Black Gate

The latest issue of Scott Andrew’s Beneath Ceaseless Skies has new fiction from Adam-Troy Castro & Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, and Michael Anthony Ashley, plus an Audio Fiction Podcast, and a reprint by Catherynne M. Valente. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

“The Mouth of the Oyster,” Adam-Troy Castro & Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Sometimes we treated our anger as a polished jewel, too precious to be set aside. I retained mine for many long seconds before seeing it as a burden and letting it slip, unmourned, into the peace of the fine day. The last of it expressed itself with a grumpy, “For a man who makes eyes, you certainly have much to learn about the blind.”

“Woe and Other Remedies,” Michael Anthony Ashley

On rang the bells, and the guests, as if released from fetters, dispersed to take their seats. And here we are, Gama III thought. The table was full, the moment at hand. Anticipation moved as a wild fondle from seat to seat, bowel to bowel, quivers begetting moans and hoarse whispers, emotion stretching jaws with violence.

Audio Fiction Podcast: “The Mouth of the Oyster,” Adam-Troy Castro & Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

And with that I gave up so many things, so many golden sunrises and so many lingering sunsets.

From the Archives: “The Limitless Perspective of Master Peek, or, the Luminescence of Debauchery,” Catherynne M. Valente

For the sake of the beautiful Dogaressa, I took up my father’s battered old pipe and punty.

Read issue 239 online completely free here.

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A fine crop of magazines this month, with original fiction by Nancy Kress, Brian M. Sammons, Barry N. Malzberg, Mercedes Lackey, Tina Connelly, Karin Tideck, Sue Burke, and many others. Here’s the complete list of magazines that won my attention in early November (links will bring you to magazine websites).

Black Static — fiction by Ruth EJ Booth, Ralph Robert Moore, Mel Kassel, Carly Holmes, Andrew Humphrey, and Georgina Bruce. Cover by Tara Bush
Clarkesworld — new fiction by D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Sue Burke, Mike Buckley, Suzanne Walker, and Nicoletta Vallorani, plus two reprints
Galaxy’s Edge — issue #29 has an original fiction from Nancy Kress, Sandra M. Odell, Barry N. Malzberg, Kevin J. Anderson, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Hodges, and many others
Nightmare — original fiction from Will Ludwigsen and Karin Lowachee, along with reprints by Molly Tanzer and Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
Interzone — fresh fiction from Laura Mauro, Rachael Cupp, Dan Grace, Erica L. Satifka, R. Boyczuk, and 2017 James White Award Winner Stewart Horn
The Dark — new fiction from Octavia Cade and L Chan, and reprints from Neil Williamson and Lisa L. Hannett
Occult Detective Quarterly — issue #3 has new fiction by William Meikle. Brian M. Sammons, S.L. Edwards, Aaron Smith, and many others — plus plenty of reviews. and “Robert E. Howard’s Weird Detectives” by Bobby Derie
Uncanny — all new fiction from Karin Tidbeck, Sarah Monette, Tina Connelly, and others, plus reprints by Zen Cho and Rachel Swirsky

Click any of the thumbnail images above for bigger images. Our late October Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

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The star-studded November/December issue of F&SF contains some pretty big names, including a huge novella from Marc Laidlaw, a short story by Larry Niven, and a story by Kate Wilhelm who, at 89, has been absent from the pages of F&SF for too long (her last published short story, “The Fullness Of Time,” appeared in 2012). C. D. Lewis at Tangent Online gives an enthusiastic review to the issue.

Marc Laidlaw’s 19,000-word novella “Stillborne” continues a series depicting the fantasy adventures of Gorlen the bard and Spar, the gargoyle whose hand he was cursed to exchange with his own. Like the prior installment from Fantasy & Science Fiction’s [May-June] 2014 issue, “Sillborne” is set in the company of religious leaders whose values and priorities are calculated to entertain… Humor is definitely the story’s greatest strength, and it is on display best when Laidlaw pens conversation between Gorlen and his rediscovered lover…

“Attachments” by Kate Wilhelm follows a woman who finds freeing herself from a haunting ghost as much a problem as freeing herself from a controlling, abusive ex. Disturbingly, some of the ghosts have motives like those of her ex…

Larry Niven’s “By the Red Giant’s Light” is a short story about two characters who spend what turns out to be more than an ordinary human lifetime responding to a danger to the last human (albeit rather modified) in the solar system. It’s set at a time the Sun’s expanding diameter has engulfed Mercury’s orbit. The initial hook — the difficulty of telling the human from the robot from their exteriors — gets us into the story’s heart, which is the human’s plea for help against an asteroid due to destroy Pluto and, with it, the last intelligent life in the solar system… solid SF, worth reading, and [it] reminds us why we’ve loved Niven for decades.

Read C.D.’s complete review here.

If (like me) you’re intrigued by Marc Laidlaw’s tale of Gorlen the bard and Spar, editor C.C. Finley tips us off that there are more to be had.

Gorlen debuted in the October 1995 issue of F&SF with “Dankden” and has returned six times since, most recently with the cover story “Rooksnight” (May/June 2014). Marc Laidlaw tells us this new adventure may not be the conclusion of Gorlen and Spar’s story, but it is certainly a conclusion.

Gorlen and Spar have also appeared in Lightspeed, beginning with the September 2013 issue.

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Asimov’s SF wraps up its first full year as a bi-monthly magazine with a delightful new issue, featuring brand new science fiction from Connie Willis (a big new novella), Greg Egan, Jack McDevitt, James Patrick Kelly, Norman Spinrad, Tom Purdom, Rick Wilber, and lots more — including another story in the long-running series by James Gunn set in the world of his Transcendental Trilogy.

Here’s editor Sheila Williams’s description from the website:

We are pleased to announce that Asimov’s November/December 2017 issue will launch a brand new novella by SFWA Grand Master Connie Willis. “I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land” welcomes us into that little shop around the corner and thence into the subterranean mysteries of New York City. With all the twists and turns, you’ll soon be as lost as her hapless traveller. This is an intriguing tale that you won’t want to miss!

November/December caps our stellar anniversary year with its own stellar line up: Norman Spinrad looks at the consequences of “The Nanny Bubble”; Greg Egan investigates “The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine”; “And No Torment Shall Touch Them” if James Patrick Kelly can rescue his characters from the machinations of a difficult relative; James Gunn’s saga continues with “Love and Death and the Star that Shall Not Be Named: Kom’s Story”; Jason Sanford reveals the harsh secrets infusing “Nine Lattices of Sargasso”; and new author Emily Taylor quietly shows us what’s been “Skipped.” We’ll go “Timewalking” with Michael Cassutt; find ourselves “Afloat Above a Floor of Stars” alongside Tom Purdom; hear the moving “Confessions of a Con Girl” in Nick Wolven’s bittersweet short story; meet Joel Richards’ desperate “Operators”; join Jack McDevitt for the “Last Dance”; and, with Rick Wilber, we may find ourselves on the wrong side of town “In Dublin, Fair City.”

Robert Silverberg’s Reflections column discusses walls in Westeros and “Gog and Magog”; James Patrick Kelly’s On the Net goes to the “Time Party”; Peter Heck reviews Norman Spinrad, Peter S. Beagle, China Miéville, James P. Blaylock, Jack Womack, and others; plus we’ll have an array of poetry and additional features you’re sure to enjoy.

Over at SF REVU Sam Tomaino praises the whole thing, calling it “a great issue with a Hugo-worthy novella and a Hugo-worthy short story. It’s a great way to wind-up their Fortieth Anniversary.”

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The latest issue of Scott Andrew’s Beneath Ceaseless Skies has been up for less that a week, but Charles Payseur at Quick Sip Reviews already has a detailed review. Charles is routinely a pretty positive guy, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have good insights. His thoughtful comments introducing this issue make a fine example.

Whenever I get a new issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, my first inclination is to find out how the stories fit together. More than any other publication, BCS does an excellent job of pairing its stories. Perhaps because it does just two an issue, but there’s almost always something to link the tales, and this issue is no different. While the stories are thematically rather distant, and aesthetically fairly different as well (though each with perhaps a bit of a Western feel), they are linked by some key ideas. Metal, first and most. The first story deals with Iron, the second with Silver. And in each, these metals are used for magic, for a perceived justice, only to have that justice come into question, and the righteousness of the main characters comes into conflict with the harm that they do. These are stories of elections and revenge, voice and hunger. The pieces go together well, drawing a picture of desperate people and the complex idea of freedom.

Issue #237 contains new fiction from Marissa Lingen and Bennett North, an Audio Fiction Podcast by Natalia Theodoridou, and a reprint from Black Gate alum Rosamund Hodge.

Here’s Charles on “Forgive Us Our Trespasses” by Bennett North, which sounds right up my alley.

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There’s a new face in the crowd this week — Luna Station Quarterly, a speculative fiction journal that showcases emerging women authors. I’ve included issue #31 in the mix above; the magazine is now in its 8th year, so it’s high time we paid attention. Here’s the complete list of magazines that won my attention in late October (links will bring you to magazine websites).

Analog Science Fiction & Fact — fiction by BG writer Bill Johnson (“Mama Told Me Not to Come,” BG4), plus Catherine Wells, Scott Edelman, Robert Reed, Sean McMullen, and many others
Knights of the Dinner Table — Issue #247 has 20 pages of strips, plus “Getting the Band Back Together, and Other Campaign Starters” by James Davenport
Lightspeed — issue #89 has an original Dungeonspace novella from BG writer Jeremiah Tolbert (“Groob’s Stupid Grubs,” BG15), plus Sofia Samatar, Rachel Swirksy, Adam-Troy Castro, A. Merc Rustad, and Aliette de Bodard
Locus — issue 681 has interviews with James Patrick Kelly and Annalee Newitz, a column by Kameron Hurley, an obituary of Jerry Pournelle, reports from Worldcon 75, and plenty of reviews
Luna Station Quarterly — fresh fiction from Jennifer Lyn Parsons, Maria Haskins, Sandy Parsons, Anna Novitzky, Charity West, and many others
The Dark — new fiction from Darcie Little Badger and Davide Camparsi, plus reprints by Angela Slatter and Maria Dahvana Headley
Weirdbook Annual #1: Witches — new stories by BG writers John R. Fultz and Josh Reynolds, plus John Linwood Grant, Adrian Cole, Paul Dale Anderson, Scott Hutchison, Andre E. Harewood, and others
Meeple Monthly — all the news on the latest SF and fantasy board games, with a Starfinder Miniatures cover story, plus Mountains of Madness, The Mystery of Bluebeard’s Bride, 13th Age Bestiary 2, and tons more

Click any of the thumbnail images above for bigger images. Our early October Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

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