Magazines – Page 116

Short Speculative Fiction: A July Round-Up

Thursday, August 6, 2015 Learned Foote Comments 0 Comment

In this column, find recommendations for short speculative fiction from Lightspeed (July 2015), Clarkesworld (July 2015) and Asimov’s (July 2015).

“When Your Child Strays from God”
by Sam J. Miller
Clarkesworld 106

This delightful short story is the 1st person account of Bethesda Wilde, an account prepared for the e-mail bulletin of Grace Abounding Evangelical Church. In order to save her son from a life of sin, Beth goes “webslinging” (i.e., takes a drug that puts her in a shared hallucination with her son). Madness ensues. Much of the story’s delight comes from the hallucinatory imagery: inventive, funny, and creepy. Sam J. Miller’s writing bounds from one sentence to the next with tremendous energy and confidence. Aside from the insane web world, the story possesses a sincere emotional core and I found it quite moving in the end. Beth is a memorable and multidimensional character: hilarious, lovable (sometimes hateful), and with a good head for science. She has a few secrets of her own up her sleeve.

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Vintage Treasures: Fantastic Stories: Tales of the Weird & Wondrous, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Patrick L. Price

Thursday, August 6, 2015 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Fantastic Stories Tales of the Weird & Wondrous-small

Fantastic Stories Tales of the Weird & Wondrous back-small

Dungeons & Dragons publisher TSR acquired Amazing Stories, the longest running science fiction magazine in the world, in 1982, as a vehicle to help promote their family of games to SF readers around the world. By the mid-80s, TSR had their first fiction bestseller on their hands with the first Dragonlance trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, which sold well over three million copies worldwide and spawned dozens of sequels, and TSR quickly became very adept at leveraging all aspects of publishing to support their properties. If publishing D&D novels helped introduce millions of young readers to their products, why not try the same with Amazing Stories?

So TSR contracted Martin H. Greenberg to produce five mass market anthologies, mining six decades of Amazing fiction. The results weren’t particularly big sellers (and they didn’t save Amazing from eventually folding), but they were nonetheless a fabulous boon for collectors. Best of all, they included the most comprehensive survey ever done of the pulp Amazing Stories, a three-volume set containing nearly 1,000-pages, covering 1926 to 1955. I looked at all five volumes in 2012, in a Vintage Treasures article on TSR’s Amazing Science Fiction Anthologies.

The long-running companion magazine to Amazing, Fantastic — which published some of the finest early sword & sorcery in the field, including stories by Fritz Leiber, John Jakes, Poul Anderson, Avram Davidson, James Tiptree, Jr., John Brunner, George R. R. Martin, Philip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, Michael Moorock, and Dean Koontz — merged with Amazing in 1980, and the rights fell to TSR. As part of their initiative to promote their magazine properties, TSR also commissioned Greenberg and new Amazing Stories editor Patrick L. Price to compile a deluxe anthology collecting 30 years of Fantastic fiction, with new artwork and an 8-page color section reproducing some of their most famous covers. The result was a fine collection, and one of the only anthologies dedicated to one of the all-time great S&S magazines.

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July 2015 Issue of Outposts of Beyond Now on Sale

Wednesday, August 5, 2015 John ONeill Comments 4 comments

I heard some reports of a new magazine a few weeks ago, and finally had a moment to investigate this morning. The magazine is Outposts of Beyond, and it has published eight issues since its debut in July 2013 — meaning I’m late to the party. The magazine is edited by James Tiptree Award nominee Tyree Campbell, author of the Nyx series and Tree Hugger, and published by Alban Lake, publishers of Aoife’s Kiss and Disturbed magazine. Here’s the general description:

Outposts Of Beyond features science fiction and fantasy tales of elsewhere and elsewhen. These stories are seasoned to taste with just a touch of related poetry, and interspersed with reviews, interviews, and articles related to the genres. We hope you’ll come along for the journey.

I find their Submission Guidelines interesting:

Outposts of Beyond publishes original science fiction and fantasy short stories, poems, art, articles, reviews, and interviews. Preferred are adventure stories, space opera, and magic opera [like space opera, but fantasy]. Also preferred are stories that take place on other worlds. Stories must have the following: characters the reader cares about, plots and subplots, and settings that draw the reader into them. Must have.

I’ve never heard of “Magic opera” before, but the description seems intuitive enough. And I like the emphasis on interesting settings.

The latest issue has fiction by Adrian Simmons, Beth Powers, Tyree Campbell, and others. Here’s the complete TOC.

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The August Fantasy Magazine Rack

Tuesday, August 4, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Summer is a great time for reading, and there were some fabulous new magazines released last month. The Fantasy Magazine rack is a snapshot of all the recent fantasy fiction magazines that deserve your attention. Magazines are a great way to discover new writers — not to mention reviews, news, opinion, and an entertaining way to keep up with the industry.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our July 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 $7.50/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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Knights of the Dinner Table 220 Now on Sale

Saturday, August 1, 2015 John ONeill Comments 7 comments

Actually, issue #220 of Knights of the Dinner Table has been on sale for a couple months now, and I missed it. I just found out it was the 25th Anniversary issue, and now I’m doubly embarrassed.

Twenty-five years ago, Jolly Blackburn created the Knights of the Dinner Table comic to fill an unexpected one-page hole at the back of his gaming magazine Shadis. Today, the Knights of the Dinner Table headline one of the longest-running independent comics in history, and they also feature in board games, card games, t-shirts, and even an independently produce live-action series.

But the heart of the KoDT publishing empire remains the monthly comic, dedicated to the misadventures of a group of misfit gamers from Muncie, Indiana. It is written and drawn by my friend Jolly R. Blackburn, with editorial assistance by his talented wife Barbara. Black Gate readers may remember the KoDT spin-off The Java Joint, which appeared in the back of every issue of BG (and was eventually collected in a single volume in 2012).

In addition to Jolly’s hilarious comic strips, Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine is packed with gaming columns of all kinds, keeping you informed on the latest and greatest in the industry. KoDT 220 has no less than 11 full-length strips, plus some short “One-Two Punches.”

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

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Shimmer 26 Now on Sale

Thursday, July 30, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Shimmer #26, cover-dated July 2015, offers four new stories. Two are currently available on the website; the last two will be available in August.

“The Star Maiden,” Roshani Chokshi
A star maiden is not an actual star. If you split her open, you will find neither crumbled moons nor milky pearls. A star maiden is a sliver of heaven made flesh. She is an orphaned moonbeam clinging to one possession only: A dress.

“The Last Dinosaur,” Lavie Tidhar
As Mina drove, a hush fell over the city, gradually, in tiers, and the white fluffy clouds in the sky above London parted gently to open up a riverful of blue. It was a beautiful day for a ride. She hummed to herself, an old song, and her fingers tapped rhythm on the steering wheel.

“Serein,” Cat Hellisen (available 8/4)
I’ve imagined it endlessly: what Claire must have thought as she packed her bag. How leaving is easy, even if you lie and say oh god it’s hard it’s hard it’s hard. Make a clean break, leave everything, let loose your claim to possession: this is my house, this is my bed, these are my albums not shelved alphabetically because I tried and never could keep the world orderly, this is my little library built out of gifts and second-hand forgotten paperbacks.

“States of Emergency,” Erica L. Satifka (available 8/18)
In a no-tell motel just outside Billings, the psychotic cattle rancher known as Paranoid Jack freezes when he sees the baby-blue eyeball glowering at him from the mouthpiece of the Bakelite phone.

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Black Static #47 Now on Sale

Tuesday, July 28, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

I’m going to have to find a more reliable source for my newsstand copies of Black Static. It takes a little effort to find a copy on the shelves here in Chicago — but that effort is definitely worth it.

Issue #47 is cover-dated July/August, and contains six stories:

“On the Road with the American Dead” by James Van Pelt
“All the Day You’ll Have Good Luck” by Kate Jonez
“Razorshins” by John Connolly
“The Devil’s Hands” by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
“When the Devil’s Driving” by Ray Cluley
“A Case Study in Natural Selection and How it Applies to Love” by Eric J. Guignard

The magazine’s regular columns include Coffinmaker’s Blues by Stephen Volk and Notes From the Borderland by Lynda E. Rucker.

The magazine also offers two terrific review columns: Blood Spectrum by Tony Lee (DVD/Blu-ray reviews); and Case Notes by Peter Tennant (book reviews). I’m not sure why so many other magazines have a hard time doing highly visual review columns, with book covers, movie stills, and behind-the-scenes pics. Just open up a single issue of Black Static (or its sister magazine, Interzone), and you’ll see how it’s done.

Issue 47 is nearly 100 pages and comes packed with new dark fantasy and horror, and top-notch art. The front and back cover art is by Richard Wagner.

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Enter the Grimdark Magazine Battle-off Competition

Monday, July 27, 2015 John ONeill Comments 5 comments

Grimdark Magazine is getting some great notices among fans of heroic fantasy — including from our own Fletcher Vredenburgh, who said in his review of the first three issues, “From a swords & sorcery perspective, the biggest — and potentially most interesting — new publication out there is Grimdark Magazine.” Grimdark editor-in-chief Adrian Collins contacted us this morning to let us know of a new contest sponsored by the magazine, open to heroic fantasy writers of all kinds. Here’s the deets:

We’re running a competition over at Grimdark Magazine that may interest some of Black Gate‘s followers — both readers and writers. It’s a battle-off, where self and small published authors enter a 1K word excerpt featuring a battle scene, the readers then vote on a top 7 and a panel of judges then decide on the top 3 to win awards.

It will run for a couple of months between mid August and the end of October… There are some pretty awesome prizes up for grabs, including a Kindle HD, signed hardcovers, plenty of paperbacks and ebooks, editing services and cover art services.

This is one of the most unusual writing contests I’ve heard of, and I highly approve. So sharpen your pens, all you aspiring adventure fantasy writers. This is your chance to show that you have the chops to deserve wider attention — and maybe win something that could help your new novel really stand out. Get the complete details here.

Interzone #259 Now on Sale

Sunday, July 26, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

The July – August issue of Britain’s longest running science fiction and fantasy magazine is now on sale. The cover, by Martin Hanford, is titled “Green Tea.” (Click the image at right for a bigger version.)

This issue has an intriguing installment in an ongoing series by Chris Butler. Here’s Lois Tilton at Locus Online on “The Deep of Winter”:

A prequel to this author’s series in which people emit spores that signal their emotions to others. Because some persons’ spores are more powerful, a coercive aristocracy has been built on them. Here, our protagonist is Sebastián, trusted servant of the Winter Duke, a member of his Guard. People have been reported missing, and the Duke has ordered the Guard to search the buried old city, where trespass has long been forbidden. Sebastián’s narrative alternates with that of Aluna, a mad scientist from an alternate world, ambitious to experiment with other realities, regardless of the consequences to the inhabitants of those worlds. When they meet in the buried city, questions are answered at last.

Read Lois’ complete comments on the issue here.

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