News – Page 83 – Black Gate

Short Fiction Beat: Tale of Two Magazines

Thursday, August 20, 2009 Soyka Comments 3 comments

Well, here we are in Web 2.0 (whatever that exactly means), print magazines are supposedly dying (even as they are being resuscitated, c.f., Realms of Fantasy) and people still aren’t quite sure how to make the on-line magazine model work. One problem is that, if you’re like me, you don’t like reading stories on a screen. You like to lay down on your favorite couch and turn pages. Of course, if you’re like my daughter, it’s not an issue — when she asks me if I’ve read an article that was in The New York Times, I know without asking that she’s referring to an on-line article.

table_of_contents__jim_baen_s_universe__volume_4__ So, here’s the bad news/goods news. First the bad news. A little while ago, Jim Baen’s Universe announced that after four years it was closing down. The short explanation was, not a surprise given the “information is free” mentality of the Internet, subscriptions couldn’t sustain a magazine that sought to maintain professional print standards (i.e., actually paying authors competitive rates for their work). Everyone, including The New York Times is trying to figure this one out, and one approach has been to not pay writers. Not surprisingly, frequently you get what you pay for.

As for the good news, Strange Horizons, which has had great success with a sort of public radio/tv fund drive donation model, has exceeded its 2009 Fund Drive goals way ahead of schedule (though you can still contribute, by the way). sh_head
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Rogue Blades Entertainment releases Rage of the Behemoth

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 John ONeill Comments 5 comments

rotb-web-reg-front-cover1 Heroic fantasy anthologies are a rare sight these dates. And those willing to to take a gamble on emerging authors – virtually non-existant.

But don’t tell that to Jason M. Waltz, publisher of Rogue Blades Entertainment, and editor of Return of the Sword (2008) and the brand spanking new Rage of the Behemoth: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure.

Described as “Almost 150,000 words of monstrous mayhem recording the ferocious battles that rage between gargantuan creatures of myth and legend, and the warriors and wizards who wage war against, beside, and astride them,” RotB gathers 21 splendid tales of pure adventure fantasy under one cover, including contributions from Black Gate‘s Bill Ward, Andrew Offutt & Richard K. Lyon, Lois Tilton, Mary Rosenblum, Sean T. M. Stiennon, Brian Ruckley, Bruce Durham, Jason Thummel, and many more.

Here’s what I said in my introduction, in part:

While I enjoy a great deal of the novels and short stories that come into my hands, I frequently find they’re missing something. They’re missing the creativity, the delicious tension, the high-voltage drama that turned me on to reading in my youth. Specifically, they’re missing monsters.

Jason Waltz understands this. It took Jason to realize what the literature of Western Civilization has recently been lacking, and do something about it. In Rage of the Behemoth, his second anthology and the follow up to last year’s Return of the Sword, he’s picked a theme near and dear to my heart: monsters.

And not just any monsters – behemoths, the tippy-top of the fantasy food chain.

As Theo commented in his recent review right here at Black Gate:

One of the more consistent anthologies I have had the good fortune to read… Rage of the Behemoth is an intriguing glimpse into a multitude of savage worlds. The anthology is a throwback to the glory days of Burroughs and Howard, with an icy, ominous edge.

Rage of the Behemoth is available at Amazon.com or directly from Rogue Blades Entertainment for $16.99, plus shipping. Do your part to support short fiction markets for adventure fantasy – and get a terrific anthology in the bargain.

Tangent Online reviews Black Gate 13

Friday, July 3, 2009 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

The esteemed Dave Truesdale, founder of Tangent, has posted a detailed critique of our latest issue:

This thirteenth issue of Black Gate—with its usual complement of book and fantasy gaming reviews (not to mention a dandy article by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. on the magic in his popular Recluse series), and with its hallmark 200+ pages—was another wild ride, with some real standout pieces. Easily worth the $9.95 cover price.

Dave draws particular attention to two stories, including Myke Cole’s “Naktong Flow”:

Myke Cole‘s prose in “Naktong Flow” is smooth, evocative, and thoroughly professional. Some years ago he won the Writers of the Future contest, and it shows. “Naktong Flow” is set in the forest-jungles of the Far East, and follows Ch’oe, his men, their ancestor-magician, and a strange, magically-imbued wooden machine as they travel up the Naktong river in pursuit of the less-than-human creatures named the bonesetters… Think Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now and you’re on the right track. While totally self-contained and a proper short story, the ending is not what one might expect, and leads to the obvious conclusion that “Naktong Flow” should be part of a larger story. I, for one, will be eager to read it.

As well as the final chapter of The Naturalist by Mark Sumner:

An absorbing read and thoroughly enjoyable. Set in an alternate Central America in the 1830’s, it tells the tale of British explorers who encounter a race of swarming antriders who destroy everything in their path, including, of course, human settlements. Told through journal entries written by the protagonist, a Mr. Brown—the “naturalist” of the title–in the wonderfully expressive language of the time, it recalls the “lost world” tales of H. Rider Haggard and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sumner constructs a remarkably rich and well-researched world, full of detail and nuance, through which the naturalist, his entourage, and the British forces stationed there must fight to survive. Fraught with danger and excitement, and full of the mystery and color of a grand adventure, I heartily recommend The Naturalist.

The complete review is here.

SUBMISSIONS UPDATE: Black Gate now closed to submissions

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

As noted in our Submission Guidelines, Black Gate is now closed to unsolicited fiction submissions.

Submissions post-marked after July 1 will be returned unread.

We expect to re-open to submissions next year.

SF Site reviews Black Gate 13

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

Sherwood Smith – who has reviewed virtually every issue of Black Gate – offers her usual detailed and thorough critique, this time at the SF Site:

“The Face in the Sea” by John C Hocking

Hocking’s story begins like a fragment from the middle of a Norse saga. We are at sea with the narrator Brand, taking ship after having rescued Asdia, daughter of Thorgeir Broadshield. Hocking hints at sparks between Brand and Asdir with the same economy one finds in the sagas as the action swiftly rises to disaster in the form of Einar’s dragon-ship chasing by magical means, aided by the evil Skorri… a smashing action tale with strong evocation of northern myth.

The issue ends powerfully with Mark Sumner’s “The Naturalist, Part III: St. George and the Antriders.”

I believe a reader could catch up fairly rapidly, but to get the full impact, one really ought to read the earlier installments in Issues 10 and 11. This is a novel — complex, beautifully written in the idiom and cadence of the 1830s, but the horrifying battle against the alien antriders is so terrifying there is no danger of the reader finding the pace slow. Mr. Brown, a naturalist, is the narrator; the story is told in his journal as he follows Captain Valamont and his soldiers around, trying to investigate — and then escape — the invading antriders. Sumner brings the story to an elegiac close.. with an exquisite twist. This is a bravura story, well worth appearing in book form.

You can find the full review at www.sfsite.com/06b/bg298.htm.

Locus reviews Black Gate 13

Sunday, June 21, 2009 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

The June issue of Locus, the Magazine of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Field, contains this review from Contributing Editor Rich Horton, in his Locus Looks at Short Fiction column:

Black Gate‘s Spring issue is as ever stuffed with entertaining adventure fantasy, the best story this time being the longest, “St. George and the Antriders,” Mark Sumner’s concluding tale in a series about marauding antriders in an alternate 19th century Central America. Here Mr. Brown and the resourceful landowner Miss Marlowe lead a band of refugees back to the capital city where they find the corrupt governorship of the territory as menacing as the antriders.

Recommended Stories (all magazines, June)

“St. George and the Antriders,” Mark Sumner (Black Gate Spring ’09)

No online link, but Locus is available at finer bookstores everywhere, and you can buy single copies at www.locusmag.com.

The Story Is All: Ten Fiction Editors Talk Shop

Wednesday, June 3, 2009 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

cw_33 Issue 33 of Clarkesworld Magazine features a round-table interview with “Ten of the top speculative fiction magazine editors,” including Black Gate‘s John O’Neill.

Clarkesworld Magazine, edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, and Cheryl Morgan, is a 2009 Hugo Award moninee for Best Semiprozine.

It was founded in 2006 and has published fiction by Robert Reed, Jeffrey Ford, Theodora Goss, Stephen Dedman, Rebecca Ore, Jeff VanderMeer, Jay Lake, Mary Robinette Kowal, Catherynne M. Valente, and many others.

The interview also includes Realms of Fantasy‘s Shawna McCarthy, Sheila Williams from Asimov’s Science Fiction, Ann VanderMeer of Weird Tales, Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Tor Books, Cat Rambo from Fantasy Magazine, Mike Resnick from Jim Baen’s Universe, Stanley Schmidt from Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Jason Sizemore of Apex Magazine, and Gordon Van Gelder of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

The interview was ably conducted and assembled by Jeremy L. C. Jones, who states:

Ultimately, fiction editors are the people who mine the slush pile for new voices and who push established writers to grow beyond their previous stories. They read story after story, and more pile up each day. They screen, sort, revise, and reject. They seek the new, the fresh, the familiar, the entertaining, and the weird. They discover and they miss out.

“There is no magic formula,” said Gordon Van Gelder of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. And this holds true for writing stories, submitting stories, and editing stories.

Among other things, Jeremy asked his subjects What are some reasons why you’d reject a good story? and What does “fit” mean for your magazine?

This whole interview is a treasure trove of info for writers, whether you write science fiction, fantasy, or anything else. — Filling Spaces

You can find the complete interview here.

HBO’s A Game of Thrones

Friday, May 15, 2009 Bill Ward Comments 5 comments

a-game-of-thrones Reading James’ post on Wednesday about the fan angst surrounding George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series (and some of the unnecessarily blunt backlash), I started thinking about just how much I know about this hugely popular saga which I have actually never read. Indeed, having not even read it, I can say I am predisposed to already like it but, as Dave commented on James post, I’m also one of those people who tends not to buy into series with no end in sight.

However, with the announcement that Martin’s A Game of Thrones is being seriously considered for an HBO series, with a pilot already in the works, that rule is going to have to get chucked out of the window.

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Serial Distractions reviews Black Gate 13

Sunday, May 10, 2009 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

Shedrick Pittman-Hassett’s Serial Distractions has reviewed our latest issue. Here’s an excerpt:

I have treasured Black Gate ever since I first discovered Issue 10. I had dropped my charter subscription to another fantasy magazine a couple of years before because I wasn’t finding what I was looking for: old-fashioned, but highly imaginative, adventure fantasy. Black Gate delivers this in spades and the latest issue is no exception.

The Evil Eater by Peadar Ó Guilín

A horror story about the price of deception…especially self-deception. Toby, a somewhat-aspiring actor and his scheming girlfriend Marie walk into a world of ancient terrors while attending an exclusive restaurant on a “borrowed” invitation. In the Lovecraftian horror of Ahriman’s kitchen Toby learns to see the truths of his life and the deceptions that have brought him to his current state.

Return of the Quill by John R. Fultz

The conquered city of Narr is ruled by a council of Sorcerer Kings. The darkest of these is Grimsort, who resides in the crypts and animates the ancient dead to protect the city from threats without and rebellion within. His loyalties are soon put to the test as he begins to see the city as it once was and what it probably should be. This powerhouse story aptly shows that rebellion does not live in riots, screeds, or demonstrations but in the desires inherent in all people. This is probably my favorite story in this issue.