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The blog posts of Black Gate Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones and Editor John O’Neill

Black Gate 15 Complete Table of Contents

Black Gate 15 Complete Table of Contents

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bg-15-cover2The 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

2011 Hugo Award Nominations Announced

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hundred-thousandThe 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!

Shipping April 30: Black Gate 15!

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bg15_320aBlack 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!

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.

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

Update: Black Gate Back Issue Sale

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bg_3_cover_500On 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!

Black Gate Back Issue Sale!

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bg_1_coverWe’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.

Subterranean Magazine Spring 2011 Now Available

Subterranean Magazine Spring 2011 Now Available

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subterr-spring2011The 18th online issue — and 25th issue overall — of one of the genre’s leading publications, Subterranean Magazine, is now available.

Subterranean is published quarterly. It appeared in print for seven issues before switching to the current online format in Winter 2007. It is presented free online by Subterranean Press, and is edited by William Schafer.

The contents of each issue are unveiled gradually. So far available in the Spring 2011 issue are:

  • “The Crawling Sky”, a weird western by Joe R. Lansdale (originally published in Deadman’s Road)
  • “Show Trial”, a post-WWII fantasy novella by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
  • “The Crane Method”, by Ian R. MacLeod
  • “The Fall of Alacan”, by Tobias S. Buckell, which returns to the setting of his novella The Executioness (which also shares a setting with Paolo Bacigalupi’s Nebula-nominated novella The Alchemist).
  • “Water to Wine” by Mary Robinette Kowal, the prose version of a long novelette originally written for the audio anthology Metatropolis.

Coming up: Mike Resnick’s latest escapade featuring Lucifer Jones, plus the usual reviews and non-fiction.

The cover this issue is by Edward Miller. The complete issue is here.

The Dying Earth RPG Available Again

The Dying Earth RPG Available Again

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the-dying-earthPelgrane Press has announced that one of my favorite role playing games, The Dying Earth, is available again after several years in limbo.

The Dying Earth is, of course, based on the famed fantasy books by Jack Vance, including The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel’s Saga, and Rhialto the Marvellous. The RPG was written by Robin Laws, John Snead, and Peter Freeman, and originally published by Pelgrane Press  in 2001.

I’ve never actually played The Dying Earth role playing game.  It appeared after I moved from Ottawa to Chicago and left my gaming group behind, and before my three children stopped throwing the dice at each other and got old enough to game with. So why is one of my favorites?

Because there’s plenty to enjoy about The Dying Earth RPG, even if you never use the rules to guide your dice arm. The support materials were superb, especially the accompanying magazine, The Excellent Prismatic Spray — whose contributors numbered Gary Gygax, Robin D Laws, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Keith Baker, and many others — and which published seven fat issues before following the game into limbo.

beyond-the-mountains2Much of the content of the magazine and the additional support material were written in studied imitation of Vance’s witty and erudite style, and made terrific reading.

Who knows why the game was out of print for so long?  A licensing issue, most likely.  But it’s finally back, and Pelgrane has wasted no time gearing up the presses again, releasing the first new supplement in several years: Beyond The Mountains of Magnatz by Ian Thomson, a picaresque series of adventures for Cugel-level characters:

You may have thought your adventurous rogues trapped in the barren north until the sun went dark. But no, the former Lords of Cil are on the move again. The adventurers must evade becoming victim to the ancient menace of Magnatz in the sinister town of Vull, progress through greater and lesser challenges, both natural & magical, as they struggle across the savage mountains, explore strange hospitality in the valley of the mighty Pharesm, and survive lands populated by an army of basilisks, before winning free to the civilized lands of the east.

Our recent coverage of Pelgrane Press includes:

When the End of the World is a Mercy Killing: Cthulhu Apocalypse for Trail of Cthulhu
Mythos Expeditions for Trail of Cthulhu
Experience the Epic Madness of Eternal Lies for Trail of Cthulhu
June Page XX Available — get the latest Pelgrane Press News
Accretion Disk for Ashen Stars
The Justice Trade for Ashen Stars
Some Mysteries You Don’t Want to Solve: Exploring Dead Rock Seven for Ashen Stars
Out of Space for Trail of Cthulhu
Ashen Stars by Robin D. Laws
The Dying Earth Role Playing Game

The Dying Earth RPG is a 192-page hardcover priced at $29.95.  Beyond The Mountains of Magnatz is a 96 page PDF, and sells for $9.95.  Both are available at the Pelgrane Press website.

See all of our recent Games coverage here.

Malcolm McClinton sells a Cover to Kobold Quarterly

Malcolm McClinton sells a Cover to Kobold Quarterly

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golden-dragonMalcolm McClinton, who painted the cover for Black Gate 13 and has been doing interior art for us since Black Gate 10, has sold another cover to Dungeons & Dragons magazine Kobold Quarterly.

The cover, Golden Dragon, pictured at right, will be on the fall issue. Concerning the piece, Malcolm says:

Most of the time I find that Asian dragons seem too cartoonish and almost comical in their deception and I was really excited to try and bring one to life in a way that captured them in a more living realistic way. Any one that knows my  intrepid boarder collie Lilly, might instantly recognize her influence on the piece.

You can read more details and see more samples of Malcolm’s terrific art at his blog, Hanged Man Studios.

Kobold Quarterly is celebrating their 5th Anniversary this year.  The magazine, edited by Wolfgang Baur, was created to focus on open design, and now fills the niche once occupied by Dragon and Dungeon magazines, both now sadly defunct.

The latest issue, Winter 2011 , is the 16th, and is the launch issue for the new Midgard campaign setting. It features official Paizo magic items for Golarion, the Pathfinder world and setting for Howard Andrew Jones’ novel Plague of Shadows, Harem Assassins feats and spells for Pathfinder, Potion Miscibility rules for 4th Edition D&D, the Ecology of the Gearforged for the Midgard campaign, an interview with gaming legend Robin Laws, Monte Cook’s column, the return of popular Dungeon Magazine author Willie Walsh with a humorous mini-adventure, plus a sneak peek of the Northlands sourcebook with a beer run among the Thursir Giants — two complete Pathfinder mini-adventures. The issue is 76 pages with a cover price of $5.99, and you can order it in PDF format here.

Malcolm’s last cover for Kobold Quarterly was Issue 13, in Spring 2010. Their website is here.

Pathfinder Tales: “The Walkers from the Crypt” by Howard Andrew Jones

Pathfinder Tales: “The Walkers from the Crypt” by Howard Andrew Jones

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pathfindertales_360Howard Andrew Jones’ four-part story “The Walkers from the Crypt” has now been posted in its entirety at The Pathfinder Tales site at Paizo.com:

Elyana had no time to waste educating the young bard. There were but a few minutes left before the hounds would reach them.

She’d caught sight of the animals almost a half hour ago as she and her four companions fled across the grasslands of southern Galt. The seemingly inexhaustible hounds had slowly gained on their horses, and the party had finally picked out a rise from which to make a stand.

Vallyn gazed apprehensively out at the wedge-shaped formation of hounds sprinting forward through the high grass. “How can they keep running like that?”

“They’re dead,” Arcil said in his low, smooth voice. “They need neither breath nor rest.”

Pathfinder Tales are complete short stories set in the detailed world of Golarion, home to the Pathfinder role playing game. Novels released under the Pathfinder Tales brand include Prince of Wolves by Dave Gross, Winter Witch by Elaine Cunningham, and Plague of Shadows by our own Howard Andrew Jones. Pazio has also begun presenting complete tales set in the same setting on their website — including pieces from Monte Cook, Ed Greenwood, Dave Gross, Richard Lee Byers, and others.

“The Walkers from the Crypt” features the continuing adventures of Elyana, Vallyn, Stelan, and other characters from Howard’s new novel Plague of Shadows, in a complete standalone adventure. Read more about Plague of Shadows here.

You can read Part One of “The Walkers from the Crypt” here, and all four parts are now available at Paizo.com.

Diana Wynne Jones (1934 – 2011)

Diana Wynne Jones (1934 – 2011)

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hexwoodDiana Wynne Jones, author of dozens of fantasy books including Howl’s Moving Castle, Archer’s Goon, Hexwood, and Dark Lord of Derkholm, died on Saturday, March 26, 2011.

The first Diana Wynne Jones novel I ever bought was Howl’s Moving Castle, in 1986. Everyone at the science fiction bookstore where I shopped — the House of Speculative Fiction, in Ottawa, Canada — was talking about it, and Pat Caven the owner pressed it into my hands.  It was by no means the last.

Jones studied English at St Anne’s College in Oxford, where she famously attended lectures by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis before she graduated in 1956. She began her writing career with plays, and had three produced in London between 1967 and 1970.

In 1970 she switched to prose with her first novel, Changeover, a comedy marketed for adults. She began writing for young adults with her second book, Wilkins’ Tooth (1973, published in the US as Witch’s Business), and never looked back.

Although Jones is widely admired as a YA fantasy writer, she had a surprising range. Perhaps my favorite of her books is The Tough Guide To Fantasyland (1996), a hysterical tourist guide which skewers dozens of fantasy clichés as it catalogues the common places, weird items, people, governments, and situations readers are likely to encounter as they journey through a typical fantasy novel.

tough-guideHer later novel Dark Lord of Derkholm (1999), set in a Fantasyland which steadfastly adheres to the conventions she described,  is seen by some as a conceptual sequel to The Tough Guide.

Jones was nominated — and won — numerous awards in her lifetime. Her novel Archers Goon was nominated for a World Fantasy Award; The Tough Guide To Fantasyland was nominated for both a Hugo award and a World Fantasy Award, and Dark Lord of Derkholm won the 1999 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature. The same year she won the Karl Edward Wagner Award in the UK.

She received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2007, perhaps the highest honor our field has to offer.

Her novels have enjoyed extended life in other media: Archer’s Goon became a BBC television serial in 1992, and Howl’s Moving Castle was famously adapted as an animated feature by Hayao Miyazaki in 2004.

Jones continued to work until late in life, publishing her last novel, Enchanted Glass, last year. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009, and died on March 26, 2011.