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Month: August 2013

Goth Chick News: Welcome to the 2013 Chicago Comic Con

Goth Chick News: Welcome to the 2013 Chicago Comic Con

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image002Spandex, chainmail, body paint…

Oh my.

Yes, it’s that time of year again and Chicagoans are not immune.

That is to say, when faced with one of the largest venues in the area packed wall to wall with artists, comics, swag of all types and Zachary Quinto , trance-like they will don too-snug lycra and a face mask, then venture forth into public to meet, greet, and pose for pictures.

Wizard World’s Comic Con stormed into the Rosemont Convention Center last week and once again, Black Gate photo Chris Z and I had a front row seats.

“Chicago’s premier pop-culture event” did not disappoint.

Final numbers aren’t in yet, but the Tribune stated that “tens of thousands” of visitors came through during the four-day festivities, spending what can only be estimated at virtually millions of dollars. Which caused Chris and I to speculate on whom precisely would drop $400 on a 4 foot by 6 foot artist’s rendition of Wonder Woman?

Unfortunately, he was decked out in a Green Lantern costume and refused an interview, but that didn’t stop us for meeting a whole gaggle of brilliant and creative individuals which is what makes Comic Con a seminal event in the Black Gate calendar.

So let’s wade in, shall we?

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When Aliens are Delicious: Murray Leinster’s “Proxima Centauri” and the Creepy Side of Pulp SF

When Aliens are Delicious: Murray Leinster’s “Proxima Centauri” and the Creepy Side of Pulp SF

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Astounding Stories March 1935What if the first aliens we encounter were made of chocolate? Crunchy, delicious, bite-sized chocolate. Imagine that during that all-important First Contact, you decided to take an experimental bite — because, one, chocolate aliens, and two, who would blame you? — and discovered they were so delicious they brought on raptures of ecstasy.

This is more or less the premise of Murray Leinster’s rip snortin’, force-ray filled space adventure “Proxima Centauri,” from the March 1935 issue of Astounding Stories. Except that the aliens are actually highly advanced carnivorous plants who have systematically hunted every form of animal life on their home planet to extinction, and the delicious, bite-sized aliens are us.

“Proxima Centauri” has been reprinted a few times, but I’d never read it. It came up in the comments on my June 20th article on The Best of Murray Leinster, the first of the Classics of Science Fiction series I’ve been exploring recently. A reader named Doug said:

The one story of Leinster’s that impressed me the most was “Proxima Centauri.” Even if the main drive of the plot is pure pulp, the way he describes human behavior during the long trip adds a realism that counter balances the more fantastic elements (i.e. Plant Men). It’s aged incredibly well when you consider that it was written “Before the Golden Age” (I read this first in the same-named Asimov edited anthology).

Fletcher Vredenburgh concurred:

I was eleven when my dad bought and read the Leinster collection. When I asked him about it he said he didn’t think I’d like it. Fortunately, that only encouraged me to give it a try. Glad I did. The gloriously pulpy “Proxima Centauri” still creeps me out.

Well, that was enough for me. I dug out my treasured copy of Before the Golden Age and settled in to enjoy a classic tale of space travel and creepy aliens from a pulp master.

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Finding the Best: An Interview with Year’s Best Editors Ellen Datlow, Paula Guran, Rich Horton and Gardner Dozois

Finding the Best: An Interview with Year’s Best Editors Ellen Datlow, Paula Guran, Rich Horton and Gardner Dozois

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The Year's Best Science Fiction Thirtieth Annual CollectionThe following is a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat (SFFWRTCHT) special for Black Gate.

For the first time, I was able to gather four of the Year’s Best editors to chat about genre, how they do what they do, why and more. So here are Ellen Datlow, Paula Guran, Rich Horton, and Gardner Dozois.

SFFWRTCHT: Where’d your interest in SFF come from?

Ellen Datlow: I was reading everything in my parents’ apartment from a very young age. I encountered Bullfinch’s Mythology, The Odyssey, the stories of Guy de Maupassant and Nathaniel Hawthorne. I read all the comic books in my father’s luncheonette, including the ones with ichor on the covers.

Paula Guran: I devoured books of all kinds growing up. Loved mythology and fairy tales. Probably encountered supernatural tales first from an old treasury of American folktales of my father’s and science fiction specifically with Podkayne Of Mars. Although I still read all sorts of material, SF/F became a portion of my reading thanks to my older cousin. She made up SF stories and illustrated them herself — sort of an oral graphic novel – and told them to her younger sister and me.

She also handed me a couple of Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars books with really cool covers and an Andre Norton Witch World book. Double wowzers.

I also read comic books: Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Justice League were some of my favorites.

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The 2013 World Fantasy Awards Ballot

The 2013 World Fantasy Awards Ballot

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alif-the-unseenThe 2013 World Fantasy Awards Ballot, compiled by the voting attendees of the World Fantasy Convention, has just been released.

The coveted Life Achievement Award is being given to two recipients for the first time (I think). Susan Cooper (author of The Dark is Rising sequence) and Tanith Lee (author of The Silver Metal Lover, The Secret Books of Paradys, and dozens of others) are both masters of the genre. They will receive the award on November 3 in Brighton, UK, during the World Fantasy Convention.

The winners in every other category will be be selected by a panel of judges. Here’s the complete list of nominees, with links to our previous coverage:

Life Achievement

  • Susan Cooper
  • Tanith Lee

Novel

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New Treasures: The Best British Fantasy, edited by Steve Hayes

New Treasures: The Best British Fantasy, edited by Steve Hayes

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The Best British Fantasy 2013-smallIf you’ve been reading this site for more than, say, ten minutes, you’re probably aware that I’m a big fan of anthologies. And I’m especially fond of the Best of the Year anthologies.

It’s definitely that time of the year. Jonathan Strahan’s The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Seven, was released in May (we covered it here), and Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2013 Edition arrived on July 10 (here).

Gardner Dozois’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection was published on July 23, and Paula Guran’s The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2013 Edition will debut on August 20. The other major contender, David G. Hartwell’s Year’s Best SF 18, has been delayed to December.

And now there’s a new kid on the block. Newcomer Steve Hayes has assembled a promising volume dedicated to the best in British fantasy, including tales from Mark Morris, Lavie Tidhar, Steph Swainston, Lisa Tuttle, and many more. If I had to guess, I’d say the contents run towards the Dark Fantasy side of the spectrum, just based on the subtitle at the bottom: Discover How Dark British Fantasy is Willing to Go.  Here’s the complete description.

From the post-apocalyptic American West to the rural terror in New Zealand, this major anthology has evil spirits, bin-Laden style assassinations, steampunk, sexual dysfunction, a twisted version of Peter Pan, the folklore of standing stones, mermaids, alien tour guides, zombies, gruesome beasts, voice-controlled police states, environmental disasters and off world penal colonies. Unmissable.

Featuring (among others) Simon Bestwick, Joseph D’Lacey, Cate Gardner, Carole Johnstone, Tyler Keevil, Kim Lakin-Smith, Alison Littlewood, Cheryl Moore, Mark Morris, Adam Neville, Lavie Tidhar, Sam Stone, Steph Swainston, E.J. Swift, Lisa Tuttle, Simon Unsworth, Jon Wallace.

It contains a great many stories from names I’m unfamiliar with, which isn’t a bad thing. I’m always on the lookout for new talent, and this seems like a great way to discover it.

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Jinnrise and the Game of Life

Jinnrise and the Game of Life

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Jinnrise #1-small“The game of life’s about us all…wherever we are or wherever we’re from.” Jinnrise, my comic book series published by IDW Publishing, was inspired by this mantra and line from issue #1. The best of stories, those that resonate throughout the ages, start with the seeds of a theme.

Informed by the writer’s passions and experiences, the essence of the story springs forth. Such was the case for me.

Growing up in a mixed heritage household, I found myself drawn to novels, comics, and films that celebrated our common humanity. Fears, hopes, nightmares, and dreams: the ties that bind were what fascinated me the most. The outer trappings and vehicles of storytelling? In the short term, they didn’t really matter.

As I became a more discerning fan of genre entertainment, I grew less and less excited about the tentpole projects being announced year after year. Conventions like San Diego Comic-Com were no longer celebrations, but yearly commentaries on the growing stagnancy in science fiction and fantasy.

How many stories with zombies, vampires, robots, and wizards could one enjoy without being overwhelmed by déjà vu?

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Some Mysteries You Don’t Want to Solve: Exploring Dead Rock Seven

Some Mysteries You Don’t Want to Solve: Exploring Dead Rock Seven

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dead-rock-sevenOne of the most popular gaming articles I’ve written in the last year was my review of Robin D. Laws’s Ashen Stars, the new science fiction RPG from Pelgrane Press. Month after month, that review has been creeping up the traffic charts.

It’s not hard to see why. Ashen Stars is one of the best new SF games on the market — and one of the best new RPGs in any category. It was a winner in the “Best Setting” category in the 2012 ENnie Awards and Pelgrane Press has continued to support it with top-notch adventures and other supplements. It’s taken a while to catch on, but the industry is starting to notice.

Here’s what I said, in part, in my October review:

Robin D. Laws has created an extremely appealing game of space opera procedural mysteries. In the tradition of the best hard boiled detective fiction, players are constantly scrambling for money, equipment, and respect… all of which they’ll need to succeed in a war-ravaged perimeter where trust is a precious commodity, and very little is truly what it seems.

The players in Ashen Stars are private eyes — excuse me, licensed mercenaries — acting as freelance law enforcement on a rough-and-tumble frontier called “the Bleed,” where humans and half a dozen alien races mingle, compete, and trade. The Mohilar War that devastated the once powerful governing Combine ended seven years ago, and no one is sure exactly how. The Combine is in no shape to govern the Bleed, and rely on loosely-chartered bands like the players to maintain peace in the sector, keep a lid on crime, and investigate odd distress signals from strange corners of space…

The writing and color art are impressive throughout, and the book is filled with fascinating tidbits that will make you anxious to play, and re-introduce you to the essential joy of role playing.

Given a game with that much promise, I was anxious to see what kinds of adventures would arrive to really flesh it out. Now I finally have my hands on the first major campaign for the setting, Dead Rock Seven, a set of four scenarios by Gareth Hanrahan, and I’m pleased to report that I’m not disappointed.

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‘Masterfully Told’: Tangent Online on “The Keystone”

‘Masterfully Told’: Tangent Online on “The Keystone”

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AppleMarkLouis West at Tangent Online reports on the final chapter in Mark Rigney’s The Tales of Gemen saga, published here on August 4th:

The quirky yet relentless Gemen finally completes his life-long mission to rebuild the portal through which his sister had disappeared so long ago. Except, once the portal is reconstructed, nothing goes as Gemen had planned. This masterfully told story closes out this trilogy yet opens possibilities for continued Gemen adventures since, as Gemen himself concludes, “the world is once more in play.”

The tension never stops, starting with nightmares, followed by chases across half the world, as two forces pursue Gemen and his party. The Corvaen seek justice for wrongs Gemen has visited upon them, and the Thornland Raiders, merciless reavers from a long-abandoned land, are zealously bent on destroying Gemen…

Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. I highly recommend the complete trilogy.

“The Keystone” is the third and final installment of The Tales of Gemen, which opened with “The Trade,” which Tangent Online called a “Marvelous tale. Can’t wait for the next part” — and “The Find,” which Tangent called “Reminiscent of the old sword & sorcery classics. I can’t wait to see what fate awaits Gemen. A must read.”

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Vaughn Heppner, Mark Rigney, Aaron Bradford Starr, Jamie McEwan, Martha Wells, Mary Catelli, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, E.E. Knight, C.S.E. Cooney, Howard Andrew Jones, Harry Connolly, and many others, is here.

“The Keystone” is a complete 15,000-word tale of weird fantasy. It is offered at no cost. Read the complete story here.

New Treasures: Pile of Bones by Bailey Cunningham

New Treasures: Pile of Bones by Bailey Cunningham

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Pile of Bones Bailey Cunningham-smallUsually when I’m looking for new reading material, I turn to one of my old favorites. Or I’ll try the latest novel by a BG contributor, or by an author I’ve met recently at a convention. It’s a rare thing these days when I crack open a book by someone I know absolutely nothing about. But sometimes I miss those days when the whole field was new and I approached every book with no expectations — nothing but a willingness to be entertained and transported. In those days, I was constantly delighted, surprised by almost every book I read.

And you know what? I think the two are connected.

Once upon a time, every author I tried was new and all I knew was wonder and magic. Now I read exclusively the same small circle of authors and very little surprises me anymore. So to recapture that wonder again, I try the simplest thing: I read new authors. Writers like Bailey Cunningham, whose first novel, Pile of Bones, first in the Parallel Parks series, was just released by Ace Books.

In one world, they’re ordinary university students. In another world, they are a company of heroes in a place of magic and myth called Anfractus…

The Cree called the area Oscana, “pile of bones,” a fertile hunting ground where game abounded. The white settlers changed that to Wascana. And centuries later, it became Wascana Park, a wooded retreat in the midst of the urban sprawl of Regina.

For a select few, who stay in the park until midnight, the land reverts into a magical kingdom, populated by heroes and monsters. They become warriors, bards, archers, gladiators. In the city called Anfractus, they live out a real-life role playing game.

All harmless fun — until they find themselves in the middle of an assassination plot which threatens to upset the balance of everything. Politics are changing, and old borders are about to disappear. The magic of Anfractus is bleeding into the real world — an incursion far more dangerous than the students suspect. Only they know what is happening — and only they can stop it…

Pile of Bones was published July 30th by Ace Books. It is 321 pages, priced at $7.99 for both the paperback and the digital version. The sequel is Path of Smoke.

Deepest, Darkest Eden: Return to Hyperborea

Deepest, Darkest Eden: Return to Hyperborea

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HyperboreaCoverDEEPEST, DARKEST EDEN: New Tales of Hyperborea is a new fantasy anthology from Miskatonic River Press. Editor Cody Goodfellow has assembled 17 stories (and two poems) set in the primordial world of Clark Ashton Smith‘s Hyperborea.

Although it officially launches this month at the Rhode Island NecronomiCon, the book is available right now through Amazon. Here is the Table of Contents:

Nick Mamatas – “Hostage”
Joe Pulver – “To Walk Night…Alone”
Darrell Schweitzer – “In Old Commoriom”
Ann K. Schwader – “Yhoundeh Fades” (poem)
Cody Goodfellow – “Coil Of The Ouroboros”
John R. Fultz – “Daughter Of The Elk Goddess”
Brian R. Sammons – “The Darkness Below”
Dieter Meier – “The Conquest Of Rhizopium”
Lisa Morton – “Zolamin And The Mad God”
Brian Stableford – “The Lost Archetype”
Ran Cartwright – “One Last Task For Athammaus”
Don Webb – “The Beauties Of Polarion”
Robert M. Price – “The Debt Owed Abhoth”
Marc Laidlaw – “The Frigid Ilk Of Sarn Kathool”
Charles Schneider – “The Return Of The Crystal”
John Shirley – “Rodney LaSalle Has A Job Waiting in Commoriom”
Zak Jarvis – “The Winter Of Atiradarinsept ”
Jesse Bullington – “The Door From Earth”
Ann K. Schwader – “Weird Of The White Sybil” (poem)

Most of Smith’s original Hyperborean tales ran in WEIRD TALES in the 1930s. They featured lost cities, haunted jungles, strange sorcery, and terrible demon-gods such as Tsathoggua and Abhoth. His entire cycle of these tales was gathered into a single volume first in 1971’s HYPERBOREA from Ballantine Books, then again in 1996 for THE BOOK OF HYPERBOREA from Necronomicon Press.

(See the entire wrap-around cover after the jump…)

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