Search Results for: michael moorcock

Vintage Treasures: Nifft the Lean by Michael Shea

Comments 21 comments

Michael Shea is one of the most fascinating characters in the genre. Consider this biographical tidbit from his Wikipedia entry: At a hotel in Juneau, Alaska, Shea chanced on a battered book from the lobby shelves, The Eyes of the Overworld by Jack Vance (1966). Four years later, after a brief first marriage and one year hitch-hiking through France and Spain, he wrote a novel in homage to Vance, who graciously declined to share the advance… It was Shea’s first…

Read More Read More

White Wolf, Black Gate: Moorcock’s The Stealer of Souls

Comments 3 comments

Joe Mallozzi’s online book club is reading Moorcock’s The Stealer of Souls this month (there’s already been some discussion here; Moorcock himself will appear as guest today, Wed. 6/10/09). So I thought I’d say a few words about the book… but which book is it, anyway? That’s not a rhetorical question. Geeky details beyond the jump, cobbled together from various copyright pages, the wise words of Mr. Wikipedia, and other stuff I read somewhere once or heard someone say.

Vintage Treasures: To the Resurrection Station by Eleanor Arnason

Comments 4 comments

To the Resurrection Station (Avon, October 1986). Cover by Tom Kidd Eleanor Arnason is a familiar name to anyone who’s been reading short science fiction for the past four decades. Her first story appeared in New Worlds 6 in 1973, and since then she’s published dozens of acclaimed tales in most of the major markets, especially Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Tales of the Unanticipated, and many fine anthologies. Her short fiction has been nominated…

Read More Read More

The Hobby Shop Dungeon, by Benoist Poire and Ernest Gary Gygax Jr.

Comments 3 comments

The Hobby Shop Dungeon Marmoreal Tomb Campaign Starter The Hobby Shop Dungeon, by Benoist Poire and Ernest Gary Jr. Gygax is a marvel to behold. One can utilize these books and maps for years — a complete setting loaded with maps, histories, set pieces, dungeons (arguably a mega-dungeon), wilderness, factions, heraldry, unique monsters, unique magic items, and adventure hooks abounding. It is quite a feat and an enormous labor of love. Poring through it all, I’d say my favorite parts…

Read More Read More

A Sword Has Two (New) Edges: A Review of New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, Issue #2

Comments 0 Comment

New Edge Sword & Sorcery issue #2, Winter 2023 (December 8, 2023). Cover by Gilead Artist The second issue of New Edge Sword and Sorcery has been getting far less attention than its debut, likely because it lacks a story by legendary writer Michael Moorcock, but that’s a shame, as it actually exceeds its predecessor in every demonstrable way. This is editor Oliver Brackenbury’s third time at bat (including the Zero Issue) and he’s clearly getting a feel for how…

Read More Read More

The Revelations of Zang by John R. Fultz released by Rogues in the House: Read the Foreword and Interview

Comments 0 Comment

The Revelations of Zang by John R. Fultz. The Rogues in the House Podcast (2023). John Molinero cover art. The Rogues in the House Podcast, publishers of the Sword & Sorcery anthologies A Book of Blades Vol I and Vol II, now bring us a re-release of John R. Fultz’s The Revelations of Zang (available now in Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover). John R. Fultz is no stranger to Black Gate having published in the hardcopy magazine and hosting his Skulls…

Read More Read More

Neverwhens: Hannibals’ Ghost(s) roams a City of Marble and Blood and a Genre is Reborn

Comments 2 comments

The Chronicles of Hanuvar: Lord of a Shattered Land and The City of Marble and Blood by Howard Andrew Jones (Baen, August 1, 2023 and October 3, 2023). Covers by Dave Seeley Friends, Carthaginians, Dog-Brothers, I come to praise Howard Andrew Jones, not to bury him… That was a lot of mixed-metaphors, but Howard’s mixed a lot of themes, tropes and reached back into the very roots of early heroic fantasy in his Chronicles of Hanuvar to breathe new life…

Read More Read More

Bringing a Whetstone to an Old Blade: New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #1

Comments 0 Comment

New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, Fall 2023. Cover by Caterina Gerbasi Disclosure: I was a Backer for the first four issues of this new journal. As with the Zero issue, New Edge has absolutely fantastic, journal-level production values: heavy paper stock, trade or hard-cover binding, 8.5 x 11 stock, clean, professional layout, and absolutely terrific artwork. It looks great, feels great in the hand and has nothing amateurish about it. Whereas a counterpart magazine, Tales From the Magician’s Skull,…

Read More Read More

Bob’s Books – Shelfie #8 (McKiernan, Watt-Evans, Leiber, Bischoff, Rosenberg)

Comments 19 comments

It’s installment number seven in Bob’s Books Shelfie series. Links to the prior shelfie posts can be found at the end of this one; including some prior fantasy shelves. If you’re new to this column, I posted shelfies of over a thousand of my books, in the r/bookshelf subreddit. The mods got too annoying for me, and I quit the group. But with each shelfie I posted info on the books/authors show, so I’m bringing them over to Black Gate….

Read More Read More

Interview with an AI: High Fantasy

Comments 1 comment

In the first of an occasional series, I interview the Bing AI about high fantasy.  The AI’s responses have not been edited. What is high fantasy? High fantasy, also known as epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters, themes, or plot. High fantasy is set in an alternative, fictional (“secondary”) world, rather than the “real” or “primary” world. This secondary world is usually internally…

Read More Read More