Black Gate

Editor John Joseph Adams talks about his latest big project in his editorial this month.

We’re currently in the midst of crowdfunding our next Destroy project. In 2014, we asked women to destroy science fiction, and they did — spectacularly — in our first crowdfunded, all-women special issue, Women Destroy Science Fiction!. Then, in 2015, we asked queers to destroy science fiction, they did — again, spectacularly — in Queers Destroy Science Fiction!

This year, we’re turning the reins over to People of Colo(u)r, with People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction!, guest edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Kristine Ong Muslim. Joining Nalo and Kristine will be a team of wonderful POC creatives, including Nisi Shawl (reprint editor), Berit Ellingsen (flash fiction editor), Sunil Patel (personal essays editor), Grace Dillon (nonfiction editor), and more!

We launched our Kickstarter campaign on January 18 and surpassed our original goal in just a manner of hours. Our first day’s totals surpassed that of QDSF and WDSF, and as I write this (on the evening of January 31), we’re currently at nearly $26K (518% of our original goal). Thanks so much to all of you who have supported the project thus far!

Our two biggest stretch goals are the same as last year: If we receive enough pledges, we’ll not only publish POC Destroy Science Fiction!, we’ll also publish additional special issues POC Destroy Horror! (at $30K) and POC Destroy Fantasy! (at $40K).

The kickstarter wrapped up on February 18, blowing through virtually all of the stretch goals and raising $51,734. I’m looking forward to seeing these special issues of Lightspeed and, just as we always have, we’ll report on them here.

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The February 18th issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies features original short fiction from Dean Wells and Andrew F. Sullivan, a podcast, and a reprint by Black Gate author Brian Dolton (author of “What Chains Bind Us,” from BG 15). The cover art, “Plains of Another World,” is by Leon Tukker.

“And the Blessing of the Angels Came Upon Them” by Dean Wells
Peavey could not fault his grandson Moot’s skill nor the beauty of the boy’s sculpture. No, it was the subject matter that cut into his heart, even now. Moot cherished his beliefs so deeply; if his faith were ever shaken, it would surely devastate him. He was so very much like his grandmother in that regard.

“Salt Circles” by Andrew F. Sullivan
From this window, we watched the man’s whip rise again and the back hoof of the mare collide with his thin throat in the same instant. The man crumpled down into the festering street as gouts of blood spouted from his neck. No one came to claim his body. Below us in the alley, rats and dogs or rat-sized dogs emerged slowly. They began to sip at the red puddles around him.

Audio Fiction Podcast
“And the Blessing of the Angels Came Upon Them” by Dean Wells
Consuming the native crustaceans had given rise to bone cancers and rotting ulcers of the skin, from which death was a cruel relief.

From the Archives
“The Sacrifice Pit” by Brian Dolton (from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #16, May 7, 2009)
She was beautiful. But it was forbidden, in the eyes of the Tetharan.

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Issue 48 of Curtis Ellett’s Swords and Sorcery Magazine, cover-dated January 2016, is now available. Each issue contains two short stories, and is available free online. Here’s the issue summary:

“The Quarto Volume,” by Ken Lizzi, is the second story we’ve seen in Lizzi’s Cesar the Bravo series. In this story Cesar encounters forbidden knowledge while serving as a mercenary. Lizzi has also published a novel, Reunion, and has had stories published in several anthologies.

“The Tower of Jadraign,” by Joshua Steely, is the story of an aging hero who takes up the cause and quest of a young woman he encounters on the road by chance. Steely’s work has previously been published in Niteblade.

Fletcher Vredenburgh reviewed this issue in his January Short Story Roundup, saying:

The issue kicks off with the impressive (and impressively titled) “The Quarto Volume, or Knowledge, Good & Evil” by Ken Lizzi. Cesar is a member of a mercenary company in a land similar to Renaissance Italy but with demons and wizards. Those who control those spirits control the world, and that’s a small number of people. Now, Cesar learns, there’s the possibility of power escaping into the hands of the many. Cesar is cut from the same cloth as any number of roguish heroes, but Lizzi’s prose lends him a clear voice and the setting has great potential…

The second story, “The Tower of Jadraign,” by Joshua Steely, opens with Eth, a grizzled soldier, rescuing a woman from the hands of a barbarian she has fallen in with. She promptly tries to get him to accompany her to the legendary Tower of Jadraign… I like this one. While not amazing or anything, I found the ending very satisfying.

Read the current issue here. We last covered Swords and Sorcery Magazine with Issue #47.

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