Black Gate

This delightful treasure showed up unbidden in my mailbox this week. It’s advertised as the first of a new series of original horror anthologies, which would be a major addition to the field. Editor Mark Morris (Toady, Vampire Circus, and The Society of Blood) gave the scoop to Ginger Nuts of Horror earlier this year.

Having grown up reading the Pan and Fontana Books of Horror and Ghost Stories, plus numerous other anthologies edited by the likes of Peter Haining, Michel Parry, Richard Davis and Mary Danby, it has always been one of my keenest ambitions to edit an annual – and hopefully long-running – non-themed horror anthology of new, never-before-published stories for the mass market.

Now, thanks to Titan Books, I’ve finally got that chance. I’ve signed an initial contract for two volumes of New Fears, with hopefully more to come in the future… In the first volume you’ll find stories which explore ancient myths in new and innovative ways, stories of human evil, stories of unnamed and ambiguous terrors, and stories where the numinous and the inexplicable intrude upon what we perceive to be reality in unexpected ways. You’ll find humor, and hope, and grief, and sadness, and regret, and impenetrable darkness. You’ll find stories that surprise you, unsettle you and shock you. But most of all, you’ll find stories that grab you and draw you in and compel you to keep turning the pages.

New Fears contains brand new fiction from Adam Nevill, Ramsey Campbell, Angela Slatter, Nina Allan, Chaz Brenchley, Kathryn Ptacek, Christopher Golden, Alison Littlewood, and many others. See more details here.

Here’s the complete TOC.

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Fred Strydom’s debut novel The Raft was published in hardcover last year, and the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog called it “One of the sharpest premises in 2016… a must-read.” In a starred review, Publishers Weekly said “Strydom’s debut subverts postapocalyptic fiction… [it] reinvigorates the genre with a suspenseful concept and intimately realized characters. A sucker punch of a novel.”

I never saw the hardcover, but the trade paperback reprint from Talos caught my eye at the bookstore last week. Have a look.

“The day every person on earth lost his and her memory was not a day at all. In people’s minds there was no actual event . . . and thus it could be followed by no period of shock or mourning. There could be no catharsis. Everyone was simply reset to zero.”

On Day Zero, the collapse of civilization was as instantaneous as it was inevitable. A mysterious and oppressive movement rose to power in the aftermath, forcing people into isolated communes run like regimes. Kayle Jenner finds himself trapped on a remote beach and all that remains of his life before is the vague and haunting vision of his son.

Kayle finally escapes, only to find a broken world being put back together in strange ways. As more memories from his past life begin returning, the people he meets wandering the face of a scorched earth — some reluctant allies, others dangerous enemies — begin to paint a terrifying picture. In his relentless search for his son, Kayle will discover more than just his lost past. He will discover the truth behind Day Zero — a truth that makes both fools and gods of men.

The Raft was published in hardcover by Talos Press on May 3, 2016, and reprinted in trade paperback on May 16, 2017. It is 432 pages, priced at $15.99 in trade paperback and $25.99 for the digital edition. Read a brief excerpt at Books Live.

Kat Howard’s debut fantasy novel Roses and Rot was a Locus Award nominee for Best First Novel, and a Publishers Weekly Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Novel of Summer 2016. Her latest is a standalone tale of a secret cabal of wizards in New York City, and a woman who wants to bring down the entire system from within. It arrives in hardcover from Saga Press in two weeks.

The Unseen World prides itself on remaining invisible as magicians walk the streets of New York City, rich and literally powerful.

Every twenty years, vying for power and standing during the Turning, the heads of magical houses would elect a champion, a family member or a magician-for-hire, and begin a series of duels.

But the Turning has come early, after thirteen years, and Ian Merlin, the heir to the most powerful house in the Unseen World has elected to become the champion of his father’s chief rival, House Prospero.

Enter Sydney: An unknown magician from a candidate house, an outsider easily dismissed amongst the established wealth and power of the Unseen World.

Acclaimed author Kat Howard has written a magical revenge thriller amidst the private world of New York City’s most influential citizens, who feed off each other in a hidden game of magical dominance.

What the Unseen World will soon learn is that Sydney is a formidable duelist with power that hasn’t been seen in decades, and she has a score to settle.

An Unkindness of Magicians will be published by Saga Press on September 26. It is 355 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $7.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Vault 49. Read Chapter One at Tor.com.