Black Gate

The ninth issue of the online-only Fantasy Scroll Magazine, cover dated October 2015, is now available.

The first order of business in Iulian Ionescu’s editorial is an update on their upcoming Year One anthology, Dragons, Droids and Doom, which contains every story from their first year, including tales by Ken Liu, Piers Anthony, Rachel Pollack, Hank Quense, William Meikle, Cat Rambo, and Mike Resnick. It will be available in both print and as an ebook, and will be officially launched at PhilCon on November 22.

Iulian also provides his usual sneak peek of the contents of issue #9 in his editorial. Here’s a snippet:

We begin with “Thomas Lynne,” a fantasy short story by Jordan Taylor. The author transports us in a southern-US setting filled with fantasy elements that weave naturally with the character’s story. Next is “When Angels Wear Butterfly Wings,” a bone-chilling flash story by Stone Showers, followed by the equally bone-chilling “Sea Found” by L R Hieber. You can learn more about L R Hieber in the interview section.

“Fountain” is next, a science fiction story by Lynda Clark, describing a post-apocalyptic, dog eat dog world where everyone is struggling to survive. Next is “Beneath the Raven’s Wing” by Rebecca Birch, a story that follows a young, female protagonist as she is faced with powers beyond her understanding. Shane Halbach’s “Exit Strategy” follows, a story filled with humor, thievery, and dragons.

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Warren Lapine’s new magazine venture Fantastic Stories began publishing in August 2014. If the name sounds familiar, it’s probably because the magazine evolved from the fondly-remembered digest Fantastic Stories, published from 1952-1980 by Ziff-Davis as a companion to Amazing Stories. The new version continues the numbering scheme from the original, starting with issue #219 (August 2014).

Fantastic ceased publication in 1980 when owner (and Dungeons & Dragons publisher) TSR folded it into Amazing Stories. In 1999, the name and logo were briefly revived as the new title for Edward J. McFadden’s Pirate Writings magazine, also published by Warren Lapine’s DNA Publications, starting with issue #16 (Spring 2000). That magazine died in October 2005 and, for a time, the name died with it.

Obviously Lapine couldn’t bear to have the name lie fallow for long. The new Fantastic Stories of the Imagination is a free webzine that publishes original and reprint science fiction and fantasy from both established authors and up-and-coming talent, as well as reviews and commentary. An ebook version is available for all major publishing platforms, and the publisher also produces a yearly omnibus anthology.

The September-October issue, #230, contains two short stories by Dario Ciriello and Beth Cato, flash fiction, and reviews by Carole McDonnell, Adam-Troy Castro, Steven Sawicki, and Gillian Daniels. See the complete TOC here.

Fantastic Stories of the Imagination is edited by Warren Lapine and published by Wilder Publications. It is available free online, and in a variety of digital formats for $2.99. Check out all the details at the website.

We last covered Fantastic Stories with Rich Horton’s retro-reviews of the June 1965 issue, and our look at the anthology Fantastic Stories: Tales of the Weird & Wondrous (with a survey of dozens of covers from the 50s and 60s).

Our mid-October Fantasy Magazine Rack is here. See all of our recent fantasy magazine coverage here.

The December issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction contains a big new novella from Greg Egan, plus stories by M. Bennardo, Robert Reed, Rich Larson, and others. Here’s the description from the website:

You’ll find a brilliant new novella from Hugo-Award–winning author Greg Egan in our December 2015 issue. The tale combines awesome concepts for putting the asteroid belt’s orbital mechanics to work for humanity with the staggering cost of a civil war on Vesta. You won’t soon forget the brave men and women who struggle to survive in “The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred.”

Hugo-Award–winning author Robert Reed considers the stark implications of the Fermi Paradox in “Empty”; new to Asimov’s author Rich Larson has a gleeful take on an audacious “Bidding War”; new author Julian Mortimer Smith maroons a young man off the Labrador coast with an unearthly “Come-From-Aways”; newish author Garrett Ashley continues the nautical theme with a story about thrill-seeking boys who tempt fate by “Riding the Waves of Leviathan”; another newish author, Amanda Forrest, escorts us into the Himalayas for the bittersweet tale “Of Apricots and Dying”; and M. Bennardo contemplates a very bad decision in “We Jump Down Into the Dark.”

Non-fiction this month includes Robert Silverberg’s Reflections column, which examines Non-Asimovian Robots; Peter Heck’s On Books, which looks at new books by James Morrow, Peter F. Hamilton, Carolyn Ives Gilman (“put Gilman on your list of writers to watch”), Alan Smale, and others; an editorial by Sheila Williams, and poetry.

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Issue 45 of Swords and Sorcery Magazine, cover-dated October 2015, is now available.

In his editorial Frost & Fire, editor Curtis Ellett repeats his call for volunteers to help him select the contents of a Best of Swords and Sorcery Magazine anthology:

I have long been considering putting together an anthology of the best stories that have appeared in Swords & Sorcery. At this point it is likely to consist of stories from the first four years, which will end with issue 48 in January. One sticking point is that I don’t want to do the choosing. I’ve had the sole responsibility of choosing the stories that have appeared in Swords & Sorcery, I want someone else to judge them now. Three to five someones, in fact. One brave soul has contacted me to volunteer. If you would like to join him on this editorial board, please contact me at the above email address. The job will pay nothing but the satisfaction of a job well done and your name in the book.

If you’re interested, contact Curtis at editor@swordsandsorcerymagazine.com.

Each issue of Swords and Sorcery Magazine contains two short stories, and is available free online. This issue contains stories by Rob Francis and Daniel Hand.

Here’s the complete table of contents, with story links.

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Neil Clarke’s editorial in the latest issue of Clarkesworld (a sequel of sorts to last issue’s editorial, “The Sad Truth About Short Fiction Reviews“) is titled “The Sad Truth About Short Fiction Magazines.”

Did you know that there are only three genre fiction magazines that completely support themselves from the revenue they generate? These are Analog, Asimov’s, and the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, collectively known as the Big Three. Others, like Tor.com and Subterranean (now closed), are supported by the revenue of their parent companies. Below them are four more groups: the non-profits (like Strange Horizons and Beneath Ceaseless Skies); the hobbyists or beginners (typically characterized by low or no pay for authors); the aspirants (they pay authors SFWA-qualifying rates or better, but haven’t found reliable way to cover that cost); and the conceivable (the aspirants that have learned to generate enough revenue to cover costs, but not adequately compensate their staff)…

Lately, I’ve started seeing projects to resurrect dead magazines or save those that couldn’t get enough subscribers to sustain their ambitious goals. It’s uplifting to see our community rallying around these causes, but are we setting ourselves up for a fall in the process? Are we simply delaying the inevitable, like what happened with Realms of Fantasy? (For those who don’t know, Realms of Fantasy was a print magazine that kept coming back from the dead because there were people passionate enough about it to want to see it continue, but not enough to make it a viable business.)

When people debate the future of short fiction magazines in our industry, it tends to turn grim pretty quickly, and Neil’s article is no exception. Still, it’s impossible to argue with his final reasoning: if you care about the future of short fiction — and you definitely should — the most important thing you can do is try new magazines, find a few you enjoy, and support them.

Issue #109 of Clarkesworld has seven stories — five new, and two reprints — from A.C. Wise, Rich Larson, Kola Heyward-Rotimi, Karen Heuler, Hao Jingfang, G. David Nordley, and Chris Becket.

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