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Category: Editor’s Blog

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

A Concentrated Dose of the Best Our Field Has to Offer: Jonathan Strahan’s Best Short Novels 2004-2007

A Concentrated Dose of the Best Our Field Has to Offer: Jonathan Strahan’s Best Short Novels 2004-2007

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Best Short Novels 2004-small Best Short Novels 2005-small Best Short Novels 2006-small Best Short Novels 2007-small

Jonathan Strahan is one of the most accomplished and acclaimed editors in the genre. He’s edited the annual Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year since 2007, as well as some of our most highly regarded original anthologies — including the Infinity series (Engineering Infinity, Edge of Infinity, etc) and the Fearsome books (Fearsome Journeys and Fearsome Magics), all for Solaris. He’s also edited (with Terry Dowling) one of my favorite ongoing series, the five volumes in the monumental Early Jack Vance from Subterranean Press.

But the work that truly made me a Strahan fan was a brief (four volume) series he did exclusively for the Science Fiction Book Club, Best Short Novels. I’d been a member of the SFBC since the age of twelve but, after leaving Canada for grad school in 1987 and moving around after that, I’d let my membership lapse. I received plenty of invites to rejoin after settling here in St. Charles, but it was Strahan’s first volume in the series, Best Short Novels: 2004, that finally enticed me to do it. I’ve never regretted it.

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John DeNardo’s The Best of the Best of 2015’s Science-Fiction and Fantasy Books

John DeNardo’s The Best of the Best of 2015’s Science-Fiction and Fantasy Books

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Three Moments of an Explosion China Miéville-smallAh, the end of the year. It comes with all those fascinating Best-of-the-Year lists, written by people who read waaaay more than I do. I always tell myself I’ll at least mention them all here at Black Gate, because damn it would be cool if I were that on top of things. But then there’s all those Christmas parties, and my kids want me to watch Big Hero 6 with them (again), and really, that’s such an awesome movie. So, uh, yeah. Didn’t get to it. Maybe next year.

Fortunately, the tireless John DeNardo works much harder than me. He doesn’t go to Christmas parties, or watch movies. Ever. Or sleep, apparently. No, he read every single one of those Best SF & Fantasy of the Year lists. The ones that matter anyway:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Los Angeles Times
NPR
Publishers Weekly
The Guardian
The Washington Post
Kirkus Reviews

But then — because he has to show off — he did, like, math and stuff on those lists. (Well, addition, which counts as math.) He added up how many times each book appeared. And then he constructed a SUPER LIST, of the Best of the Best of 2015’s Science-Fiction and Fantasy Books. Just like those scientist guys who built Robocop.

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John DeNardo’s 2015 Science-Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Holiday Gift Guide

John DeNardo’s 2015 Science-Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Holiday Gift Guide

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Spectrum 22-smallWell, Christmas is over, the gifts are (mostly) unwrapped and, barring that one uncle who always seems to be traveling on Christmas, all the presents have been exchanged. Which means it’s finally safe to look at gift-giving guides again (I don’t know about you, but all the best ones seem to pop up just as I finish my shopping.) After all, you need some suggestions on what to spend those gift certificates on, right?

Perhaps the best guide I found this year was John DeNardo’s 2015 Science-Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Holiday Gift Guide, published in two parts over at Kirkus Reviews. What makes it so cool? It’s packed with deluxe comics, Star Trek and Stars Wars books, cool merchandise, and lots more. Here’s his suggestions for how to spend on the art lover in your life.

The go-to gift for your visually oriented loved ones is an art book. Science fiction and fantasy fans would adore Spectrum 22: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by John Fleskes. Its 300 pages are jam-packed with an amazingly diverse selection of art, especially considering that they are all spectacular. It’s is a book you’ll pick up again and again. Or maybe your giftee leans toward the creepy? The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History by Stephen Jones is a visual feast aimed at lovers of horror. It contains an endlessly impressive selection of horror art since the late 19th century. Every page deserves multiple visits.

John has so many ideas, he had to split his list into two parts.

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Merry Christmas From All of Us at Black Gate

Merry Christmas From All of Us at Black Gate

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Black Gate Christmas Tree 2015-smallI woke up this morning the same way I have on Christmas morning for the last 18 years: to the excited screams of children telling Alice and me to get out of bad, Santa has come. Ten years ago, I thought I had only a few more years of this. Turns out teenagers love to shout on Christmas morning even more than toddlers.

Well, at least it got me up early. After all the presents were unwrapped, and we’d all snacked on Alice’s delicious Christmas quiche, I dropped by the Black Gate offices to pick up some review titles. It’s when the office is virtually deserted like this — lit only by the glow from the tiny tree the interns put on top of the filing cabinets — that I’m reminded of the early days, when BG was launched with all the hope and optimism in the world back in 2000.

We’ve grown tremendously since then. The print version is gone, but our staff, and our readership, has grown tremendously. Fifteen years ago Black Gate was a humble magazine with a tiny circulation. Now we’re a sprawling international collective of writers and artists working together to promote forgotten classics, celebrate overlooked modern writers, and promote each other.

2015 was a momentous year for us. We received our first Hugo Award nomination, and surpassed a million page views/month for the first time in our history. Over the years Black Gate has helped launch the careers of a great many talented writers, and that hasn’t changed since we switched to an online venue. Drop by if you’re interested in discovering some of the very best new and classic fantasy. I guarantee you, we’ll point you towards something that will delight you.

The engine of our growth has been you, the fans, who’ve enthusiastically spread the word about us. So thank you once again, 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.

Barnes and Noble Picks the Best SF and Fantasy of 2015

Barnes and Noble Picks the Best SF and Fantasy of 2015

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Twelve Kings in Sharakhai-small2The closer we get to the end of the year, the more Best of the Year lists start popping up. Some are more reliable than others, however.

I’ve had good luck with Barnes & Noble’s lists, which have steered me towards some excellent fiction in years past. This year their Best Science-Fiction & Fantasy of 2015 is authored by Joel Cunningham, and it includes the acclaimed first volume in Bradley P. Beaulieu’s ambitious new fantasy series, Twelve Kings in Sharakhai.

Beaulieu launches his second epic fantasy trilogy (following The Lays of Anuskaya) with the story of 19-year-old Çeda, a gladiator in the fighting pits of Sharakhai, a desert kingdom ruled over by 12 immortal lords who live in luxury while their subjects must scrape to survive. Determined to avenge her mother, who was executed by the Twelve Kings, Çeda schemes and searches for a way to upset their ironclad rule — and comes to uncover hidden truths about the source of their power, and her own destiny, that could upset the balance of the entire world. Beaulieu’s intricate world-building and complex characters are quickly becoming the hallmarks of his writing, and if this opening volume is any indication, The Song of the Shattered Sands will be one of the next great fantasy epics. Read our review.

The list also includes Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente, The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher, Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear, Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, by Kai Ashante Wilson, Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman, Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel José Older, and many others.

See the complete list here.

The Robot’s Voice Goes Silent

The Robot’s Voice Goes Silent

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The Robots VoiceIt hasn’t been a good month to be a genre media site.

Less than a month after io9 announced it would be absorbed by Gizmodo, pop-media site The Robot’s Voice (formerly Topless Robot) abruptly announced late yesterday that was shuttering its doors. In his goodbye message, “So Long, and Thanks For All the WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS,” editor Luke Y. Thompson wrote:

I’ve given this site formerly known as Topless Robot three years of my life and hard work, and I wouldn’t trade them. I hoped that covering the subjects and culture that I love would sustain the site. For three years, it has — the three years it took to make The Force Awakens, no less. But all things must end. Today is the The Robot’s Voice’s final day of publication. After years of trying, we couldn’t make this work financially…

To my competition in the nerd-blogging world: I was mostly a one-man show, and I managed to go toe-to-toe with all of you for three years. That’s not too bad, right?

I don’t know where I’ll land next. I own a couple of URLs that I might use to start a project of my own, and no doubt somebody can put me to work writing about movies somewhere.

Topless Robot was founded in 2008 by Rob Bricken and Bill Jensen, and was renamed The Robot’s Voice in September 2015 in an attempt to become more mainstream. It is owned by Village Voice Media, the holding company that once owned The Village Voice. Read Thompson’s goodbye message here.

“Let’s Never Do That Again”: Check Out The First Trailer For Star Trek Beyond

“Let’s Never Do That Again”: Check Out The First Trailer For Star Trek Beyond

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Now that J.J. Abrams, who directed the last two Star Trek movies, is off doing Star Wars, Paramount Pictures has brought in Justin Lin, the director of Fast & Furious, to helm the latest installment. This one sees the crew — at long last — starting their five-year mission to explore the frontier, which certainly piques my interest.

I’ve come to accept that this new generation of Star Trek is far removed from the cerebral TV show I remember. Abrams and his Fringe writing partners Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have instead turned the property into an action-movie franchise, with fist fights, explosions, and a pounding rock soundtrack. On the other hand, the script this time was co-authored by Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty and who previously wrote Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End, so that a least promises a fresh perspective. Have a look at the first trailer, just released this morning, and let me know what you think.

Star Trek Beyond is being produced by Skydance and Bad Robot Productions, and will arrive in theaters on July 22, 2016.

Collecting Karl Edward Wagner

Collecting Karl Edward Wagner

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I’ve been enjoying gathering data for my informal survey of paperback prices for some of the most popular and collectible 20th Century science fiction and fantasy authors — mostly because it means shopping for vintage books on eBay. As I said in the last installment, I was a little surprised at the demand for Robert A. Heinlein, but at least I knew he’d be near the top of the list. He wasn’t at the top, however. Setting aside Phil K. Dick, so far the most expensive author I’ve collected recently is Karl Edward Wagner, whose collections sell for around $6.40/book, roughly a 30% premium over Heinlein.

32 books by Arthur C. Clarke $27.00 $0.84/book
35 books by Isaac Asimov $82.17 $2.35/book
51 books by Robert A. Heinlein $255.00 $5.00/book
11 books by Karl Edward Wagner $70.55 $6.41/book
56 books by Philip K. Dick $536.99 $9.59/book

The 11 paperback books above sold on eBay on September 27 for $70.55, making Karl Edward Wagner the most expensive author in our survey so far, outside Phil Dick.

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BuzzFeed Names the 32 Best Fantasy Books Of 2015

BuzzFeed Names the 32 Best Fantasy Books Of 2015

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Half-Resurrection Blues-smallAh, the end of the year, when Best of the Year lists start to arrive in earnest, and we learn which novels are jockeying for front-runner status for major awards. Most lists limit themselves to 10, but this week the editors at BuzzFeed bravely cataloged “The 32 Best Fantasy Books Of 2015.” Their list includes plenty of titles we’ve enthused about at Black Gate in the past few months, including The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson, and Twelve Kings in Sharakhai by Bradley P. Beaulieu. It also highlights a few we’ve somehow overlooked, such as Daniel José Older’s Half-Resurrection Blues, the opening novel in his Bone Street Rumba series:

A dark urban fantasy that explores the world between dead and living through the eyes of Carlos Delacruz, an agent of the New York Council of the Dead who, as an “inbetweener,” knows a little something about both worlds. Delacruz works to solve a mystery that threatens to bring these two worlds dangerously close together in this engaging beginning to a promising new series.

And Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Signal to Noise:

The charming debut novel from Silvia Moreno-Garcia alternates between 1988 and 2009 in Mexico City to uncover the circumstances behind why heroine Meche’s beautiful childhood friendships fell apart, and whether there is a chance she can mend these broken bonds. Meche’s ability to cast spells using songs makes this fascinating read as much a meditation on the incredible power of music as it is an exploration of why some friendships disintegrate, and whether they can be put back together again.

The list was compiled by Tanner Greenring, Isaac Fitzgerald, and Jack Shepherd on the BuzzFeed Staff. Read the complete article here.

David W. Wixon on Editing The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak

David W. Wixon on Editing The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak

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I Am Crying All Inside-smallTwo months ago I was thrilled to announce the impending publication of the first six volumes of The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak, edited by David W. Wixon, the Executor of the Literary Estate and a close friend of Simak’s. The lack of a complete collection of Simak’s short stories has been an aggravation to serious fans, so this massive project from Open Road Media — a comprehensive collection of all of Simak’s short stories, including his science fiction, fantasy, and westerns — was cause for celebration. Over the last few months there’s been a lot of excitement in the industry about the project, and Paul Di Filippo asked if “The Simak Renaissance was finally here.”

Wixon stopped by Black Gate yesterday, and he was gracious enough to answer some of the questions we posed in our first article, particularly on the digital pricing (the announced prices are a little wonky: $14.99 for volume 1, $7.99 for volumes 2 and 3, and $9.99 for volumes 4-6. As I said in the article, even $9.99 seems a little high for 8-10 stories/volume. ) Wixon commented:

I’m not sure of the policy behind Open Road’s pricing, but they assure me that they will deal with the issues you’ve raised.

On exactly how many volumes are in the series:

There will be 14 volumes of the complete Simak short fiction.

He also elaborated in more detail on how he selected and sorted the contents for each volume.

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