Mike Allen continues to dominate the top of our charts for a second month, with the exclusive excerpt from his first novel The Black Fire Concerto. Mike’s breakout collection Unseaming was released on October 1st from Antimatter Press. Check it out here.

Surging back into second place are Janet Morris and Chris Morris, with an excerpt from their heroic fantasy novel The Sacred Band. They also claimed the #3 slot with “Seven Against Hell,” an exclusive sample from their new anthology, Poets in Hell.

Knocked out of the #2 slot was “The Find,” Part II of The Tales of Gemen by Mark Rigney, which settled at #4 this month. “The Keystone,” Part III of the series, also made the list. Check out Mark’s first novel, the popular Check-Out Time, released on October 7 from Samhain Publishing.

Rounding out the Top Five was Ryan Harvey’s sword & sorcery story “The Sorrowless Thief,” a tale of intrigue and dinosaur beasts, part of his popular science-fantasy set series on the continent of Ahn-Tarqa.

Also making the list were exciting stories by Joe Bonadonna, John C. Hocking, David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna, Judith Berman, Michael Shea, C.S.E. Cooney, Aaron Bradford Starr, Jason E. Thummel, Steven H Silver, Martha Wells, Sean McLachlan, Harry Connolly, Howard Andrew Jones, and John R. Fultz.

If you haven’t sampled the free adventure fantasy stories offered through our Black Gate Online Fiction line, you’re missing out. Here are the Top Twenty most-read stories in October.

1. An excerpt from The Black Fire Concerto, by Mike Allen
2. An excerpt from The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
3. “Seven Against Hell” by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
4. “The Find,” Part II of The Tales of Gemen, by Mark Rigney
5. “The Sorrowless Thief” by Ryan Harvey
6. “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum,” by Joe Bonadonna
7. “Vestments of Pestilence,” by John C. Hocking
8. An excerpt from Waters of Darkness, by David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna
9. “Awakening,” by Judith Berman
10. “Tsathoggua,” by Michael Shea
11. “Godmother Lizard” by C.S.E. Cooney
12. “The Sealord’s Successor,” by Aaron Bradford Starr
13. “The Duelist” by Jason E. Thummel
14. “The Cremator’s Tale” by Steven H Silver
15. The Death of the Necromancer, a complete novel by Martha Wells
16. “The Quintessence of Absence,” by Sean McLachlan
17. “The Whoremaster of Pald,” by Harry Connolly
18. An excerpt from The Bones of the Old Ones, by Howard Andrew Jones
19. “The Keystone,” Part III of The Tales of Gemen, by Mark Rigney
20. “When the Glimmer Faire Came to the City of the Lonely Eye,” by John R. Fultz

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including novel excerpts from Peter Cakebread, John R. Fultz, Jon Sprunk, Dave Gross, David C. Smith, and Joe Bonadonna, as well as new stories by E.E. Knight, David C. Smith, Peadar Ó Guilín, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Vera Nazarian, David Evan Harris, Vaughn Heppner, and many others, is here.

The top fiction from September is here.