John ONeill – Page 349

New Treasures: Elements by Suzanne Church

Sunday, November 9, 2014 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Team Black Gate has been friends with Suzanne Church for a long time. It’s not just that she’s friendly and full of energy — she always seems to show up with a helping hand just when you need it most. She’s pulled us out of more than one fire, usually when something has gone terribly wrong at a convention and we’re standing around looking lost. Purely in terms of karmic balance, we owe her big time.

So I was delighted to see her first collection Elements arrive. Not just because I’m a fan of her delightful short stories, but because I figured we’d finally have a chance to balance the scales a bit, you know, help spread the word. As it turns out, of course, Suzanne needs no such help, as figures with far greater reach than Black Gate have already jumped ahead of the line to sing her praises. Bestselling author Kelly Armstrong calls the book “An engrossing collection of tales, sometimes dark, always thought-provoking and original,” just as an example. Someday we’ll be able to repay Suzanne for all her kindness. But today, we’re just going to curl up with her collection and enjoy it.

Can humanity survive an ice age? Will the storm man steal Wanda’s baby? When will Bob and Sebbee escape the relentless march of the Lost Circle? What is the cause of the taint in Faya’s courted ice? If you can’t escape hell, can you at least afford a trip on a teleporting couch?

Church infuses emotion into every tale. Whether quirky or horrific, the prose deftly snatches the reader onto a whirlwind expedition of laughter and sorrow.

Elements collects science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories published in such places as Clarkesworld, Cicada, On Spec, Chilling Tales, Tesseracts, and Urban Green Man. It was published April 30, 2014 by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. It is 248 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback and $4.99 for the digital edition. The creepy cover is by Neil Jackson. Amazon.com currently has the trade paperback edition discounted to just $2.73, an 82% savings. But move fast to make sure you get a copy. Check it out here.

New Treasures: World War Cthulhu, edited by Brian M. Sammons and Glynn Owen Barrass

Thursday, November 6, 2014 John ONeill Comments 5 comments

April Moon Books released Brian M. Sammons’s terrific anthology The Dark Rites of Cthulhu back in May, so when I heard word of his newest, World War Cthulhu, edited with Glynn Owen Barrass, I was very intrigued. World War Cthulhu is a huge and ambitious anthology of original Cthulhu Mythos fiction from some of the hottest talents in the field, including Stephen Mark Rainey, Robert M. Price, Neil Baker, C.J. Henderson, Edward Morris, Darrell Schweitzer, Tim Curran, Jeffrey Thomas, and Josh Reynolds. It was funded by a cloud-funding campaign that successfully concluded back in April; the book has now been delivered in multiple formats — including a deluxe format that includes a color plate accompanying each story. Check out some of the fabulous artwork at the Dark Regions Press website.

The world is at war against things that slink and gibber in the darkness, and titans that stride from world to world, sewing madness and death. War has existed in one form or another since the dawn of human civilization, and before then, Elder terrors battled it out across this planet and this known universe in ways unimaginable.

It has always been a losing battle for our side since time began. Incidents like the Innsmouth raid, chronicled by H.P. Lovecraft, mere blips of victory against an insurmountable foe. Still we fight, against these incredible odds, in an unending nightmare, we fight, and why? For victory, for land, for a political ideal? No, mankind fights for survival.

Our authors, John Shirley, Mark Rainey, Wilum Pugmire, William Meikle, Tim Curran, Jeffrey Thomas and many others have gathered here to share war stories from the eternal struggle against the darkness. This book chronicles these desperate battles from across the ages, including Roman Britain, The American Civil War, World War Two, The Vietnam Conflict, and even into the far future.

Note: as far as I can determine, there’s no connection between this anthology and the World War Cthulhu fiction anthology edited by Jonathan Oliver and released in December of last year by Cubicle 7 Entertainment, based on their RPG of the same name. World War Cthulhu: A Collection of Lovecraftian War Stories was published by Dark Regions Press on August 14, 2014. It is 358 pages, priced at $17.95 in trade paperback, and $5.99 for the digital edition.

Vintage Treasures: Weird Tales #1, edited by Lin Carter

Wednesday, November 5, 2014 John ONeill Comments 3 comments

If you’ve hung around Black Gate for any length of time, you’ve heard us talk about Weird Tales, the greatest and most influential pulp fantasy magazine every published.

Weird Tales has died many times, and crawled out of the grave and shambled back to life just as often (if you’re a Weird Tales fan, you’ve heard countless zombie metaphors about your favorite magazine). When the pulp version of the magazine died in September 1954 after 279 issues, many believed it was for the final time. But it returned to life in the early 1970s, edited by Sam Moskowitz and published by Leo Margulies, and then perished again after four issues.

Bob Weinberg and Victor Dricks purchased the rights to the name from Margulies some time after that, and in December 1980 a brand new version appeared: Weird Tales #1, an original paperback anthology of horror and weird fantasy edited by none other than Lin Carter. On the inside front cover (under the heading The Eyrie, the name of the old editorial column in the pulp magazine) Carter introduced his anthology to a new generation of fantasy readers:

WEIRD TALES was the first and most famous of all the fantasy-fiction pulp magazines. It featured tales of the strange, the marvelous, and the supernatural by the finest authors of the macabre and the fantastic, old and new, from its first issue in 1923 until its 279th and last consecutive issue in 1954.

Now it is back, with all new stories — and even such an exciting find as “Scarlet Tears,” a recently discovered and never before published novelette by Robert E. Howard.

Over the years many great writers were published in the pages of WEIRD TALES, and now a great tradition is being continued into its second half-century.

“Scarlet Tears,” a Robert E. Howard story featuring his private detective Brent Kirby, never sold in his lifetime, and it’s not hard to see why (Kirby, a brawler who leads with his fists, doesn’t actually do much “detecting.”) Nonetheless, this kind of star billing for a Robert E. Howard trunk story gives you some indication just how much his reputation had grown since his death 44 years earlier.

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Uncanny Magazine Issue 1 Now on Sale

Tuesday, November 4, 2014 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

With all the bad news swirling around genre magazines over the past few years, I can’t tell you how uplifting it is to celebrate the arrival of a brand new magazine — especially one as promising as this.

Uncanny is a bimonthly magazine of science fiction and fantasy, showcasing original fiction from some of the brightest stars in the genre, as well as reprints, poetry, articles, and interviews. The first issue, cover-dated November/December 2014, is on sale today. It contains new fiction by Maria Dahvana Headley, Kat Howard, Max Gladstone, Amelia Beamer, Ken Liu, and Christopher Barzak, plus a reprint from Jay Lake. There’s also articles by Sarah Kuhn, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Christopher J Garcia, and a special Worldcon Roundtable featuring Emma England, Michael Lee, Helen Montgomery, Steven H Silver, and Pablo Vazquez. The issue also contains poetry by Neil Gaiman, Amal El-Mohtar, and Sonya Taaffe, and interviews with Maria Dahvana Headley, Deborah Stanish, Beth Meacham on Jay Lake, and Christopher Barzak.

If that’s not enough, the magazine’s staff has also produced two stellar podcasts. Episode 1, released today, features the Editors’ Introduction, Maria Dahvana Headley’s “If You Were a Tiger, I’d Have to Wear White” and Amal El-Mohtar’s poem “The New Ways” (both read by Amal), as well as an interview with Maria conducted by Deborah Stanish. Episode 2 (coming December 2) will contain an Editors’ Introduction, Amelia Beamer reading her story “Celia and the Conservation of Entropy,” Sonya Taaffe’s poem “The Whalemaid, Singing” (as read by Amal El-Mohtar), and an interview with Amelia conducted by Deborah Stanish.

Uncanny was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign that had over 1,000 backers and raised over $36,000 (surpassing its goal by over $10,000.) The magazine is available for purchase as an eBook in PDF, EPUB, and MOBI formats. If you’re the type of buyer who needs to sample things first, the website features free content that will be released in two stages — half on November 4 and half on December 2.

Uncanny is published and edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas. The first issue is priced at $3.99; order directly from the website. The cover is by Galen Dara.

New Treasures: Premonitions by Jamie Schultz

Tuesday, November 4, 2014 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

The trick with the plethora of urban fantasy on the shelves these days is sorting through it all to find the really promising stuff. Buried between all that werewolf romance and those countless vampire sex novels are some undiscovered gems. It takes a little patience to find them, but they’re often worth the effort.

Last weekend, I stumbled on a promising supernatural noir offering from first-time novelist Jamie Schultz. It was easy to miss, crammed into the crowded shelves next to John Scalzi, James H. Schmitz, and Charles Stross, but I found a single copy of Premonitions, and was sold immediately by the cover art and the back cover copy. See what you think.

TWO MILLION DOLLARS…

It’s the kind of score Karyn Ames has always dreamed of — enough to set her crew up pretty well and, more important, enough to keep her safely stocked on a very rare, very expensive black market drug. Without it, Karyn hallucinates slices of the future until they totally overwhelm her, leaving her unable to distinguish the present from the mess of certainties and possibilities yet to come.

The client behind the heist is Enoch Sobell, a notorious crime lord with a reputation for being ruthless and exacting — and a purported practitioner of dark magic. Sobell is almost certainly condemned to Hell for a magically extended lifetime full of shady dealings. Once you’re in business with him, there’s no backing out.

Karyn and her associates are used to the supernatural and the occult, but their target is more than just the usual family heirloom or cursed necklace. It’s a piece of something larger. Something sinister.

Karyn’s crew and even Sobell himself are about to find out just how powerful it is… and how powerful it may yet become.

Premonitions was published on July 1, 2014 by Roc. It is 384 pages, priced at $7.99 in paperback and $6.99 for the digital version.

Future Treasures: Covenant’s End by Ari Marmell

Monday, November 3, 2014 John ONeill Comments 4 comments

Ari Marmell has been making a name for himself as a gaming writer and as a novelist for the past decade. He’s co-authored several excellent D&D releases, including Complete Mage (2006), Heroes of Horror (2005), Cityscape (2006), the Neverwinter Campaign Setting (2011), and the 4th Edition Tomb of Horrors (2010). Anyone who can adapt Gygax’s diabolical player-killer Tomb of Horrors and make it playable has serious cred in my book.

But it’s his recent fantasy novels that have really begun to get a lot of attention, including The Goblin Corps (2011), Hot Lead, Cold Iron (2014), and The Conqueror’s Shadow (2010), which John Ottinger III reviewed for us here. Perhaps his most successful series has been his YA novels featuring the thief Widdershins, starting with Thief’s Covenant (Feb 2012), False Covenant (June 2012), and Lost Covenant (Dec 2013).

Next year, Ari brings us a fourth Widdershins novel, with the rather ominous title Covenant’s End. Is this the final book in a much-loved series? You’ll have to wait until February to find out.

The thief Widdershins and her own “personal god,” Olgun, return to their home city of Davillon after almost a year away. While Shins expects only to face the difficulty of making up with her friends, what she actually finds is far, far worse. Her nemesis, Lisette, has returned, and she is not alone. Lisette has made a dark pact with supernatural powers that have granted her abilities far greater than anything Widdershins and Olgun can match.

Together, Widdershins and Olgun will face enemies on both sides of the law, for Lisette’s schemes have given her power in both Davillon’s government and its underworld. For even a slim chance, Shins must call on both old friends — some of whom haven’t yet forgiven her — and new allies.

Even with their help, Widdershins may be required to make the hardest sacrifice of her life, if she is to rid Davillon — and herself — of Lisette once and for all.

Covenant’s End will by published by Pyr on February 3, 2015. It is 273 pages, priced at $17.99 in hardcover and $11.99 for the digital version. The cover art is by Jason Chan.

Vintage Treasures: Grand Masters’ Choice, edited by Andre Norton

Monday, November 3, 2014 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Back in 1988, there were only eight Grand Masters of Science Fiction. The Grand Master award is given by the Science Fiction Writers of America periodically to a writer with a lifetime of meritorious achievement. Robert A. Heinlein was the first, in 1975. (As of 2014, there are now 30; Samuel Delany received his award at the SFWA Nebula Awards banquet in May this year. See the complete list of winners here.)

For Noreascon III in 1988, NESFA Press invited Andre Norton to assemble a special collection of stories, one each from all eight Grand Masters — the story each author felt was their finest. The results were packaged with an introduction by Robert Bloch, plus comments on the individual stories by Andre Norton and her co-editor Ingrid Zierhut, into Grand Masters’ Choice, a prestigious collection of SF and fantasy.

It’s interesting to see each author’s selection — and there are plenty of surprises. There’s a Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser novelette from Fritz Leiber, a Witch World novella by Andre Norton, a Reginald Rivers tale from L. Sprague de Camp, a Humanoids story by Jack Williamson, and four others.

Now, I probably have all of these stories in other collections. Somewhere. But I couldn’t resist this handsomely-packaged anthology, mostly because I’ve read almost none of the stories within and it was just too irresistible to have them all in one place.

The tales I’m most interested in reading are Andre Norton’s “Toads of Grimmerdale,” which originally appeared in Lin Carter’s sword & sorcery anthology Flashing Swards! 2 — and which has been recommended to me several times in the past year — and “The Autumn Land,” a novelette by one of my favorite writers, Clifford D. Simak.

Here’s the blurb from the back of the 1991 paperback edition.

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Michael Bishop on Tom Hanks’ Story in The New Yorker

Sunday, November 2, 2014 John ONeill Comments 5 comments

Michael Bishop, Nebula Award-winning author of No Enemy But Time, Ancient of Days, and Philip K Dick Is Dead, Alas, has posted a brief review of Tom Hanks science fiction story in The New Yorker magazine.

Yes, Tom Hanks has a story in The New Yorker. And yes, it’s science fiction. It’s titled “Alan Bean Plus Four.” Yes, the Tom Hanks who played Forrest Gump and Captain Phillips. Look, just read what Michael said.

I read it with some initial skepticism. Sure, Hanks is an Academy Award-winning actor, but can he write?

Well, yes, he can. This tale works at the level that Hanks shoots for, and the prose, pointedly colloquial and science-savvy, shows him to have a fine command of 21st-century English as well as of current cultural, social, and technological innovations. I really like it.

You can read the complete story online here. There’s even an audio version on the same page (read by Tom Hanks. How cool is that?).

Read Michael Bishop’s complete comments on his Facebook page.

See a 1942 Pulp Magazine Rack in All Its Glory

Sunday, November 2, 2014 John ONeill Comments 7 comments

The Shorpy Historic Picture Archive, a terrific photo blog which posts vintage high-definition pics from the 1850s to 1950s, has posted an absolutely gorgeous picture of a 1942 magazine rack, crammed to overflowing with pulp magazines, slicks, comics, and much more. It’s a reminder of what newsstands were like in the heyday of the pulps. Visible in the (much reduced) image above are Astounding, Planet Stories, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Future, Fantastic Adventures, and nearly a hundred others.

What’s truly unusual about this image is that it’s in color. The original image, however, is black and white — the finished product was hand colorized after nearly a year of painstaking detective work, matching the pulp images in the racks (sometimes barely visible) to actual covers. See the complete tale of the research involved here, and see the astounding high-resolution original (all 4.2 million pixels) here.

Amal El-Mohtar reviews “Witch, Beast, Saint” by C.S.E. Cooney

Saturday, November 1, 2014 John ONeill Comments 7 comments

Erotic fiction makes me blush. You know how some people have to cover their eyes when watching horror movies? I’m like that with erotic fiction. When C.S.E. Cooney submitted short stories to Black Gate, I had to peek between my fingers to read them. We published two, “Godmother Lizard” and “Life on the Sun,” (which Tangent Online called “bold and powerful… on a scale of 1 to 10, I rank this one as a twelve”), and I had to look the other way while editing them.

Fortuantely, there are readers braver than I. Over at Tor.com, Amal El-Mohtar has reviewed C.S.E’s new story, “Witch, Beast, Saint: an Erotic Fairy Tale,” saying in part:

Absolutely no one writes fairy tales like Cooney…what Cooney does is make you feel as if you’re a citizen of fairy tale space, inhabiting the lands and experiencing the stories adjacent to those better-known: Cinderella might be a few towns over, but she doesn’t matter here. Cooney writes new fairy tales with a vigour and velocity that make me remember how I felt on first discovering The Snow Queen in a book too big for my lap…

A witch discovers a beast dying in a forest, and takes him home to keep. She can tell right away that he was once a man; she washes and revives him, feeds him, takes care of him, and they become companionable. Soon they become rather more than that; not long afterwards, the arrival of an itinerant saint troubles their romance…

It was shockingly delightful to me to see such a beautiful depiction of enthusiastic consent, kink, and polyamory in a fairy tale setting — no technical terms, no rhetoric, just the cheerful twining of compatible desires in a magical world.

C.S.E. Cooney is a past website editor of Black Gate, and the author of How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes and Jack o’ the Hills. “Witch, Beast, Saint” was published at Strange Horizons; read the complete story here. And read Mark’s recent interview with C.S.E. Cooney here.

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