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Author: John ONeill

Get Ready For 11 Best-of-the-Year Volumes

Get Ready For 11 Best-of-the-Year Volumes

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Best British Horror 2014-smallWe’re entering the Best-of-the-Year season.

Starting in May we’ll see no less than eleven volumes collecting the best short fiction of last year, beginning with Jonathan Strahan’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Nine (released May 12), and ending in October with the release of the latest volume in Stephen Jones’ long-running Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. We’ve showcased eight as Future Treasures in just the last few months (click on the links below for details on each.)

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Nine, edited by Jonathan Strahan (May 12)
Best British Horror 2015, edited by Johnny Mains (May 25)
The Year’s Best Military SF and Space Opera, edited by David Afsharirad (June 2)
The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas: 2015 edited by Paula Guran (June 16)
The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015, edited by Rich Horton (June 16)
The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2015, edited by Paula Guran (June 24)
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois (July 7)
The Best Horror of the Year Volume Seven, edited by Ellen Datlow (August 4)
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, edited by John Joseph Adams and Joe Hill (October 6)
Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volume 2, edited by Kathe Koja (October)
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 26, edited by Stephen Jones (October)

After 18 volumes, we lost David’s Hartwell’s Year’s Best SF in 2014 — a major loss– but we’ve added three to the list this year: the Afsharirad, Adams, and Paula Guran’s Best Novellas book. (And Year’s Best Weird Fiction just started up in 2014). I don’t remember any time in the history of the genre when we had this many Year’s Best volumes; certainly there’s been no time when I’ve looked forward with anticipation to nearly so many. I take it as a sign that there’s still a very healthy interest in short fiction in this market. Stay tuned over the next six months, and we’ll bring you additional details as they hit the market.

Future Treasures: Blood Sisters, edited by Paula Guran

Future Treasures: Blood Sisters, edited by Paula Guran

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Blood Sisters Paula Guran-smallIn her lengthy intro to her new anthology Blood Sisters, Paula Guran traces the modern literary history of the vampire, from C.L. Moore (“Whether… Moore’s “Shambleau” (1933) is a vampire story may be open to question, but one can make a good argument that the alien Shambleau is a form of vampire”) to Stephen King (“Salem’s Lot… downplayed vampiric eroticism, upped the level of terror, and focused on the vampire as a metaphor of corrupt power”) to Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (“Saint-Germain was the first genuinely romantic and heroic vampire”), and beyond.

In Blood Sisters Guran collects 25 vampire stories by Carrie Vaughn, Catherynne M. Valente, Nancy A. Collins, Suzy McKee Charnas, Pat Cadigan, Nalo Hopkinson, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Melanie Tem, Charlaine Harris, and over a dozen other women. It’s a stellar line-up, and one of the most intriguing collections of any kind I’ve seen this year.

A tantalizing selection of stories from some of the best female authors who’ve helped define the modern vampire.

Bram Stoker was hardly the first author — male or female — to fictionalize the folkloric vampire, but he defined the modern iconic vampire when Dracula appeared in 1897. Since then, many have reinterpreted the ever-versatile vampire over and over again — and female writers have played vital roles in proving that the vampire, as well as our perpetual fascination with it, is truly immortal. These authors have devised some of the most fascinating, popular, and entertaining of our many vampiric variations: suavely sensual… fascinating but fatal… sexy and smart… undead but prone to detection… tormented or terrifying… amusing or amoral… doomed or deadly… badass and beautiful… cutting-edge or classic…

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Vintage Treasures: Sturgeon is Alive and Well… by Theodore Sturgeon

Vintage Treasures: Sturgeon is Alive and Well… by Theodore Sturgeon

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Sturgeon is Alive and Well-small Sturgeon is Alive and Well Pocket-small

Sturgeon is Alive and Well… was Theodore Sturgeon’s fourteenth short story collection. It was first published in 1971, and came following a five-year gap after Starshine (1966). As I mentioned in my write-up on that book, Starshine went through nearly a dozen printings in as many years. But Sturgeon is Alive and Well… had only three: a hardcover in 1971, a paperback reprint the same year from Berkley Medallion (above left, cover by the great Paul Lehr), and a Pocket reprint in 1978 (above right, artist unknown.)

It’s now been out of print for 37 years, and there is no digital edition.

The title is… unusual. It probably made more sense in 1971, when Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris was an unexpected smash hit off-Broadway. Sturgeon touches on what a five-year gap between collections meant for a writer who made a living on short stories in his introduction.

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Sad Puppies and Super Puppies: The 2015 Hugo Train Wreck

Sad Puppies and Super Puppies: The 2015 Hugo Train Wreck

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Tony C. Smith and his 2010 Hugo for StarShipSofa
Tony C. Smith and his 2010 Hugo for StarShipSofa

As both Matthew David Surridge and I wrote about earlier this week, there’s been considerable controversy swirling around the just-announced ballot for the 2015 Hugo Awards, the most prestigious fan-based award in science fiction and fantasy. Matthew and I are involved in this controversy because we were both included, without our knowledge or consent, in a slate of bloc votes (the “Sad Puppies 3” and “Rabid Puppies”) that resulted in us being put on the ballot.

Matthew declined his nomination. Since Black Gate‘s nomination was for the entire site, a fan-based effort that involves over 40 participants, I decided not to decline on behalf of those individuals. But (no surprise) I had plenty to say about it, in my article “Black Gate Nominated for a Hugo Award in a Terrible Ballot.”

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say this topic has riveted the entire industry. The two BG articles I link to above have been read over 32,000 times in less than three days… and Matthew and Black Gate were nominated for fan awards, the part of the ballot that, to be blunt, most people really don’t give a damn about.

There are just shy of 200 comments on those two posts, so the conversation is already getting a little unwieldy (and I find I have to keep repeating myself, because let’s face it, who can be bothered to read 200 comments before asking a simple question?) So I figured it made sense to do a quick re-cap, especially for those readers who surfed over here on their lunch hour, and have roughly the time it takes to eat a tuna fish sandwich to get caught up.

The crux of the matter is this.

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April/May 2015 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale

April/May 2015 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale

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Asimov's Science Fiction April May 2015-smallI’m delighted to be talking about Asimov’s SF as part of Black Gate‘s new initiative to expand our coverage of fantasy and SF magazines. Asimov’s has been a favorite of mine since the first year it was published, in 1977. (If you’re interested in learning what’s so special about the magazine, I wrote a lengthy 3-part history, looking at it decade by decade, back when I was editing SF Site in 1998).

It took us this long to start covering it because Asimov’s is primarily a science fiction magazine. But the current editor, Sheila Williams — like her predecessor, Gardner Dozois — has shown an appreciation for good fantasy, and there’s plenty of evidence of that in the current issue. The big April/May double issue weighs in at a generous 192 pages, and contains fiction from Allen M. Steele, Tom Purdom, Michael Swanwick & Gregory Frost, Liz Williams, Robert Reed, and many others.

A fine example of that openness to fantasy is Michael Swanwick & Gregory Frost’s “Lock Up Your Chickens and Daughters — H’ard and Andy Are Come to Town!” Here’s Bob Blough’s review at Tangent Online:

This is a light-hearted romp about two slightly magical con-men who go to great lengths to prove that a dust giant is causing the drought in some alternate version of the American Dust Bowl during the 1930s. Unfortunately they wake up something much more real than the con they plan to pull. As a lagniappe, if you know your short fiction you can tell who these two men are by what they talk about. It’s a fun if innocuous ride.

Read Bob’s complete review here, and the first half of Swanwick & Gregory Frost’s tale online here.

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The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in March

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in March

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Great-Way-Final-Cover-eBook-3-copyI keep hunting for themes when I tabulate the most popular articles on this website every month. But you Black Gate readers, you’re inscrutable. One month you want all the secrets of writing fantasy trilogies, the next it’s all about the origins of Dungeons and Dragons. Seriously, I’d love to know what articles I should be planning for this blog… but after seven years like this, I give up.

Well, I suppose it’s good that you have diverse interests, anyway. And you sure have great taste in writers and books.

Take last month for example. The number one article for the month was a guest post from author Harry Connolly, author of “The Whoremaster of Pald” and Game of Cages, examining Attack Novels — those story ideas that a writer can’t stop thinking about.

Number two on the list was M Harold Page’s review of Campaign Cartographer 3 Plus, a terrific new fantasy cartography tool for creating your own magical kingdom.

And the number three article at BG last month was M Harold Page’s look at history as the bedrock of fantasy: “The History Manifesto and Sweeping Histories.”

Fourth on the list was our report on a recent attempt to reboot SSI’s famed Gold Box games using Kickstarter, followed by Thomas Parker’s heartfelt remembrance of a great American actor, “Leonard Nimoy Saved My Life.” And sixth was Elizabeth Cady’s detailed look at the new film Jupiter Ascending, “Capitalism Ascending.”

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New Treasures: Master of Plagues by E.L. Tettensor

New Treasures: Master of Plagues by E.L. Tettensor

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Master of Plagues-smallAbout a year ago I reported on the first novel in a promising new series: Darkwalker by E.L. Tettensor. Now the second novel featuring Police Inspector Nicolas Lenoi has arrived, Master of Plagues, and it looks as intriguing.

The Nicolas Lenoi novels are set in Kennian, part of the backwater Five Villages, which seems a lot like 19th-century England if you squint. Lenoir is tasked with investigating dark mysteries in a place where folks scoff at the supernatural. These books look like a fine mix of fantasy and mystery in a fog-shrouded Victorian(ish) landscape, with plenty of original touches to keep things interesting.

Unraveling a deadly mystery takes time — and his is running out…

Having barely escaped the clutches of the Darkwalker, Inspector Nicolas Lenoir throws himself into his work with a determination he hasn’t known in years. But his legendary skills are about to be put to the test. A horrific disease is ravaging the city — and all signs point to it having been deliberately unleashed.

With a mass murderer on the loose, a rising body count, and every hound in the city on quarantine duty, the streets of Kennian are descending into mayhem, while Lenoir and his partner, Sergeant Bran Kody, are running out of time to catch a killer and find a cure.

Only one ray of hope exists: the nomadic Adali, famed for their arcane healing skills, claim to have a cure. But dark magic comes at a price, one even the dying may be unwilling to pay. All that’s left to Lenoir is a desperate gamble. And when the ashes settle, the city of Kennian will be changed forever…

E.L. Tettensor also writes under the name Erin Lindsey. We recently covered her fantasy novel The Bloodbound. Master of Plagues was published on February 3, 2015 by Roc. It is 368 pages, priced at $7.99 in paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition.

David Drake on E. Hoffmann Price

David Drake on E. Hoffmann Price

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Far Lands Other Days-smallDavid Drake, author of The Tank Lords, The Sea Without a Shore, and dozens of other fantasy and SF novels, was also the man behind Carcosa, a small press he co-founded with Karl Edward Wagner in 1973. Carcosa published only four volumes — including Far Lands Other Days, a 590-page illustrated collection of the classic pulp fantasy of E. Hoffmann Price — but ah, what volumes they were!

Andy Duncan has started a new blog, Past and Present Futures, and he invited David to share his memories of Price. Yesterday he shared the results. Here’s a slice.

In fact [Price] spent only 30 days in the Philippines before the 15th Cav was recalled to the Mexican Border where Pancho Villa was raiding. Shortly after that they were shipped to France where they acted as mule skinners unloading freighters in Bayonne, France. He had stories about the prostitutes in all three continents.

When WW I was over, Ed was on garrison duty on the German border. The army created a service-wide scheme by which enlisted men could take an entrance exam for admission to West Point. Ed was one of the extremely few who gained admission through that test. He graduated in 1922 and was briefly a 2nd Lieutenant assigned to a Coast Artillery unit in NJ. He resigned ahead of a court martial because he had gotten to know the battalion commander’s wife rather better than the major was pleased to learn.

I’ve told the story this way to make it clear that though Ed was very smart, he was also an iconoclast who was not even slightly interested in polite society or its norms. He was acting out in the introduction [to Far Lands Other Days], but I don’t doubt he meant what he said.

Read David’s complete comments here, and visit Andy’s excellent new blog here.

Future Treasures: The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois

Future Treasures: The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois

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The Year's Best Science Fiction Thirty-Second Annual Collection-smallThere are roughly ten Year’s Best volumes currently being published in the speculative fiction market, but they all bow before Gardner Dozois’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction. The Thirty-Second volume in this venerable series will be published in July.

Now, believe it or not, there were Year’s Best series before Gardner. Everett F Bleiler and T.E Dikty edited the first volume of The Best Science Fiction Stories way back in 1949 (I know, right? Who knew there was good science fiction in those days!) Judith Merril edited twelve volumes of The Year’s Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy (1956-1967), while Donald Wollheim, Terry Carr, Lin Carter, Arthur Saha, Harry Harrison and Brian Aldis, and Lester del Rey all tried their hand at it for a while, with varying success. Gardner Dozois edited the Del Rey series, taking over from Lester del Rey, from 1977-81, until starting over again with The Year’s Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection in 1984 (There’s a nice summary of all this history in Scott Laz’s review of that very first volume here.)

Gardner’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction was exceptional right from the very beginning. For one thing, most prior books — even market leaders like Terry Carr’s The Best Science Fiction of the Year — were slender paperback originals. With his first volume Gardner delivered a massive 575-page hardcover, packed with 25 stories — including a couple of novellas, like Dan Simmons’ knockout “Carrion Comfort.”

He also began what quickly became one of the most-read columns in the entire industry: his lengthy, frank, and often highly opinionated annual summation, covering news, magazines, anthologies, movies, deaths, awards, the birth and growth of fan websites, podcasts, and much more. His first one in 1984 was a thin 17 pages, but over the decades Gardner’s comprehensive report card on the field grew to nearly 100 pages. I, for one, read them cover-to-cover.

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Black Gate Nominated for a Hugo Award in a Terrible Ballot

Black Gate Nominated for a Hugo Award in a Terrible Ballot

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The Goblin Emperor-smallThe nominees for the 2015 Hugo Awards have been announced by Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention, and let’s be blunt: it’s a terrible ballot.

Here’s a brief recap: over the last few years a number of writers (primarily conservative Americans) have become increasingly convinced that the growing number of women and non-white authors winning Hugo Awards is somehow evidence that the awards have been ‘hijacked’ by a minority group of voters and social justice warriors (SJWs). Their concerns are succinctly summarized at the right-wing new site Breitbart.com.

To make a point about how the awards are influenced by what they perceive as a small group of liberal elites, a handful of authors created a slate of nominees heavily dominated by conservative writers, and asked their followers to support those slates in their entirety. The primary slates were Brad Torgersen’s Sad Puppies 3 and Vox Day’s Rabid Puppies list.

Under cover of this semi-political movement, which added roughly 200 additional nominating ballots to last year’s total (and nearly 800 to the 2013 total), at least one of the organizers heavily seeded his slate with his own works. Vox Day’s Rapid Puppies ballot included no less than ten nominees for his Castalia House publishing company, and listed himself for both Best Editor (Short Form) and Best Editor (Long Form).

The results? As tabulated by Mike Glyer over at File 770, a total of 61 final ballot nominees from Sad Puppies 3 and Rabid Puppies made the final list of nominees. Only 24 nominees did not come from either list.

In short, the Hugo ballot this year was essentially dictated by two individuals who asked their followers to vote for their suggested candidates, regardless of what they actually thought was deserving.

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