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Cover Reveal: A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin

Cover Reveal: A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin

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Frederic S. Durbin’s short story “World’s End” appeared in Black Gate 15, our last print issue, and it instantly made him a favorite among our readers. In his review of the issue, Matthew Wuertz called it “full of action, with a bit of humor… a very fast read.”

Fred’s first novel was Dragonfly (1999), and his second, The Star Shard, was released in 2012. I’ve been anxiously awaiting his third, so I was delighted to learn that he’s part of the Renaissance in modern fantasy going on at Saga Press. A Green and Ancient Light will be released next June.

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Vintage Treasures: The Ring of Truth by David J. Lake

Vintage Treasures: The Ring of Truth by David J. Lake

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The Ring of Truth-smallI don’t know a darn thing about The Ring of Truth. I found it in a 14-book collection I bought on eBay around three bucks (the same set I found Croyd and Light a Last Candle in). It was published by DAW in 1984, has never been reprinted, and I’ve sure never seen it before. To tell the truth, I don’t know anything about the author, David J. Lake, either. According to the ISFDB, he produced nine novels between 1976 and 1988, most of them published only in Australia.

But that’s okay. Heck, I love a good literary mystery. Exploring the vintage paperbacks of this genre is an endless voyage of discovery. Who knows what undiscovered wonders, what secrets to the universe, lie hidden in these books? Nobody bug me for the next few hours while I find out.

Our cosmos, throughout its enormous length of galaxies, and down to its smallest molecules, obeys the same laws of physics and chemistry from one end to the other. But it is now suspected that somewhere in the vast reaches of space, there may well be other universes with completely different natural laws.

But even on these worlds, foreign beyond imagining, there may yet be great adventurers — alien Magellans and Columbuses whose thirst for exploration cannot be assuaged. Intelligent beings who would risk anything to know what lies over the horizon, beyond the parameters of the known world.

Travel now with Prince Kernin of Palur, just such an explorer in just such an alien universe, and discover wonders beyond imagining, in a world very different from our own, as he ventures to the ends of his earth and beyond to find the elusive Ring of Truth!

The Ring of Truth was published by DAW Books in June 1984. It is 192 pages, priced at $2.95. There is no digital edition. The cover is by Ken W. Kelly.

New Treasures: The Madness of Cthulhu, Volume Two, edited by S.T. Joshi

New Treasures: The Madness of Cthulhu, Volume Two, edited by S.T. Joshi

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In his Black Gate review of the first volume of The Madness of Cthulhu, G. Winston Hyatt wrote:

Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness serves as the inspiration for many of the authors in The Madness of Cthulhu… it’s masterful in concept and at times in execution. A fusion of Antarctic adventure, science fiction, and early-modern horror, it not only offers chilling passages with an escalating sense of dread and isolation, but also constructs a world horrifying in its implications about mankind…

The Madness of Cthulhu anthologizes a variety of interpretations of Lovecraft’s Mythos, taking readers beyond the dusty-tomes-and-unspeakable-things tropes and demonstrating the imaginative possibilities still present in HPL’s legacy.

Part of that review is quoted on the back of The Madness of Cthulhu, Volume Two, which is kind of cool. The second volume, which contains 14 brand new stories inspired by Lovecraft’s classic At the Mountains of Madness — including stories by Laird Barron, Alan Deam Foster, William F. Nolan, Brian Stableford, and Steve Rasnic Tem — was published by Titan Books on October 20, 2015. It is 297 pages, priced at $15.95, and $5.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by John Jude Palencar. Click on the image above for a bigger version.

Paul Di Filippo Asks if the Simak Renaissance is Finally Here

Paul Di Filippo Asks if the Simak Renaissance is Finally Here

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I Am Crying All Inside-smallLast month I made some noise here at Black Gate about The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak — the long-awaited multi-volume project from Open Road Media. Six volumes have been announced so far, and three were released on October 20.

Over at Locus Online, Paul Di Filippo asks if this is finally the beginning of the Simak Renaissance.

Much as I loved Heinlein’s work, I loved Simak’s more, in what was perhaps a different fashion. If you can imagine both men as uncles, then Heinlein was the loudly dressed, blustering uncle who blew into town once a year from Manhattan, trailing clouds of glory from his exotic exploits and dazzling you with his cosmopolitan ways; whereas Simak was your local bachelor uncle who lived modestly in a cabin and who could always be counted on to fix your bike or take you fishing or console you when your dog died. And he never mentioned that he had a Purple Heart medal tucked away in his sock drawer.

But precisely by having this unassuming nature, in both his personality and on the page, Simak did not generate as many headlines or partisans as did Heinlein. And since his death, it seems to me that his star has unjustifiably faded a bit. There was a laudable attempt a decade ago to get all his stories into print. But the project fell apart after only two (now highly collectible) volumes: Physician to the Universe and Eternity Lost & Other Stories.

Now comes Open Road Media with the stated intention of issuing all of his short fiction in fourteen books. Hooray! Maybe the Simak Renaissance is finally here!

See Paul’s complete article here.

Win a Copy of Ecko Endgame by Danie Ware from Titan Books

Win a Copy of Ecko Endgame by Danie Ware from Titan Books

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Danie Ware’s Ecko series is one of the most talked-about on the market. James Lovegrove calls it “The Matrix meets Game of Thrones,” and Lavie Tidhar noted the opening volume “explodes onto the page with the manic energy of Richard Morgan’s cyberpunk novels, before taking a surprise turn into Thomas Covenant territory.” Now Titan Books has offered us three copies of the latest book, Ecko Endgame, to give away to you, our readers. How do you make one of them yours? Just send an e-mail to john@blackgate.com with the subject “Ecko Endgame,” and we’ll enter you into the contest.

That’s it! That’s all it takes. Three winners will be drawn at random from all entries, and we’ll announce the winners here. No purchase necessary. Must be 12 or older. Decisions of the judges (capricious as they may be) are final. Not valid where prohibited by law, or anywhere postage for a hefty trade paperback is more than, like, 10 bucks (practically, that means US and Canada).

Ecko Endgame was published by Titan Books on November 10, 2015. It is 528 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback, and $3.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by Amazing15.

The Best Of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Volume 1

The Best Of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Volume 1

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The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly-smallIt is hard to believe that David Farney and I started Heroic Fantasy Quarterly in the waning half of 2009. Six years ago; and internet years are like dog years so that’s, well, that’s a long time.

It’s also hard to believe that we’ve been talking about this best-of idea since 2013! We finally did it, though, and made hard choices from our first eight issues to bring out the best work, summoned the incredible skills of artist Justin Sweet, and even brought Black Gate‘s own John O’Neill in on it.

And now it is a real thing, available for pre-order and going live/shipping on Black Friday.

Our table of contents:

Introduction: “Over the Hills and Far Away…and Hiding Right Next to You” by John O’Neill

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Future Treasures: Ash and Silver by Carol Berg

Future Treasures: Ash and Silver by Carol Berg

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Ash and Silver-smallThe first two novels set on the world of Sanctuary were Flesh and Spirit (2007) and Breath and Bone (2008). Carol Berg returned to Sanctuary with Dust and Light last year, which BG writer D. B. Jackson called “A tale of magic and politics, of intrigue and betrayal.” Now she concludes the saga of a sorcerer whose past is veiled in shadows with Ash and Silver.

Ever since the Order of the Equites Cineré stole his memory, his name, and his heart, thinking about the past makes Greenshank’s head ache. After two years of rigorous training, he is almost ready to embrace the mission of the Order — to use selfless magic to heal the troubles of Navronne. But on his first assignment alone, the past comes racing back, threatening to drown him in conspiracy, grief, and murder.

He is Lucian de Remeni — a sorcerer whose magical bents for portraiture and history threaten the safety of the earth and the future of the war-riven kingdom of Navronne. He just can’t remember how or why.

Fighting to unravel the mysteries of his power, Lucian must trace threads of corruption that reach from the Pureblood Registry into the Order itself, the truth hidden two centuries in the past and beyond the boundaries of the world…

Ash and Silver will be published by Roc on December 1, 2015. It is 475 pages, priced at $16 in trade paperback and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover art is by Gene Mollica.

New Treasures: The Lazarus Gate by Mark A. Latham

New Treasures: The Lazarus Gate by Mark A. Latham

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The Lazarus Gate-smallMark Latham has had an interesting career. He’s the former editor of White Dwarf, Games Workshop’s flagship magazine, and the head of their ultra-successful Warhammer 40K line. He’s also a game designer is his own right, with several tabletop games to his credit.

His debut novel, The Lazarus Gate, is the opening volume in a new Victorian supernatural series. Captain John Hardwick, a tough but troubled army veteran, is recruited by a mysterious club to combat a growing threat to the British Empire. It’s an intriguing new gaslight fantasy, reminiscent of James Blaylock and Arthur Conan Doyle.

London, 1890. Captain John Hardwick, an embittered army veteran and opium addict, is released from captivity in Burma and returns home, only to be recruited by a mysterious gentlemen’s club to combat a supernatural threat to the British Empire.

This is the tale of a secret war between parallel universes, between reality and the supernatural; a war waged relentlessly by an elite group of agents; unsung heroes, whose efforts can never be acknowledged, but by whose sacrifice we are all kept safe.

The Lazarus Gate was published by Titan Books on September 29, 2015. It is 399 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback, and $5.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by Julia Lloyd.

See all of our recent New Treasures here.

Collecting Isaac Asimov: Mark R. Kelly on the Best of Asimov

Collecting Isaac Asimov: Mark R. Kelly on the Best of Asimov

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It’s hard for me to be objective about Isaac Asimov. By modern standards, much of his fiction is not very readable. But the man introduced me to science fiction virtually single-handedly. More than that, he also instilled in me an enduring love of the pulps (via the amazing Before the Golden Age), taught me the fascinating history of the genre, and showed me convincingly that science fiction was, at its core, a community of writers — of fascinating people, who deserved to be read and known.

But of course, it began with his fiction. I thrilled to many of his books in my youth, especially I, Robot and his Foundation novels. I even read — and immensely enjoyed — The Early Asimov, a collection of barely-publishable stories from the earliest days of his career, interleaved with Asimov’s funny and self-deprecating remembrances of life as an aspiring teenage writer in the late 30s. You probably had to be an aspiring teenage SF writer yourself to have any hope of appreciating that book… but I was, and I loved it.

I recently bought the collection of 35 Isaac Asimov books above on eBay. I paid quite a bit for it ($82.17, which is a lot for relatively modern paperbacks), but they were all in virtually flawless condition, and my copies had been read to pieces. I’ve been slowly unpacking the box they arrived in, and taking the time to sample Asimov’s fiction and non-fiction. It’s been a long time since I returned to the man who first acquainted me with SF. Coincidentally, I discovered that Locus Online editor Mark Kelly has been, like me, re-reading Asimov as an adult and blogging about the experience, and I found his thoughts mirrored my own in many respects.

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Vintage Treasures: A Lower Deep by Tom Piccirilli

Vintage Treasures: A Lower Deep by Tom Piccirilli

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A Lower Deep-back-small A Lower Deep-small

I read Tom Piccirilli’s A Choir of Ill Children in 2004, and it sent me scrambling to find his other novels. The first I came across was his 2001 novel A Lower Deep, the tale of the Necromancer and his demonic companion Self, who wander the spectral highways as the Necromancer attempts to prevent Armageddon.

The Publishers Weekly review offered a nice summary, but also warned about the novel’s graphic content:

The Necromancer must battle the leader of his old coven, Jebediah DeLancre, who has created a new band of witches intent on forcing Christ to return to Earth prematurely. When Jebediah offers to raise Danielle, the Necromancer’s only love, from the dead in exchange for his cooperation, he finds himself torn between good and evil… a stream of characters, spirits and demons wander in and out of this disturbing tale, including Michael the Archangel, who is wrested from the stomach of the Necromancer’s father. Piccirilli (The Night Class) attempts to lighten the story up with Self’s flippant one-liners, but a glut of gory details will keep readers squirming. This tale is not for the fainthearted…

Piccirilli was also the author of Deep into the Darkness Peering (1999), November Mourns (2005), Headstone City (2006), and The Midnight Road (2007), among others. He died earlier this year.

A Lower Deep was published by Leisure Books in October 2001. It is 363 pages, priced at $5.99 in paperback. A digital edition was released in 2011 by Crossroad Press & Macabre Ink. The cover is uncredited.