Search Results for: Mike Ashley

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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Help Uncover the Birth and Rise of Science Fiction: Support the Futures Past Kickstarter

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Last month I was delighted to shine a spotlight on the first issue of Futures Past, a new magazine devoted to covering the birth of modern science fiction. Futures Past was originally a highly-regarded print fanzine, which published four issues in the early 1990s, each covering one year of SF history, from 1926-29. Editor Jim Emerson has resurrected it as a 64-page digital magazine, with gorgeous full-color pages illuminating the highlights of science fiction publishing in magazines, books, books and even…

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Take a Visual Tour of the Early SF and Fantasy Pulps in Futures Past #1

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I have a great curiosity about the beginnings of science fiction and fantasy in the United States — particularly what’s known as the Gernsback Era, beginning when Hugo Gernsback founded Amazing Stories in 1926, and virtually created modern science fiction. Nearly simultaneously, Weird Tales (founded in 1923) was publishing the first stories of the greatest fantasists of the 20th Century: Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith. So I was delighted to discover a brand new magazine devoted…

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Fantastic Universe, September 1959: A Retro-Review

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Here is probably one of the less-remembered digest SF magazines of the 1950s. Fantastic Universe was founded in 1953 and lasted until 1960, publishing 71 issues overall… it was a bimonthly briefly then a monthly until its demise (with a missed issue or two along the way). Thus it survived the collapse of the pulps in about 1955, and the American News Company disaster in 1957 or so, and even Sputnik. That’s not a bad run, all things considered. But…

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Amazing Stories, July 1962: A Retro-Review

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Back to Cele Goldsmith’s tenure at Amazing/Fantastic. This is a pretty strong issue, with, notably and perhaps surprisingly, a strong “Classic Reprint” novelet, and a strong serial opener. (The shorter fiction is less impressive.) The cover is by Lloyd Birmingham, a semi-regular at Amazing/Fantastic throughout the ’60s, who also had one cover for Analog, one for an Ace Double, and a couple more. But he was never well-known in the field. It illustrates the serial in this issue, part one…

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Gifts From the Godfather of Space Opera: The Collected Edmond Hamilton, Volume Four

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Cancel all my appointments! My copy of The Reign of the Robots, The Collected Edmond Hamilton, Volume Four arrived today. Edmond Hamilton is my favorite pulp writer, and has been ever since I encountered his work in Isaac Asimov’s seminal anthology Before the Golden Age. I talked about my early affection for Hamilton — and my frustration at being unable to find some of his most acclaimed early space opera — in my Vintage Treasures piece on The Best of…

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Vintage Treasures: The Unknown, edited by D.R. Bensen

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In all of our recent discussions of pulps, we have sorely neglected one of the greatest pulp fantasy magazines of all time: John W. Campbell’s magnificent Unknown. It wasn’t deliberate; we’ve just been focusing on Amazing Stories, Galaxy, and the pulp roots of Dungeons and Dragons of late. So to do a little catch-up, I thought I’d talk about a splendid anthology I’ve been reading this weekend: The Unknown, a collection of ten short stories and one novelette from the pages of…

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Satellite, December 1956: A Retro-Review

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This is one of a great many ’50s digests. It began publication in October 1956 as a bimonthly, and became a monthly in 1959 for its last four issues (the last was May). 18 issues total. (Apparently the June and July issues were assembled at least to some degree.) The publisher was Leo Margulies, and the editor for the first two issues was Sam Merwin, who had done good work with Startling Stories/Thrilling Wonder Stories. According to the Science Fiction…

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Amazing Science Fiction, December 1959: A Retro-Review

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Here’s an issue from very early in Cele Goldsmith’s tenure (and very early in my life, I might add – this issue presumably appeared about a month after I did). It was in fact the first issue of Goldsmith’s second year at the helm. The cover is by Leo Summers, illustrating (not too accurately) Alan Nourse’s novel Star Surgeon, which appears complete in this issue. Above the magazine title is the title of another story, “Knights of the Dark Tower,”…

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