Browsed by
Author: John ONeill

Future Treasures: The Rig by Roger Levy

Future Treasures: The Rig by Roger Levy

Comments 0 Comment

The Rig Roger Levy-smallRoger Levy is a British science fiction writer; his previous novels include Reckless Sleep, Dark Heavens, and the ambitious space opera Icarus.

His upcoming The Rig, his first novel in a decade, has a fascinating premise: a lottery called AfterLife promises to randomly place people in suspended animation deep in the seas of the planet Bleak at the moment of death. Organic chips planted into their brains at birth record everything, and their lives are played back for billions of subscribers — who vote on whether or not they deserve a second chance. Everyone can be a judge, and anyone can be judged… or resurrected. Who needs God when you have social media?

On a desert planet, two boys meet, sparking a friendship that will change human society forever.

On the windswept world of Bleak, a string of murders lead a writer to a story with unbelievable ramifications.

One man survives the vicious attacks, but is left with a morbid fascination with death; the perfect candidate for the perilous job of working on a rig.

Welcome to the System. Here the concept of a god has been abandoned, and a new faith pervades: AfterLife, a social media platform that allows subscribers a chance at resurrection, based on the votes of other users.

So many Lives, forever interlinked, and one structure at the center of it all: the rig.

Adam Roberts calls The Rig “a tour de force: a darkly brilliant epic of life, death and huge drilling platforms.”

The Rig will be published by Titan Books on May 8, 2018. It is 464 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback and $8.99 for the digital edition. The great cover was designed by Julia Lloyd.

New Treasures: The Hollow Tree by James Brogden

New Treasures: The Hollow Tree by James Brogden

Comments 2 comments

The Hollow Tree-smallJames Brogden’s Hekla’s Children was one of the breakout horror novels of 2017. Tim Lebbon called it “Brilliant… full of great twists, beautifully drawn characters, exceptional writing, and some really startling ideas,” and Steven Savile said “There’s some dark, sinister magic going on in these pages. Brogdan’s… one of the most compelling new voices out there.” Here’s Mark Morris:

Hekla’s Children marks the emergence on to a vibrant horror scene of an exciting new talent. James Brogden offers us a compulsive and unpredictable page-turner in which the ancient and modern world clash with devastating effect. Engaging characters, mind-bending concepts and enthralling set pieces propel the reader through a story in which the stakes are high and nothing can be taken for granted. Terrific stuff!

His new novel The Hollow Tree is something very different, the tale of a woman pulled into our world from…. somewhere else.

After her hand is amputated following a tragic accident, Rachel Cooper suffers vivid nightmares of a woman imprisoned in the trunk of a hollow tree, screaming for help. When she begins to experience phantom sensations of leaves and earth with her missing limb, Rachel is terrified she is going mad… but then another hand takes hers, and the trapped woman is pulled into our world.

This woman has no idea who she is, but Rachel can’t help but think of the mystery of Oak Mary, a female corpse found in a hollow tree, and who was never identified. Three urban legends have grown up around the case; was Mary a Nazi spy, a prostitute or a gypsy witch? Rachel is desperate to learn the truth, but darker forces are at work. For a rule has been broken, and Mary is in a world where she doesn’t belong…

The Hollow Tree was published by Titan Books on March 13, 2018. It is 483 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback and $8.99 for the digital edition. Read an excerpt at Dread Central.

Modular: Walk the Streets of Ancient Rome in Mythic Rome by Pete Nash

Modular: Walk the Streets of Ancient Rome in Mythic Rome by Pete Nash

Comments 3 comments
Mythic Rome-small Mythic Rome-back-small

Almost exactly a year ago Chaosium announced a brand new edition of RuneQuest, one of the oldest and most acclaimed RPGs on the planet. While that was great news for many gamers, it did leave the folks at The Design Mechanism in the lurch — their lovingly crafted RuneQuest sixth edition, written by Pete Nash and Lawrence Whitaker, was the best version of the game in decades, and now they’d lost the license.

The Design Mechanism folks had also supported their version with some of the most exciting releases we’d seen in years, including the Book of Quests, Shores of Korantia, and especially the brilliant Monster Island. While I was curious to see what Chaosium would do with the property, I was chiefly concerned with how the announcement would impact them.

Of course, I needn’t have worried. You can’t keep an outfit as creative as The Design Mechanism down for long. Without missing a beat they released their own full-fledged RPG system, Mythras, which picked up and elaborated on the work they’d done with sixth edition RuneQuest, while simultaneously expanding the rules to accommodate more diverse game settings, from Sword & Sorcery to Science Fiction and Urban Fantasy Horror. They also revamped all of their existing back catalog — including the irreplaceable Monster Island — to bring it up to date with the new system. And best of all, they’ve continued to release top notch new products, like Pete Nash’s fabulous Mythic Rome.

…

Read More Read More

Vintage Treasures: Study War No More, edited by Joe Haldeman

Vintage Treasures: Study War No More, edited by Joe Haldeman

Comments 0 Comment
Study War No More-small Study War No More-back-small

By 1977 Joe Haldeman had already won three Hugo Awards, for his novella “Hero” (1972), his debut SF novel The Forever War, and his short story “Tricentennial” (1976), and one Nebula, also for The Forever War. He was a fast-rising star, and in November of that year he added the anthology Study War No More to his fast-growing SF catalog. It contained stories by some of the greatest SF writers of the time — including Poul Anderson, Harry Harrison, Isaac Asimov, George Alec Effinger, Damon Knight, and Mack Reynolds — that addressed the problem of war. Here a snippet from his introduction:

Fear of the atom was such an effective deterrent that it was over two weeks before war broke out again. A fellow with a wispy beard seized control of Hanoi. The editor of this anthology was in diapers when that happened; it lasted long enough to give him his first white hairs, and then five years more…

But why this anthology? The absurdity and outrage of war may be quite obvious, but trying to find a solution to it has occupied the energies of the race’s finest philosophers and poets for thousands of years, to no conspicious success.

Science fiction writers are generally renowned neither for the depth of their philosophy nor the fineness of their poetry, so isn’t it presumptuous of them to take on so formidable, yet subtle, an opponent? The answer is a duet: a soft “no,” and a loud “Hell, no!”

Haldeman was intimately familiar with war; he was a combat engineer in Vietnam who was wounded and received a Purple Heart. The inside cover of Study War No More addressed his experience, and how it had influenced his writing. Here it is.

…

Read More Read More

Rebels in a Society of Masks: The Masks Of Aygrima Trilogy by E.C. Blake

Rebels in a Society of Masks: The Masks Of Aygrima Trilogy by E.C. Blake

Comments 1 comment
EC Blake Masks-small EC Blake Shadows-small EC Blake Faces-smll

E.C. Blake is a pseudonym for Canadian writer Edward Willett, author of The Helix War novels, The Cityborn, and Magebane (written as Lee Arthur Chane), all from DAW Books. His debut novel as “E.C. Blake” was Masks, a 2013 hardcover; he followed it with two more in rapid succession to complete the trilogy. All three were published by DAW; the covers were by Paul Young.

Masks (396 pages, $8.99 in paperback and digital, November 5, 2013)
Shadows (331 pages, $7.99 in paperback and digital, August 5 2014)
Faces (358 pages, $7.99 in paperback and digital, July 7, 2015)

Masks won some immediate attention. Publishers Weekly called it “A delight,” and RT Book Reviews said it was “Simply impossible to put down.” Here’s occasional Black Gate blogger Julie E. Czerneda.

Brilliant worldbuilding combined with can’t-put-down storytelling, Masks reveals its dark truths through the eyes of a girl who must learn to wield unthinkable power or watch her people succumb to evil. Bring on the next in this highly original series!

All three novels are still in print. I picked up a paperback copy of Masks a few weeks ago at Barnes & Noble; it was the back-cover text that caught my attention. Here it is.

…

Read More Read More

On the Run with the Unluckiest Writer Alive: True Fiction by Lee Goldberg

On the Run with the Unluckiest Writer Alive: True Fiction by Lee Goldberg

Comments 2 comments

True Fiction Lee Goldberg-smallLee Goldberg broke into writing the old fashioned way — as a journalist. His first articles were for Starlog, Newsweek, and American Film, and he soon graduated to writing scripts for SeaQuest, Diagnosis Murder, She-Wolf of London, and the hit Monk. His writing credits also include 15 books based on Monk, and the bestselling Fox & O’Hare novels co-written with Janet Evanovich.

His latest, True Fiction, strikes out into thriller territory, with the tale of the unluckiest writer alive, bestselling thriller writer Ian Ludlow. (Goldberg’s first novel, .357 Vigilante, was written under the name “Ian Ludlow,” which he admits he chose so he’d “be on the shelf next to Robert Ludlum.”)

When a passenger jet crashes onto the beaches of Waikiki, bestselling thriller writer Ian Ludlow knows the horrific tragedy wasn’t an accident.

Years before, the CIA enlisted Ian to dream up terrorism scenarios to prepare the government for nightmares they couldn’t imagine. Now one of those schemes has come true, and Ian is the only person alive who knows how it was done… and who is behind the plot. That makes him too dangerous to live.

Ian goes on the run, sweeping up an innocent bystander in his plight — Margo French, a dog walker and aspiring singer. They are pursued by assassins and an all-seeing global-intelligence network that won’t stop until Ian and Margo are dead. Ian has written thrillers like this before, but this time he doesn’t know how it’s going to end — or if he will be alive to find out.

True Fiction is the first novel in the Ian Ludlow series. The second, Killer Thriller, arrives in February 2019.

True Fiction was published by Thomas & Mercer on April 1, 2018. It is 237 pages, priced at $24.95 in hardcover and $4.99 for the digital edition.

Vintage Treasures: Copernick’s Rebellion by Leo A. Frankowski

Vintage Treasures: Copernick’s Rebellion by Leo A. Frankowski

Comments 4 comments
Copernick's Rebellion-small Copernick's Rebellion-back-small

I don’t know much about Leo A. Frankowski. But when I saw his 1987 novel Copernick’s Rebellion on eBay, I knew I had to have it. It belongs to that peculiar sub-genre of science fiction my friends and I used to call, “Explore the universe and meet strange new aliens. And then ride them like a pony.”

Frankowski was an engineer who sold his first novel, The Cross-Time Engineer, to Del Rey in 1986. It became the opening book in a 7-volume series eventually known as the Adventures of Conrad Stargard, which also included The Flying Warlord (1989), Lord Conrad’s Lady (1990), and others. His other novels include A Boy and His Tank (1999) and The Fata Morgana (1999), both for Baen. He died in December 2008.

Virtually all of Frankowski’s work is out of print, and there aren’t a lot of publishers who would take a chance on him today. On his website he claimed “males with military and technical backgrounds often approach me as though I were something holy… [with an] excess of almost worship,” and famously identified those who disliked his work as “feminists, liberals, and homosexuals.” And anyone who objects to riding aliens like a pony, I’m willing to wager.

Copernick’s Rebellion was published by Del Rey in April 1987. It is 202 pages, priced at $2.95 in paperback. The cover art is by the great Ralph McQuarrie. It has been out of print since 1989, and there is no digital edition. See all our recent Vintage Treasures here.

Announcing the 2018 Hugo Award Finalists

Announcing the 2018 Hugo Award Finalists

Comments 3 comments

Featured_HugoAward Spiffy

Holy neutron stars, it’s the end of March, and you know what that means…. it’s time to announce the finalists for the 2018 Hugo Awards! Doubtless most of you paid close attention to Rich Horton’s suggestions for the best science fiction and fantasy of last year, did a lot of heavy reading over the last four weeks, and thoughtfully cast your nominating ballots. Or maybe not.

But either way, it’s time to see who all your fellow voters nominated. Ready? Here we go.

Best Novel

The Collapsing Empire, by John Scalzi (Tor)
New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
Provenance, by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
Raven Stratagem, by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
Six Wakes, by Mur Lafferty (Orbit)
The Stone Sky, by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

…

Read More Read More

The Late March Fantasy Magazine Rack

The Late March Fantasy Magazine Rack

Comments 0 Comment
Apex Magazine March 2018-small Broadswords and Blasters 4 Winter 2018-small Cirsova 7-small Gathering Storm magazine 7-small
Lightspeed March 2018-small Clarkesworld March 2018-small Locus March 2018-small Tales-From-the-Magicians-Skull-small

The big magazine news in March is the arrival of the first issue of the most exciting new adventure fantasy periodical in years — Tales From the Magician’s Skull, edited by our very own Howard Andrew Jones and packed with writers and characters familiar to readers of Black Gate, including a brand new Morlock tale by James Enge, a Gaunt and Bone story from Chris Willrich, a graveyard fable from John C. Hocking, “There Was an Old Fat Spider” by C. L. Werner, the start of a brand new fantasy series from Howard Andrew Jones, a tale of wharf pirates and deep-sea creatures from Bill Ward, and the story of a sorcerous tyrant by Aeryn Rudel — all under a beautiful cover by Jim Pavelec.

TFtSK isn’t the only magazine worth reading in March. Far from it. Locus has an excellent tribute to the great Ursula K. Le Guin, and the regular crop of fiction mags include brand new stories from Kij Johnson, Juliette Wade, Xiu Xinyu, E. Lily Yu, Rachel Harrison, Cassandra Khaw (twice!), Adrian Cole, Bryan Camp, Ken Liu, and lots more.

Here’s the complete list of magazines that won my attention in late March (links will bring you to magazine websites).

…

Read More Read More

New Treasures: The Final Six by Alexandra Monir

New Treasures: The Final Six by Alexandra Monir

Comments 0 Comment
The Final Six-small The Final Six-back-small

Two days ago I said Raymond Z. Gallun’s The Planet Strappers was an example of a long-dead sub-genre, the adventures of “space hobbyists,” in which enthusiastic amateurs, usually teens, were the ones to conquer space through pluck, courage and sheer inventiveness. While I still think that’s true, I don’t think the teen SF novel is dead at all. In fact, here’s a fine example, Alexandra Monir’s The Final Six, the tale of six teens sent on a desperate mission to Jupiter’s moon.

When Leo and Naomi are drafted, along with twenty-two of the world’s brightest teenagers, into the International Space Training Camp, their lives are forever changed. Overnight, they become global celebrities in contention for one of the six slots to travel to Europa — Jupiter’s moon — and establish a new colony, leaving their planet forever. With Earth irreparably damaged, the future of the human race rests on their shoulders.

For Leo, an Italian championship swimmer, this kind of purpose is a reason to go on after losing his family. But Naomi, an Iranian-American science genius, is suspicious of the ISTC and the fact that a similar mission failed under mysterious circumstances, killing the astronauts onboard. She fears something equally sinister awaiting the Final Six beneath Europa’s surface.

In this cutthroat atmosphere, surrounded by strangers from around the world, Naomi finds an unexpected friend in Leo. As the training tests their limits, Naomi and Leo’s relationship deepens with each life-altering experience they encounter.

But it’s only when the finalists become fewer and their destinies grow nearer that the two can fathom the full weight of everything at stake: the world, the stars, and their lives.

Alexandra Monir is the author of Suspicion (which I covered back in 2014) and the Timeless series. It was published by HarperTeen on March 6, 2018. It is 338 pages, priced at $18.99 in hardcover and $9.99 for the digital edition. The beautiful cover was designed by Erin Fitzsimmons, with art by Getty Images. Read an excerpt at HappyEverAfter.com.