Black Gate – Page 754 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

September/October Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction now on Sale

Tuesday, September 15, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

One of the fun games you can play with F&SF these days is “Guess Which Editor Bought What?” New editor C. C. Finlay has been acquiring fiction at a good clip (and indeed, his very first issue, July-August 2014, produced a Nebula Award winner, Alaya Dawn Johnson’s “A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i.”) But certainly outgoing editor Gordon van Gelder left him with a fair inventory of stories, so for at least his first year or so, the magazine will be a mix of his taste and Gordon’s. That’s the theory, anyway.

The September/October issue is only Finlay’s fourth, but fans are anxious to get a sense of his taste, so there’s lots of discussion and conjecture. But however you look at it, the magazine is packed with lots of great fiction, including tales from Paolo Bacigalupi, David Gerrold, Ron Goulart, Dennis Etchison, Elizabeth Bear, Richard Bowes, Albert E. Cowdrey, and others.

Jerard Bretts at Tangent Online has already reviewed the issue, with high praise for the contents:

Albert E. Cowdrey… always writes entertainingly. This time he contributes “The Lord of Ragnarök,” a fantasy novella in the grittily realistic Game of Thrones tradition, set in medieval Europe sometime after the Crusades. With some nice wordplay on the author’s name, it tells the story of slippery Sir Richard de Coudray and his rise from peasant boy to knight. One of Cowdrey’s major achievements here is to make us feel sympathy for this slippery and essentially Machiavellian character…

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We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Tuesday, September 15, 2015 Fletcher Vredenburgh Comments 2 comments

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are of the same length, but I have to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cap mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.

So opens Shirley Jackson’s final novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). Published three years before her death, this introduction to the book’s narrator, better known as Merricat, seems to promise readers they are in for the story of a quirky young woman. It is indeed beguiling but bears only the slightest hint of what’s to come in this short novel. It is a book built of dark and deep shadows, pierced at times by shimmering passages, before becoming darker and more claustrophobic.

Merricat lives with her sister and their crippled and addle-minded Uncle Julian in the great mansion that the Blackwoods have always lived in. Six years ago something terrible happened for which all the townsfolk hate, and perhaps even fear, the Blackwoods. One evening, arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl and the sisters’ parents, younger brother, and aunt died. Their uncle took less sugar and survived, though irreparably broken. Constance, who cooked, who never took sugar — and who cleaned the sugar bowl before the police arrived — was accused and tried. No motive could be found and she was acquitted, but she has never since left the property. Only Merricat braves the village — twice a week — to buy food, take out books from the library, and suffer the staring and unpleasant treatment of the villagers.

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New Treasures: Dragon Coast by Greg van Eekhout

Tuesday, September 15, 2015 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

In California Bones, Greg van Eekhout introduced us to Daniel Blackland, a con artist attempting the biggest con of his career… who ends up crossing the terrifyingly powerful Hierarch, the tyrant ruling the Kingdom of Southern California. With the mysterious and powerful Sam, the Hierarch’s golem, Daniel ended up on the run. In the second novel, Pacific Fire, set a decade later, the pair return to L.A. to confront a brand new horror: the terrifying weapon of mass destruction called a Pacific Firedrake. In the concluding volume in the trilogy, the stakes are even higher, as Daniel Blackland must pull off his most improbable theft yet, by returning to the Kingdom of Northern California and stealing the bones of the great dragon at the center of the Earth.

Daniel’s adopted son Sam, made from the magical essence of the tyrannical Hierarch of Southern California whom Daniel overthrew and killed, is lost — consumed by the great Pacific firedrake secretly assembled by Daniel’s half-brother, Paul.

But Sam is still alive and aware, in magical form, trapped inside the dragon as it rampages around Los Angeles, periodically torching a neighborhood or two.

Daniel has a plan to rescue Sam. It will involve the rarest of substances, axis mundi, pieces of the bones of the great dragon at the center of the Earth. Daniel will have to go to the kingdom of Northern California, boldly posing as his half-brother, come to claim his place in the competition to be appointed Lord High Osteomancer of the Northern Kingdom. Only when the Northern Hierarch, in her throne room at Golden Gate Park, raises her scepter to confirm Daniel in his position will he have an opportunity to steal the axis mundi — under the gaze of the Hierarch herself.

And that’s just the first obstacle.

We covered the first two novels in the trilogy here. Dragon Coast will be published by Tor Books September 15, 2015. It is 320 pages, priced at $24.99 in hardcover and $11.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Cliff Nielsen.

Adventures In Commitment: To Watch Beyond the Pilot?

Monday, September 14, 2015 markrigney Comments 1 comment

We live in a Golden Age of television. Quality work springs up every season, clamoring for our attention. Thing of it is, the hours available in any given day have not kept pace. Days on planet earth continue to mete out a mere twenty-four hours total, and I (for one) need to be sleeping for at least seven of those.

For what, then, will I give my precious time?

With books, I have a rule. If a series remains unfinished, I refuse to delve. I call this “The Robert Jordan Rule,” and at present, I am busily applying it to George R.R. Martin. However, I’m feckless, and inconstant besides. I have not applied said rule to Patrick Rothfuss, and I beg you not to apply it to my own burgeoning series of Renner & Quist adventures, the latest of which, Bonesy, arrived September First.

The Robert Jordan Rule proves equally impossible to apply to television. Hardly any series is made with an end point in mind. Most simply peter out when audiences wane, budgets get slashed, or the makers finally admit they have no idea how to wrap things up (and possibly never did). What, then, to do? Does any criteria exist for what show next to watch?

To begin, we must invoke Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Take Me To the Pilot!

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Call for Nominations! Meet Author, T.L. Zalecki, as She Gives an Insider’s Look at the Kindle Scout Program and Discusses Her Current Project: The Lost World (SIRENS Book 2)

Monday, September 14, 2015 Emily Mah Comments 1 comment

T.L. Zalecki was one of the first speculative fiction authors offered a publishing contract via the Kindle Scout program, and her debut novel, Rising Tide (SIRENS Book 1) was recently published by Kindle Press. Her second book in the series, Lost World, is now up on the Kindle Scout site, where readers can nominate it, and if it is published, receive a free copy. I’m devouring Rising Tide right now. It’s scientifically plausible mer-people in a near future dystopia with government conspiracy to boot!

Tanya was kind enough to sit down with me for a Skype interview to discuss her experience with the Kindle Scout program and share insights into how it works. As one of the first forty authors selected for a publishing contract, she set up her Rising Tide campaign while the site was still in beta. In this interview, we discuss the process of selection on Kindle Scout, the timeline for publication, and the types of rights that the publisher seeks. This program is something to consider if you want the freedom of indie publishing with some of the editing and marketing support of a big publisher.

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Future Treasures: Gestapo Mars by Victor Gischler

Monday, September 14, 2015 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

Victor Gischler is the author of Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth, one of the better Deadpool graphic novels out there. He’s also written the novels Gun Monkeys, Ink Mage, and Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse, among many others.

His latest novel, Gestapo Mars, combines science fiction, Nazis, assassins, and disgusting gelatinous aliens in a fast-paced, rollicking adventure, on sale next week from Titan Books.

Carter Sloan is a trained assassin — the best there is, pulled out of cryogenic sleep whenever an assignment demands his skills. So when he’s kept in the deep freeze for 258 years, he’s seriously pissed off.

Yet his government needs him, to hunt down the enemy known as the Daughter of the Brass Dragon. The future of the galaxy-spanning Reich depends on it, so Sloan is off — screwing, swearing, and shooting his way across interstellar space.

It’s action, adventure, and disgusting gelatinous aliens as only Victor Gischler can create them.

Gestapo Mars will be published by Titan Books on September 22, 2015. It is 277 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback and $7.99 for the digital version.

See all of our coverage of the best in upcoming fantasy here.

RuneQuest: Korantia and Mythic Britain

Monday, September 14, 2015 Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones Comments 3 comments

In 2013 I wandered over to Monster Island, one of the first journeys I’d ever made to a RuneQuest destination. I found it excellent. And recently, after I returned from GenCon2015, I travelled once more into RuneQuest realms and learned that excellence is a standard practice in their products.

Shores of Korantia is a setting book for a bronze-age land rich in intrigue and adventure. It covers the regions of the empire in detail that’s thorough but not dry — not so much an encyclopedia entry, but a travel guide with adventure hooks, so that every page you turn sets your mind ablaze with ideas to spin adventures from. Like Monster Island before it, one doesn’t have to be at all familiar with RuneQuest in order to utilize the setting, or even a gamer to enjoy reading it. If you like reading about imaginary worlds, any of the RuneQuest Design Mechanism books I’ve read are a great time.

Korantia is a tottering empire propped up by a noble young ruler that you just can’t help but find yourself rooting for, which is pretty typical of what writer Jonathan Drake manages throughout the book — the people detailed are engaging, their situations interesting. In short, it’s chock full of the potential for story. There are fascinating places to go, engaging people to meet, and mysteries to unravel.

[Click on any of the images in this article for bigger versions.]

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The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Tolkien’s Necklace of the Dwarves

Monday, September 14, 2015 Bob Byrne Comments 13 comments

I was a voracious reader of fantasy in my teens and early twenties. Moorcock, Tolkien, Lieber, Kurtz, Feist, Eddings, Brooks, Donaldson, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, Thieves World, Heroes in Hell; I devoured series fantasy. And later I would delve into McKiernan, Cook, Howard, Jordan and others.

Now, in the past decade, I’ve made a couple of attempts to re-read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but given up each time (I can say the same thing about Fritz Lieber’s Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series). I like the stories and the events, but parts of them just read so sloooow. I’ve not run into that problem with Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series, or Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni books. But I’m still a huge Tolkien fan, even though I don’t sit down and read through him any more.

I’m in a rather small minority that prefers The Silmarillion to his two better-known works. And that’s because I’m completely sold on Tolkien as a world builder and storyteller. That’s why he’s still a favorite.

From the story of the Silmarils up to the start of the Third Age, Tolkien set the standard for world building and epic history. I enjoy the vast creations of Robert Jordan, Steven Erickson, Stephen R. Donaldson, David Eddings and many more, but Tolkien was unsurpassed.

One of my first Dungeons and Dragons characters was an elf named Gil Galad, wielding his spear, Aeglos. Fingolfin, the Sons of Feanor, Hurin, Turin, Melkor, Ancalagon, and Glaurung: The Silmarillion is just chock full of heroes, villains, lands, kingdoms and events.

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September 2015 Lightspeed Magazine Now on Sale

Monday, September 14, 2015 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Sheesh. Sometimes it feels I spend most of my day writing about John Joseph Adams. How does one guy manage it all? In the past few weeks alone, I’ve covered his new Hugo Award, the latest issues of his magazines Lightspeed and Nightmare. his new book Loosed upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction, and his (second) amazingly successful Kickstarter campaign.

And that’s only the stuff I have time to cover. That’s not even including his many other projects, like the upcoming Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, his just-released anthology Press Start to Play, and lord knows what else. Seriously. I survey everything this guy does, and then I need to have a bit of a lie down.

We’re very fortunate to have him, even if he is tough to keep up with. The field would be much poorer without John Joseph Adams. If you’re interested in sampling a little of his editorial genius, but don’t have the time or the money for one of his many fine anthologies, then check out his award-winning magazines: Lightspeed and Nightmare.

This month Lightspeed has original fantasy from Sean McMullen and Heather Lindsley, and fantasy reprints by Maurice Broaddus and Theodora Goss, and original SF by Caroline M. Yoachim and Megan Arkenberg, plus SF reprints by Daniel H. Wilson and Carrie Vaughn. All that plus their usual author spotlights, an interview with Ken Liu, and book and movie reviews. eBook readers get a bonus novella by Eliot Fintushel, and two novel excerpts.

Here’s the complete fiction contents of the September issue.

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Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: Pro-Tips From Paul Dale Anderson, Installment #2

Sunday, September 13, 2015 Tina Jens Comments 0 Comment

For our Pro Tip this week, we’ve got the second of what will be several installments from the prolific and generous Paul Dale Anderson, who answered all the questions on our list.

Chicagoans will have a chance to hear the Rockford native this Wednesday, when he’s the featured reader at the Gumbo Fiction Salon reading series. (Details on the event are at the end of the article.)

Paul has written across a variety of media and genres for more than twenty years and all across the spectrum of commercial fiction, including romance, westerns, science fiction, erotica, and especially horror. He’s written a huge amount of non-fiction for television, radio, newspapers, and academic journals, along with poetry and book reviews.

His latest novels are Darkness (2AM Publications, 2015), Abandoned (Eldritch Press, 2015), and Axes to Grind (Crossroad Press, 2015). He has new short stories coming out this fall at The Horror Zine magazine, Weirdbook 31, and Pulp Adventures 18.

To Outline or Not to Outline – What Works For You?

I outline only after the work is complete in manuscript. I let my characters tell their own story and each work writes itself. Then I write an outline, synopsis, elevator speech, and what I want to see as jacket copy. If I try to do that first, the story loses momentum. I put all of my creative energy into the story. Everything else is foo-foo.

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