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Coming Soon: Yuletide Terror

Coming Soon: Yuletide Terror

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Yuletide TerrorAs the year begins to burn itself out, as the light of summer gives way to long ghoul-ridden nights, as the cold grows a little more each day like spadefulls of earth slowly burying a coffin, what better time to think ahead to the horrors of Christmas? Not the pedestrian horrors of shopping and family, but the deeper terrors of knifemen and ghosts and dark-souled elves: the traditions of the season. Publisher Spectacular Optical’s planning a celebrate of exactly those kinds of Christmas frights, with their upcoming volume Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television.

They’re currently running an Indiegogo campaign to fund the book, which will boast two dozen essays and interviews looking at Christmas horror films from A Christmas Carol on, as well as more than 200 reviews of seasonal horror movies. The book includes stills, comics-format reviews from Rick Trembles, and illustrations from artist Alisdair Wood. Contributors include Michael Gingold (former editor-in-chief of Fangoria and current Online Editor for Rue Morgue), Andrea Subissati (Rue Morgue‘s Executive Editor), pulp scholar Andrew Nette, and genre mainstay Kim Newman (writer of, among other things, the Anno Dracula series, several Warhammer tie-ins under the name Jack Yeovil, and Now We Are Sick, a collaboration with Neil Gaiman).

Spectacular Optical is a small press that focuses on “collectible film and pop culture books,” owned and directed by Kier-La Janisse, former programmer for the Alamo Drafthouse and founder of The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. Their previous books include KID POWER!, about cult kids’ movies, Satanic Panic, about the 1980s fear of satanism in popular culture, and Lost Girls: The Phantasmagorical Cinema of Jean Rollin, about the fantasy-horror-underground-exploitation director. Janisse edits Yuletide Terror alongside horror film critic Paul Corupe; you can see an excerpt from the book here. Worth noting that a short film’s being made to accompany the book launch, a tale of terror that looks back to the tradition of classic British Christmas ghost stories. The Indiegogo campaign for Yuletide Terror only runs another 8 days. Horror fans can check it out here!

Matthew David Surridge is the author of “The Word of Azrael,” from Black Gate 14. You can buy his first collection of essays, looking at some fantasy novels of the twenty-first century, here. His second collection, looking at some fantasy from the twentieth century, is here. You can find him on Facebook, or follow his Twitter account, Fell_Gard.

Space Opera Reminiscent of Star Wars and Firefly: Starflight by Melissa Landers

Space Opera Reminiscent of Star Wars and Firefly: Starflight by Melissa Landers

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Starflight Melissa Landers-smallStarflight
Melissa Landers
Disney-Hyperion (368 pages, $17.99 in hardcover, $9.99 digital, February 2, 2016)

Protagonist Solara Brooks will steal your heart from the very first scene of Melissa Landers’ Starflight. Standing at a spaceport departure gate, she hopes to become a passenger’s indentured servant in order to travel to the fringe, the outer limit of human colonization. If she doesn’t get picked, she’ll have to wait a full year before the next ship heads out. Having been evicted from her group home, she’d become homeless.

That fate is looking more and more likely as every other candidate for indenture is scooped up before her, including an elderly man and a boy who won’t stop scratching his privates. Soon, she’s standing at the gate all alone, and almost all the passengers have boarded.

There’s a good reason why no one will hire her, though. She might just be a teen, but she’s already done hard time as a felon. When potential employers ask her to take off her gloves, they can see her knuckles, which are tattooed with conviction codes.

Her last chance arrives when rich boy Doran Spaulding saunters up the gate with his pink-haired girlfriend. Solara and Doran go way back: classmates at the same private academy, he has tormented her ever since she won the award he craved. The last thing Solara wants to do is jump whenever Doran calls. But she doesn’t have any other options. So when Doran offers to hire her as his personal servant, she accepts.

Wearing the master’s bracelet that matches Solara’s servant’s bangle, Doran delights in waking her in the middle of the night to do his bidding. There doesn’t seem to be any end to the indignities he can dream up – until he makes her take off her gloves.

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Celebrate the Optimism of Old-School Science Fiction, With a Twist: The Stars at my Door, edited by George Ilett Anderson and Neil Baker

Celebrate the Optimism of Old-School Science Fiction, With a Twist: The Stars at my Door, edited by George Ilett Anderson and Neil Baker

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The Stas at my Door-back-small The Stas at my Door-small

The Stars at my Door is the latest (and last) original anthology in Neil Baker’s Short Sharp Shocks line. Here’s co-editor George Ilett Anderson, from his excellent intro:

The Stars at my Door harkens back to an age where science fiction was about the limitless possibilities of space and the pioneering spirit burnt bright and clear; a time of inquisitiveness, exploration and endeavor where the impossible seems possible and adventure lies in wait for the intrepid soul but also rewards the foolish and unwary.

I think we have a fantastic selection of stories for your reading pleasure, from tales of exploration to more intimate tales of challenging boundaries with excursions and side trips into space opera and the more practical side of life amongst the stars. I’m certain there will be something to tantalize your taste buds.

Publisher and co-editor Neil Baker adds a brief intro of his own, wrapping up his impressive anthology series.

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New Treasures: Sherlock Holmes vs. Cthulhu: The Adventure of the Deadly Dimensions, by Lois H. Gresh

New Treasures: Sherlock Holmes vs. Cthulhu: The Adventure of the Deadly Dimensions, by Lois H. Gresh

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Sherlock Holmes vs Cthulhu-smallI know, I know. Call this one a guilty pleasure. Bob Byrne, our resident Sherlock guru, is probably rolling over in his grave, and he ain’t even dead.

What can I tell you? Sherlock Holmes and Cthulhu, together again. A whole lot of promising novels from bright young faces got shoved aside this week in my eagerness for this one. Titan Books, you’re deranged, and I love you for it.

Titan has made quite an industry of Sherlock Holmes pastiches over the years, publishing novels by Sam Siciliano, Mark A. Latham, Steven Savile, David Stuart Davies, Cavan Scott, Barrie Roberts, William Seil, Richard L. Boyer, and others. This isn’t even their first Holmes/Cthulhu crossover — I believe that honor goes to The Cthulhu Casebooks trilogy by James Lovegrove. How well did that turn out? Here’s Bob from his BG review:

Lovegrove, who has written several non-Holmes books, is part of Titan’s stable of new Holmes authors. Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows is the first of a trilogy, with Sherlock Holmes & The Miskatonic Monstrosities due out in Fall of 2017 and Sherlock Holmes and the Sussex Sea Devils to wrap things up in November of 2018.

The basic premise of the book (yea, the trilogy) is that Watson made up the sixty stories in the Canon. He did so to cover up the real truth behind Holmes’ work. And that’s because the truth is too horrible to reveal. In a nutshell, Watson has written three journals, each covering events fifteen years apart, to try and get some of the darkness out of his soul… something extremely unpleasant happened to Watson in a subterranean city in Afghanistan – giving him a wound that had nothing to do with a Jezail bullet.

Holmes and Watson take lodgings together at 221B Baker Street and immediately set off on a case. In a nutshell (somebody needs to clean the floor of all these nutshells here at the Black Gate offices!), Holmes is going to do battle with beings from the Cthulhu tales. The first part of the book has almost a Fu Manchu type of feel to it, but then it shifts into straight Lovecraft horror.

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Once It’s Invented, You Can’t Uninvent It

Once It’s Invented, You Can’t Uninvent It

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old vs new phoneMuch has been said about technology and the changes it brings with respect to our day-to-day world. It’s even been said that SF is the literature of change, exploring how evolution in technology, in scientific knowledge, in philosophical and political thought might, could, or does, affect our lives.

Changes in technology screw with one particular aspect of our lives that touches us all here at Black Gate very closely. They change what writers can and can’t write.1  If what you’re working on has anything to do with the present day world as we know it, every cell phone update can screw with your manuscript.

This is a kind of double-reverse example, but consider Larry Niven’s short story, “The Alibi Machine,” which essentially explores what would happen to crime and crime detection if instantaneous matter transfer was invented. If you could literally be anywhere, anytime in a matter of moments, how could you establish an alibi? How would the police eliminate you as a suspect?

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The Verge on 14 SF, Fantasy, and Horror Books for August

The Verge on 14 SF, Fantasy, and Horror Books for August

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Clockwork Dynasty Daniel H Wilson-small The Court of Broken Knives Anna Smith Spark-small A Song for Quiet Cassandra Khaw-small

Here at the end of the month, I’ve been amusing myself by comparing the books selected by each of the major genre sites for their monthly lists:

August’s Must-Read Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror (John DeNardo, Kirkus Reviews) — 19 books
The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of August (Jeff Somers, the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog) — 25 books
The Best Comics & Graphic Novels of August (Ross Johnson, the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog) — 29 comics and graphic novels
14 SF, Fantasy, and Horror Books for August (Andrew Liptak, The Verge) — 14 books

Andrew Liptak at The Verge, for example, seems to really dig white covers.

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Catch the Latest from Angry Robot in September

Catch the Latest from Angry Robot in September

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The Uploaded-small Skyfarer-small Immortal Architects-small

One of the reasons I love Angry Robot is their enthusiasm for new authors. Paired with their commitment to mass market, they’ve allowed me to take a chance on dozens of new writers over the last few years, and all for the price of a few $7.99 paperbacks. That’s a rare and precious thing these days, and it’s worth supporting.

John DeNardo tipped me off to a trio of great-looking Angry Robot paperbacks arriving September 5. Here’s all the deets.

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The B&N Sci-fi & Fantasy Blog on the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of August

The B&N Sci-fi & Fantasy Blog on the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of August

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Starfire A Red Peace-small Binary System Eric Brown-small Hex-Rated Jason Ridler-small

Over at the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, Jeff Somers has compiled his own list of the top 25 science fiction and fantasy releases for the month. His list includes titles by Stephen Baxter, N.K. Jemisin, Jeff Noon, V.M. Escalada, Daniel H. Wilson, Victor Milán, Cassandra Khaw, Stina Leicht, Beth Cato, and many others. Here’s a sample.

Starfire: A Red Peace, by Spencer Ellsworth (August 22, Tor.com Publishing — Paperback)

Sometimes you want to read a space opera that makes no apologies about the “opera” part, and this is it: Spencer Ellsworth’s debut novella goes big and refuses to go home as it tells the story of a galactic civil war fought between an all-powerful empire and a Resistance force seeking a long-lost artifact that will help it shift the balance of power in the universe. Did we mention that there are giant space bugs, sun-sized spiders, and entire planets populated by cyborgs? Well then.

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Lore of the Witch World by Andre Norton

Lore of the Witch World by Andre Norton

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By the western wall of Klavenport on the Sea of Autumn Mists — but you do not want a bard’s beginning to my tale, Goodmen? Well enough, I have no speak-harp to twang at all the proper times. And this is not altogether a tale for lords-in-their-halls. Though the beginning did lie in Klavenport right enough.
— from “Legacy from Sorn Fen”

oie_2962753vGY7eZ66I’ve written before that Andre Norton’s Witch World books is a series I avoided for way too long. There were two things that kept me away from them over the years. The first, when I was younger, was their name: Witch World. It seemed a little too twee. When I was older there were so many other things I wanted to read that it never crossed my mind to investigate Andre Norton’s catalogue. If she ever occurred to me at all, it was as the author of Starman’s Son and several other books shelved in the children’s section at my local library. Later, I found a few scattered Norton volumes in the boxes of paperbacks my dad kept in the attic but, again, nothing prompted me to read them. At the time, the cover of “Witch World” turned me off. (Today I love the goofy looking thing.)

Not until I started contemplating blogging about swords & sorcery did I actually read anything by Andre Norton. When I started expanding my library of S&S books, there were several anthologies I finally picked up, one being Flashing Swords #2, edited by Lin Carter. I had read some of its stories before, but not Norton’s Witch World story, “The Toads of Grimmerdale.”

I was surprised by the darkness of the story. Like I said, I had assumed the Witch World stuff was light and airy and my first encounter with it was a story of revenge for rape, set in a country savaged by years of war. Well I was hooked, and I scanned my shelves for any other Witch World stories. I found “Spider Silk” in Flashing Swords #3, and “Falcon Blood” in Amazons!, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. I rooted through boxes in the Vredenburgh attic and dug out my dad’s ancient copy of the first novel, Witch World, and devoured it. Its inventiveness, fast pacing, and the sheer fun of it made me an instant fan.

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John DeNardo on August’s Must-Read Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Books

John DeNardo on August’s Must-Read Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Books

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The Stone Sky N.K. Jemisin-small Noumenon Marina J. Lostetter-small Volk David Nickle-small

Summer is drawing to a close and, as always, my ambitious summer reading plan is in tatters. The problem isn’t so much lack of disciple (I mean, any more than usual) as it is that great new books keep showing up every week. What’s the point of a meticulously organized plan when I end up behaving like a kid in a candy store every damn summer?

Well, the good news is that great new books keep showing up every week. We’ll have to leave it to someone vastly more organized than I to catalog them. As usual, that task falls to John DeNardo. He’s surveyed the best books of August in his regular column at Kirkus Reviews. Here’s the highlights.

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