Black Gate – Page 769 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

Discovering Robert E. Howard: Pigeons From Hell From Lovecraft by Don Herron

Wednesday, August 12, 2015 Bob Byrne Comments 4 comments

Before the Cumberbunnies took over and flooded the internet with “I heart Sherlock” memes, the term ‘Sherlockian’ referred to those who studied (and often wrote about) Arthur Conan Doyle’s sixty stories of Sherlock Holmes. Some of it was dead serious, some was tongue in cheek and much was in between. Monsignor Ronald Knox’s 1921 “Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes” is the cornerstone of Holmes studies.

With that, I tell you that that Don Herron is THE Ronald Knox of Robert E. Howard. “Conan vs. Conantics” and the ensuing “The Dark Barbarian” showed that Howard could be analyzed and treated as literature. As well as something to stir up debate! If you haven’t read the over-600 page essay collection, “The Dark Barbarian That Towers Over All,” you need to pony up $4.99 and get the kindle version now.

And with that, Herron, who is also a noted expert on Dashiell Hammett (this man knows good writing) is going to treat you to a little Howardiana regarding REH’s most chilling horror story, “Pigeons From Hell.”

Recently I did a reread on H. P. Lovecraft’s Fungi from Yuggoth sonnet cycle and had a Hey, Wait a Minute moment. . .

Deep into his follow-up book to A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos, John D. Haefele had asked me to look the poems over. Haefele is surveying Lovecraft’s Great Tales — not just the top achievements, but how the fiction developed as it went along, leading to the break-out stories — not just Lovecraft’s own writing, but how his discoveries of authors such as Robert W. Chambers and Arthur Machen and the ongoing cross-influences of his fellow pulpsters such as Frank Belknap Long, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E. Howard display in the ongoing saga that would become known as the Cthulhu Mythos.

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July Issue of Swords and Sorcery Magazine Now Available

Tuesday, August 11, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Issue 42 of Curtis Ellett’s Swords and Sorcery Magazine, cover-dated July 2015, was published at the end of July. Each issue of Swords and Sorcery contains two short stories, and is available free online. This issue includes new fiction from Jeremy Harper and Gerry Huntman.

In “Without Sin”, by Jeremy Harper, Dorian Valentine, the ghost queller, assists an aspiring priestess with a final task of mercy for her dying uncle, who has never shown any. Harper has written two previous Dorian Valentine stories, both published in Lore. He has previously had non-fiction published in Swords & Sorcery.

In “Harsh Is the Light”, by Gerry Huntman, an aging warlord confronts his enemies, and the pain in his own past. Huntman has published many stories, including “Husks” in Swords & Sorcery in February 2014.

Read the current issue here. We last covered Swords and Sorcery Magazine with Issue #41.

Swords and Sorcery Magazine is edited by Curtis Ellett, and is available free online. Fletcher Vredenburgh reviewed issue #41 in his June Short Story Roundup.

See our August Fantasy Magazine Rack here, and all of our recent magazine coverage here.

Announcing the 2015 Gemmell Award Winners

Tuesday, August 11, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

The winners of the 2015 Gemmell Awards have been announced by the David Gemmell Legend Award administrators (the DGLA). May we have the envelope please!

The DGLA gives out three awards each year: the David Gemmell Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel, the Morningstar Award for Best Debut Novel, and the Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art.

The winners are:

Legend Award (Best Novel)

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz)

Morningstar Award (Best Debut Novel)

The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Stavely (Pan Macmillan/Tor UK)

Ravenheart Award (Best Cover Art)

Sam Green for the UK cover of Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz)

The David Gemmell Legend Award is a fan-voted award administered by the DGLA. The Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel was first granted in 2009, and has now been awarded seven times.

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New Treasures: His Father’s Eyes by David B. Coe

Tuesday, August 11, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

David B. Coe’s adventure fantasy tale “Night of Two Moons” appeared in Black Gate 4. His three-book LonTobyn Chronicle (1997-2000) and five-volume Winds of the Forelands series (2002-07) were both published by Tor. He currently has two series on the go — under the name D.B. Jackson he writes the Thieftaker Chronicles, a historical urban fantasy, and under his own name he writes The Case Files of Justis Fearsson, a contemporary urban fantasy featuring a hardboiled, magic-using private detective.

His Father’s Eyes, the second book in The Case Files of Justis Fearsson, in which Fearsson faces off against dark sorcerers in Phoenix, Arizona, was released earlier this month by Baen Books.

Justis Fearsson is a weremyste. He wields potent magic, but every month, on the full moon, he loses his mind. He’s also a private detective, who can’t afford to take time off from his latest investigation while his sanity goes AWOL.

A legion of dark sorcerers has descended on Phoenix, wreaking havoc in the blistering desert heat. With the next moon phasing approaching, Jay has to figure out what connects a billionaire financier and a vicious drug kingpin to an attempted terrorist attack, a spate of ritual killings, and the murder of a powerful runemyste. And he has to do it fast. Because these same dark sorcerers have nearly killed the woman he loves and have used their spells to torment Jay’s father. Now they have Jay in their crosshairs, and with his death they intend to extend their power over the entire magicking world. But Jay has other plans, and no intention of turning his city, or those he loves, over to the enemy.

David’s most recent blog post for Black Gate, in which he discusses the ongoing Hugo Award controversy, was Enough, Part II.

The Case Files of Justis Fearsson began with Spell Blind (2014). His Father’s Eyes was published by Baen on August 4, 2015. It is 320 pages, priced at $25 in hardcover and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Alan Pollack. Read more — including a lengthy excerpt — at the Baen website.

Starvation Cheap & Primeval Thule

Tuesday, August 11, 2015 Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones Comments 4 comments

Two Kickstarters that any adventure gamer should be involved with are ending in the next few days, and it’s long past time to call attention to them. Both might be of interest to writers as well, simply because the people behind them have created past efforts crammed with wonderful world-building and the tools for inspiring the same from their readers.

I’m referring to Sine Nomine’s Starvation Cheap Kickstarter, and Sasquatch Games’ Primeval Thule 5E Kickstarter. First up, because it’s over sooner, is Starvation Cheap.

Kevin Crawford IS Sine Nomine, the creative genius behind a whole raft of wonderful old school gaming products that can easily be plugged into modern games. From the start, everything he’s been involved with has been top-notch. You might have heard of Stars Without Number, or perhaps Silent Legions, or any number of others that came from his fertile imagination. Layout and art are excellent, and so is editing (something you never notice unless it’s bad) but all of this fades into the background when you read the text and realize just how clever and inventive it all is. If you don’t believe me, download this free (also free of art) version of Stars Without Number and look at all the great world and setting generation tables. Story ideas just pop off of every page.

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The Speed Of Dark: Paksennarion vs. Autism

Monday, August 10, 2015 markrigney Comments 4 comments

While wandering the aisles of Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon – the kind of store that first leaves my jaw on the floor, then leaves my irises doing swirls straight out of an animated Warner Brothers short – I found myself in the Fantasy & Sci-Fi aisle.

Can’t imagine how that happened. Especially when my shopping list could also have led me to Photography, Sports (Tennis), Literature, Horror (Anthologies), and “Unisex Apparel.” Suffice it to say that I wound up face to face with my old buddy, Elizabeth Moon. Plenty of space opera on those shelves, sure, but also the various editions of the trilogy that made her name, her Deed Of Paksennarion series, together with the two less popular follow-ups, Surrender None and Liar’s Oath.

Then came the surprises. Turns out, Ms. Moon has resurrected Paks’s world, and some few of the characters from the various Paksennarion books in Oath Of Fealty, Kings Of the North, etc.

I was sorely tempted. I was. But in the end, I decided to let my fond memories remain exactly that: fond memories. As books with second-world settings go, and especially of the sword-swinging variety, I rate the Paksennarion trilogy very highly indeed, and as for Surrender None, well, I flat out love it.

The risk of spoiling all those warm recollections was just too great.

Even so, I would have picked up one of those newer titles – risk be damned, you only live once – but then I chanced upon a Moon title that didn’t seem to fit with her other work. The cover was different, for one thing. Not illustrative. Conceptual. No high fantasy or space opera here. No, indeed. But it had to be speculative fiction of some sort, since this unlikely loner of a book, The Speed Of Dark, had won the 2004 Nebula Award.

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Fantasia Diary 2015, Day 6: The Arti: The Adventure Begins, Director’s Commentary: Terror of Frankenstein, (T)ERROR, and I Am Thor

Monday, August 10, 2015 Matthew David Surridge Comments 2 comments

The Arti Some days at the Fantasia Festival I find a common theme among the movies I see. And some days I don’t. Sometimes the day’s movies are simply a wonderfully strange mix of things each wonderfully strange in themselves. Bearing that in mind, let’s jump into what I saw on Sunday, July 19.

I started at the Hall Theatre with the Chinese puppet wuxia film The Arti. After that, I had lunch and went to the De Sève Theatre to watch Director’s Commentary: Terror of Frankenstein, which took a real movie from the 1970s and gave it a new audio track in the form of a fictional “director’s commentary” that slowly revealed the “truth” of what had happened behind the scenes of the film. After that I stuck around to watch (T)ERROR, a documentary about FBI informants in the United States. Then went back to the Hall to watch a completely different documentary, I Am Thor, about Canadian bodybuilder and veteran rock’n’roller Jon Mikl Thor. It made for a full but wildly varied day.

The Arti: The Adventure Begins is a fantasy adventure set in the time of the Han dynasty (I can’t find voice credits, or a version of the original title transliterated into Roman; this source gives it as 奇人密碼, or “eccentric person secret.” Here’s the film’s web site, if you’re interested). Years ago, an inventor created a wooden robot, Arti-C, powered by a mysterious force called The Origin. As the film opens, he’s dead and Arti-C’s energy’s running down — but the inventor’s son and daughter, Mo and Tong, are trying to fix him. They travel to a legendary city on the Silk Road, where they sign Arti-C up for a martial arts tournament, join forces with a thief and an idealistic prince, and find themselves involved with a war against the mysterious desert-dwelling Lop people and their strange magic.

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The Great Serialization Experiment: The Lay of the Land

Monday, August 10, 2015 mariebilodeau Comments 6 comments

Serializing stories is an old art form, from the penny dreadfuls to Charles Dickens. Even Robert E. Howard serialized a few stories in Weird Tales. I recently decided to serialize a novel and, over the next few posts, I’ll share lessons learned. As I tend to leap without looking and landing on thistles, I typically learn a lot of lessons (woo?)

My first serialization, composed of one storyline over five short releases (15-20,000 words each), did well. Released from January to June 2015, it hit bestselling status in Canada, U.S.A., and a few other spots like Italy. It grew my fan base dramatically, which I assume is good for future sales (either that, or they’re waiting to warn people off my next book. Well played, Internet. Well played.) Am I living off this book? Um, no. But I’ve bought many a fine meal with it. And I still have plans to continue growing the series.

But first, the beginning.

Basic Economics (or, Eating is Fun and Good)

A year ago, when I left my full time job to focus on my storytelling (think bard) and writing careers, I wanted to look at different ways of maximizing sales. Because, dear friends, money buys food and every time I try to organize a raid on the supermarket or on my neighbor’s vegetable garden, I’m rather quickly reminded that those activities are not only illegal, they are even frowned upon. Since that societal penchant spoiled my plans for eating, an activity I’ve grown quite fond of, I had to come up with alternative methods. I’m lucky because storytelling offers me a scalable means of making money (tell story, make money. Tell more stories, make more money. Tell no story, get arrested for raiding neighbor’s garden). But writing has a longer term potential of continuous revenue, which is extremely appealing to those of us who eat every day.

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Future Treasures: Dungeons & Dragons: Out of the Abyss

Monday, August 10, 2015 John ONeill Comments 8 comments

For all the accolades and buzz for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, there have been shockingly few releases supporting the game. Beyond the core rulebooks (published 12 months ago now), Wizards of the Coast has published only two adventures, one accessory, and a DM’s screen:

Hoard of the Dragon Queen (Adventure, August 2014)
The Rise of Tiamat (Adventure, November)
Dungeon Master’s Screen (January)
Princes of the Apocalypse (Accessory, April)

So I was very pleased to see another major item on the publishing schedule: Out of the Abyss, a massive 256-page Underdark adventure for characters of levels 1–15.

The Underdark is a subterranean wonderland, a vast and twisted labyrinth where fear reigns. It is the home of horrific monsters that have never seen the light of day. It is here that the dark elf Gromph Baenre, Archmage of Menzoberranzan, casts a foul spell meant to ignite a magical energy that suffuses the Underdark and tears open portals to the demonic Abyss. What steps through surprises even him, and from that moment on, the insanity that pervades the Underdark escalates and threatens to shake the Forgotten Realms to its foundations. Stop the madness before it consumes you!

The next release on the schedule is Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, an accessory that ties into the highly anticipated Sword Coast Legends computer RPG coming out next month. It arrives in November.

Out of the Abyss will be published by Wizards of the Coast on September 15, 2015. It is 256 pages, priced at $49.95 in hardcover. There is no digital edition.

Cover Reveal: Howard Andrew Jones’ Pathfinder Tales: Beyond the Pool of Stars

Monday, August 10, 2015 John ONeill Comments 7 comments

We’ve received a lot of inquiries about Howard Andrew Jones’ third Pathfinder Tales novel, Beyond the Pool of Stars. It will be released by Tor Books on October 6, and we’ll be telling you more about it over the next two months. But in the meantime, here’s a glimpse at the gorgeous cover art by Tyler Jacobson (click for bigger version). Beyond the Pool of Stars is a fantastical adventure of deep-water danger and unlikely alliances set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. It follows Plague of Shadows and Stalking the Beast, but is a completely standalone adventure. Read more at Howard’s website, and stay tuned as we reveal more over the next few weeks.