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Category: New Treasures

An Annual Anthology of Strange and Darksome Tales: Nightscript

An Annual Anthology of Strange and Darksome Tales: Nightscript

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Nightscript Volume 7 (Chthonic Matter, 2021). Cover by Jana Heidersdorf

I just finished complaining about the lack of modern horror and fantasy anthologies, and along comes Nightscript strictly to prove me wrong.

I don’t know much about Nightscript. But I know I love the creep-tastic cover of Volume 7, by Berlin artist Jana Heidersdorf. I first glimpsed it when a fellow dark fantasy enthusiast posted it on Facebook, and was intrigued enough to track down the publisher (C.M. Muller’s Chthonic Matter) and order a copy.

I’m glad I did. Nightscript is a very fine production indeed. Published “annually, during Grand October,” it’s clearly a small press labor of love, but it’s also a thoroughly professional piece of work. Over the last seven years it’s published original work by Steve Rasnic Tem, Simon Strantzas, Michael Wehunt, Jason A. Wyckoff, Charles Wilkinson, Damien Angelica Walters, Ashley Stokes, and many others.

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Join Martha Wells, James Enge, Howard Andrew Jones, Zig Zag Claybourne, and Sarah Avery to Celebrate C.S.E. Cooney’s Saint Death’s Daughter

Join Martha Wells, James Enge, Howard Andrew Jones, Zig Zag Claybourne, and Sarah Avery to Celebrate C.S.E. Cooney’s Saint Death’s Daughter

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C.S.E. Cooney reads from her debut novel Saint Death’s Daughter, out this week from Solaris Books

It’s a week of celebration here at Black Gate! Tomorrow sees the long-awaited publication of SAINT DEATH’S DAUGHTER, the debut novel by the uber-talented C.S.E. Cooney, our first website editor. How exciting is this book? Amal El-Mohtar said, “I have never read anything so utterly alive,” Publishers Weekly proclaimed it “remarkable and… worth savoring,” and Locus called it a work of “Twisted genius!” It’s about time the world caught on to the extraordinary — and extraordinarily twisted — genius of Claire Cooney.

An all-star cast of Black Gate writers and bloggers gathered together to celebrate this past weekend, and we managed to record it all — including one of the most entertaining reading sessions we’ve seen in many years. Martha Wells read an excerpt from her multi-award winning Murderbot series, James Enge shared a Morlock story, Howard Andrew Jones delighted us with a tale of Hanuvar, Sarah Avery read a creepy fae story, and Zig Zag Claybourne shared an exciting fragment from his new novel.

To kick it all off, C.S.E. Cooney read from her new novel, the tale of a young necromancer with an allergy to violence who must navigate sinister intrigues to avenge the murder of her parents. Watch it all right here. Enjoy – -and be sure to check out Saint Death’s Daughter, on sale tomorrow at better bookstores everywhere!

New Treasures: Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett

New Treasures: Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett

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Destroyer of Light (Tor Books, October 2021. Cover uncredited)

Looking for a good standalone science fiction novel? (I know I am. Everything is part of a series these days.) Jennifer Marie Brissett — whose first novel Elysium was nominated for the Tiptree and Locus Awards, and won a special citation from the Philip K. Dick Award jury — has a new novel out, and it looks like something that could kill a weekend for me nicely.

Destroyer of Light was published in hardcover in October of last year, and it made several Year’s Best lists, including the Kirkus Reviews 2021 Best of the Year, Bookriot‘s 20 Must Read Space Fantasy Books for 2021, and BiblioLifestyle‘s Most Anticipated Fall 2021 Sci-fi, Fantasy & Horror list (which summed it up as “The Matrix meets an Afro-futuristic retelling of Persephone set in a science fiction underworld of aliens, refugees, and genetic engineering.” That ain’t like nothing else in my TBR pile, I can promise you that.)

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Spacefaring Nuns at the Heart of a Galactic Rebellion: Our Lady of Endless Worlds by Lina Rather

Spacefaring Nuns at the Heart of a Galactic Rebellion: Our Lady of Endless Worlds by Lina Rather

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Sisters of the Vast Black and Sisters of the Forsaken Stars
(Tor.com, 2019 and 2022). Covers by Drive Communications and Emmanuel Shiu

I’m a huge fan of the sprawling space opera sub-genre, but my love is conflicted. All the best — from Peter Hamilton to Ann Leckie, Lois McMaster Bujold to Becky Chambers — comes packaged exclusively as multi-volume epics. If you want to enjoy space opera these days, you need to schedule a 4-week sabbatical first. And a lot of caffeine.

Thank God for Tor.com, which has kept up their weekly drumbeat of top notch novella releases — including Lina Rather’s Sisters of the Forsaken Stars, sequel to her debut Sisters of the Vast Black. It’s the tale of a heroic band of space-faring nuns, hunted and on the run, and yet still bound by their calling to provide help and mercy to those in need. And best of all, you can devour both volumes in an afternoon.

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Keeping Faith With the Rules of Writing: An Interview with K.D. Edwards

Keeping Faith With the Rules of Writing: An Interview with K.D. Edwards

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The Tarot Sequence: The Last Sun, The Hanged Man, and The Hourglass Throne
(Pyr, 2018, 2019, and 2022). Covers by Micah Epstein

The last two years were pretty lousy for the world, but fairly good for reading! It was time to read some newer authors, and KD Edwards’ Tarot Sequence had been on my list for quite some time. Urban fantasy with a male protagonist, Tarot, and LGBTQ+ friendly? Published through Pyr — one of the more interesting mainstream publishers? Definitely a must-read for me. Plus, have you seen those gorgeous evocative covers?

I started reading book 1, The Last Sun, in mid-2020. Did I say reading? A more accurate statement would be devouring. Book 2, The Hanged Man swiftly followed, and then I felt bereft. The story clearly wasn’t over, but there wasn’t another book?

I reached out to KD on Twitter to inquire, and he let me know that not only was there a third book on the way — The Hourglass Throne, due out May 17th, 2022 from Pyr — but that there was free extra content (novellas!) available on his website.

I caught up with KD at Worldcon 2021 in DC, and he graciously agreed to answer a few questions.

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A Band of Black Hearted Bastards in a Comic Romp: Articles of Faith by David Wragg

A Band of Black Hearted Bastards in a Comic Romp: Articles of Faith by David Wragg

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The Black Hawks and The Righteous (HarperVoyager, October 2019 and September 2021).
Covers by Richard Anderson (left) and uncredited

I bought David Wragg’s debut fantasy The Black Hawks when it first appeared in 2019. It sounded right up my alley — the tale of a dysfunctional band of mercenaries drafted into a desperate conflict to protect a stranded prince.

I was delighted to see a second — and apparently, final — volume appear at the end of last year. The Righteous concludes the tales of the seasoned (and entertaining) mercenary band, and opens with them imprisoned and sentenced for execution for their part in the rebellion, alongside their employer, the knight Vedren Chel. A daring escape sends them on the run, and headlong into a brand new adventure.

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New Treasures: Seven Deaths of an Empire by G R Matthews

New Treasures: Seven Deaths of an Empire by G R Matthews

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Seven Deaths of an Empire (Solaris, June 2021). Cover artist uncredited

I’m late to the party with this one. Solaris published G R Matthews’s mainstream debut Seven Deaths of an Empire in June of last year, and it received plenty of good notice. Library Journal called it “reminiscent of Game of Thrones,” SFX Magazine labeled it “Refreshingly original,” and Grimdark Magazine proclaimed it “fantasy at its finest.” Why do I always miss the good ones?

At this point I figure I’d wait for the paperback, and that’s finally arriving at the end of this month. About time — I’m impatient to learn what all the fuss is about.

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Forty Years of Horror: After Dark: The Best Horror Fiction of Tony Richards

Forty Years of Horror: After Dark: The Best Horror Fiction of Tony Richards

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After Dark: The Best Horror Fiction of Tony Richards (Weird House Press, November 17, 2021). Cover by K.L. Turner

Tony Richards is a British horror writer, author of eight collections of short stories and several novels of dark fiction. Although for some reason he may be unfairly less celebrated than some of his countrymen, he’s certainly one of the very best producing horror fiction today.

Praise to small American imprint Weird House Press for assembling twenty-five tales and a novella covering forty years of Richards’ career in After Dark: The Best Horror Fiction of Tony Richards, released in paperback and digital formats this past November.

Although I’m familiar with some of Richards’ previous (and excellent) collections, regretfully I had missed a few, and this one offered me the chance to savor some of his stories for the very first time.

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New Treasures: Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

New Treasures: Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

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Far from the Light of Heaven (Orbit, October 26, 2021). Cover design by Lauren Panepinto

Tade Thompson is a fast-rising star. Rosewater, the opening novel in his Wormwood trilogy, was “a groundbreaking future noir” (B&N Sci-fi & Fantasy blog) that won the 2019 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. The Rosewater Insurrection was nominated for the BSFA and Locus Awards, and closing novel The Rosewater Redemption was nominated for both the Locus and Philip K. Dick Award.

That’s a lot of attention so early in his career– and a whole lot of eyes on his newest project. Writers have been known to curl up under the bed for a lot less. But his follow up Far from the Light of Earth, the story of a series of mysterious deaths on an interstellar colony ship, has already been called “probably the best science fiction novel of the year… like the Tardis, larger inside than out, with a range of ideas, characters, and fascinating future settings” (The Guardian). Kirkus Reviews sums it up as “a thriller/horror-aboard-a-spaceship in the vein of Greg Bear’s Hull Zero Three [and] the classic film Alien… Gripping and bloody as a beating heart.” And Tor.com says it “marries shades of gothic horror with a sleuthing mystery and hard sci-fi.”

Sounds like a must-read in my book. Looks like Thompson’s ascent to the pinnacle of SF stardom continues on schedule.

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New Treasures: The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six edited by Neil Clarke

New Treasures: The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six edited by Neil Clarke

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The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six (Night Shade, January 25, 2022). Cover by Pascal Blanché

It’s here at last! The sixth volume of Neil Clarke’s Best Science Fiction of the Year, long-delayed by supply chain disruptions, pandemic publishing panic, and maybe Pacific pirates — I honestly have no idea. But it’s here. And packed full of stories from the long-ago era of 2020, when the pandemic was fresh and new, everyone was ordering their first masks, and looking forward to returning to work in two weeks. Ah, the good old days.

I’m glad to finally have this book in my hot little hands, anyway. Even if it did take so long to arrive that I ended up accidently ordering a second copy from the Science Fiction Book Club six months after I ordered the first one. If anyone out there is in the market for a copy, we should talk.

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