Black Gate – Page 773 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

Chivalry: Not Really About Opening Doors (and Still Quite a Useful Coping Strategy)

Friday, August 21, 2015 Comments 4 comments

800px-Boys_King_Arthur_-_N._C._Wyeth_-_p38 — He can’t give the lady her favor and spare the other man. What’s he going to do?

So, Lancelot is fighting this knight who insulted him. A few blows in and the rude fellow is on his knees: “Mercy, Sir Lancelot!”

Sir Lancelot stays his hand. He always grants mercy when asked.

However, before he can help the other chap to his feet, a lady rides up. “Lancelot! I beg you a favor.”

“OK…,” says Lancelot. He also always grants favors to damsels.

“Give me that knight’s head! He slew my sister.”

Lancelot frowns. Now he’s caught between two imperatives.

He can’t give the lady her favor and spare the other man.

What’s he going to do?

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August 2015 Lightspeed Magazine Now on Sale

Friday, August 21, 2015 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

This month Lightspeed has original fantasy from Sam J. Miller and Genevieve Valentine, and fantasy reprints by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Ursula Pflug, plus science fiction by Chen Qiufan, Sarah Pinsker, Vandana Singh and Vylar Kaftan. Plus their usual assortment of author and artist spotlights, book reviews, and a feature interview with author Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day, The Buried Giant).

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

Fantasy

“To See Pedro Infante” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (from Love and Other Poisons, 2014)
“Given the Advantage of the Blade” by Genevieve Valentine
“Python” by Ursula Pflug (from Album Zutique, No. 1, 2003)
“Ghosts of Home” by Sam J. Miller (available on 8/25)

Science Fiction

“The Smog Society” by Chen Qiufan. Translated by Ken Liu.
“Life-pod” by Vandana Singh (from Foundation, #100 Summer 2007)
“And We Were Left Darkling” by Sarah Pinsker
“Civilization” by Vylar Kaftan (from Glorifying Terrorism, February 2007; available on 8/25)

Readers of the eBook version also get a reprint of the novella “Equinoctial” by John Varley, along with excerpts from the recent novels Zero World by Jason M. Hough and Finches of Mars by Brian W. Aldiss.

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Goth Chick News: New (Horror) Treasures – Star Wars Screenwriter Gives Us an Abomination

Thursday, August 20, 2015 Sue Granquist Comments 2 comments

By anyone’s standards, writer Gary Whitta is having one heck of a good time.

Whitta was best known (at least until now) for his original screenplay for The Book of Eli, the post-apocalyptic thriller starring Denzel Washington and as the co-writer for the Will Smith sci-fi movie After Earth.

Clearly no one held him personally responsible for the outcome of that last bit, which is why he went on to spend a year knocking out a draft screenplay for the upcoming Star Wars standalone film Rogue One, which will be released in December, 2016; a project with which he amicably parted ways in January to move onto the movie adaptation of the Mark Millar comic Starlight for 20th Century Fox.

Somewhere along the line, Whitta had the time and creative energy to finish his first novel, Abomination – released on July 30th. And though his screen work has been straight up fantasy/science fiction, Whitta did significant historical research for his freshman literary outing, with pretty spectacular results.

Abomination takes us back in time as King Alfred the Great desperately tries to bulwark his kingdom from invading Viking forces. Desperate for a solution, he turns to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has uncovered an ancient secret in the form of a dark magic that could help turn the tide in England’s favor. Nothing comes without a price, though, and soon the Archbishop is driven mad with power, corrupted by the very forces intended to save the kingdom. With an insane priest on the loose, Alfred must turn to his bravest warrior, the knight Sir Wulfric, in order to put an end to the Archbishop’s insanity before it’s too late.

The period in which the book is set, 888 A.D., actually saw a significant drop in written recordings of events. It is that gap in history that lends itself to much speculation, which Whitta takes full advantage of in his story; claiming that those who witnessed its inconceivable horrors purposely concealed the truth from future generations.

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Fantastic, June 1965: A Retro-Review

Thursday, August 20, 2015 Rich Horton Comments 3 comments

At last I return to an issue of Fantastic from the Cele Lalli era. Indeed, this is the very last issue of the Cele Lalli era.

The June issues of Amazing and Fantastic were the last published by Ziff-Davis. They were sold to Sol Cohen’s Ultimate Publishing, and resumed appearing as bimonthlies with the August Amazing and then the September Fantastic.

At this time they began publishing mostly reprints, drawing on the huge library of stories published originally in Amazing and Fantastic, for which they had, legally, unlimited reprint rights. (Eventually Cohen was forced or shamed into paying a small fee.)

Perhaps because this is the last issue before the transfer to new ownership, there are no features: no interior art, no book review, no editorial, nothing. The cover is by Gray Morrow, never a favorite of mine, illustrating Roger Zelazny’s “Thelinde’s Song.”

Click the image at left for a bigger version.

I don’t like it much – the color is a muddy red, and the menaced virgin on the altar isn’t very attractive. (Shallow of me, I know, but there you are!)

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The mid-August Fantasy Magazine Rack

Thursday, August 20, 2015 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

We’ve added no less than three magazines to our coverage in August, and a fine mix of new titles it is: Tyree Campbell’s space opera/magic opera Outposts of Beyond, pulp reprint zine Science Fiction Classics, and the splendid Digest Enthusiast, devoted to vintage and contemporary genre digest magazines. That brings the number of magazines we cover regularly up to 30, which should be more than enough to keep you busy.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our early 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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Vintage Treasures: The Man of Gold by M.A.R. Barker

Thursday, August 20, 2015 John ONeill Comments 15 comments

I remember exactly where I was when I learned M.A.R. Barker had died. I was at the games auction at Gary Con IV on Saturday, March 24th, 2012, when Luke Gygax solemnly paid tribute to the industry giants we’d lost that last year — and he announced that M.A.R. Barker, the brilliant creator of the world of Tékumel, had passed away at the age of 82. When I got home that night, the first thing I did was write an obituary for Black Gate, honoring the man who’d done so much for the hobby.

Tékumel was a unique creation in fantasy gaming. It was home to one of the earliest RPGs ever written, Empire of the Petal Throne, published by TSR in 1975, and later a series of well-received fantasy novels by Barker, beginning with The Man of Gold, published by DAW with a marvelous cover by Michael Whelan in 1984.

Tékumel is a distant world populated by both humans and aliens, who have built a vast and intricate civilization over thousands of years. Ruled by the upper clans of the land, the planet’s culture is based upon the teachings of gods and demons, upon the ways and wiles of alien races, and upon the layered traditions of monarchs ancient and current. Tékumel is an exquisitely detailed world where surprise and adventure are as natural as night and day.

The Man of Gold is the first novel based on the Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne RPG. Follow the quest of Harsan, acolyte of the temple of Thumis, as he ventures forth to seek a forgotten empire’s super weapon known only as the Man of Gold.

Tékumel has been revisited many times by talented game creators over the decades, and is now the setting for multiple game systems.

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Sample All Ten of Tor.com‘s Upcoming Novellas With Their Fall 2015 Sampler

Wednesday, August 19, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

I’m very excited to see that Tor.com has made an impressive commitment to a distinctive new line of premium novellas coming out this fall. It’s not just that I love novellas — these books really look terrific.

These are short novels, ranging in size from 96 to 224 pages, and all are available in trade paperback for around $12.99, or in digital format for just $2.99 each. The line includes a great mix of established authors — including folks we’ve discussed enthusiastically here at Black Gate, like Daniel Polansky (Low Town), Michael R. Underwood (Shield and Crocus), Paul Cornell (London Falling), and Nnedi Okorafor (Who Fears Death) — and some exciting new discoveries. Tor.com has just released a free sample of all ten books in their Fall 2015 Sampler. It’s available now through multiple outlets. Check it out!

You can now download a free ebook sampler that will give you an exclusive sneak peek at all ten of our Fall novellas. Featuring authors such as Kai Ashante Wilson, Nnedi Okorafor, K. J. Parker, Daniel Polansky, and many more, this sampler contains exciting new fantasy worlds, harrowing science fiction adventures, stolen memories, edible angels, and talking salamanders. Download the sampler now from Amazon or iBooks. (A Barnes & Noble link will be available soon!)

We’ve previously covered two upcoming titles in the Tor.com fall catalog, Alter S. Reiss’s Sunset Mantle and Kai Ashante Wilson’s The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, and we’ll be covering more in the coming weeks. All ten will be available globally in ebook for $2.99 US/CAN, trade paperback, and audio format. See the complete catalog of upcoming novellas at Tor.com.

A Medieval Birthday Cake

Wednesday, August 19, 2015 Sean McLachlan Comments 4 comments

Photo courtesy Philip Cresswell

I’m halfway to 92, and being a crotchety old fart I don’t have a proper post for you this week. So here’s a photo of yours truly enjoying a medieval gingerbread birthday cake cooked by a good friend of mine. The recipe comes courtesy of The Society for the History of Medieval Technology and Science.

This and other recipes were the subject of a talk by Caroline Yeldham, an expert on historic cookery. The recipe is below. Be warned it makes quite a lot so you might want to cut down the quantities. The end result is rich and tasty and you don’t have to eat much to fill you up. It’s also quite gingery. Is that a word?

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New Treasures: Professor Challenger: New Worlds, Lost Places, edited by J.R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec

Wednesday, August 19, 2015 John ONeill Comments 6 comments

Professor Challenger is one of the great explorer-heroes of the genre. Created by Arthur Conan Doyle in his 1912 novel The Lost World, Challenger also appeared in The Poison Belt and The Land of Mist, and a pair of short stories. Now editors J.R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec have assembled a brand new collection of exciting tales featuring the irrepressible Professor Challenger, with contributions from Mark Morris, Stephen Volk, Guy Adams and James Goss, Black Gate blogger Josh Reynolds, and many others.

Brilliant, belligerent and bearded in equal measure, incapable of suffering fools, or journalists, gladly, the greatest scientific mind of his generation — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Professor George Edward Challenger — returns in ten all-new tales of scientific adventure and wonder. He is the discoverer of The Lost World, the prophet of The Poison Belt, the destroyer of The Disintegration Machine, and the man who made the World Scream! Who can deliver mankind from the shackles of ignorance? Who else but that great self-proclaimed champion of science? We give you, ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, the one, the only, Professor George Edward Challenger!

This original anthology, from the authors and editors who brought you the Gaslight Sherlock Holmes series, sees Challenger and his stalwart company including the reporter Malone, big game hunter Lord John Roxton and the skeptical colleague Professor Summerlee, travel across space and witness the ravages of time, narrowly eluding a dinosaur’s bite only to battle against the invasive red bloom of alien foliage, then plunge deep into the mysteries hidden within the Earth and reach out to the moon and into the heart of the unknown. Strap yourself in for chills, thrills and challenges to the unknown in exciting new worlds and lost places with literature’s foremost scientific adventurer.

Professor Challenger: New Worlds, Lost Places was edited by J.R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec and published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing on August 15, 2015. It is 250 pages, priced at $15.95 in trade paperback, and $5.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Dave Elsey.

538 Blog Reports Crowdfunding Is Driving A $196 Million Board Game Renaissance

Wednesday, August 19, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Nate Silver’s popular 538 blog, known mostly for astute political analysis, often takes a hard look at other industries, and yesterday Oliver Roeder examined the recent explosive growth in crowdfunding for board games. His examples include Conan (which we covered here,) Reaper Miniatures, Dwarven Forge, and the break-out hit Exploding Kittens, which exceeded its campaign goal in eight minutes and set a record for most backers in Kickstarter history, raising $8,782,571 from 219,382 backers.

Luke Crane is Kickstarter’s in-house board game expert and resident dungeon master. He sees Kickstarter as the latest in a series of board and card gaming milestones. Dungeons & Dragons, first published in 1974, crystallized role-play gaming. Magic: The Gathering, which debuted in 1993 and became a smash hit, spawned countless expansions and still boasts a competitive professional circuit. The Settlers of Catan, and its first English-language edition in 1996, gave many their first taste of German board gaming kultur. That game has sold over 15 million copies.

And then, in mid-2009, Kickstarter launched.

Since that debut, pledges to board and card game projects on the site have totaled $196 million, according to the company. Ninety-three percent of that money went to successful projects — those that reached their fundraising goal. For comparison, pledges to video game projects, including hardware and mobile games, have totaled $179 million. Of that, 85 percent went to ultimately successful projects. On Kickstarter, analog is beating digital.

Read the complete article here.