Paizo Announces Pathfinder Tales

Paizo Announces Pathfinder Tales

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winter-witchPaizo, publisher of the Pathfinder role playing game, has announced a new fiction line called Pathfinder Tales.

It’s a move that has a certain inevitability. When TSR announced a line of novels to support Dungeons and Dragons — beginning with the Dragonlance novels of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman in 1984 — it was an instant hit, and helped catapult TSR to new success as the fourth largest publisher in the country.

For a brief time in the early 90s, TSR’s novels far surpassed their game products in sales. At some point virtually every major adventure game publisher — including White Wolf (Vampire the Masquerade), Game Designer’s Workshop (Traveller), FASA (Battletech, Shadowrun), and Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon) — has experimented with a fiction line, with varying success.

Now that Pathfinder has grown to be the system of choice for many gamers, something similar was clearly in the cards. This from the official announcement:

Pathfinder Tales novels are standalone adventures written by some of fantasy’s bestselling authors…  journey through Golarion as you never have before, through the eyes of canny warriors and flippant scoundrels, and see firsthand why the Pathfinder world has twice earned the prestigious ENnie Award for Best Campaign Setting.

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Short Fiction Review # 28: Dark Faith

Short Fiction Review # 28: Dark Faith

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dark_faith_frontcvra_medium1

[Hell] doesn’t exist, no more so than the entities that are called Satan and the Devil.  They’re all…storybook constructs…Know this: there is no such thing as a ‘cosmic evil.’ Evil is a human matter, fashioned by ignorance, brutality, addiction, emotional trauma—the list is endless. The cosmos doesn’t feel anything, it is just a space, it doesn’t care about either good or evil, it is simply, like Heaven, indifferent.

“For My Next Trick I’ll Need a Volunteer” by Gary A. Braunbeck

p. 275, 285

That pretty much sums up my personal view of a universe indifferent to ongoing human folly.  That said, I’m fascinated by the notion of faith and its ethical implications, so a short story collection entitled Dark Faith co-edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon naturally got my attention. People rely on faith to provide an orderly framework to their lives, to infuse meaning to their existence. What these  stories (as well as several poems) share is a consideration of what happens when the assumptions that underpin faith unravel. For the most part, the results are not good

The opening story, “Ghosts of New York” by Jennifer Pelland, considers the afterlife of those who made the horrific choice to jump from the Twin Towers rather than remain in a burning buidling about to collapse. The whole subgenre of 9/11 fiction is tricky, given  our collective memory of something so frighteningly incomprehensible that’s been trivialized over time with the endlessly surreal replaying loop of the imploding skyscrapers, but Pelland’s take here is vividly disturbing in suggesting that memorializing the dead can make matters worse.

Poets and sages like to say that there is clarity in certain death. That a calm resignation settles over the nearly deceased, and they embrace the inevitability of the end of life with dignity and grace.

But there was no clarity for her, no calmness, no life flashing before her eyes in a montage of joy and regrets.  There was just pure animal terror, screams torn from her throat as she plummeted toward the ground in the longest ten seconds of her life.

And then there was an explosion of pain.

p.2

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Realms of Fantasy on Realms of Fantasy

Realms of Fantasy on Realms of Fantasy

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realms-december-2008Following some of the recent discussion on the future of the magazine, including the Wednesday report here on the Black Gate blog that publisher Warren Lapine had written to warn subscribers that it might be shut down, Realms of Fantasy editor Douglas Cohen has weighed in with a State of the Union piece on the Realms website.

Creatively speaking, RoF’s future is looking bright and there is a lot to be excited about. Financially speaking… It’s fair to say we’re currently navigating some choppy waters. Behind the scenes, there has been some sacrifice involved in RoF reaching this point…. If we can get through this rough patch the magazine could be secure and stable for a very long time.

There’s been plenty of debate on both the announcement and just how fans should respond in other quarters as well, including a discussion kicked off by Nick Mamatas on how the magazine might have gotten the message out without appearing quite so doomed, some comments from long-time RoF (and Black Gate) author Richard Parks, a news story at Examiner.com, an exchange with editor Douglas Cohen at The Dreaded Sword, and of course ongoing discussion right here at Black Gate.

It’s tempting to treat this as just a news story and remain objective, but I’m not going to do that. Regardless of how you feel about how the message got out, Realms of Fantasy is a terrific magazine, one of the few professional fantasy publications that will publish and promote new writers, and it deserves your support. 

You can buy a subscription here for just $19.99 for a full year.

Ryan Harvey Wins Big

Ryan Harvey Wins Big

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ryan-harveyIt gives me great pleasure to announce what some of you may have already heard — the talented Ryan Harvey, author and Black Gate blogger extraordinaire, has placed third in the International Writers of the Future contest for the First Quarter of 2010.

Judged by a panel of experts made up of well-known speculative fiction writers like Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, Eric Flint (to name just a few!)  the Writers of the Future contest was established 27 years ago by L. Ron Hubbard “to discover and provide talented new and aspiring writers of science fiction and fantasy a chance to have their work seen and acknowledged.”

I can think of few writers as deserving of notice as Ryan, who’s been tirelessly drafting brilliant essays and reviews not only at  Black Gate, but for his own blog and the defunct swordandsorcery.org web site and other places besides.

What many of you may not know is that Ryan is also a talented fiction writer. The winning story is from his Ahn-Tarqa short fiction cycle which — if you haven’t already experienced it — will be featured in two upcoming stories in Black Gate.

I hope you’ll join with us in wishing Ryan congratulations!

Goth Chick News: The Odds and Bleeding Ends

Goth Chick News: The Odds and Bleeding Ends

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minionsAh summertime! With Memorial Day behind us we can finally relish the signs that warm weather is here to stay and the frigid months are at least temporarily a thing of the past. Though I am already counting down the less than five months until Halloween, even I am somewhat giddy in the abundant sunlight streaming in the office window, making it clear I haven’t dusted since the last full moon. Which reminds me…

Here at Black Gate headquarters the Goth Chick News department celebrates the summer solstice by welcoming a new batch of fresh meat, I mean interns, who wander through the halls on their first day wide-eyed with awe and anticipation. They are led past the door marked “basement,” blissfully unaware that this is where they will live out their next ten weeks of sunny days taunted and harassed for my enjoyment, until their Tuesday night algebra lectures will seem like recess. They’re led past the Black Gate cafeteria, where they’ll rarely be allowed to eat but will instead endlessly queue up for my chai tea lattes. Today they look young, fresh and optimistic, but by August it’s a whole different story.

I love the smell of Axe cologne on a summer morning. It smells like… victory.

However, as there is still some time before I can begin the joyful work of breaking in my new minions, I have a few tasty tidbits to share with you. 

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Goodbye Realms of Fantasy — Again?

Goodbye Realms of Fantasy — Again?

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realms-april2010Reports have surfaced that Realms of Fantasy publisher Warren Lapine has written to subscribers of the magazine, telling them that if they don’t renew their subscriptions he’s going to shut it down.

Warren rescued Realms just last year, when his Tir Na Nog Press purchased it with much fanfare from Sovereign Media, who had announced that April 2009 would be the final issue. Tir Na Nog’s first issue was July 2009, and the magazine has continued with renewed vigor ever since — publishing new fiction from Euan Harvey, Bruce Holland Rogers, Richard Parks, Harlan Ellison, Carrie Vaughn, and many more.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Warren’s complaints stem from his obvious disappointment that so many fans were highly vocal about the pending loss of the magazine last year, and yet so few are willing to put their money where their mouth is.

However, as author and subscriber Mishell Baker so eloquently puts it, “Why should I send my money to a guy who’s telling me there may not be a magazine by the time he cashes my check?”

Warren clarified his position to Baker in a follow up post at The Dreaded Sword:

I think your missing the point of the letter. The magazine isn’t quite making enough money to go on as things stand right now. It was close down the magazine now, or send the letter. So saying that I shouldn’t have sent the letter suggests that I should have just shut down the magazine and not given it’s readers a heads up before closing it. Fortunately, your reaction to our letter is not the norm. Many people have a larger sense of community than you are displaying here and I expect this to save the magazine.

Realms of Fantasy is one of the few remaining professional fantasy magazines, and well worth your support.  You can purchase a subscription here.

Original Fiction: “THE WEIRD OF IRONSPELL” by John R. Fultz

Original Fiction: “THE WEIRD OF IRONSPELL” by John R. Fultz

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http://sheikman.blogspot.com
http://sheikman.blogspot.com

“The Weird of Ironspell” by John R. Fultz

Illustrations by Alex Sheikman

  

5. The Son of Ironspell

The storm fell from the mountains like the wrath of an angry god. Thunder shook the earth and lightning split the sky, striking fires along the mountainsides. Rain fell in a driving flood, and the wind ripped trees from the earth’s bosom, smashing them to kindling. Servants pulled open the gates of Ironspell Keep, and two black steeds fitted for war galloped into the tempest.

Those left in the wake of the riders bolted the castle doors tight and prepared a funeral bier for the Lady of the Keep. Princess Tyarah of Neshma, Bride of the Avenger, lay pale and bloodless on the floor of the nursery chamber.

They wrapped her in a shroud of white silk, sprinkled her frail body with rose petals, and burned sacred candles at her vigil. They prayed to the God of the Underworld that her soul would find its way; they prayed to the Goddess of Vengeance that Lord Ironspell would find his son and the devil who had taken him.

It would be days before the tragic news reached the fortress city and Queen Zandara. Ironspell Keep guarded the chief pass through the Greyfold Mountains, some thirty leagues from Neshma proper, but a messenger would be dispatched as soon as the storm relented. Weeping, he would tell the queen how her daughter was murdered and her infant grandson stolen away in the night. He would tell how the Avenger rose from a spell of nightmares to find his son’s crib empty, his wife slain by sorcery. He would tell of the storm that rolled from the mountains as if Ironspell’s black wrath had conjured it. How Ironspell rode into the raging squall with Tumnal the Swift racing at his heels. And the messenger would show to the Queen of Neshma the only evidence left by the perpetrator of this terrible crime: a piece of black leather inscribed with the insignia of a golden skull.

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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

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prince_of_persia_posterPrince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
Directed by Mike Newell. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton, Alfred Molina.

I appear to be transforming into Black Gate’s “movie reviewer.” A natural development, considering that I’m a voracious film-goer who sees most new movies during their opening weekends (a benefit of living a block away from one of best multiplexes in Los Angeles), and that the studios have tossed quite a few fantasy spectacles our way so far this year that appeal to the magazine’s demographic.

I am indeed thankful that the Great Movie Gods are providing us with more epic fantasy. I just wish they were providing us better epic fantasy. What do I need to sacrifice to get something more worthwhile from Middle Eastern fantasy than Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time? Goats just aren’t doing it, apparently, and my apartment manager has informed me that this is in violation of health codes. So I’m stuck, for the moment, with a sand-and-sorcery epic based on a video game franchise.

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The Cimmerian Takes a Final Bow

The Cimmerian Takes a Final Bow

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cimmerian2The Cimmerian, one of the most respected websites devoted to heroic fantasy — indeed, perhaps the most respected — has announced it will wrap up in on June 11.

The Cimmerian began as a bi-monthly print journal in April 2004. Edited by Leo Grin and dedicated to the work of Robert E. Howard, it ran for thirty-five issues and was twice nominated for the World Fantasy Award.

The Cimmerian website launched the following year, featuring contributions from Steve Tompkins, Rob Roehm, and Mark Finn, and it attracted considerable attention. When the print version came to an end in December 2008, Grin handed the reins to Tompkins, who managed the site until his tragic death a few months later. 

Since December 2008 the website has broadened focus, becoming “a website and shieldwall for Robert E. Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Best in Heroic Fantasy, Horror and Historical Adventure.” Under the guidance of new manager Deuce Richardson, over the past year it’s also turned its keen critical eye to Sax Rohmer, David Gemmell, Karl Edward Wagner, Charles R. Saunders, Michael Moorcock, Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, and many others. With the greater scope has come greater readership, growing to nearly 100,000 viewers/month.

The articles at The Cimmerian, by such folks as Miguel Martins, Al Harron, Barbara Barrett, William Maynard, Jeffrey Shanks, Keith Taylor, Brian Murphy, and Jim Cornelius, have never been less than fascinating, covering everything from the latest on the new Conan movie to Weird Tales to the recent — and excellent — tributes to Frank Frazetta.

Leo Grin says the blog will continue until June 11, the anniversary of Robert E. Howard’s death, and after that the site will be archived.  Its loss will be keenly felt.