Editor’s Blog – Page 118

The David Gemmell Legend Award Nominees for Best Fantasy Novel of 2010

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

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The nominations for the David Gemmell Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel of 2010 have been announced by the DGLA. They are:

The War of the Dwarves – Markus Heitz (Orbit)
The Alchemist in the Shadows – Pierre Pevel (Gollancz)
Towers of Midnight – Brandon Sanderson & Robert Jordan (Tor USA//Orbit)
The Black Prism – Brent Weeks (Orbit)
The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz/Tor USA)
The Desert Spear – Peter V. Brett (Voyager)

The Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel was first granted in 2009, to Andrzej Sapkowski’s Blood of Elves. Last year’s winner was Empire, by Graham McNeill.

The DGLA also gives out The Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer, and The Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art.

The David Gemmell Legend Award is a fan-voted award administered by the DGLA. Yes, that means you can vote. The complete list of nominations is at the DGLA website. Voting is now open, so stop by and vote for your favorite!

May/June Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine Now on Sale

Tuesday, May 3, 2011 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

The May/June double issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction goes on sale today.

Editor Gordon van Gelder tells us:

It’s pretty rare for us to have a family reunion in F&SF, but this issue has a piece about reuniting with one of our founding editors. (Our next issue will actually have a story starring another one of our editors.) There’s a lot of music in this issue, several strange forms of life, and a talking dog. Another can’t miss issue, in other words.

This issue features the novella “Rampion” by Alexandra Duncan, and two novelets: “Black Mountain” by Albert E. Cowdrey, and “Music Makers” by Kate Wilhelm, plus short stories by Chet Williamson, Steven Popkes, Don Webb, Carter Scholz, Scott Bradfield, S. L. Gilbow, Ken Liu, and two (!) by Robert Reed.

The Special Feature this issue is “Jesse Francis McComas: The Traveller Returns” by Maria E. Alonzo. The issue also contains an editorial by Gordon Van Gelder, book columns by Charles de Lint and Chris Moriarty, “Plumage From Pegasus: Building a Readership” by Paul Di Filippo, a film column by Kathi Maio, and a Curiosities column by the late F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre.

F&SF is published six times a year; issues are a generous 258 pages. It is the longest-running professional fantasy magazine in the country, and has been published continuously since 1949. It is a great way to sample some of the fast-rising new names in fantasy.

The cover price is $7.50; one year-subscriptions are a bargain at $34.97, and include the giant October/November anniversary issue. You can order subscriptions and browse their blog at www.sfsite.com/fsf/.

The cover this issue is by Tomislav Tikulin. We covered the March/April issue here.

Gene Wolfe’s 80th Birthday Blog

Monday, May 2, 2011 C.S.E. Cooney Comments 0 Comment

Gene Wolfe, April 2011, Top Shelf Books Open Mic

Hey, lookit!

Isn’t this a neat idea?

If you click through the link, you read:

“As some of you may be aware, Saturday 7 May will be the esteemed Mr. Gene Wolfe’s 8oth birthday. This blog has been created for friends, fans and admirers to express their good wishes to him and will be presented for his perusal before the end of his birthday. Please feel free to forward this to anyone that you think might be interested. And if you don’t know who Gene Wolfe is, it’s well past time you found out!”

Go put your two cents in! I sure did!

Joanna Russ: February 22, 1937 – April 29, 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011 John ONeill Comments 3 comments

Joanna Russ, acclaimed feminist writer and one of the most respected science fiction authors of the 20th Century, passed away yesterday at the age of 74.

Russ’s first SF story, “Nor Custom Stale,” appeared in F&SF in 1959. Numerous notable short stories followed, including Nebula Award winner “When It Changed” (1972), and Hugo Award winner “Souls” (1982). Altogether her fiction has been nominated for a total of nine Nebula and three Hugo Awards. Her short stories were collected in four volumes: The Adventures of Alyx (1983), The Zanzibar Cat (1983), Extra(ordinary) People (1984), and The Hidden Side of the Moon (1988).

Her first novel Picnic on Paradise, the tale of a pleasure cruise that crash lands on a vacation planet with only enough food for a picnic, was nominated for a Nebula in 1968. It was collected with four additional stories featuring the resourceful protagonist Alyx as The Adventures of Alyx (1983).

Her other novels include Nebula Award finalist And Chaos Died (1970), The Female Man (1975), We Who Are About To… (1977), and The Two of Them (1978).

The Female Man, one of the most acclaimed SF novels of the decade, follows four women across four parallel worlds, all struggling against the restrictive role of the female sex, and what it truly means to be a woman. The character who bears Russ’s first name, “Joanna” refers to herself early in the novel as the “female man” because she is convinced she must surrender her identity as a woman to be respected.

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The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack wins Philip K. Dick Award

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Notch up another win for Pyr Books excellent 2010 line up. The Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust announced on Friday that the winner of the 2011 Philip K. Dick Award is The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder, published by Pyr in September of last year.

We reported the complete list of nominees in January.

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented each year to “the distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States.” Previous winners have included C. L. Anderson, James P. Blaylock, Pat Murphy, Stephen Baxter, Carol Emshwiller and Richard Morgan. The judges for 2010 were William Barton, Andy Duncan (chair), Bruce McAllister, Melinda Snodgrass, and David Walton.

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is Mark Hodder’s first novel. The sequel, The Clockwork Man Of Trafalgar Square, also featuring Burton and Swinburne, is the second installment of a three-volume story arc and was published by Pyr on March 22.

The PKD Trust also awarded a special citation this year to the novel Harmony, by Project Itoh, translated by Alexander O. Smith and published by Haikasoru.

Congratulations to the winners!

Black Gate 15 Complete Table of Contents

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 John ONeill Comments 53 comments

The theme of our massive 15th issue, captured beautifully by Donato Giancola’s striking cover, is Warrior Women. Eight authors — Jonathan L. Howard, Maria V. Snyder, Frederic S. Durbin, Sarah Avery, Paula R. Stiles, Emily Mah, S. Hutson Blount, and Brian Dolton — contribute delightful tales of female warriors, wizards, weather witches, thieves, and other brave women as they face deadly tombs, sinister gods, unquiet ghosts, and much more.

Frederic S. Durbin takes us to a far land where two dueling gods pit their champions against each other in a deadly race to the World’s End. Brian Dolton offers us a tale of Ancient China, a beautiful occult investigator, and a very peculiar haunting. And 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.

What else is in BG 15? Howard Andrew Jones bring us a lengthy excerpt from his blockbuster novel The Desert of Souls, featuring the popular characters Dabir & Asim. 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 begins a terrific new series with “A River Through Darkness & Light,” featuring a dedicated Archivist who leads a small band into a deadly desert tomb; John Fultz shares the twisted fate of a thief who dares fantastic dangers to steal rare spirits indeed in “The Vintages of Dream,” and Vaughn Heppner kicks off an exciting new sword & sorcery saga as a young warrior flees the spawn of a terrible god through the streets of an ancient city in “The Oracle of Gog.”

Plus fiction from Darrell Schweitzer, Jamie McEwan, Michael Livingston, Chris Willrich, Fraser Ronald, Derek Künsken, Jeremiah Tolbert, Nye Joell Hardy, and Rosamund Hodge!

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.

Buy this issue for only $18.95, or as part of bundle of back issues — any two for just $25 plus shipping!

Buy this issue in PDF for only $8.95!

Buy the Kindle version at Amazon.com for just $9.95!

Black Gate 15 is another huge issue: 384 pages of fiction, reviews, and articles. It contains 22 stories, totaling nearly 152,000 words of adventure fantasy. Complete details on all the contents after the jump.

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2011 Hugo Award Nominations Announced

Monday, April 25, 2011 John ONeill Comments 6 comments

The nominees for the 2011 Hugo and Campbell awards for best science fiction and fantasy of the year have been announced. The nominees for best novel are:

Cryoburn, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
Feed, Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (Pyr; Gollancz)
Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)

I was particularly pleased to see The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms on the list. I heard N.K. Jemisin read at Wiscon last year, and was extremely impressed. She’s one of the best new fantasy writers we have, and no mistake.

The nominees for Best Semiprozine were Clarkesworld, Interzone, Lightspeed, Locus, and Weird Tales — deserving titles, all. It was also a great year for Asimov’s Science Fiction, which had no less than five nominations in the short fiction categories:

“The Sultan of the Clouds,” Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s 9/10) – Best Novella
“The Jaguar House, in Shadow,” Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s 7/10) – Best Novelette
“Plus or Minus,” James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s 12/10) – Best Novelette
“The Emperor of Mars,” Allen M. Steele (Asimov’s 6/10) – Best Novelette
“For Want of a Nail,” Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s 12/10) – Best Short Story

As well as a nod to editor Sheila Williams as Best Professional Editor (Short Form). Special congratulations to Pyr editor Lou Anders on his nomination for Best Professional Editor Long Form (go Lou!), and to Black Gate contributor Steven H Silver, on his ninth nomination for Best Fan Writer.

And of course, special commendation to Hugo voters for nominating “F**k Me, Ray Bradbury” in the Best Dramatic Presentation – Short. You folks are classy.

The winners will be announced at the World Science Fiction convention in Reno, Nevada, on August 20, 2011. You can find the complete list of nominees at Locus Online. Congratulations to all the nominees! Except maybe “F**k Me, Ray Bradbury.”

Shipping April 30: Black Gate 15!

Saturday, April 23, 2011 John ONeill Comments 3 comments

bg15_320a Black Gate 15 arrives from the printer this week, and subscriber copies will begin shipping out April 30th.

BG 15 is another massive issue: 384 pages of fiction, reviews, and articles. It contains 22 stories, totaling nearly 152,000 words of adventure fantasy. Jonathan L. Howard returns 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 a lengthy excerpt from his blockbuster novel The Desert of Souls, featuring Dabir & Asim. And 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.

What else is in BG 15? 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; John Fultz shares the twisted fate of a thief who dares fantastic dangers to steal rare spirits indeed in “The Vintages of Dream,” and Vaughn Heppner offers the first chapter of an exciting new sword & sorcery serial as a young warrior flees the spawn of a terrible god through the streets of an ancient city in “The Oracle of Gog.”

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

Black Gate 15 is $18.95 for the print edition, $8.95 in PDF, or shipped right to your door as part of a 2-issue subscription for just $32.95! We’ll have a detailed sneak peek, with tantalizing story excerpts and artwork, right here in a few days. Stay tuned. And don’t forget our back issue sale — any two back issues for just $25, including our double-sized BG 14!

Cover art by Donato Giancola.

Update: Black Gate Back Issue Sale

Sunday, April 10, 2011 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

On Monday I announced a sale on back issues of Black Gate magazine.

Response to the sale has been terrific — thanks to everyone whose purchases have helped me clear away back stock, and get a lot closer to fitting my precious automobile in the garage.

Since Monday I’ve emptied four boxes of back issues, and lost count of how many I’ve packed up to take to the post office. This afternoon I did a quick inventory count to see what’s left.

We’re virtually sold out of Black Gate 3 (just a handful of copies left), and I opened the last box of Black Gate 4 on Friday. I found another box of Black Gate 5, which brings the total to two boxes. Compared to those three, we have fair stock in all other issues.

For the duration of the sale any two back issues are just $25 (plus shipping and handling). Any three are just $35, and any four just $45. This includes our first issue (regularly $18.95), as well as our double-sized issue 14 (also $18.95). You can buy a complete set of the first four issues, a $65.80 value, for just $45.

For the Table of Contents for all of our back issues, use the navigation bar at left and scroll down to “Back Issues.”

The sale will run for a limited time. Once I can squeeze my Audi into the garage and shut the door, the sale is over.

Just use the form on our subscription page to order. Remember that PDF copies are just $8.95, even for big double issues. You can also order print versions of both of our 384-page double issues, BG 14 and 15 (combined cover price $37.90, plus $4.50 shipping) for $32.95, shipping included. We’ll ship BG 14 this week, and send the massive BG 15 right to your door hot-off-the-press later this month.

Black Gate Back Issue Sale!

Monday, April 4, 2011 John ONeill Comments 9 comments

We’re going to press this week with the long-awaited Black Gate 15 — and you know what that means. It means I won’t be able to get my car in the garage unless I clear out some of the back issue stock first.

My unnatural love for my 2006 Audi is your gain. Starting today, and continuing until I can fit my beloved automobile in the garage, we’re having a sale on back issues of Black Gate magazine. Any two are $25 (plus shipping and handling). Any three are just $35, and any four just $45.

This offer even includes our rare first issue (price just reduced to $18.95), and our double-sized issue 14 (also $18.95). You can buy a complete set of the first four issues — totaling 896 pages of the best in modern fantasy, a $65.80 value — for just $45.

But hurry. Quantities are limited. Yes, we know. Everyone says that. (Try it yourself, and you’ll understand. “Quantities are Limited!” It just trips off the tongue somehow.) But really. There’s not many copies left, and once I can squeeze a compact car into the garage and shut the door, the sale is over.

Just use the form on our subscription page to select any two issues for $25, any three for $35, or any four for $45, and we’ll apply the discount. It’s that easy.

Want a PDF copy instead? They’re just $8.95, even for big double issues. Why not try a 4-issue PDF subscription for just $29.95, or a 2-issue print sub for $32.95? You can order print versions of both of our 384-page double issues, BG 14 and 15 (combined cover price $37.90, plus $4.50 shipping) for $32.95, shipping included. We’ll ship BG 14 this week, and send the massive BG 15 right to your door hot-off-the-press later this month.

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