’s a chance to hear a small piece of their ground-breaking work. Horslips Greatest Hits is probably a good introduction to this Dublin roots-rock band, but at only 40 minutes and with a mere 12 tracks gleaned from just a few albums, it offers an awfully skimpy history. The liner notes are virtually nonexistent, an underwhelming three sentences. There is no indication of which albums these songs originally appeared on. The tunes aren’t laid out in any logical order — certainly not chronological or based on the band’s musical development. Indeed the song order seems random and disjointed, a mindless cut and paste job.’

Peter saw Steeleye Span on their Reunion Tour and he says ‘I know it is hard to put a band together with a lineup that creates that little bit of extra magic, but I have said it before and I will say it again: ‘This is the line up, they are the Steeleye Span that everyone remembers and loves.’ Long may they reign!’

Richard argues strongly that ‘Contrary to what the liner notes in the recent Pearls from the Oysters compilation suggest, the finest period in the Oysterband’s long and illustrious history was the three CD arc that began with Deserters and culminated in The Shouting End of Life. The Shouting End of Life, the last of the three, is the most bitter of the lot. Holy Bandits, its predecessor, is the angriest. And Deserters? It is, for lack of a better word, the bravest of the trio. It’s defiant without being vitriolic, proud without being arrogant and energetic without being enraged.’

Robert ran across something new from a favorite composer — a twofer, in fact: Terry Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air and Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band: ‘A Rainbow in Curved Air is a hard piece of music to describe, in part, perhaps, because although easy to listen to (at this point in history, at least), it’s not really very easy to make sense of.’

After her horrible experience with ‘wasabi’ in this edition, Denise had a chance to snuggle up with her Emotional Support Puppet, Folkmanis’ Snow Leopard Cub. ‘I just stare into his big dark blue eyes and give him a pat. And another. And yet another. ‘I think I’m in love.’ As the days begin to grow darker earlier and earlier, and the weather has a nip i it, why not find comfort in a snuggle? Furred, faux or fleshed, doesn’t matter. Everyone needs a big of cheer as we dip into Fall.’

Where’s that music by Aaron Copland that feels perfectly Autumnal to me? Ahhh there it is! It’s Michele Walther and Irina Behrendt playing Aaron Copland’s ‘Hoe Down’ from his Rodeo album. I sourced it off a Smithsonian Institution music archive which has no details where or when it was recorded which surprised me given how good they usually are at such things.

Brown-eyed women and red grenadine,
The bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean.
Sound of the thunder with the rain pourin’ down,
And it looks like the old man’s gettin’ on.

Robert Hunter’s Brown-Eyed Women

Remember I mentioned Ingrid, my wife, who’s the Steward for the Estate,  did an inventory of the woollen blankets that we got last October, as most staffers keep the heat cool enough in their sleeping areas not to be too warm, and woollen blankets are preferred covers by most every soul here? Well, these are really nice ones. Some blankets seem to get lost, some down the decades just wear out. And replacing them is bloody expensive! Well the ones we ordered from the Anatolian mills just came in. I sense much wonderful sleeping is upon us this Winter season!

I’ve had breakfast, well an early afternoon one of a really big biscuit brimming with smoked ham, well done egg as I like it to be, sliced onion and cheese along with lots of cardamon coffee, so I’m ready to finish this Edition off so you can go ahead and have a go of it. There’s music from the late Robert Hunter  and a look at The Princess Bride in both of its forms, along with lots of other neat stuff.

Up for a bloody good alternate steampunk adventure based in a Victorian London that wasn’t? Elizabeth has one for us: ‘Nevertheless, an unconvincing conclusion aside, S.M. Peters’ Whitechapel Gods is a gorgeously written, endlessly inventive steampunk novel and a truly entertaining read.’

Jayme has the Good Parts for us: ‘Some forms of fantasy are pure escapism. Other forms use magic and myth to promote social consciousness. And then there’s The Princess Bride, a book that exists in a class all its own. William Goldman’s tale of True Love, Harsh Revenge and Rodents of Unusual Size exhibits a gleeful audacity seldom seen in literature before or since.’

Kathleen has a bit of Southern magic for us: ‘Cherie Priest is a first time novelist. However, she writes with ease and a deceptive power, like the flow of the Tennessee River through her home city of Chattanooga. Four and Twenty Blackbirds is a Southern Gothic with a hint of hard boiled mystery: there’s grit in the magnolia honey and in the heroine as well.’

Warner says happily ‘Gauging the influence of women on genre fiction can be rather difficult due to years of gender bias in criticism and historical recording. As a result I was pleased to hear the announcement of Monster, She Wrote by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson. I love histories and biographies, and this work combines the two rather effectively. Written in a colloquial, almost casual, style this book nonetheless is informative and clear. As a result it is not only useful, but could easily serve as a textbook in a class for beginners studying the subject matter.’Denise welcomes the new month by…reviewing a St. Patrick’s day brew? Well, it is stout season, so we’ll allow it. Captain Lawrence Brewing Co.’s Cookie O’Puss Limited Edition Stout had her happily draining her glass. ‘…a lovely cycle of mint, chocolate, raw cocoa, and roasted malt that’ll have you emptying your glass before you know it.’

Denise also took a bite of Billinger’s Coffee Toffee 75% Dark Chocolate, Almond Toffee & Rich Roasted Coffee bar. ‘Sometimes I feel as though I’m not cool enough for some of these uber-fancy chocolate bars. Such was the case with this one…’ Read her full review to find out what she thinks of this treat!

L.G. happily says ‘Envision a film with Billy Crystal, Carol Kane, Peter Falk, and Peter Cook that is absolutely hilarious, yet none of them appear in the lead roles. “Inconceivable!,” you cry and I reply, “I do not think that word means what you think it means.” Yes, indeed, we are talking about The Princess Bride — the wildly successful movie based on the wildly successful book of the same title. Both book and screenplay were written by William Goldman which explains two things; 1) why they match up so well, and 2) why they’re both so very, very good. Fast-paced adventure and laugh-out-loud humor are combined to wonderful effect.’

Brendan looks at Jay Ungar and Molly Mason’s Harvest Home: Music For All Seasons: ‘This is an amazing CD that manages not only to pay tribute to the rural style of life but the entire field of American traditional music as well. Ungar and Mason have created a unique blend of orchestral and folk music that manages to preserve the integrity of each style while enhancing each other.’

Jack looks at a band back together after a very long break: ‘Pastures of Plenty, named for one of the more famous Woodie Guthrie song, brings back togather all the original members of the JSD Band for only the second time in the recording studio since their breakup in 1974. The band have been compiling new material over the last couple of years which draws from the same original mix of traditional Irish, Scottish and American traditional music along with a new song penned by fiddler Chuck Fleming. ‘

Meredith has a two-for for us: ‘Irish singer, songwriter, and vocalist Susan McKeown, originally of Dublin but now emigrated to New York City, is widely considered to be one of the fastest rising stars in contemporary music. She has released several critically acclaimed albums, both on her own and with her New York-based Celtic/jazz/rock band The Chanting House. She has proven herself to be a very versatile artist, as two recent collaborations amply illustrate.’

Aly Bain’s Aly Bain & Friends says Pat is ‘Exuberant, rich, steeped in tradition and eclectic, this album is a snapshot of one of the great fiddle players of recent times having a bit of fun. At the end of the day though, despite his forays into other musical genres, Aly Bain remains the quintessential Shetland fiddler and his many fans around the world are glad of it.’

So this What Not is a review of the masked Spider-Gwen figure, out of the many figures in the Rock Candy line of Marvel characters. She was more than a bit difficult to find, as she was a Hot Topic exclusive but she had long since disappeared from those stores by the time I managed to track her down some months later. The non-masked version showing Gwen Stacy with blonde hair was available online just about everywhere — at the original price.

I just learned that Robert Hunter died on the 23rd of September. Fuck. Since I rather like ‘Brown-Eyed Women’ quite a bit but my favorite version isn’t the one with Garcia singing that the Dead did, but rather is one done by Hunter who wrote much of what they played including this song and my favourite version is done by him during a show at Biddy Mulligan’s in Chicago on the tenth of October some thirty years ago. So let’s now listen to him doing that song.

If the evidence says you’re wrong, you don’t have the right theory. You change the theory, not the evidence. — John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar

Oh those puppets. They’re the extra ones of an Autumnal nature that Folkmanis sent along, so I gave them a home on the shelves behind my desk here in our Estate Library. I particularly like the Mouse in the Pumpkin one, which Denise is reviewing for Autumnal Matters edition. Cute, isn’t she?

Now why don’t you give me a few minutes to finish up this Edition and we’ll head off to the Kitchen, as the season’s upon us when the staff’s making babka, that oh so exquisitely chocolate, rich Eastern European sweet, leavened bread along with the just as tasty rugelach, both a good treat as the weather cools, especially  when served with warm cider in those oversized mugs that some of my Several Annies crafted quite a while back.

Jayme has a book he’s very pleased about for us: ‘What a fascinating book! I’ve long been a fan of the Henson-produced science fiction series Farscape, particularly the effort the program always put in to making the alien species that populated the Farscape universe seem, well, alien. In The Creatures of Farscape: Inside Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, author Joe Nazarro takes readers behind the scenes to show with informative, straightforward prose — along with the aid of lavish photographs, sketches and concept art — just what kind of effort was needed to pull off one of the ambitious creative works ever presented on television.’

Richard has a cautionary note for us: ‘To say that Summer Morning, Summer Night is minor Bradbury is, I think, to miss the point entirely. While it shares the same Green Town, Illinois setting as his legendary Something Wicked This Way Comes, the material collected here works on a smaller, more delicate scale. It’s chamber music, not a brass band or a full orchestra, affectionate and truth-telling and warm in a way that only Bradbury can manage.’

Robert has a novel that’s merely good by the standards of that writer: ‘Patricia A. McKillip seems to write two kinds of novels. On the one hand, she has produced what I can only call thoughtful adventure stories, such as Riddle-Master. On the other are what I call the “mystery” stories — not detective fiction, but those stories that involve a central mystery in the religious sense: a transcendent image that cannot be explained or really even described. The Tower at Stony Wood is one of the latter.’

Sara’s ecstatic about a sequel: ‘Yay sequels! Loved faces and familiar places! Well, okay, maybe not in the Abarat. This gorgeous and meaty second book, in Clive Barker’s four book series about the adventures of Candy Quackenbush through the Abarat’s many things rich and strange is certainly every bit as entertaining and mysterious as the last, but in the Abarat, nothing is familiar, or comfortable, or certain.’ Read her review of Days of Magic, Nights of War to see what got her excited.

West Coast Cat takes a foray into mug cakes. Mug cakes? you ask. Says Cat: ‘Food crazes come and go, and I noticed that a current one is for mug cakes of various sorts. I tried a few and have thoughts. Mug cake, for those unfamiliar with the concept, is cake made in a mug in the microwave. Look in the baking mix section of your supermarket, if you’re American, and you’ll notice a sudden abundance of the “cake for one” concept.’ As for her thoughts on this phenomenon, you can find them here.

Mia happily notes that ‘Ignore the requisite “cute” child actor playing Mike Benedict (oddly, “cute” in 1960’s movies was often portrayed by whining and acting both obnoxious and mentally slow) and concentrate on the amazing performances by Tony Randall and the harsh but satisfying lessons taught by Dr. Lao and his circus performers. Moral but never preachy, sentimental but never maudlin, The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao is not to be missed.’

Craig happily notes that ‘Will Eisner’s The Best of The Spirit culls twenty-two stories from the dozen-year run of The Spirit, with two early selections (including the 1940 origin story). The vast majority, however, come from the postwar period, with 1946, 1948, and 1949 the most heavily represented. The introduction by Neil Gaiman (author of The Sandman series) acknowledges Eisner’s influence on him and otherwise reinforces Eisner’s importance to the medium (the community’s annual awards are named after him).’

Joe says ‘It’s not many bands that can claim to have invented a whole musical genre, but that’s what Horslips are credited with. Without them we wouldn’t have Celtic Rock. Of course Fairport Convention had been rocking up jigs and reels for a few years before the Irish band released their debut single “Johnny’s Wedding” in 1971, but with their first album Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part in ’72, the first real Celtic Rock album came into being.’

Peter wryly notes ‘The second album by the JSD Band was released in 1972 with declamatory sleeve notes by John Peel (the hippest man alive at the time). It included this account of a typical gig by this effervescent young band: “In a dark corner I danced with as much abandon as I ever allow myself and, for the umpteenth time blessed bands like the Faces and Lindisfarne who have brought joy and rowdiness back to our music.” He also went on to mention that “…no-one who goes on to buy this LP is ever going to flog it again…” How right he was.’

Robert has some comments on Linkin Park’s A Thousand Suns: ‘Full disclosure: as much as I am ever a “fan” of anything, I am a Linkin Park junkie. I suspect that’s only partly because they do loud, obnoxious rock and roll; it’s also partly because they are very sophisticated musicians who use the same vocabulary that musicians have been using since at least the sixteenth century. There’s a nice sense of continuity there.’

And Robert has something from the other end of the musical spectrum — or is it? Decide for yourself after reading his review of Leopold Stokowski’s collection of Rhapsodies: ‘No one who ever saw Disney’s Fantasia can forget Leopold Stokowski, who in many ways was the star of the film, even though he shared conducting honors with Mickey Mouse. Stokowski’s reputation as one of classical music’s greats is still largely unassailable, even though our taste as turned towards “purer” renderings, those that are more about the composer than the interpreter. Stokowski was, first and foremost, an interpreter, known as much for his tendency to pull out all the stops as for his musical erudition. This collection of concert favorites is a showcase for his particular brand of conducting.’

West Coast Cat brings us this week’s What Not, a somewhat odd creation from Folkmanis: Are you ready for a robot hand puppet? Well, that’s what we’ve got for you. You can go here to read Cat’s reaction.

So you hear the band name The Pogues and quite naturally think that their vocalist is Shane McGowan. Well for  most of the time the band was around,  you’d be right. But they did have a number of other vocalists down the decades when that wasn’t so and I’ll introduce you to one tonight in the guise of Andrew Ranken who performed the lead vocals on the ‘Star of the County Down’ in Köln Sporthalle, Germany on the seventh of November twenty eight years ago. He was their drummer and harmonica player and he appeared on all their official releases in those capacities.

One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats, and if some of these can be inexpensive and quickly procured so much the better. — Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea

Would you like a taoscán of Green Spot Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey? It’s not cheap but it’s considered the Pappy Van Winkle of Irish whiskies, as it’s both that good and that uncommon as well. We paid dearly for our bottle and I don’t expect that it’ll last very long. Good, I’ll get that for you. I’m sure you’ll find it quite amazing.

So Autumnal weather arrived today with a sharp tang in the air and rain as well. You’ll notice that it’s busy here in our Pub as both Estate staff and visitors are enjoying the fact that I’ve got Falstaff’s Fireplace well stoked this afternoon. And the Kitchen sent over several baskets of baked treats such as blackberry scones and their ever so popular dark chocolate chip cookies too.

Everything we review here could, by the measure established by Iris Murdoch, be considered a small pleasure. So read on to which ones you would  like to be your small pleasures.

Kestrell says ‘Rebecca Munford’s Re-visiting Angela Carter should be considered a necessary text for any scholar of Angela Carter’s work. Due to the density of the lit crit language, the this book is probably not for the general reader, although the dedicated Carter fan with a familiarity with literary criticism terms may wish to acquire a copy. It would also be wonderful to find this text being used in classes which focus on feminist approaches to film, radio, and other media.’

Kestrel in her second  review apprehensively says ‘when I sat down to view Lifeline Theatre’s live stage production of Neverwhere, I had my doubts. Works of fantasy offer a particular challenge for live theatre in that the fantastic often translates poorly to the limitations of the flesh and the material world, resulting in bad fur suits and the omission of many favorite passages.’ Now read her review to see why she was amazed by this performance!

Michael has a collection of short stories from a very prolific author: ‘Azazel is a collection of eighteen of his modern fantasy stories, all written during the 1980s. They originated in a story Issac Asimov wrote for a monthly mystery magazine, but, as the editor objected to the recurring fantasy elements, he soon found a home for an altered version of the concept at the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. After two such stories, the editor at Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine objected to the titular head of the magazine selling stories elsewhere, and thus, the next sixteen found a home at IASFM.’

Robert has the first volume of what could be an exceptional fantasy series, if this book is any indication: ‘Despite what the church claimed and the people believed, this was still a Kingdom born of younger sons, the land-hungry and the dispossessed. Thus begins one of the more fascinating books I’ve read in a while, Chaz Brenchley’s The Devil in the Dust.’

Robert has some very special chocolate for us: ‘Willie’s Cacao is the name of a chocolatier owned and operated by William Harcourt-Crooze, an Englishman with a passion for chocolate. Willie maintains that cacao from particular locations is like a fine wine, with its own flavor and character. Not surprisingly, given that approach, each of his chocolates is made from beans from a single estate.

David looks at the The Three Musketeers  and The Four Musketeers, both directed by Richard Lester: ‘The two films stand on their own merits individually but also form a wonderful whole when viewed together. The characters develop from the first to the second film. The relationships grow convincingly, and the action never lets up. There is sex, romance, and true love. There is action, and wit, and slapstick comedy. The scripts are glorious models of the screenwriter’s art, and there is not a bad performance to be seen. The sets are rich and faithful to the time, and the score (by Lalo Schifrin) underpins it all.’

Gary was moved by La misteriosa musica della Regina Loana, a tribute by two Italian jazz masters (Gianluigi Trovesi and Gianni Coscia) to their late friend, author and philosopher Umberto Eco. ‘It’s a loving tribute to Eco and at the same time a masterful performance of music that evokes an era but lives utterly in the present.’

Jessica notes that ‘Though The Lonesome Crowded West deals with ugly subjects, it does so effectively, with honesty and understanding. Stylistically, it can at times be both coarse and difficult. And Brock’s wavering lisp is not for everyone. However, I consider Modest Mouse to be one of the most talented and original young groups currently making music, and the way in which they graft various roots-music styles into the stuttering alienation of post-punk gives me hope that their appeal is not as limited as the self-referential indie rock scene.’

Green Linnet went out of business quite some decades ago, but Patrick reminds us that they were quite important in the Celtic Music music scene once upon a time: ‘And through it all, we can always count on Green Linnet to assemble some of the finest groups and most wonderful music in the genre, thanks in no small part to founder Wendy Newton’s willingness to stop and marvel at the musicians and revel in their music. As for finding something to rejoice about, take your pick of any of the artists featured on Nua Teorainn, one of the label’s latest releases. Each is extraordinary.’

Tim disclaims ‘I’ll admit, I don’t care for electronics in traditional musical forms, so I didn’t expect to like this CD. I didn’t want to like it. In the end, though, the arrangements were so inventive, and Kerstin Blodig’s voice so compelling, that I found myself listening to Valivann over and over again.’

Our What Not this week is from Cat, who takes a look at a Rock Candy figure of Lady Thor. Rock Candy? That’s what it says.

Good music of course is always a welcome small treat and so I’ve got such a treat for you in the form of ‘Jenny Rocking The Cradle’  by the Irish group De Dannan Lee by Frankie Gavin as recorded at the Canal Street Tavern in  Dayton, Ohio thirty seven years ago. This version of De Dannan seems to have gone defunct as their website has been shuttered. Actually neither version of the group (don’t ask, it’s too long a story to tell now and it’s depressing to boot) appears to exist anymore.

Good times don’t last long sometimes. — Levon Helm

We’ve had our first not so light frost last night, which was a few days early but not unusual for us. Gus, our Estate Gardener, protected what needed protecting and ruefully acknowledged that it meant that for many things the growing season was indeed at an end. So now his crew will be harvesting and processing a lot of produce that we’ll be gratefully using this coming off season.

So it’s likely we’ll have a garlic heavy squash soup with smoked pork sausage in it for supper sometime in this coming fortnight. Tonight we’re having a lasagna made with pork, tomatoes and peppers from our gardens with the oh so tasty cheese from Running Hill Estate.

Hmmm… I’ll tell you the fascinating story of Kedgeree before you turn to our reviews  as it’s considered a traditional British breakfast dish but its origins are rooted in Indian cooking having started its life as khichari, a simple dish of rice and lentils. Due to the British Raj and the colonization of the sub-continent the dish was taken, adapted and turned into something more suited to those serving in India, and it came to Britain during the Victorian era.

Cat leads us off with alternative history novel, The Peshawar Lancers, where the British Empire decamps to India: ‘The much more Indian that English culture is a brilliant re-visioning of British history that reads like vintage Poul Anderson, particularly his Dominic Flandry series. It features rugged heroes — male and female — vivid combat scenes, exotic locales, and truly evil villains. Hell, it even has Babbage machines, the great analytical engines that Sir Charles Babbage never built but which also play an important role in William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s The Difference Engine.’

Grey has one of her favourite books for us: ‘Some of the GMR staff were having a conversation about books that are beautifully written, books whose authors obviously love the English language and use it skillfully, extravagantly, profligately, even orgiastically. Patricia McKillip’s The Book of Atrix Wolfe is on my list of such books. It’s a book I return to at least twice a year, to linger once again in the richness of its language.’

Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span are two of my fav British folk rock(ish) bands, so it’s apt that Lars has a review of Brian Hinton and Geoff Wall’s biography of Ashley Hutchings: The Guv’nor & the Rise of Folk Rock as he helped birth both of those groups: ‘To some of us the subject of this book is, if not God, at least the musical equivalent to the pope. Name a group you like and have followed over the years, and there is a fair chance that Mr. Hutchings was there to start it, or at least influence the starting of it. He is in one way or another responsible for a very large number of the records in my collection, and yes, we are certainly talking three figures, here.’

It turns out that we don’t know who did this review as we had the wrong reviewer credited  but it is a splendid one nonetheless: ‘When faced with a work of the stature of I, Robot, one is pretty much at a loss. This is the collection of Isaac Asimov’s stories about robots that originally appeared between 1940 and 1950, collected and provided with a frame: Dr. Susan Calvin, the chief robopsychologist at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc., is being interviewed; this collection is her reminiscences of her career and some of the more interesting personalities — human and otherwise — she has known.’

This issue, Denise digs into Specially Selected Mango Chili Flavored Tortilla Strips with Chia Seeds. ‘Aldi is quickly becoming my go-to place for finding new things to try. They have a knack for creating items that make me do a double-take, and then put said things into my cart. Like these chips.’

Fairport Convention has had many a boxset in its over fifty-year existence and David looks at one of them, Fairport unCconventional: ‘Eleven lead singers, eleven lead guitarists, six fiddlers, seven drummers, five keyboard players, two bass players, four CDs, one 172 page book, a Family Tree from Pete Frame, a poster by Koen Hottentot, a history of Cropredy, some interesting loose papers and ads, a postcard for a 5th CD and a program from Martin Carthy’s birthday celebration! Whew! Does Free Reed know how to throw a party? Until further notice this box is the anthology of the year! Don’t miss it!’

Gary was quite pleased with Common Practice, a new jazz album by the Ethan Iverson Quartet with trumpeter Tom Harrell. ‘This is a beautiful recording of standards from the swing and bop eras (and a couple of Iverson compositions in that spirit), played in a modern way but with respect to their history.’

Gary reports on Dori Freeman’s third Americana release: ‘Dori Freeman is amassing an impressive catalog of work as she grows into her professional career as a songwriter, recording artist and performer, as well as a mature adult navigating her way through the world. Every Single Star is yet another solid demonstration of how to turn the particulars of a life into songs with universal appeal.’

Lars has a very fine album for us: ‘Live from Patrick Street was recorded in 1998 during a tour of Great Britain and Ireland. It is an unusual live album due to the fact that more than half of the tracks are previously unreleased. In that respect, it should be treated as a new album, not as a greatest hits-collection performed live. As usual, there is a mixture of songs (five) and instrumental tracks (seven); and, as usual, it is played with all the expertise you would expect from these gentlemen. We are talking the creme de la creme here.’

Patrick says that Lowlands, Susan McKeown’s sixth album, is ‘one of the most fascinating works I have listened to in what seems ages. There isn’t a bad song — not even a mediocre one — on this 12-track CD. Her practice of combining traditional works with non-traditional instrumentation gives each piece a very unearthly feel, while keeping their roots quite grounded in the fertile Celtic soil.’

Did you have a lovely Friday the 13th? Yes, lovely. No one here suffers from Friggatriskaidekaphobia, and neither should you. In fact, we relish the day. Why not? Frigg is a great goddess! Wisdom, prescience, and not to forget she’s the very entity we get Friday from! What’s not to like about that? (In this instance I’ll skip the Frigg/Freja discussion. We can have that at another time.)

So the next time you hear people freaking out about Friday the 13th, just smile. It’s gonna be a good day. A Frigg-in’ great day, in fact.

So let’s have some rock and roll. I’ve been thinking of The Band which is more or less a Canadian group despite doing ‘The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down’ which is one of the great anti-war protest songs ever. But I’m thinking of something a lot less heavy by them, to wit ‘Up On Cripple Creek’ in which lead vocalist Levon Helm recites the story Robbie Robertson wrote of a not so epic but highly entertaining day that an average joe has.

Like legend and myth, magic fades when it is unused. — Charles de Lint’s The Little Country

The Pub’s closed for a fortnight for its once a decade cleaning, as it gets a complete overhaul with everything from the slate floor removed and thoroughly cleaned to a complete paint job, which is a pain in the ass, given the size of the Pub. Of course, everything has to removed from it and stored away, which takes time as well. I’ve moved my office into an adjacent space to oversee the renovations. It’s worth it, but oh, the look on patrons when they see the We’re close for cleaning sign is somewhat heartbreaking.

So I’m pretty much free to do what I want as we’ve hired a outside firm to do the work needed. And Iain’s busy this week so I got the Sunday edition. Right now I’m sitting in the Kitchen having a late lunch, which is a plate of smoked turkey, cheese and hard rolls while listening to the kitchen crew talk about what’s going on about the Estate. I learned there’s two new pregnancies, one marriage coming up and we’ve got a Latvian Several Annie arriving next week.

Thinking about the coming colder weather got you down? Well Deborah has a reading recommendation: ‘While I recommend this book whole-heartedly for reading any time of day or night, on a plane, on a train, or simply on the couch at home, here is my specific prescription for Patricia McKillip’s The Bell at Sealey Head: buy it, place it upon your bookshelf, and wait. Wait until a day when you feel blue, or when the world is blue around you, with stormy heavens and endless rain. Make a cup of tea, settle yourself among soft pillows and fabrics, and then enter The Bell at Sealey Head. Savor it. You’ll feel better immediately.’

Kate ponders  Cats Have No Lord: ‘It was not immediately clear when I began to read this book exactly how the title fit with the story. However, the characters brilliantly pull a reader in, until the question is revealed, “Why do Cats Have No Lord?” I believe that is the first comical twist Will Shetterly gives this very busy plot.’

Robert says that ‘A good argument can be made for calling Emma Bull’s Bone Dance an urban fantasy. There is a great deal to do with the spirit world, events that are only explainable in terms of magic of some sort, and there are visitations from supernatural beings. However, the fact that it is set in a post-Apocalyptic dystopia, technology plays a pivotal role (although that is more because of its scarcity than because of its reliability), and the magic comes from “hoodoo” (Voudou is part of modern reality, for some of us at least) make me place it firmly in science fiction (which does, after all, leave room for beings with advanced mental powers).’ After you read his review, go read the first chapter here, courtesy of Emma.

Warner wasn’t too happy with the first volume of a new trilogy: ‘So sometimes, you just cannot connect with a book. Lies of Descent is the first book in a new trilogy by Troy Carrol Bucher. It is also a volume that fails in many ways to connect with the reader. The start is promising, if cliche, of a young man in a hard life discovering he has a very special destiny, and a girl making a similar discovery.’

It being nigh unto Autumn, let’s look at Simon McKie’s Making Craft Cider: A Ciderist’s Guide which comes with a warning from Gereg: ‘Let’s get the down side out of the way first. This is not a book you’ll pick up for light entertainment. It’s not a particularly a lively read, nor is it often witty (though the wit, where it comes out, is as dry as a good cider).’ If however you want to make hard cider as the Yanks call it, you really should read his review!

Craig has his Holmes for us: ‘The Sherlock Feature Film Collection gathers together the five feature-length installments of the Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke series, giving the viewer an opportunity to see these two actors together over a more leisurely period of time. Some are better than others, of course, but all of them allow us to further get to know this Holmes and Watson, without being rushed by the necessity of getting the story told in an hour’s time.’

We’re deep in Celtic this edition covering the Cornish, Manx, Irish, Scottish and Welsh traditions. So let’s get started…

Our lead-in review isn’t precisely Celtic but it is based on the music that Charles de Lint wrote for The Little Country, his novel  featuring Cornish small piper Janey Little, so it has its roots in Cornish music. Thus Cat has some comments on somewhat non-traditional rendering of the music of Charles de Lint, Zahatar’s The Little Country: ‘Zahatar is more akin to a classical music ensemble than it is to a folk group, and their arrangements of de Lint’s The Little Country compositions very much reflect that. It’s a lively but dignified approach to his songs, more closely akin to what you’d hear if you were listening to any classical music ensemble than to, say, a contradance band.’

Debbie has a great Scottish recording for us in Brian McNeill’s The Busker And The Devil’s Only Daughter: ‘As with all other albums I’ve heard by Brian McNeill, there is much to delight the listener. His creativity and eclectic approach to his music, laced with his honest passion for what he’s doing, make this worth seeking out despite some minor unevenness here and there.’

Barrule’s Manannan’s Cloak gets praised by Gary: ‘The Isle of Man is a small island in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland, with a lot of history and an ancient Celtic culture. Barrule is a trio that is celebrating that culture and bring the island’s jigs, reels and old Manx songs to the world. The group consists of fiddler Tomas Callister, guitarist and bouzouki player Adam Rhodes, both Manx natives and leading lights in the current revival of the music scene, and Welsh accordionist Jamie Smith (who also has a Welsh band called Mabon). This is their second album, and it’s a wonderfully lively collection of tunes and songs.’

Calennig’s A Gower Garland says Lars ‘may not be everyone´s cup of tea, but it should be interesting to anyone with the slightest interest in Welsh music or Welsh culture, even though everything here is sung in English. I know what I will be playing in the car stereo the next time I get the opportunity to visit Rhossili Bay.’

Patrick has an equally superb Irish album for us: ‘The ease with which they deliver these pieces on Street Life is an abject lesson to every young band looking to achieve longevity in a very fickle marketplace. There was a time when each new Patrick Street album defined the session content of every Irish-music-type person in North America. Those days may have passed given the availability of other recordings but their new albums are always welcome and given some of the directions “Celtic music” is taking these days I think I’ll stick with the tried and true.’

Mia has a bonnie brunch of fantastical dragons and one gryphon for us: ‘These four puppets are lovely examples of why Folkmanis is the single premier fantasy puppetmaker. This is just a small sampling of their dragons and other fantastic creatures; they have several other dragons, a sea serpent, a pegasus, a unicorn . . . and boy do I have my eye on the griffin. Folkmanis puppets are great for kids who want to use their imagination in play — but I really think they’re better for adults like me who never really plan to grow up.’

The weather’s already starting to get cooler here, so let’s see if we’ve got some  music to match … so how about ‘Come a’ Ye Kincardine Lads’ by the Old Blind Dogs, a Scottish trad band that’s very, very popular around here? It was recorded at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre located somewhere in Ohio back in March sixteen years ago. The fine sound tells me it was a soundboard recording.

To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due. — Hob Gadling, toasting upon Dream’s journey as told in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman: Season of Mists

Autumn is yet to arrive here with its promise of bonfires, fresh pressed cider, of blackberries fat and tart on their prickly bushes  and pumpkins still ripening on the vine, but it’s also the time of year that we get fully in gear about getting ourselves ready for the coming Winter.  So if you visit us on the Kinrowan Estate, someone will ask you to pitch in on some task or other that does need doing. So dress appropriately, have a good attitude, sturdy footware and you’ll be appreciated here rather nicely.

It’s rather quiet in the Pub on this warm afternoon, as almost everyone who can be is outside is either doing needed chores or just enjoying the unseasonably warm weather as it’s twenty three out right now, with not a breeze to be felt. I’ve the windows open here airing the place out, which is something I rarely get to do this time of year. I do have a group of German tourists sampling ciders and chatting with me about northern German favourite foods we share in common.

Denise has a fantasy that makes her long for the next book in the series: ‘What do you get when you take an assassin sick of killing, a petulant half-demon and his hubba-hubba aide “Nursie,” a barely pubescent girl who would leave a marathoner in the dust, and a cook so amazing she could make gruel taste like foie gras? The beginnings of Kage Baker’s The Anvil of the World, one of the most enjoyable romps I’ve had between the pages in a very long time.’

Robert looks at The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth and Other Stories: ‘This is one of those instances where I have to stop myself or go on for pages and pages. Let it suffice that, as I was dipping into the stories once more in preparation for this review, I found myself caught again and again by images bizarre, frightening and wonderful, less than willing to put the book down until I had finished whatever tale had caught my eye. As much of Roger Zelazny’s work as I’ve read (and at this point, I think it’s almost everything), I can’t offhand think of any better introduction.

Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett’s Point Of Dreams says Sarah ‘is basically a murder mystery. The city of Astreiant may be in a world where magic works and ghosts walk, but it’s still a mystery. That magic only serves to complicate things for the law enforcers, the Pointsmen, so called because their stations, and perhaps their beats, are known as Points. A point is also what a Pointsman makes where a policeman would say a charge. The people of Astreiant make their words do heavy duty.’

Warner says ‘The stand-alone fantasy novel is something of a rarity in this day and age, and Julie E. Czerneda as produced an excellent example of it. Czerneda is already an experienced hand in the fantasy genre, with 20 novels under her belt including award-winning books like A Turn of Light, but The Gossamer Mage is something truly special.’

Denise pops the top on a box of Dent Duett pastilles. ‘For those days when you can’t seem to make up your mind on what kind of taste you’re craving – which for me is just about every single day of my life – Duet has an equal amount of sweet and sweetly savory.’ But are they any good? Well, read her review!

Aurora looks at two versions of The Lion in Winter, James Goldman’s story of the Christmas Court of King Henry II and Queen Eleanor that wasn’t. One version has the pair played by Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn, the other by Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close. Read her review to see why she was surprised that she liked both versions.

Gary reviews a jazz recording by the Israeli-born duo Avishai Cohen and Yonathan Avishai called Playing The Room. He was quite taken with the album, in particular one piece, South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim’s “Kofifi Blue,” of which he says, ‘if this doesn’t have you flaneuring up and down the boulevard with your walking stick as you hum this tune, I don’t know what it’ll take.’

Gary also reviews a live recording called Roma by Italian flugelhornist Enrico Rava and American tenorist Joe Lovano, backed by a lively young rhythm section. ‘The program features only five pieces, all long works with lots of room for the players to stretch their ample improvisatory muscles.’

Gary’s not done with jazz yet. He has one more called Jazz and Art by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, with 10 songs dedicated to and inspired by modern American visual artists and their work. ‘Although it’s played by a large ensemble that some may think of as old-fashioned, this music is as richly varied as the artworks that inspired it and the backgrounds of its composers.’

Dorothea, says Richard, is from Lais, who are ‘a unique group that has no equivalent, to my knowledge, anywhere in the world of music. This seven-piece band from the Flemish region of Belgium is fronted by three alluring young women, Jorunn Bauweraerts, Annelies Brosens and Nathalie Delcroix, who sing, move and gesture in a highly dramatic manner while singing beautiful harmonies, occasionally a cappella, but more often to an eclectic accompaniment that ranges from the downright folky to something closer to electropop.’

Scott notes ‘The members of Mozaik all have reputations which precede them, and the musicianship on Live from the Powerhouse lives up to expectations. Long-time fans of any of the individual performers will want to have this CD. Newcomers looking for quality Irish or world music will find much to like about this as well, although they might want to catch up on Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny’s histories while they’re at it. It will be interesting to see if Mozaik becomes a fairly permanent outfit, with multiple albums and tours, or if all the performers return to their regular career.’

Our What Not this week is a Mile Morales Spider-Man figure. Cat says ‘So I went hunting on the internet for a good Miles Morales Spider-Man figure. I liked that particular Spider-Man after seeing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse while I was in-hospital being treated for a staph infection that required not only that I have bone surgery but that I spend forty two days there having antibiotics three times a day. So I was looking for something entertaining to watch and I heard very good things about this film. It turned out that it is a fantastic film that if a Spider-Man fan you should see now as Miles Morales is an amazing Spider-Man and the rest of the Spider-Beings are equally amazing.’

Joe Strummer, May He Rest In Peace, had a much better voice that Shane MacGowan ever had on his very best day which I swear never happened. So I’ll show you that by letting you hear him when he fronted the Pogues in Köln, Sporthalle, Germany on the seventh of November twenty eight years ago to sing ‘If I Should Fall From Grace With God’. What an amazing voice!

I watched the people passing below, each of them a story, each story part of somebody else’s, all of it connected to the big story of the world. People weren’t islands, so far as I was concerned. How could they be, when their stories kept getting tangled up in everybody else’s? ― Charles de Lint’s Spirits in the Wires

Summer, meteorologically speaking, has a ways to go, but Tamsin, the hedge witch resident on this Scottish Estate, notes that late August really is the turning of the year from Summer to Autumn in all the ways that really count. The days have become noticeably shorter, the nights are definitely cooling off and the vegetable gardens are beginning their slow fade into being fallow.

So indeed Autumn will be soon upon us — Summer’s already waning as the plants in our gardens are just now showing their form of botanical entropy, which puts them on their last legs before first frost kills them off entirely. So Gus, our Estate Head Gardener, and his staff has been drying beans and apples, preparing root cellars for carrots and the like, braiding strings of onions and garlic, sending cornucopias of produce to the Kitchen for Mrs. Ware and her staff to pickle, can or freeze as they see proper.

The Changeling Sea sort of pleased Grey: ‘This is a pocket-sized paperback book of one hundred and thirty seven pages. The story inside is small, but potent, like a well-crafted spell. It makes perfect sense, but it’s fairy tale sense, not reasonable sense. To use a poetry metaphor, Patricia McKillip’s style isn’t like iambic quadrameter or pentameter, but rather like Gerard Manley Hopkin’s sprung rhythm. The story ebbs and flows naturally around the shapes and sounds of words and images. The ending feels right. I sense that there’s no other way for this story to end. Yet it leaves me, not deeply content and satisfied, but restless. Which is a good way for a story about the sea to feel.’

So Kelly realises something and he shares with us: ‘Confession time: as a working writer, albeit one who is as yet unpublished in the fiction realm, I have a weakness for books about writing by successful writers. I have quite the collection of them, sitting atop my desk — volumes by Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, Cory Doctorow, and others. I used to wonder why I like this kind of book so much, since quite frankly, a lot of the advice you’ll find is similar from one book to the next. (“Write a lot, write every day, read a lot, read every day, avoid adverbs, avoid passive constructions, lather, rinse, repeat.”) It occurred to me, while reading Jane Yolen’s new book, Take Joy, that in these books I’m not really looking for advice or pointers for publishing at all. I’m not looking for “how-to” anymore. What I’m looking for is inspiration, a “pep-talk” of sorts.’

Patrick says ‘When Roger Zelazny died in 1995, his was one of the few “celebrity” deaths that actually saddened me on a deeply personal level. In some way I always identified with him and his characters. He was a role model for writers; a fountain of creativity whose waters could be bottled up and shared with others. I was saddened, too, by what I saw as the death of his characters: There would be no sequels to take me back to my beloved Changeling and Madwand worlds; no new Ambers.’ So now read his review of Lord Demon to see what he thinks of the work Jane Lindskold did in fleshing it out.

Robert brings us Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems, a collection that’s actually fun: ‘Frank O’Hara is one of those American poets who hovers on the edge of what we are pleased to call “greatness.” Perhaps he hovers there because there is something tongue-in cheek about O’Hara’s work — and, one suspects, about his attitude toward life — which means that we can’t possibly take him as seriously as that. I suspect there is some logical fallacy there. As O’Hara himself wrote, “Pain always produces logic, which is very bad for you.”’

West Coast Cat strays to the sweet side as she tastes three different chocolate bars from Seattle Chocolate, finding two noteworthy and the third not so much. Read her tasty notes to see if they pleased her.

This past week marked the 54th anniversary of The Beatles’ only visit to Gary’s home state of Oregon. He has a review of a documentary that chronicles that visit where they played two shows at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum, which he says is a bit of a mixed bag.

Debbie says of  Steeleye Span In Concert that ‘No matter how many times you’ve listened to your old Steeleye Span recordings, you’ve never heard these songs like this before unless you were lucky enough to see the performances from which the songs on this CD were taken. If you love this band and especially if you were not able to see them perform live, go out and get a copy!’

Gary reviews Pharmakon the debut album by indie folk band Humbird featuring singer-songwriter Siri Undlin. ‘This is such a brave album. Undlin puts her words and voice on the line, daring her audience to enter into her poetic explorations with song after song on themes that recur in our culture’s literature, tales, films, music.’

A band that includes cello, droning synthesizers and jazzy alto sax solos? That’s what Gary says of How to Live by Modern Nature, an English indie-folk group led by Jack Cooper. ‘The enigmatic songs themselves and repeated ideas and sounds both instrumental and lyrical, give this album a rich sense of layering and depth,’ he says.

Ranarop, Call of the Sea Witch in English, is a recording Iain really liked: ‘Gjallarhorn is a foursome from Ostrobothnia, the Swedish speaking area of Finland. They are tightly bound to both folk music traditions, and ancient mythology. Musically, the band is a mixture of fiddle, mandola, didgeridoo, and percussion, with vocals provided by Jenny Wilhelms. Ranarop is an amazing album, with a singular sound which makes the band appear to be larger than it is.’

Kim exclaims ‘Kila’s Lemonade and Buns, their latest offering, continues the wild instrumentals and hypnotic vocals that made Tog e Go Bog e such as delight. Melodies on the uilleann pipe sound as if they were lifted from a session, lured away from the safety of indoors into the night by a fairy lover with djembe and a rain stick. Then the saxophone takes over, and the music conveys the ease and warmth of the tropics, where we can really surrender to the need to dance. Vocal numbers are frenzied, with simple melodies that become a part of the texture of bass, percussion, and wailing middle eastern influences that blend with Irish tunes and insist on dancing — or why else would this music exist?’

Cat has a look at an aspect of Dr. Who (all of them) that you probably noticed but didn’t think about much: ‘Doctor Who Magazine: Costume Design: Dressing the Doctor from William Hartnell to Jodie Whittaker is an amazing undertaking as it covers pretty much the entire history of the series from its inception some fifty years ago during the black and white era, when CGI didn’t exist, so costuming was how everything was created, to the modern era when a lot of what was costuming is now rendered as CGI.’

August has come to the end, so let’s have some fitting music to see it out. I’ve chosen ‘Herd on the Hill’ and ‘Elsie Marley’ by Northumbrian fiddler and smallpiper Kathryn Tickell as performed her at the Shoreditch Church down London way on the fifteen of June nine years ago. Sweet music indeed to see the month out.

People talk about mainstream fiction and sf as though they were two quite different kinds of writing, and fantasy as well, as though it was quite different. But I think this a false distinction, that it is a labelling that helps librarians, and people who know the kind of thing they like and don’t want their prejudices to be disturbed.” ― Angela Carter’s Shaking a Leg: Collected Journalism and Writings

We get really interesting things in for review. This past week saw Folkmanis send us what our Editor has labelled the Autumnal Puppets: a Worm in An Apple, a Chipmunk in Watermelon and a Mouse in Pumpkin. I’ve seen all three and the latter I think is my favourite. It’s adorable enough that I’ve ordered one for placement here in the Library amidst the books just because it is, well, quite folklorish I think. They’re all getting their due review in our special Autumn Edition sometime in October.

OK. I’m off to the Kitchen as I’m feeling a bit peckish and I’ve heard they’ve made sausage, tomato and cheddar cheese tarts that are being kept warm along with the first pressed cider, a favoured drink on this Estate. So here’s this Edition for your reading pleasure…

Cat has a look at another mystery set in an alternate Cairo, P. Djèlí Clark‘s A Dead Djinn in Cairo: ‘This story precedes The Haunting of Tram Car 015 and lays down some of the backstory that’s not quite explained in that book. It, like that other story, makes me hope Clark will actually write a novel set in the alternate twentieth century Cairo, as it’d be a fascinating place to explore at length.’

Speaking of folklorish matters, I’ve got a look at Angela Carter’s The Curious Room: Plays, Film Scripts and an Opera. As I said in my review, ‘Sometimes the Reaper is just too damn unfair. Angela Olive Stalker Carter died of lung cancer in 1992 at the far too young age of 52. Writer, feminist theorist, folklorist, opera buff, playwright, poet — she was these things and much, much more.’

Not quite Autumn yet, but Triskell Press has released a digital edition of Charles de Lint’s Yarrow: An Autumn Tale, which Grey delightfully notes is ‘set in de Lint’s Ottawa, the one he first envisioned for his novel Moonheart, and expanded in its sequel, Spiritwalk. Those readers who have fallen in love with the wonderful Tamson House of these two novels will be delighted to note its brief appearance in Yarrow as well. However, the characters in Yarrow are part of different story than the residents of Tamson House and their associates, and Yarrow is a stand-alone novel.’

Some novels arise from The smallest of seeds, other have an extensive family tree. Richard looks at one of the latter from Ray Bradbury: ‘A Pleasure to Burn is best summed up as literary living history, and as a pile of paradoxes. It’s a book dedicated to the joys of reading that’s best read in bits and pieces, a collection of wonderful works that when places in close proximity threaten to crowd one another, and a collection of short stories that’s perhaps more important for what isn’t included — the actual novel of Fahrenheit 451 — than what is. None of that, however, subtracts from the magic, or the importance, of A Pleasure to Burn.’

Simon McKie’s Making Craft Cider: A Ciderist’s Guide comes with a warning from Gereg: ‘Let’s get the down side out of the way first. This is not a book you’ll pick up for light entertainment. It’s not a particularly a lively read, nor is it often witty (though the wit, where it comes out, is as dry as a good cider).’ If however you want to make hard cider as the Yanks call it, you really should read his review!

Rachel looks at a Hong Kong film: ‘2002 is the purest example of style without substance that I’ve ever come across. The title is never explained; motly, the plot makes little sense; and seekers of deep meaning will search in vain. The movie doesn’t just feature coolness, it’s about coolness: slow-motion shoot-outs and rain-slicked streets and looking chic in black leather. For sheer delirious style, 2002 is hard to beat.’

April has a treat for us: ‘Visually stunning, and a host of intriguing things to say about perception and memory, Violent Cases was definitely an impressive debut for the duo of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean duo.’

Gary reviews the latest release from The Rails, their third, titled Cancel The Sun. He says it has a bit more rock to it than their previous album, but it’s still recognizably English folk-rock. ‘The arrangements and production have just enough sophistication to them to set them above simple folk fare, but the words always stand out as timely, thoughtful and important.’

Jack says of The White Horse Sessions by Nightnoise that ‘I spent years looking for this album after Reynard, a bandmate of mine in Mouse in the Cupboard, said it was an album that I should hear. (He heard it on some late-night Celtic radio programme, but couldn’t find a copy either! Nor could he remember who the DJ was.) But literally nowhere was there a copy to be had at any price or in any format. We both began to suspect that perhaps this was one of those fey albums that only existed across the Border, but a copy showed up in the post here a few months ago at Green Man with a scribbled unsigned note and a smudged postmark that might have said ‘Bordertown’ but I can’t be sure. It simply said that the sender had heard that I was looking for The White Horse Sessions, and here was a copy of the CD! Whoever you are, thank you!’

Lars says ‘If you want a fine piece of Scottish music I would recommend Synergy. If you like it, then get Ae Spark of Nature´s Fire as well. And, if they ever play at a place near you, do not miss Deaf Shepherd. From what they present on these CDs they must be a great live band.’

Scott notes ‘Frigg’s delightful self-titled debut album in 2004, it marked the emergence of a new generation of musicians from a pair of prominent fiddling families from Finland and Norway. Now Alina (fiddle), Esko (fiddle and keyboards), and Antti (bass and fiddle) Järvelä; Gjermund and Einar Olav Larsen (fiddle and Hardanger fiddle); Tuomas Logrén (guitar and dobro); and Petri Prauda (mandolin, cittern, Estonian bagpipes) have returned with a new CD Oasis. Happily, Frigg’s sophomore effort exceeds its predecessor by quite a bit, with tighter playing, a more diverse sound, and some ambitious arrangements and original compositions.’

Denise decided to indulge her love of all things dragon for this edition, with a review of Folkmanis’ Winged Dragon Puppet. ‘…[W]hen I saw the Folkmanis Winged Dragon Puppet, my thoughts immediately went to Pern. And okay, Toho.’ Sound discordant? Not so – read her review to find out why she thinks this puppet harks back to two such disparate genres!

Now let’s see what’s been listed  for Breton music on the Infinite Jukebox, our media server, for music. Ahhhh that’ll do. ‘An Dro’ and ‘Hunter Dro’ aka ‘The Breton Set’ is from John Skelton,  Jerry O’Sullivan, Pat O’Gorman and Tony Cuffe who might have been know as The Windbags if  they’d actually ever become a band which they did not do as Cuffe died not long after this was recorded. They had recorded this set of tunes in preparation of doing an album but that was it.

‘Order me some of that delicious-looking lager those people are drinking and I’ll reveal everything,’ said Angela. ― Ngaio Marsh’s A Man Lay Dead

It’s been unusually hot and humid here, so Mrs. Ware and her ever so talented Kitchen staff have been doing cold food all week such as smoked chicken, American style ham-and-cheese breakfast biscuits, salmon and new pea pasta salad, mustard and vinaigrette dressed new potato salad and of course strawberry ice cream for dessert. Lots of iced tea and the like to keep folks hydrated has been on tap as well. She has had the oven on in the cooler hours to make up chocolate chip cookies and even brownies as those never go out of demand around this Estate.

I’ve been farming off the Festival work we do this time of year to the younger Pub staff who don’t mind the long hours of being elsewhere on the Estate, so I can stay here in the cool environs of basement Pub. It’s also quieter here as the musically and literary inclined are elsewhere. So I’ve been enjoying a re-read of the original four issues of Charles Vess’ The Book Of Ballads And Sagas which he released on his own press decades back. They’re hard to find today, but Tor did a revised edition called The Book of Ballads which is readily available.

We’ve got a nice fat edition full of new material and some carefully curated material from deep in our Archives. And I do mean deep. Read on to see not one, but two first  recordings from bands we like a lot here.