Black Gate

The December 2016 Asimov’s Science Fiction is something of a landmark, in that it’s the last monthly issue of Asimov’s — a magazine that has been publishing continually for 39 years. It’s as close as we come to an institution in this field, and while change is sometimes scary, in this case I think it’s a good thing. Like its sister publication Analog, the magazine is moving to a bimonthly schedule. I always enjoy the big double issues, and getting six of them a year for each magazine is something to look forward to.

The last monthly issue has stories by Karl Bunker, Gay Partington Terry, Gregory Norman Bossert, James Sallis, Kali Wallace, and David Erik Nelson. Here’s Sheila’s full description:

Our blockbuster December 2016 novella, “Where There Is Nothing, There Is God” by David Erik Nelson, is a rollicking Time Portal tale. It’s filled with a cast of unsavory characters who operate as though Cotton Mather’s favorite TV show was Breaking Bad. In this vastly entertaining story, it’s hard to know whom to root for so just make sure your inertia dampening system is on and enjoy the ride!

Once you decompress from Colonial Massachusetts, be prepared for a sharp shift to Gregory Norman Bossert’s wild depiction of “HigherWorks” in a future London; an eerie discovery “On the Cold Side of the Island” has long-term effects on the lives of three teens in a new tale by Kali Wallace; James Sallis escorts us to another island where we learn “How the Damned Live On”; new to Asimov’s author Gay Partington Terry’s magical tale explains the significance of “Empty Shoes by the Lake”; and in Karl Bunker’s “They All Have One Breath” artists who want to create interesting work must strive against the banality of a “perfect” society controlled by artificial intelligence.

Robert Silverberg’s Reflections column examines what it means to be as “Dead as a Dodo” in this modern age; Peter Heck’s On Books reviews new works by Lois McMaster Bujold, Charles Stross, Tim Powers, Indra Das, Lavie Tidhar, and others; plus we’ll have an array of poetry and other features you’re sure to enjoy.

The cover art is by NASA. The guest editorial is by Sarah Pinsker.

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Flash bulletin to all my fellow magazine collectors — Centipede Press has just announced the release of the latest issue of their massive annual Weird Fiction Review. It’s not yet listed at Amazon (or anywhere else I can find), and they don’t even have their usual sample pages up yet. But! As they often do, Centipede Press has early-bird pricing direct on their website — $16 off the regular price. But act fast; that pricing won’t last.

Here’s the issue blurb:

The Weird Fiction Review is an annual periodical devoted to the study of weird and supernatural fiction. It is edited by S.T. Joshi. This seventh issue contains fiction, poetry, and reviews from leading writers and promising newcomers. It features original stories and essays by Steve Rasnic Tem, Mark Howard Jones, Jonathan Thomas, John Shirley, Nicole Cushing, Jason V Brock on David Bowie, a fabulous essay on the Micronauts by Chad Hensley, an article on Jack Finney by John C. Tibbets, newly discovered artwork by John Stewart, a lengthy illustrated piece on artist Mike Ploog by John Butler, a terrific new interview with William Hjortsberg by Dave Roberts, and much more. The list price on this item is $35 and it is on sale for $19.

See the complete contents here. We last covered Weird Fiction Review with Issue #6.

Weird Fiction Review is edited by S.T. Joshi and published by Centipede Press. It is printed on high quality paper with lots of color. No idea how big this issue is; the last two were 300+ pages. The list price is $35 for the sewn trade paperback; the press run is limited to 500 copies. Get more detail and order copies at Centipede Press.

Our Late November Fantasy Magazine Rack is here, and you can see all of our recent magazine coverage here.

In his article “The Joy of Helping” in the latest Clarkesworld, writer and translator Ken Liu (The Wall of Storms, Invisible Planets) says some splendidly on-point things about helping others.

The truth is: It feels good to help people. Even today, much of my motivation in editing and translating stories from China is still tied up with this satisfaction of helping writers reach readers. Surely I would have written more original works and made more money without these translations — but I think I wouldn’t have been as happy.

And we don’t acknowledge and celebrate the joy of helping enough.

It’s also important to acknowledge that we like to be helped. I have been helped countless times in my career by friends, editors, readers, fellow authors—even Invisible Planets wouldn’t have been possible without the help of all the authors and many others along the way. All of us have probably had experiences where a friend’s insightful comments improved our stories… or we got onto a panel because someone more famous and accomplished thought it helpful to boost our voices. The sun feels brighter on those days, and even the writing seems to come out of the word-mines more easily.

It’s nice to be able to make someone feel that, isn’t it?

As freelancers in the uncertain publishing industry, writers are bombarded with advice on how to develop our careers and to think strategically. Sometimes it almost seems as if we’re supposed to feel foolish if our motivation for doing something is simply to help someone with no expectation of any advantage whatsoever. And if we do receive help, we are conditioned to think of it as part of some implied exchange, a favor owed that might be called in someday. Neither reaction, I submit, is necessary. Helping someone truly is its own reward.

Preach, brother Liu! It’s there’s one thing I’ve learned in 17 years publishing Black Gate, it’s that the biggest rewards always come from promoting others. Read Ken’s complete piece here.

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Over at Tangent Online, reviewer Kevin P Hallett demonstrates a knack for producing tantalizing three-sentence descriptions for each of the original pieces in the latest issue of Grimdark magazine.

“The Law of the Harvest” by Tim Waggoner

This horror fantasy short story is set in a world where the new power has expelled the old gods from the Dominion. Torvan is a harrower, sworn to find and kill any of these fallen gods that still live. He enters a poor village, where one of the Fallen is living off the people who scratch out a life there…

“The Bed of the Crimson King” by Filip Wiltgren

The Crimson King rose from a simple farm boy to become the hero who defeated the witches in this short fantasy. Now, in his elder years, he yearns for the simpler life of his youth. But a surviving witch is planning her revenge…

“Pre-emptive Revenge” by Rob J. Hayes

“Pre-emptive Revenge” is a short fantasy set in a medieval land. Betrim’s wife will rule this land; but first, all the members of the ruling Jogaren clan must die. Betrim has laid siege to a city and trapped a Jogaren family inside…

The issue also has fiction by Peter Orullian and Teresa Frohock.

The latest issue went on sale October 1. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

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The November/December issue of Uncanny is all about alien invasions and fairy tales. Here’s Bob Blough from his Tangent Online review, with some high praise for the stories within.

This is my first read of this magazine and I am impressed. By this small taste I can tell that the editors favor good writing and well-crafted prose.

Paul Cornell has written one of Britain’s “cozy catastrophes” in “Don’t You Worry, You Aliens.” In fact the catastrophe is never explained. Suddenly people seem to be moving away. The protagonist, the local librarian, states that before the BBC went completely off the air it commented that no virus or plague seemed to be the cause. In any case, the librarian – an old man – is left completely alone in a small village with no electricity, internet or telephone. This story is a day in his life as he putters around town feeding his neighbor’s dog, and checking his garden. It is an elegiac story told at the pace of the elderly and is a beautiful miniature of his life. I must admit it has stuck in my mind. A very compelling story…

In “Kamanti’s Child” Jennifer Marie Brissett drops us in media res in an alien battle between two races. I like that tactic as we have to really follow all the clues to understand where we are and what is happening. A quiet village living off the land is invaded by another group. Kamanti, a pregnant alien woman survives the attack. She decides to travel to a city of her own kind. Along the way we are introduced to her daughter telepathically from her womb and the invaders called hoomans. Even as we see that we are the attackers it is stated that all of this world is related. So, an Earth so far ahead that we have developed into different species? An alien planet that has developed us into different species? Still the mystery continues and we learn just enough to get through this story…

Read his complete review here

The issue includes all–new short fiction by Paul Cornell, Brooke Bolander, Jennifer Marie Brissett, Alex Bledsoe, Kat Howard, and Nalo Hopkinson, and a reprint by Amal El–Mohtar, plus nonfiction by Alyssa Wong, Monica Valentinelli, Navah Wolfe, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Keidra Chaney, and recent Hugo Award winner Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu), plus poetry, interviews, and an editorial. All of the content became available for purchase as an eBook (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) on November 1, 2016.

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I’m used to Cemetery Dance being a slim newsprint publication, so imagine my surprise on Saturday when I saw the massive 200-page trade paperback at right in the magazine rack at Barnes & Noble (click the image for a full-sized version).

The huge double issue is the biggest issue of CD I’ve ever seen. On the website, editor Richard Chizmar explains the necessity for this Goliath-sized installment.

This special issue not only features an original, never-before-published novella by Joe Hill, but the issue grew so large that we have to publish it as our FIRST-EVER oversized trade paperback version of the magazine and our first double issue since #17/18 way back in the day! This change is just for this issue, so we can fit all of the amazing content we received. We’ll be back to normal with the fall issue. All subscribers to the magazine WILL receive this special issue with your subscription, no additional purchase is required.

Cemetery Dance #74/75 is a special Joe Hill issue. It was published in both trade paperback (available now for $14.95) and a signed limited-edition hardcover (shipping soon for $60). It has new fiction from Joe Hill, Glen Hirshberg, Bruce McAllister, Ray Garton, and others. Here’s the complete contents.

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The Dark switched to monthly publication in May, and has had a terrific year so far. It’s published original fiction from Steve Rasnic Tem, Steve Berman, Kali Wallace, Leena Likitalo, A.C. Wise, Cassandra Khaw, and many others, and reprints from Angela Slatte, Tananarive Due, Helen Marshall, Seanan McGuire, Gemma Files, Stephen Graham Jones, Robert Shearman, Mark Morris, and others. At $1.99 per issue, it’s one of the best bargains in the field.

The Dark is edited by Sean Wallace, with assistance by Jack Fisher. It is published online and in digital formats, and includes two original stories and two reprints each issue. Here’s the Table of Contents for issue #19, cover-dated December 2016.

“Too Many Ghosts” by Steve Rasnic Tem
“The Curtain” by Thana Niveau (from Postscripts 32/33: Far Voyager, November 2014)
“As Cymbals Clash” by Cate Gardner
“The Absent Shade” by Priya Sharma (from Black Static, Issue 44, January/February 2015)

You can read issues free online, or help support the magazine by buying the ebook editions, available for the Kindle and Nook in Mobi and ePub format. Issues are around 50 pages, and priced at $2.99 through Amazon, B&N.com, Apple, Kobo, and other fine outlets — or subscribe for just $1.99 per issue. If you enjoy the magazine you can contribute to their new Patreon account here. You can also support The Dark by buying their books, reviewing stories, or even just leaving comments.

Read the December issue here, and see their complete back issue catalog here. The December cover is by Susanafh. We last covered The Dark with the August issue.

See our Late November Fantasy Magazine Rack here, and all of our recent Magazine coverage here.

Trying to keep up with uber-editor John Joseph Adams is exhausting. In his capacity as editor of two magazines (Lightspeed and Nightmare), a prolific anthology editor, and editor of John Joseph Adams Books for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, he produces more books than I can read every month. Here’s a snippet from his editorial in the current Lightspeed on his various doings this month.

As you may recall, in addition to editing Lightspeed and Nightmare, I am also the series editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, which launched last year. The first volume was guest edited by Joe Hill, and the 2016 volume (which came out October 4) is guest edited by Karen Joy Fowler…

My new anthology [What the #@&% is That?] — co-edited with Douglas Cohen — releases this month…. I just released new editions of my anthologies Federations and The Way of the Wizard. The new covers are both by the wonderful and talented Matt Bright at Inkspiral Design… Next month, the final volume in the POC Destroy series will publish as a special issue of Fantasy Magazine (which was merged into Lightspeed back in 2012).

In my role as editor of John Joseph Adams Books for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, I just acquired a novel by debut author Bryan Camp: The City of Lost Fortunes, a novel about a magician with a talent for finding lost things who is forced into playing a high stakes game with the gods of New Orleans for the heart and soul of the city. Publication date is tentatively scheduled for Spring 2018. Meanwhile, I also bought a story by Bryan for Lightspeed, so you’ll be seeing his short story debut sometime in the near future as well!

Whatever brand of coffee John is drinking, I need some. On top of everything else, John also reports that this month’s Lightspeed includes a special section on comics and graphic novels by four guest-columnists: Christie Yant, Jenn Reese, Kate Galey, and Rachel Swirsky. They’re also adding a new regular book review columnist, joining Andrew Liptak and Amal El-Mohtar.

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