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New Treasures: Appalachian Overthrow by E.E. Knight

New Treasures: Appalachian Overthrow by E.E. Knight

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Appalachian OverthrowI’m a huge fan of E.E. Knight’s Vampire Earth novels. For me it started years ago, with the paperback editions of the first two books in the series, Way of the Wolf and Choice of the Cat.

If you’re new to the series, of course, things are easier. You don’t have long waits between releases, haunting bookstores for the next installment. You can even get the first three novels in a handsome omnibus edition from the Science Fiction Book Club, Enter the Wolf, as we reported right here last month.

Appalachian Overthrow, the tenth novel in E.E. Knight’s exciting series, arrived in stores last week. This volume focuses on David Valentine’s fellow freedom fighter Ahn-Kha, telling a tale of the time when he was imprisoned and forced into hard labor by the alien Kurians — and the rebellion he led against them.

Captured and sold to the Kurian–allied Maynes Conglomerate, to work as a slave in the coal mines of Appalachia, Ahn-Kha is angered and appalled by the dangerous working conditions, and the brutal treatment inflicted upon his fellow miners. When a protest against shortages is deliberately and bloodily suppressed, Ahn-Kha sets himself against the ruling Maynes family and sets out on a trail of vengeance through the Coal Country.

Finally, the people of the Coal Country are driven to the breaking point — and they now have a leader, a powerful and battle-hardened leader, determined to forge them into an army that will wage guerrilla warfare against the Maynes family and their Kurian masters — and free the Appalachians from their tyranny…

E.E. Knight’s Blue Pligrim story “The Terror in the Vale” was one of the most popular stories we’ve published as part of our Black Gate Online Fiction line. It is a relentless and chilling tale of sword and sorcery, with an ending that will stay with you long after you turn off the monitor and climb into bed. Read the complete story free here.

Appalachian Overthrow was published by Roc on April 2. It is 339 pages in hardcover, priced at $24.95 ($11.99 for the digital edition).

Skull Island eXpeditions is the New Fiction Imprint of Privateer Press

Skull Island eXpeditions is the New Fiction Imprint of Privateer Press

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Skull Island eXpeditionsWith all the recent bad news, it’s good to see signs of resiliency in the fantasy genre. The best news is always the launch of an exciting new market, and that’s why I was so pleased to see the recent announcement of Privateer Press’s new fiction line, Skull Island eXpeditions.

Of course, I’m pleased for purely selfish reasons as well. Skull Island eXpeditions promises just what I’m looking for: original adventure fantasy from exciting new writers.

Privateer Press has been a genuine Cinderella story in the gaming industry. Founded in 2000 by Matt Wilson and a small group of players and investors, Privateer Press grew and expanded during a series of painful contractions in the market. Lots of dynamic and exciting companies came and went during the d20 boom-and bust cycle, while Privateer Press quietly built a thriving business and an extremely loyal fan base for their tabletop miniatures games Warmachine and Hordes.

Set in the Iron Kingdoms, both games are renowned for their high quality and excellent production values. They’ve received the highest accolades the industry has to offer, including six Origins awards and numerous Ennies.

The Iron Kingdoms, with its inventive mix of steampunk and magic, has always seemed like a natural setting for
fiction to me, and it seems I’m not alone. Last week, Matt Wilson announced an ambitious plan to explore the world of Caen with monthly fiction from some familiar names and some exciting newcomers — with Black Gate‘s own Scott Taylor at the helm.

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Black Gate Online Fiction: “The Sorrowless Thief” by Ryan Harvey

Black Gate Online Fiction: “The Sorrowless Thief” by Ryan Harvey

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Ryan Harvey-smallDyzan Ludd was the Sorrowless Thief, and the prize he had in mind proved he was insane — or a thief like none other in Ahn-Tarqa.

At the time I had lost interest even in the meager profession of begging. I gave up my alms bowl and crawled into a smoke pit in the most dismal part of Ahn-Tarqa’s most dismal city.

I do not know how many days I droned away on a cot in a sweltering common room filled with narcotic smoke before I heard that voice. Its tone spoke sharp and clear from a place outside drugged dreams. I propped myself onto an elbow so I could listen to it.

The voice belonged to a tall man perched over the dreamer in the cot behind mine. The speaker was pestering the dreamer with questions. “You’re a fool to bother,” I muttered.

My head swam from the smoke, but I could see the man turn to look at me. “I’ve heard that sometimes the best knowledge in the city comes from men in smoke pits.”

“Sometimes. But this near to the Month of the Moon we’re all close to dead. You’re better off pestering the sots drowning themselves in a tavern.”

“Taverns are filled with other thieves,” he answered. “I don’t want to make competition. Not with the haul I plan to make.”

Ryan Harvey won the Writers of the Future Contest in 2011 for his story “An Acolyte of Black Spires,” part of the science-fantasy series on the continent of Ahn-Tarqa, which is also the setting for “The Sorrowless Thief,” his ebook novelette “Farewell to Tyrn,” and upcoming novel Turn over the Moon. His work has appeared in Every Day Fiction, Beyond Centauri, Aoife’s Kiss (upcoming), and the anthology Candle in the Attic Window. He writes science fiction, fantasy, and the shadowy realm between both, as well as a long stint writing a weekly column at Black Gate.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Emily Mah, David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna, Aaron Bradford Starr, Mark Rigney, C.S.E. Cooney, Vaughn Heppner, E.E. Knight, Jason E. Thummel, Howard Andrew Jones, Harry Connolly, and others, is here.

“The Sorrowless Thief” is a complete 7,000-word short story of sword & sorcery. It is offered at no cost.

Read the complete story here.

“A Pleasure to Read. Strongly recommended” — Tangent Online on “Disciple”

“A Pleasure to Read. Strongly recommended” — Tangent Online on “Disciple”

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Emily MahLouis West at Tangent Online reviews Emily Mah’s adventure fantasy short story, published here on Sunday, March 30:

Emily Mah’s “Disciple” is a wonderfully complicated tale about a mage hunter who is herself a mage. The world hates mages, but only the Disciples who had ruled for centuries before being overthrown. Now the king and the people hunt them, executing all they find. Yet free mages, although ignored by the authorities, are uncontrolled and potentially destructive. Disciples hunt and destroy free mages to protect the world and to protect their own craft…

Dina runs the tavern for a small fisherman’s town, and she’s a Disciple. But she’s tortured by her lack of conscience, unable to feel remorse for the thousands of free mages she’s destroyed over the decades. She’s tasked with killing, or converting, Lana, a local young woman who has begun to show a strong aptitude for magic…

Emily Mah’s first sale to us was “The River People” in Black Gate 15. You can read Louis’s complete review here.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna, Aaron Bradford Starr, Mark Rigney, C.S.E. Cooney, Vaughn Heppner, E.E. Knight, Jason E. Thummel, Judith Berman, Howard Andrew Jones, Dave Gross, Harry Connolly, and others, is here.

“Disciple” is a complete 6,000-word short story of adventure fantasy. It is offered at no cost. Read the complete story here.

The Top 50 Black Gate Blog Posts in February

The Top 50 Black Gate Blog Posts in February

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DSC_1027February is cold here in Chicago. Stay-at-home-or-you’ll-die cold. A good time to gather inside with friends and family, put hot cocoa on the stove, slip a movie in the Blu-ray player, and then forget all of that because there’s something fascinating on the Internet.

We had plenty of fascinating things to offer here at the Black Gate blog in February. Scott Taylor took at serious look at the downside of collecting in “The Weight of Print,” Matthew David Surridge examined Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, Mark Rigney revealed the surprising results of the John Piece Experiement as applied to fantasy, author Violette Malan explained How to Put the Sword in Sword & Sorcery, and Sarah Avery offered up another installment in her popular Teaching and Fantasy Literature series with “Weird Things My Students Have Been Told About Writers.”

And that’s only the Top Five. The complete list of the Top 50 posts in February follows. Enjoy — but not so much that you neglect your houseguests, please. Or let hot chocolate overboil on the stove.

  1. Art of the Genre: The Weight of Print
  2. Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House
  3. Genre 2013: The John Pierce Experiment
  4. How to put the sword in Sword and Sorcery
  5. Teaching and Fantasy Literature: Weird Things My Students Have Been Told…
  6. Howard and Sandra Tayler discuss being mercenary…
  7. New Treasures: Wilderlands of High Fantasy
  8. Dungeon Board Game from Wizards of the Coast
  9. Echoes of the Goddess: Schweitzer’s Newest Classic
  10. Self-published books: Review of Noggle Stones the Goblin’s Apprentice

     

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Martha Wells’ Emilie and the Hollow World On Sale Today

Martha Wells’ Emilie and the Hollow World On Sale Today

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Emilie and the Hollow World-smallMartha Wells is one of our superstar contributors. In fact, it’s probably not an exaggeration to say that, in terms of raw ability to move sales, she was the superstar contributor to Black Gate.

Every magazine has authors who help sales. But it wasn’t until we published Black Gate 10, containing Martha’s Giliead & Ilias story “Reflections,” that I really saw what a single author could do. Subscriptions started to pour in, with letters from excited fans asking for “More Martha Wells!” We were happy to comply.

Novels are where she truly built her career, however — including The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy, The Cloud Roads trilogy, and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer. Today her first young adult novel, Emilie and the Hollow World, arrives in bookstores, and Martha discussed the ups and downs in her career that led her here with refreshing candor on her blog:

This is the third book I finished back in 2009, during my career crash that lasted from around 2006-2007 to 2010. A career crash for a writer is kind of like if you had a job where you’ve been going in to work every day and everything seems fine. But then gradually, over time, you realize you’ve been fired, and they don’t want you there and they aren’t going to pay you and everyone you work with knows this. It’s just that no one has told you.

The novel follows the adventures of young Emilie, whose clumsy attempt to run away and join her cousin in the big city lead her to stowaway on the wrong ship, where she’s quickly caught up in a grand adventure involving an experimental engine, an attempt to ride the aether currents, and a journey to the interior of the planet — not to mention sabotage, an encounter with the treacherous Lord Ivers, and the strange race of the sea-lands.

Emilie and the Hollow World was published today by Strange Chemistry. It is 304 pages in paperback for $9.99 ($6.99 for the digital edition). The only version of the cover we have is the pre-publication version (which still has a placeholder quote), but you can see all the detail on this handsome cover by clicking on the image at right.

Black Gate Online Fiction: “Disciple” by Emily Mah

Black Gate Online Fiction: “Disciple” by Emily Mah

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Emily MahIt’s tough to run a tavern — and customers carelessly tempting fate by using magic don’t make it any easier.

The woman was stunning. Long blonde hair that fell in ringlet curls framed a round face with high cheekbones and porcelain skin. The men in the room no doubt also noticed that her dress clung tightly to her generously proportioned curves. Dina, however, set her tray aside and grabbed the broom from the corner.

“Out!” she said, jabbing it at the woman.

The woman jumped sideways with a squeal of rage.

“I mean it,” said Dina. “That’s a glamour you’re wearing, and I don’t allow magic in my tavern.”

The woman pouted, her rosy red lips puckering just so. Behind her, Dina could hear the scrape of chairs against the stone floor as several of her patrons got to their feet.

“I mean it!” Dina shouted. “I run an honest business.”

Emily Mah’s first story for us was “The River People” in Black Gate 15. She tells us she “writes science fiction and fantasy as Emily Mah and chick lit and romance as the indie writer, E.M. Tippetts.” She also does audio interviews for Black Gate and designs book tie-in jewelry for her label, Emily Mah Jewelry Designs. She lives in London with her family.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna, Aaron Bradford Starr, Mark Rigney, C.S.E. Cooney, Vaughn Heppner, E.E. Knight, Jason E. Thummel, Judith Berman, Howard Andrew Jones, Dave Gross, Harry Connolly, and others, is here.

“Disciple” is a complete 6,000-word short story of adventure fantasy. It is offered at no cost.

Read the complete story here.

The Top 12 Black Gate Fiction Posts in February

The Top 12 Black Gate Fiction Posts in February

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bones-of-the-old-onesHoward Andrew Jones held on to the top spot this month, with the excerpt from his second novel, The Bones of the Old Ones. Giving him a run for his money were new stories by C.S.E. Cooney, Vaughn Heppner, and Gregory Bierly, and a reprint from Joe Bonadonna.

If you haven’t sampled the adventure fantasy stories offered through our new Black Gate Online Fiction line, you’re missing out. Every week, we present an original short story or novella from the best writers in the industry, all completely free.

Here are the Top Twelve most read stories in February, for your enjoyment:

  1. An excerpt from The Bones of the Old Ones, by Howard Andrew Jones
  2. “Life on the Sun,” by C.S.E. Cooney
  3. “The Pit Slave,” by Vaughn Heppner
  4. “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum,” by Joe Bonadonna
  5. “A Princess of Jadh,” by Gregory Bierly
  6. “The Find” by Mark Rigney
  7. “The Whoremaster of Pald,” by Harry Connolly
  8. “The Poison Well,” by Judith Berman
  9. “The Gunnerman,” by Jason E. Thummel
  10. “The Trade,” by Mark Rigney
  11. “Godmother Lizard,” by C.S.E. Cooney
  12. “The Terror in the Vale,” by E.E. Knight

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Aaron Bradford Starr, John R. Fultz, David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna, Dave Gross, Harry Connolly, and others, is here. The most popular Black Gate fiction from January is here.

We’ve got plenty more fiction in the coming months, so stay tuned!

Kissing My Axe

Kissing My Axe

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Kiss My AxeI’ve written previously about starting Sword’s Edge Publishing, mistakes I made in running the company, and publishing Sword Noir. When the time came to publish Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death, a role-playing game of Viking mayhem, I tried to follow the trail I had blazed with Sword Noir. If I mention the best laid plans of mice and men, you may see where I’m going here.

Sword Noir worked out because I knew everyone with whom I worked. I knew my friends wouldn’t let me down. Unfortunately, Ed Northcott, who did the art for Sword Noir (and was an industry professional long before working on my game) had quit as a freelance artist. A friend’s wife introduced me to an artist of her acquaintance who wanted to get into the RPG industry. I saw his portfolio and we made a deal. He would have accepted much less, but I wanted to pay the standard referenced by Steve Jackson Games – trying to be a professional over here.

I gave the artist three specific scenes I wanted to see and left the fourth to his imagination, suggesting anything inspired by the movie The 13th Warrior or the comic series Northlanders. I sent along links to pics on the Internet which could provide inspiration and references.

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Purpose Built Centurion

Purpose Built Centurion

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Centurion RPGThe idea for a role-playing game focused on playing legionaries was in my head as early as August of 2009 when I did a podcast series on playing military characters in role-playing games, and did episodes on Republican Rome, the Civil Wars and the early Empire. I had always loved Roman history and the image of the legion, and I had run games set in Imperial Rome, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, but hadn’t thought about actually designing a game for legionaries.

Then I created Sword Noir and Kiss My Axe, and I realized this was something I could do. I decided it was something I wanted to do. And thus was Centurion: Legionaries of Rome set on its long path to realization.

What’s the point, you might ask, of developing a game with such a specific focus when there are other games out there that could probably do the job? One of the reasons is because I can. The mountain climber answer never appeased anyone, so let me try this: other games might do the job, but what if one wants a game designed for the job. There’s a good chance that game will do the job better.

I spent most of my role-playing life playing with one system: Dungeons & Dragons. Why bother to learn another system when this one does what I want? And, yeah, sometimes it doesn’t do exactly what I want, but it’s close, and I can always house-rule it.

So until a little under a decade ago, I was in the thrall of D&D. Completely. It was not a bad place to be, and let me tell you, I am excited about 5E … or D&D Next … or whatever it’s going to be. I still love D&D and that’s because it does its own thing so well. It has created its own fantasy genre that is different from anything else out there. That doesn’t mean it is the perfect game for all genres.

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