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

Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Selects the Best Horror Books of 2016

Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Selects the Best Horror Books of 2016

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Another reason I love the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog is that they don’t settle for one measly Best of the Year list. Oh no. They have three — Best Novels, Best Collections and Anthologies, and Best Horror. It’s almost as if they love lists as much as I do.

Their Best Horror of 2016, selected by their editors and captured by Sam Reader, includes books by Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay, Jason Arnopp, Joe Hill, Nick Mamatas, Christopher Buehlman, and many more. They don’t slouch on the evocative descriptions, either. Here’s their take on Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, January).

By now, those who follow the horror articles here have heard of this book at least three times. If that’s not a recommendation enough, consider this a last appeal. A lyrical, dark, and haunting work, Mr. Splitfoot travels the darker sections of Appalachian New York, mixing fundamentalist cults, foreboding woods, ghost stories, and psychic phenomena fraudulent and otherwise to tell the story of two women bound by family and an event in the past. If that doesn’t sell it for you, then understand we’re not alone in our adulation: the book has drawn comparisons to Kelly Link and Aimee Bender, good company to be in if your aim is lyrical horror with strong elements of the weird.

And The Brotherhood of the Wheel, by R.S. Belcher (Tor Books, March).

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Kirkus Selects the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2016

Kirkus Selects the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2016

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We continue our tour through the more reputable Best of the Year lists. Today’s stop: Kirkus Reviews, with their slideshow celebrating the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2016.

This is a much more selective list than most (a scant 10 titles), but it’s still a nice mix of repeats from other lists, and fresh names. It includes books by Charlie Jane Anders, Cixin Liu, Malka Older, Michael Swanwick, Brian Staveley, Yoss, and N.K. Jemisin. It calls out excellent titles such as Peter Hamilton’s latest Commonwealth novel A Night Without Stars (Del Rey, September).

Hamilton’s latest (a relatively slender 704 pages) brings to a furious boil the two-book saga (The Abyss Beyond Dreams, 2014) describing human colony planet Bienvenido’s unremitting battle against the hostile alien Fallers. Read full book review

And Patricia A. McKillip’s Kingfisher (Ace, February)

A delicately wrought, twinkle-eyed fantasy from the accomplished author of The Bards of Bone Plain (2010, etc). Read full book review

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Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Selects the Best Collections and Anthologies of 2016

Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Selects the Best Collections and Anthologies of 2016

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One of the reasons I love the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog? Because they split up their Best of the Year selections into multiple lists. Why would anyone do that? To cram in more books! Duh.

Their second such list this year is The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Collections and Anthologies of 2016, selected by their editors and jotted down for us by Joel Cunningham. It includes books by Ken Liu, Patricia A. McKillip, Joe Abercrombie, Brandon Sanderson, Greg Bear, Eleanor Arnason, Gardner Dozois, Michael Swanwick, and many more. Titles such as Slipping: Stories, Essays, and Other Writing, by Lauren Beukes (Tachyon Publications, November).

In two lean, lethal sci-fi novels and two murderous, fantasy-tinged mainstream thrillers, Lauren Beukes has become one of the most exciting voices in genre writing to emerge over the last decade. Now, she’s released her first collection of short fiction, she brings the same verve for black humor, sharp satire, and mind-altering tech to stories of living artwork attacking Tokyo, corporate raids on other worlds, tears that mysteriously fall upward, and near-future marketing schemes in which brand loyalty becomes entirely literal. Standout stories: “Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs,” “Ghost Girl”

And there’s a fine shout-out for A Natural History of Hell (Small Beer Press, July), by Black Gate author Jeffrey Ford.

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Amazon Selects the Best Books of 2016

Amazon Selects the Best Books of 2016

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Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, which means it’s time to get hopping on all those Year’s Best lists I promised myself I’d cover. Wednesday we reported on Barnes & Noble’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog list, which means I should probably give equal time to Amazon today.

Their list pointed me towards some acclaimed fantasy that I’ve clearly overlooked, such as the first novel in Roshani Chokshi’s new Star-Touched Queen (April, St. Martin’s Griffin) series. In fact, it’s got lots of titles that B&N doesn’t mention — including a few I’ve never even heard of, like Sean Danker’s Admiral (May, Roc), the opening book in a brand new SF series (read Chapter One at Tor.com), and Lindsay Buroker’s Star Nomad (May, CreateSpace), a self-published novel about an interstellar alliance that topples before a tyrannical empire. Although Amazon’s editors did choose as their top pick Charlie Jane Anders debut novel All the Birds in the Sky (January, Tor), which has shown up on numerous Best of the Year lists so far.

In fact, I was rather surprised at the books which appear on both lists. They weren’t the big titles from major names that I might have expected. Here’s a complete list of the four novels that appear on both the B&N and Amazon lists as the best SF and fantasy novels of the year, as selected by the editorial staff of both companies.

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Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Selects the Best Novels of 2016

Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Selects the Best Novels of 2016

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It’s the end of the year, the time when companies, magazines, and bloggers flood the airwaves with Year’s Best lists. Why do they bother? Because we love them! Lists, lists, lists. They’re the best.

One of my favorite genre sites, the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, is out with their annual Editor’s Picks for the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2016, including Cixin Liu’s Death’s End, N.K. Jemisin’s The Obelisk Gate, and a debut novel, Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer.

Palmer’s long-in-coming debut crafts a distinctly unique vision of a future world — a 25th century where technology has created abundance, where religion is outlawed but personal spirituality is encouraged, where criminals are sentenced to wander the world making themselves useful. It’s an imagined outcome rooted in threads visible all around us even today. The story involves an unlikely meeting between a convict serving a family named Mycroft Canner; a “sensayer,” or spiritual guide, named Carlyle Foster; and Bridger, a young boy who seems to possess the power to make his every wish come true — a power that could completely destabilize a world that is the very definition of stability. With lush prose that recreates the feel of a period novel, this is one of the year’s most striking debuts. Read our review..

The list also includes several novels we’ve recently covered at Black Gate. Here’s a partial list.

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Merry Christmas From Black Gate

Merry Christmas From Black Gate

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Christmas morning. It’s always hectic, no matter how carefully you prep for it.

I awoke this morning to the usual excited screams from my teenage kids, just before they dashed downstairs. After our traditional breakfast of Alice’s homemade Christmas quiche (onions, ham, red and green peppers, mixed with 4 eggs, an entire block of swiss cheese, and two cups of cream — yum!), the kids vanished into the basement to begin an 18-hour movie and video game binge session, Alice happily retired to her chair by the window with her new copy of The Girl on a Train, and I headed into the Black Gate office to grab the mail.

It’s strange, but I love the BG offices when they’re quiet. For most of they year they’re full of pre-deadline panic, the resigned hum of the coffee machine, and whatever strange sounds escape the screening room (where Matthew David Surridge was locked away for five months, tirelessly scribbling 85,000 words of Fantasia coverage… when that poor guy finally got out of there, his eyes were like saucers. I swear). But for now the lights are off… except for the mantelpiece, where the interns have strung colored lights all around our brand new Alfie and World Fantasy Awards.

As I picked up the mail, I did notice a few folks have snuck back into the office. The lights are on in Ryan Harvey’s office, where he’s probably putting the finishing touches on his next John Carpenter piece. It’s good to have Ryan back, and he’s certainly been making up for lost time. It looks like Rich Horton and Derek Kunsken have been by to pick up their mail… and unless I’m very much mistaken, that’s William Lengemen in the film archives, researching his next Dark House Double Feature.

The end of the year is always a time for reflection, and 2016 is certainly no exception. In July of 2014 Black Gate surpassed a million pages views in a single month for the first time, and we’ve never looked back. Two Hugo nominations later, our audience continues to grow by leaps and bounds. And the engine for that incredible growth has been you, our loyal readers. You’ve never been more supportive than you have in 2016 — with your comments, letters, and your continued interest in all our endeavors, large and small.

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. On behalf of the vast and unruly collective that is Black Gate, I would like to wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Continue being excellent — it’s what you’re good at.

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in November

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in November

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astonishing-swordsmen-and-sorcerers-of-hyperborea-smallIf there was a popular topic at Black Gate last month, it was Jeffrey Talanian’s role playing game Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Gabe Dybing interviewed Jeffrey for us on November 11, and Bob Byrne wrote a brief feature on the runaway success of the Kickstarter campaign to fund a second edition of the rules — and both articles leaped into the Top Ten for the month.

The number one post at Black Gate in November was our report on the contents of Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy: 2017, followed by Mark Rigney’s open letter to George R. R. Martin and the producers of Game Of Thrones. Coming in at number three was Howard Andrew Jones’ heartfelt response to the election, Seeking Solace.

Rounding out the Top Five for the month was our report on Asimov’s SF and Analog magazines switching to bimonthly publication, followed by C.S.E. Cooney’s rave review of the new Saga anthology The Starlit Wood, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe.

Anthologies were a hot topic in November. Our third anthology feature, on Hank Davis’ Things From Outer Space, came in at number seven, and Sean McLachlan’s fascinating article on the Iraqui science fiction anthology Iraq + 100 was the ninth’s most popular for the month. Wrapping up the Top Ten was Derek Kunsken’s review of Doctor Strange.

The complete list of Top Articles for November follows. Below that, I’ve also broken out the most popular overall articles, online fiction, and blog categories for the month.

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For the Love of Monster Comics

For the Love of Monster Comics

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A few months back I spent almost $40 on eBay to acquire two dozen Monsters on the Prowl comics — late 60s and early 70s Marvel monster titles featuring the imaginative work of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and the entire Marvel bullpen at the height of their creative powers.

It was an impulse buy for sure — not the first I’ve done on eBay, and I strongly suspect it won’t be the last — and I half-expected I’d regret it almost immediately. Or at least, as soon at the package arrived. But the opposite happened. The moment I held those beautiful old artifacts in my hands, I did feel regret. But not the way I expected.

My immediate thought was, Why didn’t I bid on a lot more of these?

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Original Woodgrain Edition Dungeons and Dragons Box Set Sells For $22,100

Original Woodgrain Edition Dungeons and Dragons Box Set Sells For $22,100

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A first printing of the original woodgrain box edition of Dungeons and Dragons, one of the rarest RPG collectibles, sold on eBay Friday for $22,100. The seller tells the story of how they acquired this ultra-rare piece of gaming history in the item description:

This set is in Very Fine condition with one small stain on the front label and very minor scuffing on the corners of the box. Note that the Reference Sheets are not stapled, but loose sheets folded together. This was the original condition.

It was acquired by the present owner in an interesting way.

In 1974 I worked in a project offering supplemental educational materials to four school districts in Northwestern Wisconsin. I met Bill, an elementary school librarian, who was very excited about working with his students using role playing games. He had a friend in Minneapolis whom he had met through their shared interest in war gaming. This friend, “Lance,” was involved with creating a new project, a fantasy-style wargame in a box that could be played by anyone.

My librarian friend was working with a sixth-grade class to create a book based on playing the game. Included in this set is a copy of the booklet that his students created using the game. Bill also used a 20-sided die that he had hand-colored to differentiate scoring. Adding to the charm of this set, the die is included, as is a hand-written note from Bill, the librarian, explaining the use of the die. He added that there was currently a shortage of these dice, but they were available in England. He was going to England for a vacation, and would be bringing some back with him.

I’m not sure this is a record price, but it must be pretty close. It’s definitely one of the most high-profile sales of a D&D collectible in recent memory. The seller, editorjan_1, has never previously sold on eBay, and has a zero feedback score, which makes this auction something of a risk for the buyer. See the complete listing on eBay here, and a more detailed breakdown of everything in the box at acaeum.com.

Jonathan Strahan on the Best Short Novels of 2016

Jonathan Strahan on the Best Short Novels of 2016

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the-best-story-i-can-manage-robert-shearman-smallJonathan Strahan used to edit a marvelous anthology series for the Science Fiction Book Club called Best Short Novels. He published four volumes, from 2004-2007. On his Coode Street website yesterday, Jonathan published “An Imaginary List” of his picks for a 2016 volume.

I was pondering what I’d put into my old Best Short Novels series, if I was still editing it for someone today. After a bit of reflection I came up with the following list. I wasn’t restricted to Hugo length requirements, so one story is actually a long novelette, but this list would still come close to 200,000 words which is about right for the old series.

Here’s his selections for the ten best short novels of 2016, including five entries from the new Tor.com novella line, two from collections, and one each from Asimov’s SF and F&SF.

The Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe, Kij Johnson (Tor)
The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle (Tor)
Every Heart A Doorway, Seanan McGuire (Tor)
This Census-taker, China Mieville (Del Rey)
“The Charge and the Storm,” An Owomoyela (Asimov’s)
The Devil You Know, K.J. Parker (Tor)
The Iron Tactician, Alastair Reynolds (Newcon)
The Best Story I Can Manage, Robert Shearman (Five Storeys High)
“The Vanishing Kind,” Lavie Tidhar (F&SF)
A Taste of Honey, Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor)

We discussed Jonathan’s Best Short Novels series in a feature earlier this year, and we covered the latest from Tor.com here.

See Jonthan’s complete post here.