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Year: 2016

Win an Autographed Copy of Brandon Sanderson’s The Bands of Mourning

Win an Autographed Copy of Brandon Sanderson’s The Bands of Mourning

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The Bands of Mourning-smallBrandon Sanderson’s The Bands of Mourning, the latest novel in the Mistborn series, was published today by Tor Books. To celebrate, Tor is making one autographed copy available to readers of Black Gate — and it could be yours.

How do you win? Just send an e-mail to john@blackgate.com with the subject “The Bands of Mourning,” and a one-sentence summary of why you’d like to read it, and we’ll enter you into the contest.

That’s it! That’s all it takes. One winner will be drawn at random from all entries, and we’ll announce the winner here.

No purchase necessary. Must be 12 or older. Not valid where prohibited by law, or anywhere postage for a hefty hardcover is more than, like, 10 bucks (practically, that means US and Canada).

The Bands of Mourning was published today by Tor Books. It is 448 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover, or $14.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Chris McGrath.

Learn more about The Bands of Mourning, and the previous books in the Mistborn series, in our previous coverage here.

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in December

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in December

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Storyteller-Tools M Harold PageBG blogger M Harold Page had a fabulous month in December, with three of the top four posts for the month, all dealing with Medieval Worldbuilding:

How to Get From Worldbuilding (or Research) to Story
An Adventurer’s Guide to the Middle Ages: What if There’s No Room at the Inn (or No Inn Whatsoever?)
Three Classic Books for Medieval Worldbuilders and Armchair Time Travellers

Mr. Page has clearly fired the imaginations of all the aspiring medieval novelists in our audience (and managed to keep things fascinating for the rest of us.)

The third most popular artcile for December was a guest post from editor Dominik Parisien, announcing the contents of his upcoming Clockwork Canada anthology. Rounding out the Top 5 was the second installment in William I. Lengeman III’s Star Trek movie rewatch, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Also on our top ten were two articles on collecting pulp art by Doug Ellis, the newest installment of our vintage paperback series, Collecting Robert E. Heinlein, Sean Stiennon’s review of Robert McCammon’s Swan Song, and Sarah Newton’s detailed review of the new Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls role playing game.

The complete list of Top Articles for December follows. Below that, I’ve also broken out the most popular overall articles and blog categories for the month.

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In the Wake Of Sister Blue: Chapter Nine

In the Wake Of Sister Blue: Chapter Nine

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In The Wake of Sister Blue Mark Rigney-medium

Linked below, you’ll find the ninth installment of a brand-new serialized novel, In the Wake Of Sister Blue. The battle for Vagen continues, with jeopardy enough for all and chaos stretching as far as the eye can see. Chapter Ten will follow in two weeks’ time, so stay tuned: same bat time, same bat channel.

A number of you will already be familiar with my Tales Of Gemen (“The Trade,” “The Find,” and “The Keystone“), and if you enjoyed those titles (or perhaps my unexpectedly popular D&D-related post, “Youth In a Box,”) I think you’ll also find much to like in this latest venture. Oh, and if you’re only now discovering this portal, may I suggest you begin at the beginning? The Spur awaits…

Read the first installment of In the Wake Of Sister Blue here.

Read the ninth and latest installment of In the Wake Of Sister Blue here.

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New Treasures: Mind Magic by Eileen Wilks

New Treasures: Mind Magic by Eileen Wilks

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Mind Magic-smallThe first book in the World of the Lupi series, Tempting Danger, was published in October, 2004. It was Wilks’ debut novel, and it launched a bestselling series that has vaulted her to the forefront of the urban fantasy genre. The latest volume, Mind Magic, is the 12th in the series (not including the various novellas and short stories she’s produced over the last decade), and it sees FBI agent Lily Yu temporarily benched after the dangerous lessons in mindspeech she’s received from the black dragon.

FBI agent Lily Yu’s mind is a dangerous place to be in the latest Novel of the Lupi…

Thanks to the mindspeech lessons she’s receiving from the black dragon, Lily is temporarily benched from Unit Twelve — until her brain acclimates and the risk of total burnout passes. At least she has her new husband, lupi Rule Turner, to keep her occupied.

But when her mentor calls in a favor and sends Lily to a murder scene, she’s suddenly back on active status — despite the hallucinations she can’t keep at bay. With one touch, Lily knows the man was killed by magic, but her senses don’t warn her how far the conspiracy goes…

A shadowy force within the government wants to take Unit Twelve down, and they don’t mind killing to achieve their goal. With none of her usual resources, Lily is up against impossible odds — because with her mind in disarray, she can’t trust anything she sees.

Mind Magic was published by Berkley on November 3, 2015. It is 416 pages, priced at $7.99 for both the digital and print editions.

3 Days of Nemo

3 Days of Nemo

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nemoSome years ago I brought the attention of Black Gate regulars to a nifty solitaire board game from Victory Point Games: Nemo’s War. (Here’s a link to my review of the original edition of the game.)

The Kickstarter for the second edition was launched several weeks ago and now only THREE days remain to join the voyage and pledge for a copy of the game yourself. All stretch goals have already been met (and quickly!).

The first version was a grand adventure where players took on the role of the famous Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and explored the seas of Earth while trying to stay clear of imperial powers. Well, actually, there are four separate ways to play the game, and not all of them involve staying clear of those powers… You can play as an explorer, a scientist, an anti-imperialist (voyaging around the world and inciting revolutions to lend support to captive peoples) or as a warrior. What goal you choose results in different ways to tabulate your final scores as the days wind down. For instance, scientist Nemo doesn’t get nearly as many points for blowing up ships as warrior Nemo.

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Future Treasures: Winterwood by Jacey Bedford

Future Treasures: Winterwood by Jacey Bedford

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Winterwood Jacey Bedford-smallJacey Bedford is the author of the Psi-Tech novels (Empire of Dust, Crossways), both published by DAW. Her new Rowankind fantasy series kicks off with Winterwood, the tale of a crossdressing pirate captain and unregistered witch who’s haunted by the ghost of her husband, and who inherits a magical box from her mother… and is tasked with righting an ancient wrong.

It’s 1800. Mad King George is on the British throne, and Bonaparte is hammering at the door. Magic is strictly controlled by the Mysterium, but despite severe penalties, not all magic users have registered.

Ross Tremayne, widowed, cross-dressing privateer captain and unregistered witch, likes her life on the high seas, accompanied by a boatload of swashbuckling pirates and the possessive ghost of her late husband, Will. When she pays a bitter deathbed visit to her long-estranged mother she inherits a half brother she didn’t know about and a task she doesn’t want: open the magical winterwood box and right an ancient wrong — if she can.

Enter Corwen. He’s handsome, sexy, clever, and capable, and Ross doesn’t really like him; neither does Will’s ghost. Can he be trusted? Whose side is he on?

Unable to chart a course to her future until she’s unraveled the mysteries of the past, she has to evade a ruthless government agent who fights magic with darker magic, torture, and murder; and brave the hitherto hidden Fae. Only then can she hope to open the magical winterwood box and right her ancestor’s wrongdoing. Unfortunately, success may prove fatal to both Ross and her new brother, and desastrous for the country. By righting a wrong, is Ross going to unleash a terrible evil? Is her enemy the real hero and Ross the villain?

Winterwood will be published by DAW on February 2, 2016. It is 432 pages, priced at $7.99 for both the print and digital editions.

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Talking About Nero Wolfe

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Talking About Nero Wolfe

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Wolfe_FerDeLancedrawingI’m writing this in the aftermath of hosting a sleepover for my son and three of his eight-year old friends. My state is…I don’t know what it is, but it’s not normal. I’ve been reading a lot of Nero Wolfe-related stuff lately, so I’ll riff on that. Speaking of the gargantuan detective, I wrote about him earlier here at Black Gate.

Back in September, I’m sure you read my post, “Who Needs a Hard Boiled Detective?” It looked at how, during the rise, rule and decline of the American hard-boiled school of fiction, August Derleth was writing Solar Pons stories that were pure throwbacks to the Victorian Era mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. I’d say more, but you already either know it or should go read essay if you haven’t!

And the following excerpt is from the initial version of “Hard Boiled Holmes,” an essay I wrote tracing the roots of the American hard boiled school back to Victorian London and Holmes:

Rex Stout created Nero Wolfe in 1934 and the last story was published in 1975, a month before the author’s death. Fortunately, there were over sixty Wolfe tales in between. Stout created a synthesis of Holmes and the hard boiled school that has yet to be surpassed.

Nero Wolfe was a brilliant, disagreeable and incurably lazy detective. He seems very much to be a successor to Mycroft Holmes, with a bit of Sherlock thrown in. His chronicler and assistant was the smooth talking tough guy, Archie Goodwin.

Goodwin himself stacks up with the best of the hard-boiled private eyes. To over-simplify, Stout paired Mycroft/Sherlock Holmes with Sam Spade. Two characters, representing the Doylean and hard-boiled approaches, worked together in each story. This characteristic is probably one of the primary reasons that the Wolfe books have enjoyed so much success over three-quarters of a century.

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Grimdark Magazine 6 Now Available

Grimdark Magazine 6 Now Available

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GrimDark Magazine 6-smallThe latest issue of Grimdark, the quarterly magazine of dark fantasy, has brand new fiction from a quartet of hot new fantasy writers — including a Manifest Delusions tale by Michael R. Fletcher (set in the world of his novel Beyond Redemption), and a Vault of Heaven story by Peter Orullian (set in the world of Trial of Intentions). The issue also has fiction by T. R. Napper, and an excerpt from Mitchell Hogan’s novel Blood of Innocents.

The latest issue went on sale January 13. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

Short Stories

“At the Walls of Sinnlos” by Michael R. Fletcher
“A Fair Man” by Peter Orullian
“Twelve Minutes to Vinh Quang” by T. R. Napper

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Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: Story in Its Many Forms

Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: Story in Its Many Forms

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Cursed Pirate Girl-smallMy Exploring Fantasy Genre Writing course was designed based on the idea that “story” can be told in a vast array of forms; and exploring those forms, both through observation and by wading in and taking a crack at them, enriches the way we work when we return to our preferred art form. Even if one’s painting skills are closer to a kindergartner’s finger-painting “masterpiece” than Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” the act of working with paints can help us better understand the use of color to create a desired mood.

The course is designed specifically to look at the reach of the Fantasy genre across a wide array of media and forms including fiction, fairytales, film, television, cartoons, children’s books, music (classical and otherwise), music videos, plays, radio plays, audio and video blogs, art, photography, fashion, comic books, mock journalism, poetry, games, and any other form we may stumble across.

Each week starts with an exploration of a Fantasy theme that has a large body of work built around it, such as Mermaids, Pirates, The Big Bad Wolf, Alice in Wonderland, Voodoo, Arthurian Legends, the dizzing array of Faerie creatures, The Ring of the Niebelung, and psychic detectives. After covering the basics of the theme, we read, look at, watch, and listen to various works based on or inspired by that trope.

For example, for the Pirates unit we: read issue 2 of the comic book Cursed Pirate Girl; read the short story “We Are Norsemen” (because Vikings are simply Norse pirates), recite three short poems about pirates by Shel Silverstein and laugh at his cartoon drawings; watch a short, animated historical film about Jean Lafitte, America’s most famous pirate, on YouTube; then read an essay I wrote about some little-known pirate women from around the world.

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What We Can Learn From a Time Lord: Doctor Who and a New Enlightened Perspective

What We Can Learn From a Time Lord: Doctor Who and a New Enlightened Perspective

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The DoctorsThere’s an underrated benefit to science fiction and fantasy, and it is not dissimilar from a benefit one gains by being a student of history. Since many folks consider speculative fiction and historical scholarship (or “flights of fancy” and “recorded fact”) to be the antithesis of each other, I think this benefit is worth some attention.

The benefit I here have in mind is the gaining of a healthy detached perspective. Detractors of fantasy and sci-fi will immediately object to my use of the word “healthy,” being that they regard such literature as mere escapism. And it often is that, yes. As is golf, and the Super Bowl, and birthday parties, and most fun things that we do when we aren’t engaged in utilitarian labor. But I’m thinking about a different sort of escape: escape from our own temporal status in this particular time and place and culture and society to which we were born. This is a benefit that is greatly under-appreciated, but I believe it holds real power.

The reader of science fiction, like the historian, steps out of his or her own time frame: if you’re a historian, you step back in time; if you’re a sci-fi fan, you become accustomed to stepping ahead into some speculative future. And if we cultivate that mental exercise, it gives us the unique opportunity to look at our own time from that same detached perspective.

When you do this, it can be liberating. We put so much stock in what people say. We are angered, hurt, offended, cut to the core by what we are bombarded with when we turn on the TV or log onto Twitter or get together with family over Thanksgiving dinner. But the power of these viewpoints — and the hostile ways in which they are sometimes expressed — to affect us is really only predicated on the fact that we are alive now and that these are opinions being expressed by our contemporaries.

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