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John DeNardo’s January Must-Read Speculative Fiction

John DeNardo’s January Must-Read Speculative Fiction

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The Assimilated Cubans Guide to Quantum Santeria-smallWe try to keep tabs on the best in upcoming fantasy here at Black Gate. But nobody does it as well as John DeNardo, editor of SF Signal. Over at Kirkus Reviews he offers a tantalizing survey of the best new speculative fiction for the month.

Have you made any reading-related New Year’s resolutions? If speculative fiction is on your reading radar, allow me to offer some suggestions. Here’s an abundant selection of tasty speculative titles being released this month. Titles here include a two-second time [machine], cosmic horrors, multiple worlds, a prison memoir, 1920s Hollywood, and airship heists.

John’s highlights for the month include All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, Broken Hero by Jonathan Wood, Ancestral Machines by Michael Cobley, Jani and the Great Pursuit by Eric Brown, and several that we’ve covered here at Black Gate — including Daughter of Blood by Helen Lowe, Medusa’s Web by Tim Powers, Skinner Luce by Patricia Ward, The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson, and the acclaimed first collection from Carlos Hernandez, The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria.

Read the complete article here.

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Future Treasures: Patchwerk by David Tallerman

Future Treasures: Patchwerk by David Tallerman

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Now that it’s a new year, Tor.com has relaunched their ambitious novella publishing program with their 2016 titles, starting with Emily Foster’s The Drowning Eyes, released early this week. They’ll be publishing roughly a title a week for the next few months, an extremely impressive schedule — especially considering the authors they’ve got on deck.

Next week is Patchwerk from David Tallerman, author of the Tales of Easie Damasco trilogy (Giant Thief, Crown Thief, Prince Thief), and many short stories published at Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Bull Spec, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Patchwerk follows the adventures of Dran Florrian, a scientist carrying a device capable of destroying worlds… and his desperate flight from those who want to use it for their own purposes.

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Beneath Ceaseless Skies 190 Now Available

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 190 Now Available

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Beneath-Ceaseless-Skies-190-smallThe January 7th issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issue #190, has original short fiction from Mike Allen and Walter Dinjos, a podcast, and a reprint by Ann Chatham.

“Longsleeves” by Mike Allen
Never before had she run with such speed or such fear, caroming off trees, tearing through brush, ripping loose the roots that hooked her feet, until she caught up to Hundeil. Both were wheezing with exhaustion when they reached the gnarled behemoth of a tree that proved to be Olderra’s dwelling. Its bark parted like curtains to admit them.

“The Mama Mmiri” by Walter Dinjos
It had been a fortnight since Ugo’s burial, and the vacuum I felt within me grew ever larger. I jumped out of bed most nights with screams that made mama down two cupfuls of Mazi Ike’s supposedly heart-mellowing concoction every day, and I couldn’t continue huddling under the avocado tree beside Ugo’s grave every other night weeping.

Audio Fiction Podcast:
The Mama Mmiri by Walter Dinjos
I longed for someone with whom I could engage in our papaya-pipe-gun battles in the surrounding forests.

From the Archives:
“A Marble for the Drowning River” by Ann Chatham (from BCS #94, May 3, 2012)
I was afraid to say anything, but my mouth said, “please don’t kill her” without making any sound.

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New Treasures: The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman

New Treasures: The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman

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The Lesser Dead-smallChristopher Buehlman’s debut novel Those Across the River (2011) was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, and Charlaine Harris called it “one of the best first novels I’ve ever read.” He followed up with Between Two Fires (2012), the tale of a disgraced knight coming face-to-face with apocalyptic horror in 1348, and The Necromancer’s House (2013), the story of a modern sorcerer on the run from a monster straight out of Russian folklore.

His newest novel, The Lesser Dead, was published in hardcover in 2014, and released in trade paperback late last year. It was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award for best novel, and won the American Library Association’s Best Horror Novel of the Year award. It’s the story of a secret colony of vampires in New York City who find themselves being preyed on by something far darker than themselves….

New York City in 1978 is a dirty, dangerous place to live. And die. Joey Peacock knows this as well as anybody — he has spent the last forty years as an adolescent vampire, perfecting the routine he now enjoys: womanizing in punk clubs and discotheques, feeding by night, and sleeping by day with others of his kind in the macabre labyrinth under the city’s sidewalks.

The subways are his playground and his highway, shuttling him throughout Manhattan to bleed the unsuspecting in the Sheep Meadow of Central Park or in the backseats of Checker cabs, or even those in their own apartments who are too hypnotized by sitcoms to notice him opening their windows. It’s almost too easy.

Until one night he sees them hunting on his beloved subway. The children with the merry eyes. Vampires, like him…or not like him. Whatever they are, whatever their appearance means, the undead in the tunnels of Manhattan are not as safe as they once were.

And neither are the rest of us.

The Lesser Dead was published by Berkley on October 6, 2015. It is 368 pages, priced at $16, or $11.99 for the digital edition.

Open Road Returns Cherry Wilder’s A Princess of the Chameln to Print

Open Road Returns Cherry Wilder’s A Princess of the Chameln to Print

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A Princess of the Chameln-smallCherry Wilder was the pseudonym of New Zealand SF and fantasy writer Cherry Barbara Grimm, who died in 2002. She produced many popular fantasy novels in the late 70s and early 80s, starting with the Torin trilogy (which we discussed back in July), and the four novels in the Rulers of Hylor series (A Princess of the Chameln, Yorath the Wolf, The Summer’s King, and The Wanderer; the last co-written with Katya Reimann). Sadly, all have been out of print in the US for thirty years.

Fortunately, Open Road is taking steps to rectify that. They published a digital version of A Princess of the Chameln on November 17, and next month they will offer a print-on-demand edition. Here’s the new description.

When her royal parents are killed during a coup, Princess Aidris Am Firn of the Chameln flees for her life. Constantly on the run from unseen enemies of the crown, she poses as a commoner and joins a cadre of women warriors so she can fight those who assassinated her parents and continue to hunt her. While cultivating allies, Aidris learns that two pretenders have ascended to the dual thrones of Chameln. Having discovered their true queen is still alive, counselors from Chameln rally to her side and convince the queen that the time has come for her to reclaim her birthright. But before she can do this, she must discover who her enemy really is, lest the unknown assassins strike her down too.

The other books in the series will follow shortly: Yorath the Wolf (ebook February 16, POD April 12) and The Summer’s King (ebook May 17, POD July 12). Open Road is also responsible for the fabulous Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak, the 14-volume series we examined here.

A Princess of the Chameln will be published on February 2, 2016. It is 288 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback, and $5.99 for the digital edition.

Alan Rickman, February 21, 1946 — January 14, 2016

Alan Rickman, February 21, 1946 — January 14, 2016

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Alan Rickman as Severus Snape-small

British actor Alan Rickman, known around the world for his spot-on portrayal of Slytherin wizard Severus Snape in all eight Harry Potter films, died today of cancer.

Alan Rickman burst into public consciousness with perhaps his finest film role — the arch villain Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988), whom Maxim magazine called “The Finest Villain of Our Time.” He played the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) and Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility (1995). My wife and I still quote Rickman’s Colonel Brandon around the house. Science fiction fans especially enjoyed his marvelous portrayal of Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus (clearly based on Leonard Nimoy’s Spock) in Galaxy Quest (1999). He was cast as Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001, and reprised the role seven times over the next ten years. He directed Emma Thompson and her real life mother Phyllida Law in his directorial debut, The Winter Guest (1995).

Alan Rickman began his career on stage in his late 20s; his first film role was the BBC TV’s 1978 broadcast of Romeo and Juliet. He provided the voice for Absolem the Caterpillar in Alice Through the Looking Glass, to be released later this year. He died this morning, at the age of 69.

The January Fantasy Magazine Rack

The January Fantasy Magazine Rack

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In his December Short Story Roundup, Fletcher Vredenburgh gives as eloquent a summary as I’ve seen for the vital importance of short fiction to fantasy, and in particular to sword & sorcery:

Before I get into the reviews, I thought I’d say a little about why I’ve made it a major part of my writing to review and publicize S&S short stories. While there have been good S&S novels… the beating heart of the genre has always been short stories. From that opening blast of thunder in REH’s “The Shadow Kingdom” — and through the decades in the works of authors as diverse as C.L. Moore, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, and Charles Saunders — it’s been in short stories that the genre’s been best displayed.

The hallmarks of swords & sorcery are adventure, dark fantasy, horror, and a narrow focus on only a few characters, bound together in a narrative that reads like a shot of mainlined adrenaline. In the very best stories — KEW’s “Reflections for the Winter of My Soul,” for example — they’re all present. Not that there can’t be structural complexity, finely detailed characters, or exquisitely tooled prose, but it must be exciting. Detours into side-plots, passages meticulously describing feasts, too many secondary and tertiary characters all put brakes on the action. Limited to fifteen or thirty pages, the focus is on the protagonist and his or her immediate situation…

The very best stories I have read in my years of reviewing S&S are the ones that come closest to meeting the demands I’ve put out above. There are dozens of authors working like mad to create stories that will thrill and chill you, and grab you out of the safety of your comfy chair for a little while. It’s those tellers of tales I’m on constant watch for and hoping to hip readers to. I want S&S to continue as a living, breathing genre, not one content to exist as a museum for forty- or seventy-year-old stories.

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Future Treasures: The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

Future Treasures: The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

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Mistborn novels Brandon Sanderson-small

The first three novels in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy — The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages — were published between 2006-08 by Tor Books. In 2011, Sanderson returned to the world of Mistborn with The Alloy of Law. Set after the trilogy, in a period corresponding to late 19th-century America, the spinoff books became New York Times bestsellers. Now, hot on the heels of last year’s Shadows of Self, (which we covered here), he continues the tale with The Bands of Mourning.

The Bands of Mourning are the mythical metalminds owned by the Lord Ruler, said to grant anyone who wears them the powers that the Lord Ruler had at his command. Hardly anyone thinks they really exist. A kandra researcher has returned to Elendel with images that seem to depict the Bands, as well as writings in a language that no one can read. Waxillium Ladrian is recruited to travel south to the city of New Seran to investigate. Along the way he discovers hints that point to the true goals of his uncle Edwarn and the shadowy organization known as The Set.

The Bands of Mourning will be published by Tor Books on January 26, 2016. It is 448 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover, or $14.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Chris McGrath.

The 2016 Philip K. Dick Nominees

The 2016 Philip K. Dick Nominees

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Archangel Marguerite Reed-smallThe nominees for the 2016 Philip K. Dick Award, given each year for distinguished science fiction originally published in paperback in the United States, have been announced, and it’s an interesting ballot. Over at Barnes&Noble.com, in an article titled This Year’s Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Take SF in Strange New Directions, Joel Cunningham writes:

Sorry Hugos, but for my money, there’s no more interesting award in sci-fi than the ones named for Philip K. Dick. In the tradition of everyone’s favorite gonzo pulpist, the “PKD Award” honors innovative genre works that debuted in paperback, offering a nice reminder that you don’t need the prestige of a hardcover release to write a mind-blowing book (just ask William Gibson, whose seminal cyberpunk classic Neuromancer claimed the title in 1984), and in fact, if past winners are any evidence, the format might be seem as a license to take greater risks. This year’s nominees are of a piece with PKD contenders of the past: they twist genre tropes in new ways, carving new toe-holds in well-worn tropes. Which brings us to another thing we love about this particular award: the winner is basically impossible to [predict].

This year the noninees are

Edge of Dark, Brenda Cooper (Pyr)
After the Saucers Landed, Douglas Lain (Night Shade)
(R)evolution, PJ Manney (47North)
Apex, Ramez Naam (Angry Robot)
Windswept, Adam Rakunas (Angry Robot)
Archangel, Marguerite Reed (Arche)

The winner will be announced on March 25, 2016 at Norwescon 39 in SeaTac, Washington. Congratulations to all the nominees!

New Treasures: The Library of America Publishes Elmore Leonard

New Treasures: The Library of America Publishes Elmore Leonard

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Elmore Leonard Four Novels of the 1970s-small Elmore Leonard Four Novels of the 1980s-small

The Library of America has made a fine business of publishing archival quality omnibus editions of the most important novels of the 20th Century. We’ve covered several here recently, including:

A Princess of Mars and Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s, edited by Gary K. Wolfe
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny, edited by Peter Straub

They’ve also published omnibus editions of Kurt Vonnegut, Dashiell Hammett, Philip K. Dick, Ross Macdonald, David Goodis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and many others. I received several review copies in the mail from Library of America recently, including one of their Elmore Leonard collections. It’s been years since I’ve read anything by Leonard, but then again, it’s been a long time since I’ve held something as enticing as these collections. If you’re looking to put together an impressive genre library, this is the place to start.

Elmore Leonard: Four Novels of the 1970s was published on August 28, 2014. It contains Fifty-Two Pickup, Swag, Unknown Man, and The Switch; it is 809 pages, priced at $35 in hardcover. Elmore Leonard: Four Novels of the 1980s was published on September 1, 2015. It contains City Primeval, LaBrava, Glitz, and Freaky Deaky; it is 1024 pages, priced at $37.50 in hardcover. There are no digital editions.