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Author: John ONeill

March 2016 Nightmare Magazine Now on Sale

March 2016 Nightmare Magazine Now on Sale

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Nightmare Magazine March 2016-smallThe contents of the March issue of online magazine Nightmare are now fully available at the magazine’s wesbite. This issue contains original short stories from John Skipp and Sandra McDonald, and reprints from Nancy Holder and Charles L. Grant.

Original Stories

“Bringing Out the Demons” by John Skipp
I pull up in front of Stanley’s four-story Los Feliz apartment building at 2:57 ayem Angie and Jack are already out front: Angie pacing, a furious smoke in her hand. Jack smiles thinly, salutes as I block the grade school playground driveway next door (the only available parking left), leaving enough room for the back doors of Jack’s van to load in if need be.

“The Modern Ladies’ Letter-Writer” by Sandra McDonald
Dear Susie: There are customary ways to begin a letter and end it, to address the envelope and set it to post. We have delivered to you (while you slept so prettily, your pale face a serene oval in the moonlight) this polite and improving manual of letters for the Fair Sex. We know you will be grateful. Do be aware that some correspondences may involve vows of fealty, freshly spilled blood, supernatural appeals to divine beings, and sacrifices of unusual scope. A modern lady avoids squeamishness about such matters.

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Deep Space Scavengers, Pirates, and a Space Witch: Rich Horton on Great Science Fiction Adventures

Deep Space Scavengers, Pirates, and a Space Witch: Rich Horton on Great Science Fiction Adventures

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Over at his personal blog Strange at Ecbatan, Rich Horton takes a look at the 1963 anthology Great Science Fiction Adventures, which collects three novellas and a novelette, all from the late-50s magazine Science Fiction Adventures. The stories are:

“The Starcombers” by Edmond Hamilton (December 1956, above left; cover by Emsh)
“Hunt the Space-Witch!” by Robert Silverberg (as Ivar Jorgenson; January 1958, above middle; cover by John Schoenherr)
“The Man from the Big Dark” by John Brunner (June 1958, above right; cover by Emsh)
“The World Otalmi Made” by Harry Harrison (June 1958, above right; cover by Emsh)

Coincidentally, the January 1958 issue also includes the novella “One Against Herculum,” by Jerry Sohl, which was eventually included in Ace Double #D-381 in 1959, paired with Secret of the Lost Race by Andre Norton (which we covered here.)

Not too surprisingly, of the stories in the anthology, Rich prefers the Brunner.

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Future Treasures: A Lovely Way to Burn by Louise Welsh

Future Treasures: A Lovely Way to Burn by Louise Welsh

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A Lovely Way to Burn-small A Lovely Way to Burn-back-small

You know how we love to mix genres here at Black Gate. A Lovely Way to Burn, on sale in trade paperback next week from Quercus Books, looks like a fine example of one of my favorite modern concoctions: the apocalyptic mystery. As hospitals begin to fill with the dead and dying, Stevie Flint is convinced the sudden death of her boyfriend, Dr. Simon Sharkey, was not from natural causes. As the exits from London become choked with people fleeing a deadly new plague, Stevie’s search for answers take her in the opposite direction, into the very heart of the dying city.

Louise Welsh is also the author of The Bullet Trick, The Girl on the Stairs, and The Cutting Room. A Lovely Way to Burn is the opening novel in her Plague Tales trilogy. The second volume, Death is a Welcome Guest, arrives on May 3, and the third and final nstallment, No Dominion, will be published in January of next year.

Like this new genre of apocalyptic mysteries? You might also want to check out Lev AC Rosen’s Depth and Ben H. Winters’ The Last Policeman.

A Lovely Way to Burn will be published by Quercus on April 5, 2016. It is 318 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by More Visual Limited.

The April Magazine Rack

The April Magazine Rack

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Analog-April-2016-rack Apex-Magazine-March-2016-rack Beneath-Ceaseless-Skies-195-rack Clarkesworld-114-rack
giganotosaurus-logo-rack Fantasy-Scroll-Magazine-Issue-11-rack The-Glass-Galago-rack Lightspeed-March-2016-rack

Lots of great reading for fantasy lovers this month — including some terrific tales at Tor.com, new issues of Fantasy Scroll, Lightspeed, Apex, Clarkesworld, Analog, and many more.

For our vintage magazine readers, Rich Horton reviewed the March 1964 Amazing Stories, and Doug Ellis dug deep into his impressive collection to report on the Early Chicago SF Fan Club, and Otto Binder’s 1937 letter on John W. Campbell, and we introduced you to Gideon Marcus’ website Galactic Journey.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our Mid-March Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

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Read Derek Künsken’s Story “Flight From the Ages” in the April/May Asimov’s SF

Read Derek Künsken’s Story “Flight From the Ages” in the April/May Asimov’s SF

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Asimov's Science Fiction April May 2016-smallI bought Derek Künsken’s story “The Gifts of Li Tzu-Ch’eng” for Black Gate 15; since then he’s had a very impressive career, publishing over a dozen short stories in Asimov’s, Analog, and other fine places. In 2013 he won the Asimov’s SF Readers’ Award for his story “The Way of the Needle,” and “Persephone Descending,” his cover story for the November 2014 Analog, placed #2 in the 2014 Analog Readers’ Award for Best Novelette.

His latest story, “Flight From the Ages,” appears in the April/May issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction, now on sale at fine bookstores everywhere. It’s the far-future tale of the artificial intelligence Ulixes-316, sole occupant of the customs and tariff ship The Derivatives Market. Here’s a taste.

Ulixes emerged into a sepulchral rubble of asteroids, hard planetesimals, and shriveled, radioactive gas giants. This was the wreck of the Tirhene system, seen half an AU from the streams of dark lithium and carbon in the highest clouds of the red dwarf. This wasteland of planetary debris had been left by the long-ago Kolkheti-Sauronati War…

Another customs and tariff ship in the Tirhene system signaled with an encrypted Bank code. Poluphemos-156. Ulixes acknowledged the signal and they proceeded sunward…

“You’re lit up with tachyons,” Ulixes transmitted.

“It’s new corporate tech,” Poluphemos replied. “I’m in direct contact with the bank headquarters.”

“What? Why wasn’t I told?”

“It’s need-to-know,” Poluphemos said. “Now you need to know.”

I like the subtle call-outs to the tale of Ulysses and Polyphemus. Derek is a regular Saturday blogger for Black Gate; his recent articles for us include his interview with Ken Liu, and “On Becoming a Full-Time Writer.”

We’ll cover the rest of this issue of Asimov’s as part of our regular magazine coverage. See all our latest magazine news here.

New Treasures: Transcendental and Transgalactic by James Gunn

New Treasures: Transcendental and Transgalactic by James Gunn

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Transcendental-small Transgalactic-small

Transcendental back-smallI’m always on the lookout for a good adventure SF series, and James Gunn’s pair of connected novels, Transcendental and Transgalactic, definitely look like they fit the bill. The books follow the adventures of Riley, a burned out war vet, and Asha, a woman on a pilgrimage to the Galactic Edge, as they investigate a mysterious alien prophet at the head of a new religious movement — and deal with the strange powers their investigation eventually gives them.

Transcendental was published by Tor in 2013, and is now available in trade paperback (see the back cover at right; click for bigger version.) Transgalactic was released in March in hardcover; here’s the description.

When Riley and Asha finally reached the planet Terminal and found the Transcendental Machine, a matter transmission device built by an ancient race, they chose to be “translated.” Now in possession of intellectual and physical powers that set them above human limitations, the machine has transported them to two, separate, unknown planets among a possibility of billions.

Riley and Asha know that together they can change the galaxy, so they attempt to do the impossible — find each other.

Transcendental was published by Tor on August 27, 2013. It is $25.99 in hardcover, $15.99 in trade paperback, and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover is Stephan Martiniere.

Transgalactic was published by Tor on March 22, 2016. It is $26.99 in hardcover, and $12.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Thom Tenery.

Vintage Treasures: The Robot Who Looked Like Me by Robert Sheckley

Vintage Treasures: The Robot Who Looked Like Me by Robert Sheckley

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The Robot Who Looked Like Me-small The Robot Who Looked Like Me-back-small

Robert Sheckley wrote over two dozen novels before his death in 2005, but he’s best remembered today for his short fiction, gathered in some 20 collections between 1954 and 2014. He has a fine reputation for a sharp wit, idiosyncratic style, and offbeat sense of humor, and that’s kept some of his most famous collections in print for years — including The Robot Who Looked Like Me, originally published in the UK in 1978, reprinted by Bantam in the US in 1982, and still in print over three decades later.

The Robot Who Looked Like Me contains thirteen stories, including the title story, originally published in Cosmopolitan (!) in August 1973. It’s not at all the kind of story I’d expect to find in Cosmopolitan, but maybe things were different in the early 70s. Very, very different.

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Beneath Ceaseless Skies 195 Now Available

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 195 Now Available

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Beneath Ceaseless Skies 195-smallBeneath Ceaseless Skies 195 is the second issue to use Sung Choi’s cover art Research Lab. The next issue, #196 (published this week) changes up the artwork again. They’re moving so fast they’re hard to keep up with these days.

Issue #195 is another Science-Fantasy double-issue, featuring a bonus story and a bonus podcast. It contains original short fiction by Aliette de Bodard, Sarah Pinsker, and Jason Sanford, podcasts by Aliette de Bodard and Sarah Pinsker, a reprint by Chris Willrich, and an Audio Vault reprint by Aliette de Bodard.

“A Salvaging of Ghosts” by Aliette de Bodard
In the darkness at the hole in the ship’s hull, Thuy isn’t blind. Her suit lights up with warnings — temperature, pressure, distortions. That last is what will kill her: the layers of unreality utterly unsuited to human existence, getting stronger and stronger as the current carries her closer to the wreck, crushing her lungs and vital organs like crumpled paper when her suit finally fails. It’s what killed Kim Anh on her last dive.

“The Mountains His Crown” by Sarah Pinsker
The soldier shrugged. His look was almost sympathetic. They turned back toward the fields. I would have liked to tell them to take the road, to stop trampling our remaining crops, but I knew better than to rile them. The soldier’s horse dropped the chewed flower stalk as they disappeared back between the rows.

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Series Fantasy: The Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells

Series Fantasy: The Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells

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The Cloud Roads-small The Serpent Sea-small The Siren Depths-small The Edge Of Worlds-small

I’m cheating a bit with these books, since technically they’re not all part of the same series. Also, the newest volume, The Edge of Worlds, won’t officially be released until April 5th — but Amazon and B&N.com both have copies in stock today, so let’s go with it.

Martha Wells’ tales of Gilead and Ilias were some of the most popular stories we ever published in Black Gate, and her Books of the Raksura trilogy captivated readers around the world. Her latest novel, The Edge of Worlds, expands her world of the Raksura with the start of a brand new series. That brings the total books set in the Three Worlds to four:

The Cloud Roads (300 pages, $14.99/$9.99 digital, March 1, 2011, cover by Matthew Stewart) — excerpt
The Serpent Sea (320 pages, $14.99/$9.99 digital, January 25, 2012, cover by Steve Argyle) — excerpt
The Siren Depths (320 pages, $14.99/$9.99 digital, December 4, 2012, cover by Steve Argyle) — excerpt
The Edge of Worlds (388 pages, $24.99/$13.99 digital, November 10 2015, cover by Yukari Masuike) — excerpt

All four are published by Night Shade Books. Links will take you to our previous coverage.

Here’s the description for The Edge of Worlds.

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Future Treasures: Asteroid Made of Dragons by G. Derek Adams

Future Treasures: Asteroid Made of Dragons by G. Derek Adams

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Asteroid Made of Dragons-smallI love the small press — that’s where a lot of the most creative and innovative work is being done today — but you do have to dig a bit to find the really good stuff. So when do you make of a small press, Kickstarter-funded fantasy novel that gets a write-up like this in Publisher’s Weekly?

An unlikely band of heroes — some of whom are trying to kill one another — must gather together in order to save their world from the return of an ancient menace in an excellent, irreverent mix of sword-and-sorcery fantasy and SF. Adams’s flippant tone recalls Terry Pratchett, taking the skewering of tropes down a very dark path as he establishes a fantasy world built from the ashes of a technological one.

That’s the kind of notice that makes a guy sit up and pay attention. Asteroid Made of Dragons will be released by Sword & Laser in trade paperback next week. Here’s the complete description.

When a lone goblin researcher stumbles across an artifact containing a terrifying message — that the world is in grave and immediate peril — she scrambles to find help. A very unusual asteroid (one constructed as a cage for dragons) is headed straight for the planet, and Xenon is the only person in the world who knows. As she clambers across hill and dale with her quill, journal, and dwindling coin purse to untangle the mystery, she’ll need plenty of luck to find the right clues and the right sort of help.

Meanwhile, our heroes have their own problems. They have a bank to rob, a sea to cross, and a kingdom to infiltrate. Luckily, Rime is a wild mage — the laws of reality quiver when she gives them a stern look–and her guardian, Jonas, wields a reasonably sharp sword. But Rime is slipping ever closer to the abyss of madness, and Jonas is wanted for murder at their final port of call. To make matters worse, the mage-killing Hunt and its commander, Linus, follow the duo like a patient shadow, bent on Rime’s destruction.

When the wise are underfunded, the brave are overbooked, and the cruel are unconcerned, can the world be saved from destruction?

G. Derek Adams is the author of Spell/Sword and its sequel, The Riddle Box. Asteroid Made of Dragons will be published by Sword & Laser on April 5, 2016. It is 278 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback and $8.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by David Drummond.