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Quatro-Decadal Review: Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1999, edited by Gordon Van Gelder and Robin O’Connor

Quatro-Decadal Review: Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1999, edited by Gordon Van Gelder and Robin O’Connor

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The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1999, with a Chesley Bonestell cover

This is a 50th Anniversary double issue… why did it have to be a double issue? I hate to start the review with a petty observation like that, but honestly, this was a bigger task than I was hoping for, especially because the November ’99 Asimov’s SF was also a double issue!

Right inside the cover is an ad for Frank M. Robinson’s Science Fiction of the 20th Century:  An illustrated History.  Really pulling the nostalgia strings for the older sf!  Another item to put on my ‘to buy’ list.

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Launching Battleborn: An Interview with Editor Sean C.W. Korsgaard, Part One

Launching Battleborn: An Interview with Editor Sean C.W. Korsgaard, Part One

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Deep in the underground tunnels of Black Gate’s vast Indiana Annex, I sat down with Sean CW Korsgaard and we embarked on a lively chat about his upcoming S&S magazine, Battleborn – what it is, where it’s headed, and how S&S fits into our contemporary literary landscape. The Indiegogo to jump-start Battleborn closes on September 30th, so read on to see if you’d like to join in on the action. 

Why start a new Sword & Sorcery magazine in 2025? Are you worried about competition from other S&S magazines? And what sets Battleborn apart?

First, we are very fortunate that after decades of being in the doldrums, sword-and-sorcery is seeing a genuine renaissance. We have the biggest group of talented writers the genre has seen since the 1970s. There’s an entire market starved for heroic, action focused fantasy, and we are building Battleborn on that! …

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The Best Short SF: Asimov’s Science Fiction 2024

The Best Short SF: Asimov’s Science Fiction 2024

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Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, November-December 2024. Cover by John Sumrow

I recently posted a few reviews of stories from the Asimov’s Readers’ Award finalists for 2024 (that’s for the awards given in 2025), but I must be an eccentric reader, because my favorites usually diverge quite noticeably from the finalists.

So without further ado, here are some other 2024 stories from Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine that I liked.

“Death Benefits,” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

From Asimov’s SF, November/December 2024

My choice in the novella category was a new tale by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Most of the story is told from the viewpoint of a “people verifier,” a sort of private investigator who is hired by the loved ones of presumably deceased or displaced individuals against the backdrop of an interplanetary war.

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Sword & Planet from DMR Books: Henry Kuttner and Howie K. Bentley

Sword & Planet from DMR Books: Henry Kuttner and Howie K. Bentley

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Startling Stories, May 1947; and Lands of the Earthquake by Henry Kuttner
(DMR Books, June 2017). Cover art by Earle Bergey and Logon Saton

Lands of the Earthquake/Under a Dim Blue Sun is a “Double” novel, in the tradition of the old Ace Doubles. It contains a long novella by Henry Kuttner called Lands of the Earthquake, and a shorter novella by Howie K. Bentley called Under a Dim Blue Sun. Both fit the Sword & Planet mold (S&P).

The publisher here is DMR books, and it’s printed in the old paperback size that I like. You can find DMR Books online or on Amazon. The cover art on the Kuttner piece is Logon Saton.

The Kuttner piece was first published in 1947 in Startling Stories but has not been reprinted until now. It involves a modern Earthman, William Boyce, being transported to a fantasy land where time stands still but physical space moves. This temporarily brings different lands close enough to each other to interact.

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Blazing New Trails: The What Rough Beast? Campaign, and an Interview with Author Bryn Hammond

Blazing New Trails: The What Rough Beast? Campaign, and an Interview with Author Bryn Hammond

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Waste Flowers and What Rough Beast? A Tale of Goatskin, written by Bryn Hammond, both with cover art from Goran Gligović

Black Gate has been tracking the inception and growth of New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, starting with Micheal Harrington’s 2022 interview with Oliver Brackenbury (champion and editor of NESS), through 2023 with NESS’s first two magazine releases (also Greg Mele’s review of #1), and then into 2024 with NESS’s first book “Beating Heart and Battle Axes and its two-novella combo book Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery, and (deep breath)… most recently… NESS‘s publication of a NEW Jirel of Joiry tale! (2025).

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The Best Short SF: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

The Best Short SF: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

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The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1983. Cover by Thomas Kidd

“Downtown,” a short story by Thomas M. Disch

First published in F&SF, October 1983
Read the story in the original magazine here

A waitress notices a very strange customer: a woman who orders the same pancakes and wears the same pantsuit every day. She never gets to know the enigmatic customer, until one day, the stranger appears to collapse and die in her booth. The waitress flees from the restaurant, not wanting to deal with the situation. She enters a department store, where she is summoned to two staff-only upper floors, where she discovers a strange alternate world. The woman in the green pantsuit is there, alive and much younger and more communicative. The story takes place against a backdrop of urban decay and declining business activity in midtown St. Paul, and presents an eerily surreal, but still compellingly readable riddle.

Rating **** (Excellent)

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Manly Wade Wellman, Part II: Hok the Mighty

Manly Wade Wellman, Part II: Hok the Mighty

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Planet Stories #30: Battle in the Dawn: The Complete Hok the Mighty, by
Manly Wade Wellman (Paizo Publishing, March 2011). Cover by Kieran Yanner

Wellman created his character Hok the Mighty in 1939 and wrote several follow up stories with the character. In 2011, Planet Stories released a “complete” Hok the Mighty collection called Battle in the Dawn, with a cover by Kieran Yanner. The character as Yanner imagined it is shown here and makes me think of Brak the Barbarian.

Despite that image, the stories are not sword & sorcery but what I call “Caveman” fiction. Hok is a Cro-Magnon, an early Homo sapiens. He is wandering north in search of new hunting grounds and comes into contact with the Neanderthals (beast-men) living there. The result is a war between true humans and the sub humans, and Hok leads the way.

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George Barr: A Fantasy Master

George Barr: A Fantasy Master

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Barr illo for the D&D Module IM2: The Wrath of Olympus, by Robert J Blake (TSR, 1987)

When DAW Books launched in early 1972, one of their hallmarks was great cover art. Right from the start, their books featured covers by many of the top SF artists such as Frank Kelly Freas, John Schoenherr, Josh Kirby and Jack Gaughan – and eventually, Michael Whelan, who broke into the field with his cover for DAW’s edition of The Enchantress of World’s End by Lin Carter in 1975.

One of their mainstays was George Barr, whose first DAW cover came in their second month of publication, with The Day Star by Mark S. Geston. For my money, Barr was one of the great fantasy and science fiction artists of the past few decades. Having been introduced to science fiction paperbacks in the mid-1970’s, I have many fond memories of finding his artwork gracing many of the DAW books that I picked up at that time.

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The Best Short SF: The Asimov’s Science Fiction 2024 Readers Poll

The Best Short SF: The Asimov’s Science Fiction 2024 Readers Poll

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Asimov’s Science Fiction, January/February and November/December 2024.
Cover art by Maurizio Manzieri and John Sumrow

Here’s a look at a few of the finalists for the 2024 Asimov’s Readers Award, voted on by readers and given to the most popular stories from Asimov’s Science Fiction the previous year. (Read each of the stories at the Asimov’s website by clicking on the titles below.)

“Wildest Skies,” a Novella by Sean Monaghan

From Asimov’s Science Fiction, November-December 2024

The title suggests a much wilder adventure than the somewhat cozy, but satisfying, one we get. Ed Linklater is the sole survivor of a missile strike that destroys his ship while surveying the planet Dashell IV. He is able to land safely on the Earth-like planet and is eventually befriended by a ten-eyed alien he calls Casper.

After living with Casper’s tribe for some time, he is led to a strange complex of stone structures, where he meets Barnaby, a fellow human who has survived another crash, sixteen years earlier. Barnaby’s only companion is Erica, who is immobilized and partly merged with an AI.

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Battleborn Magazine – Join the Frontlines of Fantasy

Battleborn Magazine – Join the Frontlines of Fantasy

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Battleborn is an upcoming action-packed sword and sorcery magazine curated by Sean CW Korsgaard and published by IronAge Media. Read this to learn the scope of this supercharged magazine, the crowdfunding campaign needed to make it a reality (Indiegogo Aug 1st!), and learn Black Gate Exclusive scoops!

As an editor at Baen, Sean CW Korsgaard championed the Hanuvar series, and was mentored by the author, the late Howard Andrew Jones.  Sean CW Korsgaard states that Battleborn is emulating Howard’s run on Tales from the Magician’s Skull, both in style and in terms of authors and artists tapped. The magazine will feature a new Hanuvar tale from the late author, and from first issue to last issue, this will be on the masthead: “Howard Andrew Jones – Editor Emeritus.”

Expect:

  • Contemporary authors
  • Classic reprints
  • And, perhaps adding to a Heavy Metal flair, each issue will have a short comic crafted by Schyler Hernstrom.
  • If all stretch goals are met, they will have room for 20k words more per issue… which WILL be open to submissions.

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