Adventures Fantastic Reviews Black Gate 15
Over at Adventures Fantastic Keith West, who wrote an open letter to Bud Webster in response to Bud’s first Who? column in BG 15, has reviewed the Warrior Women section of our latest issue:
The stunning cover by Donato Giancola kinda makes the point. Eight of the twenty-one stories (not counting the excerpt from The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones) are part of this theme and have their own separate table of contents… Some of the stories relating to the issue’s theme stretch the definition of warrior woman pretty far. Still, it’s not often that I can find eight stories by eight different authors (four men and four women if anyone’s counting) in a single venue that I enjoyed this much. Usually there’s at least one or two that don’t click with me. Not here. Every selection was a winner.
He starts with “The Shuttered Temple” by Jonathan L. Howard:
Featuring the return of his thief for hire, Kyth, who made her first appearance in “The Beautiful Corridor” in BG 13… a clever tale well worth your time, even if it is somewhat darker in tone. In both stories Kyth is required to survive by her wits, rather than her brawn or skill with a sword…. Mr. Howard has an inventive imagination, and I enjoyed trying to figure out the puzzle of the temple in this one.
And “The War of the Wheat Berry Year” by Sarah Avery:
This has a traditional warrior woman, who is leading an army in revolt against her former kingdom… Ms. Avery did a much better job than many writers would have done with this subject. The heroine, Stisele, has to face her old mentor on the battlefield, making this a story of greater than expected emotional depth. I look forward to Stisele’s further adventures.
He has words of praise for “Roundelay” by Paula R. Stiles:
Paula R. Stiles tells the tale of a sorceress who challenges the Queen of Hell for the soul of her husband in “Roundelay”. It seems the woman’s son died of fever and her husband went in pursuit of the boy’s soul only to end up trapped himself. The story takes place on a flying ship over an ocean. There are a couple of supporting characters, and Ms. Stiles does a great job of fleshing them out so that they are more than just stock characters from central casting.
And especially “Cursing the Weather” by Maria V. Snyder:
Nysa… is probably as far from the sterotypical warrior woman as you can get. She’s a young girl working in a tavern, trying to earn enough money to buy the medicine needed to keep her dying mother alive. Then a weather wizard moves in across the street… I wouldn’t have considered this one to really fit the theme of warrior woman. In spite of that, I think I enjoyed it the most. I’m going to be checking out more of Ms. Snyder’s work.
You can find the complete review here, and the complete BG 15 table of contents here.
If I’m counting right, this marks my fifty-second post on Black Gate, which means this is effectively an anniversary. At any rate, it’s a good point to pause and reflect, I think. Writing here’s been a blast, from my first piece about Howden Smith’s collection of historical adventures Grey Maiden, up through last week’s essay on the origin story of Steve Ditko’s Doctor Strange. I’m eager to keep going, too; I feel like I’ve gotten better as a writer and critic from posting on this site, and I feel like I’ve begun to understand certain things about the nature of fantasy. I have to thank John O’Neill for inviting me to join his team, and Claire Cooney for her editing work; both John and Claire are accessible and generous with their time, and make posting here easy and fun. I also want to thank all the other bloggers who make this site, I feel, one of the best places on the web for fantasy fans. And especially I want to thank everyone who’s read and commented on my posts over the past year; I’ve been impressed with the level of responses I’ve seen, on my posts and others’, and fascinated by the conversations that’ve developed.
Morning and evening
Shiela Crerar, psychic investigator and adventuress, first burst into public view in the pages of The Blue Magazine in 1920 with “The Eyes of Doom”. The obscure creation of the 
Apex Magazine is a monthly on-line publication of science fiction, fantasy and horror edited by Catherynne M. Valente. The current issue features three stories: “The Whispered Thing” by Zach Lynott, “The Tiger Hunter” by Rabbit Seagraves, “The Secret Protocols of the Elders of Zion” by Lavie Tidhar and, continuing with titles that all start with “The,” poetry by Saladin Ahmed, “The Djinn Prince in America: A Micropic in 9 Tracks.” Jason Sizemore’s non-fiction piece is “Five Genre Books that Raise Mind-numbing Philosophical Questions.”
The force is strong with this one, it seems. Yes, that’s my beloved son, taking his first steps toward a larger, more gamer-filled world, as he becomes a temporary apprentice to Lord Vader. (Don’t ask me why the Rebel Alliance officer is standing near them. It just doesn’t fit continuity!)