The Lampworks Lamplighter

SF & Fantasy News & Reviews

In this issue

  • The changing of the year
  • Reviews: Guy Gavriel Kay, Terry Pratchett, Yoon Ha Lee, and Scott Lynch
  • Featured promotions to help you find new authors to follow

The Changing of the Year

If this were a normal year, I would be in Japan with my family. I call my wife's mother's house "the last house at the end of the rice fields before the mountains." It's in a small village at the edge of a populous river valley. Beyond it are steep hillsides, often planted with rows of tea bushes. Wild boar and monkeys make their home there, requiring a defensive perimeter around the family gardens to stop their depredations. There is probably a local legend of the gaijin who once a year walks over the mountain to see the temple on top and the ruins of a castle that stood there four hundred years ago. The few other hikers stare, but bow when I wish them akemashite omedetou - happy new year - as I pass. Even up here, small shrines and buddha statues are tucked along the path, hiding among the gnarled tree roots.

On New Year's eve, the family would gather to cook a big meal, play games, listen to a singing show on television, and wait for midnight. The great bell on the temple behind the house begins to ring just before the hour. It's a deep sound, stately, once every few minutes. It rings one hundred and eight times, once for each worldly desire the Buddhists teach that you should leave behind. We go out and join the small crowd (it's a small temple) and take a turn to swing the heavy log that tolls the bell. The monk hands out small bowls of noodle soup which we eat standing around a bonfire. Some years the snow can be quite deep, here in the mountains.

osechi This is not a normal year. We bought or made all the Japanese foods to make our own osechi ryori. The singing show was carried by a satellite channel that we get. My wife spent New Year's eve - Tokyo time - on FaceTime with her mother. We watched many of the Studio Ghibli movies. If you watch Totoro some time, the village and the house are not unlike that place at the end of the rice fields.

I take a lot of inspiration for stories and settings from these places, and from other places we visit. It's easy to imagine walking through a forest on Sellenria when climbing through a forest of bamboo that loom twenty feet or more in the air. The thousands of statues at one temple atop a mountain in Shikoku became the morghaests in that story. A town in Switzerland spread over two hills became Misthaven. Another became the town of Plurs, in Knots. Of course, some come closer to home. The Lake of Reflections, from the sequel to Sellenria that is in progress, looks a lot like our own lake Cayuga, below our house.

Wishing you the best of the new year.
-Chuck


Midwinter Knots

A new short story in the world of Knots. Escher and Emeline have brought a tree into the house to decorate, and Trefoil the cat must investigate, of course. There's something not quite right about this tree — they've brought trouble into the house along with it. It's up to Trefoil to guard the house against the mayhem that ensues. If he doesn't get put outside first.


Free download from StoryOrigin

Knots

What reviewers have said:
Knots is a compelling story filled with unexpected characters, plot twists, literal location twists, mystery and redemption.
It's rare to find a story that defies convention/formulae and confidently goes where it needs to go.
Loved the book and the writing style such as the excerpts from the archives that connects back to the story (or maybe even to real world events).
Buy on Bookshop.org amazon

Sellenria

It came as a shock to archaeologist Stenn Gremm to find that his ancestor had been a warlock.
What reviewers have said:
This book delighted on so many levels. It's smart, insightful, and wise. The many passages I highlighted are to remind myself how to be a better person.
... this story bolstered my faith that someone can still write decent sci-fi.
This story contains all you expect from SciFi: alien creatures, epic battles, and strange worlds; but even more it's a story about the best in people, whether human or otherwise.
Buy on Bookshop.org amazon

What we're reading

Under Heaven

Guy Gavriel Kay


This is now my favorite book of 2020. Set in a fantasy realm analog to Tang Dynasty China, minor noble Shen Tai carries out a two-year vigil and is rewarded by a princess with 250 magnificent horses. The question is whether he will survive the gift. The assassin arrives two pages later. Tai navigates the undercurrents of the court, the ambition of powerful men and women, and the enmity of his brother. If he doesn't keep his balance ...
Buy on Bookshop.org amazon

A Year and a Day in Old Theradane

Scott Lynch


“I sometimes think that ‘friend‘ is just a word I use for all the people I haven‘t murdered yet,” says the capable and accomplished thief (retired) who is at the focus of this enjoyable tale. Getting angry enough to tell off the head wizard of Theradane (that their ruling body is named the Parliament of Strife should clue you in that isn't a good idea), she is set a task by said wizard: steal the street of her rival! Yes, the whole street.
Buy on amazon

Nation

Terry Pratchett


When your coming-of-age is interrupted by a tsunami, do you try to rebuild the life you had, or something better? Pratchett's satire skewers colonialism, religion (but not belief that is flexible enough to accommodate evidence), cricket, and much more.
Buy on Bookshop.org amazon

The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired Middle-earth

John Garth


Renowned Tolkien expert John Garth takes the reader on a surprising exploration of Tolkien's life and how the places he knew, visited, and read about shaped his writings. The Shire, Rivendell, Mirkwood, Gondor, Mordor - many places and cultures in Middle Earth were inspired by real places across Europe as well as Africa and even America, and beautiful illustrations and photos help to bring the journey to life. Truly a treat for anyone interested in delving "under the hood" of Tolkien's world, and even includes tantalizing tidbits from earlier versions of published works, from when Middle Earth was much more closely tied to England in Tolkien's mind.
Buy on Bookshop.org amazon

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Featured Promotions

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