Black Gate – Page 633 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Back to the Television

Monday, October 10, 2016 Bob Byrne Comments 4 comments

So, episode 98 of Elementary aired weekend before last. That, of course, is the modern day Sherlock Holmes show, set in New York City, featuring Johnny Lee Miller as the brilliant, socially challenged detective, and Lucy Liu as a female Doctor Watson. The show, which began in 2012, just kicked off season five.

Meanwhile, on January 1 of 2017, BBC’s Sherlock FINALLY airs season four. Set in modern day London, it has launched Benedict Cumberbatch to superstardom and also escalated Martin Freeman’s (that Bilbo guy) career. There have been nine episodes since the show began in 2010, plus one television movie, The Abominable Bride. It’s no surprise, with two year and eleven months between episodes, that rumors abound that season four will be the end.

Do you want the bad or the good first? The bad? Ok, we’ll open with Sherlock. Among my top five all-time favorite shows after season two, season three was a self-indulgent, “we can do better than Doyle” and “look how clever we are” claptrap. Somehow, The Abominable Bride won an Emmy for best television movie. The ending of it was worse than Matt Frewer’s Hound of the Baskervilles.

I think Sherlock is now a bad show and hope that it gets put to rest after these three episodes.

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Black Gate Online Fiction: “Queen of Toads” by Joe Bonadonna

Sunday, October 9, 2016 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

We posted Joe Bonadonna’s Dorgo the Dowser novelette “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum,” part of Joe’s first swords and sorcery collection, Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser, way back in December 2011. It quickly became one of our most popular online stories, and it has remained so for nearly five years. We also presented an exclusive excerpt from Waters of Darkness, his supernatural pirate dark fantasy novel co-written with David C. Smith, in 2013. Since then, Joe has become one of our most reliable and popular reviewers.

We are very pleased to have the opportunity to present “Queen of Toads,” an old-fashioned pulp horror tale, for your reading pleasure.

In the marsh out back, these strange creatures. I’ve seen them at night, hopping back and forth across Venn Road, coming from and heading to the marsh. They must be going out hunting, though what they might prey upon sure has me stumped. Maybe fish or small game. Hell, they’re as big as some breeds of dogs. And the way those strange feathers of theirs glow in the moonlight — the same colour as the rocks! — makes me wonder how they could possibly sneak up on anything! Makes me wonder if they came here with those rocks, came from inside them, maybe. They look like frogs and toads, but like none I’ve ever seen before. I surely won’t be frying up and eating their legs! I told my Minerva to steer clear of the things, too. Told her not to touch or try to catch them. You never know where they might have come from and what sickness they might carry.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Mark Rigney, Michael A. Armstrong, C.S.E. Cooney, Vaughn Heppner, E.E. Knight, Jason E. Thummel, Judith Berman, Howard Andrew Jones, Dave Gross, Harry Connolly, and others, is here.

“Queen of Toads” is a complete 9,000-word humorous Lovecraft-pastiche offered at no cost.

Read the complete story here.

Read an Original Short Story in the World of The Lazarus Gate and The Iscariot Sanction at the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi Blog

Sunday, October 9, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Mark Latham’s new novel in The Apollonian Case Files, The Iscariot Sanction, was published by Titan Books on September 20. It’s the follow-up to The Lazarus Gate and, in honor of the occasion, the popular Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog at BarnesandNoble.com has posted a brand new story set in the same world, “The House of the Dead.”

Mark Latham’s two novels of The Apollonian Case Files, The Lazarus Gate and The Iscariot Sanction, take place in an alternate Victorian Age in which Her Majesty’s Empire is under attack by supernatural threats, and only a mystery “gentlemen’s club” stands in the way of total oblivion. They’re great fun, mixing elements of Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft, James Bond and H.G. Wells, with a setting we love spending time in — which is why, in honor of the release of the latest in the series, we’re pleased to present an original short story set in the same universe. Enjoy!

Read the complete story here.

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The October Fantasy Magazine Rack

Sunday, October 9, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

We added two new magazines to our regular coverage this month: Skelos, the Journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy, edited by Mark Finn, Chris Gruber, and Jeffrey Shanks, and Postscripts, edited by Nick Gevers, which is more of a regular anthology series, but it publishes short fiction and has numbered issues, so what the hell. Welcome aboard.

We also have lots of interest for vintage fiction fans, including retro reviews by Rich Horton and Matthew Wuertz of the July 1953 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction (with stories by Clifford D. Simak, James H. Schmitz, C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner, Fritz Leiber, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Shaara), the November and December 1963 Fantastic (John Jakes, Neal Barrett, Jr., Ursula K. Le Guin, Keith Laumer, and Edmond Hamilton) and the May 1963 Amazing (Henry Slesar, Leigh Brackett, Albert Teichner, and Robert F. Young).

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our September Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

As we’ve mentioned before, all of these magazines are completely dependent on fans and readers to keep them alive. Many are marginal operations for whom a handful of subscriptions may mean the difference between life and death. Why not check one or two out, and try a sample issue? There are magazines here for every budget, from completely free to $35/issue. If you find something intriguing, I hope you’ll consider taking a chance on a subscription. I think you’ll find it’s money very well spent.

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WTF Did I Just Read? Grant Morrison’s Nameless

Saturday, October 8, 2016 Derek Kunsken Comments 0 Comment

Grant Morrison is one of the most successful and famous comic creators. His comic writing career started in small press when he was just 18 years old, and graduated to Marvel UK and the world of 2000AD in the 1980s, with some work with Marvel and DC as well.

From the mid-1990s onward, he’s been consistently working on big projects for big publishers. My own first experience with him were the early 2000s New X-Men series from time to time, but then intensively through the Batman R.I.P. and Batman Reborn arcs.

I was very, very impressed with the creepy insanity he was able to channel in Batman and Robin while Dick Grayson was Batman. Serious creep factors.

But that wasn’t why I read Nameless, a recent series of his through Image.

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Modular: Eye of the Beholder – The Art of Dungeons & Dragons

Saturday, October 8, 2016 Bob Byrne Comments 4 comments

Art is a HUGE part of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). In fact, you can’t separate the amazing illustrations, (from black and white sketches to glorious color panoramas) from the actual playing of D&D. Of course, this applies to other role playing games. Wayne Reynolds’ illustrations were a big draw for me in trying Pathfinder. But there’s a reason I mentioned D&D.

Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons, a documentary by X-Ray Films and Cavegirl Productions, is due out next year. And what a BRILLIANT idea! In addition to featuring artists and their work, it will also include interviews with game designers, authors, insiders and fans.

If this preview doesn’t grab you, I’m not sure you’re a D&D fan. If you read Part One of my history of Necromancer and Frog God Games (you did, didn’t you?), you saw those awesome Necromancer covers. I’ve loved D&D art since I started playing and I even had a puzzle with Larry Elmore’s drawing from the cover of the Red Box.

There’s a very short article about it in Format Magazine that has a bunch of wonderful D&D art from several of the greats. Makes me think of those great Dragon Magazine covers.

You can read Bob Byrne’s ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column here at Black Gate every Monday morning.

He founded www.SolarPons.com, the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’ and blogs about Holmes and other mystery matters at Almost Holmes.

He is an ongoing contributor to The MX Book of New Sherlock Stories series of anthologies, with stories in Volumes III, IV and the upcoming V.

Future Treasures: The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe

Saturday, October 8, 2016 John ONeill Comments 4 comments

Every once in a while a really stellar anthology comes along that generates a lot of pre-publication whispers, gradually growing to a steady buzz of excitement. This year that anthology is The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales.

The Starlit Wood was assembled by Dominik Parisien, editor of the highly acclaimed Clockwork Canada, and Navah Wolfe, editor at one of the most exiting new imprints in the industry, Saga Press. Several of my friends have privately tipped me off that this is the best fantasy anthology of the year, and the public accolades have just started to pour in. Terri Windling calls it “Excellent… I loved it,” Jeff VanderMeer says it’s “Classy, smart, and entertaining… and featuring the best and most exciting fantasy writers working in the field today.” And Publishers Weekly raved, saying it’s “A rich sample of what awaits us in the world of fairy tales.”

For anyone looking to revisit the wondrous (and frequently dark!) world of fairy tales — or who just wants to a taste of what the best writers in fantasy are doing today — The Starlit Wood is your best opportunity this year. It contains stories by Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Jeffrey Ford, Max Gladstone, Margo Lanagan, Seanan McGuire, Garth Nix, Naomi Novik, Sofia Samatar, Catherynne M. Valente, Genevieve Valentine, and many others, and will be released in hardcover this month by Saga Press.

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Fantasia 2016, Days 12 through 14: Afterlife, Life-in-Death, and Madness (We Go On, Aloys, and Therapy)

Friday, October 7, 2016 Matthew David Surridge Comments 0 Comment

We Go On I had errands keeping me away from the Fantasia film festival on Monday, July 25. Now, interruptions are a sad fact of life, but sometimes it’s easy to get back into the swing of things; and as it happened the next day I made it back to the De Sève theatre to watch an American horror film called We Go On, which served to get me back into the Fantasia spirit. Then the day after that I saw two more movies at the De Sève, an odd Swiss romance called Aloys followed by a French horror film called Therapy. The latter had been directed by 16-year-old Nathan Ambrosioni — his second feature film. Together the movies made an odd meditation on life, death, and horror.

We Go On was written and directed by Andy Mitton and Jesse Holland (the IMDB credits Holland with “story,” while Mitton gets credit as “writer” as well as for screenplay and story). Miles Grissom (Clark Freeman) is an adult man in Los Angeles suffering from a crippling fear of death. He therefore offers $30,000 to anyone who can prove that there’s life after death — reincarnation, ghosts, anything. Deluged with people who claim to have proof, Miles and his cynical mother (Annette O’Toole) begin a quest to investigate the most promising responses. Things do not go as Miles might have expected.

Nor do things go as the audience might have expected either, and in this case I mean that in the best way. We Go On is thoroughly unpredictable, with an unusual structure and a story that moves between horror and character-based drama. Miles and his mother almost alternate as leads, and one can make a strong argument that the crucial choice shaping how the climax plays out is hers.

More than that, when Miles first gets responses to his offer, he’s able to eliminate most out of hand except for three or possibly four. He then investigates those few contacts one by one; as you might expect he has no luck at first. Also as you might expect his early investigations end up returning to become relevant to the movie later on. But how they become relevant is interesting. In one case it’s plot-related, but another is more thematic, putting forward ideas about fear and the supernatural that inflect the rest of the movie.

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Galaxy Science Fiction, July 1953: A Retro-Review

Friday, October 7, 2016 Matthew Wuertz Comments 4 comments

The July, 1953 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction is bereft of a serialized novel, so a curious reader could jump into it without feeling a need to commit to something larger. I suggested the same thing for the June, 1953 issue as well, so here are two issues to choose between. Or read them both.

“Kindergarten” by Clifford D. Simak — Peter lives in the country, having moved out of the city after being diagnosed with cancer. He lives a simple life until he discovers a strange machine on his property. When he touches it, it dispenses a remarkable piece of jade.

Other people discover the machine soon enough, and with each touch, it dispenses an item specific to the person. As word spreads, the police become involved, followed by the military. The machine, though clearly alien, isn’t too disturbing until it begins laying a foundation for something much larger.

Simak’s story works really well. I think he did a good job with Peter’s character — showing his pain with cancer. And I like that the source of his pain or why he lived in the country didn’t come out immediately. I expected after reading it that nothing else in the issue would top this story, but I later found something else that edged it out as my favorite.

“Caretaker” by James H. Schmitz — An exploring party visits the planet, Cresgyth. A man named Hulman crashed on it over twenty years ago — the lone survivor of his crew. He was saved by other humans — the only humans known to exist beyond Earth. Those humans, however, are threatened by other humanoid creatures that Hulman calls snakes. The humans won’t fight back, and Hulman believes the humans will become extinct unless something is done about the snakes.

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In 500 words or Less … The Wurms of Blearmouth by Steven Erikson

Friday, October 7, 2016 Brandon Crilly Comments 5 comments

When someone asks my favorite fantasy series, Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen is usually one that I mention. It’s one of those sprawling epics with great characters and a complex, vibrant world that sucked me in and inspired me to write fantasy of my own.

After the series ended, I grabbed the next Erikson book I could find — The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach — and was delighted. I read the next in that series, Crack’d Pot Trail … and put it down after a couple chapters.

Erikson’s most recent work is a series of prequels (which I avoid) and his other recent books haven’t interested me, so when I found another Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novella, The Wurms of Blearmouth, I almost didn’t pick it up.

Overall, though, this latest tale was satisfying. The theme in the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach stories seems to be that everyone is a terrible person, but the residents of Spendrugle take things to a new level of depravity. I balked a little at first with the female characters specifically, who are stupid or vile or both — but then I realized that you can describe every character from Wurms that way, and so I got over it (mostly). In this case, Erikson is very “equal opportunity” when it comes to negative characteristics, so don’t be turned off by what’s depicted in the opening chapters (you probably will be anyway).

The real point to these stories, after all, is to follow famed necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach and their manservant, Emancipor, from screwed-up situation to screwed-up situation; they’re the real draw for me, and Erikson consistently entertains me with the way that they go about doing evil work without seeming to care about the consequences.

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