Black Gate – Page 807 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

May 2015 Nightmare Magazine Now on Sale

Saturday, May 30, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

The May issue of the online magazine Nightmare is now available.

Fiction this month includes original short stories from Kealan Patrick Burke and Sandra McDonald, and reprints from Kaaron Warren and Stephen Graham Jones:

Original Stories

“The Red Light is Blinking” by Kealan Patrick Burke
“Rules for Ordinary Heroes” by Sandra McDonald

Reprints

“Mountain” by Kaaron Warren (from Through Splintered Walls, 2012)
“Raphael” by Stephen Graham Jones (from Cemetery Dance #55, 2006)

The non-fiction this issue includes the latest installment in their long-running horror column, “The H Word,” plus author spotlights, a showcase on cover artist Vitaly Alexius, and a feature interview with Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement winner William F. Nolan.

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Future Treasures: The Chart of Tomorrows by Chris Willrich

Saturday, May 30, 2015 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Chris Willrich is one of the shining stars of modern sword & sorcery. His story “The Lions of Karthagar,” set in the world of Gaunt and Bone, appeared in the last issue of Black Gate. Forrest Aguirre, author of Heraclix and Pomp, reviewed the story on his blog:

I was also impressed by “The Lions of Karthagar,” by Chris Willrich. The main characters in this tale, the Weatherworkers Blim the Damp and Miy Who Sing Storms, whose friendship develops against the background of an invasion of an incredibly rich country by their armies, each of which seeks to take possession of the golden land. Poetic and even touching, this story tugged at my emotions like most Sword and Sorcery does not.

Chris’s heroes Gaunt and Bone have appeared in five stories published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Beneath Ceaseless Skies (including the novelette “The Sword of Loving Kindness,” which you can read for free at BCS here).

But they have gained serious attention recently with the publication of two novels, The Scroll of Years (2013) and The Silk Map (2014), both from Pyr. Of the former, BiblioSanctum said, “I cannot remember the last time I came across a book like this. Highly recommended for readers of fantasy who love a good action-adventure tale.”

Now the third novel featuring Gaunt and Bone is set to be published in early July by Pyr. In The Chart of Tomorrows, the two find their plans to retire interrupted when their son becomes the chosen vessel of a powerful spirit…

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The Novels of Tanith Lee: Tales From the Flat Earth

Saturday, May 30, 2015 John ONeill Comments 11 comments

We’re continuing with our look at the monumental 40-year career of Tanith Lee, who died last week. We started with The Wars of Vis trilogy, and today we continue with her most acclaimed fantasy series, Tales From the Flat Earth.

I say “most acclaimed” because — in addition to the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Mythopoeic, and Balrog award nominations these books have accumulated over the years — in the Comments section of her obituary, this series was called “the towering pinnacle” (by Joe Hoopman), “towering legend” (by John R. Fultz), “my faves” (by Arin Komins), and “engrossing” (by rrm). It’s a small sample of fandom, but a compelling one. In my experience, Black Gate readers know what they’re talking about.

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Short Speculative Fiction: A May Roundup

Friday, May 29, 2015 Learned Foote Comments 2 comments

Fantasy and Science Fiction May June 2015-small2

So much short fiction to recommend! As with my debut column, this one will focus on speculative stories, novellas and novelettes, with a sci-fi emphasis, and dabbling into fantasy and horror. This column covers the month of May, and a novella published in February. Sources for this month’s list of awesome stories include Lightspeed (Issue 60, May 2015), Clarkesworld (Issue 104, May 2015), and Fantasy and Science Fiction (May/June 2015), as well as a novella published by April Moon Books. The magazines can be purchased for between $1 – $7.95, and the novella’s available for $3 in electronic format.

I only managed to review a brief selection of the many wonderful stories that appeared in May 2015, and I’m eager to know what other readers enjoyed: what they liked from this list, and what’s missing.

Onward to the stories:

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New Treasures: Michael Moorcock’s The Chronicles of Corum from Titan Books

Friday, May 29, 2015 John ONeill Comments 4 comments

I was talking about The Chronicles of Corum, which Fletcher Vredenburgh calls “the most intense and beautiful books” in Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series, in a Vintage Treasures post recently. I was unaware at the time that Titan Books was planning to reprint the entire series in high quality trade paperback editions. If I was, I wouldn’t have spent all that time and money tracking down the 1987 Grafton paperback.

The first, The Knight of the Swords, was published on May 5th. The other five will be released over the next five months, as follows.

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Eight Barbarian Body Building (3B) Tips

Friday, May 29, 2015 mariebilodeau Comments 4 comments

Luke would be more buff if he wasn't such a tauntaun riding wuss. — Luke would be more buff if he weren’t such a tauntaun riding wuss.

It’s beach season! In the frozen north where I live, we’re currently shedding our polar bear and Sasquatch skins to show off our tummies once again! Except, after six months of trudging through snowdrifts and blizzards, our thighs may be tree trunks of victory, but our abs have lost that chainmail bikini flattering glory.

Fear not, there is hope. Here are some tips for fighting off that winter bulge!

Chase Down a Pack of Wild Wolves

Nothing will get you sweating faster than chasing down wild canines, especially when they turn on you and you have to fight them off with nothing but your wit and might. Make sure to pack your wit or, failing that, lots of sharp steeled might.

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May 2015 Locus Magazine Now on Sale

Friday, May 29, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

I had a subscription to Locus magazine for over 20 years. It was the only magazine I decided I couldn’t live without the year I moved to Belgium, and I paid the exorbitant fees to have my copies mailed overseas every month (and then I paid a small fortune to American Airlines to ship all those issues back to the states when I flew home).

When I was unemployed for three months in 2012, I decided I’d have to cancel at least one of my magazine subscriptions. I noticed that the last nine months of Locus were stacked by my desk, still in their protective mailing wrappers, unopened and unread. Reluctantly, I decided to cancel Locus.

I’m sure you can guess what happened next. I bought an issue of Locus the next time I went to the newsstand. And I started reading it again. I pick up the latest issue, without fail, every month. It costs me more than a subscription…. but hey, I figure, at least this way I’m reading this issues.

Locus is called the Newsmagazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Field, and that description is entirely accurate. Every issue is packed with news, reviews, photos, interviews, gossip, convention reports, list of upcoming releases, news on other magazines, and a ton more. It can take you a very long time to read an issue cover to cover (I know — that’s the way I read them.)

The May issue includes a detailed breakdown of the 2015 Hugo controversy (including a long quote from Yours Truly — the first time I can recall being quoted in Locus), reports on the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts and Norwescon 38, interviews with Ken Liu (The Grace of Kings) and Nnedi Okorafor (Who Fears Death), entertaining short fiction reviews from Gardner Dozois and Rich Horton, plenty of books reviews, and a lot more. See the complete Table of Contents here.

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Goth Chick News: World War Z Rages On…

Thursday, May 28, 2015 Sue Granquist Comments 0 Comment

It definitely would have been a very good scoop to have landed back at C2E2. Then again, I might have been too busy having a fan girl swoon to have caught on anyway.

Earlier this month I had the chance to chat with Max Brooks, author of one of my favorite novels, World War Z. At the time I pressed him as much as I dared on the topic of a sequel as it seemed to be a rather touchy subject. Brooks stated he’d do it when the spirit moved him to and not a moment before.

This week I learned two things – first, something has definitely moved Brooks, and second, a possible reason why the topic of a follow up story might have been a tad touchy at the time I asked about it.

Paramount Pictures has just set a release date for the sequel to World War Z, effectively ending speculation, and Max Brooks is on board as one of the writers.

Granted, we’ve been hearing rumors about this for some time. In spite of the original production being plagued by so many problems it came close to being scrapped, World War Z ultimately became a blockbuster hit ($540M worldwide) and is in fact considered the highest grossing film in Brad Pitt’s career.

As Pitt not only starred in but produced the original film via his Plan B production company, it seemed inevitable that Paramount would green light a follow up at some point.

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Review: Three Fictional Non-Fiction Books from Osprey

Thursday, May 28, 2015 Comments 2 comments

Kurtzhau – aged 11 – squees. “It’s got all the tropes. They’ve obviously read Scott Westerfield…!”

I’ve just unpacked Osprey’s Steampunk Soldiers: Uniforms and Weapons from the Age of Steam, one of three review copies acquired as a result of me ruthlessly parlaying a short story gig – Frostgrave tabletop game, coming soon, it rocks – into a pipeline of ~~free~~ books to review.

OK — Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! — moral hazard! Integrity in heroic book reviewing! Disclaimer! I wrote a short story for Osprey. I’d love to write a book for them. However, the reason I want to do all this is because Osprey rock. So bearing that in mind, read on.

Steampunk Cover — “…got *all* the tropes!”

I received three books from Osprey.

Steampunk, The Wars of Atlantis (coming July 21) and Orc Warfare (coming June 23).

They are odd.

Not as odd as the stand of Osprey books I once spotted in a local store…. It turned out that the manager of the History Department hated the books and would only reorder to fill gaps created by sales.

When the stand first went up, the military history gannets swooped and grabbed all the Templars/Waffen SS at War type books, and everything else with tanks and siege machines on the cover, leaving only the 10% of weird nerdy titles like German Civilian Police 1935-45, and Swiss Catering Corps 1866 (I made that one up).

So the manager filled the resulting gap with a random selection of books. 10% of these were yet more nerdy titles that did not sell. Fast forward a couple of years, and you have stand of possibly the most odd but boring military history titles in history.

Great, though, if you want to know about 19^th century West Swabian Militia Civilian Servant Uniforms…

These books, in contrast, are odd, but not boring odd. They are odd because they are entirely made up and aimed squarely at tabletop gamers, without committing to a particular system.

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A Modest Proposal to Improve the Hugos

Thursday, May 28, 2015 Rich Horton Comments 5 comments

In thinking about the recent unpleasantness (regarding the Hugo ballot, I mean), it occurred to me that one source of the issues with the Hugos right now has nothing much to do with slates or bloc voting or Sad Puppies or Social Justice Warriors or even taste (that much). It is simply this: there are a lot more SF stories published now than there were in the past. That makes it really hard for any reader to even come close to reading them all – something that was quite possible, I am told, back in the 1960s. I can testify: I used to try very hard to read every SF story that came my way, and there were years I read over 2000 stories. And every year I missed hundreds, at least, and some of those very good.

In a way this is one function of ballots and shortlists (and, indeed, recommendation lists): to try to condense the mass of stories published each year to a manageable set of the “the best.” My Best of the Year anthology every year serves that function (secondarily – the main function is to give readers a great book to read). So does, for instance, the Locus Recommended Reading list. But even there, note that our lists are by no means inclusive. Indeed, I signal that (as do other Best of the Year editors like Gardner Dozois and Ellen Datlow) by including a long list or recommended stories in addition to those in my book. And the Locus list is painstakingly cut from a much longer list of recommendations by all the contributors – a list that highlights the problem I cite, as all of us realize that our fellow recommenders have seen outstanding stories we have missed.

Though, I ask myself, why do I use the word “problem?” Surely it is a feature, not a bug, that there are so many stories published each year that are worthy of our attention? Indeed it is, but a result of that, I feel, is that if we want the Hugos to represent the very best stories of the year, we are failing, in the sense that it’s easier than before for a great story to slip under the radar.

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