Black Gate

In her editorial in the latest issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction, Sheila Williams pens a passionate and thoughtful defense of Young Adult fiction.

I’m used to being told that the engineering in one story is too realistic or the fantasy in another too pervasive. The critic will avow that the tale would have been better off in Analog or F&SF. On rarer occasions, I have been criticized for featuring tales about children and young adults. The implication is that Asimov’s is a magazine for adults, which means the tales should all be about adults as well. This last criticism has always been the one that most surprises me.

It’s hard to imagine a magazine that purports to cover all the conditions of humanity not covering the early years every so often. Any reader of Asimov’s has certainly experienced childhood and the ’tween years. Many of the issues that faced us then reverberate throughout our lives. With any luck, some of our readers picked up the magazine as precocious young adults….

It can be argued that there are two types of stories about young protagonists. One is really written for the adult who is looking back on those early years…. The other seems to be written specifically for the child or young adult… I’ve also enjoyed many works that fall into the second category… That young people will learn much about the world from reading adult literature does not mean that adults can’t find pleasure and illumination in works that were primarily written for the young.

Hear, hear! You tell ’em, Sheila. I discovered Asimov’s with the Summer 1977 issue at the tender age of 12, and the fact that the magazine was very friendly to young readers was a huge plus for me. I hope it continues to attract young readers, and having an occasional YA component to the fiction is a huge piece of that.

Read Sheila’s complete editorial here.

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I was very pleased to see Goblin Fruit, the online magazine of poetry of the fantastical, return after a one-year hiatus (does one year even count as a hiatus? If that’s true, Black Gate took a hiatus after virtually every issue!) March looks like it has plenty other good surprises in store for short fiction fans — stay tuned. For our vintage magazine readers, Rich Horton took a look at the June and July 1960 issues of Amazing Science Fiction Stories, containing James Blish’s complete novel …And All the Stars a Stage. And Matthew Wuertz continued his issue-by-issue re-read of Galaxy with March 1953.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our February Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

As we’ve mentioned before, all of these magazines are completely dependent on fans and readers to keep them alive. Many are marginal operations for whom a handful of subscriptions may mean the difference between life and death. Why not check one or two out, and try a sample issue? There are magazines here for every budget, from completely free to $35/issue. If you find something intriguing, I hope you’ll consider taking a chance on a subscription. I think you’ll find it’s money very well spent.

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After a one-year hiatus, online magazine Goblin Fruit has returned. Hurrah! They address their missing year in this issue’s Note from the Editors:

We sowed Winter, and we reaped it for a year.

We lay fallow. We withdrew. We shrank into the earth and tucked our roots about us. We shut our eyes, huddled into the brittle dark, and we sank.

While Winter rimed the waves, we sank. While Spring warmed the earth, we sank. While Summer ripened the grain, we sank. While Autumn fell about us in riotous colour, we sank, until the circle of our Winter closed, and we found ourselves in a Deep Place.

We are forbidden to speak of where we went. We are forbidden to speak of what was spoke. We are forbidden from sharing anything but our own words and the fruit of the labour we took with us, the triumph of our trade.

Goblin Fruit is a quarterly online magazine that publishes poetry of the fantastical, poetry “that treats mythic, surreal, fantasy and folkloric themes, or approaches other themes in a fantastical way.” Each quarter has a theme and a feature artist. This issue, art by Grant Jeffery frames poems by Isabel Yap, Jane Yolen, Kelly Rose Pflug-Back, Sonya Taaffe, Toby MacNutt, and many others.

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The February issue of online magazine Nightmare contains original short stories from Rose Hartley and Dennis Etchison, and reprints from Seanan McGuire and Adam L. G. Nevill.

Original Stories

“No Other Men in Mitchell” by Rose Hartley
If I’m gonna tell this story, I’m gonna have to start with the men. In Queensland — right in the middle of it, bum-fuck-nowhere is the word — there’s a town called Mitchell. It has two pubs and a mechanic who services the road trains that pass through, and its only claim to fame is birthing Australia’s shortest-serving Prime Minister ever. I got to know Mitchell’s mechanic while I was driving road trains over the Warrego Highway between South Australia and Queensland.

“Princess” by Dennis Etchison
When the woman flips the visor down, a weak glow flickers on around the mirror. She reaches above her head for the dome light. “Turn it off,” the driver tells her. “I have to check my makeup.” “Off.” He squints at the road and the taillights smearing past like wet blood cells in the fog. “Can’t see where I’m going with that thing on.” “Walter, please…” The driver lifts one fist from the steering wheel and finds the switch in the headliner. Behind him, tiny electronic voices chirp in the dark.

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In his editorial this month, Jason Sizemore gives us the scoop on the February issue.

Welcome to issue 81… it’s an issue rich with imagination and strange worlds.

What kid on the cusp of becoming an adult doesn’t look forward to the day when they’re able to travel past the bounds of childhood? Daniel Rosen takes that concept and, because this is Apex Magazine, adds a disconcerting and thought provoking twist. We welcome Betsy Phillips and Benjanun Sriduangkaew back to our pages. Betsy’s story feels particularly timely due to the recent 1.5 billion dollar Powerball Lottery drawing…. Wrapping up our fiction selections, we present a reprint of “On the Occasion of My Retirement,” a novelette by Nick Mamatas receiving its digital debut inside Apex Magazine.

Our poetry this month comes courtesy of Heather Morris, Mike Jewett, Crystal Lynn Hilbert, and Laurel Dixon. Russell Dickerson interviews cover artist David Demaret. Andrea Johnson interviews Benjanun Sriduangkaew regarding her avant-garde and poetic fiction output.

Our podcast fiction this month is “Four Gardens of Fate” by Betsy Phillips. Finally, enjoy an excerpt from Glitch Rain by Alex Livingston, the latest book from Apex Publications. Many of our regular readers will recognize Livingston for his story “Proximity” from issue 73. Glitch Rain is set in the same universe as “Proximity.”

Here’s the complete TOC.

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Editor John Joseph Adams talks about his latest big project in his editorial this month.

We’re currently in the midst of crowdfunding our next Destroy project. In 2014, we asked women to destroy science fiction, and they did — spectacularly — in our first crowdfunded, all-women special issue, Women Destroy Science Fiction!. Then, in 2015, we asked queers to destroy science fiction, they did — again, spectacularly — in Queers Destroy Science Fiction!

This year, we’re turning the reins over to People of Colo(u)r, with People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction!, guest edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Kristine Ong Muslim. Joining Nalo and Kristine will be a team of wonderful POC creatives, including Nisi Shawl (reprint editor), Berit Ellingsen (flash fiction editor), Sunil Patel (personal essays editor), Grace Dillon (nonfiction editor), and more!

We launched our Kickstarter campaign on January 18 and surpassed our original goal in just a manner of hours. Our first day’s totals surpassed that of QDSF and WDSF, and as I write this (on the evening of January 31), we’re currently at nearly $26K (518% of our original goal). Thanks so much to all of you who have supported the project thus far!

Our two biggest stretch goals are the same as last year: If we receive enough pledges, we’ll not only publish POC Destroy Science Fiction!, we’ll also publish additional special issues POC Destroy Horror! (at $30K) and POC Destroy Fantasy! (at $40K).

The kickstarter wrapped up on February 18, blowing through virtually all of the stretch goals and raising $51,734. I’m looking forward to seeing these special issues of Lightspeed and, just as we always have, we’ll report on them here.

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The February 18th issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies features original short fiction from Dean Wells and Andrew F. Sullivan, a podcast, and a reprint by Black Gate author Brian Dolton (author of “What Chains Bind Us,” from BG 15). The cover art, “Plains of Another World,” is by Leon Tukker.

“And the Blessing of the Angels Came Upon Them” by Dean Wells
Peavey could not fault his grandson Moot’s skill nor the beauty of the boy’s sculpture. No, it was the subject matter that cut into his heart, even now. Moot cherished his beliefs so deeply; if his faith were ever shaken, it would surely devastate him. He was so very much like his grandmother in that regard.

“Salt Circles” by Andrew F. Sullivan
From this window, we watched the man’s whip rise again and the back hoof of the mare collide with his thin throat in the same instant. The man crumpled down into the festering street as gouts of blood spouted from his neck. No one came to claim his body. Below us in the alley, rats and dogs or rat-sized dogs emerged slowly. They began to sip at the red puddles around him.

Audio Fiction Podcast
“And the Blessing of the Angels Came Upon Them” by Dean Wells
Consuming the native crustaceans had given rise to bone cancers and rotting ulcers of the skin, from which death was a cruel relief.

From the Archives
“The Sacrifice Pit” by Brian Dolton (from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #16, May 7, 2009)
She was beautiful. But it was forbidden, in the eyes of the Tetharan.

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