Browsed by
Category: Magazines

Derek Künsken wins 2012 Asimov’s SF Readers’ Award

Derek Künsken wins 2012 Asimov’s SF Readers’ Award

Comments 0 Comment

Derek KunskenI flipped open the October/November issue of Asimov’s SF this afternoon and the first words to catch my eye were from Sheila Williams’s editorial, on the 27th Annual Readers’ Award Results. They were:

Much praise was lavished on relatively new writer, Derek Künsken. Richard Harding spoke for many when he wrote, “the most striking story I read was ‘The Way of the Needle.’ Wonderful imagination combined with ethics and striving. Thank you very much.

I missed the original announcement on Derek’s blog back in May, so I’m glad I caught it in print.

Congratulations to Derek! We were proud to publish his popular story, “The Gifts of Li Tzu-Ch’eng,” in Black Gate 15 (and not just because Derek is a fellow Ottawa native). Sherwood Smith’s SF Site review of the story said, in part:

Though he is famous in both history and legend, what finally happened to the warlord Li Tzu-Ch’eng is not known. A possible path is hinted at in this tale, which begins when Li is approached by a woman, Nü Wa, who claims to be a messenger of Heaven. She offers Li four gifts. When the reader discovers that Li may only use three of the gifts — the fourth will be used against him — and one of the gifts is love, it’s clear that this will not be a straightforward tale of swords and war…

Other winners this year include Joe Haldeman (Best Poem), Robert Reed (Best Novella, for “Murder Born”), and Sandra McDonald and Megan Arkenberg, who tied for Best Short Story (for “Sexy Robot Mom” and “Final Exam,” respectively.)

Artist Laura Diehl won for Best Cover for the December 2012 issue, which you can see here. Congratulations to all the winners!

September/October Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction now on Sale

September/October Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction now on Sale

Comments 1 comment

Fantasy and Science Fiction September October 2013-smallOkay, technically it’s been on sale for over a month, but I just bought my copy last week. Good thing this is a bi-monthly magazine or I’d be hunting up back issues on eBay.

The striking cover this issue is by David A. Hardy for Eugene Mirabelli’s short story, “The Shore at the End of the World.” Chuck Rothman doesn’t mention it in his Tangent Online review, but he does praise contributions from Rachel Pollack and Oliver Buckram:

Rachel Pollack contributes a first-class fantasy in “The Queen of Eyes,” a story of Jack Shade, one of the Traveler’s Aid Society – which, despite its mundane name, deals with supernatural events. He’s something of a detective, and when a woman comes to him to report her mother is missing, he quickly realizes her mother is the Queen of Eyes, with the ability to see everything at once, and a major power in the world. The story describes Jack’s search for her. It’s filled with imaginative details and characters, treachery and mystery and is spellbinding from start to finish.

We next move to the purest space opera in “Un Opera Nello Spazio” – yes, an actual opera . It’s a synopsis of an opera set on a spaceship, where Orlando the orangutan longs for Flora, a human. Arias are mentioned (I was especially tickled by Allarme Ross! (Red Alert). This is the type of story that is either a tour de force or which fails utterly, but Oliver Buckram avoids the potential pitfalls to create an entertaining diversion.

Albert E. Cowdrey returns after a long absence (one issue — but that’s a long absence for Cowdrey, who hasn’t missed being in the Table of Contents of F&SF for two years.) Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

…

Read More Read More

September Short Story Roundup

September Short Story Roundup

Comments 3 comments

Each month, there is enough new fantasy short fiction published to fill a small anthology and it’s right out there on the Internet, just waiting to be read for free. For the past year and a half, I’ve been turning to the pages of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Swords and Sorcery Magazine for a steady dose of new stories. I’m always on the lookout for new sources so if you have any suggestions please, let me know.

Swords and Sorcery MagazineI don’t know anything about Curtis Ellett, editor of Swords and Sorcery Magazine, but for nearly two years now he’s been publishing two stories every month. His is a bare-bones e-zine that pays very little, yet has manages to publish fun and worthwhile stories. This month, both stories are good, though only one can be called heroic fantasy.

September’s issue opens with “Carnival Man” written by Alexandra Seidel. Every generation or so, the Carnival Man appears in a random city and calls all, humans and undead alike, to participate in his great revel. Some, like the wandering bard Lykaris, are chosen to serve as members of his personal entourage. With little plot, it reads more like notes from a dream than a story. A good dream, yet a little vague for my taste.

Jeffery A. Sergent‘s “The Young God’s Tears” is more in keeping with the magazine’s title than Seidel’s story. Jade, a young thief and mixed-race daughter of “a robust crusader from the Northern Realms” and a “tiny, porcelain princess from the Eastern Empire,” takes a bet to see if a fabled set of gems really exists. The wager leads her to infiltrate a temple and complications ensue. It’s middling S&S, straight up no chaser. It’s got a nice bit of world-building and some solid action. Nothing extraordinary, but a fun way to spend fifteen minutes.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies publishes every two weeks. They’re not tethered to heroic fantasy and for the past few months they had been letting me down by publishing lots of sci-fi and modern fantastic stories. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but when you’re looking for an S&S fix, it does not satisfy. This month, BCS is back on track as far as I’m concerned.

…

Read More Read More

Black Gate Speaks with G. Winston Hyatt of Primeval: A Journal of the Uncanny

Black Gate Speaks with G. Winston Hyatt of Primeval: A Journal of the Uncanny

Comments 0 Comment

Primeval A Journal of the Uncanny, Issue 1G. Winston Hyatt is a busy man. He agreed to talk to Black Gate only if we could come to one of his many work places. We nodded vigorously at the black carrier pigeon that had brought the message and asked it when and where. It returned ten minutes thereafter with directions from the good man Hyatt, saying to meet him outside of a certain window outside of a certain brownstone on a lonely street at 12:12 in the a.m. We were to have a lantern – candle or gas, it did not matter – just not a flashlight. Any fool with a smart phone could accidentally mimic a flashlight signal, and yes, dear readers, we had to learn a long high sign that included a mighty number of flourishes, turns and flashes. As all Black Gate staff members are well versed in flourishing, turning, and flashing windows at night, this was not a problem.

When G. Winston Hyatt was satisfied that we were who we were, a rope ladder was dropped from the ledge of the thick-curtained window and Black Gate was afforded entry into a certain museum. This museum is unknown to the general public, as it contains nefarious, occult objects with high opinions of themselves that would not do well being constantly selfied in front of by tweens and stickied up by jam-fingered toddlers.

It was amongst this collection of the unnatural and fantastic that G. Winston Hyatt led Black Gate to two chairs, a small table, and two coffee mugs to talk about his latest project, Primeval: A Journal of the Uncanny.

Primeval being a semiannual journal of the eerie and exceptional, searching to examine “…the convergence of contemporary anxiety and ancient impulse. Each issue feature[ing] fiction and essays exploring horror, the macabre, and that which should not be – yet is.” Issue #1 features work by Harlan Ellison and Laird Baron, plus an interview with Jack Ketchum.*

That’s right, comrades, we have found for you a new horror publication in both print and digital formats.

…

Read More Read More

Lynne M. Thomas steps down as Editor of Apex Magazine

Lynne M. Thomas steps down as Editor of Apex Magazine

Comments 0 Comment

Apex Magazine 45-smallLynne M. Thomas has resigned as editor of Apex Magazine, effective at the end of the year. She made the announcement yesterday on the Apex blog:

While the past two years of editing Apex Magazine have been deeply satisfying both personally and professionally, I will be stepping down as the Editor-in-Chief of Apex Magazine after the December 2013 issue. I’m in need of break, after which I’m looking forward to exploring new opportunities and projects. Managing Editor Michael Damian Thomas will be stepping down with me.

Publisher Jason Sizemore plans on continuing the magazine. Michael and I are working closely with the incoming editor to ensure a smooth transition…

I’d especially like to thank our contributors and readers. You’ve embraced us, and I just want to hug you all back. When we took over, we had no idea that the magazine would grow the way it did. We didn’t expect two Hugo Award nominations.

Lynn has edited Apex since issue 30, when she took the reins from Catherynne M. Valente. The new editor has not been announced.

…

Read More Read More

Fall 2013 Subterranean Magazine now Available

Fall 2013 Subterranean Magazine now Available

Comments 8 comments

Subterranean Magazine Fall 2013-smallThe tireless Bill Schafer has released another issue of the excellent Subterranean Magazine, right on time, continuing to make those of us who struggled with publishing deadlines look bad. Jerk.

The Fall Issue is packed with big names, too. Just check out this table of contents:

“Doctor Helios,” by Lewis Shiner
“The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling,” by Ted Chiang
“Hook Agonistes,” by Jay Lake and Seanan McGuire
“What Doctor Ivanovich Saw,” by Ian Tregillis

Lewis Shiner is the author of Deserted Cities of the Heart, Frontera, Slam, and many other novels. “Doctor Helios” is a whopping 30,000 words, practically a novel in itself.

The brilliant Ted Chiang has won four Nebula awards and four Hugo awards for his short fiction — pretty good considering he’s written only 14 stories in the past 23 years. A new Chiang story is a major event, and it’s not often you’re offered one for free.

Jay Lake has been published twice in Black Gate magazine (“Fat Jack and the Spider Clown,” in BG 8 and “Devil on the Wind,” in collaboration with Michael Jasper, in BG 14); his collaborator here, Seanan McGuire, has never been published in Black Gate, but we don’t hold that against her. She has written 10 novels in the October Daye series, and (as Mira Grant) the Newsflesh trilogy and the upcoming Parasite.

I saw Ian Tregillis give a reading at the World Science Fiction Convention last year — and that man knows how to pack a room. His most recent novels are Bitter Seeds, The Coldest War, and Necessary Evil, the final book in the The Milkweed Triptych.

Subterranean is edited by William Schafer and published quarterly. The Fall 2013 issue is completely free and available here; see their complete back issue catalog here. We last covered Subterranean magazine with their previous issue, Summer 2013.

New Treasures: Knights of the Dinner Table #200

New Treasures: Knights of the Dinner Table #200

Comments 4 comments

Knights of the Dinner Table 200-smallI am thrilled to report that Kenzer & Company, publishers of the fine Hackmaster and Aces & Eights role playing games, have published the 200th issue of the world’s best gaming comic, Knights of the Dinner Table.

Knights of the Dinner Table is written and drawn by my friend Jolly R. Blackburn, with editorial assistance by his talented wife Barbara. If Jolly’s name is familiar, it may be because of last Saturday’s appreciation of his earlier publication, the much-missed role-playing magazine, Shadis, where KoDT first appeared. Or you may remember the last time I shone a spotlight on KoDT, with issue #191 last September. Or maybe you’re a fan of the KoDT spin-off The Java Joint, which appeared in every issue of the print version of Black Gate, and was finally collected (with one new strip) last April. Or perhaps you’re simply a fan of KoDT all on your own, and don’t need me telling you how brilliant it is.

The first issue of Knights of the Dinner Table appeared from AEG in the summer of 1994. With issue five it switched to its current publishers Kenzer & Company, and it has appeared regularly ever since.

I don’t think I need to tell you what an incredible accomplishment it is for a comic to reach the 200 mark in today’s market — especially with the same creator at the helm. It is, in fact, an almost unparalleled achievement (the only comparable example I’ve been able to come up with is Dave Sim’s Cerebus). To reach issue 200 under any circumstances is an amazing achievement for an independent comic.

I wrote a book review column in the back of Knights of the Dinner Table for four years, starting in the late 90s (the incredible series of coincidences that lead to that happy state of affairs are related in my introduction to the collected Java Joint). I got to meet and game with Jolly, Dave Kenzer, Steve Johansson, Brian Jelke, Barbara Blackburn, and the entire KenzerCo gang — and let me tell you, I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.

But it’s my contributions to and relationship with KoDT that I’m most proud of during that era. KoDT has survived not simply because it occupies a unique niche in the gaming community, but because it is a singularly brilliant work from a uniquely talented creator. If you haven’t tried it yet, the massive issue 200 is a great place to come on board.

KoDT #200 was published July 2013 by Kenzer & Company. It is $8.99 for a 96-page black & white comic. The cover is by Larry Elmore; more details and order instructions are here, or try the free online strips.

Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1951: A Retro-Review

Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1951: A Retro-Review

Comments 5 comments

Galaxy Science Fiction April 1951With this issue, Galaxy reached a crossroads. Caught by rising costs, H. L. Gold had to do something.

He noted on the Editor’s Page that he could take one of two actions. He could cut costs by lowering fiction pay rates or the quality of the paper stock. Or he could raise the price of the magazine. Pressed for time, he opted for the latter. Beginning with the May, 1951 publication, the price jumped from 25 cents to 35 cents.

For those who love statistics but hate math, that’s a 40% increase. But the way I see it: quality has a cost. Good call, Mr. Gold.

Now let’s turn to the fiction.

“Nice Girl with 5 Husbands” by Fritz Leiber – Tom Dorset is an artist, unknowingly displaced by the winds of time to a century in the future. He meets a girl named Lois who brings him back home to meet her family. Tom learns that not only is Lois married, but the relational structure of the family is unlike anything he’s ever heard of.

I found it interesting that the protagonist never put together that he was in the future until someone casually mentioned the date. The story seemed more of a quick picture of how the future could unfold, but I wanted something deeper by the end.

“Inside Earth” by Poul Anderson – Conru gives up his entire life, even his physical appearance, in order to appear like an Earthling. Valgolia rules the galaxy, including Earth, but its aim is more than controlling the planets. It wants equality throughout the planets, and such can only be achieved by forcing unity.

…

Read More Read More

Vintage Treasures: Jolly R. Blackburn’s Shadis #15

Vintage Treasures: Jolly R. Blackburn’s Shadis #15

Comments 4 comments

Shadis 15-smallA few weeks ago, I stumbled on an eBay seller unloading a nice collection of vintage gaming merchandise. Quite a bit of it sold at high prices too, especially TSR’s Dragon Dice sets and several classic D&D modules in mint condition.

What wasn’t selling? The seller had haphazardly bundled some old gaming publications, in lots labeled “Magazine/Fanzine.” They included a pretty wide range of titles of various quality, including Game Trade Magazine, Games Quarterly, Game News, Gameplay, Games, Shred, The V.I.P. of Gaming Magazine, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Games Unplugged, Dungeon, White Dwarf, Arcane, and Shadis. All the lots were priced at a dollar.

There wasn’t much interest in them, to be honest. In some cases, it wasn’t really a surprise. The lots were oddly bundled — one contained eleven magazines, including four copies of Games Quarterly #7 and six copies of Game Trade Magazine #125.

I couldn’t figure out why the seller didn’t split those up into different lots. Who on Earth would want six copies of GTM #125?

I won most of the lots for between one to two bucks each, answering my own question. I now own six copies of GTM #125 — and 52 other vintage gaming magazines published between 1982 and 2012.

There’s a lot of great reading and gaming history in there. I was especially pleased to see Sorcerer’s Apprentice, White Dwarf, and Arcane, all of which are highly collectible today.

But the real delight, of course, was the single issue of Jolly R. Blackburn’s marvelous Shadis: issue #15, cover-dated Sept/Oct 1994, one of the most famous issues of the magazine ever published — and indeed, one of the highest selling single issues of any gaming magazine of the 90s.

…

Read More Read More

Amazing, March 1961: A Retro-Review

Amazing, March 1961: A Retro-Review

Comments 1 comment

Amazing Stories March 1961-smallThis is a pretty strong issue of Amazing, overall. Really strong list of authors. The cover is interesting – not so much the illustration, a decent and quite accurate Leo Summers painting illustrating James Blish’s “A Dusk of Idols.” What intrigued me were the words.

Sure enough, “A Dusk of Idols,” by James Blish, adorns the cover. Makes sense. But atop the title, we read “Playboy and the Slime God.” That’s an Isaac Asimov story. Wouldn’t you think they’d have promoted Asimov’s name? But no. I can’t figure that one out.

Interiors are by Summers, Ivie, Morey, and the great Virgil Finlay. The editorial is by Norman Lobsenz as usual, and it promotes the next issue – which is to be a special All-Reprint issue, consisting of classic Amazing stories selected by Sam Moskowitz. (Sigh … I know people defend his research, and I have no dispute with that, but I do dispute his taste.)

Anyway, the issue does seem to feature some significant stories – an early Bradbury, Eando Binder’s “I, Robot,” an ERB reprint, Nowlan’s Armageddon – 2419, and pieces by Starzl, Hamilton, and Keller. Lester Del Rey’s Fact Article, “Operation Lunacy,” essentially addresses the Mutual Assured Destruction doctrine, a little presciently, it seems to me.

S. E. Cotts’s book review column, The Spectroscope, is rather harsh on balance towards two anthologies, Judith Merril’s The Year’s Best S-F, Fifth Annual Edition and Robert P. Mill’s Decade of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Cotts opens by complaining that “there are more kinds of anthologies than you can shake a stick at… of one particular author’s output, or from one particular magazine, or on one particular subject… year’s best, year’s worst, or the year’s zaniest.”

Of Merril’s book Cotts begins kindly enough: “As far as the stories are concerned, it is the best yet.” And particular praise goes to newer writers, Daniel Keyes for “Flowers for Algernon,” Carol Emshwiller for “Day on the Beach,” and “an English author, J. G. Ballard” for “The Sound Sweep.”

…

Read More Read More