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Author: John ONeill

Cover Reveal: Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction edited by Dominik Parisien

Cover Reveal: Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction edited by Dominik Parisien

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Clockwork Canada

You know how upcoming movies are nothing but boring press releases and studio gossip until the trailer arrives, and suddenly they’re HOLY COW THIS LOOKS FANTASTIC I WANT TO SEE THIS RIGHT NOW??

I’m the same with with book covers. Upcoming books aren’t real until I see the cover. And then I want them IMMEDIATELY.

That’s especially true of the upcoming Clockwork Canada, edited by Dominik Parisien and scheduled to be released by Exile Editions in May 2016. This collection of steampunk stories set in Canada features stories by some of the brightest stars of Canadian genre fiction. Check out Steve Menard’s dynamite cover above, and see the complete description and Table of Contents below.

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New Treasures: The Night Clock by Paul Meloy

New Treasures: The Night Clock by Paul Meloy

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The Night Clock-smallPaul Meloy is the author of Dogs With Their Eyes Shut, a horror novella from PS Publishing, and the short story collection Islington Crocodiles. His short fiction has appeared in places like Black Static, Interzone, and several anthologies.

His brand new debut novel The Night Clock, set in the same world as Dogs with Their Eyes Shut, is an intriguing blend of dark fantasy, science fiction and horror. The collaborative writing team S.L. Grey says it “isn’t just a good horror novel, it’s a great one. Superbly written, full of bite, originality, and, most importantly, heart and soul.”

And still the Night Clock ticks…

Phil Trevena’s boss is an idiot, his daughter is running wild, and his patients are killing themselves. There is something terrible growing in Phil that even his years as a mental health worker can’t explain — until he meets the enigmatic Daniel, and learns of the war for the minds of humanity that rages in Dark Time, the space between reality and nightmares measured by the Night Clock.

Drawn into the conflict, Phil and Daniel encounter the Firmament Surgeons, a brave and strange band that are all that prevents the nightmarish ranks of the Autoscopes overrunning us. The enemy is fueled by a limitless hatred that could rip our reality apart. To end the war the darkness that dwells in the shadow of the Night Clock must be defeated…

The Night Clock was published by Solaris on November 10, 2015. It is 384 pages, priced at $9.99 in paperback and just $0.99 for the digital version.

Future Treasures: A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly

Future Treasures: A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly

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A Criminal Magic-small Lee Kelly, author of City of Savages, has a new novel of magical realism headed our way. A Criminal Magic has one of the most intriguing premises I’ve read in a while. It’s a tale of magic, high stakes and intrigue set against the backdrop of a very different Roaring Twenties… when Prohibition made magic illegal. It arrives from Saga Press in February.

Magic is powerful, dangerous and addictive — and after passage of the 18th Amendment, it is finally illegal.

It’s 1926 in Washington, DC, and while Anti-Sorcery activists have achieved the Prohibition of sorcery, the city’s magic underworld is booming. Sorcerers cast illusions to aid mobsters’ crime sprees. Smugglers funnel magic contraband in from overseas. Gangs have established secret performance venues where patrons can lose themselves in magic, and take a mind-bending, intoxicating elixir known as the sorcerer’s shine.

Joan Kendrick, a young sorcerer from Norfolk County, Virginia accepts an offer to work for DC’s most notorious crime syndicate, the Shaw Gang, when her family’s home is repossessed. Alex Danfrey, a first-year Federal Prohibition Unit trainee with a complicated past and talents of his own, becomes tapped to go undercover and infiltrate the Shaws.

Through different paths, Joan and Alex tread deep into the violent, dangerous world of criminal magic — and when their paths cross at the Shaws’ performance venue, despite their orders, and despite themselves, Joan and Alex become enchanted with one another. But when gang alliances begin to shift, the two sorcerers are forced to question their ultimate allegiances and motivations. And soon, Joan and Alex find themselves pitted against each other in a treacherous, heady game of cat-and-mouse.

A Criminal Magic will be published by Saga Press on February 2, 2016. It is 432 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $13.99 for the digital edition.

Yesterday a Wizard Entered New York With a Case: The First Trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Yesterday a Wizard Entered New York With a Case: The First Trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

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This appears to be the week for trailers. Perhaps the Friday before a new Star Wars film is a fertile time to announce new fantasy films? Whatever the case, hot on the heels of yesterday’s trailer for Star Trek Beyond, we have the first trailer for Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, the long-anticipated cinematic return to the world of Harry Potter.

Set in New York in the 1920s, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them follows the adventures of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) the famed magizoologist, as he mingles with New York City’s secret community of witches and wizards while compiling notes for his soon-to-be-famous book, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, the textbook Harry Potter and his friends still use 70 years later at Hogwarts.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is based on the slender 42-page book of the same name by J. K. Rowling, first published in 2001. It is directed by David Yates, who directed the last four Harry Potter films, from a screenplay by Rowling. It stars Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Samantha Morton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight and Ron Perlman, and is scheduled to be released in November 2016.

Clarkesworld 111 Now on Sale

Clarkesworld 111 Now on Sale

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Clarkesworld 111-smallNeil Clarke’s editorial this issue includes some discussion of his long-term goals, a glimpse at his introduction to the upcoming Best Science Fiction of the Year, and the news that he’s also accepted a position as an interim editor of the SFWA Bulletin.

How do we shift the discussion of short fiction magazines from the goals of just merely surviving to growing into a thriving market? Yes, as the magazine editor, I have a vested interest in that path to financial success, but a good chunk of the buzz in my head was been triggered by the introduction I plan to write for The Best Science Fiction of the Year. I’ve been asked to include a state-of-the-market report in my introduction and plan to take the from-ten-thousand-feet view rather than perform a market-by-market analysis. Suffice it to say, no one has the answers, but there’s no shortage of ideas. I’m still trying to digest it all…

Oh, did I mention that I’ve also accepted the post as interim editor of the SFWA Bulletin and signed contracts for two more anthologies? Yeah, I’m a glutton for punishment, but pushing my limits seems necessary if I want to reach the point where I can quit the day job. (Yes, a day job on top of all that.)

Issue #111 of Clarkesworld has four new stories by Liu Cixin, Tamsyn Muir, Seth Dickinson, and Cassandra Khaw, and two reprints by Sean McMullen and Walter Jon Williams.

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“Let’s Never Do That Again”: Check Out The First Trailer For Star Trek Beyond

“Let’s Never Do That Again”: Check Out The First Trailer For Star Trek Beyond

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Now that J.J. Abrams, who directed the last two Star Trek movies, is off doing Star Wars, Paramount Pictures has brought in Justin Lin, the director of Fast & Furious, to helm the latest installment. This one sees the crew — at long last — starting their five-year mission to explore the frontier, which certainly piques my interest.

I’ve come to accept that this new generation of Star Trek is far removed from the cerebral TV show I remember. Abrams and his Fringe writing partners Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have instead turned the property into an action-movie franchise, with fist fights, explosions, and a pounding rock soundtrack. On the other hand, the script this time was co-authored by Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty and who previously wrote Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End, so that a least promises a fresh perspective. Have a look at the first trailer, just released this morning, and let me know what you think.

Star Trek Beyond is being produced by Skydance and Bad Robot Productions, and will arrive in theaters on July 22, 2016.

New Treasures: Penguin Science Fiction Postcards: 100 Book Covers in One Box

New Treasures: Penguin Science Fiction Postcards: 100 Book Covers in One Box

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Penguin Science Fiction 2

We’ve already established that I’m a sucker for a cool cover. I don’t have time to read a fraction of the books I buy, but I can look at great cover art all day long. Put an eye-catching cover on your book, and you’ve got my immediate attention.

Put a hundred cool covers on your book, and you can just shut up and take my money.

I think that’s the overall idea behind Penguin Science Fiction Postcards: 100 Book Covers in One Box. It’s sort of like a science fiction book with a great cover, but minus the book. And with 99 other covers. And with the added bonus that you’ll never lack for postcards again, when you need to drop a note to your uncle to remind him to return your copy of The Stars Like Dust. And did I mention the cool box?

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Future Treasures: Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Future Treasures: Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

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Passenger Alexandra Bracken-smallI’m a sucker for an eye-catching cover. And Alexandra Bracken’s new novel, the opening volume in a new series featuring an accidental time-traveler, definitely qualifies. It will be published in hardcover by Disney-Hyperion in January.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles, but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods — a powerful family in the Colonies — and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, his passenger, can find. In order to protect her, Nick must ensure she brings it back to them-whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home forever.

Alexandra Bracken is also the author of Star Wars: A New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy and the Darkest Minds series. Passenger will be published by Disney-Hyperion on January 5, 2016. It is 496 pages, priced at $17.99 for both the hardcover and digital versions.

The December Fantasy Magazine Rack

The December Fantasy Magazine Rack

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December is a great month to try some new magazines. We started our coverage of the British Fantasy Award-winning Holdfast with issue #7, and revealed the details on the massive Best Of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Volume 1. Nick Ozment took a look at the special Horror Issue of the St. Paul-Minneapolis literary journal Whistling Shade, and Bob Byrne reported on facsimile editions of The Strand Magazine. For vintage fiction fans, Rich Horton cracked open a 56-year old copy of Amazing Science Fiction Stories from October 1959, with fiction by Harlan Ellison and Tom Purdom.

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

As we’ve mentioned before, all of these magazines are completely dependent on fans and readers to keep them alive. Many are marginal operations for whom a handful of subscriptions may mean the difference between life and death. Why not check one or two out, and try a sample issue? There are magazines here for every budget, from completely free to $12.95/issue. If you find something intriguing, I hope you’ll consider taking a chance on a subscription. I think you’ll find it’s money very well spent.

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Collecting Karl Edward Wagner

Collecting Karl Edward Wagner

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Karl Edward Wagner books-small

I’ve been enjoying gathering data for my informal survey of paperback prices for some of the most popular and collectible 20th Century science fiction and fantasy authors — mostly because it means shopping for vintage books on eBay. As I said in the last installment, I was a little surprised at the demand for Robert A. Heinlein, but at least I knew he’d be near the top of the list. He wasn’t at the top, however. Setting aside Phil K. Dick, so far the most expensive author I’ve collected recently is Karl Edward Wagner, whose collections sell for around $6.40/book, roughly a 30% premium over Heinlein.

32 books by Arthur C. Clarke $27.00 $0.84/book
35 books by Isaac Asimov $82.17 $2.35/book
51 books by Robert A. Heinlein $255.00 $5.00/book
11 books by Karl Edward Wagner $70.55 $6.41/book
56 books by Philip K. Dick $536.99 $9.59/book

The 11 paperback books above sold on eBay on September 27 for $70.55, making Karl Edward Wagner the most expensive author in our survey so far, outside Phil Dick.

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