Black Gate – Page 652 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

The Groundbreaking SF Anthologies of Athena Andreadis

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

It takes no small courage to break into this industry editing genre anthologies these days, but that’s exactly what Athena Andreadis has done. Her first book, The Other Half of the Sky — co-edited by Kay Holt — features tales of hard SF with female protagonists. It was released by Candlemark & Gleam in 2013, and proclaimed by Locus as “One of the best SF anthologies of the year.” It contains new fiction by Black Gate fan favorite Martha Wells, plus Aliette de Bodard, Ken Liu, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Melissa Scott, Nisi Shawl, Joan Slonczewski, Cat Rambo, Jack McDevitt, and many more.

Athena followed up with To Shape the Dark in May of this year, featuring 15 brand new tales of daring women scientists by BG author Constance Cooper (“The Wily Thing”), plus Aliette de Bodard, Shariann Lewitt, Vandana Singh, Melissa Scott, Jack McDevitt, Gwyneth Jones, and may others. Publishers Weekly calls it “Extraordinary… [these] imaginative stories feature diverse cultures, intriguing settings, and intelligent plots… will remind readers why they love science fiction.” And the flagship magazine of Hard SF, Analog, said, “Resurrected dinosaurs, philosophical cetaceans, alien invasion, parallel worlds. There’s not a bad story in this bunch… you can’t afford to miss this one.”

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Images of Captain Scott’s Final Expedition

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 Sean McLachlan Comments 0 Comment

Herbert George Ponting - the Terra Nova held up in the Pack

One of Ponting’s iconic images from the expedition is the Terra Nova stuck in ice.
The crew had to cut away the ice immediately around the ship every day so that
it wouldn’t crush the ship, a fate suffered by several other Polar expeditions.

When I’m in London I love to catch the shows at the big galleries, but I also like to check out the auction houses. Although I can’t afford to buy anything, places like Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Bonhams often have free exhibitions of great art that, because it’s in private hands, you’ve never seen before and will probably never see again.

They sometimes have more traditional exhibitions of art that isn’t for sale. One such show this season is Visions of the Great White South at Bonhams. This brings together photography and paintings made on Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica from 1910 to 1913. While Scott and his forward team made it to the South Pole, they were narrowly beaten by Roald Amundsen and his Norwegian team. As they tried to return to base camp, the men were caught in a blizzard and Scott and the entire forward team perished.

While the expedition could be considered a failure, it accomplished some important scientific research as well as some magnificent artistic achievements. With the expedition were two artists. Dr. Edward Wilson was a physician, naturalist, and painter who sadly died with Scott. Herbert Ponting was a photographer. Both made some gripping images of the Antarctic that form the centerpieces of the show.

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Future Treasures: Waking Up Dead by Nigel Williams

Wednesday, August 10, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Nigel Williams is the author of over sixteen novels, including the bestselling The Wimbledon Poisoner and its sequels. His latest novel is the tale of a ghost who hangs around, trying to unravel the suspicious circumstances of his death…. and in the process, learns a few surprising secrets about his family. The Saturday Times says ““This has the best opening chapter of the year, if not the decade…. This black comedy is Williams’s best since The Wimbledon Poisoner.” And Country Life magazines calls it “A very funny work… Under this master of suburban comedy we have a breathtakingly hilarious hybrid of Blithe Spirit, Noises Off and Miss Marple… will have you falling off your deckchair with mirth.”

Retired bank manager George Pearmain is, apparently, dead. According to the behavior of everyone around him, it would seem that he is no more. Not only that, but his mother has also passed away too — and on the eve of her 99th year, poor dear. Not only that, it could be that they were both murdered.

He feels fine otherwise.

As George’s family gather for the birthday-celebration-that-never-was, he hovers around the house, watching and listening, entirely unseen. As a result, he makes all sorts of discoveries about himself, his wife Esmeralda, and his supposedly happy family…

One of internationally bestselling author Nigel Williams’ best books to date, Waking Up Dead is both a screamingly funny cozy mystery and startlingly strange ghost story asking the question: What would you do if you could bear witness to your own demise?

Waking Up Dead will be published by Thomas Dunne Books on August 23, 2016. It is 332 pages, priced at $26.99 in hardcover, and $12.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by David Baldensingh Rotstein.

Fantasia 2016, Day 2: Some Monsterism (Guillermo del Toro press conference and master class, The Dark Side of the Moon, Creature Designers — The Frankenstein Complex, and Rupture)

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 Matthew David Surridge Comments 0 Comment

Blade 2 Friday, July 15, began early for me. I headed down to Fantasia’s De Sève Theatre to watch a 2 PM press conference with the winner of this year’s Cheval Noir Award, Guillermo del Toro. I’d already decided that afterwards I’d head to the festival’s screening room and watch one of the movies I’d be unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict, a German suspense thriller called The Dark Side of the Moon. Then I’d go to the Hall Theatre to watch Creature Designers — The Frankenstein Complex, a documentary about the makers of movie monsters in the 1980s and 1990s. That was to be followed by a master class on monsters given by del Toro to the Creature Designers audience. I’d wrap up my night with Rupture, a suspense movie with science-fiction elements.

You can watch the hour-long press conference with del Toro here. A few things struck me, then and also now as I look back in the light of hindsight and of other movies I’d see at Fantasia this year.

As del Toro recalled his start as “part of a monster-kit geekdom,” I found him remarkably and indeed touchingly open about his love for monsters. From his discussion of learning English by reading issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland with a dictionary, to his analysis of Frankenstein’s monster as a holy figure (and it’s worth noting that he never simply said “Frankenstein,” but always “Frankenstein’s monster”), del Toro emphasised the power and meaning of the monstrous and how the idea of the monster has inspired him and his filmmaking voice. He recalled making Blade 2 where he told star Wesley Snipes that he didn’t understand Blade or why Blade was killing vampires — Snipes should take care of Blade, and del Toro would handle everything else.

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The August Fantasy Magazine Rack

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

August is the month to try new things — and that’s exactly what we did, by sampling two promising new magazines: The Lorelei Signal, edited by Carol Hightshoe, and Strange Aeons, edited by Rick Tillman. I do sometimes wonder if we’ll ever run out of new fantasy magazines to try… and so far, the answer has been no.

We also had a fascinating guest post from Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, editors of the World Fantasy Award-nominated Uncanny magazine, titled “Learning the Uncanny Arts: The Secrets of the Uncanny Magazine Covers.” And don’t fret, vintage magazine fans. Matthew Wuertz had you covered with the latest installment in his long-running project to re-read Galaxy magazine, starting with the first issue. This month Matthew took a look at the June 1953 issue, containing fiction by Philip K. Dick, Richard Wilson, Robert Sheckley, James H. Schmitz, and others.

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

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Return to Balumnia: The Stone Giant by James P. Blaylock

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 Fletcher Vredenburgh Comments 0 Comment

Six years after the second Balumnia novel, The Disappearing Dwarf, James P. Blaylock returned one last time to the series with The Stone Giant (1989). Instead of continuing the adventures of Master Cheeser Jonathan Bing, Blaylock went back in time to reveal the origins of the scandalous, piratical-looking Theophile Escargot. If the previous volumes seem inspired by the adventures of Mole and Rat in The Wind in the Willows, this one reads Toad all the way. Click on the links to read my reviews of the other two Balumnia novels: The Elfin Ship and The Disappearing Dwarf.

A secretive, conniving fellow in the two previous volumes, here we get a peek into just how Escargot’s mind operates, and what leads him to leave Twombly Town and take to the roads and high seas in search of adventure. Stirred by a fit of pique, he steals a pie his wife had locked in the cupboard. This act of domestic thievery eventually leads him into the path of certain dangerous characters, which convinces him to get out of town as fast as he can.

Escargot’s wife regularly locks all the pies she bakes in the cupboard, doling them out to him only a slice at a time in order to get him to lead a respectable life, get a job, and attend church. Unwilling to do any of those things, one night, while his wife and their daughter, Annie, are sleeping, Escargot breaks the locks and steals a peach pie. He then wanders off for a stroll in the moonlight.

When he comes home the next morning (after a run-in with a pack of goblins), he finds the door to his house padlocked and a note inviting him to never return home. Most of the town, long familiar with Escargot’s approach to life and responsibility, is on his wife’s side, leaving him with nowhere to turn. Living on river squid and apples, he relocates to a drafty, abandoned windmill for shelter while he tries to figure out what to do next.

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GenCon: The Pathfinder Post (featuring Starfinder)

Tuesday, August 9, 2016 Andrew Zimmerman Jones Comments 5 comments

For years, the publisher Paizo has been one of the major presences at GenCon. I still remember years ago (2009, I believe) coming upon their booth and seeing a pile of hardcover books for their new (at the time) Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook (now available in paperback, as well). I didn’t realize at the time that it was transforming the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons into a completely new and improved system of mechanics, and how many hours I would spend in the years to come pouring over their manuals, supplements, and novels.

Though they had some new releases this year, I was really interested in getting more information about their big 2017 release, the science fantasy game Starfinder RPG. We covered this when it was originally announced back in May, but a lot of questions were left open.

I sat down with James Sutter, the Creative Director of Starfinder, and author of two Pathfinder Tales novels, Death’s Heretic and The Redemption Engine. He is also continuing his work as the editor of the Pathfinder Tales line of books. Together with the work as the new Creative Director of Starfinder, this means it may be hard to fit in the writing of a third novel, but as a fan I’ll keep my fingers crossed. For now, he’s definitely got his hands full in bringing Starfinder RPG into the world.

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New Treasures: Ann and Jeff Vandermeer’s The Big Book of Science Fiction

Monday, August 8, 2016 John ONeill Comments 11 comments

How big is The Big Book of Science Fiction? An informal survey shows that it’s quite likely the biggest book every covered at Black Gate — bigger than Otto Penzler’s The Vampire Archives and The Big Book of Adventure Stories, and even bigger than Ann and Jeff Vandermeer’s previous record-holder, the 1152-page The Weird. It is 1,216 pages in two columns, weighing in at a staggering 750,000 words.

But as I keep telling Alice, size isn’t everything. The Big Book of Science Fiction has been receiving accolades since the day it was published, Here’s a snippet from one of my favorite reviews, from Brit Mandelo at Tor.com.

A stunning and satisfying retrospective… This is a complex and fantastic project — one I think they’ve succeeded admirably at to make an academically useful and pleasurably readable collection… Each piece in the collection is preceded by a brief write-up of the author, their life’s work, and their story in the context of the world and genre alike. While each introduction is short, the inclusion of them enhances the stories immensely…

There are classics here — for example, Leslie F. Stone’s “The Conquest of Gola” — that I’ve seen in most of these types of collections, but there are also new classics, stories that seem strikingly necessary to a rich understanding of the field but have not been previously collected or acknowledged as part of the canon. To balance those two urges is a high end goal, and to my eye, the VanderMeer duo have succeeded… I couldn’t ask for more, truly. It’s diverse, wide-ranging, engaging, and fun; the stories are introduced well, juxtaposed better, and the overall effect is one of dizzying complexity and depth.

The Big Book of Science Fiction was published by Vintage on July 12, 2016. It is 1,216 pages, priced at $25 in trade paperback and $12.99 for the digital edition. See the complete table of contents here.

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Q29 Now Available

Monday, August 8, 2016 John ONeill Comments 3 comments

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 and brought them to you. Not only do we have a full cargo of stories and poems, we have a bonus story, AND we are leveling up to include story-specific artwork as well.

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly is one of the most reliable regular sources of new adventure fantasy. Here’s the complete fiction TOC, with fiction links.

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The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Arsenic and Old Lace

Monday, August 8, 2016 Bob Byrne Comments 0 Comment

In Brooklyn during World War II, a pair of black widows were luring men to their deaths. They preyed upon older, lonely men without family or close friends. With a “Room for rent” sign hanging in the front window of their idyllic-looking home, they fed arsenic-laced wine to their victims. A male relative who lived with them buried the bodies in the basement, with no one the wiser. The women were in fact little old ladies: think Aunt Bee as a serial killer.

But a nephew came over and found a body in window seat – the thirteenth victim. He slowly realized that his two loveable old aunts were killers. Then, his brother, a murderer on the lam from the police, showed up with his lackey in tow. It’s a hardboiled, true crime story that curiously, is largely forgotten today.

Just kidding! It’s actually Arsenic and Old Lace, a smash stage play that became a popular movie starring Cary Grant, Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre. The play ran on Broadway for 1,444 performances and is still in wide use today.

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