A recent New Pulp work I picked up is RazörFist‘s first novel, the first of his Nightvale series: The Long Moonlight.
I have no idea what RazörFist’s real name is, but if you’re not aware of him, he has several webseries/YouTube videos that are review/commentary, including readings of the early Shadow novels. A particular YouTube video to check out is his Reject Modernity, Embrace Pulp Heroism, which is pretty good overview of pulp fiction, other than he thinks what defines pulp fiction is they are short stories, despite the many novels published in the pulps.
A better definition is that pulp stories are fast-paced and plot-driven. Characterization occurred, for the most part, on only the most basic levels and only as a device to push the story along. This does not mean the stories are poorly written. (taken from Mitch Maglio) This is something I’ll go more in-depth in a future commentary.
That aside, this first novel is a fantasy (sword-and-sorcery) pulp/noir work, set in a medieval-style world with magic. Think, not so much Conan, but Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The story is set in the city of Menuvia, the former capital, but still an important city, of the kingdom of Vale. Our main character is the thief Xerdes who is trying to go about his life, but gets pulled into the large web of intrigue and plots.
He steps into it when he goes to rob a pub that happens to be the headquarters of a crimelord, Cy Welliver. Xerdes finds him interrogating a fence he deals with. He then interferes with an assassination attempt by a trio led Saryss, a Horrand woman from a nation of warriors. She was sent by the powerful Rolf Eghenston. In the end, the pub is burned, the fence is dead, Saryss is wounded and missing her sword. And both crimelords are aware of Xerdes and think he works for the other.
Oh, and we have Inspector Coggins of the Menuvian Guard looking into the burned-out pub, and the dead fence. His body was found several blocks away, but he was last seen alive in the company of Welliver. He seems the only honest “cop,” and a decent detective. How will he fit in all this?
So you know, that’s not the end of things for Xerdes. Saryss will want her sword back. Eghenston wants something. Welliver as well. Thus Xerdes will get pulled further into things with little control. Or will he? He is engaged in more daring thefts, with the aid of Saryss, until things come to a head. Soon, he finds himself dealing with both crimelords until it all comes to a conclusion. Also, how will Coggins fits into it all?
And when it’s all said and done, what’s next for Xerdes?
Overall, this was a pretty decent work. I’m not much for most fantasy works, which is why there haven’t been many reviews here for new or old sword-and-sorcery works, even though there are some important pulp authors who wrote it, and several new authors today doing it, as well as a few magazines.
One thing is that we have a whole world here with nations and ethnicities/cultures, even other races and of course history. In whatever the calendar system is, we are told it’s the year 1856. Everything here is set in Menuvia, which we get a map of. We get hints of some of the rest, mostly through footnotes, so no long, info-dump monologues that don’t really matter to the story at hand. It’s probably for the best. World-building is great (again, the aforementioned Conan), but shouldn’t get in the way of good storytelling. Dribble out what we need at the time for the story.
I should also mention the nice pen-&-ink interior artwork by Julienne Griepp. People forget (or don’t know) that pulp magazines illustrated their stories with a few pieces of artwork. Too few New Pulp works continue that.
Now the next two volumes are Death Mask (original title The Ghost Wind) and The Faceless Phantom. Pre-orders of Death Mask are available from Arkhaven Comics, which I’ve ordered. I’m not sure when it will be released, but would think soon. You can get this work there or from Amazon (which I did).
