Black Gate

Brandon Sanderson’s The Bands of Mourning, the latest novel in the Mistborn series, was published last week by Tor Books. To celebrate, Tor graciously made one autographed copy available to Black Gate, and we offered it to our readers in a contest.

All you had to do to enter was send us an e-mail with a one-sentence summary of why you’d like to read it. We were inundated with entries, and today we selected one winner at random, using the most reliable method of random number generation known to modern science — D&D dice.

As you can imagine, Black Gate readers were pretty creative in their responses. Here’s Andrew Meyer:

I think the evolution of the metallurgy magic mechanic into a industrial setting is fantastic.

Anna Raj took a romantic approach, with a run-on sentence:

My newly fiance is an avid Brandon Sanders reader, who cheats on me with mini dates of his books; going to the bathroom with the book tightly gripped inside his arms, going for midday coffee to the local bookstore sitting in the corner with another of his books and reading it over and over again as to where the pages are barely on the spine; I probably would be a part of ‘the band of the mourning’ when he comes across this book, but I love to see his smile.

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Woo hoo! We have two winners!

Last week we invited you to enter a contest to win one of two copies of Julie Czerneda’s This Gulf of Time and Stars, the opening volume in a brand new adventure SF series from one of the most popular authors in the field. To enter, all you had to do was send us an e-mail with the subject “This Gulf of Time and Stars.”

We have two versions to give away — a copy of the hardcover, and an audiobook. Our lucky winners were selected from the pool of eligible entries by the most reliable method known to modern science: D&D dice. The winner of the hardcover is:

Paul Lipps

And our audiobook winner is:

Derek A. Neve

Congratulations all! Once again, we’d like to thank DAW Books and Audible.com for providing the prizes and making the contest possible. Read Julie’s interview with Allyson Johnson, the voice of the audible.com edition of This Gulf of Time and Stars, right here at Black Gate.

This Gulf of Time and Stars was published by DAW Books on November 3, 2015. It is 464 pages, priced at $25.95 in hardcover, and $12.99 for the digital edition.

Break out the party hats! We have three winners!

Last week we invited you to enter a contest to win one of three copies of Ecko Endgame, the latest book in one of the most talked-about series on the market, which James Lovegrove calls “The Matrix meets Game of Thrones.” To enter, all you had to do was send us an e-mail with the subject “Ecko Endgame.” As you can imagine, we were swamped with entries, so this turned into one of our shorter contests. Three winners were selected from the pool of eligible entries by the most reliable method known to modern science: D&D dice. The winners are:

Alan Phillips
Pamela Crowley-Evans
Jeff Zahnen

Congratulations all! Once again, we’d like to thank Titan Books for providing the prizes and making the contest possible. If you entered and didn’t win, our condolences — but there’s still time to enter to win Julie Czerneda’s brand new hardcover This Gulf of Time and Stars!

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.

Last week, we told you that you had a chance to win one of two pre-release copies of Jonathan L. Howard’s upcoming novel of Lovecraftian mystery, Carter & Lovecraft, on sale later this month from Thomas Dunne Books.

How do you enter? Just send an e-mail to john@blackgate.com with the subject “Carter & Lovecraft” and a one-sentence suggestion for the ideal Lovecraft team-up — and what dark horrors your dream team should investigate. That’s it; that’s all that stands between you and a copy of one of the most anticipated fantasy novels of the year. Two winners will be drawn at random from all qualifying entries and we’ll announce the winners here on the Black Gate blog the week before the novel is released. What could possibly be easier? But time is running out — the contest closes shortly. Here’s the book blurb:

Daniel Carter used to be a homicide detective, but his last case — the hunt for a serial killer — went wrong in strange ways and soured the job for him. Now he’s a private investigator trying to live a quiet life. Strangeness, however, has not finished with him. First he inherits a bookstore in Providence from someone he’s never heard of, along with an indignant bookseller who doesn’t want a new boss. She’s Emily Lovecraft, the last known descendant of H.P. Lovecraft, the writer from Providence who told tales of the Great Old Ones and the Elder Gods, creatures and entities beyond the understanding of man. Then people start dying in impossible ways, and while Carter doesn’t want to be involved, but he’s beginning to suspect that someone else wants him to be. As he reluctantly investigates, he discovers that Lovecraft’s tales were more than just fiction, and he must accept another unexpected, and far more unwanted inheritance.

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. Eat your vegetables. Carter & Lovecraft will be published by Thomas Dunne Books on October 20, 2015. It is 320 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $12.99 for the digital edition. See more details at Jonathan’s website.