Black Gate – Page 1149 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

The Top 40 Black Gate Posts in August

Sunday, September 30, 2012 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

August was a busy month here at the Black Gate rooftop headquarters. Theo Beale observed that 50 Shades of Grey, “according to its description it is little more than John Norman’s Gor brought back to Earth, minus the sword battles and the awesome tarn birds.” Brian Murphy reported on the debate surrounding breaking The Hobbit into three films, and Andrew Zimmerman Jones, live at the scene for the Dungeons & Dragons Next keynote at GenCon 2012, checked in with all the details.

I covered the controversy at Weird Tales magazine as the editorial team abruptly aborted plans to publish an excerpt of Victoria Foyt’s Saving the Pearls: Revealing Eden, and Scott Taylor brought us several more installments of his popular Art of the Genre column. Howard Andrew Jones explored the pleasures of the classic Jungle Stories pulp, and C.S.E. Cooney reviewed William Alexander’s novel Goblin Secrets. And that’s just a sample of the Top 10 articles.

Missed any of the news and updates when they were hot off the press? Not to worry — here’s your chance to catch up. What follows are the 40 most popular articles on the Black Gate blog in August. Don’t thank us, it’s our job.

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Black Gate to Publish Online Fiction Starting Sunday, September 30

Saturday, September 29, 2012 John ONeill Comments 26 comments

We are very pleased to announce that Black Gate magazine, your home for the finest in adventure fantasy, will begin publishing original online fiction starting Sunday, September 30.

Holy crap, that’s tomorrow.

Wow. Uh, well, into the breach. Best way to do this is to jump right in, and figure it out as we go.

New fiction will be published right here on our website every Sunday, starting tomorrow. Here’s what’s coming in the next two months:

“The Duelist,” by Jason Thummel
“The Quintessence of Absence,” by Sean McLachlan
“The Daughter’s Dowry,” by Aaron Bradford Starr
“A Phoenix in Darkness,” by Donald S. Crankshaw
Novel excerpt: Queen of Thorns, by Dave Gross
“Godmother Lizard,” by C.S.E. Cooney
“The Poison Well” by Judith Berman
Novel excerpt: Bones of the Old Ones, by Howard Andrew Jones
Novel excerpt: The Black Fire Concerto, by Mike Allen

What can you expect from online fiction at Black Gate? We will be presenting original fiction from some of our most popular contributors, as well as exciting new authors and many of the best writers in the industry. All stories are presented completely free of charge.

We will be offering fiction at all lengths, including short stories, novellas, and novel excerpts. It’s just like reading an issue of Black Gate, except you can do it from the comfort of your couch. Or that uncomfortable chair in front of the computer, whatever.

Join us tomorrow as Jason Thummel brings us a riveting tale of a talented swordsman who finds himself caught up in a web of deceit and far-reaching ambition in a fast-paced tale of action in a violent city, “The Duelist.”

Solomon Kane Movie Needs More Solomon Kane

Friday, September 28, 2012 Ryan Harvey Comments 7 comments

solomonkaneposter The sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Puritan adventurer Solomon Kane is my favorite of Robert E. Howard’s serial characters: a fascinating mixture of obsession, religion, righteousness, history, and dark fantasy awesomeness. However, it’s the character I love, not necessarily the stories in which he appeared. With the exception of “Wings in the Night,” the Solomon Kane stories are mid-range pieces in Howard’s canon, not at the consistent level he delivered later with Conan, King Kull, or many of his one-shots. Solomon Kane appeared early in Howard’s short professional pulp career, with the first published story in the August 1928 issue of Weird Tales. Perhaps if Howard stayed longer with the Puritan hero while his storytelling skills increased, he might have equaled the Conan series in quality.

But a great character is always an excellent starting point to make a great movie, and in concept a Solomon Kane film should be an easy third-base hit for any talented filmmaker. The 2009 British-French-Czech Solomon Kane, which finally received its limited U.S. theatrical release today (also on VOD if you can’t find a local theater), showed many hints of not only getting on third, but possibly stealing home. Tonally, it captures the 1930s version of Weird Tales. The violence is graphic and bloody without falling into the slapstick idiocy of Marcus Nispel’s Conan the Barbarian. The production design is top-tier for a mid-budget movie and feels saturated with the benighted European dreariness of Kane stories such as “Skulls in the Stars” and “Rattle of Bones.”

What the movie does not have: Solomon Kane. This tends to undermine most of the right steps the filmmakers take, as you might imagine.

It makes no difference if audiences know the first thing about the character of Kane or even know the name Robert E. Howard. The film’s failure to exploit what makes Solomon Kane so fascinating spills over into the story and pacing. Solomon Kane is an origin tale that stretches out for a hundred minutes — an origin for a character who doesn’t even need an origin. As James Purefoy’s voiceover at last declares Solomon Kane’s intentions to battle evil wherever it lies, and the hero leaps onto his horse decked with the swirling black coat and the wide-brimmed slouch hat, the audience will be primed to see this strange avenger work his bloody craft. But then the director’s name appears and the end credits start. Sorry folks, movie is over.
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New Treasures: Chrysanthe by Yves Meynard

Friday, September 28, 2012 John ONeill Comments 4 comments

I first met Yves Meynard at the World Fantasy Convention in Montreal in 2001. Yes, that was the year of 9/11, when the entire country stopped flying for weeks. I still remember my flight into Montreal… it was scarcely a month after the attacks and the cabin was virtually empty. You could wander around and take whatever seat you wanted.

Sadly, the same was more or less true of the convention. The World Fantasy Convention typically sells somewhere around 1,000 memberships, but a lot more were sold than used that year. Some estimates put the number of attendees at around 200. Whatever the case, it was the smallest and most intimate convention I’ve ever attended.

Which wasn’t wholly a bad thing. I remember the convention chiefly for the many great conversations I had. I’d lived in Ottawa — less than two hours away — until 1987, and this was a chance to re-connect with Canadian friends, including Mark Shainblum, Don Bassingthwaite, Claude Lalumiere, Rodger Turner, and Charles de Lint. In short order, I found myself introduced to some of the best French Canadian fantasy writers on the scene, including Jean-Louis Trudel and Yves Meynard.

I hit it off with Yves immediately. He was a fellow editor, the literary editor for French Canadian SF magazine Solaris, and his widely-praised first novel, The Book of Knights, had been published by Tor in 1999.

He was already being recognized as a major talent. Ursula K. Le Guin called The Book of Knights “An unpredictable, brilliantly imaginative, and very engaging fantasy,” and Locus magazine, commenting on editor David Hartwell’s annual accomplishments, said:

In terms of both mature craft and originality of imagination, Hartwell’s major discovery this year has to be the French-Canadian writer Yves Meynard.

Yves turned out to be a fascinating guy with a deep appreciation of Canadian fantasy in both French and English. He wrote fluently in both languages, a skill I envied, and we had several great talks.

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Blogging Sax Rohmer’s The Mask of Fu Manchu – Part Three

Friday, September 28, 2012 William Patrick Maynard Comments 0 Comment

Sax Rohmer’s The Mask of Fu Manchu was originally serialized in Collier’s from May 7 to July 23, 1932. It was published in book form later that year by Doubleday in the US and the following year by Cassell in the UK. It became the most successful book in the series thanks to MGM’s cult classic film version starring Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy that made it into theaters later that same year.

The third part of the book sees Sir Denis Nayland Smith, Dr. Petrie, Sir Lionel Barton, and Shan Greville make their way to the Great Pyramid where Sir Lionel will hand over the relics of El Mokanna to Dr. Fu Manchu in exchange for the release of his niece, Rima, who is being held hostage. Sixty Egyptian police officers are employed to surround the Great Pyramid in an effort to bring Fu Manchu to justice and to aid the others in the event they are walking into a trap. Sir Denis insists that Petrie and Barton stay behind while he and Greville make their way to the King’s Chamber, the arranged meeting place.

Rohmer wrings every last bit of suspense from Smith and Greville’s descent into the King’s Chamber. Having actually made the journey himself prior to writing the book enabled him to perfectly capture the claustrophobic anxiety of his heroes’ predicament. Upon arriving in the King’s Chamber, they find Dr. Fu Manchu awaiting them. The fact that he handles the matter in person without any bodyguards emphasizes the new strength and confidence with which Rohmer has imbued the character now that he has at last perfected the elixir vitae.

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Goth Chick News – 13 Questions for Author F. J. Lennon

Thursday, September 27, 2012 Sue Granquist Comments 0 Comment

A while back, I developed a crush on bad-boy musician and ghost hunter, Kane Pryce.

And without examining the psychology behind that statement too closely, let me clarify that technically speaking, my crush is actually focused on Kane’s creator and storyteller extraordinaire, Mr. F. J. Lennon, author of Soul Trapper and Devil’s Gate.

Normally the object of my obsessive stalking behavior that is part and parcel of the season simply becomes the center of a little shrine in the underground offices of Goth Chick News, where the blender generally sits. They remain blissfully unaware of their elevated state until sometime around mid-November when the shrine comes down, the blender goes back up and my attention returns to annoying former child stars who are trying to stay “former.”

A shrine to anyone located in any basement can be a little off-putting; which is why it doesn’t get discussed much.

So you can imagine (or maybe you shouldn’t) that I was as giddy as a Twilight fan at a flannel shirt sale when Mr. Lennon actually agreed to a little chat with me about his personal experiences which gave birth to such an intriguing and haunted character as Kane Pryce.

However, the creep-factor goes way beyond Mr. Lennon’s imagination and spills right over into reality, as you will soon see.

Mr. Lennon, meet everyone.

Everyone, meet author, game designer, and the paranormally tuned-in Mr. Lennon.

You’re about to find out what the attraction is…

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Roy Thomas’s Alter Ego looks at Sword & Sorcery in the Comics

Thursday, September 27, 2012 John ONeill Comments 4 comments

Roy Thomas’s Alter Ego is a terrific magazine — packed with articles, interviews, and loads of art from vintage comics. So packed, in fact, that I can’t remember the last time I read one cover-to-cover. These days when a new issue arrives, I flip though it joyfully, then add it to the teetering stack to be enjoyed later.

That stack finally toppled, spilling all over the floor, and while I was cleaning it up and carting it to the basement (excuse me, to the Cave of Wonders), I found a handful of issues from 2008 and 2009 I’d been meaning to blog about. Specifically, those containing a massive three-part investigation of, and tribute to, Sword & Sorcery in the Comics.

Better late than never, I thought, and brought them back up out of the subterranean vault. Let’s start with the first one, Alter Ego #80, dated August 2008. It is wrapped in a new cover by Rafael Kayanan and contains John Wells’s fabulously detailed 34-page article “Sword & Sorcery in the Comics: Part I of a Study of Robert E. Howard’s Legacy in Four Colors — and in Black-&-White.” As Thomas says in his editorial:

You’d have thought I’d have done this a long time before now, wouldn’t you? Devote an issue of Alter Ego to sword-and-sorcery in comics, I mean… I just kept putting it off. It’s a big subject, after all, because, much as I’d like to think otherwise, comic book S&S didn’t begin with Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian #1 in 1970 — or even with the couple of forerunners at DC (“Nightmaster”) and Marvel (“Starr the Slayer”) in the previous twelvemonth…

“Sword & Sorcery in the Comics” proved way too big a subject to cover in one issue… in the end, because we wanted to illustrate nearly every one of the examples of the game we were discussing, we found ourselves with only room for the S&S overview I talked John Wells into writing especially for this magazine… in Alter Ego #83, Part Two will be slashing its way toward you. After that, we’ll keep the S&S segments coming, every few issues, till we’ve covered the genre the way we’ve always intended to! We figured it’s high time.

Appropriately enough, Wells begins his article with a look at Robert E. Howard and his profound influence on the entire field.

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Twilight Sector Kickstarter

Thursday, September 27, 2012 Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones Comments 6 comments

six-guns-lasers-kickstarter-image If you’re a gamer, you’ve probably heard of the renowned Traveller role-playing game of science fiction in the far future. And if you’ve played Traveller recently, you MAY have heard of the work from Terra/Sol. If not, you should have. I’ve been raving about each of their products that I’ve reviewed for Black Gate because they’re inventive, engaging, and well-written.

Today, I’m turning over the site to Mike Cross of Terra/Sol so he can tell you about a new Kickstarter project and the alternative Traveller setting used for all of their products.

I asked Mike to describe the game setting a little, and then he describes the new Kickstarter. The one thing he doesn’t mention here is that it’s going to be authored by one of my very favorite RPG authors, Martin Dougherty. I scramble to read everything that the man writes! Anyway, take it away, Mike:

Welcome to the raggedy edge of human space, the Orion Frontier. This is the edge of human exploration. Rimward from here: There be Dragons! No star chart or encyclopedia tells us what lies beyond, only the whispered tales of scouts and pirates provide us myth-inspired answers.

The Twilight Sector Campaign from Terra/Sol Games is a science fiction setting specifically designed to tell stories across a wide range of mediums. These include role-playing games, fiction, comics and electronic games. The setting seeks to provide a level of detail reminiscent of “Known Space” or “Middle Earth”. The tone is of Transhumanist evolution against a grand space opera background of far flung planets and stellar nations stretching over a 1,000 light year canvas. With 26 products in the last three years Terra/Sol Games has painted an ever evolving picture of this setting.

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Teaching and Fantasy Literature: The Once and Probably Not Future Mythology Class

Wednesday, September 26, 2012 Sarah Avery Comments 6 comments

For a week, I experienced the delightful illusion that I held the whole tradition of myth and mythic literature in my head at once. Gilgamesh to Gaiman, it floated in a perfect structure of interconnectedness. I could see through time. Then I wrote the final exam, and the illusion dissolved instantly.

I’ve had a weird week of synchronicity in which several people, none of whom could possibly know each other, have asked me what I miss about classroom teaching. The question has conjured up the best classroom teaching experience I ever had, in all its problematic glory. It began with a situation that reads like the set-up for an Amanda Cross murder mystery.

Back in the mid-1990’s, before some of my current students were born, I taught this Intro to Myth course that had its origins in a semi-scandalous departmental power grab–the oldest codgers in the English Department were trying to maneuver the university into abolishing the Comparative Literature Department. One of their moves was to offer a knock-off version of the one undergraduate class Comp Lit could always get full enrollment for–the course that made it possible for my Comp Lit grad student friends to pay their rent and eat. That’s not hyperbole. I had classmates who lived in their cars during the summer because without their school-year teaching paychecks they had to choose between food and shelter.

The codgers offered me a break from teaching endless sections of Freshman Composition. Come teach Intro to Mythology, they crooned, invent the whole syllabus to your own liking, set a precedent for how your fellow grad students will teach it here in English. All you have to do is take food from the mouths of your friends and help us destroy their department before it can confer their degrees.

If I had turned the codgers down, they’d have found some other grad student hungry enough to do it for them. So I made it my mission to give them a magnificent, kickass course of a kind they would never want to run again. They would look upon the precedent of my syllabus and shudder.

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Jolly Blackburn’s Knights of the Dinner Table #191 Shipping Next Week

Wednesday, September 26, 2012 John ONeill Comments 9 comments

Time to remind all you people that you should be reading Knights of the Dinner Table.

Why? Because it’s one of the best comics on the market. And for gamers it’s a lot more than that — it’s one of the finest magazines out there, packed with articles, reviews, and ads for the best new games.

Knights of the Dinner Table follows the misadventures of a group of misfits from Muncie, Indiana, whose love of gaming routinely trumps normal social conventions, and occasionally even their sense of self preservation. If you’re a Black Gate reader you’re already familiar with the Knights: the Java Joint strip in the back of every issue draws from the same cast of characters. Knights of the Dinner Table: The Java Joint, collecting the complete Black Gate strips, is now available in print and PDF.

You can try KODT for free online with the weekly Knights of the Dinner Table web comic. The current “Celebrity Hack” strip, featuring Seinfeld characters playing Hackmaster, is more than worth the trip.

In addition to a great cover by artist George Vrbanic, spoofing the original Unearthed Arcana art by Jeff Easley, issue 191 features 8 complete comic strips, plus feature articles including “Siftings of a Hoarder’s Lair: An inventory of things found in a Kobold’s Lair,” by Barbara Blackburn. This issue’s GameMaster’s Workshop looks at Bait and Tackle: Adventure Hooks on the Fly, Denizens of Tellene: Shazahn Ghanim, and Gaming the Movies covers the film Outpost.

All that plus regular columns Tales from the Table, Web Scryer: the Best of the RPG Web, and reviews of Masque of the Red Death, The Drifter’s Escape, The Tempus novels, Ugg-Tect, Flapjacks & Sasquatches, and Decktet. See this complete list of contents here

Knights of the Dinner Table is published monthly by Kenzer & Company. Issues are 64 pages, black & white, and priced at $5.99. It gets my highest recommendation.