Ryan Harvey was the man to beat at Black Gate in January. He claimed three of the Top Ten articles — including our overall most popular post last month, a review of the new animated film Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters.

Bob Byrne came in at #2 with his Conan pastiche review round-up, “By Crom: Some Conans are More Equal Than Others…” Fletcher Vredenburgh took third with a look at J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Children of Húrin. Derek Kunsken’s review of Frank Herbert’s classic Dune was the fourth most popular post in January, and Fletcher rounded out the Top Five with “Why I’m Here – Part Two: Some Thoughts on Old Books and Appendix N.”

Our obituary for the great Ursula K. Le Guin was #6, followed by John DeNardo’s Definitive List of the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of last year. Eighth was my article on vintage paperbacks, “Christmas for the Paperback Collector,” followed by Ryan’s review of Beyond the Farthest Star by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Ryan closed out the Top Ten with a piece on that Saturday morning classic, Warlords of Atlantis.

The complete list of Top Articles for January 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 January were:

1. The Animated Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters Mostly Does Its Job
2. By Crom: Some Conans are More Equal Than Others…
3. Grimmer Than Grim: The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien
4. Dune: Warts and All
5. Why I’m Here – Part Two: Some Thoughts on Old Books and Appendix N
6. Ursula K. Le Guin, October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018
7. John DeNardo on the Definitive List of 2017’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy
8. Christmas for the Paperback Collector
9. War Eternal: Beyond the Farthest Star by Edgar Rice Burroughs
10. Warlords of Atlantis: The Edgar Rice Burroughs Adaptation That Isn’t

     

11. The Top Five Books I Read in 2017
12. The High House by James Stoddard
13. Winter Reading: The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson with an Assist from James Stoddard
14. The Last Jedi: The Creature of the Lagoon Trashes the Toxic Tropes (Porg is a Verb)
15. The 2018 Philip K. Dick Nominees
16. Oz Goes Thrift Shopping: “This is [bleeping] Awesome!”
17. Peter S. Beagle will be the Next SFWA Grand Master
18. It’s A Tragedy
19. Modular: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
20. Son of Tall Eagle by John R. Fultz

     

21. Horrors, Marvels, Gods and Demons: C.L. Moore’s Tales of Northwest Smith
22. Future Treasures: 95 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books to Read in 2018
23. When Science Fiction Sucks: Rich Horton on Alien Sea, by John Rackham and C.O.D. Mars, by E. C. Tubb
24. Birthday Reviews: Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Maze of Maal Dweb”
25. GOING BIG! Super Sized Marvel Treasury Editions
26. Birthday Reviews: Philip José Farmer’s “The Rise Gotten”
27. The Fellowship of the Ring and the Palantir
28. Goth Chick News: The Rampaging Continues…
29. Birthday Reviews: C.L. Moore’s “Lost Paradise”
30. Vintage Treasures: The World Fantasy Awards, Volume One and Two

     

31. Birthday Reviews: Nat Schachner’s “Ancestral Voices”
32. Birthday Reviews: E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops”
33. Reading 2000AD’s The ABC Warriors for the First Time
34. In 500 Words or Less: From a Certain Point of View (Del Rey Books)
35. Vintage Treasures: Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home by James Tiptree, Jr.
36. Vintage Treasures: Dark Imaginings: A Collection of Gothic Fantasy edited by Robert H. Boyer and Kenneth J. Zahorski
37. Peplum Populist: The Last Days of Pompeii (1959)
38. Vintage Treasures: Barrow by John Deakins
39. Goth Chick News: Pop Culture Meets Couture…
40. Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1954: A Retro-Review

     

41. The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in December
42. Birthday Reviews: John Bellairs’s “The Pedant and the Shuffly”
43. The B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog on the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2017
44. Birthday Reviews: Hayford Peirce’s “Mail Supremacy”
45. Egyptian Dystopian Fiction: The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz
46. A Gentle Book about Harsh Times: The List by Patricia Forde
47. Worlds of If, November 1969: A Retro-Review
48. Tell Me A Story
49. Robot Lilliput N.P. 5357
50. Goth Chick News: Oscars Smoscars – Pass Me a Stoker Any Day…

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

1. Death Knight Love Story: WMA meets WTF
2. Goth Chick News: Samuel L. Jackson Takes On Japanese OVA – Hold On To Your Butts…
3. New Treasures: The Library of America Publishes Elmore Leonard
4. “Are You Not Still Entertained?”: Gladiator’s 10-Year Oscar Anniversary
5. The IX by Andrew P. Weston
6. Fantasia Diary 2015, Day 5: Teana: 10000 Years Later, Crimson Whale, and The Shamer’s Daughter
7. AD&D Figurines: Youth In a Box?
8. My Fantasia Festival, Days 5 to 7: Cold in July, The Fatal Encounter, and Huntresses
9. Eccentric in Retrospect: Helen Simpson’s The Woman on the Beast
10. Solitaire Adventure with Victory Point Games
11. Blowing the Doors Off the Barn: Expanding the Iron Fist Mythos
12. Living it Large: How Larger Than Life Characters Work
13. Haunt the House: The Music and Art of Will Houlihan
14. Adventures on Stage: Fantasy Literature’s Missing Link
15. The Return of the King (1980)
16. Adventures In Gaming: The Temple Of the Sea Gods
17. Heroic Fantasy with the Sharp Edge of Reality: The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
18. The Series Series: Shieldwall: Barbarians! by M. Harold Page
19. Modular: Resurrecting RuneQuest: An Investigation by the Tales of the Reaching Moon Editorial Staff
20. Return to Thieves World in Beyond Sanctuary: The Revised and Expanded Author’s Cut by Janet Morris
21. Part Gothic, Part Sword and Sorcery, and Part Horror: Andrew P. Weston’s Hell Bound
22. Battles with Blades and Bows, and Creatures Charming and Terrifying: Journeys, edited by Teresa Edgerton
23. From Ancient Opar to the Moon: An Interview with Author Christopher Paul Carey
24. Tribulations Herculean and Tragic: Beyond Wizardwall by Janet Morris
25. Tempus Takes Manhattan: Janet and Chris Morris’ Tempus Unbound

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. Tempus Unbound, edited by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
4. An excerpt from Pirates in Hell, edited by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
5. “Goat-Beard the Pirate, Part 2: Evil Angel,” by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
6. An excerpt from Shards of the Glass Slipper: Queen Cinder by Roy A. Mauritsen
7. An excerpt from A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden
8. An excerpt from Mouth of the Dragon by Tom Barczak
9. An excerpt from Truck Stop Earth by Michael A. Armstrong
10. “Stand at Duben-Geb” by Ryan Harvey
11. “Nero Wolfe – Stamped for Murder” by Bob Byrne
12. An excerpt from The Power of the Sapphire Wand by Erika M Szabo and Joe Bonadonna
13. “The Sorrowless Thief” by Ryan Harvey
14. “Seeker of Fortune” by David Evan Harris
15. An excerpt from “Night of Two Moons” by David B. Coe
16. “Niola’s Last Stand” by Vera Nazarian
17. “Disciple” by Emily Mah
18. An excerpt from Three Ghosts in a Black Pumpkin by Erika M Szabo and Joe Bonadonna
19. “The Highwater Harbor,” by Aaron Bradford Starr
20. An excerpt from “The Mudslinger” by David Evan Harris
21. An excerpt from The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen
22. “Disciple” by Emily Mah
23. “Vestments of Pestilence” by John C. Hocking
24. Fiction Excerpt: “Tumithak of the Corridors” by Charles R. Tanner
25. The first chapter of The Wreck of the Marissa by M Harold Page
26. “Tsathoggua” by Michael Shea
27. “Iron Joan” by ElizaBeth Gilligan
28. “A Princess of Jadh” by Gregory Bierly
29. “The Trade” by Mark Rigney
30. “The Cremator’s Tale” by Steven H Silver

The top categories last month were:

1. Editor’s Blog
2. Books
3. Blog Entry
4. Art of the Genre
5. Art
6. Comics
7. BG Staff
8. Conan
9. Black Gate Goes to Summer Movies
10. Contest
11. Convention Report
12. Vintage Treasures
13. Discovering Robert E. Howard
14. Reviews
15. Pulp
16. Game Reviews
17. Essays
18. Magazines
19. New Treasures
20. Reviews of Black Gate
21. Future Treasures
22. Uncategorized
23. Role Playing Games
24. Interviews
25. Fashion

The Top 50 Black Gate blog posts in December are here, and you can see all 102 posts we made in the month of January here.