Spiral Tower Review: The Many Merits of Between Princesses and Other Jobs

 

The Many Merits of Between Princesses and Other Jobs
Between Princesses and Other Jobs (Baen 2023)
822 words

When thinking of D. J. Butler, a variety of great fiction may come to mind from his epic American fantasy Witchy Eye, to his space age-of-sail accountant hero in Abbot in Darkness, to his tale of the Great Depression and the supernatural exploits of a magician in rural Utah in The Cunning Man. Certainly not last in this list of great fantasy are the tales of Butler's comic duo, Indrajit and Fix, who first appeared in In the Palace of Shadow and Joy (2020) and return in the collection that this review will focus on: Between Princesses and Other Jobs (2023).

Between Princesses and Other Jobs is made up of short stories largely printed elsewhere originally, in Baen anthologies, Libri Valoris books, and elsewhere. Between Princess and Other Jobs is a fix-up novel. (A "fix-up" novel--a term popularized by science fiction author A.E. van Vogt--is created by combining short stories or novellas into a longer, cohesive narrative. These stories are often revised or expanded to make them fit together more seamlessly). The plot device that allows the individual episodes to cohere here is that Indrajit and Fix are part of a jobber group known ironically as The Protagonists. Their tales are a compendium of far future buddy-cop stories akin to Jack Vance’s picaresque Dying Earth tales or those of Fritz Leiber’s greatest swordsmen, the sometime buffoonish, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser. 

The easiest merit to pinpoint for the book is the accessibility. Fix-ups are so rare in the publishing industry these days. It’s a breath of fresh air to read one without yellowing pages and a well creased spine. It is even more noteworthy that this fix-up is published by a traditional publishing house, Baen Books. While chronologically set after the first novel, In the Palace of Shadow and Joy mentioned above, Between Princess and Other Jobs is a great place to start for a new reader. The stories are short with a novella thrown in at the end, the perfect sizes for sword and sorcery connoisseurs. 

Another is the heroic duo, another classic trope of the genre. Indrajit Twang is the Recital Thane of the Blaatshi people. He is mahogany-skinned, but with a boney crest on his head, far apart eyes, and a greenish tint, he resembles a fish. Fix, the other in the duo, constantly reminds him of this. Fix himself is short and stocky, a Kishi common to the Lankhmar-esque city of Kish. This is a city also like Gene Wolfe’s Nessus, since it is the culmination of many iterations of city that are now in ruins beneath the surface. Additionally, in this far future, humanity has been split into a thousand sub-races by some murky past genetic war.

Beyond making money as self-proclaimed heroes and good guys, Indrajit seeks an apprentice uncorrupted by literacy to learn the Blaatshi epic. Fix grew up in a monastery for a god of useless knowledge before leaving to chase a woman. In romantic fashion, she married another man and, despite this, Fix is hopeful to be with her someday.

The jobs they perform do give us an image that many might interpret as rare in sword and sorcery: the two are good guys. They are not grey and are generally not fit for rage except for in the face of injustice. When an alien child is thrown over a bridge, Indrajit and Fix save the child. They do not let it die and they certainly do not harm innocents. Their competency and foibles mixed with their intent shines light on what it means to be a hero. 

But despite this lightness, there are Lovecraftian elements, such as in “No Trade for Nice Guys”; poisonings and politics in “Backup”; epics recited and cats (with a question mark) in “The Path of the Hunter”; betrayal and dog-headed allies that may eat their own feces in “Power and Prestige”; and secrets and sorcery of wizards in “The Politics of Wizards”. These, and more, are all packaged together in Between Princesses and Other Jobs.

While Butler is passably comparable to Leiber, Vance, and more could be drawn, he brings his own talent for wit and entertainment, colorful and vibrant world building, and authentic anthropological ideas. Butler has the merits to stand with the best sword and sorcery writers, his variety and humor mix well with ideas that are thoughtful, such as human literacy and how the stars shape human identity. He also brings in transhumanist ideas without all the tech you normally see it paired with. Instead of cyber enhancements, maybe shoes will do the job?

Between Princesses and Other Job's perfect blending of entertainment (and the too oft-accursed escapism) when mixed with worthwhile thought-provoking ideas makes it perhaps lasting literature. Michael Moorcock, Gene Wolfe, and Clark Ashton Smith would sound nicely with Butler in the same sentence. It would be unsurprising if many a reader kept the book on a bedside table to enjoy.

About the Reviewer: Liam Hall is a student of the humanities, with particular interests lying in anthropology and philology. He lives in Idaho with his wife and two daughters, whom he regales with poetry and weird fiction written by himself and others. When not writing and working he makes videos about speculative fiction on YouTube.

About Spiral Tower Reviews: The authors who maintain the pulp genres of sword and sorcery and cosmic horror merit support. Financial support is key but there are other ways the cash-strapped can show support: engaged reading and thoughtful analysis. Literary movements emerge through the interactions of editors, authors, publishers, and amateur literary journalists. Learn more about contributing your review here. We are happy to work with first time reviewers! No previous writing credits required!

Tanith Lee is the Empress of Dreams, review by George Jacobs


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TRIAPA Mailing #5



Spiral Tower Press has established an 'Amateur Press Association,' TRIAPA, and its fourth mailing is now available. We extend our sincere thanks to our excellent contributors. If you are interested in submitting a zine for TRIAPA #5, please send a 2-page zine (maximum) to spiraltowerpress@gmail.com. We invite and encourage all fans of sword and sorcery, cosmic horror, and space opera to submit.

You can read more about TRIAPA HERE. 

You can download the fifth mailing here: TRIAPA Mailing #5

You can download the fourth mailing here: TRIAPA Mailing #4

You can download the third mailing here: TRIAPA Mailing #3 

You can download the second mailing here: TRIAPA Mailing #2

You can download the first mailing here: TRIAPA Mailing #1

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Spiral Tower Review: Skelos 2 Strikes a Harmonious Blend of the New and the Old


Skelos 2 Strikes a Harmonious Blend of the New and the Old
Skelos: The Journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy, Issue 2
Published by Skelos Press (2017)
959 words.

I have already provided a glowing review of Skelos 1 for Spiral Tower Reviews (available HERE). The question I had upon opening the covers of Issue 2 was: would it live up to the standard set by the first issue? The short version is it exceeded my expectations! Those wanting a longer review may read on.

Following an editorial by Mark Finn the issue opens with a trio of excellent stories that encapsulate the scope of Skelos. Angeline Hawkes provides "The Keeping of Eleanor May," a tale in which misguided, youthful love collides with a "haunted" house. In "Slayers at the Gate," meanwhile, Adrian Cole evokes the spirit of Robert E. Howard's classic Bran Mak Morn story "Worms of the Earth" in an alternative history story that sees the Roman invasion of Britain come up against the Cthulhu Mythos. Rounding off the trio is "Of Mist, and an Heirloom Sword" by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, a light-hearted and humorous tall-tale in the vein of the 1001 Nights.

The excellence of these opening stories is matched by two found later in the issue, both by heralds of what has become known as the "New Edge of Sword & Sorcery": Howard Andrew Jones and Scott Oden. "The Black Lion" by Jones is a tale of his well-known duo Asim and Dabir, in which the titular lion indicates a curse, but not in the way the protagonists think. "Amarante: A Tale of Old Tharduin" by Oden is an early and blood-drenched preview of his now trademark orc-centric fiction to be found in the Grimnir trilogy, albeit in a fantastical rather than historical setting.

"Reverse the Charges" by Jess Nevins is possibly the finest example of "revisionist" Lovecraftian fiction I have read. It has become common within the sub-genre of cosmic horror to re-examine Lovecraft's tales from the perspective of the antagonists, not least the Deep Ones from "The Shadow over Innsmouth". While such retellings offer a much-needed corrective to Lovecraft's white, male attitudes, in my experience they occasionally do so at the cost of losing some of the outré nature of the originals. Not so Nevins's offering. Nevins's narrator, one Guilliot Abellard of New Orleans, explains how he became aware of the secret religion that inspired Lovecraft's Cthulhu, exposes the truth of the events fictionalized by Lovecraft in "The Call of Cthulhu", and ends with a re-constructed history of the Cthulhu cult as Abellard understands it. Particularly enthralling is the way Nevins intertwines and contrasts Abellard's pursuit of knowledge with Inspector DeGrasse's ruthless suppression of the cult. It is the re-constructed history that truly elevates this story though. While Nevins humanizes the Cthulhu cult, much of the nature of the cult's religion remains a mystery even to the Abellard. The Cthulhu cult thus appears as a real, living religion that has changed over time, yet the potential for Cthulhu's return remains something that can either inspire dread or excitement depending on one's perspective. My only criticism of the tale is that I don't understand why it is presented as a series of blog posts and computer files. I expected this format would be important to the narrative in some way, but, while it doesn't detract from the story, the reason for it is never made clear.

In "'The Shadow Kingdom' and the Origins of Gothic Horror in Robert E. Howard's Heroic Fantasy", Charles Hoffman provides an excellent overview of the ways in which Robert E. Howard utilized the gothic in his Sword & Sorcery tales. While previous studies have explored this element of Howard's horror stories, this is the first in-depth study of the influence of Gothic literature on Howard's fantasy. Howard's debut Kull of Valusia story "The Shadow Kingdom" provides the focus, although Hoffman also provides a thorough assessment of the gothic elements in Howard's Solomon Kane and Conan stories. It is clear that Poe and Hawthorne had the greatest gothic influence on Howard, although the latter made the tropes his own by placing them in unconventional settings. In this comprehensive article, Hoffman reminds us that we should not be constrained by genre-specific assumptions when examining Howard's fiction, just as Howard himself was not.

With its exploration of a medieval text through the lens of modern genre, I found Benjamin Garstad's "The Alexander Romance as Weird Fiction" incredibly intriguing. Garstad provides a succinct and accessible overview of the Alexander Romance text. He also demonstrates that a fascination with introducing supernatural and weird elements into historical tales did not begin with the pulps, or their gothic predecessors, even if a medieval text doesn't meet the definition of "Weird" we would apply today.

As with the previous issue, Skelos 2 is interspersed with illustrations and poetry, which serve to immerse the reader in the dark and weird atmosphere of the contents. And again, like the previous issue, this one closes with a useful selection of fiction and non-fiction reviews.

I have already said that this issue exceeded my expectations. Both fiction and non-fiction contributions were generally of an incredibly high standard. I have not had space here to do every contribution justice, and omission should not be taken as criticism. The only contribution I did not enjoy was Robert M. Price's Thongor pastiche "The Eleventh Scarlet Hell," which felt a bit flat. Compared to the previous issue, the balance between fiction and non-fiction felt like it had tipped slightly more towards the former, while more of that fiction fell with the Sword & Sorcery sub-genre than other varieties of weird fiction. Nevertheless, by providing a venue for veteran authors such as Adrian Cole and Jessica Amanda Salmonson alongside relative new-comers like Milton Davis and Arianne "Tex" Thompson, Skelos 2 successfully continues the journal's mission to publish traditional stories while also pushing the genre forwards.

About the Reviewer: Ricky Broome is an aspiring historian with a PhD in early medieval history. He lives in the UK with his partner, their three children, and two feline familiars, Lucifer and Loki. When not reading about things that happened a long time ago, he indulges in weird and fantastical fiction.

About Spiral Tower Reviews: The authors who maintain the pulp genres of sword and sorcery and cosmic horror merit support. Financial support is key but there are other ways the cash-strapped can show support: engaged reading and thoughtful analysis. Literary movements emerge through the interactions of editors, authors, publishers, and amateur literary journalists. Learn more about contributing your review here. We are happy to work with first time reviewers! No previous writing credits required!

Tanith Lee is the Empress of Dreams, review by George Jacobs
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