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The Late June Fantasy Magazine Rack

The Late June Fantasy Magazine Rack

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The month of June ended with a flurry of new magazine arrivals, more than your humble editors could hope to cover. But we took our best shot.

We added one new title to our coverage: the delightful board game periodical Meeple Monthly (and there’s no truth to the rumor we waited until it did a cover feature on Star Trek first). Fletcher Vredenburgh reported on the latest issue of Swords and Sorcery in his May Short Story Roundup, and the distinguished editor Jonathan Strahan shared his assessment of 2016’s breakout short fiction stars. In other news, we reported that Tor.com is shopping for novellas to feed their fast-growing label, and that the Summer issue of SFX magazine offers a terrific spread on galactic hero Perry Rhodan (including quotes from yours truly.)

We had plenty for vintage magazine fans this month, too — including a review of L. Sprague de Camp’s The Tritonian Ring, which originally appeared in Two Complete Science Adventure Books from 1951, Rich Horton’s Retro Review of the October 1962 Amazing Stories, and a look at Terry Carr’s The Best Science Fiction of the Year #4, from 1974.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our early June Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

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Future Treasures: The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

Future Treasures: The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

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I pretty much rode out the zombie horror wave without too much trauma. Zombies don’t scare me. Ditto for the paranormal romance boom a decade ago. Vampire, werewolves, and ghouls never really scared me much, either.

You know what does scare me? Spiders. Big, hairy, creepy spiders. Gahhh, I get the creeps just typing that. And now comes the debut horror novel by Ezekiel Boone, the terrifying tale of the emergence of an ancient species, dormant for over a thousand years, on the march once more. Andrew Pyper (The Damned and The Demonologist) calls it “old school global plague horror of the freakiest sort. A deft and nasty thriller,” and that’s good enough for me. The Hatching will be available in hardcover next week.

Deep in the jungle of Peru, where so much remains unknown, a black, skittering mass devours an American tourist whole. Thousands of miles away, an FBI agent investigates a fatal plane crash in Minneapolis and makes a gruesome discovery. Unusual seismic patterns register in a Kanpur, India earthquake lab, confounding the scientists there. During the same week, the Chinese government “accidentally” drops a nuclear bomb in an isolated region of its own country. As these incidents begin to sweep the globe, a mysterious package from South America arrives at a Washington, D.C. laboratory. Something wants out.

The world is on the brink of an apocalyptic disaster. An ancient species, long dormant, is now very much awake.

The Hatching will be published by Emily Bestler Books on July 5, 2016. It is $26 in hardcover, and $9.99 for the digital edition.

New Treasures: New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey

New Treasures: New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey

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New Pompeii Daniel Godfrey-smallYou know what I didn’t know I wanted? A Roman-era adventure tale/modern thriller mash-up. At least, I didn’t know I wanted it until a copy of Daniel Godfrey’s debut novel New Pompeii showed up on my doorstep, courtesy of Titan Books. Now I can’t wait to read it.

Calling New Pompeii a delightful mix of genres is something of an understatement. Alan Smale (Clash of Eagles) says it’s “That rare science fiction novel that reads like a thriller… an astonishing debut.” Gareth L. Powell (The Recollection, Hive Monkey) concurs, calling the novel “A smart, intriguing thriller in the tradition of Michael Crichton and Philip K. Dick.” And Barnes & Noble calls it, “Deliciously Readable.” And yeah, it’s their job to sell books, but you gotta admit they don’t say that about everybody.

Whatever the case, New Pompeii has one of the most original and intriguing premises I’ve heard this year. Not bad at all for a debut novel. Here’s the description.

In the near future, energy giant Novus Particles develops the technology to transport objects and people from the deep past to the present. Their biggest secret: New Pompeii. A replica of the city hidden deep in central Asia, filled with Romans pulled through time a split second before the volcano erupted.

Historian Nick Houghton doesn’t know why he’s been chosen to be the company’s historical advisor. He’s just excited to be there. Until he starts to wonder what happened to his predecessor. Until he realizes that NovusPart have more secrets than even the conspiracy theorists suspect.

Until he realizes that NovusPart have underestimated their captives…

New Pompeii was published by Titan Books on June 21, 2016. It is 422 pages, priced at $14.95 in trade paperback, and $7.99 for the digital edition.

Vintage Treasures: The Best Science Fiction of the Year #4, edited by Terry Carr

Vintage Treasures: The Best Science Fiction of the Year #4, edited by Terry Carr

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The Best Science Fiction of the Year 4 Terry Carr-small The Best Science Fiction of the Year 4 Terry Carr-back-small

With all the Best of the Year volumes arriving over the past few months — from Jonathan Strahan, Rich Horton, Neil Clarke, and David Afsharirad, and more due next month from Gardner Dozois, Paula Guran, and others — it’s hard to remember those dark years in the mid-20th Century when there were only two or three.

Hard, but not impossible. Don Wollheim, Lester del Rey, and the great Terry Carr all had Best of the Year anthologies back in the mid-70s. I know because I bought and cherished them as they showed up in bookstores, starting around 1977 or so. I think my favorite editor of the batch was Terry Carr, who was already famous for his exemplary work at Ace at the time.

How good was Carr at extracting the cream of the crop from the digest magazines in the 70s? Depends who you ask of course, but in general Carr’s reputation was stellar. I’d read plenty of anthologies from the era, but I didn’t remember the magazines I read at the time well enough to say for certain.

However, I recently had the opportunity to do a little primary research of my own. I bought a collection of vintage Analog magazines from the early 70s, back when Ben Bova was editor, and I’ve spent a week of warm evenings on the porch with them, pretending I was Rich Horton.

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June 2016 Lightspeed Magazine, the People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction Issue, is Now Available

June 2016 Lightspeed Magazine, the People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction Issue, is Now Available

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Lightspeed has produced some really exceptional special issues over the last few years, including the groundbreaking Women Destroy Science Fiction and Queers Destroy Science Fiction issues. June sees the People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction special issue, weighing in at a massive 464 pages. It was funded by a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign that wrapped up on February 20, and is guest-edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Kristine Ong Muslim (original short fiction), Nisi Shawl (reprints), Grace L. Dillon (nonfiction), and Sunil Patel (personal essays).

Even folks who didn’t contribute to the Kickstarter get to share in the benefits, as much of this issue’s massive payload of fiction is already up and freely available at the Lightspeed website — including brand new stories by Sofia Samatar, John Chu, JY Yang, S.B. Divya, and many others. But that’s not all…there’s also a rich assortment of paid content — including original fiction, a novella, flash fiction, reprints, and much more — available to backers, and anyone who purchases the digital edition for just $3.99. This issue is also available in a special trade paperback edition, with all the bonus content, for $17.99.

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

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New Treasures: The Suicide Motor Club by Christopher Buehlman

New Treasures: The Suicide Motor Club by Christopher Buehlman

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The Suicide Motor Club-smallChristopher Buehlman is a fast-rising horror star. His debut novel, Those Across the River, was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, and he followed it quickly with The Necromancer’s House and Between Two Fires. Last year’s The Lesser Dead, a novel of vampire clans in New York, won the American Library Association’s award for Best Horror Novel of the Year, and Tor.com called it “surprising, scary, and, ultimately, heartbreaking.” Based just on the gonzo description his latest, The Suicide Motor Club, may be his best yet. Check it out.

Remember that car that passed you near midnight on Route 66, doing 105 with its lights off? You wondered where it was going so quickly on that dark, dusty stretch of road, motor roaring, the driver glancing out the window as he blew by.

Did his greedy eyes shine silver like a coyote’s? Did he make you feel like prey?

You can’t remember now.

You just saw the founder of the Suicide Motor Club. Be grateful his brake lights never flashed. Be grateful his car was already full.

They roam America, littering the highways with smashed cars and bled-out bodies, a gruesome reflection of the unsettled sixties. But to anyone unlucky enough to meet them in the lonely hours of the night, they’re just a blurry memory. That is — to all but one…

Two years ago, they left a witness in the mangled wreck of her family car, her husband dead, her son taken. She remembers their awful faces, despite their tricks and glamours. And she’s coming for them — her thirst for vengeance even more powerful than their hunger for blood.

On the deserted highways of America, the hunters are about to become the hunted…

The Suicide Motor Club was published by Berkley on June 7, 2016. It is 368 pages, priced at $26 in hardcover, or $12.99 for the digital edition.

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in May

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in May

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The Hugo Award-smallBlack Gate had 1.16 million page views in May, slightly more than our monthly average last year. We’ve gotten used to significant traffic increases year after year, so it’s actually something of a relief to have traffic stabilize for a bit. Nonetheless, we’re grateful to you, our readers, for all the time you spend with us each month, and we hope we keep things interesting for you.

How did we keep things interesting last month? Our top story for May was Black Gate‘s second Hugo nomination… which we declined (again). The brief statement announcing our decision was read 8,200 times, making it our number one post for the month. It was followed by an article questioning whether Weird Tales had quietly folded, and Rich Horton’s analysis of the 2016 Hugo situation.

Rounding out the Top Five for May were Martin Page, with his thoughtful piece on the 80’s moral panic surrounding Dungeons & Dragons, and Bill Maynard’s examination of the Abuses of Public Domain Fiction.

Coming in at number 6 for the month was our report on the launch of one of the most exciting magazines of the past decade, Skelos, followed by our photo-essay on the 2016 Nebula Awards weekend. Peadar Ó Guilín clocked in at #8 with his detailed review of Michael Swanwick’s modern classic The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, followed by our announcement that SF Signal was shutting down.

Closing out the Top Ten for last month was Thomas Parker’s thoughtful and frequently hilarious review of Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes remake, titled Shut Up, You Freak!

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

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2016 Locus Award Winners Announced

2016 Locus Award Winners Announced

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Uprooted-Naomi-Novik-smallThe Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the winners of the 2016 Locus Awards, and you know what that means. Cake and drinks for everybody!

The winners are selected by the readers of Locus magazine. The awards began in 1971, originally as a way to highlight quality work in advance of the Hugo Awards. The winners were announced yesterday, during the annual Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle WA.

The winners are:

FANTASY NOVEL

Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (Orbit)

YOUNG ADULT BOOK

The Shepherd’s Crown, Terry Pratchett (Harper)

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Future Treasures: The Unnaturalists by Tiffany Trent

Future Treasures: The Unnaturalists by Tiffany Trent

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Tiffany Trent is the author of the six-volume Hallowmere historical fantasy series, published in paperback by Mirrorstone. But my first exposure to her was in 2012, when I attended a superb reading series hosted by Wiscon in Madison. Here’s what I said in my convention report.

The first reading of the con for me was The Sisterhood of the Traveling Corset, featuring Tiffany Trent, Franny Billingsley, Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer… my favorite tale from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Corset was Tiffany Trent’s The Unnaturalists.

Set in an alternate London where magical creatures are preserved in museums, The Unnaturalists follows plucky young Vespa Nyx, who is happily cataloging unnatural creatures in her father’s museum until she becomes involved in Syrus Reed’s attempts to free his Tinker family, who have been captured to be refinery slaves. Funny, fast-paced, and packed with lively characters, Tiffany Trent’s novel captured my attention immediately.

The Unnaturalists was a success, and it spawned a sequel, The Tinker King, published in hardcover in February 2014. The Unnaturalists was published in hardcover by Simon & Schuster on August 14, 2012, and in trade paperback on August 13, 2013. It will be reprinted in mass market paperback by Saga Press on June 28, 2016, to be followed by the mass market edition of The Tinker King, on July 26. The Unnaturalists is 311 pages, priced at $7.99. The cover is by Aaron Goodman.

Barnes & Noble on 7 Essential New Sci-Fi & Fantasy Short Story Collections

Barnes & Noble on 7 Essential New Sci-Fi & Fantasy Short Story Collections

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A Natural History of Hell-smallThe Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog continues to be a great source of recs for the discerning reader. They had a fine summary of the Best SF and Fantasy of 2015, and their monthly list of the best new books on the shelves is an excellent resource (our most recent look was back in March, when their list included Myke Cole’s Javelin Rain and Adrian Selby’s Snakewood.)

This week Sam Reader takes a look at seven recent SF and fantasy short story collections, including Kelly Link’s Get in Trouble, Joan Aiken’s The People in the Castle, and Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. His list also includes the latest collection from Jeffrey Ford, whose spectacular story “Exo-Skeleton Town” was one of the most memorable tales in Black Gate 1. Here’s Sam’s description of A Natural History of Hell: Stories.

Jeffrey Ford is probably writing your dreams. It’s the best way to describe his surreal style, which frequently relies on an internal structure and logic to convey images that teeter between odd fantasy and unsettling horror, while remaining impossibly grounded in a tangible reality. A Natural History of Hell (out in July) goes to some odd places, with genre-bending stories about artists trapped on a rocket ship, imaginary serial murderers, and God being torn apart by an angry mob, but it leaves plenty of room for beauty, however dark. It also contains one of my personal favorite stories from last year, “Word Doll,” in which children are lured into a world of make-believe. If you’re looking for something you haven’t seen before, look no further than these 13 stories.

Standout stories: “A Rocket Ship to Hell,” “The Blameless.”

A Natural History of Hell: Stories will be published by Small Beer Press on July 26, 2016. It is 256 pages, priced at $16 in trade paperback.

See the complete article at the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog.