Black Gate

It’s been awhile since the premier issue of Black Gate stormed onto the fantasy landscape, but even now it continues to attract new readers and stellar reviews. The latest rolls in courtesy of Blue Tyson, an Australian fan who runs a number of different blogs that cover the sci-fi and fantasy fields. Tyson recently ordered up a batch of Black Gate back numbers, and he’s set to review them one by one on his website. So what did he think of those classic Issue #1 tales from such talents as Karl Edward Wagner, Michael Moorcock, Charles de Lint, Richard Parks, and Jeffrey Ford? Read on to find out.

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And if you haven’t picked up Black Gate #1 yet, you better hurry. Like a fortuitous rift in the space-time continuum, we still have a few copies available on the website — but that window of opportunity won’t last forever. Order your copies today, and discover what reviewers and readers alike have been raving about.

To start off the new year, Black Gate‘s Robert Rhodes reviews the first volume in a new trilogy of novels penned by a fresh voice on the fantasy scene, Wisconsin’s Patrick Rothfuss. This story was seven years in the making, and it shows. Click inside to discover how Rothfuss’ world of fantasy and magic differs in intriguing ways from the work of past masters like Lewis, Tolkien, and Rowling.

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Fantasy readers well know Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane and Karl Edward Wagner’s immortal warrior Kane, but there is another Kane in fantasy. Michael Moorcock is most famous for his Elric novels, but back in the sixties he penned a Sword-and-Planet trilogy that owes much to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars, one featuring a hero named Michael Kane. This fall, Paizo Publishing re-released the first novel in the series as part of their Planet Stories imprint. But after four decades, does it hold up? Black Gate reviewer Ryan Harvey delves into this new edition to find out.

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Judith Merkle Riley writes tales of Middle Ages history and romance spiced with potent amounts of the occult and supernatural. Three Rivers Press has recently brought two classic entries in her Margaret of Asbury series back into print. If you’ve never sampled Riley’s fiction, read Black Gate‘s review by Amy Harlib to find out what you’ve been missing.

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Two of the shining lights in the fantasy editing field are Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Over the years they have brought out a staggering amount of quality fantasy fiction in both book and magazine form, and the many awards they’ve won stand as a testament to the quality of their selections.

Join Black Gate reviewer Mark Rigney as he delves into one of their latest anthologies, containing tales from writers as diverse as Jeffrey Ford, Paul Di Filippo, Peter S. Beagle, and Lucius Shepard.

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A few weeks ago we presented an interview with the head of Paizo Publishing. Now Black Gate‘s Ryan Harvey reviews the newest release in their Planet Stories line of pulp reprints. It’s a volume of tales featuring C. L. Moore’s S&S heroine extraordinaire Jirel of Joiry, and it’s one of the most complete Jirel collections ever assembled — read on to find out why.

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This week Black Gate turns its attention to the comics medium, as reviewer D. K. Latta investigates the latest earth-shattering miniseries to be presented in novel form by DC Comics. Is this outburst of existential mayhem (written by Greg Cox) truly something new, or does it follow in the timeworn footsteps of Crisis on Infinite Earths and its prodigious progeny of universe-altering storylines? D. K. has the answers inside.

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