Black Gate

Naia was pinned under the rubble when the quake hit, trapped with the cruel sorcer, Cer Vassir. And then her nightmare truly began.

The blood on her fingers was alive. Tiny black specks within the viscous fluid writhed like mosquito larva. She sensed its hatred for the cold air. Hatred and fury.
      “I need you to touch me one more time,” the sorcer said.
      Naia heard nothing, only saw. How she could see the things in his blood she didn’t know; they were smaller than grains of flour. Yet they wriggled like the sorcer’s spider-glyph. Her eyes drifted to it.
      “Good. You know what you must touch.”
      The glyph slithered across his shoulder, turned on the incline of his neck, and returned to its original place, its eyes glowing cinders, its back gleaming sapphires.
      Touch it.

Mike Shultz’s first fiction sale was “The Thrall” in Black Gate 9, which HorrorScope called “complex, emotional fantasy at its finest.”

Mike’s first novel, Sword of Memory, will be published in German in 2010 by Piper Verlag.

“Freedling” appears in Black Gate 14, coming in February.  You can read a more complete excerpt here.

The complete Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek is available here.

Art by Richard Tucker.

In the final issue of the Internet Review of Science Fiction (yes, another one bites the dust, though in this same issue Kristine Kathryn Rusch points out that this is hardly anything new and, doomsayers notwithstanding, is realy not representative of any ominous trends), Lois Tilton draws a distinction between those publishing in the old guard of the cheap digests and a mostly new generation whose work appears increasingly online. Of course, you’d think science fiction and fantasy writers, of all people, would be quick to embrace online publication. However, there has been the stigma that online stories aren’t really stories because, well, they aren’t in print. That’s a generational issue (to which I confess–I’m not particularly fond of reading on a screen, but the odds are I’ll live long enough to where that will become more the norm than the exception, thanks for that Steve Jobs and Amazon). Tilton suggests its an issue of attitude, and one which is ultimately not good for healthy growth of the field. In addition to her own thoughts on this (as well as her last short fiction column for IROSF, which will be moving to Locus Online), there is some extensive commentary of interest attached.

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A band of desperate men pursue the slave traders who stole their families… across cold barrows where a dread thing sleeps.

A vast shadow filled the bowl, blotting out the meager moonlight, and Niall’s cries came from the center. I drew my blade and ran towards Niall’s voice and was stopped dead. It was as if I had collided with a wall of ice which then threw me backwards to land winded on the turf. An angry throbbing filled my ears, paralyzing me with fear. I felt held in the power of some huge savage beast.

Then Aron was there and the hold was broken. With his sword in his right hand and a blazing pine branch in his left, he ran towards the shadow that squatted over the barrows.

“Fire, bring fire you fools, drive it away from the barrows,” cried Aron.

Martin Owton’s “The Mist Beyond the Circle” appears in Black Gate 14, coming in February.  You can read a more complete excerpt here.

The complete Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek is available here.

Martin Owton’s first story for Black Gate,  “A Touch of Crystal” was written with Gaie Sebold, and received this praise from Sherwood Smith at Tangent Online:

It’s the voice that makes this entertaining tale about a young woowoo-loving woman named Clearspring Treesong Watkins who works at the local woowoo store.  Much as she works at her crystals and candles and rituals, she’s not quite ready for the sudden appearance of enormous biker… Elves?  The dialogue snaps with energy, and the pacing never flags in this delightful tale, a superlative end to the new fiction.

Martin Owton lives near London, and is searching for a publisher for his adventure fantasy novel set in the same world as ‘The Mist Beyond the Circle.’

Art by Malcolm McClinton.

Torque Control (aka Niall Harrison) has posted a working draft ballot for the Hugo Awards. Here’s the short fiction nominations (and, once again I seem to be out of the know — I’ve read only the two of these, the Eugie Foster and the Bruce Sterling):

Best Novella (A science fiction or fantasy story between 17,500 and 40,000 words that appeared for the first time in 2009.)

”Vishnu at the Cat Circus” by Ian McDonald (in Cyberabad Days, Pyr/Gollancz)
Starfall by Stephen Baxter (PS Publishing)
“Earth II” by Stephen Baxter (Asimov’s, July 2009)
The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough (PS Publishing)
“Sublimation Angels” by Jason Sanford (Interzone)

Best Novelette (A science fiction or fantasy story between 7,500 and 17,500 words that appeared for the first time in 2009.)

”Sinner, Baker, Fabulist Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster (Interzone 220)
”A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by HMS Ocelot, As Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, DPhil, MSc; or, A Lullaby” by Helen Keeble (Strange Horizons, 1 and 8 June)
”Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com, March)
”The Island” by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2, ed. Dozois/Strahan)
“Problems of Light and Dark” by Deborah Biancotti (A Book of Endings)
“It Takes Two” by Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three, ed. Jonathan Strahan)
“Seventh Fall” by Alex Irvine (Subterranean)
“Black Swan” by Bruce Sterling (Interzone 221)

Best Short Story (A science fiction or fantasy story of less than 7,500 words that appeared for the first time in 2009.)

“Microcosmos” by Nina Allan (Interzone 222)
“Turning the Apples” by Tina Connolly (Strange Horizons, 30 March)
“All the Anne Franks” by Erik Hoel (Strange Horizons, 23 November)
“Useless Things” by Maureen F McHugh (Eclipse Three);
“Unexpected Outcomes” by Tim Pratt (Interzone 222)

Next up in our Black Gate 14 Preview is an old-school Sword & Sorcery epic from  talented newcomer Matthew David Surridge.

Eventually Isrohim Vey went to the land of Marás, where, in the nave of the Obsidian Cathedral, he slew the Black Bishop called Nimsza; and, taking up Nimsza’s ring, spoke with the demon Gorias that Nimsza had commanded in life.

“It may be true,” Gorias purred, “that demons know something of the ways of angels.” Gorias held Nimsza’s soul between its claws, and was content.

“Tell me of the Angel of Death,” said Isrohim Vey.

“Azrael cannot be evaded,” the demon said.

“I do not want to evade the Angel,” said Isrohim Vey. “I want to find him.”

“The Word of Azrael” appears in Black Gate 14, coming in February.  You can read an excerpt here.

The complete Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek is available here.

Matthew David Surridge lives in Montreal. “The Word of Azrael” was his first fiction sale. You can find him online at misrule.blogspot.com.

Art by David Bezzina.