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Author: John ONeill

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in July

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in July

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Sherlock Season 3While we wait impatiently for the next episode of the popular BBC series Sherlock, the best way to pass the time seems to be to talk about the show with other fans. Bob Byrne proved this with the #1 post at Black Gate in July, his July 13th article “The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Sherlock Season 3 – What Happened?”, in which he observes the negative fan reaction to the third season:

Season three (finally) arrived. Hoo-boy. Not only did I see, I observed. And for the first time, I saw and observed a notable amount of unhappiness with the show. And with the second episode, it was certain that a shift had occurred among the fan base. It continued through the third (season finale) episode.

A significant number of folks grumbled about season three. Where there had been very little unhappiness with the first six episodes, an entire contingent of fans did not like season three and it impacted their overall attitude towards the show…

I will state categorically that the excitement for season four is not nearly as great and certainly isn’t as universal as it was for prior seasons. Now, a bit of that could be due to the loooong delay (season four has now been pushed to 2017).

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New Treasures: The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán

New Treasures: The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán

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The Dinosaur Lords-smallI love dinosaurs. And epic fantasy. Epic fantasy with dinosaurs? That’s just a no brainer. Emily Mah interviewed author Victor Milán on his new novel The Dinosaur Lords — which George R. R. Martin calls “A cross between Jurassic Park and Game of Thrones” — just last week; check it out here.

Intrigue, beauty, brutality, and dinosaurs – welcome to Paradise.

A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often cruel place. Men and women live on Paradise but dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden – and of war. Colossal plant-eaters like Brachiosaurus; terrifying meat-eaters like Allosaurus and the most feared of all, Tyrannosaurus rex rule the land. Armored knights ride dinosaurs to battle legions of war-trained Triceratops and their upstart peasant crews. Seeking to centralize real power in his figurehead Fangèd Throne, Emperor Felipe of Nuevaropa sets off a chain of wars that may blaze up to consume the continent called the Tyrant’s Head. But is Imperial ambition the only spark, or are more sinister forces at work?

And so we have as our players in the tale: Fallen hero Karyl Bogomirsky, who wants to escape from constant headaches and nightmares and gets lured into the quixotic task of raising an army from a province of pacifists. Part-time Dinosaur Master and minstrel, and full-time rogue Rob Korrigan, who wants to get paid and laid — but he follows the man he’s written and sung about into what looks like certain disaster. Princess Melodia, who is eager to escape the shadow of her indulgent but neglectful father the Emperor but is faced by consequences she never anticipated. And Imperial Champion Jaume, Count of the Flowers, the Empire’s most celebrated swordsman and poet, who wants to serve Beauty and the right. But what can he do when faced with two equally wrong and ugly choices?

The Dinosaur Lords was published by Tor Books on July 28, 2015. It is 448 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover, and $12.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Richard Anderson.

Vintage Treasures: The Lights of Barbrin by Joseph Burgo

Vintage Treasures: The Lights of Barbrin by Joseph Burgo

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The Lights of Barbrin-smallI haven’t said a lot about the Timescape imprint from Pocket Books, one of the most prestigious publishing lines of the 80s. Founded by David G. Hartwell, it was named after Gregory Benford’s SF novel Timescape, and it produced over 100 paperbacks between 1981 to 1985 — including the four volumes of Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, Philip K. Dick’s The Divine Invasion and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, Clark Ashton Smith’s The City of the Singing Flame, John M. Ford’s The Dragon Waiting, Donald Kingsbury’s Courtship Rite, and many others — including many Hugo and Nebula award nominees. It was shut down by Pocket in 1985, as it wasn’t producing a sufficient number of bestsellers for its budget. The line has a sterling reputation for quality. And among the many high-profile books, it also produced a number of highly regarded titles from lesser known authors… including The Lights of Barbrin, the debut fantasy from an unknown writer named Joseph Burgo.

The Quest of Ehred the Mighty

Braced by the strength of his Haziad — the four freedom fighters who represent fire, air, earth, and water — fire-bearer Ehred fought his way to importance, wielding a mighty force that made him all powerful in Nabrilehr, the land of the misfits.

But the evil Rand, barred from all Haziads because of his twisted devotion to the dangerous Unmaker, strove long and hard — and finally stole Ehred’s fire power for his own destructive use.

Now Ehred and his Haziad must steal back the blazing power — for in Rand’s hand it threatens to consume Ehred’s world!

Burgo never produced another fantasy novel, and this is his only contribution to the field. The Lights of Barbrin was published in paperback by Pocket in September 1978, and reprinted under the Timescape imprint in February 1982. It is 192 pages, priced at $2.50. The cover is by Carl Lundgren. There is no digital edition, and it has now been out of print for 33 years.

Future Treasures: The Path of Anger by Antoine Rouaud

Future Treasures: The Path of Anger by Antoine Rouaud

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The Path of Anger-smallI don’t know about you, but it takes a lot for me to commit to a new fantasy series. The Path of Anger, the first volume of The Book and the Sword, has all the right ingredients: imperial intrigue, long-buried secrets, assassinations, a missing sword, and a mystery tangled up with the birth of a new regime… Antoine Rouaud is a debut fantasy writer who works at NPR Radio. The Path of Anger was translated from the French by Tom Clegg.

There will be blood. There will be death. This is the path of anger…

Year 10 of the new Republic, in the remote port city of Masalia. Dun-Cadal, once the greatest general of the Empire, has been drinking his life away for years. Betrayed by his friends and grief-stricken at the loss of his apprentice, he’s done with politics, with adventure, and with people. But people aren’t finished with him — not yet.

Viola is a young historian looking for the last Emperor’s sword, said to have been taken by Dun-Cadal during the Empire’s final, chaotic hours. Her search not only leads her to the former general, but embroils them both in a series of assassinations. Dun-Cadal’s turncoat friends are being murdered, one by one, in the unmistakable style of an Imperial assassin…

But as Dun-Cadal comes to realize, none of these developments — not even the surprise of meeting his supposedly deceased apprentice — has been the result of chance. An intrigue transcending the fates of the individual characters has been put into motion, and its secrets are revealed one by one as the story unfolds.

The Path of Anger will be published by Thomas Dunne Books on August 25, 2015. It is 437 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Larry Rostant.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 179 Now Available

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 179 Now Available

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Beneath Ceaseless Skies 179-smallBeneath Ceaseless Skies #179 has new stories by Therese Arkenberg and Kendra Leigh Speedling, and a podcast by Caroline M. Yoachim.

“The Grace of Turning Back” by Therese Arkenberg
Semira watched Aniver hold audience with the Queen of the Dead, nerving herself to cross the river to them.

“The Exile of the Eldest Son of the Family Ysanne” by Kendra Leigh Speedling
I played the memory three more times. On the last time, I saw a hand reach down and take something.

Audio Fiction Podcast: “Seasons Set in Skin” by Caroline M. Yoachim
Horimachi’s own tattoos were from before the war, when black ink was made of soot instead of faery blood. Read by Tina Connolly.

Issue 179 was published on August 6, 2015. Read it online completely free here.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies is edited by Scott H. Andrews and published twice a month by Firkin Press. Issues are available completely free online; you can also get a free e-mail or RSS subscription.

Firkin Press also sells a Kindle/e-Reader subscription, which includes automatic delivery to your Kindle or other device. A 12-month subscription comes with 26 issues and costs only $13.99. Single issues are available on Kindle and at Weightless Books for 99 cents. Subscribe here.

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Michael Swanwick’s “The Night of the Salamander” Live at Tor.com

Michael Swanwick’s “The Night of the Salamander” Live at Tor.com

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The Night of the Salamander-smallMichael Swanwick’s new novel Chasing the Phoenix was published by Tor this week, and to help mark the occasion, Tor.com has published the fifth tale in his ongoing “Mongolian Wizard” series, “The Night of the Salamander.”

“The Night of the Salamander” is a fantasy set in an alternate fin de siècle Europe, featuring a locked room, a murder, and an unexpected kind of magic. The previous stories in the series were all published at Tor.com, and they are all available completely free. They are:

“House of Dreams” (November 2013)
“Day of the Kraken” (September 2012)
“The Fire Gown” (August 2012)
“The Mongolian Wizard” (July 2012)

All five stories were marvelously illustrated by Gregory Manchess, who also provides the art for the newest installment (at right). The entire series was acquired and edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden.

Michael Swanwick is also the author of The Iron Dragon’s Daughter and its sequel The Dragons of Babel, Stations of the Tide, Jack Faust, Bones of the Earth, and other novels, plus nine collections, including A Geography of Unknown Lands, Tales of Old Earth, and The Dog Said Bow-Wow.

“The Night of the Salamander” is 5,400 words. Read the complete story here.

We last covered Tor.com in July, with Michael Livingston’s story “At the End of Babel.” For more free online fiction, see our complete magazine coverage here.

New Treasures: Written in the Blood by Stephen Lloyd Jones

New Treasures: Written in the Blood by Stephen Lloyd Jones

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Written in the Blood-smallI reported on Stephen Lloyd Jones’ debut horror novel The String Diaries, the tale of a family is hunted by a centuries-old monster, last month. I haven’t even finished reading it yet, and I’m already hearing great things about the sequel, Written in the Blood, released in hardcover by Mulholland Books in late May.

The Guardian called the first novel “Chilling… A neo-gothic treat; original, richly imagined, and powerfully told.” And Booklist assures me the sequel is “just as good as the one that came before — and, in this case, that means essential reading for devotees of high-end sf.” Sounds like I’m going to have to set aside some quality time for this one, too.

See the girl. Leah Wilde is twenty-four, a runaway on a black motorbike, hunting for answers while changing her identity with each new Central European town.

See the man, having come of age in extraordinary suffering and tragedy in nineteenth-century Budapest; witness to horror, to love, to death, and the wrath of a true monster. Izsák still lives in the present day, impossibly middle-aged. He’s driven not only to hunt this immortal evil but to find his daughter, stolen from an Arctic cabin and grown into the thing Izsák has sworn to kill.

See the monster, a beautiful, seemingly young woman who stalks the American West, seeking the young and the strong to feed upon, desperate to return to Europe where her coven calls.

Written in the Blood is the epic thriller of the year, a blazing and dexterous saga spanning generations, and threading the lives of five individuals driven by love, by sacrifice, by hunger and by fear. They seek to save a race — or to extinguish it forever.

Written in the Blood was published by Mulholland Books on May 26, 2015. It is 485 pages, priced at $26 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital version. The cover was designed by Alex Merto.

Flavorwire on the 10 Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels of 2015 (So Far)

Flavorwire on the 10 Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels of 2015 (So Far)

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The Whispering Storm-smallWe’re barely halfway through the year, but I suppose that’s far enough to start arguing over Ten Best lists. Yesterday Jonathon Sturgeon at Flavorwire kicked it off with a list of The 10 Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels of 2015 So Far, a list that includes Michael Moorcock, Neal Stephenson, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ian Tregillis, and Nicole Kornher-Stace. Here’s Jonathon on Michael Moorcock’s latest, The Whispering Swarm:

Moorcock is among the most influential of all genre writers, and he returns here with his first novel in nine years — and readers will be happy to learn that it launches a trilogy. Even though much of this first installment is given over to scene setting — it takes place in a hidden London enclave where historical figures mix with literary creations — it’s still a pleasure to read. Also, it may well inaugurate the autofictional fantasy subgenre.

He also has high praise for new writer Nicole Kornher-Stace, who thrilled me with a reading from Archivist Wasp at the World Fantasy Convention:

More than a little drunk on Greek mythology, Kornher-Stace’s Archivist Wasp tells the story of an “archivist” and ghost-hunter who learns to communicate with the specter of a supersoldier and (in the process) unlearns what she knows about her own horrorscape of a world. Smart, risk-taking, and weird as hell.

See the complete list here.

Future Treasures: Cthulhu Fhtagn!, edited by Ross E. Lockhart

Future Treasures: Cthulhu Fhtagn!, edited by Ross E. Lockhart

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Cthulhu Fhtagn-smallRoss E. Lockhart has edited some of my favorite Cthulhu anthologies, including the terrific The Book of Cthulhu and The Book of Cthulhu II. When he left Night Shade Books he founded Word Horde, which has produced some excellent books over the past year — including The Children of Old Leech, the genre-bending anthology Giallo Fantastique, and Molly Tanzer’s novel Vermilion.

His newest project is Cthulhu Fhtagn!, featuring 19 original weird tales inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, available in trade paperback and digital format next week.

In his house at R’lyeh, Cthulhu waits dreaming… What are the dreams that monsters dream? When will the stars grow right? Where are the sunken temples in which the dreamers dwell? How will it all change when they come home?

Within these pages lie the answers, and more, in all-new stories by many of the brightest lights in dark fiction. Gathered together by Ross E. Lockhart, the editor who brought you The Book of Cthulhu, The Children of Old Leech, and Giallo Fantastique, Cthulhu Fhtagn! features nineteen weird tales inspired by H. P. Lovecraft.

Cthulhu Fhtagn! will be published by Word Horde on August 15, 2015. It is 330 pages, priced at $19.99 in trade paperback and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Adolfo Navarro.

See all of our coverage of the best upcoming fantasy releases here.

July Issue of Swords and Sorcery Magazine Now Available

July Issue of Swords and Sorcery Magazine Now Available

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Swords and Sorcery Magazine July 2015-smallIssue 42 of Curtis Ellett’s Swords and Sorcery Magazine, cover-dated July 2015, was published at the end of July. Each issue of Swords and Sorcery contains two short stories, and is available free online. This issue includes new fiction from Jeremy Harper and Gerry Huntman.

In “Without Sin”, by Jeremy Harper, Dorian Valentine, the ghost queller, assists an aspiring priestess with a final task of mercy for her dying uncle, who has never shown any. Harper has written two previous Dorian Valentine stories, both published in Lore. He has previously had non-fiction published in Swords & Sorcery.

In “Harsh Is the Light”, by Gerry Huntman, an aging warlord confronts his enemies, and the pain in his own past. Huntman has published many stories, including “Husks” in Swords & Sorcery in February 2014.

Read the current issue here. We last covered Swords and Sorcery Magazine with Issue #41.

Swords and Sorcery Magazine is edited by Curtis Ellett, and is available free online. Fletcher Vredenburgh reviewed issue #41 in his June Short Story Roundup.

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