Black Gate

Lightspeed has produced some really exceptional special issues over the last few years, including the groundbreaking Women Destroy Science Fiction and Queers Destroy Science Fiction issues. June sees the People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction special issue, weighing in at a massive 464 pages. It was funded by a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign that wrapped up on February 20, and is guest-edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Kristine Ong Muslim (original short fiction), Nisi Shawl (reprints), Grace L. Dillon (nonfiction), and Sunil Patel (personal essays).

Even folks who didn’t contribute to the Kickstarter get to share in the benefits, as much of this issue’s massive payload of fiction is already up and freely available at the Lightspeed website — including brand new stories by Sofia Samatar, John Chu, JY Yang, S.B. Divya, and many others. But that’s not all…there’s also a rich assortment of paid content — including original fiction, a novella, flash fiction, reprints, and much more — available to backers, and anyone who purchases the digital edition for just $3.99. This issue is also available in a special trade paperback edition, with all the bonus content, for $17.99.

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

…

Read More Read More

Over at Tangent Online, Chuck Rothman finds plenty to like in the latest issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction.

July’s Asimov’s begins with “Ten Poems for the Mossums, One for the Man” by Suzanne Palmer and starts out with a protagonist — a poet — attending what is essentially a writing retreat alone on an alien world with strange life forms, including the Mossums, described as “green fuzzy boulders.” The poet writes a series of poems about his impressions, and slowly begins to discover that the Mossums are more complex than he imagines. The story started a bit slowly, but quickly drew me in, and it was nice to read something that portrayed aliens by hints and without any clear-cut answers…

“Masked” shows a future where the wealthy use both makeup and holographic techniques to make themselves as beautiful as they can. Bess is about to meet again with her friend Vera, who has suffered a computer virus that wreaked havoc with the computer programs she uses to adjust her appearance. Vera is supposedly recovered, but Bess can see that she doesn’t seem right. Rich Larson’s version of the future and the styles are well imagined, and one of the strengths of the story is the way that Bess begins to understand what’s really important…

The set up to Will McIntosh’s “Lost:Mind” is convoluted, but once that’s past it becomes a fine story. Colonel Walter Murphy’s wife Mimi is dying of Alzheimer’s and, desperate, he turns to technology, creating a recording of her mind so she can live on. But such experimentation is illegal in the US, so it has to be smuggled in from India. A full mind would raise alarms, so it’s broken into 32 pieces of a chess set, to be assembled later. And the chess set is stolen. What follows is a race against the clock to find the pieces (from a noted sculptor) before the battery dies, along with Mimi’s mind. There’s a great mixture of action, dead ends, and emotional roller coasters to make the story one of the best of the year.

Read the complete review here.

…

Read More Read More

In his editorial this issue, Neil Clarke has some powerful words to say about how all of us can help keep short fiction alive.

If we want short fiction to thrive, we have a responsibility to spread the word and promote the works we’ve enjoyed. There are many ways to do this, but it needs to be focused, respectful, and timely. More specifically, it needs to be done in locations that are relevant to the audience you are trying to attract. Your blog is nice, but adding Twitter or Amazon might have a bigger impact.

Reviewing isn’t for everyone, mind you. I really wanted to do my part and find a way to contribute to a positive conversation about short fiction. I tried writing reviews. The blank screen tormented me and it took a while to realize that I wasn’t following the path that best utilized my skills. Instead, I changed tactics and launched Forever Magazine as a way of bringing back some of the stories I’ve enjoyed. When I go full-time this year, I hope to be able to do a bit more with that project.

Read his complete editorial here.

Clarkesworld #117 has four new stories by Margaret Ronald, Sam J. Miller, E. Catherine Tobler, and Zhang Ran, and two reprints by Michael Flynn and Nancy Kress.

…

Read More Read More

Over at Tangent Online, reviewer Herbert M. Shaw weighs in on the May/June Uncanny, which features a lot of tales of the undead this issue.

“The Sound of Salt and Sea” by Kat Howard
When the ghost of a brash face from his past returns, it is up to an island’s mortal protector to right a recent wrong. Secluded to a tropical are where the dead rise at low tide, the protagonist describes his struggle as the sole protector with a wide array of metaphors and similes. Howard takes on the undead by fighting fire with fire in a story about friendships, family ties, and skeleton horseback riding.

“You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay” by Alyssa Wong
A second-person novella places the reader as the main character to become immersed in the mindset of a person capable of controlling the dead. Some call it witchcraft, some call it a family trait. Through deep understandings of the other character’s perceptions, Wong manages to create a sense of how dangerous and significant your power can be as you lead an expedition to an abandoned mine to rid it of its infestation.

“The Drowning Line” by Haralambi Markov
This issue’s trend of stories involving the undead and death by water culminates in a sort of ‘Freddy meets Jason’ myth held by one person. After a demon killed the father, it is up to the son to prevent it from coming for his newly teenage daughter on the cusp of womanhood. His journey is plagued by a past he cannot let go of for fear that being forgotten will not mean it is gone. As the only male writer in this month’s issue, Markov concludes these stories by unknowingly borrowing aspects of the previous four, those being family values, brash actions, facing the dead, and the ever-present environment of water.

Read Shaw’s complete review here. The magazine also includes fiction by Seanan McGuire, Kameron Hurley, and JY Yang, and non-fiction by Foz Meadows, Sarah Monette, Stephanie Zvan, and Tanya DePass, plus poetry, interview, and an editorial. All of the content became available for purchase as an eBook (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) on May 1, 2016.

…

Read More Read More

Okay, not technically the latest fiction, since I’m still getting caught up. Let’s say recent fiction, and leave it at that. We’ll start with “Your Orisons May Be Recorded” by Laurie Penny, a hilarious and poignant story of an angel working in call center, answering prayers. Her co-worker is a demon, and she’s not allowed to actually answer any prayers, but those aren’t her greatest concerns… far from it, as it turns out. “Your Orisons May Be Recorded” was edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden and illustrated by Yuko Shimizu (above left). It was published March 15.

Caighlan Smith’s dark fantasy “The Weather” was edited by Ann VanderMeer, and illustrated by Keith Negley (above middle). It was posted on March 23rd. Here’s the description.

In the middle of a barren wasteland, a small town goes through the motions as if nothing’s changed. Lolly has school, a part time job, a senile grandmother that needs looking after. But everything has changed, and Lolly’s always one storm away from facing that.

Finally, we have “Freedom is Space for the Spirit,” a contemporary fantasy by Glen Hirshberg. It was edited by Ellen Datlow and published on April 6, 2016, with artwork by Greg Ruth (above right).

“Freedom is Space for the Spirit” by Glen Hirshberg is a fantasy about a middle-aged German, drawn back to Russia by a mysterious invitation from a friend he knew during the wild, exuberant period in the midst of the break-up of the Soviet Union. Upon his arrival in St. Petersburg, he begins to see bears, wandering and seemingly lost.

We last covered Tor.com with Alter S. Reiss’s epic fantasy “Recalled to Service.” For more free fiction, see our recent online magazine coverage.

Black Gate would like to salute editor Scott H. Andrews and the entire team at Beneath Ceaseless Skies for achieving a remarkable milestone: publishing an amazing 200 issues over the last eight years. (To put that in perspective, that’s 185 more than Black Gate, every one of them on time! I get light headed just thinking about it.)

Simultaneous with their landmark 200th issue, the magazine wrapped up their subscription drive aimed at enabling the magazine to publish longer stories, and announced that they are now open to stories up to 11,000 words. Sweet!

But the big news is the big double issue. Issue #200 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies is dated May 26 and features fiction by Catherynne M. Valente, Kameron Hurley, Yoon Ha Lee, and Seth Dickinson, podcasts by Yoon Ha Lee and Seth Dickinson, and a Gaunt and Bone reprint by BG author Chris Willrich. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

“The Limitless Perspective of Master Peek, or, the Luminescence of Debauchery” by Catherynne M. Valente
So it came to pass that over the weeks remaining until the parturition of Perdita, I fashioned for her, out of crystal and ebony and chips of fine jade, twin organs of sight not the equal of mortal orbs but by far their superior, in clarity, in beauty, even in soulfulness. If you ask me how I accomplished it, I shall show you the door, for I am still a tradesman, however exalted, and tradesmen tell no tales.

“The Judgment of Gods and Monsters” by Kameron Hurley
She shouldn’t have gone to the trial, or talked to that stupid reporter, even for a second. Her father would know, now, that it was her who had his file. It was her who had been called upon to bring him in. She wouldn’t have shown up at the trial otherwise, and he knew it. “Two bits to the one whose family it isn’t,” she said to Merriz, and rolled up to get a look at the shooters.

…

Read More Read More

It’s all subjective, but 2015 really seemed to be the year of Sam J. Miller and Kelly Robson. If you weren’t reading their stuff you were missing something special. There were others, like Alyssa Wong, but you needed to read Sam and Kelly. Just like the year before it was Kai Ashante Wilson and Usman Malik.

While thankfully none of those fine writers have gone away, this year seems to belong to Rich Larson and Dominica Phetteplace, both of whom have had fine stories in a range of publications. Larson has had strong work in Interzone, Analog, F&SF and elsewhere, while Phetteplace has set up home in Asimov’s with a series of excellent stories. She also has a new one in the upcoming July/August F&SF, “Spells Are Easy If You Have The Right Psychic Energy,” that I really enjoyed. And both authors are in the current issue of Asimov’s, July 2016 (above right).