Search Results for: Matthew Surridge

Is Truth Knowable? Matthew Surridge on Golden State by Ben H. Winters

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Over at Splice Today, Matthew Surridge reviews a book a novel I overlooked back in January, but I wish I hadn’t: Golden State by Ben Winters. Matthew says it’s “in the vein of Philip K. Dick mixing detective stories and science-fiction dystopias. It’s a story about truth, the pursuit of truth, and whether truth is knowable.” Here’s the part of his review that grabbed me. I take it on faith that California exists. Various sources I trust tell me it’s…

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Read Matthew David Surridge’s Sword & Sorcery Novella “The Great Work” at Patreon

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Matthew David Surridge’s novellete “The Word of Azrael” first appeared in Black Gate 14, and was one of the most widely acclaimed stories we ever published. Tangent Online called it “One of the strongest heroic fantasies I have seen in years,” and Rich Horton selected it for the 2011 Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy. In his Locus review Rich said: Even better is Matthew Surridge’s “The Word of Azrael.” It concerns Isrohim Vey, who sees the Angel of Death on…

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Read the Best of Matthew David Surridge in Once Only Imagined: Collected Reviews, Vol II

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Matthew David Surridge is Black Gate‘s most successful blogger, both in terms of critical and popular success (his post “A Detailed Explanation,” on why he declined a Hugo nomination last year, is the most popular article in our history). He’s also one of our most prolific, with 270 articles to his credit, and he’s had more reprinted than anyone else on our staff. Of course, that’s mostly due to last year’s Reading Strange Matters, which collected 24 of his posts, chiefly…

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Matthew David Surridge on The Great Hugo Wars of 2015

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Over at culture site Splice Today BG blogger Matthew David Surridge, who declined a Hugo nomination last year for Best Fan Writer, looks back at his involvement in Puppygate. It was difficult to keep up with everything that was happening; when a controversy strikes the literary world, writers are affected, meaning much will be written. And I was out of it. Appreciative reaction to my post continued to come in at Black Gate, but as what Martin called “Puppygate” sprawled…

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Celebrating the Arrival of Matthew David Surridge’s Reading Strange Matters: Collected Reviews, Vol I

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Matthew David Surridge became a blogger here in June 2010, after his acclaimed story “The Word of Azrael” appeared in Black Gate 14. His very first post was “The Art of Storytelling and The Temple of Elemental Evil,” a look at how unpredictable stories spontaneously arise out of D&D sessions, using his own experience with Gary Gygax’s classic adventure as an example. Since then he’s published 259 articles with us, and become one of our most respected and cherished writers. He…

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Letters to Black Gate: Ed Carmien, Scott Taylor, Matthew David Surridge, and our Digital Future

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John Burt writes: I am really enjoying the back issues of Black Gate I purchased. The Morlock series is awesome! The next article for me is the Choose Your Own Adventure in issue 12. Other writers I enjoyed: Ed Carmien’s “Before the Wind” (BG 10) blew my socks off, probably my favorite story so far. Martha Wells is always enjoyable, Mark Sumner’s “Leather Doll” was the best until “Before the Wind.” Todd McAulty is very good. Those are the ones…

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Matthew David Surridge Reviews The Last Page

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The Last Page Anthony Huso Tor (431 pp, $25.99, 2010) Reviewed by Matthew David Surridge Anthony Huso’s debut novel The Last Page is something of a problem. It’s not that it is a bad book; in many ways, it is quite a good one. In fact, it is good enough, creative enough, smart enough, that it raises expectations. You want it to be great. And that is the problem, because I don’t think it is. The Last Page is a…

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Matthew David Surridge Reviews Shadow Prowler

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Shadow Prowler Alexey Pehov, translated by Andrew Bromfield Tor (412 pp, $7.99, mass market edition February 2011) Reviewed by Matthew David Surridge Translation enriches a language, bringing in new styles, new influences, new approaches. The phrasing, the way of thinking, native to a given language can often still be found in a text translated into another tongue. Sometimes, even an ordinary story can gain a touch of originality in translation, a kick from unexpected turns of expression. I don’t know…

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Tangent Online reviews Matthew David Surridge’s “The Word of Azrael”

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Reviewer Nader Elhefnawy at Tangent Online offers a detailed review of the latest volume of Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2011, including Matthew David Surridge’s story from Black Gate 14, “The Word of Azrael.” In Matthew David Surridge’s “The Word of Azrael” (which first appeared in the Winter issue of Black Gate magazine, an excerpt of which can be read on the magazine’s web site), warrior Isrohim Vey encounters the Angel of Death on the battlefield….

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… Not to mention Matthew David Surridge and C.S.E. Cooney

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Congratulations to James Enge on the inclusion of his latest novel The Wolf Age in the Locus 2010 Recommended Reading List! This is the second time on the list for James — his first novel, Blood of Ambrose, made the list in 2009. Both novels feature Morlock the Maker, who appeared in Black Gate 8 in James’ first published story, “Turn Up This Crooked Way.” Since that first appearance Morlock has been in our pages a half-dozen times. We’re practically his second…

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