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Author: John ONeill

Black Gate Online Fiction: Tempus Unbound, by Janet Morris and Chris Morris

Black Gate Online Fiction: Tempus Unbound, by Janet Morris and Chris Morris

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Tempus Unbound-smallBlack Gate is very pleased to offer our readers an exclusive excerpt from Tempus Unbound, the newest Sacred Band novel from Janet & Chris Morris. In this excerpt, Tempus is seeking his sister, Cime, and his quest leads him to the future, where he finds allies — volunteers to fight sorcery from different epochs as the storm god allows. Tempus has already recruited Mano, an ally from the 22nd century, and he and Mano find a most unlikely new adherent when the god deposits them in yet another time and place…

Here’s the description.

Is this the Lemuria of antiquity, or of times to come? Once you’ve ridden the storm clouds of heaven from the edge of time, anything is possible.

Demonic hordes threaten to destroy the very fabric of time itself.

The fate of all humanity rests on the shoulders of Tempus the Black, Favorite of the Storm God. But even this hero of legend will encounter a challenge he has never faced before… present-day New York City.

Joe Bonadonna reviewed the book for Black Gate earlier this month, calling it “Epic in scope and concept… This is a fun novel to read, a great story that departs from the Sacred Band tales… It’s one of my favorites.”

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Mark Rigney, John Fultz, Jon Sprunk, Tara Cardinal and Alex Bledsoe, E.E. Knight, Vaughn Heppner,  Howard Andrew Jones, David Evan Harris, John C. Hocking, Michael Shea, Aaron Bradford Starr, Martha Wells, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, C.S.E. Cooney, and many others, is here.

Tempus Unbound was published by Perseid Press on June 11, 2017. It is 346 pages, priced at $26 in trade paperback and $8.99 for the digital edition.

Read an exclusive excerpt from Tempus Unbound here.

The Late October Fantasy Magazine Rack

The Late October Fantasy Magazine Rack

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Analog Science Fiction November December 2017-rack Knights of the Dinner Table 247-small Lightspeed October 207-small Locus magazine October 2017-small
Luna Station Quarterly 31-small The Dark October 2017-small Weirbook Annual 1 Witches-small Meeple Monthly October 2017-small

There’s a new face in the crowd this week — Luna Station Quarterly, a speculative fiction journal that showcases emerging women authors. I’ve included issue #31 in the mix above; the magazine is now in its 8th year, so it’s high time we paid attention. Here’s the complete list of magazines that won my attention in late October (links will bring you to magazine websites).

Analog Science Fiction & Fact — fiction by BG writer Bill Johnson (“Mama Told Me Not to Come,” BG4), plus Catherine Wells, Scott Edelman, Robert Reed, Sean McMullen, and many others
Knights of the Dinner Table — Issue #247 has 20 pages of strips, plus “Getting the Band Back Together, and Other Campaign Starters” by James Davenport
Lightspeed — issue #89 has an original Dungeonspace novella from BG writer Jeremiah Tolbert (“Groob’s Stupid Grubs,” BG15), plus Sofia Samatar, Rachel Swirksy, Adam-Troy Castro, A. Merc Rustad, and Aliette de Bodard
Locus — issue 681 has interviews with James Patrick Kelly and Annalee Newitz, a column by Kameron Hurley, an obituary of Jerry Pournelle, reports from Worldcon 75, and plenty of reviews
Luna Station Quarterly — fresh fiction from Jennifer Lyn Parsons, Maria Haskins, Sandy Parsons, Anna Novitzky, Charity West, and many others
The Dark — new fiction from Darcie Little Badger and Davide Camparsi, plus reprints by Angela Slatter and Maria Dahvana Headley
Weirdbook Annual #1: Witches — new stories by BG writers John R. Fultz and Josh Reynolds, plus John Linwood Grant, Adrian Cole, Paul Dale Anderson, Scott Hutchison, Andre E. Harewood, and others
Meeple Monthly — all the news on the latest SF and fantasy board games, with a Starfinder Miniatures cover story, plus Mountains of Madness, The Mystery of Bluebeard’s Bride, 13th Age Bestiary 2, and tons more

Click any of the thumbnail images above for bigger images. Our early October Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

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A Tale of Two Covers: More Human Than Human by Neil Clarke

A Tale of Two Covers: More Human Than Human by Neil Clarke

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More Human Than Human Donato-small More Human Than Human Neil Clarke

Neil Clarke has produced some standout anthologies in the last few years, including Galactic Empires, two volumes of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, and of course his annual Clarkesworld collections. His upcoming book More Human Than Human: Stories of Androids, Robots, and Manufactured Humanity, with original tales from Rachel Swirsky, Robert Reed, Ian McDonald, Lavie Tidhar, Alastair Reynolds, Ken Liu, Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, Catherynne M. Valente, Genevieve Valentine, Jeff VanderMeer, and many others, looks like one of his best.

I’m rather taken with the cover, as well. It’s by Donato Giancola, one of my favorite artists, who did the cover of Black Gate 15 for us. You can see the original artwork at left above, and how it appears on the cover of More Human Than Human, above right. Donato is a master of small details, and is marvelously skilled at integrating those details into a visually striking whole. His covers frequently tell a story, as this one does, although the key to the story is often hidden in the details… just as it is here.

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Avalon Hill Tries a D&D Boardgame: Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate

Avalon Hill Tries a D&D Boardgame: Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate

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Betrayal At Baldur's Gate-small

I’ve been fascinated by the D&D Adventure System cooperative play games, which include Temple of Elemental Evil, Castle Ravenloft, Legend of Drizzt, and Wrath of Ashardalon, because apparently they can all be used together in one giant uber map of fun. (I don’t know for sure, of course, because my copies are all still in shrinkwrap and buried in the basement, but I think that’s the general idea.)

There’s been a pretty consistent drumbeat of releases in the series, including two others just this year, Assault of the Giants (February 15, 2017) and Tomb of Annihilation (October 18, 2017) — so much so that it sometimes seems that Wizards of the Coast has wholeheartedly embraced the industry’s shift away from tabletop RPGs towards board games by gradually turning D&D into a top line board game brand. I don’t think their board game releases outnumber their RPG supplements for 2017, but it’s probably getting close.

I heard plenty about Assault of the Giants, and ordered a copy over the summer, and I’ve seen a lot of recent chatter about Tomb of Annihilation. But October’s other D&D board game release, Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate (October 6, 2017), took me completely by surprise. In fact, I’d probably still be blissfully ignorant if I hadn’t seen an Oct. 3 Facebook post from Games Plus  (hat tip to Arin Komins for the link).

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New Treasures: Necessary Monsters by Richard A. Kirk

New Treasures: Necessary Monsters by Richard A. Kirk

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Necessary Monsters Richard A. Kirk-smallRichard A. Kirk (not to be confused with Richard Kirk, which was the pseudonym Robert Holdstock used to write sword & sorcery novels in the Raven series) is an artist with a number of covers to his credit. His short novel The Lost Machine, a tale of “deadly plagues, witches, and artificial intelligence in a dark fantastical setting,” was serialized at Weird Fiction Review (check out their interview with him here).

In his first latest book, Necessary Monsters, he delivers a caper novel set in a dark and wondrous world. It’s available now in trade paperback from Arche Press.

Lumsden Moss is an escaped thief and an unrepentant bibliophile with a long-suffering desire to foist some karmic retribution on those who have wronged him. But when the opportunity to steal a rare book from the man who sentenced him to prison puts him on the wrong side of the wrong people, Moss finds himself on the run. And it’s not just the book he stole that these people want, it’s also the secrets of a long-forgotten location on Nightjar Island, a place cursed and abandoned since the Purge.

When Moss falls in with Imogen, a nimble-fingered thief who has taken a traveling bookcase filled with many secrets, he starts to realize how much of his unsavory past is indelibly tied to a frightening witch-child and her nightmarish pet monster.

In a fantastic world, still recovering from a war where magic and technology were fused together, Moss and Imogen must decipher the mystery of their mutual pasts in order to illuminate the dark heart that still lurks on Nightjar Island.

Necessary Monsters was published by Arche Press on June 6, 2017. It is 384 pages, priced at $18 in trade paperback and $7.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Richard A. Kirk. Buy copies right from the website.

See all of our recent New Treasures here.

Literary Wonder & Adventure Podcast: Halloween Special 2017

Literary Wonder & Adventure Podcast: Halloween Special 2017

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Literary Wonder and Adventure Show Halloween Special

If you’re even an irregular Black Gate reader, you’ve probably seen our previous coverage of Robert Zoltan’s excellent Literary Wonder & Adventure podcast. As we’ve mentioned, calling it a podcast doesn’t do it justice, as it’s really a professionally-produced radio show set in the dimension-hopping Dream Tower (with a talking raven). It doesn’t hurt that the host has a habit of interviewing talent associated with Black Gate, including bloggers Ryan Harvey and Rich Horton, and our Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones. My favorite previous episodes include:

Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Conversation with Ryan Harvey
J.R.R. Tolkien, Master of Modern Mythology: A Conversation with Author Scott Oden
Robert E. Howard, Master of Sword & Sorcery: A Conversation with Author Howard Andrew Jones
The Golden Age of Science Fiction, Part II: A Conversation with Rich Horton

Of course, if your sidekick is a raven, it seems natural that your Halloween special should be an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, one of the most famous poems in the English language, and that’s exactly what they get up to in the latest episode. The 2017 Halloween Special of the Literary Wonder & Adventure Podcast features top notch performances from Zoltan and Edgar the Raven… as well as a few surprise trick-or-treaters. Listen to the complete radio show here.

Black Gate Online Fiction: In Creepy Hollow, It’s Halloween All Year Long! An Excerpt from The Power of the Sapphire Wand by Erika M Szabo and Joe Bonadonna

Black Gate Online Fiction: In Creepy Hollow, It’s Halloween All Year Long! An Excerpt from The Power of the Sapphire Wand by Erika M Szabo and Joe Bonadonna

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The Power of the Sapphire Wand-small The Power of the Sapphire Wand-back-small

Black Gate is pleased to present an exclusive excerpt from The Power of the Sapphire Wand (Creepy Hollow Adventures #2), the sequel to Three Ghosts in a Black Pumpkin, by Erika M Szabo and Joe Bonadonna.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Mark Rigney, John Fultz, Jon Sprunk, Tara Cardinal and Alex Bledsoe, E.E. Knight, Vaughn Heppner,  Howard Andrew Jones, David Evan Harris, John C. Hocking, Michael Shea, Aaron Bradford Starr, Martha Wells, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, C.S.E. Cooney, and many others, is here.

The Power of the Sapphire Wand (Creepy Hollow Adventures #2) is a spooky Halloween story for children, ages 6 to 14. It is written by Erika M Szabo and Joe Bonadonna, and illustrated by Erika M Szabo. Published by Golden Box Books Publishing, New York on October 1, 2017. Available in paperback ($11.95), and Kindle and Nook editions ($2.99).

Read the complete excerpt here.

Future Treasures: Valiant Dust by Richard Baker

Future Treasures: Valiant Dust by Richard Baker

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Valiant Dust-smallRichard Baker began his career at TSR where, with Colin McComb, he designed the Birthright campaign setting in 1994, the first D&D campaign setting to support PCs as rulers, creating a hybrid game based on “diplomacy, politics, trade, construction and (of course) war” (Pyramid magazine). His next major release was the fondly remembered Alternity SF RPG in 1998, with Bill Slavicsek.

His first novel was Forgotten Realms: The Adventures: The Shadow Stone (1997); it was followed quickly by nearly a dozen others for TSR, including two novels in the Star*Drive setting (1999), the New York Times bestselling War of the Spider Queen: Condemnation (2003), and the Blades of the Moonsea trilogy (2008-2010).

Valiant Dust marks his first non-licensed project, and I’m glad to see it. It’s the opening volume of the military science fiction series Breaker of Empires, set in an era of great interstellar colonial powers. It arrives in hardcover from Tor in two weeks.

Sikander Singh North has always had it easy ― until he joined the crew of the Aquilan Commonwealth starship CSS Hector. As the ship’s new gunnery officer and only Kashmiri, he must constantly prove himself better than his Aquilan crewmates, even if he has to use his fists. When the Hector is called to help with a planetary uprising, he’ll have to earn his unit’s respect, find who’s arming the rebels, and deal with the headstrong daughter of the colonial ruler―all while dodging bullets.

Sikander’s military career is off to an explosive start ― but only if he and CSS Hector can survive his first mission.

Our previous coverage of Richard Baker’s game books includes:

Lost Empires of Faerûn
Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave
Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land

Valiant Dust will be published by Tor Books on November 7, 2017. It is 349 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Larry Rostant. Read the complete first chapter here. Read all of our recent coverage of the best upcoming SF and fantasy here.

In Search of a new Weird Tales: An Interview with Joseph Goodman, Howard Andrew Jones, and the Talking Skull!

In Search of a new Weird Tales: An Interview with Joseph Goodman, Howard Andrew Jones, and the Talking Skull!

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Tales from the Magician's Skull-small

Recently Goodman Games announced a Kickstarter campaign to fund the launch of Tales From the Magician’s Skull, a magazine of all-new swords & sorcery fiction in the classic pulp style. The first issue is a delight for Black Gate readers, with tales from popular BG contributors James Enge, John C. Hocking, Howard Andrew Jones, Chris Willrich, Bill Ward, and others. And best of all, Goodman has invited Howard Andrew Jones on board as editor, guaranteeing a top-notch product. The spectacular success of the Kickstarter campaign — more than quintuple its goal, with more than a week to go — demonstrates just how well the creators have read the market demand for a true sword & sorcery publication. I sat down with Joseph Goodman, founder and publisher of Goodman Games, and Howard — along with their undead master, the mighty Magician’s Skull — to find out more about one of the most exciting magazine launches in a decade.

My first question is for Joseph… why a magazine? How does that fit in with your laser-like focus on classic gaming?

Joseph: Thanks for the interview, John! To answer your question, I have to start with Appendix N. In the 1982 edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide, the creator included an obscure bibliography. It was Appendix N, the 14th appendix in the book, where he listed the works of fiction that inspired him to create D&D. That list has since become notorious. It is now a de facto “required reading list” for diehard fans of the game.

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October 2017 Nightmare Magazine Now on Sale

October 2017 Nightmare Magazine Now on Sale

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Nightmare Magazine October 2017-smallIf you’ve never tried Nightmare magazine… well, let’s face it, what better time than October? The latest issue has a nice assortment of creepy tales, including Joanna Parypinski’s “We Are Turning on a Spindle,” a short fable about a traveler who tirelessly searches the universe for a very particular castle, with a legendary resident. The universe, it turns out, is downright lousy with castles.

After years of searching, he found the castle on a remote forgotten world in an abandoned corner of the unknown universe. Castles littered the cosmos like dead stars, relics of the ancients…

What is our hero doing way the heck out here?

There was no beauty left in the known cosmos, as far as he could see, and so he had ventured to the unknown cosmos… These are strange worlds that lie on the fringes, so old they may have existed before physics settled down with its proper rules.

Parypinski has a real gift for turning a phrase (“The interior of the castle was likewise ruined and decrepit, its diseased antediluvian stone like a scabbed wound”), and the tale is short, about 2,400 words. While the prose is sparking and new, the tale is a very old one indeed, and the ending isn’t hard to predict. That’s sort of the point, I think, and the horror of the climax isn’t diminished by our ability to see it coming. Check it out here.

The October issue of Nightmare also contains original fiction from Cassandra Khaw, and reprints by Brian Evenson and Robert Shearman.

There’s also an editorial from John Joseph Adams, with all the latest news on upcoming titles from John Joseph Adams Books, including the Hugh Howey collection Machine Learning, and Molly Tanzer’s second novel Creatures of Will and Temper, plus the latest installment of “The H Word,” in which Kristi DeMeester shares her thoughts on horror. There’s also author spotlights, and a feature interview with Josh Malerman.

The complete contests of the issue are listed below.

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