Black Gate

The latest issue of Scott Andrew’s Beneath Ceaseless Skies has been up for less that a week, but Charles Payseur at Quick Sip Reviews already has a detailed review. Charles is routinely a pretty positive guy, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have good insights. His thoughtful comments introducing this issue make a fine example.

Whenever I get a new issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, my first inclination is to find out how the stories fit together. More than any other publication, BCS does an excellent job of pairing its stories. Perhaps because it does just two an issue, but there’s almost always something to link the tales, and this issue is no different. While the stories are thematically rather distant, and aesthetically fairly different as well (though each with perhaps a bit of a Western feel), they are linked by some key ideas. Metal, first and most. The first story deals with Iron, the second with Silver. And in each, these metals are used for magic, for a perceived justice, only to have that justice come into question, and the righteousness of the main characters comes into conflict with the harm that they do. These are stories of elections and revenge, voice and hunger. The pieces go together well, drawing a picture of desperate people and the complex idea of freedom.

Issue #237 contains new fiction from Marissa Lingen and Bennett North, an Audio Fiction Podcast by Natalia Theodoridou, and a reprint from Black Gate alum Rosamund Hodge.

Here’s Charles on “Forgive Us Our Trespasses” by Bennett North, which sounds right up my alley.

…

Read More Read More

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.

…

Read More Read More