Search Results for: Mike Ashley

Birthday Reviews: Theodore Cogswell’s “The Wall Around the World”

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Theodore R. Cogswell was born on March 10, 1918 and died on February 3, 1987. Cogswell received a Hugo nomination for his book PITFCS: The Proceedings of the Institute for Twenty-First Century Studies, which has been described as a “fanzine for pros.” His story “The Wall Around the World” was nominated for a Retro Hugo Award for Best Novelette. In 2000, he was posthumously inducted into the First Fandom Hall of Fame. “The Wall Around the World” first appeared in…

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Birthday Reviews: Theodore Sturgeon’s “The Girl Had Guts”

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Cover by Ed Emshwiller Theodore Sturgeon was born on February 26, 1918 (Happy Centennial Theodore!) and died on May 8, 1985. Sturgeon won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for his story “Slow Sculpture,” possibly the only time a story has won the Novelette Nebula and the Short Story Hugo. His novel More Than Human received the International Fantasy Award. A translation of “And Now the News…” received a Seiun Award while “The World Well Lost” received a Gaylactic Spectrum Hall…

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Birthday Reviews: Jack Womack’s “Audience”

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Jack Womack was born on January 8, 1956. His novel Elvissey, the fifth book in his six-book Dryco series, received the Philip K. Dick Award in 1994, tying with John M. Ford’s Growing Up Weightless. Womack has also worked in New York as a publicist in the publishing industry. “Audience” was written for the anthology The Horns of Elfland, edited by Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, and Donald G. Keller. It was reprinted in Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling’s The Year’s…

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Nothing Gets Belly Laughs Like Cthulhu: The Cackle of Cthulhu, edited by Alex Shvartsman

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Alex Shvartsman is best known for his Unidentified Funny Objects annual anthology series from UFO Publishing, and his recent humorous anthologies Funny Horror, Funny Fantasy and Funny Science Fiction. He’s also a noted short story writer, and his first collection, Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma and Other Stories, was released in 2015. It seems inevitable that he would combine his love of Lovecraftian horror with his passion for humorous short fiction. His first book for Baen, The Cackle of Cthulhu, is an anthology of…

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Future Treasures: John Silence–Physician Extraordinary / The Wave by Algernon Blackwood

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I’ve heard a lot of praise heaped on Algernon Blackwood’s 1908 collection John Silence–Physician Extraordinary over the years. In his review of Blackwood’s 1914 collection Incredible Adventures, Ryan Harvey wrote: Of all the practitioners of the classic “weird tale,” which flourished in the early twentieth century before morphing into the more easily discerned genres of fantasy and horror, none entrances me more than Algernon Blackwood. Looking at the stable of the foundational authors of horror — luminaries like Poe, James, le…

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The Digest Enthusiast #5 Now Available

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Unplug the phone and cancel my Netflix subscription. The Digest Enthusiast #5 is finally in the house. Okay, maybe it seems strange to some of you that there’s a magazine out there devoted to collectors of vintage digest magazines. (But it can’t have escaped you that a healthy percentage of Black Gate‘s contributors are obsessive digest magazine collectors, right? Right?) Though I think the thing that might really surprise you is just how fascinating this magazine is to anyone with an interest…

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Analog, February 1972: A Retro-Review

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Not long ago I wrote about one of the last issues of Analog with John W. Campbell’s name on the masthead, along with a fairly early Ben Bova issue (November 1971 and October 1972). Here’s another issue from that period, officially Bova’s second. But Bova started work in November (I am told), so in all likelihood none of these stories were chosen by him. They must be among the last Campbell selections. (By the way, I earlier speculated that Kay…

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Future Treasures: The Human Chord/The Centaur by Algernon Blackwood

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I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve not read much Algernon Blackwood. But I’ve been educated on his substantial contributions to the American horror genre by my fellow Black Gate writers, especially Ryan Harvey and Bill Lengeman. In his 2009 post “The Incredible Adventures of Algernon Blackwood,” Ryan wrote: Of all the practitioners of the classic “weird tale”…  none entrances me more than Algernon Blackwood. Looking at the stable of the foundational authors of horror — luminaries like Poe, James, le…

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January 2016 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale

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The January issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction contains a big new novella from Allen M. Steele, “Einstein’s Shadow,” plus stories by Ian McHugh, Ted Kosmatka, Nathan Hillstrom, and others — all under a gorgeous cover by Donato Giancola, who painted the cover for Black Gate 15. Here’s the description from the website: Our January 2016 issue features a tense alternate history novella by Allen M. Steele. Danger, intrigue, and suspense are all aboard a Bel Geddes airliner as it makes an unforgettable transatlantic journey…

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June 2015 Analog Science Fiction Now on Sale

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I don’t usually cover Analog Science Fiction and Fact here at Black Gate — in fact, I think the most recent issues we’ve covered were April 1980 (containing George R.R. Martin’s “Nightflyers”) and August 1968. When it comes to science fiction, Analog is about as hard as it gets, and the magazine has always been proud of the fact that it doesn’t publish anything so fluffy as fantasy. But I’m happy to make an exception in this case. The June…

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