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Future Treasures: Thrones & Bones: Nightborn by Lou Anders

Future Treasures: Thrones & Bones: Nightborn by Lou Anders

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Thrones & Bones Nightborn-smallLou Anders sent ripples through the entire industry last September when he stepped down as the Editorial Director at Pyr, where he’d launched one of the most successful and acclaimed new SF and fantasy imprints in a decade. What could possibly lure Lou away from such a stellar career? The breakout success of his first novel, Thrones & Bones: Frostborn, a middle-grade fantasy that was the start of an exciting new series. The second volume, Nightborn, finally arrives next month.

Karn Korlundsson is a gamer. Not a riddle solver. But in order to rescue his best friend, Thianna Frostborn, he will need to travel to the faraway city of Castlebriar (by wyvern), learn how to play a new board game called Charioteers (not a problem), decipher the Riddle of the Horn, and tangle with mysterious elves.

Meet Desstra. She’s in training to join the Underhand — the elite agents of the dark elves. When she crosses paths with Karn, she is not all that she appears to be.

Everyone is chasing after the horn of Osius, an ancient artifact with the power to change the world. The lengths to which Karn will go in the name of friendship will be sorely tested. Who knew that solving a riddle could be so deadly?

In an article for Black Gate last August Lou described his ambitions for Thrones & Bones, saying “I set out to build a world that would invoke all the sense of wonder I’d experienced myself as a reader, as large in scope and scale as Nehwon, or Greyhawk, or the Young Kingdoms.” Those ambitions are very clear in Nightborn, which also includes instructions for playing the game Charioteers featured in the novel.

Thrones & Bones: Nightborn will be published by Crown Books for Young Readers on July 14, 2015. It is 351 pages, priced at $16.99 in hardcover and $10.99 for the digital edition. Cover by Justin Gerard. Check out ThronesandBones.com for additional games, maps, character profiles, and more.

New Treasures: The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

New Treasures: The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

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The Sin Eater's Daughter-smallWhen I arrived at the Nebula Awards weekend here in Chicago two weeks ago, I was given a bag with a generous number of book and magazines donated by various publishers. This is a common (and much loved) practice at many awards banquets and professional conventions. There was a fine assortment of books and advance galleys from some big names in my bag, but oddly the one I started reading first was from a debut writer, Melinda Salisbury. Chalk that up to an absolutely gorgeous cover, and an intriguing synopsis that includes court intrigue, treason, royal secrets, young love, and the incarnation of a goddess whose very touch brings death…

Seventeen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she’s engaged to the prince, Twylla isn’t exactly a member of the court.

She’s the executioner.

As the Goddess embodied, Twylla instantly kills anyone she touches. Each month, she’s taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love a girl with murder in her veins. Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to Twylla’s fatal touch, avoids her company.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose easy smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he’s able to look past Twylla’s executioner robes and see the girl, not the Goddess. Yet Twylla’s been promised to the prince, and knows what happens to people who cross the queen.

However, a treasonous secret is the least of Twylla’s problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies, a plan that requires a stomach-churning, unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?

The Sin Eater’s Daughter was published by Scholastic Press on February 24, 2015. It is 311 pages, priced at $17.99 in hardcover and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover artist is uncredited.

Lightspeed 61: Queers Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue

Lightspeed 61: Queers Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue

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Lightspeed 61-smallJohn Joseph Adams shook this town to its roots with his groundbreaking Women Destroy Science Fiction! issue of Lightspeed, released last June. Funded by an enormously successful Kickstarter campaign, WDSF! spawned a two successful sequels, Women Destroy Fantasy! and Women Destroy Horror!

In January of this year, John invited his readers to take a sledgehammer to the tight strictures of the genre once again, by funding a special Queers Destroy Science Fiction! of Lightspeed. The Kickstarter campaign closed on February 16; with an initial goal of $5,000, the campaign successfully raised $54,523 from 2,250 backers, surpassing even the lofty success of WDSF!

John and his team delivered the issue right on time this month. Lightspeed 61: Queers Destroy Science Fiction! is guest-edited by Seanan McGuire, and the magazine contains the following stories:

“Emergency Repair” by Kate M. Galey
“勢孤取和 (Influence Isolated, Make Peace)” by John Chu
“Bucket List Found in the Locker of Maddie Price, Age 14, Written Two Weeks Before the Great Uplifting of All Mankind” by Erica L. Satifka
“Melioration” by E. Saxey
“Rubbing is Racing” by Charles Payseur
“Helping Hand” by Claudine Griggs
“The Lamb Chops” by Stephen Cox

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The Novels of Tanith Lee: The Secret Books of Paradys

The Novels of Tanith Lee: The Secret Books of Paradys

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The Book of the Damned Tanith Lee-small The Book of the Beast Tanith Lee-small The Book of the Dead Tanith Lee-small The Book of the Mad Tanith Lee-small

We’re continuing with our look at the extraordinary 40-year career of Tanith Lee, who passed away on May 24th. We started with The Wars of Vis trilogy and her acclaimed Tales From the Flat Earth, and today we turn to her four-volume saga, The Secret Books of Paradys, published in the US by The Overlook Press between 1990-1993, with a striking series of covers by Wayne Barlowe (above).

Matthew David Surridge wrote a fine summary of the entire series for us two years ago, and I doubt I could do a better job of summarizing them than he did:

The fictive city of Paradys itself seems to accrue layers of meaning and complexity like a recurring landscape in a lucid dream. Above all, the books are weird with the weirdness of nightmare; though written with incredible technical skill, it’s difficult to articulate a single overall theme to the books, though multiple meanings suggest themselves.

Paradys is a city in northern France, originally a Roman settlement based around the exoploitation of soon-played-out silver mines. It developed over time into a major city, with a cathedral and taverns and damned poets and all the appurtenances of decadent gothic romance. The various stories of Paradys take place in different eras of the city’s life, told from different perspectives, using different styles. They’re linked by certain patterns of imagery — notably the ambiguous symbol of the moon — and a concentration on colour: each book, or long story, has a certain colour which defines it, and all colour-references within that story will refer either to white, black, or that specific hue. I can only imagine how difficult that technique is, but it’s incredibly effective at building distinct and distinctive atmospheres…

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The Bard’s Tale IV Kickstarter Fully Funded After 12 Days

The Bard’s Tale IV Kickstarter Fully Funded After 12 Days

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The Bards Tale IV

The Bard’s Tale was one of the first computer role playing games I ever played. It was developed in 1985 by Interplay, and published by Electronic Arts. I was in grad school at the time, and I’d play on the computers in the lab. Wandering around the 30×30 map of the ancient town of Skara Brae at night, getting killed by monsters, over and over (and over…) again. Good times, good times.

The Bard’s Tale sold, like, a billion copies, and became one of the big RPG franchises of the 80s (alongside Wizardry, Ultima, and SPI’s Gold Box games). There were two sequels and a construction set, before Interplay split off from Electronic Arts and began developing Dragon Wars (which was called Bard’s Tale IV until a month before its release in 1990). The Bard’s Tale franchise became dormant then, until Interplay founder Brian Fargo revived it for the first release from InXile Entertainment, The Bard’s Tale, in 2004. That game was a light-hearted console-style action game (with some absolutely killer tavern tunes).

Fast forward to 2015, where InXile Entertainment is now a triple-A studio with one of the finest RPGs in recent memory under its belt, Wasteland 2, and a reputation for record-breaking Kickstarter successes (Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera.) On June 2 Brian Fargo and team launched a new Kickstarter campaign, to fund a sequel to the original Bard’s Tale trilogy. The Bard’s Tale IV promises to be a modern single-player, party-based dungeon-crawler, an experience rich in exploration and combat, and “dungeons filled with challenging puzzles and devious riddles.” InXile set a goal of $1.25 million, and crossed that threshold in just 12 days. With 22 days to go, the campaign has over 28,600 backers, and plenty of exciting stretch goals, like free copies of the original games, a code wheel, and more. Check out the Kickstarter page here.

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in May

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in May

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Marshall Versus the Assassins-smallM. Harold Page had a good month in May, with two of the Top Three articles. His detailed breakdown on choreographing dramatic combat, and mastering the conflicting demands of narrative and blow-by-blow description, “How To Write a Good Fight Scene,” was our #1 article. And just to show how easy it is, he also nabbed the #3 slot, with a look at the similarities between Edmond Hamilton’s pulp classic Return to the Stars and Ridley’s Scott SF masterpiece, in “Blade Runner: Edmond Hamilton’s Tears in the Rain?”

Bob Byrne prevented Martin from stealing all the glory by taking the #2 slot, with “The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Adventures With Jeremy Brett,” just one of two Jeremy Brett article to make this list last month. I guess good things come in pairs.

Thomas Parker claimed fifth place with his look at Alice Sheldon and James Tiptree Jr, “The Woman Who Was a Man Who Was a Woman.” And Mark Rigney took #7 with a piece on adventures in role playing, “Long Arc or Short Arc?” (Mark’s complete epic adventure The Temple Of the Sea Gods also made the Top 50 list.)

Rich Horton was next, with “A Modest Proposal to Improve the Hugos,” a follow-up to his detailed article on the Rabid Puppy/Sad Puppy debacle, “The 2015 Hugo Nominations,” one of our most widely-read articles last month.

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Future Treasures: Frostgrave: Tales of the Frozen City edited by Joseph McCullough

Future Treasures: Frostgrave: Tales of the Frozen City edited by Joseph McCullough

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Frostgrave Tales of the Frozen City-smallJoseph McCullough is the author of one of the most popular articles in Black Gate history, “The Demarcation of Sword and Sorcery,” which today is considered one of the defining texts on the genre. He’s published fiction in BG and elsewhere, and is currently Project Manager for Osprey Adventures.

His latest project is the wargame Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City, coming in July from Osprey. In support of the new game, Osprey is also publishing Frostgrave: Tales of the Frozen City, a new anthology edited by Joe which contains ten original stories telling the tale of wizards and other adventurers, as they venture into the ruins of the Frozen City.

Long ago, the great city of Felstad sat at the centre of a magical empire. Its towering spires, labyrinthine catacombs and immense libraries were the wonder of the age, and potions, scrolls and mystical items of all descriptions poured from its workshops. Then, one cataclysmic night, a mistake was made. In some lofty tower or dark chamber, a foolish wizard unleashed a magic too powerful to control. A storm rose up, an epic blizzard that swallowed the city whole, burying it deep and leaving the empire as nothing more than a vast, frozen wasteland. The empire shattered, and the magic of the world faded. As the centuries came and went, Felstad passed from history to legend and on into myth. Only a few wizards, clinging to the last remnants of magical knowledge, still believed that the lost city had ever actually existed. But their faith was rewarded.

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July 2015 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale

July 2015 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale

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Asimovs-Science-Fiction-July-2015-smallBlack Gate blogger Derek Künsken has a big novella in Asimov’s Science Fiction this month, and it’s already getting great reviews. Clancy Weeks at Tangent Online had this to say about it:

I love a good mystery, and “Pollen From a Future Harvest” by Derek Künsken is indeed a good mystery. Some of that mystery is in parsing the twists and turns related to time travel, along with the prose itself, but it is rewarding nonetheless. Major Okonkwo, of the Sixth Expeditionary Force of the Sub-Saharan Union, is a military auditor — a bookkeeper — and she has been given the open-ended task of auditing the entire base. There are layers, sub-plots, and twists here, but the main issue is dealing with a possible “grandfather paradox” associated with time travel… Something has happened up the line, and Okonkwo needs to find out why, and if it is related to the recent death (some would say murder) of her senior husband. There is an amazing amount of backstory we learn along the way, and rich, multi-layered world-building… a very good and entertaining read.

Derek made the cover this month, for the second time (the first was for his novelette “Schools of Clay” in the February 2014 issue.) I had the chance to meet Derek for the first time at the Nebula Awards weekend here in Chicago from June 4-June 7, where we talked space opera, writing, and conventions. He’s a remarkably astute observer of the field, and has a very keen eye on short fiction markets. He also brought me up-to-date on the state of fandom in my home town of Ottawa, which I greatly appreciated. His detailed summary of the Nebula weekend is here.

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New Treasures: Dave vs. The Monsters by John Birmingham

New Treasures: Dave vs. The Monsters by John Birmingham

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Dave vs. the Monsters Emergence-small Dave vs. the Monsters Resistance-small Dave vs. the Monsters Ascendance-small

I’m not sure what to make of this new trend of releasing an entire trilogy in two months. In my day, you had to wait years for all three novels in a fantasy trilogy. And the publisher never told you when the last book was coming out because, hell, they didn’t know. Nobody knew. You just walked back and forth to the bookstore every single week, dutifully checking. In the snow. Uphill, both ways. And we liked it that way.

Kids today, they don’t know what waiting is. Take the new fantasy trilogy by John Birmingham, Dave vs. The Monsters, for example. The first volume, Emergence, was released on April 28, and the second one, Resistance, on June 2. And just in case that five week wait between volumes was too traumatic for you, Del Rey is releasing the final volume, Ascendance, just four weeks later, on June 30.

You’re spoiled rotten. You know that, right?

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Vintage Treasures: Kelwin by Neal Barrett, Jr.

Vintage Treasures: Kelwin by Neal Barrett, Jr.

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Kelwin Neal Barrett-smallWe have the makings of a small Neal Barrett, Jr. fan club here at Black Gate. It began when a discussion of his Aldair novels — which Fletcher Vredenburgh called “a blast of strangeness and adventure” — broke out in the comments section of a post about Mark Frost’s The List of 7. Shortly after Barrett’s death last year, Keith West briefly recounted meeting him at various conventions, and Fletcher reviewed The Prophecy Machine, the first of his novels of Finn, the Master Lizard Maker, saying:

I started it immediately and found myself in a fun, almost goofy story of craftsmen, duelists, animal people, and machinery not meant to be fiddled with by man…

From its first page, The Prophecy Machine heralds fun… Barrett has created a hilarious city of lunatics ruled by lunatic rules for Finn’s adventures to take place in… the book’s a lark. It’s funny and inventive from end to end. Jessica Slagg’s an amusing foil for the occasionally pompous and cocksure Finn. Sabatino’s exchanges with Finn are a funny mix of menace and camaraderie.

The only thing I can possibly compare it to is one of Jack Vance’s Cugel books. Like Vance, Barrett’s fantasy world doesn’t feel beholden to any real world setting. But the comparison really doesn’t do it justice. Barrett’s sly voice and Finn’s world are entirely his own.

I recently stumbled on a copy of Barrett’s first novel, Kelwin, a post-apocalyptic novel packaged as a sword & sorcery novel. It’s a fine example of 70s-era science fantasy, and I didn’t hesitate to make it mine.

Kelwin was released in paperback by Lancer Books in 1970 with a Jim Steranko cover. It has never been reprinted, and has now been out of print for 45 years. For Barrett fans, it makes a fine collectible.

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