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Kicking Off Howard Andrew Jones Month

Kicking Off Howard Andrew Jones Month

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desertofsoulsIt’s the start of Howard Andrew Jones Month here at the Black Gate blog.

You have to do something pretty special to get a whole month, even if you’re Managing Editor of Black Gate. But publishing your first two novels — The Desert of Souls and  Plague of Shadows — from two different publishers, not to mention writing an essay for John Scalzi’s “Big Idea,” holding your first book signing, conducting a sweepstakes, getting picked up by the Science Fiction Book Club, publishing an original online story, being the subject of a multi-part interview, writing the Afterword for Robert E. Howard’s Sword Woman, appearing in Black Gate 15 (twice), being a guest blogger, and writing regular columns here at Black Gate, all in the same month… yeah. That will do it.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be telling you more about the incredible Howard Andrew Jones, starting with the breathless reviews for his first novel The Desert of Souls, a classic Arabian Nights fantasy and “a page-turner in its purest form” (BookPage), on sale Feb 15. It’s the best novel I’ve read in many years, and you’re not going to want to miss it.

Brian Jacques (1939 – 2011)

Brian Jacques (1939 – 2011)

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redwallBrian Jacques, author of the Redwall series of anthropomorphic fantasy novels and the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman books, and one of the most popular fantasy authors of the last several decades, died on Monday, February 5, 2011 in Liverpool. He was 71.

I first discovered Jacques in 1988. I had just left Canada to finish my Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, and the covers of his first two novels — Redwall (1986) and Mossflower (1988) — captivated me the moment I laid eyes on them in a campus bookstore. I even had a poster of Jacques’ fifth novel Salamandastron in my dorm room. His charming fantasies set in and around Redwall Abbey, a place of refuge in a dangerous world, featured valiant creatures and daring adventure.

But it wasn’t until I was running my first website a decade later that I discovered what a phenomenon Jacques had become. I was editor of SF Site, and talking to Bettina Seifert, publicist at Penguin/Philomel. Jacques was now appearing in hardcover, and she offered to send me all his books for review.

Tempting, but that seemed like a few too many titles to commit to. So instead I offered Bettina a compromise: why not just send me what was still in print?

She agreed — a little too quickly — and a week later a box of hardcovers landed on my doorstep. A very large and very heavy box.

mossflowerInside were Brian Jacques’ novels. All of them. Every single book he had ever written. They were all still in print, in beautiful hardcover editions.

Here’s what I wrote in my rather sheepish article in 1998:

Now, maybe this doesn’t mean a lot to you. But perhaps you’re not an established science fiction author who just watched your Hugo Award-winning novel from the early nineties go out of print. Or a mid-list author finishing a three-volume series, already getting letters from frustrated readers who can’t find the first two volumes. Unless your name is Stephen King or Robert Jordan, you get used to having your work go out of print. And no matter who you are, you don’t get used to having your small print-run paperbacks returned to print in hardcover by a major publisher, ten years after they first appeared.

Except for Brian Jacques, apparently.

Jacques enjoyed this popularity until his death.  He wrote 22 novels of Redwall, including last year’s The Sable Quean and the upcoming The Rogue Crew (scheduled for release on May 3, 2011).

He also published three novels in the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series, as well as two short story collections and several books for younger children.

Jacques had a vivid imagination and a unique storytelling gift, and I’m grateful he shared them with us.

First Jetpacks. And Now a Robot Orders a Scone

First Jetpacks. And Now a Robot Orders a Scone

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anybots22It’s been a good week for the future.

Just a few days after we announced the tardy arrival of jetpacks (finally!) here in the 21st Century, a robot was spotted ordering a scone in Mountain View, California.

Yes, a real robot. This future overlord of humanity was manufactured by Anybots, Inc. (also of Mountain View), and was caught on camera purchasing a pastry at Red Rock Coffee by Aaron96121, who posted this amusing 5-minute video on YouTube.

Anybot specializes in “telepresence robots,” that are controlled remotely and allow people to attend meetings around the world. They are mounted on a motorized base and can be controlled from any computer through a web browser.  They also have built-in video and voice capability, and reportedly retail for $15,000 – $30,000.

They’re also decent tippers, if the video can be believed. This particular robot was fetching a scone for its current master, an Anybot engineer, doubtless before returning to its normal routine of plotting the eventual overthrow of mankind.

As one astute commenter at YouTube posted, “I for one welcome our scone-eating robot overlords!”  Amen to that, brother. As long as I get a jetpack.

Coming Soon — Black Gate 15!

Coming Soon — Black Gate 15!

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bg15_320aTeam Black Gate has been putting in a lot of overtime, and we’re just about ready to pull back the veil on our latest production. Black Gate 15 is another massive issue, with over 350 pages of fiction, reviews, and articles.  It contains 22 stories — more than any issue in our history — totaling over 150,000 words of adventure fantasy.

Jonathan L. Howard returns to our pages with “The Shuttered Temple,” the sequel to “The Beautiful Corridor” from Black Gate 13, in which the resourceful thief Kyth must penetrate the secrets of a mysterious and very lethal temple.  Howard Andrew Jones bring us another swashbucking tale of Arabian fantasy featuring Dabir & Asim, this time a lengthy excerpt from his blockbuster novel The Desert of Souls.

Harry Connolly returns after too long an absence with “Eating Venom,” in which a desperate soldier faces a basilisk’s poison — and the treachery it brings. John C. Hocking kicks off a terrific  new sword & sorcery series with “A River Through Darkness & Light,” featuring a dedicated Archivist who leads a small band into a deadly desert tomb, and John Fultz shares the twisted fate of a thief who dares fantastic dangers to steal rare spirits indeed in “The Vintages of Dream.”

Plus fiction from Vaughn Heppner, Darrell Schweitzer, Jamie McEwan, Michael Livingston, Frederic S. Durbin, Chris Willrich, Fraser Ronald, Maria Snyder, Brian Dolton, and many others.

In our generous non-fiction section, Mike Resnick educates us on the best in black & white fantasy cinema, Bud Webster turns his attention to the brilliant Tom Reamy in his Who? column on 20th Century fantasy authors, Scott Taylor challenges ten famous fantasy artists to share their vision of a single character in Art Evolution, and Rich Horton looks at the finest fantasy anthologies of the last 25 years. Plus over 30 pages of book, game, and DVD reviews, edited by Bill Ward, Howard Andrew Jones, and Andrew Zimmerman Jones — and a brand new Knights of the Dinner Table strip.

Black Gate 15 will be on sale next month. We’ll have a detailed sneak peek, with tantalizing story excerpts and artwork, right here in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

Cover art by Donato Giancola.

Hello Jetpacks! And About Time

Hello Jetpacks! And About Time

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jetlevIt’s 2011.  As far as I’m concerned, personal jetpacks have been overdue for about a decade.

Fortunately, CNN is reporting that a new commercial jetpack is getting set for a release in a few short months:

This summer you could be whizzing around on a Jetlev, a new water-powered jetpack. It’s taken over 10 years for its Canadian inventor, Raymond Li, to realize his dream and see his jetpack go on sale, but judging by the pictures it looks well worth the wait. The Jetlev has three main components — a lightweight carbon fiber backpack, a 10-meter hose and an engine unit which floats on the water. The engine sucks water up through the hose and forces it through two adjustable nozzles on the backpack, creating up to 500 pounds of thrust.

At the age of 12, when I first imagined buying one, a jetpack wasn’t something advertised as a recreational water accessory. But after thirty years of waiting, I’ll take what I can get.

I bet it makes the inevitable crash landings during the “student driver” phase a little less painful, though. So I suppose it’s got that going for it.

jetlev2The Jetlev has a reported top speed of 22 mph, and max achievable altitude of 10 meters.  So I can’t realistically use it to get to the moon, which I swore would be my first jetpack destination (at the age of 12). 

Not without a few modifications, anyway. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say the 10-meter max altitude has something to do with that 10-meter hose attachment. So my first modification would be to lengthen it to, oh I don’t know, something that can reach the moon.  

It also retails for $136,000. That’s a bigger obstacle than I thought it would be (at the age of 12).  Back then I figured I’d just get in line and pay whatever the guy at the counter wanted.  I mean, come on.  Jetpack.

So for various mundane reasons, I won’t be rushing out to buy the first JETLEV-FLYER — breaking a promise I made to myself all those decades ago. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

You know what your inner 12-year-old would do.  And when has he (or she) ever been wrong?

… Not to mention Matthew David Surridge and C.S.E. Cooney

… Not to mention Matthew David Surridge and C.S.E. Cooney

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bg-14-cover3Congratulations to James Enge on the inclusion of his latest novel The Wolf Age in the Locus 2010 Recommended Reading List!

This is the second time on the list for James — his first novel, Blood of Ambrose, made the list in 2009.

Both novels feature Morlock the Maker, who appeared in Black Gate 8 in James’ first published story, “Turn Up This Crooked Way.”

Since that first appearance Morlock has been in our pages a half-dozen times. We’re practically his second home — he doesn’t even knock when he drops by anymore.

But that’s not the only reason we’re celebrating the Locus list. Also on the list is Matthew David Surridge’s “The Word of Azrael“, from Black Gate 14, which was recently selected for the upcoming Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, edited by Richard Horton.

And although she was too modest to mention it in her post below, C.S.E. Cooney’s own story “Braiding the Ghosts“, from the anthology Clockwork Phoenix 3, made the list as well.

[While we’re on the topic, C.S.E. made the list last year too, with “Three Fancies from the Infernal Garden“, from Subterranean magazine, Winter ’09. “Braiding the Ghosts” will also be in Rich’s Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy volume, coming this summer.]

Congratulations to all!

New Treasures: Engineering Infinity, edited by Jonathan Strahan

New Treasures: Engineering Infinity, edited by Jonathan Strahan

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engineerOriginal science fiction and fantasy anthologies have had a tough time of it over the past few years, with some of the most promising and rewarding series — including Lou Ander’s excellent Fast Foward, and George Mann’s ambitious and highly readable Solaris Book of New Science Fiction and Solaris Book of New Fantasy — being discontinued.

One of the best of the new anthologists is Jonathan Strahan, whose acclaimed Eclipse series returns this May with Volume 4.  While we wait, Strahan treats us to a terrific standalone volume of original short stories:

The universe shifts and changes: suddenly you understand, you get it, and are filled with a sense of wonder. That moment of understanding drives the greatest science-fiction stories and lies at the heart of Engineering Infinity. Whether it’s coming up hard against the speed of light and, with it, the enormity of the universe, realising that terraforming a distant world is harder and more dangerous than you’d ever thought, or simply realizing that a hitchhiker on a starship consumes fuel and oxygen with tragic results, it’s hard science-fiction where sense of wonder is most often found and where science-fiction’s true heart lies.

This exciting and innovative science-fiction anthology collects together stories by some of the biggest names in the field including Stephen Baxter, Charles Stross and Greg Bear.

Engineering Infinity was published in paperback by Solaris for just $7.99; my copy arrived in early January.

As a raging blizzard  turns St. Charles, Illinois into a winter wonderland around me, this is the book I choose to cuddle down with for the evening.  Check it out when you get a chance.

A Critical Appreciation of James Enge

A Critical Appreciation of James Enge

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thewolfageNo sooner does our man James Enge — World Fantasy Award-nominated author, Black Gate blogger, and international man of mystery — appear on the scene with his third novel The Wolf Age, than Western Civilization finally begins to acknowledge his genius. The latest accolades are courtesy of John H. Stevens at SF Signal:

Enge has described in his Black Gate interview how he “took a big hammer” and smashed away at Morlock to transform him from a “mopey Byronic wish-fulfillment self-image” into a more flawed character. He did this to a large extent to get away from what he saw as the “wish-fulfillment” in much of fantasy fiction. But after reading Enge’s work it is clear that he has continued hammering away at fantasy to bend it into spooky and unconventional shapes…

His third novel has a richer texture to its plot, and this makes it the most enjoyable, and in some ways the most profound, of his major works to date… There is a surer hand at work here, and a smoother progress in the story than in the first two novels.

Stevens links to much of the recent coverage of James, and includes what is already my favorite quote of the year, from an interview with James at Civilian Reader:

I like Zelazny’s description of his masterwork, the original Amber series: ‘a philosophical romance shot through with elements of horror and morbidity.’ That’s what I try to write: philorohorrmorbmance.

Sample chapters from The Wolf Age are available here.

The complete Critical Appreciation of James Enge is available here.

Bud Webster Joins Black Gate as Poetry Editor

Bud Webster Joins Black Gate as Poetry Editor

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bud-websterGenre historian and poet Bud Webster, author of Anthopology 101, joins the Black Gate team as our first poetry editor, effective immediately.

Bud Webster is a prize-winning epic poet, and served as poetry editor for the online magazine HELIX SF. During his tenure there, eight of the poems he published were nominated for the Rhysling Award, with one taking first place in the Long Poem category. He was co-editor of SFPA founder Suzette Hadin Elgin’s The Science Fiction Poetry Handbook (Sam’s Dot Publishing, 2005), and has been nominated for the Rhysling himself a couple of times.

Bud has gained considerable renown over the past decade for his Past Masters columns, examining and promoting the work of some the finest of science fiction and fantasy authors of the 20th Century. He continues that theme with his Who? columns for the print edition of Black Gate magazine. The first Who? column, on author Tom Reamy, appears in the upcoming Black Gate 15.

Bud’s first online article for us was What I Do and Why I Do It in December of last year; his most recent was What I Do It With. His enthusiasm for — and encyclopedic knowledge of — classic SF and fantasy, and the tireless energy with which he promotes neglected authors, are a welcome addition to the Black Gate team.

Bud will be purchasing 6-10 original fantasy poems for each issue of Black Gate magazine. The first issue to feature his selections will be BG 16.

For a complete list of the folks responsible for Black Gate, visit our Staff Page.

Changes at Weird Tales

Changes at Weird Tales

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weird-tales-357Weird Tales editor Ann VanderMeer announces a re-vamped website, higher pay rates, a nifty new submissions portal, a new schedule, and a blog:

In addition to launching this new website, editor-in-chief Ann VanderMeer and publisher John Betancourt have raised the pay rate to 5 cents per word and implemented a new submissions portal for potential contributors… The new site also features a blog, through which VanderMeer and the rest of the Weird Tales team will discuss fiction and topics related to the revamped magazine…

Weird Tales will return to its normal quarterly schedule this year, with future issues slated for May, August, and November.

The submissions portal is based on the one designed by Neil Clarke for Clarkesworld magazine, and he implemented this one for Weird Tales.  Matt Kressel designed the new website.

The upcoming issue of the magazine, number 357 (!) includes fiction from N.K. Jemisin, author of Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Karin Tidbeck, and J. Robert Lennon, plus an interview with Caitlin R. Kiernan.

The Weird Tales team includes Paula Guran, nonfiction editor, and art director Mary Robinette Kowal. Dominik Parisien and Alan Swirsky have joined Tessa Kum as editorial assistants.

The new website is here.