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Finding the Best: An Interview with Year’s Best Editors Ellen Datlow, Paula Guran, Rich Horton and Gardner Dozois

Finding the Best: An Interview with Year’s Best Editors Ellen Datlow, Paula Guran, Rich Horton and Gardner Dozois

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The Year's Best Science Fiction Thirtieth Annual CollectionThe following is a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat (SFFWRTCHT) special for Black Gate.

For the first time, I was able to gather four of the Year’s Best editors to chat about genre, how they do what they do, why and more. So here are Ellen Datlow, Paula Guran, Rich Horton, and Gardner Dozois.

SFFWRTCHT: Where’d your interest in SFF come from?

Ellen Datlow: I was reading everything in my parents’ apartment from a very young age. I encountered Bullfinch’s Mythology, The Odyssey, the stories of Guy de Maupassant and Nathaniel Hawthorne. I read all the comic books in my father’s luncheonette, including the ones with ichor on the covers.

Paula Guran: I devoured books of all kinds growing up. Loved mythology and fairy tales. Probably encountered supernatural tales first from an old treasury of American folktales of my father’s and science fiction specifically with Podkayne Of Mars. Although I still read all sorts of material, SF/F became a portion of my reading thanks to my older cousin. She made up SF stories and illustrated them herself — sort of an oral graphic novel – and told them to her younger sister and me.

She also handed me a couple of Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars books with really cool covers and an Andre Norton Witch World book. Double wowzers.

I also read comic books: Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Justice League were some of my favorites.

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The 2013 World Fantasy Awards Ballot

The 2013 World Fantasy Awards Ballot

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alif-the-unseenThe 2013 World Fantasy Awards Ballot, compiled by the voting attendees of the World Fantasy Convention, has just been released.

The coveted Life Achievement Award is being given to two recipients for the first time (I think). Susan Cooper (author of The Dark is Rising sequence) and Tanith Lee (author of The Silver Metal Lover, The Secret Books of Paradys, and dozens of others) are both masters of the genre. They will receive the award on November 3 in Brighton, UK, during the World Fantasy Convention.

The winners in every other category will be be selected by a panel of judges. Here’s the complete list of nominees, with links to our previous coverage:

Life Achievement

  • Susan Cooper
  • Tanith Lee

Novel

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New Treasures: The Best British Fantasy, edited by Steve Hayes

New Treasures: The Best British Fantasy, edited by Steve Hayes

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The Best British Fantasy 2013-smallIf you’ve been reading this site for more than, say, ten minutes, you’re probably aware that I’m a big fan of anthologies. And I’m especially fond of the Best of the Year anthologies.

It’s definitely that time of the year. Jonathan Strahan’s The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Seven, was released in May (we covered it here), and Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2013 Edition arrived on July 10 (here).

Gardner Dozois’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection was published on July 23, and Paula Guran’s The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2013 Edition will debut on August 20. The other major contender, David G. Hartwell’s Year’s Best SF 18, has been delayed to December.

And now there’s a new kid on the block. Newcomer Steve Hayes has assembled a promising volume dedicated to the best in British fantasy, including tales from Mark Morris, Lavie Tidhar, Steph Swainston, Lisa Tuttle, and many more. If I had to guess, I’d say the contents run towards the Dark Fantasy side of the spectrum, just based on the subtitle at the bottom: Discover How Dark British Fantasy is Willing to Go.  Here’s the complete description.

From the post-apocalyptic American West to the rural terror in New Zealand, this major anthology has evil spirits, bin-Laden style assassinations, steampunk, sexual dysfunction, a twisted version of Peter Pan, the folklore of standing stones, mermaids, alien tour guides, zombies, gruesome beasts, voice-controlled police states, environmental disasters and off world penal colonies. Unmissable.

Featuring (among others) Simon Bestwick, Joseph D’Lacey, Cate Gardner, Carole Johnstone, Tyler Keevil, Kim Lakin-Smith, Alison Littlewood, Cheryl Moore, Mark Morris, Adam Neville, Lavie Tidhar, Sam Stone, Steph Swainston, E.J. Swift, Lisa Tuttle, Simon Unsworth, Jon Wallace.

It contains a great many stories from names I’m unfamiliar with, which isn’t a bad thing. I’m always on the lookout for new talent, and this seems like a great way to discover it.

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Jinnrise and the Game of Life

Jinnrise and the Game of Life

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Jinnrise #1-small“The game of life’s about us all…wherever we are or wherever we’re from.” Jinnrise, my comic book series published by IDW Publishing, was inspired by this mantra and line from issue #1. The best of stories, those that resonate throughout the ages, start with the seeds of a theme.

Informed by the writer’s passions and experiences, the essence of the story springs forth. Such was the case for me.

Growing up in a mixed heritage household, I found myself drawn to novels, comics, and films that celebrated our common humanity. Fears, hopes, nightmares, and dreams: the ties that bind were what fascinated me the most. The outer trappings and vehicles of storytelling? In the short term, they didn’t really matter.

As I became a more discerning fan of genre entertainment, I grew less and less excited about the tentpole projects being announced year after year. Conventions like San Diego Comic-Com were no longer celebrations, but yearly commentaries on the growing stagnancy in science fiction and fantasy.

How many stories with zombies, vampires, robots, and wizards could one enjoy without being overwhelmed by déjà vu?

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Some Mysteries You Don’t Want to Solve: Exploring Dead Rock Seven

Some Mysteries You Don’t Want to Solve: Exploring Dead Rock Seven

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dead-rock-sevenOne of the most popular gaming articles I’ve written in the last year was my review of Robin D. Laws’s Ashen Stars, the new science fiction RPG from Pelgrane Press. Month after month, that review has been creeping up the traffic charts.

It’s not hard to see why. Ashen Stars is one of the best new SF games on the market — and one of the best new RPGs in any category. It was a winner in the “Best Setting” category in the 2012 ENnie Awards and Pelgrane Press has continued to support it with top-notch adventures and other supplements. It’s taken a while to catch on, but the industry is starting to notice.

Here’s what I said, in part, in my October review:

Robin D. Laws has created an extremely appealing game of space opera procedural mysteries. In the tradition of the best hard boiled detective fiction, players are constantly scrambling for money, equipment, and respect… all of which they’ll need to succeed in a war-ravaged perimeter where trust is a precious commodity, and very little is truly what it seems.

The players in Ashen Stars are private eyes — excuse me, licensed mercenaries — acting as freelance law enforcement on a rough-and-tumble frontier called “the Bleed,” where humans and half a dozen alien races mingle, compete, and trade. The Mohilar War that devastated the once powerful governing Combine ended seven years ago, and no one is sure exactly how. The Combine is in no shape to govern the Bleed, and rely on loosely-chartered bands like the players to maintain peace in the sector, keep a lid on crime, and investigate odd distress signals from strange corners of space…

The writing and color art are impressive throughout, and the book is filled with fascinating tidbits that will make you anxious to play, and re-introduce you to the essential joy of role playing.

Given a game with that much promise, I was anxious to see what kinds of adventures would arrive to really flesh it out. Now I finally have my hands on the first major campaign for the setting, Dead Rock Seven, a set of four scenarios by Gareth Hanrahan, and I’m pleased to report that I’m not disappointed.

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‘Masterfully Told’: Tangent Online on “The Keystone”

‘Masterfully Told’: Tangent Online on “The Keystone”

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AppleMarkLouis West at Tangent Online reports on the final chapter in Mark Rigney’s The Tales of Gemen saga, published here on August 4th:

The quirky yet relentless Gemen finally completes his life-long mission to rebuild the portal through which his sister had disappeared so long ago. Except, once the portal is reconstructed, nothing goes as Gemen had planned. This masterfully told story closes out this trilogy yet opens possibilities for continued Gemen adventures since, as Gemen himself concludes, “the world is once more in play.”

The tension never stops, starting with nightmares, followed by chases across half the world, as two forces pursue Gemen and his party. The Corvaen seek justice for wrongs Gemen has visited upon them, and the Thornland Raiders, merciless reavers from a long-abandoned land, are zealously bent on destroying Gemen…

Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. I highly recommend the complete trilogy.

“The Keystone” is the third and final installment of The Tales of Gemen, which opened with “The Trade,” which Tangent Online called a “Marvelous tale. Can’t wait for the next part” — and “The Find,” which Tangent called “Reminiscent of the old sword & sorcery classics. I can’t wait to see what fate awaits Gemen. A must read.”

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Vaughn Heppner, Mark Rigney, Aaron Bradford Starr, Jamie McEwan, Martha Wells, Mary Catelli, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, E.E. Knight, C.S.E. Cooney, Howard Andrew Jones, Harry Connolly, and many others, is here.

“The Keystone” is a complete 15,000-word tale of weird fantasy. It is offered at no cost. Read the complete story here.

New Treasures: Pile of Bones by Bailey Cunningham

New Treasures: Pile of Bones by Bailey Cunningham

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Pile of Bones Bailey Cunningham-smallUsually when I’m looking for new reading material, I turn to one of my old favorites. Or I’ll try the latest novel by a BG contributor, or by an author I’ve met recently at a convention. It’s a rare thing these days when I crack open a book by someone I know absolutely nothing about. But sometimes I miss those days when the whole field was new and I approached every book with no expectations — nothing but a willingness to be entertained and transported. In those days, I was constantly delighted, surprised by almost every book I read.

And you know what? I think the two are connected.

Once upon a time, every author I tried was new and all I knew was wonder and magic. Now I read exclusively the same small circle of authors and very little surprises me anymore. So to recapture that wonder again, I try the simplest thing: I read new authors. Writers like Bailey Cunningham, whose first novel, Pile of Bones, first in the Parallel Parks series, was just released by Ace Books.

In one world, they’re ordinary university students. In another world, they are a company of heroes in a place of magic and myth called Anfractus…

The Cree called the area Oscana, “pile of bones,” a fertile hunting ground where game abounded. The white settlers changed that to Wascana. And centuries later, it became Wascana Park, a wooded retreat in the midst of the urban sprawl of Regina.

For a select few, who stay in the park until midnight, the land reverts into a magical kingdom, populated by heroes and monsters. They become warriors, bards, archers, gladiators. In the city called Anfractus, they live out a real-life role playing game.

All harmless fun — until they find themselves in the middle of an assassination plot which threatens to upset the balance of everything. Politics are changing, and old borders are about to disappear. The magic of Anfractus is bleeding into the real world — an incursion far more dangerous than the students suspect. Only they know what is happening — and only they can stop it…

Pile of Bones was published July 30th by Ace Books. It is 321 pages, priced at $7.99 for both the paperback and the digital version. The sequel is Path of Smoke.

Deepest, Darkest Eden: Return to Hyperborea

Deepest, Darkest Eden: Return to Hyperborea

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HyperboreaCoverDEEPEST, DARKEST EDEN: New Tales of Hyperborea is a new fantasy anthology from Miskatonic River Press. Editor Cody Goodfellow has assembled 17 stories (and two poems) set in the primordial world of Clark Ashton Smith‘s Hyperborea.

Although it officially launches this month at the Rhode Island NecronomiCon, the book is available right now through Amazon. Here is the Table of Contents:

Nick Mamatas – “Hostage”
Joe Pulver – “To Walk Night…Alone”
Darrell Schweitzer – “In Old Commoriom”
Ann K. Schwader – “Yhoundeh Fades” (poem)
Cody Goodfellow – “Coil Of The Ouroboros”
John R. Fultz – “Daughter Of The Elk Goddess”
Brian R. Sammons – “The Darkness Below”
Dieter Meier – “The Conquest Of Rhizopium”
Lisa Morton – “Zolamin And The Mad God”
Brian Stableford – “The Lost Archetype”
Ran Cartwright – “One Last Task For Athammaus”
Don Webb – “The Beauties Of Polarion”
Robert M. Price – “The Debt Owed Abhoth”
Marc Laidlaw – “The Frigid Ilk Of Sarn Kathool”
Charles Schneider – “The Return Of The Crystal”
John Shirley – “Rodney LaSalle Has A Job Waiting in Commoriom”
Zak Jarvis – “The Winter Of Atiradarinsept ”
Jesse Bullington – “The Door From Earth”
Ann K. Schwader – “Weird Of The White Sybil” (poem)

Most of Smith’s original Hyperborean tales ran in WEIRD TALES in the 1930s. They featured lost cities, haunted jungles, strange sorcery, and terrible demon-gods such as Tsathoggua and Abhoth. His entire cycle of these tales was gathered into a single volume first in 1971’s HYPERBOREA from Ballantine Books, then again in 1996 for THE BOOK OF HYPERBOREA from Necronomicon Press.

(See the entire wrap-around cover after the jump…)

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ARAK Issue # 6: “The Stalkers of the Snows”

ARAK Issue # 6: “The Stalkers of the Snows”

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ARAK6CRight off the bat (no pun intended), the cover tips us off that this issue will feature the blood-sucking undead!

In the eerie blue glow of the full moon, a vampire swoops down on sword-drawn Arak like a bomber lugging twin torpedoes. And, oh dear, those sharp fangs aren’t the only pair of pointy objects poised to pierce Arak or poke his eyes out. (Yeah, they’re hard to miss, framed as they are by the yellow moon.)

[Okay, the adolescent male has been sent back to his room in my psyche; now let’s summarize this issue with less juvenile eyes, shall we?]

We don’t get to any vampires until 19 pages in; this issue fits a recurring pattern of narrative structure that reserves the monster-of-the-month for the last five pages or so, while the first four-fifths of the issue covers court intrigue and character development that furthers the overarching plot.

Arak returns from being demon-flung out of the sorceress Angelica’s tent the night before, arriving at Carolus Magnus’s jousting tournament just in time to reveal to the Twelve Peers that Angelica’s brother Argalia cheated by using sorcery when he defeated the champion Rinaldo last ish. Also, by the way, her demons have carted off one of the Twelve, the court magician Malagigi, to White Cathay.

Most of the Twelve (well, they’re down to ten now, since one seat has been mysteriously empty and, of course, poor old Malagigi is a hostage to goat-footed devils) dismiss the charges of the “savage heathen,” since it is his word against Angelica and Argalia, who are both nobility and allegedly Christian.

The ensuing exchange rather amusingly ticks off Arak, who lays out a good case of circumstantial evidence and shows himself to be smarter than just about all the rest of them combined. Even Valda, usually stoically silent, intervenes, telling the rest of her Peers that they should heed the words of Arak.

All this gets her is a snickering remark from the Bishop: “Well, now! It seems rave Valda is smitten with the young savage!” Another one chimes in, “Perhaps we should call her the ‘Iron Maiden’ no more, eh?” Nudge nudge wink wink. Man, and you thought I was juvenile! These guys need a serious come-uppance.

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Vintage Treasures: The Best of Edmond Hamilton

Vintage Treasures: The Best of Edmond Hamilton

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The Best Of Edmond Hamilton-smallEdmond Hamilton is my favorite pulp writer and he has been since I read the chilling short story “The Man Who Evolved” in Before the Golden Age. (Read the complete story online at The Nostalgia League.)

That’s a long time, especially considering how many pulp tales I’ve read in the intervening years. But Hamilton had a lengthy and productive career — he was one of the few writers to survive both the coming of Campbell, who ushered in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, and the death of pulps more than a decade later.

Hamilton’s first published story, “The Monster-God of Mamurth,” appeared in the August 1926 issue of Weird Tales. It was a fully realized tale of eldritch horror, following the exploits of a group of explorers who discover a legendary lost city in the desert and the sinister spider-things who inhabit it still.

When we began including reprints in the print version of Black Gate, “The Monster-God of Mamurth” was the second one we chose, and it appeared in BG 2, with all-original art by Allen Koszowski (see one of the magnificently creepy illos he did for us here).

Hamilton quickly became one of Weird Tales‘ most popular and prolific writers, appearing alongside H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. All told he sold 79 stories to Farnsworth Wright and the magazine’s later editors between 1926 and 1948; only Seabury Quinn and August Derleth appeared more often in the magazine’s pages.

According to his ISFDB page, Hamilton wrote exactly 200 short stories for the magazines between 1926 and his death in 1977. He appeared in virtually all the science fiction and fantasy pulps, including Air Wonder Stories, Wonder Stories, Thrilling Wonder, Super Science Stories, Amazing Stories, Fantastic Science Fiction, and many others.

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