Black Gate

Clarkesworld #118 has five new stories by Mike Buckley, Eric Schwitzgebel, John Chu, Jack Schouten, and A Que, and two reprints by Linda Nagata and Mary Rosenblum.

Short stories featured this issue are:

“Helio Music” by Mike Buckley
“Fish Dance” by Eric Schwitzgebel
“The Sentry Branch Predictor Spec: A Fairy Tale” by John Chu
“Sephine and the Leviathan” by Jack Schouten
“Against the Stream” by A Que
“Nahiku West” by Linda Nagata (from Analog Science Fiction, October 2012)
“Lion Walk” by Mary Rosenblum (from Asimov’s Science Fiction, January 2009)

The non-fiction is:

Paradise Lost: A History of Fantasy and the Otherworld by Christopher Mahon
Talkative Creatures and a Mesozoic Cocktail: A Conversation with Michael Swanwick by Chris Urie
Another Word: Burning Bridges by Peter Watts
Editor’s Desk: What is it with Readercon? by Neil Clarke

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Tin House is an American literary magazine, showcasing fiction and poetry from new and established writers. The magazine was founded in 1999, and has published fiction by Stephen King, Kelly Link, Jonathan Lethem, David Foster Wallace, and many others. The 2016 Summer Reading issue is huge — 224 pages — and filled with fiction. There are 11 stories, including five in translation, and an excerpt from the dark environmental thriller Marrow Island by Alexis M. Smith.

In his Editor’s Note, Rob Spillman gives us a sneak peek at the contents.

Booksellers like the ones I met in Denver challenge us to keep seeking out the most exciting and thoughtful work by new and established writers from all over the world, and because of them we’re confident there is an audience for their work. In this issue we’re proud to bring you five fabulous translations, among them Dorthe Nors’s “By Sydvest Station,” translated from the Danish by Misha Hoekstra, and Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s “The Dress of Honey,” translated from the French by Edward Gauvin. Alexis M. Smith’s debut novel, Glaciers, was an indie sensation, and here we feature an excerpt from her follow-up, Marrow Island. Smith is joined by other indie darlings, Deb Olin Unferth, Josh Weil, and Saša Stanišic, as well as esteemed poets Dorianne Laux and John Ashbery, who return to our pages. We’re also happy to welcome new-to-us poets Anna Journey and Sam Riviere.

Here’s a look at the complete Table of Contents.

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Yeah, I’m still getting caught up, so it’s not really the latest fiction at Tor.com. But I’ve made it into April, so that’s progress!

Anyway, here’s a fine new batch of fantasy and adventure SF short fiction from Michael R. Underwood, Joan Aiken, Lavie Tidhar, Jack Nicholls, and Tara Isabella Burton, all available for free at Tor.com.

“The Destroyer” by Tara Isabella Burton
Posted April 20, edited by Ann VanderMeer. Art by Ashley Mackenzie (above right)
Fantasy, Science Fiction || In a futuristic, fascistic Rome, a brilliant, unstable scientist proves that she can transcend the human body’s limitations. The test subject? Her own daughter. A mother-daughter mad scientist story, “The Destroyer” asks how far we’ll go to secure our own legacies — and how far we’ll run to escape them.

“Dune Time” by Jack Nicholls
Posted April 19, edited by David Hartwell. Art by Mark Smith (above middle)
Contemporary Fantasy, Magical Realism || Isolated in the desert with his brother, Hasan learns that there is more to the legends of the dunes than he initially believed.

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I love these big double issues of Analog. Chiefly because they have space for longer stories — and indeed, the latest double issue, July/August 2016, has two big novellas by Arlan Andrews, Sr. and Brad Torgersen.

In fact, this issue has several nice surprises, including fiction by Ian Creasey, John Shirley, Nick Wolven, and James Van Pelt — and a brand new short story by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, “Story Night at the Stronghold.” On top of that, there’s a special feature by editor emeritus Stanley Schmidt, titled “THE END, or, Leaving the Reader Satisfied.” Here’s editor Trevor Quachri’s teaser for the issue on the Analog website.

O, the double issue! I sing your praises! What can’t you do? Present a lead story ab out a future where social media and augmented reality have converged with mixed results? Indeed, we have “No Strangers Any More,” by Ian Creasey.

Can you give us not one but two novellas? Yes! When you take a path, it necessarily means there are other paths you cannot go down, and when humanity as a whole goes down one path, well . . . you’ll see, in Brad R. Torgersen’s “Purytans.” We’ll also look in on the travels of Arlan Andrews’ Rist in “Fall.”

What of material by luminaries like John Shirley, or Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle? Indubitably! In fact, there will be both! See “Cory for Coriolis” and “Story Night at the Stronghold” for proof that your eyes do not deceive you!

Perhaps more short pieces, fiction and nonfiction alike, from authors such as Nick Wolven, Stanley Schmidt, James Van Pelt, Elisabeth R. Adams, Andrew Barton, Sean Vivier, Christina De La Rocha, and Karl Bunker? I believe we can accommodate you there, yes.

And columns. Oh the columns. Never will you see columns such as these again . . . except perhaps in the issue that follows.

All that for roughly the price of a paperback! How can you go wrong?

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When I was at the Nebula Awards weekend in May, I met a charming young man named Julien Wacquez, the co-editor of the French SF magazine Angle Mort, which publishes English SF in translation for French readers. I learned that he and his co-editor, René-Marc Dolhen, were launching a brand new English magazine to bring the best of French SF to English audiences, Blind Spot. He was kind enough to send me a copy of the first issue last week, and it looks terrific. Here’s René-Marc and Julien, from their introduction.

Angle Mort was founded in France in 2010 to translate innovative science fiction stories written by authors such as Aliette de Bodard, Jeffrey Ford, Kij Johnson, Kelly Link, Ian McDonald, Vandana Singh, and to publish French original narratives written by Stéphane Beauverger, David Calvo, Thomas Day, Jean-Claude Dunyach, Léo Henry, and Laurent Kloetzer among others. Our work has been recognized several times by the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire and nominated as “best translated work of the year” or “best short story of the year…”

Going forward, we wish to widen our audiences to pursue our two main goals:

1 – Bolster the ties between French and American science fiction, by launching a new magazine, Blind Spot, that translates French stories into English. We think that French science fiction is rich from finding new ways to describe human experiences and contradictions, the weight of structures upon our lives, and the role of collective entities on our destiny.

2 – Bridge art, science, and literature, by supporting people who try to remold original perceptions of the self or the surrounding world, regardless of whether their works are fictional stories, academic papers, or visual arts, as long as they relate to science fiction.

Both French and English online magazines owned by the group are conceived as an endeavor to find new languages, new ways of telling true stories. They will be published at a frequency of two issues per year each. The narratives will be available for free on their dedicated website and exclusive additional content (interviews with contributors) can be accessed by ordering the complete online issue for $3. The proceeds will help us pay our contributors and translators.

Read the first story, Jean-Claude Dunyach’s “Landscape with Intruders,” free online here. And buy the first issue in PDF, epub and mobi formats for just $3 here. Broaden your horizons, and support a new SF magazine!

The May/June issue of Interzone magazine is now on sale, with a cover by 2016 cover artist Vincent Sammy, “My Name To You No More” (click the image at right for a bigger version.)

Interzone #264 contains five stories:

“Breadcrumbs” by Malcolm Devlin
“Starlings” by Tyler Keevil
“Mars, Aphids, and Your Cheating Heart” by James Van Pelt
“Lifeboat” by Rich Larson
“The Tower Princesses” by Gwendolyn Kiste

Non-fiction this issue includes an Editorial by Elaine Gallagher, Future Interrupted by Jonathan McCalmont, Time Pieces by Nina Allan, plus David Langford’s Ansible Link, and the regular columns: book reviews, Nick Lowe’s Mutant Popcorn film reviews, and Tony Lee’s DVD column, Laser Fodder. Issue 264 is nearly 100 pages and packed with fiction, columns, and top-notch art.

Interzone is the sister magazine of Black Static, both are published by TTA Press in the UK. The distinguished Andy Cox is the editor of both.

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The month of June ended with a flurry of new magazine arrivals, more than your humble editors could hope to cover. But we took our best shot.

We added one new title to our coverage: the delightful board game periodical Meeple Monthly (and there’s no truth to the rumor we waited until it did a cover feature on Star Trek first). Fletcher Vredenburgh reported on the latest issue of Swords and Sorcery in his May Short Story Roundup, and the distinguished editor Jonathan Strahan shared his assessment of 2016’s breakout short fiction stars. In other news, we reported that Tor.com is shopping for novellas to feed their fast-growing label, and that the Summer issue of SFX magazine offers a terrific spread on galactic hero Perry Rhodan (including quotes from yours truly.)

We had plenty for vintage magazine fans this month, too — including a review of L. Sprague de Camp’s The Tritonian Ring, which originally appeared in Two Complete Science Adventure Books from 1951, Rich Horton’s Retro Review of the October 1962 Amazing Stories, and a look at Terry Carr’s The Best Science Fiction of the Year #4, from 1974.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our early June Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

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