Browsed by
Category: Magazines

The Mid-October Fantasy Magazine Rack

The Mid-October Fantasy Magazine Rack

Comments 0 Comment
Beneath-Ceaseless-Skies-183-rack Beneath-Ceaseless-Skies-184-rack Black-Static-48-rack Scrolls-of-Legendry-1-rack
GrimDark-Magazine-5-rack Swords-and-Sorcery-Magazine-September-2015-rack Interzone-260-rack Lightspeed-October-2015-rack

Lots of exciting magazine news in late October. D.M. Ritzlin has launched an intriguing new publication that promises to review the best in forgotten fantasy, Scrolls of Legendry, and the first issue more than lives up to that promise. Contributing Editor Rich Horton checked in with his latest Retro-review, a look at the October 1960 issue of Amazing Stories, with classic stories by Clifford Simak and A. Bertram Chandler. Donald Crankshaw shared the good news of a new market for short fiction, the upcoming Christian anthology Mysterion, and Fletcher Vredenburgh and Learned Foote review the best new fiction in Clarkesworld, Swords and Sorcery Magazine, and Grimdark.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our October 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 $12.95/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.

…

Read More Read More

Short Speculative Fiction: “Summer at Grandma’s House” by Hao Jingfang

Short Speculative Fiction: “Summer at Grandma’s House” by Hao Jingfang

Comments 0 Comment
https://www.blackgate.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Clarkesworld-October-2015-small.jpg

Lately I’ve felt like using this column to cover fewer pieces of fiction, but more in depth. So for the time being I’ll write about one story per column, picking my favorites from a given magazine.

In this month’s Clarkesworld, I very much enjoyed the short story “Summer at Grandma’s House” by Hao Jingfang, originally published in 2007, and translated into English by Carmen Yiling Yan.You can read it for free right now at Clarkesworld.

Briefly, what it’s about: a young man drifting aimlessly through life who visits his grandmother for the summer. This place is not what you’d expect: “The coffeepot is a penholder, the penholder is a lighter, the lighter is a flashlight, the flashlight is a jam container.” The story has to do with what he learns about the meaning of life in this house. From here on in, we delve into spoilers, so click on (either to the story or the rest of the column).

…

Read More Read More

September Issue of Swords and Sorcery Magazine Now Available

September Issue of Swords and Sorcery Magazine Now Available

Comments 0 Comment

Swords and Sorcery Magazine September 2015-smallIssue 44 of Swords and Sorcery Magazine, cover-dated September 2015, is now available.

In his September Short Story Roundup, which appeared here in Tuesday, Fletcher Vredenburgh speaks very highly of one of this issue’s stories, “Poor Bright Folk” by James Lecky, which Fletcher says “is in contention for my favorite of the year so far.”

Elathan is a bard of the Aos Si (more commonly called the Sidhe, or fey folk) traveling through the once brightly-colored land of Orialla. On entering a forest glade he meets a woman whose very appearance unnerves him… Her name is Mual and when she asks him to play for her at her home he finds himself saying yes in words that seem to come from outside himself.

In Mual’s castle Elathan discovers she is working a vampiric sort of magic over her servants and now him. To escape her clutches and free his fellow captives the bard must use his wit and wiles. Lecky didn’t try, thankfully, to emulate some sort of old-timey style with his prose, yet “Poor Bright Folk” has the feel and resonance of the best fairy tales from out of the deeps of time.

Swords and Sorcery Magazine is edited by Curtis Ellett. Each issue contains two short stories, and is available free online. This issue also includes “Truth Be Told” by Reid Perkins, his first published work.

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

…

Read More Read More

Black Static #48 Now on Sale

Black Static #48 Now on Sale

Comments 2 comments

Black Static 48-smallI’m still having trouble finding a reliable newsstand source for Black Static in the Western suburbs of Chicago. It takes a little effort to find a copy — but it’s definitely worth it.

Issue #48 is cover-dated September/October, and contains five stories:

“Distinguished Mole: A Tale From Somewhere” by Jeffrey Thomas
“Bandersnatch” by Stephen Bacon
“The Suffering” by Steven J. Dines
“Blood For Your Mother” by Andrew Hook
“When the Moon Man Knocks” by Cate Gardner

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 48 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.

…

Read More Read More

September Short Story Roundup

September Short Story Roundup

Comments 3 comments

oie_2021448ETqDlkzrHere we are again, friends, with a passel of new heroic fantasy tales to extol. And September was a splendid month for new stories. In fact, one is in contention for my favorite of the year so far…

…and I’ll start with that particular story: “Poor Bright Folk” by James Lecky in the latest issue of Curtis Ellett’s Swords and Sorcery Magazine, #44. Elathan is a bard of the Aos Si (more commonly called the Sidhe, or fey folk) traveling through the once brightly-colored land of Orialla. On entering a forest glade he meets a woman whose very appearance unnerves him:

Her hair hung in a long braid almost as far as her knees, deep lines marked her cheeks and forehead, yet she stood straight as a staff, her movements fluid and easy. Her clothing – a straight dress and a short cape – were a patchwork of various colours and materials, some smooth and strong, others coarse and faded.

The sight of her disturbed me in a way I could not give voice to and I wished for nothing more than to be away from this place and this strange woman.

Her name is Mual and when she asks him to play for her at her home he finds himself saying yes in words that seem to come from outside himself.

In Mual’s castle Elathan discovers she is working a vampiric sort of magic over her servants and now him. To escape her clutches and free his fellow captives the bard must use his wit and wiles. Lecky didn’t try, thankfully, to emulate some sort of old-timey style with his prose, yet “Poor Bright Folk” has the feel and resonance of the best fairy tales from out of the deeps of time.

…

Read More Read More

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 183 and 184 Now Available

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 183 and 184 Now Available

Comments 0 Comment

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 184-smallAs I’ve noted before, if you neglect Scott H. Andrews and his magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies for more than 15 days or so, he’ll publish two issues, making you look out of touch and behind the times. So here I am playing catch-up, because Scott publishes magazines faster than I can write about them. In this post I’m going to cover the latest issue, #184, as well as their big Seventh Anniversary Double-Issue, #183. The cover art for both issues is “Sundown” by Feliks Grzesiczek.

Let’s start with issue #184. The issue is cover-dated October 15, and contains two short stories, and a podcast.

“A Careful Fire” by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
They turned their backs to Mabella. Her stomach twisted as it did when she pilfered too many sweets from the kitchens. She wanted to say something and nothing. She wanted to run, but her feet throbbed. Instead she turned and walked from the winged women’s cackling silence.

“Unearthly Landscape by a Lady” by Rebecca Campbell
I found myself examining the impeccable rooms and gardens in these photographs, fearing that they, too, betrayed another world. I am ashamed to say that I was happy to have shut the door on such rooms, on Flora herself. But I could not erase the memory of the man with the Gatling gun, and the five-armed green creatures lying on the ground below him.

Audio Fiction Podcast:
A Careful Fire by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Duration: 30:21 — 20.85MB)
She bursts each night when he leaves her. She does not wash the juice from her skin but hides the blue stains beneath her clothes.

…

Read More Read More

Interzone #260 Now on Sale

Interzone #260 Now on Sale

Comments 3 comments

Interzone 290-smallThe September-October issue of Britain’s longest running science fiction and fantasy magazine is now on sale. The cover, by Martin Hanford, is titled “All Change.” (Click the image at right for a bigger version.)

This issue has fiction from John Shirley, Priya Sharma, Jeff Noon, C.A. Hawksmoor, and Christien Gholson. Here’s Lois Tilton at Locus Online on Jeff Noon’s “No Rez”:

An experimental piece in terms of typography and page layout, with several sections that resemble lines of verse… I don’t see much of this sort of thing these days, but I’m not surprised to find it coming from IZ, a zine that doesn’t stand still. This is a cyber future with the motto: “You are what you see.” Or, As you see the world, so you think about the world. But the only way everyone can see the world is pixelated, through implants, and in higher or lower resolution, with or without more vision-pops and ads, depending on how they can pay. Because Aiden is limited, when not on work-time, to low-rez, sometimes even when he closes his eyes, the dark starts breaking up. He has to wonder what he really looks like in the unmediated world, the zero-rez world, whether a girl might find him attractive. Then one day he happens on a mysterious black box that he isn’t supposed to have.

This sort of virtual world isn’t so new, but I’ve rarely seen it expressed with such insight and verve. There are genuinely poetic moments here, not simply apparent versification. This text would have been just about as effective if laid out on the page in a more conventional manner. – RECOMMENDED

Read Lois’ complete comments on the issue here.

…

Read More Read More

Call For Submissions: Mysterion

Call For Submissions: Mysterion

Comments 5 comments

A few months ago, I announced that the self-published book review column would be going on hiatus while I worked on a new project. It’s now time to talk about that project here.

Mysterion's cover art by Rob Joseph.
Mysterion’s cover art by Rob Joseph.

My wife and I have decided that we have too much time and money. The obvious way to rectify this situation is to publish a pro-paying speculative fiction anthology. And as you can tell by the beautiful cover art we acquired, we’ve already begun our personal wealth redistribution program of transferring money from us to other artists.

The anthology is called Mysterion: Rediscovering the Mysteries of the Christian Faith, and it is now open for submissions. As the name gives away, we’ll be publishing stories that engage with Christianity. While the phrase “Christian speculative fiction” occasionally appears on our website, our anthology is not what is often meant by “Christian fiction”: stories written by Christians and for Christians with nary a heresy nor a swear word to raise an eyebrow. We’re not looking for preachy stories, nor are we necessarily looking for unambiguously pro-Christian stories. There’s no need for the writer or the story to pass some theological standard for Mysterion. On the contrary, we’re hoping to be challenged.

…

Read More Read More

Amazing Stories October 1960: A Retro-Review

Amazing Stories October 1960: A Retro-Review

Comments 3 comments

Amazing Stories October 1960-smallAt the 2015 Worldcon, Sasquan, one of the dealers had a nice stash of old magazines. I bought a bunch of Goldsmith-era Amazings and Fantastics. This is one from quite early in Cele Goldsmith’s editorial career. Indeed, Norman Lobsenz’s editorial calls it “the first issue of the “new” Amazing that we have been talking about.”

He adds “There is one problem facing us … the constant shortage of first-rate stories.” This is a point he would make other times in editorials (and in the letter column), to a greater degree than I have ever seen from an editor in the pages of a magazine.

The cover here is by Alex Schomburg. The interiors are by two of the greatest artists in the field’s history, Virgil Finlay and Ed Emshwiller, and a name I didn’t recognize, Bernklau, who seems to have been active in the field only from 1959 to 1961 (in a variety of magazines). He was probably the Art Bernklau who did covers for Beacon Books in the same period.

Besides the editorial, the features include S. E. Cotts’ book review column, the Spectroscope; a science article by Lester Del Rey, “Homesteads on Venus,” and the lettercol, “Or So You Say.”

Cotts opens the book review column be celebrating that the column has more space. There is mention of SF in other media: an article in the National Review (“SF seems a strange bedfellow for such a right-wing magazine” says Cotts – a curious remark), SF on TV (Twilight Zone), on record, and an opera. This last is Harry Martinson’s Aniara (music by Karl-Birger Blomdahl). Martinson eventually (quite controversially) shared a Nobel Prize for literature.

…

Read More Read More

Grimdark Magazine 5 Now Available

Grimdark Magazine 5 Now Available

Comments 3 comments

GrimDark Magazine 5-smallGrimdark is a quarterly magazine of dark fantasy. Editor Adrian Collins summarizes the latest for us nicely in his Issue #5 Line Up post:

Grimdark Magazine issue #5 is chock full of grimdark goodness. We’ve pushed the genre boundaries of grimdark a bit more in this issue, with zombie apocalypses and cold-hearted near-future sci-fi to go with the three fantasy pieces, which include a Dominion of the Fallen short story by Aliette de Bodard.

The Line Up post even has a nifty teaser trailer. Check it out. In his review of the first few issues, Fletcher Vredenburgh seems to like what he sees:

From a swords & sorcery perspective, the biggest — and potentially most interesting — new publication out there is Grimdark Magazine… grimdark fantasy is nihlistic/realistic storytelling that moves the genre forward/destroys the genre, and features characters with realistic motives/who are utterly vile. Whether you like or hate the fiction coming out under the rubric, Grimdark Magazine, by its very nature, is going to feature S&S… At only $2.99 a pop, I’ll be keeping up with Grimdark Magazine…

The latest issue went on sale in October, and contains new fiction by Aliette de Bodard, Chadwick Ginther, Sean Patrick Hazlett, David Annandale, and T.C. Powell, as well as an excerpt from Victor Milan’s new novel The Dinosaur Lords, book reviews, interviews with James A. Moore and Peter Orullian, and an article titled ‘Who is the Grimdark Hero?’ by C.T. Phipps.

…

Read More Read More