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Author: John ONeill

Dave Hook on The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories by Gene Wolfe

Dave Hook on The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories by Gene Wolfe

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The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories (Pocket Books, June 1980). Cover by Don Maitz)

It’s still January, which means I haven’t yet abandoned my ambitious New Year’s Resolution to get caught up on my favorite blogs. I started with Rich Horton’s excellent Strange at Ecbatan, and this week I’ve been spending time at Dave Hook’s book blog A Deep Look by Dave Hook.

As the name implies, Dave spends his time on his reviews, with deep dives that usually include a lot of biographical information and entertaining anecdotes. His recent reviews include looks at David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer’s groundbreaking 2002 anthology The Hard SF Renaissance, Alastair Reynolds’ 2021 collection Belladonna Nights and Other Stories, and a long-forgotten SF anthology from 1954, Sam Moskowitz’s Editor’s Choice in Science Fiction.

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Rich Horton on The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O’Keefe

Rich Horton on The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O’Keefe

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The Devoured Worlds trilogy by Megan E. O’Keefe: The Blighted Stars, The Fractured Dark, and
The Bound Worlds (Orbit, May 23, 2023, September 26, 2023, and June 25, 2024). Covers by Jaime Jones

It’s January 17, and I’m doing a fairly good job on at least one of my New Year’s resolutions — catching up on some of my favorite blogs. I started with Rich Horton’s excellent Strange at Ecbatan, a review site that covers a delightfully eclectic mix of old and new books, from one of the most knowledgeable and astute readers we have. Rich’s most recent review was Howard Andrew Jones’ terrific debut novel The Desert of Souls, a piece resurrected from my first website, the sadly now defunct SF Site.

Back in September Rich discussed The Blighted Stars, the first book in Megan O’Keefe’s Devoured Worlds trilogy. I talked about the first two titles in the series here in July 2023. What drew me was the intriguing mix of SF and horror, and the promise of creepy adventure on a dead planet in the opening volume, in which an idealistic resistance fighter is stranded with the heir to an imperial space dynasty. But, as usual, Rich has a lot more insight to offer than I.

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Moon Pirates, Deadly Nanobots, and Alien Plagues: November-December Print Science Fiction Magazines

Moon Pirates, Deadly Nanobots, and Alien Plagues: November-December Print Science Fiction Magazines

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Summer 2025 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and the
November/December issues of Analog Science Fiction & Fact and
Asimov’s Science Fiction. Cover art by John Jennings, Eldar Zakirov, and Shutterstock

It’s a bittersweet month for fans of print SF magazines. First the good news. For the first time since September 2024, there’s a full complement of science fiction magazines on the shelves. The Summer 2025 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is at last available, six months late and with an 18 month-gap since the last issue, but it’s here and we’re delighted to see it. Yes, the magazines that accompany it, Asimov’s SF and Analog, are also more than two months late, cover-dated November-December 2025 but not available until last week, but at this point we know better than to complain. We’re just grateful they’re here at all.

Now the bad news. And unfortunately, it’s bad indeed. Yesterday, January 12, the news spread that Sheila Williams, the brilliant and tireless editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction, had been hospitalized with a brain aneurysm. She is reportedly conscious, and communicating with family, and we hope and pray for her speedy recovery. In my opinion Sheila is the most important editor currently at work in genre magazines, and without her the field will be enormously diminished.

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Merry Christmas from Black Gate

Merry Christmas from Black Gate

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The Black Gate Christmas Tree

This has been a rough year for Black Gate. On January 16 we lost Howard Andrew Jones, who created this site virtually single-handedly. Black Gate had existed as a print magazine since November 2000, and I’d launched the website a few months earlier, but it was a pretty flimsy affair. Not much more than a place to sell subscriptions, and host our submissions page and occasional guest articles by Rich Horton and James Enge.

Howard dreamed of something vastly more ambitious — creating the premier site for heroic fantasy on the internet, with daily content from a round robin of some of its best writers. It was impossible, of course. Our overworked staff was already struggling to keep the magazine alive, and I had no time — and certainly no budget! — to spend on a project that didn’t address the fact that I was losing $10,000 every issue.

Howard ignored these minor problems, and all on his own assembled a crack team of bloggers including Bill Ward, David Soyka, Scott Oden, James Enge, EE Knight, and Ryan Harvey. By November of 2008 he launched the Black Gate blog, and for the last seventeen years we’ve produced at least one article every day. In 2016, we won and Alfie Award and a World Fantasy Award, and crossed 2 million page views/month.

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The Bio of a Fantasy Giant: To Leave a Warrior Behind: The Life and Stories of Charles R. Saunders, the Man Who Rewrote Fantasy, by Jon Tattrie

The Bio of a Fantasy Giant: To Leave a Warrior Behind: The Life and Stories of Charles R. Saunders, the Man Who Rewrote Fantasy, by Jon Tattrie

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To Leave a Warrior Behind (McClelland & Stewart, January 20, 2026)

Charles Saunders, the Father of Sword & Soul, was one of the most talented and beloved heroic fantasy writers of the last fifty years. That he died unknown, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Nova Scotia in June 2020, is one of the great tragedies of our genre.

The thing about great writers is that they don’t stay buried. When the news of Charles’ untimely death began to spread, it was met with an outpouring of grief and heartfelt tributes. David C. Smith wrote the touching memorial Charles, My Friend in December 2020, and Michael de Adder produced a superb comic strip bio for the Washington Post three years after his death. Greg Mele wrote Black Gate‘s obituary, and Seth Lindberg crafted a detailed survey of his most famous work in the Imaro Series Tour Guide. And a year after Charles’s death, Jon Tattrie raised $17,000 to erect a gravestone to mark his grave.

Now comes word of a more enduring tribute, and one that I hope will help the world understand and appreciate Charles’ remarkable legacy. Jon Tattrie, who worked alongside Charles for two years at the Halifax Daily News, has written To Leave a Warrior Behind: The Life and Stories of Charles R. Saunders, the Man Who Rewrote Fantasy, which will be released in hardcover next month from McClelland & Stewart.

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The Best Vintage Paperbacks of 2025

The Best Vintage Paperbacks of 2025

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Chris Gunter’s choice for the best vintage paperbacks of 2025. Finally a socially relevant Year’s Best list

Ah, the end of the year. When social media — and my email in-box — are filled with Best of the Year lists.

I’m not complaining. I love ’em. But the ones I most enjoy are (of course) lists that include delightful old paperbacks finds. Or are maybe, I dunno, exclusively old paperbacks, since that’s about 90% of my own reading these days.

This year I especially enjoyed old books by Lin Carter (Flashing Swords 2), Jerry Pournelle (West of Honor), C.J. Cherryh (Faded Sun: Kutath) and Clifford D. Simak (City). Not too surprisingly, my favorite 2025 Best of the Year list (so far) has been a short post by Chris Gunter on the Vintage Paperback and Pulp Forum on Facebook, which enthusiastically included classics by Alfred Bester, Keith Roberts, Bob Shaw and others.

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Goth Chick, January 13, 1966 – November 18, 2025

Goth Chick, January 13, 1966 – November 18, 2025

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Sue Granquist, aka Goth Chick

Sue Granquist, the Chicago blogger and technology professional who wrote Black Gate‘s Goth Chick column every Thursday for sixteen years, passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday.

Sue experienced a cancer scare earlier this year that led to an extended hospital stay and multiple surgeries. She was on the mend, and when we spoke Tuesday afternoon, she was already back at work — as the Director of Supply Chain Operations at CDW in downtown Chicago — and was looking forward to returning to her regular Thursday blog spot. She passed away three hours later. She was 59 years old.

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New Treasures: Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Stephen Kotowych

New Treasures: Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Stephen Kotowych

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Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction , Volumes 1-3 (Ansible Press, December 13, 2023,
November 22, 2024, and October 21, 2025). Covers by Tithi Luadthong, Xiaofan Zhang, and Pascal Blanché

I was delighted to see (on S. M. Carrière’s Facebook feed) news of the upcoming launch of Volume Three of Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Stephen Kotowych. The book is already available in digital and print formats, and the big launch party happens at Bakka-Phoenix Books in Toronto this Saturday.

As long-time readers of this blog know, I’ve been a huge fan of Year’s Best SF anthologies since I first discovered Terry Carr’s legendary The Best Science Fiction of the Year (1972-1987) in the mid-70s. I dearly miss Gardner Dozois’ long-running The Year’s Best Science Fiction, which ran for 35 years (1984-2018) and, in more recent decades, the Year’s Best series from Rich Horton, Neil Clarke, Jonathan Strahan, and Paula Guran — all of which folded in just the last few years.

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Spooky Sword & Sorcery for Halloween: Samhain Sorceries edited by D.M. Ritzlin

Spooky Sword & Sorcery for Halloween: Samhain Sorceries edited by D.M. Ritzlin

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Samhain Sorceries, edited by D.M. Ritzlin (DMR Books, September 24, 2022). Cover by Adam Burke

The mighty Dave Ritzlin, mastermind of DMR Books, continues to refresh his impressive backstock. Just in time for Halloween he’s re-released his popular collection of spooky Sword & Sorcery, Samhain Sorceries, with a brand new cover. Here’s Dave.

Samhain Sorceries was DMR Books’ best-received release of the past few years. With its unique concept and outstanding roster of authors, it’s not hard to see why. The fantastic new cover art was created by Adam Burke, and another of his paintings will adorn the follow-up volume, Walpurgis Witcheries, due out next spring.

Samhain Sorceries contains ten brand new tales, including a new story by Keith Taylor featuring Felimid mac Fal, hero of his classic Bard series. Order copies directly from the DMR website. And if you’re a fantasy author, note that submissions for the follow-up volume, Walpurgis Witcheries, are open until October 31st.

Stray Missiles, Alien Plagues, & Underwater Laboratories: September-October Print Science Fiction Magazines

Stray Missiles, Alien Plagues, & Underwater Laboratories: September-October Print Science Fiction Magazines

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September-October 2025 issues of Analog Science Fiction & Fact and
Asimov’s Science Fiction. Cover art by Tithi Luadthong/Shutterstock

It’s the 500th issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction! That explains why I had to start stacking them sideways in 2004. Sheila Williams celebrates this incredible milestone in her editorial, touching on just a sampling of the truly extraordinary fiction to appear in the magazine over the past 48 years. Here’s an excerpt.

Under our first editor, George H. Scithers, we published great tales by writers like Barry Longyear, Roger Zelazny, and Somtow Sucharitkul. Kathleen Moloney’s tenure lasted less than a year, but during that time we published Connie Willis’s earliest award-winning stories — “A Letter from the Cleary’s” and “Fire Watch,” as well as David Brin’s “The Postman.” Important work published by Shawna include Octavia Butler’s “Blood Child,” Greg Bear’s “Hardfought,” George R.R. Martin’s “Portraits of his Children,” Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Green Mars,” and Robert Silverberg’s “Sailing to Byzantium.”

Gardner Dozois’s years at the helm brought us James Patrick Kelly’s “Think Like a Dinosaur,” Pat Murphy’s “Rachel in Love,” Neal Barrett, Jr.’s “Ginny Sweethips’ Flying Circus,” Terry Bisson’s “Bears Discover Fire,” Allen M. Steele’s “The Death of Captain Future,” Michael Swanwick’s “Scherzo with Tyrannosaur,” Charles Stross’s “Lobsters,” and much more.

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