The number one post at the Black Gate blog last month was Sean McLachlan’s report on the historically fascinating castles of Gondar, Ethiopia. Sean’s adventures in Ethiopia certainly captured the attention of our readers — he also had the #3 post, with his photo-essay on the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela.

Coming in at #2 was the fifth chapter in William I. Lengeman III’s ongoing Star Trek re-watch, on Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. I’ve been re-watching the early Star Trek films myself the past few months, and been enjoying this series very much.

Rounding out the Top Five are our Vintage Treasures report on The Silistra Quartet — by one of the most popular writers among Black Gate’s readership, Janet Morris — and our look at Gardner’s Dozois recent controversial comments on the New Sword and Sorcery.

Classic writers captured the next three slots, including Bob Byrne’s report on the new Conan RPG, Rich Horton on Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Thomas Parker’s look at one of the most hotly debated writers of pulp SF: “Classically Awful or Awfully Classic: A.E. Van Vogt’s The World of Null-A.”

Howard Andrew Jones had the #9 slot with his review of the Second Edition of Victory Point Games’ popular Empires in America, and Drake author Peter McLean closed out the Top Ten with his thoughtful article on “Why We Shouldn’t Hunt The Trope To Extinction.”

The complete list of Top Articles for March 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 March were:

1. The Castles of Gondar, Ethiopia
2. Star Trek Movie Rewatch: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
3. The Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia
4. Vintage Treasures: The Silistra Quartet by Janet Morris
5. Gardner Dozois on the New Sword & Sorcery
6. Discovering Robert E Howard: The New Conan RPG
7. The Problem With Marion Zimmer Bradley: Rich Horton on Falcons of Narabedla/The Dark Intruder
8. Classically Awful or Awfully Classic: A.E. Van Vogt’s The World of Null-A
9. Beat the British and Save New France: Empires in America 2nd Edition
10. Why We Shouldn’t Hunt The Trope To Extinction

     

11. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: The D&D Adventure (Board) Games
12. Discovering Robert E Howard: Fred Adams Jr. on Esau Cairn – A Man Outside His Epoch
13. Alone at the Edge of the World: The Witch
14. Take a Classic Science Fiction Tour With IF Magazine
15. The IX: Exordium of Tears by Andrew P. Weston
16. The Lost Level by Brian Keene
17. The Series Series: The Pagan Night by Tim Akers
18. Legend of Legacy: Laborious
19. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Elric & “The Jade Man’s Eyes”
20. Superhero TV: Arrow

     

21. Discovering Robert E. Howard: “My Very Dear Beans, Cornbread and Onions” (Valentine’s Day—Robert E. Howard Style)
22. Changa: Before the Safari by Milton Davis
23. Vintage Treasures: Try a Little Sturgeon Caviar
24. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: SH – Consulting Detective
25. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories: An Interview with Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award-Winner Ken Liu
26. A Tale of Two Covers: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
27. Art of the Genre: Kickstarter Landscape Early 2016
28. Dungeons, Dragons, and Vampires: Curse of Strahd
29. That Movie About the Guy Who’s Stranded on Mars
30. Vintage Treasures: Three Apocalyptic Anthologies

     

31. The Books of David G. Hartwell: Visions of Wonder and The Science Fiction Century
32. The Goblin King, New York Sorcery, and Demon Pirates: The New and Upcoming Fantasies of Tor.com
33. Goth Chick News: Tim Burton May (or May Not) Have Confirmed Beetlejuice 2 Is (or Is Not) a Go
34. Win One of Tor.com‘s March Releases!
35. Goth Chick News: Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Aliens with Ripley’s Underwear and a Xenomorph Cookie Jar
36. Congratulations to Black Gate‘s Nominees for the REH Foundation Awards
37. February Short Story Roundup
38. Unknown, April 1941: A Retro-Review
39. Vintage Treasures: Worlds Imagined: 14 Short Science Fiction Novels, Compiled by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg
40. Analog, November 1971 and October 1972: Two Retro-Reviews

     

41. The New Old West
42. Jack Binder and the Early Chicago SF Fan Club
43. Screw ISIS! Here Are Five Great Reasons to Visit Brussels
44. Future Treasures: The Human Chord/The Centaur by Algernon Blackwood
45. Vintage Treasures: Machines That Kill, edited by Fred Saberhagen & Martin Harry Greenberg
46. The Library of America Publishes Ross Macdonald
47. Series Fantasy: The Half-Light City by M.J. Scott
48. New Treasures: The ‘Mancer Series by Ferrett Steinmetz
49. Telepathy Machines and Strange Alien Games: Rich Horton on King of the Fourth Planet/Cosmic Checkmate
50. New Treasures: A Cure For Cancer by Michael Moorcock

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

1. Nazi Film Review: Hitlerjunge Quex
2. AD&D Figurines: Youth In a Box?
3. Software Review (kind of): Fantasy Map Making with Hexographer
4. Heroic Fantasy with the Sharp Edge of Reality: A Review of The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
5. A Review of Warriors, edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois
6. The Great Savage Sword Re-Read: Vol. 2
7. Death Knight Love Story: WMA meets WTF
8. New Treasures: The Library of America Publishes Elmore Leonard
9. The IX by Andrew P. Weston
10. New Treasures: Strange Worlds
11. Part Gothic, Part Sword and Sorcery, and Part Horror: Andrew P. Weston’s Hell Bound
12. Art of the Genre: Top 10 Fantasy Artists of the Past 100 Years
13. My Inspiration: Black Canaan
14. Challenging the Classics: Questioning the Arbitrary Browsing Mechanism
15. Tribulations Herculean and Tragic: Beyond Wizardwall by Janet Morris
16. Return to Thieves World in Beyond Sanctuary: The Revised and Expanded Author’s Cut by Janet Morris
17. Caught Between Rebels and the Empire’s Blackest Magic: Beyond the Veil: The Revised and Expanded Author’s Cut by Janet Morris
18. Love in War and Realms Beyond Imagining: A Review of The Fish, the Fighters and the Song Girl by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
19. Snake Extermination Tips for the Unsuccessful Barbarian Warrior
20. New Treasures: Exordium of Tears by Andrew P. Weston
21. Art of the Genre: Art of Dungeon Maps
22. A Proposal: An Award for SF Storytelling
23. Discovering Robert E. Howard: Howard Andrew Jones and Bill Ward Wrap Up Their Epic Conan Re-Read
24. A Detailed Explanation
25. Frodo Baggins, Lady Galadriel, and the Games of the Mighty

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. “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum” by Joe Bonadonna
4. “The Weird of Ironspell” by John R. Fultz
5. “A Phoenix in Darkness” by Donald S. Crankshaw
6. “The Trade” by Mark Rigney
7. “The Quintessence of Absence” by Sean McLachlan
8. “Awakening” by Judith Berman
9. In the Wake Of Sister Blue, Chapter One, by Mark Rigney
10. “The Serpent of Thep” by Vaughn Heppner

The top categories last month were:

1. Blog Entry
2. Books
3. Art of the Genre
4. New Treasures
5. Art
6. Comics
7. Convention Report
8. Black Gate Goes to Summer Movies
9. BG Staff
10. Conan
11. Contest
12. Discovering Robert E. Howard
13. Magazines
14. Vintage Treasures
15. Blog
16. Essays
17. Reviews
18. Pulp
19. Future Treasures
20. Game Reviews

The Top 5o Black Gate blog posts in February are here, and you can see all 129 posts we made in the month of March here.