Black Gate – Page 666 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

Demons, Fanatical Cultists, and Dark Magic: Jamie Schultz’s Arcane Underworld Trilogy

Saturday, July 23, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Two years ago I wrote a brief article about Premonitions, the debut novel by Jamie Schultz, and the opening volume in an intriguing urban fantasy series from Roc. Curious, I did a quick Amazon search last week, and discovered that there are two more novels in the Arcane Underworld series — including the latest, Sacrifices, released exclusively in digital format earlier this week.

The fact that there isn’t a print edition of the third novel isn’t a good sign, and it tells me Arcane Underworld will almost certainly wrap up as a trilogy. That’s a pity, as it garnered a lot of attention in its short life. Seanan McGuire called it “One half heist and one half damn good urban fantasy,” and Publishers Weekly labelled it “An outstanding urban fantasy/horror series.” But my favorite one-sentence review came from The BiblioSanctum, which said “The Arcane Underworld series has it all: Demons. Fanatical cultists. Dark magic… Schultz definitely knows how to bring it.”

All three books in the series were published by Roc, priced at $7.99 in both mass market paperback and digital editions. They are:

Premonitions (384 pages, July 1, 2014)
Splintered (352 pages, July 7, 2015)
Sacrifices (351 pages, July 19, 2016) — digital only

Anyone looking to try urban fantasy that doesn’t run into an endless series of volumes? I know you’re out there. Check out Arcane Underworld and let me know what you think.

Future Treasures: I Am Providence by Nick Mamatas

Friday, July 22, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Nick Mamatas is the author of Move Under Ground, Under My Roof, and several other novels. But his latest, I Am Providence, looks like a breakout book.

Set at a horror convention, where a grisly murder leads to the discovery of an unspeakable horror in the pages of ancient book bound in human skin, it is narrated by a faceless corpse in a morgue. Lavie Tidhar says it is “Dark and hilarious… that murder-mystery-in-a-writers-convention you didn’t even know you wanted.” And Publishers Weekly calls it “A heartfelt homage to Lovecraft lore, [which] perfectly captures the antics of conventioneers.”

I Am Providence will be published by Night Shade Books on August 9, 2016. It is 243 pages, priced at $16.99 in trade paperback and $15.99 for the digital version. The cover art is by Magdalena Pagowksa. Click on the images above for bigger versions.

B&N on 10 Science Fiction & Fantasy Debuts to Watch for in the Second Half of 2016

Friday, July 22, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Who doesn’t love a good debut novel? Science fiction and fantasy are all about discovering new and wonderful things… and what’s more new and wonderful than discovering a great new writer, capable of transporting you to amazing worlds?

Last month at the Barnes & Noble blog, Ross Johnson compiled a terrific list of 10 particularly promising debut novels of SF & fantasy. Over the last few weeks, I’ve read and seen enough to know that Johnson has a very keen eye. For example, here’s what he says about An Accident of Stars, the upcoming novel by Black Gate blogger Foz Meadows.

Hugo-nominated fan writer Foz Meadows’ hotly anticipated adult debut tells the story of Saffron Coulter, who falls through a looking glass of sorts into a richly detailed world of magic and intrigue. Saffron is quickly embroiled in a civil war lead by another Earth-born visitor, one who sorely regrets providing aid to the fantasy kingdom’s ruler, Leoden, recent claimant to the throne. The story is as much about the complex relationships between a large cast of (mostly) women characters as it is about the building and exploring the realm of Kena.

An Accident of Stars, Book I of The Manifold World, will be published in mass market paperback by Angry Robot on August 2, 2016. It is 496 pages, priced at $7.99, or $6.99 for the digital edition. Our previous coverage of the B&N blog includes:

Barnes and Noble Calls Out the 20 Best Paranormal Fantasy Novels of the last Decade
Spotlight on Barnes & Noble “Get Pop-Cultured” Month
Breathtaking and Truly Epic: Barnes & Noble on Michael Livingston’s The Shards of Heaven
Barnes and Noble Picks the Best SF and Fantasy of 2015
Barnes & Noble’s Fantasy Picks for March
Barnes & Noble on 7 Essential New Sci-Fi & Fantasy Short Story Collections

Johnson’s list also includes novels by Indra Das, David D. Levine, Keith Yatsuhashi, and J. Patrick Black. Check out the complete list here.

The July – September 2016 issue of The Lorelei Signal Now Available

Friday, July 22, 2016 John ONeill Comments 5 comments

I don’t know much about Carol Hightshoe’s online magazine The Lorelei Signal, but Amy Bisson has been nudging me to check it out. And now that she has a story in the latest issue, I promised I’d have a look. The website is clean and easy to navigate, and Carol has a fine intro on the first page that explains exactly what the magazine is all about.

The Lorelei Signal is a web based magazine dedicated to featuring 3 dimensional / complex female characters in Fantasy stories.

This does not mean I don’t want to see complex male characters either, balance is the key. I just don’t want to see female characters who are weak, having to be constantly rescued, etc. Females in the story should have the same strength of character as their male counterparts and not be there as window dressing. This has been changing over the years in fantasy writing – the idea of the female character being nothing more than a sidekick, the princess to be rescued, etc. has faded significantly. But, she still shows up occasionally.

The title of this magazine was taken from the Animated Star Trek episode by the same name. In that episode the men of the Enterprise fell under a siren song and it was Lt. Uhura who had to take command of the Enterprise.

It was a pretty hokey set-up to finally get a female in the command chair of the original Enterprise, but at least she got there.

This issue includes no less than a dozen short stories and one poem. Here’s the complete TOC.

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Goth Chick News: Marvel and Ghosties and Disney, Oh My

Thursday, July 21, 2016 Sue Granquist Comments 0 Comment

Back in March I explained the odyssey undertaken by Black Gate photog Chris Z and I to obtain copies of Marvel Comics’ just released Haunted Mansion #1, a one-off series of five issues inspired by my favorite ride in the park.

No shocker there.

But now that the fifth and final issue is about to be released on July 27^th, it’s time to explain why all you pseudo-grownups need to own this collection and not pass them over thinking they’re targeted only at the kiddies.

You see, early in the first issue readers encounter a ghost. This part is expected of course, as Haunted Mansion lore tells us there are 999 of them living inside the manor.

Only this ghost isn’t of the “grim, grinning” sort, as described in the attraction’s theme song. No siree, this ghost is serious, horror-comic stuff; all bones and menace and flailing sword.

Remember, this is Marvel as much as Disney.

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Was Homer a Historian After All? A Look at The Trojan War: A New History

Thursday, July 21, 2016 M Harold Page Comments 6 comments

Imagine if the Trojan War happened pretty much as Homer described it? How would modern archaeology, scholarship, and our understanding of war help us understand the events of the Illiad?

Yes, on the face of it, Barry Strauss’s The Trojan War – A New History is an odd book. It’s a bit like John Morriss’s Age of Arthur, which took Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth more or less at their word, much to the derision of other Dark Age historians.

However, this isn’t a Dark Osprey flight of fantasy; Strauss is well aware that he’s doing a “just suppose” kind of history and he does make a good argument as to why we should at least consider Homer as more journalist than fabulist.

For a start, Homer was (probably) based on the coast of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey was the home to many Greek colonies), and may have had access to local historical sources, including traditions reflecting the Trojan point of view.

The interventions of the gods mirror the rhetoric of numerous Middle Eastern inscriptions in which kings and Pharaohs do mighty deeds while the gods hold their hands in person. The Trojans and their allies also feel authentic to “Asia,” and the rhetoric and political landscape matches what we now know of the milieu.

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New Treasures: The Transference Engine by Julia Verne St. John

Thursday, July 21, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

I love discovering new authors, and Julia Verne St. John’s debut The Transference Engine, a fantastical steampunk novel of magic and machines set in an alternate 1830s London, looks like a particularly intriguing discovery. The ISFB reports that “Julia Verne St. John” is actually a pseudonym for Irene Radford, author of the Dragon Nimbus novels and the six books in the Merlin’s Descendants series, but what the heck. I still think it counts as a debut.

RT Reviews says, “It’s oddly delightful to read a ripping Victorian, steam-powered yarn set in a world where Byron, Shelley, Polidori, etc., are mostly known… as depraved necromancers and mad scientists,” and that’s just about the most enticing one-sentence review I’ve read all year.

Madame Magdala has reinvented herself many times, trying to escape Lord Byron’s revenge. She destroyed the Transference Engine Byron hoped to use to transfer his soul into a more perfect body and perpetuate his life eternally. A fanatical cult of necromancers continues Byron’s mission to force Magdala and Byron’s only legitimate child — Ada Lovelace — to rebuild the machine and bring Byron back.

Magdala now bills herself as the bastard daughter of a Gypsy King. She runs a fashionable London coffee salon and reading room while living a flamboyant lifestyle at the edge of polite society. Behind the scenes, she and Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace, use the massive library stored at the Bookview Cafe to track political and mercantile activity around the world. They watch to make certain the cult of necromancy surrounding Lord Byron, the poet king who worshipped death, cannot bring him back to life.

On the eve of Queen Victoria’s coronation in June of 1838, rumors of an assassination attempt abound. Both the Bow Street Runners and Magdala’s army of guttersnipe spies seek to discover the plot and the plotters. Who is behind the mysterious black hot air balloon that shoots searing light from a hidden cannon, and who or what is the target? And who is kidnapping young girls from all walks of life?

Desperately, Magdala and her allies follow the clues, certain that someone is building a new Transference Engine. But is it to bring back the dead or destroy the living?

This edition also includes a special bonus story, “Dancing in Cinders.”

The Transference Engine was published by DAW on July 5, 2016. It is 320 pages, priced at $7.99 for both the print and digital editions. The gorgeous cover is by Chris McGrath. Read an excerpt here.

Fantasia 2016, Day 1: Outlaws and Angels

Thursday, July 21, 2016 Matthew David Surridge Comments 0 Comment

Fantasia 2016 Thursday, June 14: as good a day as any to begin an adventure. I walked downtown that afternoon under looming clouds to Concordia University’s EV Building, where I picked up my accreditation for the 2016 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival. I’d been looking forward to writing about this year’s festival for Black Gate virtually since last year’s had ended. Now things were finally about to begin. A laminated press pass, a festival schedule, a thick program book: the guide to the adventure unfolding over the next three weeks, to fantasy and horror and science fiction and a lot more.

Fantasia is a genre film festival that traditionally has a strong focus on Asian film. I’ve covered it for Black Gate both of the last two years, and I’m looking forward to doing it again, especially since this year marks the twentieth edition of Fantasia (spread over twenty-one years). Once again I’ll be posting in a diary format, covering the films I see in the order they’re shown while also reporting on special events accompanying the screenings — interviews, presentations, and whatever else comes along. I’ll try to get the posts up as quickly as I can, but realistically I’ll be seeing so many movies from now until the festival ends on August 3 that I don’t know when I’ll have time to type up my notes. There’ll probably be scattered posts from now until then, with a flood of posts following through August. We’ll see.

The festival proper began for me that Thursday evening at the De Sève Theatre, the smaller of the two main Fantasia theatres. I saw a western named Outlaws and Angels, which intrigued me since one of the leads is surnamed Eastwood. In this case, that’s Francesca Eastwood, daughter of Clint. I thought the casting choice was fascinating, and was also struck by writer/director J.T. Mollner’s decision to shoot the movie on 35mm film. I wondered how these things would work out; and besides, the only other movie showing at the same time was Kickboxer: Vengeance, a relaunch of the Jean-Claude Van Damme series from the 80s. Having seen the first three seasons or so of Community, I knew I’d only be able to think of that movie as Kickpuncher. Outlaws and Angels seemed like the clear choice.

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Nathan Ballingrud on Robert Marasco’s Burnt Offerings

Thursday, July 21, 2016 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

A few days ago, I came across this concise review by Nathan Ballingrud, author of North American Lake Monsters and The Visible Filth.

I just finished reading Burnt Offerings, by Robert Marasco. Forty-three years after its publication, it still packs a wallop. Second only to Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House in my personal pantheon of haunted house novels. Respect to Valancourt Books for bringing it, along with so many other forgotten horror novels, back into print. (Also, check out that beautiful art by Pye Parr, who also did the art for The Visible Filth.)

I wasn’t even aware that Valancourt Books had done a reprint of Marasco’s classic horror novel — but I was very glad to hear it! Two years ago, when I returned from the World Fantasy Convention in Washington, D.C, I wrote about my delight in discovering their magnificent back catalog in the Dealer’s Room, saying:

As they proclaim proudly on their website, Valancourt Books is an independent small press specializing in the rediscovery of rare, neglected, and out-of-print fiction… their small table was piled high with dozens of beautifully designed trade paperbacks reprinting long-out-of-print horror paperbacks, chiefly from the 70s and 80s. All it took was one glance to see that Valancourt Books has two significant strengths. First, their editorial team has excellent taste. They have reprinted work by Stephen Gregory, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Hugh Walpole, Charles Birkin, Jack Cady, Basil Copper, Russell Thorndike, John Blackburn, Michael McDowell, Bram Stoker, and many, many others. And second, their design team is absolutely top-notch. Their books are gorgeous, with beautiful cover art and striking visual design.

Burnt Offerings was originally published in 1973 by Delacorte Press. I ordered the new edition two days ago; it is 230 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback. See the complete details at the Valancourt website.

The 2016 Hugos: Short Fiction Ballot Thoughts

Wednesday, July 20, 2016 Rich Horton Comments 4 comments

Here are my compiled thoughts (as promised) on the stories nominated in the short fiction categories for the 2016 Hugo.

(Versions of these posts appeared earlier on my blog, Strange at Ecbatan.)

A quick word on my voting philosophy: I am not planning to reflexively rank Rabid Puppy entries below No Award. I am of course disgusted by the Rabid Puppy antics, and I feel that many more worthy stories were kept off the ballot by the Rabid choices. And if a story is bad enough, it will certainly be off my ballot, with No Award the last choice. (That’s always been my approach.)

But, this year in particular, many of the nominees supported by the Rabid Puppies were either unaware of that, or aware and quite clearly not happy with that. Also, I don’t want to reduce the meaningfulness of the win for those worthy winners – if they finish first and No Award is second, to my mind it to some extent delegitimizes their wins, through no fault of their own. Better to have been chosen the best with everyone voting on merit than voted best simply because all the other choices were automatically rejected regardless of quality.

I’m going to comment only on the short fiction. In the other categories, I mostly don’t know enough about the nominees. All the novels look worth reading, but I doubt I’ll finish them all by the deadline.

I have seen four of the movies, and two of them I think are excellent, in very different ways. These are The Martian and Mad Max: Fury Road. I still need to see Ex Machina. I thought The Force Awakens and Age of Ultron were both OK, but not much better than that.

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