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Clarkesworld 104 Now on Sale

Clarkesworld 104 Now on Sale

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Clarkesworld 104-smallThe newest issue of Clarkesworld, one of the best genre mags on the market, is now on sale. Issue 104 contains five new short stories, plus reprints from James Van Pelt and Hannu Rajaniemi.

Short stories featured this issue are:

“The Garden Beyond Her Infinite Skies” by Matthew Kressel
“For the Love of Sylvia City” by Andrea M. Pawley
“Mrs. Griffin Prepares to Commit Suicide Tonight” by A Que, translated by John Chu
“Ossuary” by Ian Muneshwar
“An Evolutionary Myth” by Bo-Young Kim
“Solace” by James Van Pelt (from Analog, June 2009)
“Tyche and the Ants” by Hannu Rajaniemi (from Edge of Infinity, Nov 2012)

Non-fiction includes “Destination: Mars” by Andrew Liptak, who’s also been writing a fine series of pulp and classic SF retrospectives SF at Kirkus Reviews over the last few months (see a partial list here); “Another Word: It’s Good to Be Lazy and Foolish” by SF author Ken Liu; an interview with author and editor Cat Rambo; and an editorial, “Overload!” by Neil Clarke, in which he talks about (among other things) his upcoming Year’s Best Anthology: The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 1, to be published “sometime in 2016” by Night Shade Books. This issue also includes two podcasts.

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New Treasures: Dreams of Shreds and Tatters by Amanda Downum

New Treasures: Dreams of Shreds and Tatters by Amanda Downum

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Dreams of Shreds and Tatters-smallAmanda Downum is the author of the three-volume Necromancer Chronicles from Orbit Books. Her latest book, described as a “Lovecraftian urban fantasy,” looks very intriguing indeed. It goes on sale in paperback next week from Solaris.

When Liz Drake’s best friend vanishes, nothing can stop her nightmares. Driven by the certainty he needs her help, she crosses a continent to search for him.

She finds Blake comatose in a Vancouver hospital, victim of a mysterious accident that claimed his lover’s life — in her dreams he drowns. Blake’s new circle of artists and mystics draws her in, but all of them are lying or keeping dangerous secrets. Soon nightmare creatures stalk the waking city, and Liz can’t fight a dream from the daylight world: to rescue Blake she must brave the darkest depths of the dreamlands. Even the attempt could kill her, or leave her mind trapped or broken.

And if she succeeds, she must face the monstrous Yellow King, whose slave Blake is on the verge of becoming forever.

Dreams of Shreds and Tatters will be published by Solaris on May 12, 2015. It is 256 pages, priced at $9.99 in paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition.

See all of our recent New Treasures posts here.

The Future of Fantasy: May New Releases

The Future of Fantasy: May New Releases

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Trial of Intentions-small The Venusian Gambit-small Archivist Wasp-small

May, why do you do this to me? There are so many dynamite new fantasy books hitting the stands, I scarcely know where to look. And I have absolutely no idea where I’ll find the have time to read any of them.

Well, I’ll worry about that later. The task at hand is to introduce you to the 30 most intriguing fantasy titles released this month. And trust me, I had a heck of a time whittling it down to 30. Time’s a wasting, so let’s get started.

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New Treasures: The Vorrh by B. Catling

New Treasures: The Vorrh by B. Catling

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The Vorrh-smallI first heard of B. Catling’s second novel The Vorrh when Matthew David Surridge reviewed it for us two years ago, saying:

It’s a powerful book, precise and unexpected in its use of language and its plot construction, a dizzying and straight-faced blend of history and the unreal… It’s mostly set in the years after World War One, but although there are scenes with peculiar Victorian technology and bakelite automata, it mostly avoids any feel of either steampunk or such recently-coined retrofantasies as dieselpunk or decopunk… while one can say that the Vorrh of Catling’s novel — a massive forest in which time is confused and myths wander — recalls Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood, the feel is something quite different.

The book has just been reprinted in trade paperback by Vintage, with an impressive range of cover blurbs, including a stellar endorsement by Alan Moore on the front cover:

Easily the current century’s first landmark work of fantasy.

Sadly, Moore’s introduction to the hardcover edition is missing here, but you can’t have everything. (The hardcover, out of print for scarcely a year, already commands ridiculous prices on the collector’s market, so I’m just glad to finally have a copy.)

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Vintage Treasures: The Last T’En Trilogy by Cory Daniells

Vintage Treasures: The Last T’En Trilogy by Cory Daniells

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Broken Vows Cory Daniells-small Dark Dreams Cory Daniells Desperate Alliances Cory Daniells-small
Broken Vows Rowena Cory Daniells-small Dark Dreams Rowena Cory Daniells-small Desperate Alliances Rowena Cory Daniells-small

Two months ago, in my March New Releases article, I said a few words about a handsome omnibus volume from best selling author Rowena Cory Daniells, The Fall of Fair Isle, published in paperback by Solaris on March 10. A complete trilogy on one volume, it collects Broken Vows, Dark Dreams, and Desperate Alliances, all originally published over a decade ago and recently republished with new cover art. Together, they form a sequel to her epic fantasy saga The Outcast Chronicles.

After that, I kinda forgot about it. Until last week, when I was sorting through some old review copies that I received in the late 90s, while I was editor of SF Site. I found the original paperback editions from Bantam Books (above, top row) and, to be blunt, it took a few days before it dawned on me that they were the same series. Where the Bantam editions were packaged as high fantasy/medieval romances, the new Solaris versions are marketed as dark fantasy — with starkly different cover design, and under a different name. It’s one of the more interesting examples of a publishing make-over I’ve seen in a while.

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New Treasures: Ceaseless West

New Treasures: Ceaseless West

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Ceaseless West-smallWhile I was pulling together my Wednesday post on Beneath Ceaseless Skies 171, I noticed that editor Scott H. Andrews had just released his latest BCS Anthology, Ceaseless West, a terrific-looking collection of weird western tales — which includes a short story by Black Gate‘s own Matthew David Surridge. I’m a big fan of weird westerns, and this one looks very promising indeed.

A fallen-angel gunslinger must defend a dusty town against hellspawn….

Living trains roam wild off their tracks….

A pious teetotaler widow faces a town’s scorn and a dying boy’s frantic spirit….

An eternal warrior marshal is drawn through time to face that which must be faced….

These and other awe-inspiring Weird Western stories await in Ceaseless West: Weird Western Stories from Beneath Ceaseless Skies Online Magazine, a new ebook anthology of eighteen Weird Western stories from Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

Ceaseless West features stories by Kenneth Mark Hoover, Peter Darbyshire, Mark Teppo, E. Catherine Tobler, Aurealis Award finalist and winner Ian McHugh, Shirley Jackson Award finalist Gemma Files, and Hugo Award finalist Saladin Ahmed.

Previous anthologies from BCS include five volumes of Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and the steampunk collection Ceaseless Steam.

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June 2015 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale

June 2015 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale

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Asimov's Science Fiction June 2015-smallThe June issue of Asimov’s SF has arrived in stores. It usually goes on sale simultaneously with its sister Dell Magazines publication, Analog, but I didn’t see it on the stands. I was especially interested in Analog this month, as it’s the commemorative 1000th issue, a pretty big milestone. (If you’re having trouble doing the math, it takes a monthly publication 83.3 years to produce 1,000 issues. Analog published its first issue, under the name Astounding Stories, in January 1930, and has been publishing more-or-less continuously ever since.) I guess I’ll have to make another trip to the bookstore this month.

I always read Sheila Williams’ editorials in Asimov’s first, but there’s a guest editorial this issue, from author Kathleen Ann Goonan, on “Teaching Science Fiction,” which is also very readable. Robert Silverberg’s always-interesting Reflections column, titled “The World to End Last Month” this month, talks about the rich tradition of apocalyptic SF:

Foreseeing the end of the world has been the business of SF writers ever since there was such a thing as science fiction, and back before it. What sort of end-of-the-world stories our primordial preliterate ancestors told we will never know, but the oldest such tale that has come down to us, the five-thousand-year-old Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, describes a deluge that drowns the whole Earth, save only a certain Ziusudra… The Norse myths give us a terrible frost, the Fimbulwinter, in which all things die except a man and a woman who survive by hiding in a tree; they follow the usual redemptionist course and repeople the world, but then comes an even greater cataclysm, Ragnarok, the doom of the gods themselves, in which the stars fall, the earth sinks into the sea, and fire consumes everything….

As always, there’s lot of great fiction too. This month’s authors include Django Wexler, Henry Lien, and Sarah Pinsker.

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Goth Chick News: The Gospel of Loki, Because All Girls Love a Bad Boy

Goth Chick News: The Gospel of Loki, Because All Girls Love a Bad Boy

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The Gospel of Loki-smallI recently had the pleasure of experiencing the only US stop of the touring exhibit Vikings at the Field Museum in Chicago. There I learned much about the Norse “tribe of gods,” which included stories about Odin, the god of war and death, but also the god of wisdom and poetry credited with creating the world. I also learned about Loki, the trickster god and companion of Odin, who helped him with clever plans but sometimes caused a world of trouble (literally).

It is easy to see some similarities between Odin and Loki, and Christianity’s God and Satan, though Norse mythology is far less black and white. Odin and Loki often work together to teach mankind lessons, both directly and through their own failings.

All in all, a fascinating experience.

Which is why I was beyond thrilled to find a package from my friends at Wunderkind, waiting for me when I got home.

The Gospel of Loki, by Joanne M. Harris, is scheduled for release on May 5th and at first, I thought I was going to have a chance to delve deeper into the Norse myth of Loki, which in and of itself would have been a treat.

However, what I really received was so much more fun.

Now this may come as a shock, but my favorite type of humor is that which is liberally tinged with irreverence. In other words, I like no one I like better than someone with the ability to poke fun at topics which are normally taken seriously by everyone else.

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New Treasures: Grimm Mistresses edited by Stacey Turner

New Treasures: Grimm Mistresses edited by Stacey Turner

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Grimm Mistresses-smallWhile I was at the Windy City Pulp and Paper show last week, I met a lot of Black Gate readers. Most of them had advice and suggestions of some sort or another. But I think the best piece of advice I got was to check out Ragnarok Publications, who have been producing some terrific work over the last 18 months.

Ragnarok was founded in 2013 by Joe Martin and Tim Marquitz. It was born as a result of the hugely successful Kickstarter campaign for Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters, and it released an astonishing 22 titles in its first year alone — including Django Wexler’s John Golden novels, Kenny Soward’s Gnomesaga trilogy, Seth Skorkowsky Valducan trilogy, and many others. Their books are beautiful and inexpensive, and well worth checking out. Through their Angelic Knight imprint, managed by Stacey Turner, they’ve also produced some very intriguing dark fantasy anthologies, including the new Grimm Mistresses.

Remember the Brothers Grimm? Those dark fairy tales that made you leave the light on long before Disney went and sanitized them? Well, we do! Now the MISTRESSES GRIMM take back the night, five female authors who will leave you shuddering deliciously. Get ready to leave the lights on again with four pieces of short fiction bringing the Brothers Grimm’s tales into the present. Be advised: these aren’t your children’s fairy tales!

CONTENTS
“The Night Air” by Stacey Turner
“Little Dead Red” by Mercedes M. Yardley
“Nectar” by Allison M. Dickson
“Hazing Cinderella” by C.W. LaSart
“The Leopard’s Pelt” by S.R. Cambridge

Ragnarok’s most recent release was Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries. and Rogues, edited by J.M. Martin, which we covered here. Grimm Mistresses was published by Ragnarok Publications on February 23, 2015. It is 238 pages, priced at $11.95 in paperback and $2.99 for the digital edition. The cover art is by Brittany Smith. Learn more at the Ragnarok website.

New Treasures: Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries. and Rogues, edited by J.M. Martin

New Treasures: Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries. and Rogues, edited by J.M. Martin

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Blackguards Tales of Assassins Mercenaries and Rogues-smallI first heard about the massive Blackguards anthology, which showcases tales of thieves, rogues and assassins, when Laura Resnick wrote a guest post for us last year, “Living Outside Society’s Rules,” talking about her short story “Friendship,” set in the world of her Silerian trilogy and taking place a few years before the first book, In Legend Born.

I was intrigued… but since then I’ve learned that Blackguards contains stories set in over two dozen fantasy worlds, from writers like Mark Lawrence, Carol Berg, Mark Smylie, Django Wexler, Peter Orullian, and many, many more. This is an unprecedented opportunity to sample some of the most popular and innovative fantasy series on the market today, all in one place. Blackguards was edited by J.M. Martin and published this week by Ragnarok Publications. If you’re at all interested in modern fantasy, this volume is an incredible bargain.

Whether by coin or by blood… YOU WILL PAY.

A fantasy anthology featuring the deadly, the worldly, and the sneaky. Blackguards consists mainly of stories in established series, and the authors range from wildly successful indie authors to New York Times bestsellers. Featuring tales set in the worlds of Michael J. Sullivan’s Riyria, David Dalglish’s Dezrel, Mark Lawrence’s The Broken Empire, Lian Hearn’s Tales of the Otori, Mark Smylie’s Sword and Barrow, Anthony Ryan’s Raven’s Shadow, Shawn Speakman’s Chronicles of Annwn, Carol Berg’s Sanctuary, James A. Moore’s Seven Forges, Django Wexler’s Shadow Campaigns, Laura Resnick’s Silerian Trilogy, Peter Orullian’s Vault of Heaven, Kenny Soward’s GnomeSaga, Paul S. Kemp’s Egil and Nix, and more! If you enjoy roguish tales of scoundrels and ne’er-do-wells, many of them set in established worlds, Blackguards is for you!

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