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Author: John ONeill

October 2015 Lightspeed Magazine Now on Sale

October 2015 Lightspeed Magazine Now on Sale

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Lightspeed October 2015-smallIn his editorial this month, John Joseph Adams takes a few minutes to highlight a few of his accomplishments in the past month. It’s an impressive list.

In case you missed the news last month, we won another Hugo!… Lightspeed took home the rocket for Best Semiprozine, but also, just as exciting, there were two other Lightspeed Hugo victories: Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s story from Lightspeed, “The Day the World Turned Upside Down,” won the Hugo for Best Novelette, and one of our illustrators, Elizabeth Leggett, won the Hugo for Best Fan Artist. Congrats to them both, and thanks to everyone who voted for all of us… We won the Hugo for Best Semiprozine last year as well, but most of our team wasn’t able to be in London to accept the award in person (none of us except for our podcast producer, Stefan Rudnicki, were able to make it), so having all of us there in person this year made it extra special for us.

In related news, I also personally won an Alfie Award (for Best Editor, Short Form), a new, possibly one-off award presented by George R.R. Martin. It was created in response to controversy this year over the Hugo nominations… (They’re made out of vintage car hood ornaments, which closely resemble the original shape of the first Hugo Awards.)

This month is the debut of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, part of the prestigious Best American series. In it, guest editor Joe Hill and I present the top twenty stories of 2014 (ten science fiction, ten fantasy).

This month Lightspeed has original fantasy from Emil Ostrovski and Nike Sulway, and fantasy reprints by Kevin Brockmeier and Delia Sherman, and original SF by Maria Dahvana Headley and Adrian Tchaikovsky, plus SF reprints by An Owomoyela and Gregory Benford. All that plus their usual author spotlights, an interview with security expert and futurist Marc Goodman, and book and movie reviews. eBook readers get a bonus novella reprint of James Tiptree Jr.’s “Slow Music,” and a pair of novel excerpts.

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New Treasures: Pathfinder Tales: Beyond the Pool of Stars by Howard Andrew Jones

New Treasures: Pathfinder Tales: Beyond the Pool of Stars by Howard Andrew Jones

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Beyond the Pool of Stars-smallHere at the Chicago rooftop headquarters of Black Gate, one of the most anticipated books of the fall is Howard Andrew Jones’ third Pathfinder Tales novel, Beyond the Pool of Stars. It was finally released this week.

Beyond the Pool of Stars is a fantastical adventure of deep-water danger and unlikely alliances set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. It follows Plague of Shadows and Stalking the Beast, but is a completely standalone adventure.

Mirian Raas comes from a long line of salvagers, adventurers who use magic to dive for sunken ships off the coast of tropical Sargava. When her father dies, Mirian has to take over his last job: a dangerous expedition into deep jungle pools, helping a tribe of lizardfolk reclaim the lost treasures of their people. Yet this isn’t any ordinary job, as the same colonial government that looks down on Mirian for her half-native heritage has an interest in the treasure, and the survival of the entire nation may depend on the outcome…

It also contains a free 12-page excerpt from Pathfinder Tales: Bloodhound by F. Wesley Schneider, on sale in December.

Pathfinder Tales: Beyond the Pool of Stars was published by Tor Books on October 6, 2015. It is 347 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Tyler Jacobson (see the complete wraparound art here). Read more at Howard’s website.

The October Fantasy Magazine Rack

The October Fantasy Magazine Rack

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There are magazines for every taste on the rack in early October — with great fiction, comics, news, poetry, and lots more. The big news this month is the long-awaited return of Weirdbook, under the capable stewardship of editor Douglas Draa. Adrian Simmons also did a little investigative reporting on what really happened to that brilliant short story you submitted to your favorite fantasy magazine three months ago, in “Slushpile Blues,” Darrell Schweitzer took a look back at perhaps the most famous editor the genre has ever known in “John W. Campbell Jr. and the Knack for Being Wrong About Everything,” and Matthew Wuertz continued his issue-by-issue review of Galaxy magazine, with the December 1952 issue.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our mid-September 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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Vintage Treasures: Walkabout Woman by Michaela Roessner

Vintage Treasures: Walkabout Woman by Michaela Roessner

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Fantasy shelves in the 80s groaned under the weight of Tolkien pastiches, Celtic fantasies, Thieves World anthologies, and a whole lot of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books. Books with more original settings, however, or which tapped into non-Western mythic traditions, were a lot harder to come by.

That’s part of what made Michaela Roessner’s debut novel Walkabout Woman so special. Set in the modern Australian outback, the novel offered fascinating glimpses of Aboriginal culture, paired with an intriguing story of a young Aboriginal girl pulled away from her home by a well-meaning missionary. The novel was a nominee for the Mythopoeic Award, and won the Crawford Award. Based almost solely on the strength of this novel, Roessner won the 1989 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Michaela Roessner was not a prolific writer, and she produced only three other books in her brief career: the SF novel Vanishing Point (1993), and two historical novels, The Stars Dispose (1997) and The Stars Compel (1999). Since 1999 she has concentrated mostly on short fiction. She’s produced roughly a dozen short stories in the last two decades; her most recent, “The Klepsydra: A Chapter from A Faunary of Recondite Beings,” appeared in the November 2011 issue of F&SF. Walkabout Woman was published in September 1988 by Bantam Spectra; it is 276 pages, priced at $3.95 in paperback. The wraparound cover is by Mark Harrison. It has never been reprinted, but Roessner did self-publish a digital version in July, 2011.

Celebrating the Arrival of Matthew David Surridge’s Reading Strange Matters: Collected Reviews, Vol I

Celebrating the Arrival of Matthew David Surridge’s Reading Strange Matters: Collected Reviews, Vol I

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Reading Strange Matters-smallMatthew David Surridge became a blogger here in June 2010, after his acclaimed story “The Word of Azrael” appeared in Black Gate 14. His very first post was “The Art of Storytelling and The Temple of Elemental Evil,” a look at how unpredictable stories spontaneously arise out of D&D sessions, using his own experience with Gary Gygax’s classic adventure as an example.

Since then he’s published 259 articles with us, and become one of our most respected and cherished writers. He was nominated for a Hugo Award this year (and his post declining the nomination, “A Detailed Explanation,” became the most-read article in Black Gate‘s history.)

Matthew’s blog posts are very different from what we normally do here. We cover a lot of ground at the site — keeping you up-to-date on the newest fantasy releases, reminding you of overlooked vintage paperbacks, informing you when magazines go on sale, and the like. By their nature, most of those articles are short and to-the-point. In contrast, Matthew’s pieces dive deep into carefully-selected subjects, exploring some of the best (and most overlooked) novels and writers in the field, and engaging them with depth and passion.

“I think I do good work,” one of his fellow bloggers confided in me years ago, “but Matthew raises blogging to a fine art.”

So I was delighted to see the release this week of the first collection of Matthew’s Black Gate columns, Reading Strange Matters: Collected Reviews, Vol I, from Grace & Victory Publications. It collects 23 of his best book reviews, plus one brand new piece, on Nalo Hopkinson’s Skin Folk.

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Future Treasures: King of Shards by Matthew Kressel

Future Treasures: King of Shards by Matthew Kressel

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Matthew Kressel has had an impressive career over the past decade. He started publishing fiction in his own magazine, Sybil’s Garage, and quickly branched out to Electric Velocipede, Interzone, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. He received his first Nebula Nomination for “The Sounds of Old Earth” in 2013, and his second for “The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye” earlier this year. He has also been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, for editing Sybil’s Garage.

King of Shards is his debut novel. It will be published by Arche Press, a quality small press who this year have also produced Marguerite Reed’s Archangel, and The End of the End of Everything by Dale Bailey. It is the first novel in The Worldmender Trilogy, and N.K. Jemisin called it “A surreal and exotic adventure in a unique mythological setting. Scary, exhilarating fun!” It follows Daniel Fisher, abducted on his wedding day by the demon king, Ashmedai, who been supplanted by the demon Mashit. Daniel and Ashmedai must work together to stop Mashit, before she destroys all of existence.

King of Shards will be published by Arche Press on October 13, 2015. It is 320 pages, priced at $17 in trade paperback. The striking cover is by Leon Tukker (click the image above for a bigger version). Read more at Matthew’s website.

October 2015 Locus Now on Sale

October 2015 Locus Now on Sale

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Locus October 2015-smallThe October issue of the Newsmagazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Field features a long interview with author Elizabeth Hand, reports on Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention — including the complete Hugo voting results, a new column by Kameron Hurley, short fiction reviews from Gardner Dozois and Rich Horton, and reviews of new books from Gene Wolfe, Christopher Moore, Ian McDonald, Michael Swanwick, Mercedes Lackey, Paul Tremblay, and many others.

There’s also detailed reporting on Stephen King’s National Medal of Arts, the 2015 Chesley Awards Winners, the National Book Awards Longlists, and the Ness Fundraiser.

In addition to all the news, features, and regular columns, there’s also the indispensable Listings of Magazines Received, Books Received, British Books Received, and Bestsellers. Plus obituaries for Wes Craven and Ned Brooks, and Letters from John Helfers and Michael Bishop. See the complete contents here.

We last covered Locus with the May 2015 issue. Locus is edited by Liza Groen Trombi, and published monthly by Locus Publications. The issue is 62 pages, priced at $7.50. Subscriptions are $63 for 12 issues in the US. Subscribe online here. The magazine’s website, run as a separate publication by Mark R. Kelly, is a superb online resource. It is here.

Our mid-September Fantasy Magazine Rack is here. See all of our recent fantasy magazine coverage here.

New Treasures: Last Song Before Night by Ilana C. Myer

New Treasures: Last Song Before Night by Ilana C. Myer

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Last Song Before Night-smallIt’s always a delight to see a debut fantasy writer make a profound splash on the industry. Ilana C. Myer’s first fantasy novel, Last Song Before Night, hit shelves on September 29, and it’s already collected a hat-full of rave reviews. BG blogger Alex Bledsoe said:

I was totally drawn in to Last Song Before Night… the story is as grand as a Wagner opera.

David Mack said:

It’s one of the most impressive debut novels I’ve ever read; I am in awe.

And in a feature review, NPR said:

Myers’ depiction of Tamryllin and the land it inhabits is shadowy and lush, a tapestry of gossamer wonders as well as theocratic oppression and brutality. But the core of Last Song‘s strength is its characters. Bound by enmities, rivalries, lust, sacrifices, and ancient tragedies, the novel’s sizeable cast forms a dizzying chemistry… Last Song Before Night is about music, but it’s also a work of music itself: Lyrical, dynamic, and winningly melodic.

See our previous article about the book here.

Last Song Before Night was published by Tor Books on September 29, 2015. It is 416 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover, and $12.99 for the digital version. The cover is by Stephan Martiniere. Read more at Myer’s website here.

Stephenie Meyer Pens Gender-Swapped Version of Twilight

Stephenie Meyer Pens Gender-Swapped Version of Twilight

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Life and Death Twilight Reimagined-smallThe Twilight Tenth Anniversary edition was released today, ten years after the original novel went on sale, and buyers were very surprised to find that copies came packaged with an entirely new novel by Stephenie Meyer: Life and Death, a gender-flipped version of Twilight. As reported by Entertainment Weekly:

In honor of the 10th anniversary of her best-selling vampire romance, Twilight author Stephenie Meyer has written a 442-page reimagining of the novel that made her a publishing sensation. This time around, she’s switched the genders of her protagonists. Yes, it’s true. In the new tale titled Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, Bella Swan is now a boy named Beau (short for Beaufort) and the brooding Edward Cullen is now Edythe…

Meyer explains in her foreword to the anniversary edition of the novel that she decided to go with the gender bending to underscore her position that Bella isn’t a “damsel in distress” as certain critics have charged. Rather, the author insists, the character is a “human in distress,” or as Meyer calls her, “a normal human being surrounded on all sides by people who are basically superheroes and supervillains.” Meyer also takes issue with the criticism that Bella was “too consumed with her love interest, as if that’s somehow just a girl thing.” The author mentions, too, that Beau is “more OCD” than Bella was and that he’s “totally missing the chip Bella carries around on her shoulder all the time.”

Meyer says writing the piece was “fun, but also really fast and easy.” According to the foreword, the rewrite allowed her to correct some errors that always bothered her and to re-edit the piece for grammar and word choice issues. She also altered some elements of the mythology for consistency.

The Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition was published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on October 6, 2015. It is 752 pages, priced at $21.99 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition.

John DeNardo’s Quick History of Serialized Science Fiction and Fantasy

John DeNardo’s Quick History of Serialized Science Fiction and Fantasy

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Astounding Stories August 1934-smallOur friend John DeNardo, editor of the marvelous SF Signal, posted a long article to Kirkus Reviews last month on the history of serialized fiction in SF and Fantasy. I finally had time to sit down and read it today, and found it a very rewarding survey of classic serialized fiction, all the way up to 2015.

In terms speculative fiction stories — that is, science fiction, fantasy and horror stories, which are of particular interest to readers of this column — serialized fiction has a long and interesting history. But just like readers sometimes don’t have the time to read long novels, you may not have the time for a long, sordid history… so let me sum things up….

By the early 20th century, that format was adopted in the United States as well. Magazines were a prevalent venue for fiction back then, and serial fiction — science fiction in particular — received a boon when Edgar Rice Burroughs serialized his novels Tarzan and A Princess of Mars. Both of these stories were later published as novels (in 1914 and 1917, respectively) and both were followed by numerous sequels, some of which were also serialized.

Other authors soon adopted the same publishing model. E.E. “Doc” Smith published his Skylark and Lensman series in serial format in the 1930s, for example. Even decades later, stories were getting published in serialized format.

Some of the more recent examples John cites include Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965), Stephen King’s The Green Mile (1996), Karl Schroeder’s Sun of Suns (2006), and John Scalzi’s The End of All Things (2015). Read the complete article here.