Here at Black Gate, we take great pride in our meticulous research, passionate reporting, and thoughtful analysis, especially on fantasy writers who are being criminally overlooked.

None of that stuff gets read, of course. What does get read? Articles like Nick Ozment’s “An Experiment in Gor: What Are John Norman’s Books About, Really?”, the runaway most popular post at Black Gate last month — by a wide margin. We love our readers, but boy, are you ever predictable. (Also: Ozment! Five more Gor articles, on my desk by Friday. Chop chop!)

Those of you who weren’t reading Nick’s Gor piece were enjoying Sean McLachlan’s ghost writing expose, “The New Pulp Era: Ghostwriting, Ebooks, and the Economics of Now,” and Fletcher Vredenburgh’s essay on “Horror and Swords & Sorcery.” Rounding out the Top Five were Violette Malan’s “My Top Ten Novel-to-Movie Adaptations,” and Bob Byrne’s gaming post “Modular: Eye of the Beholder – The Art of Dungeons & Dragons.”

Our report on winning our first World Fantasy Award came in at #6, followed by Bob’s Modular piece on the new Swords & Wizardry Kickstarter. Coming in at #8 was Harold Page’s review of Jason Thompson’s graphic novel The Dream-Quest of the Unknown Kadath & Other Stories.

Closing out the Top Ten were John DeNardo and his Savory Selection of Science Fiction and Fantasy for October, and an entry in Bob Byrne’s other popular column series, “The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Milton F. Perry’s ‘Harry S. Truman, Sherlockian’.”

The complete list of Top Articles for October follows. Below that, I’ve also broken out the most popular overall articles, online fiction, and blog categories for the month.

The Top 50 Black Gate posts in October were:

1. An Experiment in Gor: What Are John Norman’s Books About, Really?
2. The New Pulp Era: Ghostwriting, Ebooks, and the Economics of Now
3. Horror and Swords & Sorcery
4. My Top Ten Novel-to-Movie Adaptations
5. Modular: Eye of the Beholder – The Art of Dungeons & Dragons
6. Black Gate Wins World Fantasy Award
7. Modular: Swords & Wizardry Complete Kickstarter Explodes
8. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands Via Graphic Novel: Jason Thompson’s The Dream-Quest of the Unknown Kadath & Other Stories
9. John DeNardo’s Savory Selection of Science Fiction and Fantasy for October
10. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Milton F. Perry’s ‘Harry S. Truman, Sherlockian’

     

11. Yes, The Civil War Was About Slavery (The Confederates Said So)
12. September Short Story Roundup
13. Weird Frontier: California’s Strange Fiction
14. Star Trek Movie Rewatch: Star Trek: Generations (1994)
15. Vampires, Frozen Worlds, and Gambling With the Devil: The Best of Fritz Leiber
16. Get a Fresh Take on Dungeons & Dragons in Volo’s Guide to Monsters
17. The Fierce Love of Thieves: Thieves of Islar by James Shade
18. The Man Behind The Princess Bride
19. How to Be a Doomed Meddler
20. WTF Did I Just Read? Grant Morrison’s Nameless

     

21. One Last Time into the Primal Land: Sorcery in Shad by Brian Lumley
22. Does Netflix Know Me Better Than I Know Myself?
23. Goth Chick News: Why, Universal Studios? Why?
24. The Wonders of Fairwood Press
25. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Back to the Television
26. Goth Chick News: Polish Up the Sword and Buff the Leather, Blade is (Maybe) Back
27. Future Treasures: The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe
28. The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in September
29. Fantastic, November and December 1963: A Retro-Review
30. Into the Mystic: The Mask of the Sorcerer by Darrell Schweitzer

     

31. Cover Reveal: Damnation by Peter McLean
32. Try India’s Lord of the Rings: The Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi
33. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Bogart’s The Caine Mutiny
34. Goth Chick News: Ridley Scott Gets the Band Back Together
35. Vintage Treasures: The Best Science Fiction of JG Ballard
36. Fantasia 2016, Day 11, Part 2: Devils and Heroes (If Cats Disappeared From the World and Superpowerless)
37. Invaders of Pluto, and Brain Stealers of Mars: Rich Horton on The Ultimate Weapon and The Planeteers by John W. Campbell
38. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Poul Anderson’s “The Archetypal Holmes”
39. The Dandelion Dynasty and Sagrada Família
40. Tabletop Terror: Betrayal at the House on the Hill

     

41. Space Colonies, Interstellar Fleets, and The Martian in the Attic: The Best of Frederik Pohl
42. Get Cozy with Tor.com Publishing’s Winter 2017 Titles
43. Galaxy Science Fiction, July 1953: A Retro-Review
44. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Holmes for Halloween
45. Tabletop Terror: Pathfinder Edition
46. Caterers to the Damned, Zombie Gladiators, and Lovecraft’s Dreamlands: Catching Up With Tor.com Publishing
47. New Treasures: The Late Breakfasters and Other Strange Stories by Robert Aickman
48. Future Treasures: The Collected Short Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin from Saga Press
49. Go Ahead. Judge The Starlit Wood by its Cover
50. Old Dark House Double Feature IV: Two Haunted Honeymoons

There were plenty of older articles popular last month as well. The 25 most popular blog posts written before October were:

1. Heroic Fantasy with the Sharp Edge of Reality: A Review of The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
2. The IX by Andrew P. Weston
3. Return to Thieves World in Beyond Sanctuary: The Revised and Expanded Author’s Cut by Janet Morris
4. Tribulations Herculean and Tragic: Beyond Wizardwall by Janet Morris
5. New Treasures: The Library of America Publishes Elmore Leonard
6. Vintage Treasures: The Silistra Quartet by Janet Morris
7. AD&D Figurines: Youth In a Box?/
8. The IX: Exordium of Tears by Andrew P. Weston
9. A Long-Overdue Retrospective: The Best of Michael Moorcock
10. H.P. Lovecraft: The Style Adjectival
11. I, The Sun by Janet Morris
12. “A Great Place to let Your Imagination Run Wild:” Joe Bonadonna Reviews Rogues in Hell
13. A Detailed Explanation
14. The Perfect Prescription for Perdition: Doctors in Hell, edited by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
15. How I Lost My Soul and Learned to Love Hell
16. The Devil in the Details: A Review of Lawyers in Hell
17. Series Architecture: The Same But Different in EC Tubb’s Dumarest
18. Heroika 1: Dragon Eaters edited by Janet Morris
19. A Mining Colony, a Blind Date, and a Ghostly Alien Hand: A Review of Outpassage by Janet Morris & Chris Morris
20. Giving the Devil His Due: A Review of Dreamers in Hell
21. Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: The Skeleton Matters (Or, Why It’s Not OK to Skip Scenes in Your Third Act)
22. Love in War and Realms Beyond Imagining: A Review of The Fish, the Fighters and the Song Girl by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
23. Quick and Dirty Outlining for NaNoWriMo
24. New Treasures: Exordium of Tears by Andrew P. Weston
25. The “Known World” D&D Setting: A Secret History

The Top Black Gate Online Fiction features were:

1. An Excerpt from The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
2. “Seven Against Hell” by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
3. An Excerpt from Truck Stop Earth by Michael A. Armstrong
4. “Queen of Toads” by Joe Bonadonna
5. “Iron Joan” by ElizaBeth Gilligan
6. Fiction Excerpt: “The Dark Muse” by Karl Edward Wagner
7. “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum” by Joe Bonadonna
8. “Life on the Sun” by CSE Cooney
9. “Awakening” by Judith Berman
10. Fiction Excerpt: “The Beautiful Corridor” by Jonathan L. Howard

The top categories last month were:

1. Books
2. Vintage Treasures
3. Art of the Genre
4. Blog Entry
5. Magazines
6. Art
7. New Treasures
8. Game Reviews
9. BG Staff
10. Conan
11. Future Treasures
12. Comics
13. Convention Report
14. Series Fantasy
15. Goth Chick
16. Fiction
17. Pulp
18. Black Gate Goes to Summer Movies
19. Editor’s Blog
20. Reviews

The Top 50 Black Gate blog posts in September are here, and you can see all 93 posts we made in the month of October here.