Wrath of the Fanglord
Dave Langford's "personal fanthology" comprising his favourite fan writing and fan art by others that he had published in his fanzines (with his own Introduction and Glossary). It was published by Rune Press in April 1998 for Minicon 33 where Langford was FGoH and reissued in June 2015 by his Ansible Editions as a TAFF free ebook, with "Three (And a Bit) Views of Milford", "cut for space reasons from the original 1998 print edition […] restored as a bonus extra" (midway through the book). It is 46,000 words long (52 US quarto pages 1st edition) and has cover art by Steve Stiles: the black-and-white ebook cover appears at the right.
When Minicon 33 – speaking with the voice of its awesome pythoness Geri Sullivan – suggested that I should compile a fanthology of my favourite fan articles […] it sounded suspiciously like work. Second, comparisons are invidious and I’d have to live with the undying vengefulness of all the writers whom I forgot to include. Third, the mere suggestion caused all memories of favourite pieces to flee screaming […] The high concept that so painfully emerged was that of a collection which would be more or less self-selecting, consisting as it does of material I’ve already liked enough to publish in the far-off past.
Authors (alphabetically) are Atom (illustration), Paul Barnett alias John Grant, Colin Fine, David Garnett, Tom Holt (parody poem/song lyrics, from 1996 Christmas special Ansible 113 1/2), Nick Lowe, Peter Nicholls, Patrick Parrinder, Terry Pratchett, Chris Priest, Geoff Ryman, Bob Shaw, Sue Thomason, Ian Watson, Margaret Welbank (back-cover illustration) and D. West; as Langford moved away from genzines by the late 1980s, the contributions except as noted above are from the range of 1978–87. There are further names in the final "Timeless Letter Column" (1978–97, often brief but well-phrased tidbits from Ansible).
The Introduction is punctuated with "sound effects" from L. E. Modesitt's 1994 novel The Order War, previously lambasted in Cloud Chamber #59 (June 1995)[1], review in SFX monthly #3 (August)[2] and in toto "as a veritable prose poem" in CC #61 (August),[3] "Secrets of Onomatopoeia!" (The New York Review of Science Fiction #86, October), and in a wider context with more comments in SFX column "Noises Off" (#6, November).[4]
- First edition at Langford website, with scan of the original red-paper cover, publication details, contents list with links to individual articles' online versions and a one-sentence "Reviews" section
- Wrath of the Fanglord ebook at TAFF site
| Publication | Website | 1998 |
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