John ONeill – Page 468

New Treasures: R.A. Salvatore’s War of the Spider Queen

Thursday, June 7, 2012 John ONeill Comments 4 comments

Ah, the lure of the fat fantasy novel. There’s really nothing quite like it.

Yes, I love short fiction and, by extension, I love short novels. But when you really fall in love with a book or series, nothing satisfies like a volume that weighs as much as a phone book.

Which is why I was delighted when two fat fantasy compendiums landed on my doorstep this week: R.A. Salvatore’s War of the Spider Queen, Volume I and Volume II.

These aren’t written by R.A. Salvatore. You can tell because his name is in the title. R.A. Salvatore created the popular character Drizzt Do’Urden and has written nearly two dozen novels featuring the drow ranger, several of them best-sellers. War of the Spider Queen returns to Drizzt Do’Urden’s homeland, the Underdark, to spin a tale of a ragged band of four dark elves on a desperate quest to find Lloth, drow goddess and the demon Queen of Spiders, and save their subterranean city of Menzoberranzan and the entire dark elf race.

The two-volume War of the Spider Queen collects all six novels: Dissolution by Richard Lee Byers, Insurrection by Thomas M. Reid, Condemnation by Richard Baker, Extinction by Lisa Smedman, Annihilation by Philip Athans, and Resurrection by Paul S. Kemp. All were published between 2002 and 2005, with R.A. Salvatore overseeing the development of the entire series.

These are handsome and satisfactorily hefty volumes. I took them out and photographed them on the bricks of my front patio, so you can get a sense of their size. (Click on the image above to get a bigger version).

Volume I contains the first three novels; it is 1,074 pages for $15.95 in trade paperback. Volume II gathers the last three; it is 1,076 pages for $15.95. Both have cover art by Brom. They are published by Wizards of the Coast and are now available.

Announcing the Winner of Thunder in the Void from Haffner Press!

Monday, June 4, 2012 John ONeill Comments 7 comments

Thanks to all those who entered our contest to win a copy of Thunder in the Void, compliments of Haffner Press.

We asked our readers to submit the title of an imaginary Space Opera tale in honor of Henry Kuttner, whose imagination produced the stories in Thunder in the Void: “War-Gods of the Void,” “Raider of the Spaceways,” “We Guard the Black Planet,” “Crypt-City of the Deathless Ones,” the previously unpublished “The Interplanetary Limited,” and many more.

Here are the 13 finalists, as chosen by judges John O’Neill, C.S.E. Cooney, and Howard Andrew Jones:

“The Werehounds of Autumn Zero,” Daniel Eness
“Lamentations of a Dying Empire,” Mark Zuchowski
“Nightmare at Lightspeed,” Michael Rogers
“In the Clutches of the Gear-God,” Jason Thummel
“It Was Born In A Black Hole,” Dave Ritzlin
“Dark as a Nova, Slow as Light,” Martin PaweÅ
“Miss Manners and the Andromedan Royal Court,” Barbara Barrett
“Demon of the Farthest Star,” Ryan Rollins
“The Pirate Priestess of Pallas,” Mike Brown
“The Starfarers of Zaurak,” Shedrick Pittman-Hassett
“Vortex Raiders of Krygon-9,” Stephen Blount
“Purple Priestess of the Citadel of the Snake-Men,” Amy Farmer

After much discussion, pondering, and hand-to-hand combat, the judges managed to whittle the choices down to three finalists:

“It Was Born In A Black Hole,” Dave Ritzlin
“Demon of the Farthest Star,” Ryan Rollins
“The Pirate Priestess of Pallas,” Mike Brown

However, there can be only one winner — because we have only one copy of the book, and we forgot to come up with second prizes. So the judges were secluded until they managed to agree on a winner, and that winner is…

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Vintage Treasures: Swordquest, by Task Force Games

Sunday, June 3, 2012 John ONeill Comments 5 comments

It’s almost Summer, and my teenage boys will be out of high school in a matter of days. Which means I need to get serious about finding a board game to play with my son Drew.

Recently Drew and I have been playing Grail Quest, a 1980 solitaire RPG from Metagaming. But sooner or later, we’re going to find that grail, damnit, and there’s not much point to replaying those old Fantasy Trip programmed adventures once you’ve solved them.

We’ve also playing the occasional round of RoboRally and of course Barbarian Prince, but to round out his education I need to include an assortment of fantasy board games, and I prefer something we can play in 90 minutes or so. This week, I’m considering Swordquest because I found a dusty copy in the basement that hadn’t been filed away yet.

Swordquest was designed by R. Vance Buck and originally published in 1979 as Task Force Game #7, part of Task Force Games Pocket Games line. Humble in origin and slim in production values (the original price was $3.95), these little zip-locked games proved extremely popular, and many are still fondly remembered three decades later.

Altogether, they published a total of 21 Pocket Games, including some of the most popular titles of the 70s and 80s, such Star Fleet Battles, which launched an entire line of game merchandise, and Starfire, which went through five editions and was the inspiration for the line of SF novels primarily written by Steve White and David Weber. The most popular Pocket Games were re-published in a second edition in more sturdy boxes in the early 80s, including Swordquest.

The inspiration for Swordquest — as with most fantasy boardgames of the era — was clearly J.R.R. Tolkien. The races of the kingdom of Tirrane consist of elves, dwarves, and giants, and there’s also a powerful dragon and winged creatures named wrogs rather obviously inspired by Balrogs.

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New Treasures: The Sword & Sorcery Anthology

Sunday, June 3, 2012 John ONeill Comments 27 comments

We announced The Sword & Sorcery Anthology was shipping last week, but I’m glad to report that I now have it in my hot little hands.

And it looks gorgeous. It’s 480 pages in thick, oversize paperback, and sits nicely in my lap as I recline in my big green chair. Where it will remain for much of the rest of the weekend, I think.

In fact, I have two copies, courtesy of co-editor and publisher Jacob Weisman. I was going to add it to the list of titles that go out regularly to our dedicated team of freelance reviewers, but maybe I’ll just give it to the first one that asks for it. Or maybe I’ll encase it in plastic and carefully bury it in a time capsule in my back yard. Future generations with thank me (assuming they can figure out what a book is).

David Drake’s introduction notes that while two stories in this book originated in Weird Tales — the magazine that gave birth to Sword & Sorcery — three come from the legendary small press magazine Whispers, edited by Stuart David Schiff from 1973 to 1987. Drake was the assistant editor for Whispers starting with the second issue; his musings on the authors and fiction included in this volume are fascinating.

Other sources include Swords Against Darkness, Science Fantasy, Fantastic and Asimov’s SF magazines, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword & Sorceress anthologies, Orbit 2, and such recent books as Eclipse Three (2009), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and Strahan and Lou Anders 2010 anthology Swords & Dark Magic.

Two pieces — Michael Shea’s new Nift the Lean story “Epistle from Lebanoi,” and Michael Swanwick’s “The Year of the the Three Monarchs” — are original to this volume.

The Sword & Sorcery Anthology was edited by David G. Hartwell and Jacob Weisman. The cover is is by Jean Sebastien Rossbach. It is published by Tachyon Publications, and priced at $15.95 for the print version and $10.95 in digital format. More complete details are here, and the complete Tables of Contents is here.

This Week’s Bargain SF & Fantasy Books at Amazon.com

Saturday, June 2, 2012 John ONeill Comments 4 comments

It’s good to be the editor. For example, I pretend I do a weekly bargain books update, and no one corrects me — even though the last one was in April. Thank you for indulging me in my shared fantasy.

Let’s get down to business: Bargain Books. I’m the expert, and I’m here to share my knowledge with you. It’s what I do.

This week (ha!) the list contains books by Delia Sherman, Stephen Baxter, Sara Douglass, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen R. Donaldson, L.E. Modesitt, Jr, William Gibson, R.A. Salvatore, E.E. Knight, and many more.

The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen, Delia Sherman [$7.20, was $17.99]
Land of the Dead, by Thomas Harlan [$10.40, was $25.99]
The Last Page, Anthony Huso [$4.73, was $25.99]
Hidden Empire, Orson Scott Card [$1.63, was $24.99]
Flood, Stephen Baxter [$9.98, was $24.95]
The Devil’s Diadem, Sara Douglass [$10.80, was $26.99]
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien ($1.92, was $26)
Against All Things Ending: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen R. Donaldson [$6.40, was $16]
Scholar, L. E. Modesitt Jr. [$11.20, was $27.99]
Stephen King’s The Stand Vol. 1: Captain Trips, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Mike Perkins [$10, was $24.99]
Zero History, William Gibson [$6.40, was $16]
The Pirate King, R.A. Salvatore [$11.18, was $27.95]
Dragon Fate: Book Six of The Age of Fire, E. E. Knight [$6.40, was $16]
Songs of Love and Death, edited by Gardner Dozois & George R. R. Martin [$10.40, was $26]

All discounted between 60% and 80%. As always, quantities on these bargain books are very limited. All are eligible for free domestic shipping on orders over $25. Most of last week’s (ha!) discount titles are still available; you can see them here.

Weird Tales Closes to Submissions

Friday, June 1, 2012 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Holy cats! That was fast. The editors of Weird Tales magazine have announced it is closing to submissions on Tuesday, June 5th.

Now, Black Gate magazine is in no position to throw stones about being closed to submissions. We’ve been closed since roughly the Napoleonic era. But still… didn’t Weird Tales just announce it was open?

Let me check. Yup, it did.

[If you’re too lazy to click on that link, you can just scroll down the page to the announcement four days ago.]

All right, we’re done being snarky. And we will note that the magazine is only closing to fiction submissions — artists and disheveled arcane researchers, your contributions are still valued. [Okay. We’ve still got a little snark left.] Here’s the official announcement:

Heads up that at noon eastern time on Tuesday June 5th we will be closing for fiction submissions. We will still be looking at art and nonfiction proposals.

There’s still time to finish your submission and get it in the mail by Monday morning. Stock up on coffee, turn off the phone, and channel Clark Aston Smith. Fame and Fortune await you.

But act fast.

New Treasures: Deadfall Hotel by Steve Rasnic Tem

Thursday, May 31, 2012 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

I don’t get to cover horror fiction as often as I like to — mostly because I don’t get to read much these days. So it’s always a delight when a surprise like Deadfall Hotel arrives at my door. The seed of the novel was the acclaimed short story “Bloodwolf,” published by Charles L. Grant in his anthology Shadows 9 back in 1986. For over 25 years author Steve Rasnic Tem has nurtured that seed, and it has finally grown into a complex and original horror novel.

This is the hotel where our nightmares go… It’s where horrors come to be themselves, and the dead pause to rest between worlds. Recently widowed and unemployed, Richard Carter finds a new job, and a new life for him and his daughter Serena, as manager of the mysterious Deadfall Hotel. Jacob Ascher, the caretaker, is there to show Richard the ropes, and to tell him the many rules and traditions, but from the beginning, their new world haunts and transforms them.

It’s a terrible place. As the seasons pass, the supernatural and the sublime become a part of life, as routine as a morning cup of coffee, but it’s not safe, by any means. Deadfall Hotel is where Richard and Serena will rebuild the life that was taken from them… if it doesn’t kill them first.

Weird Fiction Review had this to say about Deadfall Hotel:

The novel provides a smorgasbord of sweet spots for the weird fiction connoisseur. Nightmares, supernatural creatures, cults, eccentric characters, and the atmosphere of the titular hotel all combine for a fascinating read. With the popularity of TV shows like American Horror Story, the timing seems right, as well (although we think Deadfall is much more interesting.)

And Fear.com raves:

Horror legend Steve Rasnic Tem returns with Deadfall Hotel, a modern fairytale, haunted house story, vampire novel, cult novel, werewolf novel, zombie story, and just plain old “weird tale”… It’s a masterful hodgepodge of genre tropes and devices that — much like Peter Straub’s magnificent Floating Dragon — in the hands of a lesser writer would have collapsed… Deadfall Hotel is everything a horror novel should be. Steve Rasnic Tem is at the height of his powers with this effort.

Deadfall Hotel is 301 pages in paperback for $9.99. It was published by Solaris on April 17. It is illustrated by Danish artist John Kenn Mortensen, whose creepy, Edward Gory-like style is both classic and richly modern — click on the cover above to get a closer look at his work. WFR.com offers a long self-contained excerpt, “The King of the Cats,” presented in four parts that you can sample here.

A Wiscon Reading Report: The Best in Upcoming Fantasy

Wednesday, May 30, 2012 John ONeill Comments 12 comments

Last weekend I drove to Madison, Wisconsin, for Wiscon, one of the best SF conventions in the Midwest. My travel companions were four young women, and the two-hour drive from Chicago was filled with enthusiastic discussions of My Little Pony, how to cook kale, the most satisfactory sexual positions, and who that hot-looking agent was. When I wasn’t driving I sat in the back and kept my mouth shut.

You can learn a lot about life by keeping your mouth shut. For example, I learned I definitely need to check out My Little Pony.

I learned some important stuff at Wiscon, too. Wiscon has some pretty heavy panels, with titles like Intersectionality and Feminist Community, Dogmatic Rationalism, and Performing Katniss in Print and On Screen: Gender Performativity and Deconstructing Reality TV in The Hunger Games.

No, I didn’t learn what any of those things meant. The first thing I learned at Wiscon was: Don’t volunteer to be on panels. It’s like picking my teeth with a golf club — it’s painful, and it makes me look stupid.

But the second thing I learned was: Wiscon has the best reading program on the continent. And if you’re not listening to talented authors reading their work, you’re wasting your precious hours here on Planet Earth.

So I packed my hours with as many readings as I could. At the last two Wiscons I simply followed the brilliant C.S.E. Cooney — the Queen of Wiscon, and her most gifted reader-poet — as readings seemed to spontaneously spring forth wherever she wandered. But this year she was in Ottawa giving a command performance at the most prestigious venue in the country, Canada’s National Art Centre, so we were forced to rely on our own devices. When there weren’t any readings, my driving companions and I simply created our own. In the process we were introduced to some of the hottest new writers on the fantasy scene, and several really terrific new, upcoming, or wholly undiscovered SF and fantasy novels.

Below is a list of the best of the best.

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Weird Tales Reopens to Submissions

Monday, May 28, 2012 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Attention all aspiring fantasy writers! (Yeah, I know that’s most of you.) Weird Tales has re-opened to submissions.

Now, I know you never read Submission Guidelines. But before you run off to send editor Marvin Kaye your latest short fiction masterpiece, I urge you to check out the guidelines. There’s lots of news — for example, the pay rate has dropped from 5 cents/word to 3 cents/word — but perhaps most interesting is the announcement that the magazine has shifted to themed issues. Upcoming themes include Elder Gods & Cthulhu (#360), Fairy Tales (#361) and Undead (#362), and if you’ve got a story in the latter two categories, the editors are especially interested:

Please know that each issue of Weird Tales – beginning with issue 360 – will be featuring a theme. This means that HALF of each issue will be devoted to strange and innovative takes on that theme. This also means that HALF of each issue will be devoted to the unclassifiable and eclectic tales that have always been the soul of Weird Tales.

Our current needs are… Stories for our Undead issue (#362). This issue is quite far along, but we seek unusual and radical takes on Zombies, Ghouls, chiang-shih’s, the Lich and other creatures yet undefined. Even vampires, if you have found a new wrinkle. Theme-related poetry is welcome.

We also have a bit of space left in the Fairy Tales issue (#361), so if you have worked on something for us, send away.

Be sure you are submitting an unpublished story or poem.

Because we publish half of the magazine as unthemed content, you may submit any variety of fantasy including science fiction (though we will not use much of the latter). We are currently most interested in stories between 3,000-5,000 words, but longer stories are acceptable. However, it may take quite a while for a long or unthemed story to be published. Short shorts, i. e., flash fiction, are definitely of interest to us.

The complete guidelines are here.

One Week Left to Win a copy of Thunder in the Void from Haffner Press!

Friday, May 25, 2012 John ONeill Comments 5 comments

We’ve received some great entries in our Thunder in the Void giveaway, which we announced last week. Here are some that came in today:

Midnight in the Robot Graveyard
The Cult of the Broken Sun
Message from the Haunted Asteroid

Doesn’t that sound like fun? You could be part of it — all you have to do is submit the title of an imaginary Space Opera story.

What’s at stake is the latest archival quality hardcover from Haffner Press, Thunder in the Void, a massive collection of 16 Space Opera tales by Henry Kuttner. The most compelling title — as selected by a crack team of Black Gate judges, renowned experts in quality pulp fiction all — will receive a free copy, complements of Haffner Press and Black Gate magazine.

Thunder in the Void gathers classic pulp fiction from Planet Stories, Weird Tales, Super Science Stories, and even rarer sources, including “War-Gods of the Void,” “Raider of the Spaceways,” “We Guard the Black Planet,” “Crypt-City of the Deathless Ones,” and the previously unpublished “The Interplanetary Limited.” Most appear here in book form for the first time.

One submission per person, please. Submissions must be received by May 31st, 2012. Winner will be contacted by e-mail, so use a real e-mail address maybe. All submissions must be sent to john@blackgate.com, with the subject line Thunder in the Void, or something obvious like that so I don’t randomly delete it.

All entries become the property of New Epoch Press. No purchase necessary. Must be 12 or older. Decisions of the judges (capricious as they may be) are final. Employees of New Epoch Press are ineligible to enter. Not valid where prohibited by law. Or anywhere postage for a hefty hardcover is more than, like, 10 bucks. Seriously, this book is heavy and we’re on a budget.

Thunder in the Void is 612 pages in high-quality hardcover format, with an introduction by Mike Resnick and a cover price of $40. Cover art is by Norman Saunders. It is available directly from Haffner Press.

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