Review: Tales From The Magician’s Skull #7

So the seventh issue of TftMG arrived a couple of weeks ago. This is the first issue from the most recent Kickstarter, and the first to contain tales from their open call for submissions last year.

I’ll start off with my disappointingly regular complaint about typos. Some stories have more than others, as if some received better proofreading. Surely I am not the only one of the readers who wishes for better editing in this regard. The first story had three unsubtle errors that should have been caught. We are paying a premium price for the magazine. Can we please get an additional proofreader with a good grasp of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation to do a pass on each story before it is signed off on as ready? Yeah, that is harsh, but we’re paying for it to be done right; so why can’t it? It’s been seven issues now, Publisher Goodman and Editor Jones, and things are still somewhat slack on this front.

The cover is a pretty cool illustration from Sanjulian with a nice use of color. It reflects one of the stories, Beneath a Scarlet Moon. The magazine doesn’t always use a cover that is based on one of the stories contained in the issue, but I prefer it when it does, as opposed to some generic Swords & Sorcery-based cover. The illustration of the manticore does not match either the myth or the the story, though. The paper is still heavyweight stuff this issue, but the color is plain rather than parchment. This is explained as the printer did not have the regular paper due to the pandemic. Not a big deal. There is a brief editorial and then some remarks from the Skull. The main point worth mentioning here is the Skull’s enthusiasm for Dashiell Hammet. If you read my review of Red Harvest, you know I wholeheartedly agree.

Onto the stories! As before, I will keep spoilers to a minimum, and when I simply must elaborate, the details will be inside of parentheses (like this) so you can skip over that section. I break with this procedure at one point below, but you’ll see it clearly when you come to it.

The first story is Snake in the Fold, by Clint Werner. It is another tale of the samurai Shintaro Oba in his battles against demons. Very good story. Oba travels to a fallen temple to hopefully find information that will help his demon-stricken lord. Solid mix of action and atmosphere. I think the timing is a little off on some of the scenes (the samurais from his enemy got to the temple way too quickly; since he had to cross the lake to reach temple, he would have seen their boat on the water before he reached the top of the cliff for them to have arrived as quickly as they did), but it does not detract at all. The struggle with honor rings true and is well-reasoned. No sign of his godling companion here, and it was oddly missed by me.

Something I noticed in reading this Oba story that I hadn’t before: the name of the land he is going through is named Mu-Thulan. The name of a section of Clark Ashton Smith’s continent of Hyperboria is Mhu Thulan. Clark’s fantasy was set in the far north, and Werner’s is fantasy Asia, perhaps intended to be legended lost continent of Mu. Maybe it’s a coincidence or maybe there’s a tribute there; a very tenuous connection between the two fantasy continents, besides sharing an almost identical name.

The second story is another tale of Benhus, the King’s Blade: The Gift of a Poisoned necklace, by John C. Hocking. The author is in his stride here, as the stories about Benhus just get better and better. This one involves an investigation for a noble that he has some fondness for, and it leads to the seedy side of the city and then a climactic confrontation at the noble’s manor. Great pacing, characterization, and action, and effective use of Chekov’s Gun. Another hint about what a bastard the king is. A little chronology is stated here, as it has been about a year since he was in the legions; so all of the Benhus stories published in TftMG have been within a year. I’d like to see the return of a few of the other characters which have survived, and more of the jerk king; but that is a good thing, to be left wanting more.

The only real problem in this story, which is not a deal for me personally, is to remember that every story is somebody’s first with that character. In this case, the special property of his knife was not explained. If you have read other Benhus stories, you are familiar with it, but for the first time Benhus reader, they would not understand why the blade is so effective. A simple sentence or two about it would have clarified it for that reader.

Next up is Death Stalks the Night by D. J. Tyrer. It is a story that seems to be set in real Africa, an indeterminate time ago, in the southern part of the continent. It is pretty good. The use of commas is occasionally a bit jarring. It seems the author is trying give an authentic dialect or cadence, but it sometimes is just awkward (or perhaps missed editorially). There are some African words used that could have been explained in context better rather than having me go to Wikipedia – for instance, I originally thought “muti” was simply magic, but it is a particular kind of magic or medicine used with trees or other plants. Makes sense after I looked this up, but it would not have troubled the author to make this meaning clearer in the story; others might not look it up and assume that muti means simply magic. Also, the sidekick, who appears to be one of the San people from the southern savanna, is truly relegated to the sidekick roll – he just offers some advice to move the plot forward at a few points and then disappears in relevant conversations and the final action, and it is not clear why, aside from his stature, that he is ignored in these circumstances. He isn’t even named until a quarter of the way into the story. And why are these two wandering around the savanna in the first place? Despite these points, it was decent story, and I’d certainly like to know what happens next when Ini-ndoga tries to fulfill a vow he made in this story.

This is followed by Dara’s Tale by Mark Rigney. I liked this one a lot. It features a 13 year-old girl who idolizes a similarly-aged girl in a fable and how she rose to be a heroine. Massive changes come to the central character’s village, and she comes to understand the parallel with her hero Dara, and eventually what she must do. There is a nice transition into competence for the main character as the tale progresses, as she has taken confidence from her allegorical heroine. The unfolding of this tale and its climax is well-written and engaging, with a lot of uncertainty. The last sentence of the tale is one the author might have fallen in love with and used when the image doesn’t really make sense visually (specifically, the book spinning around before resting – the floor would have to be Teflon-coated for that to happen), but that may just be me, and it doesn’t detract at all from the story. It’s also cool that she identified the possible weakness of her idol and was prepared when confronted with the situation.

The next tale is Interred With the Worm by Scott J. Couturier. Another strong story. The author uses language in a way that draws attention to itself, and it is not always fluid, but after a while I didn’t notice. This is the tale of a grave robber who was sent after a particular object, being told in first person years later to another who desires the object. A mix of humor and horror, this story reminded me a little bit of Clark Ashton Smith’s Satampra Zeiros. I’m a little uncertain what would satisfy him with the revelation at the end, but it is kinda funny. A strong tale, undercut slightly by the fact that you know the narrator survives the conflict.

This is followed by Beneath a Scarlet Moon by Nathan Meyer, the issue’s cover story. A man on a dying earth tracks those who took his son across a bleak landscape. This is a very good story, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I probably should have. First – not the author’s fault – there are a couple of typos in the very first paragraph. My rant above probably covers this, but it made an irritating start to the story, and there were a number of other typos in the story. But mainly – and I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing, it just stood out starkly as I read it – there is a strong similarity to the Kane tale “Two Suns Setting” by Karl Edward Wagner.

This paragraph will contain spoilers, so skip all of it if you don’t want to spoil the story. In Wagner’s tale, Kane is fleeing from the city-state of Carsultyal through a decaying landscape and encounters a giant, the last of his kind. After some extended conversation on the passing of once-great races and where humanity fits in, there is an epic battle between the giant and a sabretooth – also the last of its kind. The giant overcomes it but is mortally wounded as well, dying as the sun goes down (hence the title). In Beneath a Scarlet Moon, the main character is a raider (much like Kane at times in his career) and he encounters a centaur, the last of her kind. She talks about vanished times. She fights a manticore, suggested to be the last of his kind. The main juxtaposition here is that while Kane is immortal, this hero, Auric, is mortally wounded by poison early in the story. Rather than Kane crowning the giant as he lay obliviously dying, the centaur holds the oblivious hero as they both lay dying, with the dying sun rising over them and the red moon sets. There is also a powerful bloodstone ring to further tie into the Kane stories.

So it is not a copy by any means, but it hits so many of the same story beats and themes that it was distracting me as I read this story, impacting the escapism I expect from a good S&S tale. Maybe I was the only person to read this tale that felt that way, as it is a strong story; but still, that is how I felt. I’m guessing it was a deliberate homage – too many coincidences to be otherwise.

Anyway, the story did create a strong mood and there was a lot of action. Kinda cool that the main character never got the point of why others might have a problem with the acts of raiding and plunder, and why a woman would not like being taken for his wife in that fashion. I really liked this one a lot, despite the distraction. Maybe in a few years I’ll read it again and appreciate it more.

Last up is another tale of Morlock from James Enge, Beasts of the Bluestone Hills. As always, a quirky story with a mix of horror and humor and sadness. As usual, I have no idea where this fits into Morlock’s chronology, as all the stories in TftMS have leapt around in time and space. Morlock tries to help a dying phoenix be reborn in a land far from where it should be for the event. A good story, with a couple of jarring plotholes and social commentaries. I agree with the ridiculousness of forced gender roles, but the presentation of the local society here is ham-fisted and silly, a tit-for-tat flip of what happens here on Earth in most societies. It is not a scenario I’d expect from a thoughtful, professional author, even if done for cheap laughs. But a lot of the Morlock stories have ridiculous elements, so it’s not a big deal. But the haunted forest doesn’t make a lot of sense. (It is haunted by the ghosts of male babies left there to die. Morlock encounters these ghosts on his trip to the top of a hill, and appeases them. But if the ghosts are so active, why do they not attack the women who keep coming to leave yet more of them?) The leucrocota is painted very well and terrifying – but why was it allowed to exist here by the ghost-babies before? (Why are they attacking it now? Because Morlock poured tea on the ground for them?) While I did like the story, this was not among my favorite of the Morlock tales, I guess because of the reasons above. Interestingly, this story had a manticore as well.

Then there is the usual gaming appendix with statistics for Goodman Games Dungeons & Dragons variant, Dungeon Crawl Classics, featuring items and creatures from the stories. They ask for feedback from the readership if anyone has ever used these stats. I don’t play DCC, so this section is of no real value to me, though if I played D&D regularly I might find some use for it.

And that’s it. Despite my problems with a few stories, this is another great issue of the title; maybe the best one yet. The bar gets raised a notch for the stories, as there’s not a stinker in the bunch; I wish the proofreading was taken more seriously.