Black Gate

Editor John Joseph Adams makes a welcome announcement in his editorial this month.

You might notice something a little different this month in the magazine. That’s because we’re changing the way we select our covers. Previously we sought out existing artwork and licensed it for use on our covers, but henceforth we’ll be commissioning original cover illustrations, based on one of the stories in the issue. First up is Galen Dara, with an illustration of Will McIntosh’s “The Savannah Liars Tour.”

Our current plan is to use a small team of artists we know and like, and rotate among them — and since that means we’ll be repeating the same artists fairly frequently, we’re doing away with the artist spotlight feature. So in lieu of that we’ll be presenting a new rotating nonfiction column, starting with a new movie review column by bestselling author Carrie Vaughn. Carrie’s column will appear a couple times a year (probably quarterly), and we’ll rotate in other nonfiction in the other months; as for what will be in that “slot” next — stay tuned! We’ll have more information about that next month.

Lightspeed has always had fabulous cover art, and I’m delighted to see that it will now showcase the fiction inside as well.

This month Lightspeed has original fantasy from Will McIntosh and Kat Howard, and fantasy reprints by Peter S. Beagle and Leena Krohn, and original SF by JY Yang and the collaborative team of Keith Brooke and Eric Brown, plus SF reprints by Jason Gurley and Kate Bachus. All that plus their usual author spotlights, an interview with J. Michael Straczynski, and book reviews by Andrew Liptak. eBook readers get a bonus reprint of Michael Swanwick’s Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated novella “Griffin’s Egg,” and an excerpt from the new novel Barsk by Lawrence M. Schoen.

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The January 21st issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issue #191, has original short fiction from Chaz Brenchley and D.K. Thompson, a podcast, and a reprint by Dean Wells.

“In Skander, for a Boy” by Chaz Brenchley
I was sure this boy did know a back way to the kitchens. That was his Skander, and his experience: covert, insinuating, conditional. Not mine. “This is my way, my king’s way,” in through the front door to ask straightforwardly for what I wanted. They would see Rulf at my back, and all his ships behind him; they would not refuse me. In and out.

“Blessed are Those Who Have Seen and Do Not Believe” by D.K. Thompson
I chuckled, cracked open my pistol’s cylinder, and loaded it with the wooden ammunition. “Don’t worry, my dear,” I said, and tucked the gun in my waistband. “There’s plenty of time before sunrise.”

Audio Fiction Podcast:
“Blessed are Those Who Have Seen and Do Not Believe” by D.K. Thompson

From the Archives:
“To the Gods of Time and Engines, a Gift” by Dean Wells (from BCS #80, October 20, 2011)
The silent commands were with her all the time now, haunting and familiar.

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The latest issue of Grimdark, the quarterly magazine of dark fantasy, has brand new fiction from a quartet of hot new fantasy writers — including a Manifest Delusions tale by Michael R. Fletcher (set in the world of his novel Beyond Redemption), and a Vault of Heaven story by Peter Orullian (set in the world of Trial of Intentions). The issue also has fiction by T. R. Napper, and an excerpt from Mitchell Hogan’s novel Blood of Innocents.

The latest issue went on sale January 13. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

Short Stories

“At the Walls of Sinnlos” by Michael R. Fletcher
“A Fair Man” by Peter Orullian
“Twelve Minutes to Vinh Quang” by T. R. Napper

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Over at GigaNotoSaurus, editor Rashida J. Smith surveys every single story they published last year, which is awfully handy for latecomers like me who’ve just started following this fabulous magazine.

2015 concluded my second year as editor (officially my first full year of choosing stories) and looking at the stories that did make the cut it’s easier to see themes emerge.

In “Serving Girl,” “The Business of Buying and Selling,” “Blow the Moon Out,” and “Quarter Days,” relationships play an important role in navigating the strange new worlds the protagonists find themselves in.

“The Stars, Their Faces Uplifted in Song” and “And the Ends of the Earth for Thy Possession,” tackle the complexity of faith in distant futures and alternate worlds.

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The January/February issue of F&SF is all about the planet Mars — starting with a great cover, titled “Martian Vortex,” by Bob Eggleton. Here’s editor C.C. Finley:

Usually we start with a story and commission a cover for it but when Bob Eggleton sent us the Martian landscape that adorns this issue, we snatched up the illustration and went looking for stories to match. In the end, we found you not one, but three, all of them very different in tone and focus.

The Three Tales of Mars promised on the cover are by Gregory Benford, Alex Irvine, and Mary Robinette Kowal. The issue also includes stores by Alex Irvine, David Gerrold, Matthew Hughes, Terry Bisson, Albert E. Cowdrey and others.

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

NOVELETS

• “Number Nine Moon” – Alex Irvine
• “The White Piano” – David Gerrold
• “Telltale” – Matthew Hughes

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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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