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Blood of Ambrose Nominated for World Fantasy Award

Blood of Ambrose Nominated for World Fantasy Award

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thewolfageLocus Online reports that James Enge’s first novel Blood of Ambrose, part of his Morlock series, has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel of the Year.

The other nominees are The Red Tree by Caitlín R. Kiernan, China Miéville’s The City & The City, Finch by Jeff VanderMeer, and In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield.

Morlock first appeared in “Turn Up This Crooked Way” in Black Gate 8. Since then he’s returned to our pages a total of four times, most recently in the novella “Destroyer” in Black Gate 14. All the Black Gate stories, plus many others, were collected in This Crooked Way, the second volume in the series.

Howard Andrew Jones also published three Morlock tales in the late, lamented Flashing Swords e-zine. Morlock’s most recent appearance was in the new Eos anthology Swords and Dark Magic. You can learn more about the origin of Morlock in Howard’s lengthy Black Gate interview with Enge here.

The complete list of World Fantasy Award nominees is here.

In other Enge news, Publisher’s Weekly has given the third Morlock volume, the upcoming novel The Wolf Age, a starred review, saying:

Werewolves clash with legends in the harrowing and beautiful third novel (after 2009’s This Crooked Way) detailing the epic travels of enchanter Morlock Ambrosius. Following a string of bad luck, Morlock is incarcerated in the werewolf fortress of Vargulleion… Enge’s elegant prose perfectly captures Morlock’s terse and morbid nature, which thrives in the vicious, honorable werewolf nation. Numerous intimate, complicated, and contentious relationships provide depth and gravity to the grim tale, which will enthrall fans of the dark and sinister.

The Wolf Age will be published by Pyr in October.

Congratulations James — on both the boffo review, and the nomination!  They are richly deserved.

A Return to The Village of Hommlet (4E Style)

A Return to The Village of Hommlet (4E Style)

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hommlet4eHow cool is this? Wizards of the Coast has released an updated version of Gary Gygax’s 1979 classic The Village of Hommlet, one of the most celebrated AD&D adventures and the first part of the notoriously difficult Temple of Elemental Evil mega-campaign, revised to run in the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. The new version was updated by Andy Collins and is suitable for fourth level characters.

Oh, wait. “Released” is too strong a word. The module was actually a free giveaway WotC mailed to RPGA  members as a DM Reward, and is not available for sale (unless you count eBay, where copies are currently selling for around $50.) Curses!

If you’re the creative sort, Familiar Ground is offering a free copy for one lucky winner, selected randomly from all those who leave a comment with a “gaming or RPG related joke or funny incident.” Deadline is Aug 31.

The original module is still played today by die-hard fans.  It’s been converted to a popular computer game, and the back-story behind it all is annually re-enacted as a tabletop miniatures game at Garycon.  Not bad for a module that’s been out of print for over two decades.

I have fond memories of the original.  And when I’m 80, I hope to have fond memories of tracking down this one.  Let the search begin.

The Locus Index, Galactic Central, and other Fantasy Resources

The Locus Index, Galactic Central, and other Fantasy Resources

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amazing_193203aNewcomers to fantasy collecting may be unaware of the scope of pertinent and very useful information on the web, and particulary the resources assembled by members of the Yahoo Fictionmags Group. The terms “Big List,” “FMI,” “Galactic Central,” “Locus Index” and many others crop up without necessarily being understood. Fictionmags includes the authors of some of the most seminal and definitive reference works on magazine Science Fiction, Fantasy, and General Fiction. Not only is this material substantial and providing of answers to many questions, but it is also FREE to anyone conversant in accessing the internet.

The major portal to this trove is www.philsp.com, the website of Fictionmags’ Phil Stephensen-Payne. This place is rather like a fantasy collector’s version of the Smithsonian. Just about everywhere you turn, there is something of interest. The site opens directly onto Phil SP’s  “Galactic Central.” If you’ve ever wondered what a full run of Amazing Stories, Astounding/Analog, New Worlds or most any other SF prozine looks like, this is where you get to scroll through pages of color cover images arranged chronologically as illustrated checklists (including, for example, an up-to-date Black Gate checklist).

There are tens of thousands of these images from SF/F/H, Western, Crime, Adventure, Romance and general fiction  titles. I’ve contributed images to this project from my own collection as have many others, and Phil has also gathered the content from many sources on the internet as well. There is also an accounting (The Big List) provided of all of the magazine titles pictured in Galactic Central showing where else they are more fully indexed.  Huge as it is, this project is still not done, and Phil will probably have to come back in another lifetime to complete it.

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More Haffner Goodness: Detour to Otherness

More Haffner Goodness: Detour to Otherness

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detour-to-otherness1Yesterday’s deliveries here at the Black Gate rooftop headquarters yielded — among the usual bills, magazines, and spare parts for the plutonium-powered signal beacon — a review copy of Detour to Otherness, by Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore.

Hallelujah!  I’ve been looking forward to Detour since I first saw the dust jacket at Steve Haffner’s table at the Windy City Pulp & Paper show in April. It collects twenty-four stories of science fantasy and terror by the legendary husband and wife team, with a new intro by Robert Silverberg and an afterword by Frederik Pohl.

Of course, I probably won’t get to keep it.  Not unless I can distract Howard Andrew Jones, who will almost certainly gleefully take it back to Indiana to write a review (Hey Howard! Look at this!!)

Detour to Otherness shows the usual care and craftsmanship of all of Haffner’s titles. The core of the book is the 1961 Bypass to Otherness, the famous paperback collection of many of Kuttner and Moore’s finest stories, drawing from Kuttner’s popular  “Gallegher Galloway” series, featuring a quirky scientist who invents technical marvels only while drunk, his comedic  “Hogbens” stories of otherworldly hillbillies, and the “Baldy” tales about mutant telepaths. It was followed by Return to Otherness in 1962, containing eight more stories. Both paperbacks are valuable collector’s items today. Detour to Otherness assembles both Bypass to Otherness and Return to Otherness, plus eight additional stories “selected for their scarcity, quality, and sheer entertainment value.”

Kuttner’s “Gallegher Galloway” stories were collected by Paizo in Robots Have no Tails (reviewed for us by James Enge here), and Paul Di Filippo recently reviewed Moore’s seminal collection Judgment Night for us here.  But both books are dwarfed by this thick new volume.  If you’re a fan of science fantasy, you’ll want to add this to your collection.  It’s available from Amazon.com, or directly from Haffner Press, for just $40 for an archival-quality hardcover packed with 568 pages of classic fiction.

The Collecting Game: The Windup Girl for $950?

The Collecting Game: The Windup Girl for $950?

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damnation-game1Collector prices are not always rational, as I think most collectors know. They can be fueled by hysteria. As many collectors have noticed, Clive Barker futures are very soft these days. Only the first British hardcovers of the Books of Blood and the British first of The Damnation Game have retained their value. There was a time, within a year or so of publication, when the advance galley of the American edition of Weaveworld could easily bring a hundred dollars. The last time I sold one, I bought it for $1.00 and got $10.00; but that was years ago. Nowadays you would be lucky to get five dollars for a copy. American firsts of Barker, or even galleys of same, are virtually worthless.

I will also mention with some trepidation that Harlan Ellison futures are weakening significantly, and I that have just concluded, on the basis of some research, that the bottom has fallen out of the Pogo market in the past few years. (I sold some Pogo first edition paperbacks for George Scithers maybe 5 years ago for $50-100.00. Now you can find the same ones on eBay for $5, and even the original comic books for $10 or so.)

Paolo Bacigalupi is clearly the hot writer of the hour, the hottest since William Gibson circa 1985. That means that investors are already latching onto him. Sorting the current Abebooks listings from the highest price on down, I find that the highest price for a first edition of The Windup Girl is $950.00, which is, I daresay, not bad for a book only published last year, even if it is a signed copy.

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Goth Chick News: My Inner Geek’s Night Out

Goth Chick News: My Inner Geek’s Night Out

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interviewHas anyone ever asked what you would grab out of your house if it was on fire and you could only make one trip? Or maybe the question was, if you knew you were going to be stranded on a deserted island, what would you take with you?

If it comes up in conversation and it’s focused on food, that one’s easy.

Pez.

However, when it comes to actual items, the answer becomes a bit more complicated and largely depends on who is asking. If it comes up at a family gathering, I usually can say “my photo albums” with a straight face. But as I’m among friends here, allow me to lay out the real list (in no particular order):

  • My complete set of 1 – 12 Interview With a Vampire comics, with issue number one signed by Anne Rice
  • An unopened Monty Python and the Holy Grail collectible card game.
  • My Black Adder DVD collection
  • The set of Universal Studios movie monsters Pez dispenser set (got to have something to eat the Pez out of)

Having read this list it should come as no surprise at all that I’m counting the days to the Chicago Comic Con this weekend. Yes, this is the Chicago version of the biggie in California, but the line up is still good.

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Apex Magazine #15 arrives, featuring C.S.E. Cooney

Apex Magazine #15 arrives, featuring C.S.E. Cooney

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apexmag08Apex Magazine #15 was published on August 2, featuring fiction from Theodora Goss, Nick Mamatas, a reprint by Jeff VanderMeer — and “Dogstar Men,” a short poem by Black Gate blogger C.S.E. Cooney.

This is the first issue of Apex from new editor Catherynne M. Valente; Jason Sizemore continues as the publisher. The striking cover is by Brazilian artist Priscila Santos.

We last profiled Apex in June when they announced they were re-opening to submissions.

C.S.E. Cooney’s poem “Dogstar Men” is available here. Her most recent work for Black Gate, the three-part (and suitably epic) blog opus Exploring Fantasy in Metal, begins here.

Apex Magazine #15 is available online; the complete magazine is also available in a downloadable, pay-what-you-want edition through Smashwords, and in a Kindle edition (for 99 cents). Select back issues are also available through their excellent Magazine Archive.

To join the Apex Army and donate, subscribe, or help spread the word, visit their online store.

One-Year subscription to Black Gate now available for $21.95

One-Year subscription to Black Gate now available for $21.95

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black_gate_9-277We’ve just re-vamped our subscription page, and as part of the changes we’ve introduced a new two-issue (one year) subscription option for just $21.95.

Black Gate is published twice a year, and priced at $12.95/issue for 256-304 pages of the best in modern adventure fantasy ($15.95 for our jumbo-sized issues, such as Black Gate 1 and Black Gate 14). Now you can find out what everyone’s talking about for just $21.95 — delivered right to your door.  A two-year, 4-issue subscription is just $39.95.

What are people saying about Black Gate?  “I was poleaxed, banjaxed, gobsmacked and just plain overwhelmed.”  (Tangent Online)  See all the coverage of our latest issues here, and reviews of our first six issues here.

Got an e-reader? Try any current issue of Black Gate in PDF for just $4.95 — or four issues for only $17.95. Or add a PDF edition to your print subscription for just $2.95/issue.

And don’t forget our Back Issue Sale: any two issues for just $21.95, or any four for $39.95, plus shipping.  And yes, that includes our double-sized issues, both normally priced at $15.95.

We’re selling back issues only while supplies last — which won’t be much longer for many of our earliest editions.  We’re down to a few dozens copies of BG 3, BG 4, and BG 5, and we’ll be bringing the last of them to Dragon*con in two weeks, where we expect to exhaust our supply fairly quickly.  If you’re interested, better move quickly.

Best American Fantasy comes to an End

Best American Fantasy comes to an End

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best-american-fantasy2aOver at Ecstatic Days, Jeff VanderMeer has announced that the annual anthology series he founded with Ann VanderMeer, Sean Wallace, and Matthew Cheney, Best American Fantasy, has wrapped up after three volumes.

The first, published in 2007 by Sean Wallace at Prime Books and edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, was an eclectic and delightful mixture of fantasy assembled from Zoetrope: All-Story, Analog, McSweeney’s, Zahir, Strange Horizons, The New Yorker and others sources, featuring nearly two dozen writers I’d never heard of. The second offered a slightly more familiar cast, including Jeffrey Ford, Kelly Link, and Peter S. Beagle, but still cast a wide net to include fiction from Cincinnati Review, Tin House, Barrelhouse, Harpers, Mississippi Review, and many others.

With the third volume the series jumped to Victoria Blake’s Underland Press, and changed editor to Kevin Brockmeier (our review, by David Soyka, is here). It contained work from Stephen King, Lisa Goldstein, Peter S. Beagle, Jeffrey Ford, and others. Jeff reflects on the decision to end the series thusly:

The amicable move from Prime to Underland following the publication of BAF2 was meant to rejuvenate the series and to finally achieve stability for it. Unfortunately, this didn’t occur, for a variety of reasons. BAF did not having a wide margin for error. A cross-genre fantasy year’s best that focused not just on genre magazines but also on literary magazines, that required sympathy and generosity from both the mainstream and genre, as well as the right placement in the chains, was always going to be a difficult sell.

New series editor Larry Nolen has posted the short list of stories under consideration for the unpublished fourth volume here — including fiction from Richard Parks, Sean McMullen, and Catherynne M. Valente, and four stories from Clockwork Phoenix 2.

Anthopology 101 dives into classic SF Anthologies

Anthopology 101 dives into classic SF Anthologies

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anthopology-101aSF author Bud Webster informs us that his book Anthopology 101: Reflections, Inspections and Dissections of SF Anthologies, is now available from The Merry Blacksmith Press. Bud tells us:

Anthologies are the core samples of science fiction.  Through their pages, we can not only follow the growth of the genre from its very beginnings, but we can also study the past’s visions of the future.

As author of the always-fascinating Past Masters column, which examines the forgotten work of some of the finest SF and fantasy writers of the 20th Century, Bud should know.

This is one of the most intriguing titles I’ve come across in a while, and I’m really looking forward to getting a copy in my hot little hands.

The book includes an introduction from Mike Ashley, and collects 25 of Bud’s “Anthopology 101” columns  that originally appeared in The New York Review of Science Fiction, Chronicle, SFWA Bulletin, and other fine publications.

For anyone else with an obsessive interest in these fascinating and beautiful relics of early science fiction and fantasy (I’m talking to you, Rich Horton), you’ll want to jump over to the Merry Blacksmith website, where they’re offering free shipping on Anthopology 101 until August 21.