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Author: John ONeill

New Treasures: The Lure of Devouring Light by Michael Griffin

New Treasures: The Lure of Devouring Light by Michael Griffin

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Ross E. Lockhart’s Word Horde press has done some darned impressive horror volumes. Just counting the ones we’ve covered recently:

The Fisherman by John Langan
Mr. Suicide, Nicole Cushing
Cthulhu Fhtagn!, edited by Ross E. Lockhart
Vermilion by Molly Tanzer
The Children of Old Leech, edited by Ross E. Lockhart and Justin Steele

Yeah, that’s a pretty good list. A list like that wins you some serious credibility. So when Word Horde offers us an intriguing new debut collection from someone I’ve never heard of, I think it behooves us to pay attention. Michael Griffin’s The Lure of Devouring Light has been called “A solid outing from a rising star in horror and dark fantasy” by Publishers Weekly, and Hellnotes says “It doesn’t get more recommended than this.”

The Lure of Devouring Light was published by Word Horde on April 30, 2016. It is 336 pages, priced at $16.99 in trade paperback and $6.99 for the digital version. The cover art is by Jarek Kubicki. Read more at the Word Horde website.

The 2016 Hugo Award Winners

The 2016 Hugo Award Winners

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The Fifth Season Jemisin-smallIt was a delight to be in the audience in Kansas City for the 2016 Hugo Awards. I was sitting next to Rich and MaryAnne Horton, and we thoroughly enjoyed both the pre-show and the presentations.

There’s a lengthy list of winners, so let’s get to it. The complete list follows.

Best Novel

The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US)

Best Novella

Binti, Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)

Best Novelette

“Folding Beijing”, Hao Jingfang (Uncanny 1-2/15)

Best Short Story

“Cat Pictures Please”, Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, 1/15)

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Black Gate Receives an Alfie Award from George R.R. Martin

Black Gate Receives an Alfie Award from George R.R. Martin

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George RR Martin and John O’Neill

Yesterday, while I was walking through the crowded halls of Worldcon in the Kansas City Convention Center, I was given an invitation to the Hugo Losers party, courtesy of the party’s distinguished host, George RR Martin. I was quite flattered, as Black Gate was not even up for a Hugo (we declined the nomination, as we did last year, to make room for another nominee on the ballot), but didn’t think much more about it.

The Hugo Losers party is the hottest ticket of the convention, as I soon discovered. George personally hands out the Alfie Awards to those Hugo losers whom he feels (quite rightly, I think) were unjustly robbed of an award by slate shenanigans. And this year he spared no expense to do it in style, renting out the Midland Theater, hiring a band, and plying hundreds of guests with fabulous food and drink. The Awards themselves are gorgeous, constructed of vintage hood ornaments, in honor of the design inspiration for the first Hugo Awards.

George funds and hosts the awards, but the Alfie’s are in truth a fan award… the winners are determined by the results of the Hugo voting. But after the first few were awarded, George announced that the Alfie committee had the right to give out special awards. And as the sole member of the committee, he’d decided to give a special award this year to recognize one publication “for integrity” in declining a Hugo nomination two years in a row. Without further ado, George announced the award was to be given to Black Gate, and I was called to the stage to accept it.

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August Issue of The Dark Now on Sale

August Issue of The Dark Now on Sale

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The Dark August 2016-smallIt’s a little ironic that The Dark finally makes a long-anticipated leap from quarterly to monthly publication in May… and then I promptly miss the next two issues. It doesn’t really help that the magazine is published every month if I only make time to read it once a quarter. (Of course, I’m still reading fiction at Tor.com from back in April, so I suppose everything’s relative.) Let’s just cut our losses and jump back in with the August issue, mm’kay?

The Dark is edited by Sean Wallace, with assistance by Jack Fisher. Here’s the Table of Contents for issue #15, cover-dated August 2015.

“Floodwater” by Kristi DeMeester
“Wheatfield with Crows” by Steve Rasnic Tem (from Dark World: Ghost Stories, 2013)
“Some Pictures of Monsters” by Rhonda Eikamp
“Hairwork” by Gemma Files (from She Walks in Shadows, 2015)

You can read issues free online, or help support the magazine by buying the ebook editions, available for the Kindle and Nook in Mobi and ePub format. Issues are around 50 pages, and priced at $2.99 through Amazon, B&N.com, Apple, Kobo, and other fine outlets — or subscribe for just $1.99 per issue.

If you enjoy the magazine you can contribute to their new Patreon account. Read the complete announcement, and sign up here. You can also support The Dark by buying their books, reviewing stories, or even just leaving comments.

Read the August issue here, catch up on their June or July issues, or see their complete back issue catalog here. The August cover is by Tomislav Tikulin. We last covered The Dark with the May issue.

See our August Fantasy Magazine Rack here, and all of our recent Magazine coverage here.

Future Treasures: The Call by Peadar O’Guilin

Future Treasures: The Call by Peadar O’Guilin

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Peadar O’Guilin was one of the most popular and prolific contributors to the print version of Black Gate. His first story for us was “The Mourning Trees” (BG 5), followed by “Where Beauty Lies in Wait” (BG 11) and “The Evil Eater” (BG 13), which Serial Distractions called “a lovely little bit of Lovecraftian horror that still haunts me to this day.” A fourth story, “The Dowry,” appeared as part of our Black Gate Online Fiction catalog.

Check out the podcast version of “The Evil Eater” on Pseudopod, or download Where Beauty Lies In Wait, a free e-book collecting a dozen of Peadar’s short stories, including his Black Gate tales, here.

Peadar’s first novel, The Inferior, was published to terrific reviews in 2008; it was followed by the next two novels in The Bone World Trilogy, The Deserter (2012) and The Volunteer (2013). His last book was Forever in the Memory of God and Other Stories, which Sarah Avery called “old-school weird fiction, Clark Ashton Smith style.”

Peadar’s newest novel is easily one of the most anticipated novels of the year here at Black Gate‘s rooftop headquarters. A unique blend of fantasy, horror, and folkore from one of the top writers in the field, The Call is this fall’s must-read fantasy epic.

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Off to Worldcon

Off to Worldcon

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By the time the Black Gate supercomputer posts this article, I’ll be on a plane to Kansas City, heading to MidAmeriCon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention.

I haven’t been to WorldCon since 2012, when it was held right here in Chicago. That time Black Gate had a big booth in the dealer’s room — staffed by a crack team of BG writers, including Howard Andrew Jones, James Enge, Rich Horton, Donald Crankshaw, Jason Waltz, and Peadar Ó Guilín — selling what would turn out to be our last issue. (Howard has a detailed report with plenty of pics, here.) With the end of the print issue, there’s no point to a booth, so this time it’s just me flying solo. I was too lazy and preoccupied to fill out the programming form, so I’m not even on any panels. If you spot a white-bearded guy shuffling through the dealer’s room asking about copies of Perry Rhodan, it’s probably me.

But if you’re a Black Gate reader attending the con, I’d love to hear from you. Drop a comment below, and I hope to run into you in person. I will post periodic reports from the convention over the next few days, including some selfies with fans. See you there!

New Treasures: The Greatship by Robert Reed

New Treasures: The Greatship by Robert Reed

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I’ve been hearing about Robert Reed’s Greatship stories for a very long time. The tales of a vast spaceship relic that is larger than worlds, and which contains thousands of alien species, the Greatship stories appeared first in F&SF and Asimov’s Science Fiction in the mid-90s, and were frequently reprinted in Best of the Year anthologies.

By the last decade Reed was producing ambitious novellas in his Greatship universe, and they were appearing primarily in anthologies — especially the novella-friendly anthologies from the Science Fiction Book Club — such as “Camouflage” (in Down These Dark Spaceways, May 2005), “Rococo” (Forbidden Planets, May 2006), “The Man with the Golden Balloon” (Galactic Empires, February 2008), and “Alone” (Godlike Machines, September 2010). There was also at least one standalone chapbook, Mere, from Golden Gryphon Press, and three novels: Marrow (2000), The Well of Stars (2005), and A Memory of Sky (2014).

Three years ago, Argo-Navis press produced the first collection, The Greatship, which gathered a dozen short stories and novellas written over the past 20 years (including Mere and all four novellas mentioned above), along with additional connecting material and an introduction. At $31.99 in trade paperback it’s a bit pricey, but it’s well worth it to have so much great material in one place.

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Clarkesworld 119 Now Available

Clarkesworld 119 Now Available

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Clarkesworld 119-smallI’ve been enjoying Charles Payseur’s short fiction reviews at his website, Quick Sip Reviews. Here’s what he says about the August issue of Clarkesworld:

It’s a month of surprises at Clarkesworld this August, as there is an extra original story plus a story in translation from German instead of the usual Chinese translation. So there’s definitely a lot to see with four short stories and two longer novelettes. The good news is that it’s all weird. Seriously, these are stories that push at the boundaries of the imagination. That conjure up strange worlds and uncertain realities and the vastness and power of both space and violence. Stories that set aliens next to 50’s greasers and mix time travel, tragedy, and immigration. And through it all there’s a sense of yearning that pervades. For a brighter future, a peaceful cooperation, and the comfort of another presence. To the reviews!

To the reviews, indeed. After a lead-in like that, it’s hard to resist. Read his complete review here.

I’m not completely used to longer fiction at Clarkesworld yet — and there are some longer pieces in this issue, including Dale Bailey’s “Teenagers from Outer Space” (11,690 words), and Karla Schmidt’s “Alone, on the Wind” (13,449 words, translated from the German). There’s also original fiction from Kali Wallace, Emily Devenport, Sean Bensinger, and Ryan Row, and reprints by Tobias S. Buckell and Madeline Ashby.

Here’s the complete list of stories featured this issue.

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Future Treasures: Spellbreaker, the Concluding Volume of The Spellwright Trilogy by Blake Charlton

Future Treasures: Spellbreaker, the Concluding Volume of The Spellwright Trilogy by Blake Charlton

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It’s not often that a fantasy author achieves a breakout work with his first novel — or even his first series — but that’s exactly what Blake Charlton has done with The Spellwright Trilogy, which began with his debut novel Spellwright. Robin Hobb calls the series “A letter-perfect story,” and Publishers Weekly proclaimed it “A winner” in a star review.

After a nearly 5-year gap, the third and final novel in the trilogy, Spellbreaker, arrives in hardcover next week. All three books were published by Tor; here’s the complete publishing details.

Spellwright (352 pages, $25.99, March 2, 2010) — cover by Todd Lockwod
Spellbound (416 pages, $25.99, September 13, 2011) — cover by Todd Lockwood
Spellbreaker (476 pages, $25.969, August 23, 2016) — cover by James Paick

Here’s a look at the back covers of all three volumes.

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Looking for Some Great Summer Reads? Check out The Best of Prime Books

Looking for Some Great Summer Reads? Check out The Best of Prime Books

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Looking for some great reading to take to the beach in August? Prime Books has you covered. They’ve released one of their highly acclaimed Year’s Best volumes each of the last three months: The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2016, edited by Rich Horton (June), The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2016, edited by Paula Guran (July), and this month it’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas, also by Paula Guran. That ought to keep you busy! (Click each of the images below for more details.)

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