Over five years: 55 Short Story Roundups, each of at least four stories, making for a minimum of 220 reviewed. It’s probably at least half-again as many. 157 Book Reviews, including 11 books by Glen Cook, 7 by PC Hodgell, 7 by Andre Norton, 6 by TC Rypel 12 Essays That’s how much I’ve written at Black Gate since my inaugural post, The Best New Sword & Sorcery of the Last Twelve Months. I should also add I co-wrote a…
During the August 2017 solar eclipse, 37,814 Americans suffered temporary retinal damage from looking at the sun. Each victim had an afterimage burned into their eye that appeared when they blinked rapidly. When those runes were written down and arranged in a scroll in exact sequential order, following the path of the sun from west coast to east, they formed the text of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #35. Pretty sweet. Now that we have the transcription in house (and translated into English by blind precogs…
One of the reasons I especially regret not attending the World Fantasy Convention this year is missing the release of The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Volume 2, which debuted at the con. I wrote the introduction to the first volume, and I dearly wish I’d been there to celebrate the arrival of this one. In his review of Volume 1, Fletcher Vredenburgh wrote: Regular readers of my monthly short story roundup know how great I think Heroic Fantasy Quarterly is, ranking…
While I was strolling through the streets of my hometown of St. Charles, a mysterious traveler in black slipped me a tightly bound scroll. “Keep if safe,” he whispered. “And honor the pact of knowledge.” When I got home, I found it contained a copy of the latest issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, plus a tasty-looking recipe for Canadian date squares. Looks like it’s my lucky week. The latest issue of HFQ includes stories by Evan Dicken, Raphael Ordoñez, and Jason…
In his review of Volume One of The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Fletcher Vredenburgh wrote: Regular readers of my monthly short story roundup know how great I think Heroic Fantasy Quarterly is, ranking it the most consistent forum for the best in contemporary swords & sorcery. Some may think I’m laying it on a little thick, but The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Volume 1, 2009-2011, a distillation of the mag’s first three years, should prove that I’m not….
From far-distant nether dimensions of imagination, editorial overlords have transmitted another fabulous issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly to our mundane plane of existence. Teams of blind scribes in the Himalayas, listening intently to the vibrations of the snow butterflies of Nepal, have transcribed the text with eager hands. And once again, the world owes them a great debt. (And maybe a case of beer. From a mico-brewery, not the cheap stuff.) The latest issue includes stories by Dennis Mombauer, Aidan Doyle, Raphael Ordoñez, and…
Let me confide a secret I have never told anyone before: sometimes, when I’m reading a story, and I’m all by myself, especially if it’s night and the only illumination is from my reading light, I’ll read out loud. And do voices. I’ll only read the dialogue out loud, reading the rest silently so it’s like I’m creating my own radio show. I like to think it sounds pretty cool. It’s definitely fun. When Robert Zoltan Szeles began telling people he…
The editorial masterminds at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly have cracked open another rich vault of adventure fantasy tales, including stories by James Frederick William Rowe, Andrew Knighton, Cullen Groves — and Black Gate blogger Matthew Wuertz. Here’s the editorial introduction to issue Q29 from the website: Even as the summer heat beat us mercilessly, our will remains unbowed! We have ventured from the heat dome, through the wasteland, and we have again gathered the greatest tales of adventure to be found…
There’s plenty of great news for fantasy fans in May — including the successful launch of new top-tier magazine, Skelos, helmed by Jeffrey Shanks, Mark Finn, and Chris Gruber. We also wondered if Weird Tales was dead (it probably is), and started our coverage of Shock Totem — just in time for the magazine to go on hiatus. In the meantime, Rich Horton took a look at the January 1955 issue of Science Fiction Stories, containing short stories by Algis…
In his January Short Story Roundup, Fletcher Vredenburgh reported on the latest issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: As usual, HFQ has got the goods, and both stories grabbed me and then left me hanging. The stunning cover painting, Forbidden Valley is by Brad Fraunfelter. The first is “Crazy Snake and the Tribute for Pachacamac” by Eric Atkisson. It’s the third story about the Comanche warrior wandering south from the Comancheria (read the others here) into Central America… Fleeing Walker’s soldiers,…