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

The 2016 Hugo Award Winners

The 2016 Hugo Award Winners

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The Fifth Season Jemisin-smallIt was a delight to be in the audience in Kansas City for the 2016 Hugo Awards. I was sitting next to Rich and MaryAnne Horton, and we thoroughly enjoyed both the pre-show and the presentations.

There’s a lengthy list of winners, so let’s get to it. The complete list follows.

Best Novel

The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US)

Best Novella

Binti, Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)

Best Novelette

“Folding Beijing”, Hao Jingfang (Uncanny 1-2/15)

Best Short Story

“Cat Pictures Please”, Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, 1/15)

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Black Gate Receives an Alfie Award from George R.R. Martin

Black Gate Receives an Alfie Award from George R.R. Martin

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George RR Martin John O'Neill Alfie Award-small

George RR Martin and John O’Neill

Yesterday, while I was walking through the crowded halls of Worldcon in the Kansas City Convention Center, I was given an invitation to the Hugo Losers party, courtesy of the party’s distinguished host, George RR Martin. I was quite flattered, as Black Gate was not even up for a Hugo (we declined the nomination, as we did last year, to make room for another nominee on the ballot), but didn’t think much more about it.

The Hugo Losers party is the hottest ticket of the convention, as I soon discovered. George personally hands out the Alfie Awards to those Hugo losers whom he feels (quite rightly, I think) were unjustly robbed of an award by slate shenanigans. And this year he spared no expense to do it in style, renting out the Midland Theater, hiring a band, and plying hundreds of guests with fabulous food and drink. The Awards themselves are gorgeous, constructed of vintage hood ornaments, in honor of the design inspiration for the first Hugo Awards.

George funds and hosts the awards, but the Alfie’s are in truth a fan award… the winners are determined by the results of the Hugo voting. But after the first few were awarded, George announced that the Alfie committee had the right to give out special awards. And as the sole member of the committee, he’d decided to give a special award this year to recognize one publication “for integrity” in declining a Hugo nomination two years in a row. Without further ado, George announced the award was to be given to Black Gate, and I was called to the stage to accept it.

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Off to Worldcon

Off to Worldcon

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MidAmeriCon II-small

By the time the Black Gate supercomputer posts this article, I’ll be on a plane to Kansas City, heading to MidAmeriCon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention.

I haven’t been to WorldCon since 2012, when it was held right here in Chicago. That time Black Gate had a big booth in the dealer’s room — staffed by a crack team of BG writers, including Howard Andrew Jones, James Enge, Rich Horton, Donald Crankshaw, Jason Waltz, and Peadar Ó Guilín — selling what would turn out to be our last issue. (Howard has a detailed report with plenty of pics, here.) With the end of the print issue, there’s no point to a booth, so this time it’s just me flying solo. I was too lazy and preoccupied to fill out the programming form, so I’m not even on any panels. If you spot a white-bearded guy shuffling through the dealer’s room asking about copies of Perry Rhodan, it’s probably me.

But if you’re a Black Gate reader attending the con, I’d love to hear from you. Drop a comment below, and I hope to run into you in person. I will post periodic reports from the convention over the next few days, including some selfies with fans. See you there!

Looking for Some Great Summer Reads? Check out The Best of Prime Books

Looking for Some Great Summer Reads? Check out The Best of Prime Books

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Prime summer reads-small

Looking for some great reading to take to the beach in August? Prime Books has you covered. They’ve released one of their highly acclaimed Year’s Best volumes each of the last three months: The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2016, edited by Rich Horton (June), The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2016, edited by Paula Guran (July), and this month it’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas, also by Paula Guran. That ought to keep you busy! (Click each of the images below for more details.)

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John DeNardo on the Best Books of August

John DeNardo on the Best Books of August

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The Hike by Drew Magary-small

Over at Kirkus Reviews, the tireless John DeNardo checks in with his regular monthly report on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Books You’ll Want to Read. This month’s list includes Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal, An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows, Behind the Throne by K. B. Wagers, Early Days: More Tales from the Pulp Era edited by Robert Silverberg, Spellbreaker by Blake Charlton — and the latest novel by Drew Magary, The Hike. Here’s John’s take on The Hike.

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Ben, a suburban family man, sets out for a walk but finds himself on an impossible journey in a fantastical world populated by strange demons, man-eating giants, colossal insects and magic.

WHY YOU MIGHT LIKE IT: Magary’s surreal fantasy novel integrates folk tales and video games into something quirky and fun.

See the complete list here.

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Forbes on the World’s Highest-Paid Authors in 2016

Forbes on the World’s Highest-Paid Authors in 2016

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Along Came a Spider James Patterson-smallForbes magazine is out with its annual round-up of top-paid authors. There aren’t a lot of surprises — but they also estimate the earnings for each writer on the list, and there are some eye-popping numbers. Here’s the top names on the list, as compiled by Natalie Robehmed:

  1. James Patterson – $95 million
  2. Jeff Kinney – $19.5 million
  3. JK Rowling – $19 million
  4. John Grisham – $18 million
  5. Stephen King – $15 million
  6. Danielle Steel – $15 million
  7. Nora Roberts – $15 million
  8. EL James – $14 million
  9. Veronica Roth – $10 million
  10. John Green – $10 million
  11. Paula Hawkins – $10 million
  12. George RR Martin – $9.5 million
  13. Rick Riordan – $9.5 million
  14. Dan Brown – $9.5 million

Robehmed also notes which authors dropped off the list this year… and who may be on their way out:

Newly off the list are Gone Girl‘s Gillian Flynn, The Hunger Games‘ Suzanne Collins and mystery novelist Janet Evanovich, who all saw sales of their catalogs take a dive.

Even George R. R. Martin may be on his way out: HBO has confirmed its Game of Thrones series will conclude after next season. Martin has already spent a half-decade writing the hotly anticipated sixth installment of A Song of Ice and Fire and without a new book, his earnings may falter next year.

See the complete article here.

Chaosium’s Borderlands: Can Playing RPGs Really Make You a Billionaire?

Chaosium’s Borderlands: Can Playing RPGs Really Make You a Billionaire?

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Chaosium Borderlands-small Chaosium Borderlands-back-small

Some of the most treasured possessions in my games library are the boxed adventure supplements published by Chaosium between 1981 – 1986. They include some of the finest adventure gaming products ever made, such as the classic Thieves’ World (1981), Michael Moorcock’s Stormbringer (1981), the brilliant Masks of Nyarlathotep (1984), the Arkham Horror board game (1984), Larry Niven’s Ringworld (1984), the revolutionary King Arthur Pendragon RPG (1985), and H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands (1986).

I bought each as it was released, and over the last 30 years I’ve made a concerted effort to pick up spare (i.e non shrink-wrapped) copies whenever I can find them. I had to give that up about a decade ago, as prices have skyrocketed… copies of many of Chasoium’s early boxed sets in good condition sell for $200 and up these days. A few years back I was lucky enough to find a decent condition copy of Borderlands, an epic campaign for RuneQuest published in 1982, for 40 bucks — a bargain! — and snatched it up. It’s been sitting next to the big green chair where I write all my BG posts ever since, waiting until I have the time to say a few words about it.

Coincidentally, yesterday I stumbled upon a fascinating tidbit at Geek & Sundry that reports that LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman — who recently sold his company to Microsoft, becoming a billionaire in the process — was one of the writers of Borderlands, and in fact was a contributor to Chaosium at a very early age. Here’s the relevant part of the article, written by Ben Riggs and titled “Playing RPGs Can Totally Make You a Billionaire, You Guys.”

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The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in June

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in June

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Osprey Catalaunian FieldsAh, June. Not a bad month at all, now that I look back on it.

For one thing, M Harold Page pointed out how Osprey Publishing made a compelling argument for the true location of the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, otherwise known as the Battle of Chalons, in “OMG They Found It! Osprey’s The Catalaunian Fields AD451.” That casual revelation was enough to catapult Martin’s article to the top of a crowded field, giving him our most popular blog post last month.

I finally had time to compile my lengthy notes on my favorite Chicago con, in “Total Pulp Victory: A Report on Windy City Pulp & Paper 2016, Part I,” our number 2 post for the month. It was followed by a guest blog post by Babylon 5 actress Claudia Christian and author Morgan Grant Buchanan on their first joint project, the ambitious Wolf’s Empire series.

Coming in at number 4 last month was our Vintage Treasures feature on H. Rider Haggard’s The People of the Mist, followed by Derek Kunsken’s look at “Rebirth: DC’s Corrective Reboot.”

Rounding out the Top Ten were Fletcher Vredenburgh’s review of L. Sprague de Camp’s classic S&S tale The Tritonian Ring, our report on a detailed feature on Perry Rhodan in the summer issue of SFX, my look at Asmodee’s Fantasy Empire game Hyperborea, and no less than two articles from William Patrick Maynard: the first installment of his exploration of Marvel’s classic Master of Kung Fu comic, and “The Fu Manchu That Almost Was.”

The complete list of Top Articles for June 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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Black Gate Nominated for a World Fantasy Award

Black Gate Nominated for a World Fantasy Award

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World Fantasy AwardThe 2016 World Fantasy Awards Ballot, compiled by the voting attendees of the World Fantasy Convention, has just been released. And I’m very pleased to note that several contributors to Black Gate feature prominently, including:

Long Fiction — “Farewell Blues,” Bud Webster (BG blogger and poetry editor)
Short Fiction — “Pockets,” Amal El-Mohtar (BG blogger)
Collection — Bone Swans, C.S.E. Cooney (BG website editor)
Special Award, Nonprofessional — John O’Neill, for Black Gate

This is a tremendous honor for Black Gate, and for me personally. The awards will be presented at the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio, on October 30th. I hope to see you there.

The winners in every category are selected by a panel of judges. Here’s the complete list of nominees, with links to our previous coverage:

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John DeNardo: In Defense of Media Tie-Ins (Part 1)

John DeNardo: In Defense of Media Tie-Ins (Part 1)

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Dan Abnett Eisenhorn-smallJohn DeNardo has closed up shop at his Hugo Award-winning blog SF Signal, but he continues to write about SF and fantasy in his regular column at Kirkus Reviews. One of his best recent articles — indeed, one of the most enjoyable blog posts I’ve read in a long time — was his passionate and articulate defense of Media Tie-ins, published on June 15.

As much as I bemoan the poor public of image of science fiction by mainstream readers, there’s an even worse injustice going on. Some people in those very same slighted genre circles are often quick to dismiss a certain type of book: media tie-ins. These are the books that are based on a story most often found in another media (like film, television, and games) but could be sourced from other literary properties as well. These are the Star Wars, Star Trek, and Dungeons and Dragons prose novels that the bookstores like to relegate to the end of the science fiction and fantasy bookshelf section. They are positioned like an appendix in a non-fiction book “in case you’re interested in more reading.” You know, if you’ve run out of other things to read…

So, yes, media tie-ins are worth your time. I’ll even back that up: one of the best set of books I’ve ever read — in any genre — was the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett. The books are set in the richly-imagined Warhammer 40K universe, which is based on the popular role playing game. (Even WH40K itself is an offshoot of the fantasy RPG Warhammer, for which there are even more prose novels.)  Abnett is a one of the most skilled master storytellers you’ve never heard of.  This is the series that I point to when anyone is quick to dismiss tie-in fiction. The fact that it is set in the Warhammer 40K universe is incidental, though if you are familiar with the games, that would be an added bonus when you read them. I don’t play the game, but that didn’t stop me from losing sleep because I couldn’t stop turning page after action-packed page, or cheering when a bad guy finally got his comeuppance.

Read John’s complete article here.

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