Black Gate

This month Fletcher Vredenburgh pulled double duty with his Short Story Roundup, reviewing the latest issues of Curtis Ellett’s Swords and Sorcery Magazine and the team-edited Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, plus the first two issues of Dave Ritzlin’s Scrolls of Legendry. Tony Den also looked back at the pulp magazine appearances of H. Warner Munn, including Weird Tales, Weird Terror Tales, and Famous Science Fiction.

For our modern readers, we reported on the news that Asimov’s SF and Analog Magazine have switched to bi-monthly publication.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our Early November 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 $35/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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I was very pleased to finally get my hands on a copy of Weirdbook 33 this week, the third issue of the newly re-launched weird fantasy magazine. It follows issue #32 by just four months, which is lightning fast in the world of small press magazines.

While the last issue contained 25 short stories, this time editor Doug Draa mixes it up a little with a focus on longer fiction. Here’s an excerpt from his editorial.

This issue is going somewhat against the norm in that there are only 9 pieces of long fiction, a single flash piece, from the esteemed James Aquilone, and our talented rouges gallery of poets this time around. The nine stories are all of novelette or novella length.

I was tempted to call this our “Super-duper Occult Detective Halloween Spooktacular,” but feared that that would have been overdoing things a wee bit. To be honest, it’s purely coincidental but this issue contains 3 detective pieces. One of them is a new “Nick Nightmare” story from British Fantasy Award winner Adrian Cole, another one is from rising star John R. Fultz, and the third is a tale of shamanistic detection set in the true north strong and free by the extremely talented Bruno Lombard.

This issue also sees the return of two genuine masters to the pages of Weirdbook. A powerful, erotic dark fantasy by Jessica Amanda Salmonson and a wonderfully pulpy adventure from the pen of Franklyn Searight himself.

This issue is even larger than the last one, clocking in at an impressive 178 pages. Here’s the complete table of contents.

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Issue #212 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies is now available, completely free on their website. It is dated November 10 and features fiction by Stephan Case and Evan Dicken, a podcast by Evan Dicken, and a reprint by Kenneth Schneyer.

Over at Tangent Online, Robert Turner seemed to especially enjoy the story by Stephan Case.

In “The Aeroliths” Stephan Case creates a world of floating stone, exiled nobles and political intrigue. The story is framed as a scroll read by the current wizard Theodulus. In it we learn the history of the wind spirit that is tied to the floating house. The world created is imaginative and the language rich and evocative. The pace is slow with a focus on world building, rather than action. Overall, this is an interesting read and suggested for those who prefer a slower paced, magical story.

Read Robert’s complete review here.

Here’s the complete Table of Contents for issue 212.

“The Aeroliths” by Stephen Case
We walked through the empty, echoing corridors of my family’s manor. I watched the Is flow by the manicured gardens where my ancestors had walked and dined. Through the wide windows of the manor’s upper levels, I looked for the shape of mountains in the distance, beyond the ivory teeth of the Capital’s broken walls. I wanted to go home. me.

“The Uncarved Heart” by Evan Dicken
I used to dream of the heart our masters would give me; spend my days sketching rough cordiform shapes in the corners of Father’s quota sheets and the backs of letters Mother sent from the front. I was sure all the other girls back at the Roost already had their hearts, that the Volant had carved each of them for a special purpose just as they’d carved my Mother, my Father, everyone but me.

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I checked Tangent Online this morning to get their thoughts on the current issue of Clarkesworld, but their review isn’t up yet. Phooey. Fortunately, Charles Payseur at Quick Sip Reviews posted an enthusiastic review this week. Here’s his overview:

It’s another packed month at Clarkesworld with six original stories, including a rather charming novelette in translation. And it’s another month that is entirely science fiction, with a splash of science-fantasy thrown in for flavor. These are tales that show visions of the future, conflicts playing out for the soul of humanity and for the fate of planets. Many of the stories take their focus off of Earth to show what humanity is capable of, the way that it can move from place to place, leaving a trail of destruction behind it. There’s hope, though, too, and the stories also show the power that humanity can hold to create and to change and to love….

Yeah, Charles knows how to whet your appetite. I’m especially curious about that “charming novelette in translation,” which turns out to be “Western Heaven” by Chen Hongyu, translated by Andy Dudak. Here’s what he says (in part).

Aww. This is a rather adorable adventure story about a robot artist, Wu Kong, on an Earth still deeply tainted from humanity, who wants to see where humans went, the planet that they fled to in order to escape the destruction they had wrought, leaving the robots behind, abandoned. Wu Kong gathers up a small band of robots to accompany him and together they work to find where humanity went and answer the questions burning within them. What are humans like? What is the meaning of work? Why were robots created? It’s a story that moves along with a rather chipper feel, this great adventure that the robots are going on. It almost feels like an old animated film to me, fun and with robots with distinct styles and voices… An excellent read!

Here he is on “Afrofuturist 419” by Nnedi Okorafor, just because I love his one-line story description:

Well this is a very fun, funny, and creepy story about a Nigerian astronaut left in space for 14 years and finally coming home because of a viral scam letter… It’s another short work but it’s an excellent blend of audio and text, tension and mystery, horror and humor. Go read it!

Read Charles’ complete review of the issue here.

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The November issue of Locus, the news magazine of the science fiction & fantasy field, is packed with great stuff, including reports on the British Fantasy Awards and the Gemmell Awards, interviews with Pat Cadigan and Cat Rambo, a column by Cory Doctorow, a report on Japanese Science Fiction, obituaries of Robert E. Weinberg and Ed Gorman, and reviews of short fiction and books by Alastair Reynolds, Juliet Marillier, Laird Barron, Ilona Andrews, Jonathan Strahan, and many others. In addition to all the news, features, and regular columns, there’s also the indispensable listings of Magazines Received, Books Received, British Books Received, and Bestsellers. Plus short fiction reviews by Rich Horton and Rachel Swirsky. See the complete contents here, and click on the images above for a peak at the complete Table of Contents.

We last covered Locus with the September issue. Locus is edited by Liza Groen Trombi, and published monthly by Locus Publications. The issue is 62 pages, priced at $7.50. Subscriptions are $63 for 12 issues in the US. Subscribe online here. The magazine’s website, run as a separate publication by Mark R. Kelly, is a superb online resource. It is here.

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

Woof. It’s tough keeping up with all the great fantasy magazines on the market these days. But somebody’s got to do it, and it might as well be us.

Our tireless freelance reporters this month included John Linwood Grant, who told us about the (now successful!) Kickstarter for Occult Detective Quarterly, the new journal of supernatural sleuths and psychic investigators, and Rich Horton, who gave us a Retro-Review of the May and June 1965 issues of Amazing Science Fiction, with stories by Poul Anderson, Clifford D. Simak, Roger Zelazny, David R. Bunch, and many others. We also revisited the Summer issue of Lackington’s, containing a new sword & sorcery story by Heroic Fantasy Quarterly editor Adrian Simmons.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our October 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 $35/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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