Crack open your spell book and enter the world of the illustrious Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary. There’s been a murder on campus, and it’s up to the students of Galileo to solve it…
We’re thrilled to share the cover of The Grimoire of Grave Fates, an anthology of 18 stories edited by Margaret Owen and Hanna Alkaf—publishing June 6 2023 from Delacorte Press.
Crack open your spell book and enter the world of the illustrious Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary. There’s been a murder on campus, and it’s up to the students of Galileo to solve it. Follow 18 authors and 18 students as they puzzle out the clues and find the guilty party.
Professor of Magical History Septimius Dropwort has just been murdered, and now everyone at the Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary is a suspect.
A prestigious school for young magicians, the Galileo Academy has recently undergone a comprehensive overhaul, reinventing itself as a roaming academy in which students of all cultures and identities are celebrated. In this new Galileo, every pupil is welcome—but there are some who aren’t so happy with the recent changes. That includes everyone’s least favorite professor, Septimius Dropwort, a stodgy old man known for his harsh rules and harsher punishments. But when the professor’s body is discovered on school grounds with a mysterious note clenched in his lifeless hand, the Academy’s students must solve the murder themselves, because everyone’s a suspect.
Told from more than a dozen alternating and diverse perspectives, The Grimoire of Grave Fates follows Galileo’s best and brightest young magicians as they race to discover the truth behind Dropwort’s mysterious death. Each one of them is confident that only they have the skills needed to unravel the web of secrets hidden within Galileo’s halls. But they’re about to discover that even for straight-A students, magic doesn’t always play by the rules…
Contributors include: Cam Montgomery, Darcie Little Badger, Hafsah Faizal, Jessica Lewis, Julian Winters, Karuna Riazi, Kat Cho, Kayla Whaley, Kwame Mbalia, L. L. McKinney, Marieke Nijkamp, Mason Deaver, Natasha Díaz, Preeti Chhibber, Randy Ribay, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Victoria Lee, and Yamile Saied Méndez
Buy the Book


The Grimoire of Grave Fates

Hanna Alkaf graduated with a degree in journalism from Northwestern University and spent over ten years writing everything from B2B marketing emails to investigative feature articles, from nonprofit press releases to corporate brochures. She writes unapologetically Malaysian YA and MG novels, including The Weight of Our Sky, The Girl and the Ghost, and Queen of the Tiles.
Margaret Owen was born and raised at the end of the Oregon Trail, and now lives and writes in Seattle while negotiating a long-term hostage situation with her two monstrous cats. In her free time, she enjoys exploring ill-advised travel destinations and raising money for social justice nonprofits through her illustrations. She is the author of The Merciful Crow and its sequel, The Faithless Hawk, as well as Little Theives.
I blame the 90s movies. They tried to dig into the 60s series for their batman. Forever did some of it, Robin did far too much of it, but both did it very very badly, and left us with only disgust for the cheap oneliners and gadgets. I for one have fond memories of west, as the show ran on norway’s only nationwide network in the late 80s early 90s, and was my first view of batman as well. My earliest batman memory is a dozen batmans fighting a dozen mr.freezes on an icy slippery floor, with ensuing hilarities. I dont remember the plot, only the scene, but it was beautiful.
I have to say, the dvd i bought later didn’t quite capture it, but i think it tried too hard.. The Holy Special Edition, Batman!
Have you seen Batman: The Brave and the Bold yet? It’s very much in the same spirit (I think) as the old show. Over the top, pulpy fun. Not exactly campy or Kitsche, but it has it’s moments. And it’s funny. It lets itself tell jokes.
Sotgnomen, I remember watching BATMAN & ROBIN in the theater and realizing halfway through that it was a remake of the 60s TV series – at that point I was able to sit back and enjoy it :) The episode you mention is the first Mr. Freeze story, with George Sanders, which is one mof my favorites. You have good taste!
Paul, I love that cartoon; its such an homage to the 60s show, in my opinion. The producers are doing exactly what Adam West & Co. did, which is to play on several levels and appeal to both adults and children.
For my money, the best Batman stories would be found in a selected collection of the Bruce Timm/Paul Dini DCAU episodes. (You’ve got Adam West in there, as the Grey Ghost.) West even managed to sneak into last week’s episode of Brave and the Bold.
I’d probably also throw a few print issues by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman into the mix, alongside Chuck Dixon’s long run of police procedurals. Grant Morrison on a good day is kind of like Chris Nolan shooting Memento. On bad days Morrison is closer to Andy Warhol.
Whole-hearted agreement with this piece. There is room enough for all versions of a popular character. I adored Batman ’66 as a child and enjoy it still today and also hugely admire The Dark Knight Returns as well.
Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb.
Lenny, the cartoons are probably the true legacy of BATMAN ’66, for sure. And that they actively seek out Adam to participate is just wonderful. Really helps to connect with the old school fans.
Dixon’s contributions are legend and I’m thrilled to have him as an essayist in GOTHAM CITY 14 MILES (he writes about the villains). I dig your Morrison-Warhol comparison :)
I have to admit that I’m not completely clear on the concept of Batman ’66. But I haven’t read your book yet, and I’m a little bit geeky on the subject of the cowl-guy.
When I think about what Paul Dini and Bruce Timm did, following their success with Mask of the Phantasm, I don’t envision the Adam West/Burt Ward TV show as much as I think about the Batman of Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson. They take that, borrow a bit from Neal Adams and Denny O’Neil, and return the element of gothic romance to the character: “I am Vengeance, I am The Night!”
I’d give you Batman:The Brave and the Bold, as a closer derivative of the TV series — but minus the Camp element. The Brave and the Bold *never* tries to suggest that the whole concept of Batman is ridiculous (not even in the Bat-Mite episodes). Instead, it broadcasts the concept of Batman as a good-natured, square-shooting guy who always wins — because he’s so smart and resourceful. This is the character I used to describe to Teresa Nielsen Hayden as “The Fair Universe Batman.” It’s the way the character was written and drawn in the 1950s by people like Bill Finger, Edmund Hamilton, Arnold Drake, Sheldon Moldoff, Dick Sprang, etc.
Teresa would always counter my nostalgia for the “Fair Universe” Batman by pointing out that the universe isn’t actually fair. The Batman who operates in Fritz Leiber’s “City of Dreadful Night,” revived by Neal Adams and eventually transformed by Frank Miller, is a more interesting character than the “boy scout” version.
Paul Dini and Bruce Timm are somewhere in the middle of all this. Like Morrison, they’re cognizant of the entire history, and they’ve paid tribute to a number of great contributors to that history. Their Batman operates in the “City of Night,” but the city is a bit less dreadful than Miller’s. And their Batman has a romantic element that Miller’s lacks.
Lenny, without sounding like too much of a shill, this book is for you, then. Its not “just” for people who like the show and are familiar with it; in a perfect world people who don’t care for it would read it and the conversations would begin. This is my evil master plan.
When you say describe the concept of “Batman as a good-natured, square-shooting guy who always wins — because he’s so smart and resourceful,” to me, you describe the core of the 60s show. The “camp” is only a factor of his environment most times. Adam’s Batman is a “true” Batman with goofiness swirling about him, rarely cracking his serious shell. Unfortunately, that’s all most people thing of, the “camp,” when they think of the show at all.
I sincerely hope you may pick up a copy, read it and give us your thoughts.
Anyone withat ninterst in visions of Batman both light and dark needs too check out
http://catwoman-cattales.com/
There are some moments that are just excruciating in the way the author brings you to feel Bruce’s pain, and anger and loss. There are also moments where you cna’t stand up for laughing. ( The image of Bruce Wayne attending a Rouges gallery Christmas party as Selina Kyles date and getting Drunk on rumballs is one of my particular favorites.)