The Top 20 Black Gate Fiction Posts in November
For the second month in a row, our exclusive excerpt from Mike Allen’s dark fantasy novel The Black Fire Concerto tops our fiction charts. Those interested in more from the book can listen to our own C.S.E. Cooney read from Chapter One, in a lengthy podcast at HauntedStars.com.
Last month’s third place holder, Dave Gross’ Pathfinder Tales: King of Chaos, moved on up into second place this month. You folks certainly enjoy novel excerpts.
In third place was Mark Rigney’s “The Find,” part of his perennially popular Tales of Gemen series; fourth was E.E. Knight’s “The Terror in the Vale,” his second tale of The Blue Pilgrim, following “That of the Pit.”
Rounding out the Top Five was Vaughn Heppner’s brand new Lod story, “Draugr Stonemaker,” the sequel to “The Oracle of Gog” (Black Gate 15), “The Pit Slave,” and “The Serpent of Thep.”
Also making the list were exciting stories by Joe Bonadonna, John C. Hocking, Martha Wells, Alex Kreis, David C. Smith, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Howard Andrew Jones, Aaron Bradford Starr, Jamie McEwan, Michael Shea, Peadar Ó Guilín, Janet Morris and Chris Morris, and David Evan Harris.
If you haven’t sampled the adventure fantasy stories offered through our new Black Gate Online Fiction line, you’re missing out. For the past year we’ve presented an original short story or novella from the best writers in the industry every week, all completely free. Here are the Top Twenty most-read stories in November:
- An excerpt from The Black Fire Concerto, by Mike Allen
- An excerpt from Pathfinder Tales: King of Chaos, by Dave Gross
- “The Find,,” Part II of The Tales of Gemen, by Mark Rigney
- “The Terror in the Vale,” by E.E. Knight
- “Draugr Stonemaker,” by Vaughn Heppner
- “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum,” by Joe Bonadonna
- An excerpt from Pathfinder Tales: Queen of Thorns, by Dave Gross
- “Vestments of Pestilence,” by John C. Hocking
- The Death of the Necromancer, a complete novel by Martha Wells
- “The Renunciation of the Crimes of Gharad the Undying,” by Alex Kreis
- An excerpt from Dark Muse, by David C. Smith
- “Truck Stop Luck,” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
- An excerpt from The Bones of the Old Ones, by Howard Andrew Jones
- “The Sealord’s Successor,” by Aaron Bradford Starr
- “The Serpent of Thep,” by Vaughn Heppner
- “Falling Castles,” by Jamie McEwan
- “Tsathoggua,” by Michael Shea
- “The Dowry,” by Peadar Ó Guilín
- “The Sacred Band“ by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
- “The Gentle Sleeper“ by David Evan Harris
The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including new stories by Ryan Harvey, John R. Fultz, Gregory Bierly, Vera Nazarian, C.S.E. Cooney, Jason E. Thummel, Judith Berman, Harry Connolly, and many others, is here.
The Top fiction from October is here.
Whoa! Just saw this! What an awesome Christmas Eve present.
Congratulations Mike!
John
So…one must ask…is the well of new fiction appearing on BLACK GATE dried up?
Hey Jason,
Merry Christmas!
Yes, we have now exhausted the last of the inventory left over from the print magazine, and we are no longer acquiring new fiction (the website has no revenue to pay for it).
That doesn’t mean we’ve totally ruled out publishing additional fiction or excerpts, but future stories — if any — will likely be special events, like the recent reprint of the first Blue Pilgrim story by E.E. Knight.
We’re very gratified by the success of the BLACK GATE Online Fiction line, and extremely proud of the fiction we’ve published in the last year. We’ll be keeping the existing stories online, and completely free, as part of the website going forward.
(Delete or edit this as you desire, but it’s the quickest, surest way to continue this thread 😉
Would continuing to post excerpts of new releases be something of interest to BG…? Of course, the titles in question must be appropriate for BG, but it seems win-win with no expenditure 🙂
Sure! We don’t get offered book excerpts very often, but we’re glad for the chance when we do.
I don’t really have time to go hunting them down, but obviously our readers seem to enjoy them, so we’d be delighted to offer them whenever we get the chance!
how about the opening 2? 3? chapters of RBE’s latest, SWORD SISTERS? 🙂
Sounds great! Send ’em to me, and we’ll make it happen.
[…] The Top fiction from November is here. […]
[…] of Christmas Eve, I learned that once again the excerpt from my novel The Black Fire Concerto was the most read story at Black Gate Magazine — Olyssa and Erzelle and their friends and enemies claimed the top spot back in October, and […]