Black Gate

The tenth issue of the online-only Fantasy Scroll Magazine, cover dated December 2015, is now available. In his editorial Iulian Ionescu’s celebrates the release of their Year One anthology, Dragons, Droids and Doom, and points out that in Year Two Fantasy Scroll published 55 short stories from 53 authors, totaling 181,000 words of fiction.

Iulian also provides his usual sneak peek of the contents of the issue. Here’s a snippet:

We start with “The Genie and the Inquisitor,” a new and fresh take on the genie myth by Johnny Compton, partly funny and partly horrific, but definitely bone-chilling. “The Hummingbird Air” by Paul Roberge is next, a fantasy story that follows the path of a boy and his growth into a man, ready to deliver a life-long awaited revenge.

Next is “The Empty Faux-Historical Residential Unit” by Rachel Hochberg, a science fiction story that takes place in a future dominated by robots, but brings us back into an old-fashion London scene. Jeremy Szal delights us in his epic fantasy story “Last Age of Kings”; there’s a lot of bloody action in this story, but also depth of character, all happening in an interesting setting.

“Kara’s Ares” is another science fiction story, by Clint Spivey, who follows the struggle of a mission to Mars and its aftermath. For some comic relief, we follow with “Protecting Nessie” by Hank Quense, who tells the story of three sisters with magical powers, fighting hard to defend the pet of their queen. “Dancing an Elegy, His Own” by Julie Novakova is next — a science fiction story that focuses more on the relationship between characters than on the setting, creating an emotionally loaded atmosphere, and closing with an unexpected twist.

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The January 7th issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issue #190, has original short fiction from Mike Allen and Walter Dinjos, a podcast, and a reprint by Ann Chatham.

“Longsleeves” by Mike Allen
Never before had she run with such speed or such fear, caroming off trees, tearing through brush, ripping loose the roots that hooked her feet, until she caught up to Hundeil. Both were wheezing with exhaustion when they reached the gnarled behemoth of a tree that proved to be Olderra’s dwelling. Its bark parted like curtains to admit them.

“The Mama Mmiri” by Walter Dinjos
It had been a fortnight since Ugo’s burial, and the vacuum I felt within me grew ever larger. I jumped out of bed most nights with screams that made mama down two cupfuls of Mazi Ike’s supposedly heart-mellowing concoction every day, and I couldn’t continue huddling under the avocado tree beside Ugo’s grave every other night weeping.

Audio Fiction Podcast:
The Mama Mmiri by Walter Dinjos
I longed for someone with whom I could engage in our papaya-pipe-gun battles in the surrounding forests.

From the Archives:
“A Marble for the Drowning River” by Ann Chatham (from BCS #94, May 3, 2012)
I was afraid to say anything, but my mouth said, “please don’t kill her” without making any sound.

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In his December Short Story Roundup, Fletcher Vredenburgh gives as eloquent a summary as I’ve seen for the vital importance of short fiction to fantasy, and in particular to sword & sorcery:

Before I get into the reviews, I thought I’d say a little about why I’ve made it a major part of my writing to review and publicize S&S short stories. While there have been good S&S novels… the beating heart of the genre has always been short stories. From that opening blast of thunder in REH’s “The Shadow Kingdom” — and through the decades in the works of authors as diverse as C.L. Moore, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, and Charles Saunders — it’s been in short stories that the genre’s been best displayed.

The hallmarks of swords & sorcery are adventure, dark fantasy, horror, and a narrow focus on only a few characters, bound together in a narrative that reads like a shot of mainlined adrenaline. In the very best stories — KEW’s “Reflections for the Winter of My Soul,” for example — they’re all present. Not that there can’t be structural complexity, finely detailed characters, or exquisitely tooled prose, but it must be exciting. Detours into side-plots, passages meticulously describing feasts, too many secondary and tertiary characters all put brakes on the action. Limited to fifteen or thirty pages, the focus is on the protagonist and his or her immediate situation…

The very best stories I have read in my years of reviewing S&S are the ones that come closest to meeting the demands I’ve put out above. There are dozens of authors working like mad to create stories that will thrill and chill you, and grab you out of the safety of your comfy chair for a little while. It’s those tellers of tales I’m on constant watch for and hoping to hip readers to. I want S&S to continue as a living, breathing genre, not one content to exist as a museum for forty- or seventy-year-old stories.

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Neil Clarke uses his editorial this issue to announce the 2015 Reader’s Poll and Contest. Vote for your favorite Clarkesworld story and cover art, and you could win one of three copies of Clarkesworld: Year Eight (publishing this month). Voting is open now through February 23rd, and the results will be announced in the March issue. Cast your votes here!

Issue #112 of Clarkesworld has four new stories by Robert Reed, E. Catherine Tobler, Rich Larson, and Bao Shu, and two reprints by Robert Silverberg and Megan Lindholm.

Short stories featured this issue are:

“The Algorithms of Value” by Robert Reed
“The Abduction of Europa” by E. Catherine Tobler
“Extraction Request” by Rich Larson
“Everybody Loves Charles” by Bao Shu
“The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale” by Robert Silverberg (from Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance, 2009.)
“Old Paint” by Megan Lindholm (from Asimov’s Science Fiction, July 2012)

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I’m hearing reliable reports that Black Static #49, published in Britain and shipped across the pond to eager readers here in America, is now available around the country.

Issue #49 is cover-dated November/December, and contains six stories:

“Dirt Land” by Ralph Robert Moore
“Going To The Sun Mountain” by Thana Niveau
“The Toilet” by Stephen Hargadon
“Gramma Tells A Story” by Erinn L. Kemper
“The Ice Plague” by Tim Lees
“The Climb” by Simon Bestwick

The magazine’s regular columns include Coffinmaker’s Blues by Stephen Volk and Notes From the Borderland by Lynda E. Rucker, plus two review columns: Blood Spectrum by Tony Lee (DVD/Blu-ray reviews); and Case Notes by Peter Tennant (book reviews). Their review columns are a model for anyone who wants to see how to do attractive magazine layout, with plenty of book covers, movie stills, and behind-the-scenes pics.

Issue 49 is nearly 100 pages and comes packed with new dark fantasy and horror, and top-notch art. Black Static is the sister magazine of Interzone (see the latest issue here); both are published by TTA Press in the UK. The distinguished Andy Cox is the editor of both.

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We don’t regularly cover Analog here at at Black Gate, on account of the fact that it’s a hard science fiction magazine, and we generally focus on fantasy. But December brought us the big January/February double issue, with a robot western from Wil McCarthy (the novella “Wyatt Earp 2.0”) and stories from James Gunn, George Zebrowski, and Caroline M. Yoachim and Tina Connolly, plus a guest editorial by Howard Hendrix, and I just couldn’t resist. You’re welcome.

Here’s editor Trevor Quachri’s description from the website.

The new year is traditionally a time to look ahead and let go of the past, but sometimes, the past can provide a solution to a problem in the here and now.

In this issue’s lead story, the “here and now” is Mars in the future, and the key piece of the past is… well, the title of the story should give it away. Join us for “Wyatt Earp 2.0,” from Wil McCarthy.

Edward M. Lerner returns to his science-behind-the-stories series of articles with a subject so big, a single installment couldn’t contain it: human augmentation. Part I of “Human 2.0: Being All We Can Be” hits this month.

Of course we also have a slew of pieces varied and wonderful, as befits our first double-issue of the year, including “We Will Wake Among The Gods, Among the Stars,” by Caroline M. Yoachim and Tina Connolly, “Farmer” by J.M. McDermott, “Rocket Surgery” by Effie Sieberg, “Saving the World: A Semi-Factual Tale” by James Gunn, “Time Out” by Norman Spinrad, “The Persistence of Memory” by Rachel L. Bowden, “Theories of Mind” by Conor Powers-Smith, “Nature’s Eldest Law,” by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, “The Heat of Passion” by Grey Rollins, “Woundings” by George Zebrowski, “The Shores of Being” by Dave Creek, and “An Industrial Growth” by David L. Clements, not to mention columns galore.

And here’s the complete Table of Contents.

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Issue 47 of Swords and Sorcery Magazine, cover-dated December 2015, is now available. Each issue of contains two short stories, and is available free online. This issue features brand new fiction from Dan DeFazio and Frank Martinicchio. Here’s the issue summary from editor Curtis Ellett:

“The Death of the Bastard D’Uvel,” by Dan DeFazio, tells a tale of daring deeds, black magic, and questionable morality. DeFazio’s work has previously been published in Dungeon Magazine. This is his first story in Swords & Sorcery.

“Arbor,” by Frank Martinicchio, is the tale of a young man who finds an unexpected mentor. Martinicchio has previously been published in Tincture Journal.

I was glad to see that, after months of searching, Curtis has found a suitable number of volunteers to help him select the contents of a Best of Swords and Sorcery Magazine anthology.

Fletcher Vredenburgh reviewed issue #46 in his November Short Story Roundup, with particular praise for “Last Stand at Wellworm’s Pass” by Nick Ozment, which he called “a perfect dose of old school storytelling… Any S&S story that can stuff in werewolves, demons, and djinns is alright by me.” Read the current issue here. We last covered Swords and Sorcery Magazine with Issue #46.

See our Late-December Fantasy Magazine Rack here, and all of our recent magazine coverage here.

The December 24th issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issue #189, has original short fiction from David Tallerman and James Lecky, a podcast, and a reprint (from issue #79) by Kat Howard.

“A Killer of Dead Men” by David Tallerman
Otranto didn’t hesitate. On some level, he realized, he had been anticipating this moment, or one like it, for a very long time. “The punishment for failure should be death by my own hand.”

“So Strange the Trees” by James Lecky
Alquen waited there, sitting in the lee of a tall elm, for three hours, barely aware of time passing. He wore his finest clothes: a blue silk shirt with only two threadbare places, black tunic and breeches covered with a burgundy cloak. He felt ridiculous and handsome at the same time.

Audio Fiction Podcast:
“A Killer of Dead Men by David Tallerman
Otranto knew better than to ask why any man must die.

From the Archives:
“The Calendar of Saints” by Kat Howard (from BCS #79, October 6, 2011)
I accept mortal commissions; I’ve killed before.

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