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Clarkesworld 116 Now Available

Clarkesworld 116 Now Available

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Clarkesworld 116-smallI love Peter Mohrbacher’s cover for the May issue of Clarkesworld, a gorgeously creepy piece titled “Ananiel, Angel of Storms” (click the image at right for a bigger version.) Mohrbacher has covered other Clarkesworlds — mostly recent issue 111 — but this is the first to really make me sit up and take notice.

Robert L Turner III at Tangent Online raves about Rich Larson this issue, calling him “an excellent new talent.”

“Jonas and the Fox” by Rich Larson is set in a post revolution farming community. Fox is a poet and fugitive from the new junta after the revolution starts to eat its own. He is hiding in the body of his nephew who is brain dead after an accidental fall. His Nephew Jonas, the other title character, must come to terms with the stranger inhabiting his brother’s body. The novelette cleverly links the revolution’s rewriting of history with the disconnect between Fox and his new body. The story is touching, and manages to keep you guessing as to how it will end. Larson is a young author and well worth keeping an eye on. If this piece is representative of his work, we could be looking at an excellent new talent.

Read his complete review here.

Clarkesworld #116 has five new stories by Cat Rambo, Robert Reed, Cassandra Khaw, Rich Larson, and Luo Longxiang, and two reprints by Joe Abercrombie and Sunny Moraine.

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Support the Launch of Skelos, a New Magazine of the Weird

Support the Launch of Skelos, a New Magazine of the Weird

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Skelos Journal of the Weird-small

It’s always exciting to hear about the launch of a new fantasy magazine — and it’s especially exciting when it’s as promising as Skelos, a new journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy.

Skelos is edited by a trio of Weird Fiction rock stars — Jeffrey Shanks, co-editor of the fabulous Unique Legacy of Weird Tales, Mark Finn, noted blogger and author of the World Fantasy Award-nominated Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard, and Chris Gruber, editor of Robert E. Howard’s Boxing Stories, from the University of Nebraska Press.

The Kickstarter campaign to fund the first issue is already at 150% of goal in barely 24 hours — which means that the first issue of Skelos will be arriving this summer. It will be packed with new fiction and great art, including a never-before-published fantasy piece by Robert E. Howard, illustrated by none other than Mark Schultz. Here’s the complete details.

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New Treasures: The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

New Treasures: The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

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The Trials of Apollo The Hidden Oracle-smallI was tremendously impressed to see best-selling author Rick Riordan matching $10,000 in donations made to Rosarium Publishing’s recent (and very successful) Indiegogo campaign. You don’t often see that level of small press love from someone who makes millions through a Manhattan publisher.

Rick Riordan seems like a solid all around guy, and I’m not just saying that because he said great things about my man Carlos Hernandez’s first collection, The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria. Riordan is the author of the international bestselling Percy Jackson series, as well as the Kane Chronicles, and the Heroes of Olympus. His latest series for young readers, The Trials of Apollo, kicks off with The Hidden Oracle, now on sale from Disney-Hyperion.

How do you punish an immortal?

By making him human.

After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disoriented, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus’s favor.

But Apollo has many enemies-gods, monsters, and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go… an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.

The Trials of Apollo, Book One: The Hidden Oracle was published by Disney-Hyperion on May 3, 2016. It is 384 pages, priced at $19.99 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital edition.

Future Treasures: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten, edited by Jonathan Strahan

Future Treasures: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten, edited by Jonathan Strahan

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The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Ten-smallHoly cats… Jonathan Strahan’s up to Volume Ten already? My oh my, how times flies.

Well, you know what the imminent arrival of the newest volume of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year means. That’s right — the Best of the Year season is upon us. Strahan kicks it off, as usual, but in the next 3-4 months we’ll see a dozen more from Gardner Dozois, Rich Horton, Paula Guran (two volumes!), Ellen Datlow, Neil Clarke, John Joseph Adams, and many others. (Have a look at the 17 volumes we covered last year here and here.)

You don’t need that many Best of the Year anthologies. But you definitely need Jonathan’s — his taste is impeccable, and this volume is one of the very best of the lot. Here’s a peek at the table of contents… 27 short stories from Kai Ashante Wilson, Vonda McIntyre, Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Kim Stanley Robinson, Genevieve Valentine, Kelly Link, Anne Leckie, Jeffrey Ford, and many others. Here’s the complete TOC.

1. “City of Ash,” Paolo Bacigalupi
2. “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson,” Elizabeth Bear
3. “The Machine Starts,” Greg Bear
4. “The Winter Wraith,” Jeffrey Ford
5. “Black Dog,” Neil Gaiman
6. “Jamaica Ginger,” Nalo Hopkinson & Nisi Shawl
7. “Drones,” Simon Ings
8. “Emergence,” Gwyneth Jones

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Ancient Planets and Treachery at Every Turn: Rich Horton on The Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett

Ancient Planets and Treachery at Every Turn: Rich Horton on The Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett

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The Ginger Star Steranko-small The Ginger Star Boris Vallejo-small The Ginger Star Planet Stories-small

Over at his personal blog Strange at Ecbatan, Rich Horton reviews one of the great classics of science fantasy, Leigh Brackett’s The Ginger Star, the opening novel in the three-volume Book of Skaith.

I adore the great Brackett stories of the late ’40s and early ‘50s, particularly The Sword of Rhiannon, one of the great pure planetary romances; and other stories in the same loosely developed future (though The Sword of Rhiannon is really set in the past): “The Halfling,” “The Dancing Girl of Ganymede,” “Mars Minus Bisha,” “Shannach – the Last,” for example. Other SF was also very fine, most notably The Long Tomorrow, a post-Apocalyptic novel; but also The Big Jump and The Starmen of Llyrdis. Her slightly later story from Venture, “The Queer Ones” (aka “The Other People”) is excellent, and not terribly well known. The Eric John Stark stories fit into her Mars/Venus/etc. future – and they are quite enjoyable as well. Stark is portrayed as a nearly savage man, raised as an orphan on Mercury, and rampaging through Venus and Mars in the most prominent pieces.

The Skaith novels feature Stark as the protagonist, but they are set on a planet in another Solar System, Skaith. I had assumed that she set them there because the Mars and Venus of the earlier stories was no longer astronomically plausible, and perhaps that is the case, but it should be noted that in these books she does still portray Stark as a native of Mercury – also a highly implausible thing.

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Fantasy Scroll Magazine 12 Now Available

Fantasy Scroll Magazine 12 Now Available

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Fantasy Scroll Magazine Issue 12-smallThe 12th issue of the online-only Fantasy Scroll Magazine, cover dated April 2016, is now available. In his editorial Iulian Ionescu gives us a sneak peek of the contents. Here’s a snippet:

The fiction section opens with “Mother Salt and her Sisters” by James Troughton, a story that brings a fresh new look to the myth of the mermaid, and adds a darker than usual twist. Next is “Apprentice” by James Van Pelt, a story about the relationship between the mentor and mentee, filled with magical mystery that will keep you guessing through the end. Jason Hine’s “Prosperity’s Shadow” follows, set in a medieval-type of fantasy world where magic is used to control the masses, and we observe the struggle of the enforcer who has to deal with the weight that his job puts on his conscience. “The Memory of Huckleberries” by Rebecca Birch is sure to bring a tear to your eye. It’s a heartwarming story of love, sacrifice, and loss…

“Boo Daddy’s” by Anna Yeatts follows, a tale set in the Wild West, with a little twisted twist that will definitely creep under your skin. Intrigued? We end the fiction section of the issue with “Skies of Sand and Stee”l by Jeremy Szal, a science fiction story that follows the protagonist in his quest to stop mass exploitation in a world where entire cities float above ground.

Issue 12 continues the epic adventures of Shamrock in a new installment titled “Shadows,” written by Josh Brown with art by Alberto Hernandez. The non-fiction section includes interviews with authors Angela Slatter and Brian Staveley, a book review for God of Clay by Ryan Campbell and a movie review for 10 Cloverfield Lane, directed by Dan Trachtenberg.

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New Treasures: Shadow’s Blade, Book III of the Case Files of Justis Fearsson by David B. Coe

New Treasures: Shadow’s Blade, Book III of the Case Files of Justis Fearsson by David B. Coe

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Spell Blind David B Coe-small His Father's Eyes David B Coe-small Shadow's Blade David B Coe-small

David B. Coe’s adventure fantasy “Night of Two Moons” was one of the most popular tales in Black Gate 4. Over the last two decades he’s had a stellar career in fantasy — his LonTobyn trilogy and five-book Winds of the Forelands established him as a leading voice in adventure fantasy; and under the name D.B. Jackson he also writes the Thieftaker Chronicles, a historical urban fantasy for Tor. Shadow’s Blade, the third volume in The Case Files of Justis Fearsson, a contemporary urban fantasy featuring a hardboiled, magic-using private detective, was released by Baen last week.

Justis Fearsson is a weremyste and a private detective. He wields potent magic, but every month, on the full moon, he loses his mind. His battles with insanity have already cost him his job as a cop; he can’t afford to let them interfere with his latest case.

Phoenix has become ground zero in a magical war, and an army of werecreatures, blood sorcerers, and necromancers has made Jay its number one target. When he is hired to track down a woman who has gone missing with her two young children, he has a hunch that the dark ones are to blame. But then he’s also brought in by the police to help with a murder investigation, and all the evidence implicates this same woman. Soon he is caught up in a deadly race to find not only the young family, but also an ancient weapon that could prove decisive in the looming conflict. Can he keep himself alive long enough to reach the woman and her kids before his enemies do? And can he claim the weapon before the people he loves, and the world he knows, are lost in a storm of flame, blood, and darkest sorcery?

We cover the second volume in the series, His Father’s Eyes, here. David is a sometime blogger for Black Gate; his most recent article series for us discussed last year’s Hugo Award controversy.

Shadow’s Blade was published by Baen on May 3, 2016. It is 320 pages, priced at $26 in hardcover, and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Alan Pollock. Read a sample chapter at David’s website.

Please Welcome Lady Business to the Hugo Ballot!

Please Welcome Lady Business to the Hugo Ballot!

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Lady Business logo

The revised Hugo Awards Ballot for 2016 has been announced by MidAmericon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention, following the withdrawal of two nominees: Thomas A. Mays, who declined in the Short Story category, and Black Gate, who declined our nomination last week. Two nominees were added: “Cat Pictures Please,” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015) and the group blog Lady Business. I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never heard of Lady Business, so I checked them out this week — and was impressed. In announcing their placement on the ballot, they were gracious enough to acknowledge us:

First and foremost, we would like to acknowledge Black Gate, a fine blog that has been an integral part of the SF/F fandom community for many years. Withdrawing from consideration cannot have been an easy decision for them, and we wish them all the best.

They also summarized their mandate:

For those not familiar with Lady Business, we are a group of women and genderqueer people who write about media from an intersectional feminist perspective. You can learn more about our individual editors here.

They have a handy sample list of 2015 posts, and it’s got some great stuff — including Nerd Adventures: Pacific Rim at After School Special by litomnivore, and an entertainingly cranky review of one of my favorite superhero shows, Agents of SHIELD 3×01, “Laws of Nature” – Don’t Try the Fish by renay. They also offer short fiction reviews, take look at Gender Discrimination in SFF Awards, and tackle the massive project of tracking eligibility for next year’s awards in the 2017 Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom.

I admit I was a bit apprehensive about what would take our place on the ballot, and it’s great to put those fears to rest. In my opinion, replacing Black Gate with Lady Business has upgraded the ballot nicely. As a side bonus, I’ve discovered a fine new site…. and isn’t that what awards are supposed to be about? Drop by Lady Business and check them out for yourselves.

The 2016 Locus Award Finalists

The 2016 Locus Award Finalists

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Karen Memory-smallerWith all the hubbub surrounding the Hugo Awards this week, I almost overlooked the 2016 Locus Award Finalists, announced on Tuesday. There’s plenty of terrific reading on this list, and the nomination process is done with an open online poll.

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation sponsors the awards, and the winners are selected by the readers of Locus magazine. The awards began in 1971, originally as a way to highlight quality work in advance of the Hugo Awards. The winners will be announced during the Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 24-26, 2016. In addition to creators, the Locus Foundation also honors winning publishers with certificates, which I think is kind of neat.

The finalists are:

FANTASY NOVEL

Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear (Tor)
The House of Shattered Wings, Aliette de Bodard (Roc)
Wylding Hall, Elizabeth Hand (Open Road)
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)

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Future Treasures: Company Town by Madeline Ashby

Future Treasures: Company Town by Madeline Ashby

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Company Town-smallMadeline Ashby is the author Vn and its sequel iD, the first two novels in the The Machine Dynasty trilogy from Angry Robot. She lives in Toronto and writes articles for my hometown paper, the Ottawa Citizen, which automatically makes her cool in my eyes.

Her third novel Company Town, a near-future mystery, is getting a lot of early attention. Locus calls it “Worthy of the best Heinlein…. a terrific ride,” and Chuck Wendig says “This is brave, bold, crazy storytelling.” Charlie Stross says “Madeline Ashby bludgeons cyberpunk to death with this post-climate change thriller about life aboard a gas platform, confronting an uncomfortable new future.” I’m sold.

New Arcadia is a city-sized oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, now owned by one very wealthy, powerful, byzantine family: Lynch Ltd.

Hwa is of the few people in her community (which constitutes the whole rig) to forgo bio-engineered enhancements. As such, she’s the last truly organic person left on the rig — making her doubly an outsider, as well as a neglected daughter and bodyguard extraordinaire. Still, her expertise in the arts of self-defense and her record as a fighter mean that her services are yet in high demand. When the youngest Lynch needs training and protection, the family turns to Hwa. But can even she protect against increasingly intense death threats seemingly coming from another timeline?

Meanwhile, a series of interconnected murders threatens the city’s stability and heightens the unease of a rig turning over. All signs point to a nearly invisible serial killer, but all of the murders seem to lead right back to Hwa’s front door. Company Town has never been the safest place to be — but now, the danger is personal.

A brilliant, twisted mystery, as one woman must evaluate saving the people of a town that can’t be saved, or saving herself.

Company Town will be published by Tor Books on May 17, 2016. It is 341 pages, priced at $24.99 in hardcover and $11.99 for the digital version. The cover is by ChiZine’s genius designer Erik Mohr.