Browsed by
Category: BG Staff

Return to the World of The Three Musketeers in Blood Royal by Alexandre Dumas

Return to the World of The Three Musketeers in Blood Royal by Alexandre Dumas

Comments 0 Comment

Blood Royal Alexandre Dumas-smallNeed a break from obsessively following US election results tonight? I have just the thing: Blood Royal, the latest entry in the acclaimed series of new translations of the Musketeer novels by our very own Lawrence Ellsworth, is on sale today.

I’ve really been enjoying Lawrence’s Cinema of Swords series here at Black Gate. But his day job is even cooler: he’s been bringing Alexandre Dumas’s classic novels of swashbuckling intrigue back into print in exciting and handsome new editions, complete with modern translations.

The latest, Blood Royal, continues the adventures of the valiant d’Artagnan and his three loyal friends. It follows The Red Sphinx and the newly translated The Three Musketeers; here’s what Lawrence told us about it last week.

Blood Royal is the second volume of Dumas’s Twenty Years After; there hadn’t been a significant new English translation of this novel in over a century, which was reason enough to take on the challenge, but the truth is I did it because it was so much fun.

Here’s the publisher’s description.

The latest translation in Lawrence Ellsworth’s acclaimed new series of Alexandre Dumas’s greatest adventures is Blood Royal, the second half of what Dumas originally published as Twenty Years After. In this volume all the plots and schemes set up in the previous novel come to dramatic fruition in the kind of exciting thrill-ride Dumas is famous for — while at the same time introducing the characters and themes that form the foundation of the rest of the series, leading to its great climax in The Man in the Iron Mask.

In Blood Royal, the Four Musketeers all venture to England on parallel missions to save King Charles I, pursued by the murderous and vengeful Mordaunt, the son of Milady de Winter, the great villain of The Three Musketeers. Despite all his experience, d’Artagnan is repeatedly foiled by the much-younger Mordaunt, who erupts out of the past to embody the strengths of audacity and cunning that were once d’Artagnan’s hallmarks. Mordaunt has corrupted those youthful strengths, and the older d’Artagnan is no match for him until he is able to pull his former team together again. To do this d’Artagnan will have to become a true leader of men, leading not just by example but also by foresight, persuasion, and compromise. Only then can the team of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis be re-formed in all its might to defeat the specter of their past. Blood Royal is unmatched in Dumas’s oeuvre in its depictions of his most famous and beloved characters, and an unforgettable saga of swordplay, suspense, revenge, and ultimate triumph.

Blood Royal was published today by Pegasus Books. It is 496 pages, priced at $26.95 in hardcover and $17.99 in digital formats.

See all our recent coverage of the best new releases here.

Read Matthew David Surridge’s Sword & Sorcery Novella “The Great Work” at Patreon

Read Matthew David Surridge’s Sword & Sorcery Novella “The Great Work” at Patreon

Comments 0 Comment

Matthew Surridge The Book of Days

Matthew David Surridge’s novellete “The Word of Azrael” first appeared in Black Gate 14, and was one of the most widely acclaimed stories we ever published. Tangent Online called it “One of the strongest heroic fantasies I have seen in years,” and Rich Horton selected it for the 2011 Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy. In his Locus review Rich said:

Even better is Matthew Surridge’s “The Word of Azrael.” It concerns Isrohim Vey, who sees the Angel of Death on a battlefield and as a result is spared — more a curse than a blessing — to search again for the Angel. His search almost takes the form of a catalog of sword & sorcery tropes, his many adventures told briefly but with style and an ironic edge. Surridge both celebrates and winks at the genre. It’s very entertaining, clever, and even thought-provoking.

Matthew’s name will be familiar to regular readers of this blog; he’s published nearly 500 articles and reviews here over the years, and he’s especially well known for his extensive coverage of Montreal’s Fantasia film festival. He also maintains a Patreon feed, which he’s described as “a way to help me fulfill a long-planned project: writing short stories, across a range of genres, that together will create a vast mosaic of fiction.” Last month Matthew unveiled a major new project he’d recently completed:

I’ve got a new novella-length story at my Patreon. And it’s sword-and-sorcery! It’s a dungeon-crawl carried out by the adventurers’ hirelings. Dark fantasy, maybe; maybe some horror-y elements. And it’s about 20 000 words long.

“The Great Work” is available in its entirety as part of Matthew Patreon, you can join and support him for as little as $1 a month. You’ll also receive access to 31 articles and other works. Check it out, and support one of the most talented fantasy writers at work today!

Strange Plants, Ruined Cities, and the Dangers of Antarctic Exploration: Weirdbook #43

Strange Plants, Ruined Cities, and the Dangers of Antarctic Exploration: Weirdbook #43

Comments 0 Comment
Weirdbook 43-small Weirdbook 43 contents-small

Cover by Fotolia

It was a pleasure to get the latest issue of Weirdbook in the mail last month. Sadly, as has become almost routine, editor Doug Draa devotes much of his heartfelt editorial to eulogizing a lost contributor, in this case the talented author Joseph S. Pulver. (Though in the process he did misspell Pulver’s name, something also fairly routine for Weirdbook. A spellchecker would have caught the mistake, and the ones in the next few sentences. Amateur editing is part of the magazine’s charm, and certainly doesn’t bother most readers, but better copyediting wouldn’t hurt.)

Here it is, Weirdbook #43. Our 13th regular issue since the relaunch. I really can’t decide on whether calling this our “Baker’s Dozen” issue of our “Advent of the Apocalypse” issue…

This issue contains one of Joeseph (sic) Pulver, Sr.’s last stories, “Will Home Remember Me?” I say “last” because Joe passed away April 24th. It such (sic) an honor to receive the story last year. Joe was a genuine giant of weird fiction and a great man in his own right. He’ll be missed by his legions of fans and friends.

I want to believe that he’s giving them hell this very minute in not-so-Lost Carcosa and is enjoying himselv (sic) immensely while doing so!

Godspeed, Joe.

Draa and Wildside committed to an aggressive publication schedule when they relaunched the magazine five years ago, and for the most part they’ve achieved it, producing nearly three issues per year (plus the occasional Weirdbook Annual). And the magazine looks fantastic, with consistently striking cover art, and top-notch interiors by the great Allen Koszowski. Issue #43 contains stories by Black Gate writers John R. Fultz and Darrell Schweitzer, plus Adrian Cole, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr, Glynn Owen Barrass, L.F. Falconer, and others.

…

Read More Read More

A Sinister Quartet: An All Authors-Signed Giveaway, with 4 Original Postcards by Paula Arwen Owen

A Sinister Quartet: An All Authors-Signed Giveaway, with 4 Original Postcards by Paula Arwen Owen

Comments 15 comments

A Sinister Quartet postcards-small

We, the authors of The Sinister Quartet, have done it all this year!

We’ve done ZOOM readings! We’ve made up playlists, recipes, cocktails (and mocktails!) to go with our dark-hearted stories! We’ve done a Reddit AMA, and The Big Idea over at Scalzi’s blog!

Lately, we did that GINORMOUS interview with Zig Zag Claybourne here at Black Gate magazine!

And now, we’ve got PRESENTS! For YOU!

We’re doing a GIVEAWAY here at Black Gate magazine!

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS.

…

Read More Read More

A Shipwreck, a Mystery, and a 60-Ton Killer Robot: “The Ambient Intelligence” by Todd McAulty

A Shipwreck, a Mystery, and a 60-Ton Killer Robot: “The Ambient Intelligence” by Todd McAulty

Comments 8 comments

Lightspeed Magazine Issue 125 October 2020-smallHey hey! This is exciting — my first short story publication in many years appeared last week in Lightspeed magazine!

The story is “The Ambient Intelligence,” and it’s free to read online. It’s published under the name Todd McAulty, the name all my stories appeared under in Black Gate magazine all those years ago. Here’s what John Joseph Adams said about the story in his editorial for the October issue:

Welcome to Lightspeed’s 125th issue! Do you love power armor? Do you love giant robots? Do you love people in power armor fighting giant robots? Well then, we’ve got you covered! Todd McAulty’s newest short story (“The Ambient Intelligence”) is here to meet all your power armor vs. robot needs.

He’s not kidding about the robots. “The Ambient Intelligence” is the story of Canadian Barry Simcoe and his robot friend Zircon Border, who face off against a mysterious 60-ton killer robot hiding in a shipwreck on the shores of Lake Michigan… one that’s hiding a very big secret. It shares a setting (and two characters) with my debut novel The Robots of Gotham, but it’s not otherwise related to that book, and stands completely on its own.

Black Gate subscribers may remember (stretching back many years now) that Todd McAulty had four stories in the print magazine:

“The Haunting of Cold Harbour” (Black Gate 3, 2002)
“There’s a Hole in October” (Black Gate 5, 2003)
“Amnesty” (Black Gate 7, 2004)
“The Soldiers of Serenity” (Black Gate 12, 2008)

Read “The Ambient Intelligence” in its entirety here. And if you enjoy it, why not help support Lightspeed with a subscription? Six-months subs will run you just $17.94, for more than 50 stories — a whopping 350,000 words of fiction. It’s one of the true bargains in the fields. And thanks for your support!

Zig Zag Claybourne’s Exclusive Interview with A Sinister Quartet Authors

Zig Zag Claybourne’s Exclusive Interview with A Sinister Quartet Authors

Comments 0 Comment

Screen Shot 2020-10-11 at 3.40.28 PMAh, Horror in the time of Covid! It seems almost superfluous, like a feather boa on an ostrich.

However, we the authors of A Sinister Quartet (Mythic Delirium 2020), have pranced fancily forward on that ostrich! Ostriches piled on ostriches! Feather boas galore! Which feather boas, I might add, sport an unnerving number of teeth and eyeballs.

(Editor and author Mike Allen likes to say of our book: “It’s the fun horror, the kind you consume for imaginative shocks and chills, not the kind that weighs on you like the stones that killed Giles Corey in The Crucible as you helplessly doomscroll through social media.”)

In the spirit of fun then, we approached the rollickingly magnificent Zig Zag Claybourne, who probably has the most fun-on-page of any writer I know–and I live with Carlos Hernandez! (Okay, I confess; it’s a toss-up).

Zig Zag, who’d already read A Sinister Quartet and given it an enthusiastic and incisive review, when asked if he might interview us for Black Gate, generously agreed! His questions were every bit as nuanced, as delicious, as sharp-edged, as playful, as hopeful as his own prose. And so, without any more ado…

ZIG ZAG CLAYBOURNE: When I finished the Advance Readers’ copy of A Sinister Quartet, my thoughts ran this way:

There’s a theme in this book, likely unintended, grown organically out of the times, of not giving up, regardless of fatigue, pain, unfairness or a sense that you are small and meaner forces are grotesquely big.

…

Read More Read More

Halloween Horror E-Book Sale at Mythic Delirium Books

Halloween Horror E-Book Sale at Mythic Delirium Books

Comments 0 Comment

Mythic Delirium Halloween Horror Sale

Graphic by Brett Massé, brettmasseworks.com

Halloween Horror Sale!

 
My Mythic Delirium Books micropress and I went all in on horror for 2020, and I want to emphasize that it’s the fun horror, the kind you consume for imaginative shocks and chills, not the kind that weighs on you like the stones that killed Giles Corey in The Crucible as you helplessly doomscroll through social media.

There’s lots going on this October, to say the least, but October is the month to celebrate specters, haints and Elder Things, and we at Mythic Delirium are determined to do our part. That’s why we’ve dropped the price of our three spookiest e-books down to 99 cents. And anyone who follows the directions can get a fourth e-book free. (More about how that works below.)

Let me tell you a little bit about each book.

…

Read More Read More

Support the Kickstarter for Ryan Harvey’s Debut Novel Turn Over the Moon

Support the Kickstarter for Ryan Harvey’s Debut Novel Turn Over the Moon

Comments 0 Comment

Turn Over the Moon Ryan Harvey

Cover by Robert Zoltan

Hot damn, it’s October already. This is an exciting month for the senior Black Gate staff, and one we’ve long awaited. The Kickstarter for the debut novel by one of our own, the illustrious Ryan Harvey, was launched yesterday.

The book is Turn Over the Moon, and it takes place in Ahn-Tarqa, the setting for “The Sorrowless Thief” and “Stand at Dubun-Geb.” Both stories first appeared here, where they quickly became two of the most popular features in our Black Gate Online Fiction line. Ryan was also one of the original bloggers at Black Gate, where he’s published over 300 articles on everything from John Carpenter to Godzilla and Hammer Horror Films. Turn Over the Moon is hotly anticipated in our offices; here’s Ryan with a bit of background on the book.

At the heart of Turn Over the Moon and the other stories set on the otherworldly continent of Ahn-Tarqa is “The Sorrow,” a mental burden almost all people suffer from. When I first hatched the idea of Ahn-Tarqa, it was as a playground where I could mix dinosaurs, ancient civilizations, and weird science. A place where I could write scenes of a Tyrannosaurus fighting a metal automaton made from archaic technology.

But the world was missing something that would make it more than a fun sandbox. I started to think of authors who have influenced me; the tone of melancholy lurking under the works Raymond Chandler, Leigh Brackett, Clark Ashton Smith, and Cornell Woolrich made me wonder what would a world where melancholy was the basis of existence might be like. A world where what we today call “depression” is as regular as breathing. I came up with “The Sorrow,” and then my fictional world was no longer a backdrop but something alive and rich.

In order to reach publication, Turn Over the Moon needs your help. The Kickstarter goal is $1000, and after 24 hours it’s already more than a third of the way there, but it still needs support to put it over the top. If you’re a fan of quality modern fantasy, the kind we cover every day right here, I hope you’ll check it out and make a pledge. Tell ’em Black Gate sent you!

Sorcery, Foxkin, Giants, and the Return of Dabir & Asim: Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #45!

Sorcery, Foxkin, Giants, and the Return of Dabir & Asim: Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #45!

Comments 4 comments

Epic Swamp

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #45 was released on an unsuspecting world on the second of August. Four works of fiction, one outstanding poem, plus artwork and audio. A great issue that you should check out!

What have we got? This is what we’ve got:

Fiction Contents

Assailing the Garden of Pleasure, by Danial Ausema, with audio by Karen Bovenmeyer. The wounded apprentices of a corrupt teacher must gather what little power and skill they have to attempt to wrest the stolen parts of themselves from their corrupt master. The mastery of sorcery exacts a price. The search for vengeance exacts an even greater one.

Fox Hunt, by Rebecca Buchanan, with artwork by Simon Walpole and audio by Karen Bovenmeyer. There is a horror worming its way into the world of feudal Japan in this outstanding story. No bold samurai or powerful sorcerer fights against it — only a lone foxkin and a willful old woman stands in its way. A unique tale!

…

Read More Read More

Understanding Gamers through Belly Laughs: Knights of the Dinner Table by Jolly R. Blackburn

Understanding Gamers through Belly Laughs: Knights of the Dinner Table by Jolly R. Blackburn

Comments 14 comments

Knights of the Dinner Table 2020-small

Three issues of Jolly Blackburn’s long-running
Knights of the Dinner Table, all shipped simultaneously: #273, 274, & 275

The COVID-19 pandemic has played havoc with virtually every aspect of life around the globe. That was driven home to me (again) when three issues of my Knights of the Dinner Table subscription were delivered in a single envelope last week.

Given all the upheaval the world has gone through in just the last five months, it was an eerie look into the recent past to open the first of them, issue #273 (planned on-sale date: May 2020) and read Jolly R. Blackburn’s editorial, written in March 2020 and titled “And Just Like That — Everything Changes.” Children of the Apocalypse, gather round and read these words from the long ago before-time:

Hey folks — I hope this finds each of you reading this, healthy, safe and doing well. Clearly, with what has transpired in recent weeks, that is most certainly not the case for everyone. Many of you have likely lost loved ones, are sick, unemployed, wondering what the future will bring or all of the above. This is indeed something that has left no one untouched.

I [know] that Knights of the Dinner Table has always been a refuge of sorts from the hard realities of the real world. Readers come here to forget their worries, have a laugh, possibly be touched and celebrate the love of rolling dice and gaming with friends. That won’t change… we’re all in this together, despite differences.

As I write this, there is a lot going on. The nation is in a state of self-isolation and shut down. I wanted to tell you what that means for KenzerCo and the Knights even though in the grand scheme of things, it might be the last thing on your minds. We are fortunate in that we are a small company with our own warehouse and shipping facility. Barb and I continue to ship product twice a week and can do so without interacting with others. So we are completely safe in doing so.

Here’s the glitch. Our distributors recently announced they will NOT be shipping product to retailers until this is all over. Which is understandable because many game and comic shops are currently shutting down and there’s no place to ship product to.

On top of that, the printer who publishes our monthly deadtree issues is in a shutdown also!

Take it from me: It’s tough to keep a monthly magazine going when both your printer and your distributors cease operations. But Jolly and team battened down the hatches and did it, producing digital issues, and getting them out to subscribers, on time. And when their printer opened up again they did a bulk run of all three issues, shipping them to subscribers as quickly as possible. Getting all three at once allowed me to read the issues back-to-back, and re-appraise just what it is that Jolly is doing, and how much it’s impacted the hobby.

…

Read More Read More