Black Gate – Page 758 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

The September Fantasy Magazine Rack

Saturday, September 5, 2015 John ONeill Comments 3 comments

Lots of great new magazines to read in September — and plenty of news to share. This month we start coverage of Mike Allen’s fine Mythic Delirium magazine, with the July-September issue (above), and Lynne and Michael Thomas take us behind the scenes to learn how the Uncanny Magazine podcast gets made. Clarkesworld mastermind Neil Clarke tell us the Sad Truth About Short Fiction Reviews, and Fantasy Scroll Magazine announced a massive collection of all 51 stories from their first year, Dragons, Droids and Doom, edited by Iulian Ionescu and Frederick. See our recommendations on the finest stories from last month here.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our mid-August 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 $12.95/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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New Treasures: Stories of the Raksura: Volume Two: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below by Martha Wells

Saturday, September 5, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Martha Wells’s Books of the Raksura trilogy — The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea, and The Siren Depths — have captivated readers around the world. In Stories of the Raksura, Volume One: The Falling World & The Tale of Indigo and Cloud (details here), she returned to the world of Raksura with a pair of exciting novellas. With the second volume, Stories of the Raksura, Volume Two: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below, now available from Night Shade Press, Moon, Jade, and other favorites from the Indigo Cloud Court return in two more powerful novellas in the same setting.

Martha Wells continues to enthusiastically ignore genre conventions in her exploration of the fascinating world of the Raksura. Her novellas and short stories contain all the elements fans have come to love from the Raksura books: courtly intrigue and politics, unfolding mysteries that reveal an increasingly strange wider world, and threats both mundane and magical.

“The Dead City” is a tale of Moon before he came to the Indigo Court. As Moon is fleeing the ruins of Saraseil, a groundling city destroyed by the Fell, he flies right into another potential disaster when a friendly caravanserai finds itself under attack by a strange force. In “The Dark Earth Below,” Moon and Jade face their biggest adventure yet; their first clutch. But even as Moon tries to prepare for impending fatherhood, members of the Kek village in the colony tree’s roots go missing, and searching for them only leads to more mysteries as the court is stalked by an unknown enemy.

Stories of Moon and the shape changers of Raksura have delighted readers for years. This world is a dangerous place full of strange mysteries, where the future can never be taken for granted and must always be fought for with wits and ingenuity, and often tooth and claw. With these two new novellas, Martha Wells shows that the world of the Raksura has many more stories to tell…

The book also includes the short stories “Trading Lesson,” “Mimesis,” and “The Almost Last Voyage of the Wind-ship Escarpment.” Stories of the Raksura: Volume Two: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below was published by Night Shade Books on June 2, 2015. It is 232 pages, priced at $15.99 in both trade paperback and digital. The cover is by Matthew Stewart. Read an excerpt here.

The Growing Pains of Renner & Quist

Saturday, September 5, 2015 William Patrick Maynard Comments 1 comment

Samhain Publishing has just unearthed Bonesy, their fourth Renner and Quist occult mystery from one of my very favorite authors (and a regular contributor at Black Gate) magazine, Mark Rigney.

The idea of returning from a ten-month hiatus has me a bit nervous, but longtime readers may recall my heaping praise on Rigney’s earlier titles in the series: The Skates, Sleeping Bear, and Check-Out Time. Renner and Quist are an oddball double act in the classic tradition. Renner is a persnickety Unitarian minister, while Quist is a boorish ex-linebacker. Together, this unlikely duo team to solve occult mysteries.

This latest addition to the quirky and delightful series picks up where the last episode left off with Renner and Quist dramatically changed by their experiences. This time out, Renner’s mentor, Iris Buckhalter turns up needing his help.

She has developed an obsession with a brass rubbing of a strangely sexless 16th Century human skeleton she calls “Bonesy.” Her unhealthy obsession seems to have triggered premonitions of her death and she wants Renner, with his obvious occult abilities, to become Bonesy’s caretaker.

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The Great Serialization Experiment: Don’t Kill Your Reader – Eat a Cookie Instead

Friday, September 4, 2015 mariebilodeau Comments 0 Comment

Write on your own tombstone. Is there anything the Internet won't do? What a world we live in, people. What a world. — Write on your own tombstone. Is there anything the Internet won’t do? What a world we live in, people. What a world.

Remember, Kids: A Dead Reader Is A Non-Purchasing Reader

Here we are, last post of this series. Thanks for sticking around! Check out the first two parts if you haven’t yet: The Lay of the Land and Attack on Multiple Fronts.

The Mad Science

Ah, the eternal question: To plot ahead, or to write by the seat of your pants? I like to strike a healthy balance between planning and OMG WHY DID I THINK THAT CAPTURING MY NEIGHBOR’S PETUNIA GARDEN WOULD BE SIMPLE AND WHY DIDN’T I STUDY THEIR SQUIRREL DEFENSE GRID MORE THOROUGHLY FIRST??? I seriously still wonder about that one, as do my scars. I enjoy a combo of planning and flying by the seat of my squirrel-shredded pants is what I’m saying, in case that was a bit much on the cap locks.

This is what I did for Nigh, but I already had two published trilogies by the time I wrote it, so I had some idea of how I draft best (hint: very caffeinated). I didn’t have book 5 written when book 1 came out, but I had my plan. A thin little plan full of hunger and pain, but a plan nonetheless. I focused on arcs (skeleton) and promises (muscles and organs), and then tacked on the skin as I wrote.

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Fantasia Diary 2015, Day 22: Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends, Assassination, and Attack on Titan: Part 1

Friday, September 4, 2015 Matthew David Surridge Comments 2 comments

Rurouni Kenshin Tuesday, August 4, was my last day at the Fantasia Festival. It was the official closing day of Fantasia; they’d added a few screenings on Wednesday, but nothing that looked compelling to me. I have some more films to write about after this, thanks to the festival’s screening room. But since I’ll be writing here about the last three movies I saw in a theatre at the 2015 Fantasia Festival, in this post I want to make a point of acknowledging the crowds.

All three movies I saw that Tuesday played in the big Hall Theatre, to packed houses. All of them were more-or-less designed to be big crowd-pleasers, though in different ways. In two cases, they succeeded admirably, even spectacularly. And the third case failed utterly. Given the kinds of movies these were, the audience reactions are worth noting; especially in the case of these audiences. Fantasia crowds are the best I’ve ever found, wildly enthusiastic when a good movie pays off, but critical and even mocking when a bad one implodes. So I’m happy to use their responses in discussing these three movies.

The first film I saw that Tuesday was a late addition to the Fantasia line-up. Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends was the third film in a series, a live-action adaptation of a popular manga that had already been adapted into several anime. Assassination was a Korean movie set during the Japanese occupation in the 1930s, a mix of intrigue and action. Then came the festival’s official closing movie, the first film in the live-action adaptation of Attack on Titan.

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Cixin Liu the Superstar: How Taking a Risk on a Chinese Author Paid Off Big For Tor

Friday, September 4, 2015 John ONeill Comments 6 comments

One of the great things about science fiction conventions is getting to rub shoulders with your heroes.

Some years ago I received an advance proof of an upcoming fantasy from Bantam Spectra, just before heading to Archon in St. Louis. I threw it in my luggage, and brought it to the author’s reading. There were only seven people in the audience, so afterwards I got to have a nice chat with the author, and he graciously signed my book for me. The writer was George R.R. Martin, and the book was A Game of Thrones.

In fact, writers who will draw huge crowds in public can often be vastly more approachable at small conventions. Perhaps this is because seeing Neil Gaiman at your local library is a big deal, but hanging out with him at the bar at World Fantasy is just a lot more casual.

Of course, there are rare exceptions. There are a few writers treated like superstars, even among fellow professionals. I saw it happen when Stephen King came to my home town of Ottawa for the World Fantasy Convention in 1984, and autograph lines spontaneously formed whenever he sat down. I got in line an hour early just so I could be in the front row during his reading from The Talisman (and ended up giving up my seat anyway, just so Tabitha King wouldn’t have to stand in the back.)

And I saw it happen again in June of this year, when the hottest new writer in science fiction, Cixin Liu, author of the Three-Body trilogy (The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End), arrived in Chicago for the Nebula Awards weekend.

Mr. Liu was in making his first trip to the United States as a published author to be on hand for the presentation of the awards. His first novel in English, The Three-Body Problem, published by Tor in November of last year, was up for Best Novel.

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New Treasures: Gotham by Midnight by Ray Fawkes and Ben Templesmith

Friday, September 4, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

[Click the images for bigger versions.]

I admit I haven’t paid much attention to DC Comics popular The New 52 line (though I probably should). But I have been playing the superb Batman: Arkham Knight on the Xbox, and it’s sharpened my interest in all things Gotham-related. The tortured city of Gotham, birthplace of so much madness and obsession, is one of the great fictional cities in all of literature, and the perfect locale for a creepy supernatural series.

DC seems to think so too. The new Gotham by Midnight comic, collected in trade paperback for the first time last week, features Detective Jim Corrigan (aka The Spectre) in his own series, tackling the unusual cases that land on the Gotham City PD desk during the night shift. Spinning out of Ray Fawkes’ Batman Eternal comic, Gotham By Midnight sees Corrigan prowling the streets of Gotham, solving the unsolvable supernatural crimes that arise when monsters, ghosts and worse things leave their mark on the city. When two kidnapped girls return home unable to speak English, and changed, Corrigan and his team of supernatural sleuths follow the clues to an ancient school with a very strange curriculum. Volume One: We Do Not Sleep collects the first six issues of the comic.

Gotham by Midnight, Volume One: We Do Not Sleep was written by Ray Fawkes and drawn by Ben Templesmith, and published by DC Comics on August 25, 2015. It is 144 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback and $11.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Ben Templesmith.

Short Speculative Fiction: An August Round-Up

Friday, September 4, 2015 Learned Foote Comments 1 comment

Fantasy-and-Science-Fiction-July-August-2015-rack

Asimov's Science Fiction August 2015-rack

In this column, find recommendations for short speculative fiction from Fantasy and Science Fiction (July/August 2015), Asimov’s (August 2015), Lightspeed (August 2015), Analog (July/August 2015), and Clarkesworld (107). The Clarkesworld & Lightspeed stories are linked; the rest require a subscription.

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Like Osprey But Corsets and Khaki with a Whiff of Steampunk: Great War Fashion by Lucy Adlington

Friday, September 4, 2015 Comments 2 comments

First, take a look at the young woman on the cover, “A despatch rider in the Women’s Royal Airforce enjoying a tea break while seated on her motorcycle, 1918.”

She’s most likely in a warzone. She’s probably not had a bath for a while. Might have lice. Any men in her life have a good chance of not making it to Christmas with all their body parts, or at all. She’s living under military discipline. And, as she rides around, she might herself get blown up or strafed.

And yet, she’s smiling.

You really have to read expert fashion historian Lucy Adlington’s Great War Fashion: Tales from the History Wardrobe to truly understand why she’s smiling.

And fashion in the book’s title is an understatement. This is more the kind of thing Osprey would publish — kit, context, consequences and case study. It’s certainly less about the minutiae of stitching and fabric, and more about the clothes women wore, why, how, and what the experience was.

As promised by the subtitle, “Tales from the History Wardrobe,” it’s packed with stories from women’s original letters, diaries and reminiscences, so it takes us beyond fashion and into the evolving role of women from about 1910 through to 1920.

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Goth Chick News: Leonardo DiCaprio as Unrepentant Serial Killer… Finally

Thursday, September 3, 2015 Sue Granquist Comments 0 Comment

Nearly two years have passed since I first reported Warner Bros. continued to slog through script development on a movie version of Erik Larson’s tale of murder in the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, The Devil in the White City.

Larson’s book, which tells the twin narratives of serial killer H.H. Holmes and Daniel H. Burnham the architect behind the World Fair, was first put in development by Tom Cruise’s production company, but the option lapsed in 2004.

What then ensued was a series of various studio options, all which lapsed before the movie could get out of development hell. White City finally came to rest with Warner Bros. where it has languished for the last several years until their option also expired, resulting in an aggressive bidding war which was ultimately won this summer by Paramount.

Leonardo DiCaprio has been attached to the White City project for nearly ten years, doggedly pursuing the film since shortly after Cruise’s company lost out. DiCaprio is specifically keen to play Holmes rather than the far more likable character of Burnham, because DiCaprio wants to portray an entirely unsympathetic “bad guy.”

Holmes most certainly fits the bill.

H.H. Holmes murdered between 27 and 200 people, mostly single young women, against the backdrop of the Chicago World’s Fair. The reason the spread on the quantity of victims is so large is, due to his insidious corpse disposal methods, the exact body count was impossible to pin down. Even Holmes himself couldn’t recall the precise number, when he was finally caught, tried, and hung in 1896.

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