Blog Entry – Page 361

New Treasures: Appalachian Overthrow by E.E. Knight

Wednesday, April 10, 2013 John ONeill Comments 4 comments

I’m a huge fan of E.E. Knight’s Vampire Earth novels. For me it started years ago, with the paperback editions of the first two books in the series, Way of the Wolf and Choice of the Cat.

If you’re new to the series, of course, things are easier. You don’t have long waits between releases, haunting bookstores for the next installment. You can even get the first three novels in a handsome omnibus edition from the Science Fiction Book Club, Enter the Wolf, as we reported right here last month.

Appalachian Overthrow, the tenth novel in E.E. Knight’s exciting series, arrived in stores last week. This volume focuses on David Valentine’s fellow freedom fighter Ahn-Kha, telling a tale of the time when he was imprisoned and forced into hard labor by the alien Kurians — and the rebellion he led against them.

Captured and sold to the Kurian–allied Maynes Conglomerate, to work as a slave in the coal mines of Appalachia, Ahn-Kha is angered and appalled by the dangerous working conditions, and the brutal treatment inflicted upon his fellow miners. When a protest against shortages is deliberately and bloodily suppressed, Ahn-Kha sets himself against the ruling Maynes family and sets out on a trail of vengeance through the Coal Country.

Finally, the people of the Coal Country are driven to the breaking point — and they now have a leader, a powerful and battle-hardened leader, determined to forge them into an army that will wage guerrilla warfare against the Maynes family and their Kurian masters — and free the Appalachians from their tyranny…

E.E. Knight’s Blue Pligrim story “The Terror in the Vale” was one of the most popular stories we’ve published as part of our Black Gate Online Fiction line. It is a relentless and chilling tale of sword and sorcery, with an ending that will stay with you long after you turn off the monitor and climb into bed. Read the complete story free here.

Appalachian Overthrow was published by Roc on April 2. It is 339 pages in hardcover, priced at $24.95 ($11.99 for the digital edition).

Skull Island eXpeditions is the New Fiction Imprint of Privateer Press

Tuesday, April 9, 2013 John ONeill Comments 3 comments

With all the recent bad news, it’s good to see signs of resiliency in the fantasy genre. The best news is always the launch of an exciting new market, and that’s why I was so pleased to see the recent announcement of Privateer Press’s new fiction line, Skull Island eXpeditions.

Of course, I’m pleased for purely selfish reasons as well. Skull Island eXpeditions promises just what I’m looking for: original adventure fantasy from exciting new writers.

Privateer Press has been a genuine Cinderella story in the gaming industry. Founded in 2000 by Matt Wilson and a small group of players and investors, Privateer Press grew and expanded during a series of painful contractions in the market. Lots of dynamic and exciting companies came and went during the d20 boom-and bust cycle, while Privateer Press quietly built a thriving business and an extremely loyal fan base for their tabletop miniatures games Warmachine and Hordes.

Set in the Iron Kingdoms, both games are renowned for their high quality and excellent production values. They’ve received the highest accolades the industry has to offer, including six Origins awards and numerous Ennies.

The Iron Kingdoms, with its inventive mix of steampunk and magic, has always seemed like a natural setting for
fiction to me, and it seems I’m not alone. Last week, Matt Wilson announced an ambitious plan to explore the world of Caen with monthly fiction from some familiar names and some exciting newcomers — with Black Gate‘s own Scott Taylor at the helm.

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Fantastic Science Fiction Stories, December 1959: A Retro-Review

Tuesday, April 9, 2013 Rich Horton Comments 1 comment

As promised, a return to Cele Goldsmith’s years at Amazing and Fantastic. This issue comes from quite early in her term.

Last time I looked at Fantastic, I noted the subtitle “Stories of Imagination,” and I commented that much of the magazine remained Science Fiction, despite the Fantasy-leaning title and the ambiguous subtitle. This issue, by contrast, is subtitled “Science Fiction Stories” – an apparently deliberate rejection of the fantastical element. Turns out this subtitle had begun only with the September 1959 issue, and it lasted only through September of 1960, being supplanted by “Stories of Imagination” in October.

Interesting is a letter in this December issue from R. D. Miller, stating that with the September issue: “I took one look at the logo and the worst had happened: Fantastic Science Fiction Stories.” The letter in its whole praises the previous Fantastic for being a home to fiction in the Weird Tales tradition, and laments the apparent plan to discard that in favor of “the Science Fiction monster.”

The response from the editors (don’t know if Goldsmith or Editorial Director Norman M. Lobsenz wrote these) goes: “You want a magazine with 90% bad fantasy? Or one with 50% first-class fantasy and 50% first-class s-f?” (Logically, they should have been able to have a magazine with 50% first-class fantasy and 50% bad fantasy instead, right?)

The cover is by Edward Valigursky, illustrating Poul Anderson’s Flandry story “A Message in Secret.” I must say the man on the cover looks nothing at all like my image of Flandry.

Interior illustrations are by Mel Varga and Leo Summers. Interestingly, the cover of the Ace Double edition of “A Message in Secret,” retitled Mayday Orbit, is also by Valigursky – not as good, Flandry in a cold suit so not recognizable, but noticeably the same depiction of the “Prophet’s Tower” on each cover.

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Torment: Tides of Numenera Breaks Kickstarter Records

Monday, April 8, 2013 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Torment: Tides of Numenera, inXile Entertainment’s isometric role-playing title, became the most funded game in Kickstarter history on Friday, raising nearly $4.2 million.

InXile was founded by Brian Fargo in 2002, after his departure from Interplay. It released an updated version of Interplay’s early computer RPG favorite The Bard’s Tale in 2004, and the popular Line Rider in 2008. It made history in April 2012, building on another original Interplay property, the much-loved post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland (1988), assembling most of the original team and launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund Wasteland 2. The goal set was the highest in Kickstarter history at that time, $900,000, and it raised more than triple that.

On March 6, InXile kicked off their next campaign, Torment: Tides of Numenera, which draws on the setting of Monte Cook’s earlier runaway success Numenera — and the beloved Interplay/Black Isle title Planescape: Torment, originally released in 1999. The Kickstarter campaign broke the record for fastest to reach $1 million (in just over seven hours) and ended with 74,405 backers and $4,188,927.

Torment: Tides of Numenera passed the previous record-holder, Obsidian Entertainment’s Project Eternity, at $3.99 million. It recently added Chris Avellone, designer for Planescape: Torment, and The Name of the Wind author Patrick Rothfuss has also joined the team. The game is set for release in 2015; learn more at the website.

New Treasures: The Good The Bad and the Infernal, by Guy Adams

Monday, April 8, 2013 John ONeill Comments 6 comments

I’m pretty plugged in to the industry. Every week, I get a host of press releases, advance proofs, review copies, PR follow-ups, and other stuff that keeps me on top of the latest fantasy releases.

Or so I assume, anyway. Turns out there’s just no substitute for spending time in a good bookstore. Last Saturday, I was browsing the SF and fantasy section of my local Barnes and Noble and came across a number of surprises. Easily the most intriguing was Guy Adams latest: The Good the Bad and the Infernal.

Every one hundred years a town appears. From a small village in the peaks of Tibet to a gathering of mud huts in the jungles of South American, it can take many forms. It exists for twenty-four hours then vanishes once more, but for that single day it contains the greatest miracle a man could imagine: a doorway to Heaven.

It is due to appear on the 21st September 1889 as a ghost town in the American Midwest. When it does there are many who hope to be there: traveling preacher Obeisance Hicks and his simple messiah, a brain-damaged Civil War veteran; Henry and Harmonium Jones and their freak show pack of outlaws; the Brothers of Ruth and their sponsor Lord Forset (inventor of the Forset Thunderpack and other incendiary modes of personal transport); finally, an aging gunslinger who lost his wings at the very beginning of creation and wants nothing more than to settle old scores.

A weird western, a gun-toting, cigarrillo-chewing fantasy built from hangman’s rope and spent bullets. The West has never been wilder.

How the heck did I miss this? I may just have to clear the decks to try this one. Guy Adams released two other paperbacks through Solaris: The World House and its sequel, Restoration. The sequel to this one, Once Upon a Time in Hell, is scheduled for release in December.

The Good The Bad and the Infernal was published by Solaris Books on March 26. It is 318 pages and $7.99 in paperback, or $6.99 for the digital edition. Check out all the latest from Solaris here.

The Fantasy of 47North

Monday, April 8, 2013 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Over the last few months, 47North has become a publisher to be reckoned with.

Founded in October 2011 as the seventh imprint of Amazon Publishing, 47North — named for the latitude of Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle — publishes science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In just 18 months, they’ve created an extremely impressive catalog, including a lot of terrific fantasy.

Recent releases include Ania Ahlborn’s Seed, B.V. Larson’s Technomancer, Megan Powell’s No Peace for the Damned, the anthology Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond, edited by John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen, all three volumes in Jeff Wheeler’s Legends of Muirwood trilogy, and many others.

One of their most ambitious endeavors is The Foreworld Saga, a multi-volume historical fantasy epic chronicling the birth of Western Martial Arts by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, and an ensemble team of authors. Begun as a series of online stories, the complete saga has been re-packaged in three handsome novels and an ever-increasing number of shorter works.

47North has also heavily supported Amazon’s Kindle with Kindle Serials, a group of serial novels instantly delivered to readers as they’re published. So far they include Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic: The Thirteenth Rib by David J. Schwartz, The Outer Rims by Clint Morey, and The Scourge by Roberto Calas.

Near and dear to our hearts, 47North have also proven to be avid supporters of short fiction, publishes a fine assortment from a number of writers, including “Oz Reimagined: The Boy Detective of Oz: An Otherland Story” by Tad Williams and “Seer: A Foreworld Sidequest” by Mark Teppo.

Their website also highlights some very intriguing upcoming fantasy, including Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders by Richard Ellis Preston Jr, the first volume in The Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin: Ania Ahlborn’s The Shuddering: and Mark T. Barnes’s The Garden of Stones.

With all the recent bad news in the publishing world, it’s good to see some innovative and exciting work coming from relatively new publishers. Try them out, support the writers you like, and help 47North have a long and storied career in fantasy.

Black Gate Online Fiction: “The Sorrowless Thief” by Ryan Harvey

Sunday, April 7, 2013 John ONeill Comments 12 comments

Dyzan Ludd was the Sorrowless Thief, and the prize he had in mind proved he was insane — or a thief like none other in Ahn-Tarqa.

At the time I had lost interest even in the meager profession of begging. I gave up my alms bowl and crawled into a smoke pit in the most dismal part of Ahn-Tarqa’s most dismal city.

I do not know how many days I droned away on a cot in a sweltering common room filled with narcotic smoke before I heard that voice. Its tone spoke sharp and clear from a place outside drugged dreams. I propped myself onto an elbow so I could listen to it.

The voice belonged to a tall man perched over the dreamer in the cot behind mine. The speaker was pestering the dreamer with questions. “You’re a fool to bother,” I muttered.

My head swam from the smoke, but I could see the man turn to look at me. “I’ve heard that sometimes the best knowledge in the city comes from men in smoke pits.”

“Sometimes. But this near to the Month of the Moon we’re all close to dead. You’re better off pestering the sots drowning themselves in a tavern.”

“Taverns are filled with other thieves,” he answered. “I don’t want to make competition. Not with the haul I plan to make.”

Ryan Harvey won the Writers of the Future Contest in 2011 for his story “An Acolyte of Black Spires,” part of the science-fantasy series on the continent of Ahn-Tarqa, which is also the setting for “The Sorrowless Thief,” his ebook novelette “Farewell to Tyrn,” and upcoming novel Turn over the Moon. His work has appeared in Every Day Fiction, Beyond Centauri, Aoife’s Kiss (upcoming), and the anthology Candle in the Attic Window. He writes science fiction, fantasy, and the shadowy realm between both, as well as a long stint writing a weekly column at Black Gate.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Emily Mah, David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna, Aaron Bradford Starr, Mark Rigney, C.S.E. Cooney, Vaughn Heppner, E.E. Knight, Jason E. Thummel, Howard Andrew Jones, Harry Connolly, and others, is here.

“The Sorrowless Thief” is a complete 7,000-word short story of sword & sorcery. It is offered at no cost.

Read the complete story here.

Gen Con Writer’s Symposium

Sunday, April 7, 2013 Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones Comments 2 comments

When I returned from GenCon last year, I mentioned just how excellent the Writer’s Symposium was. I’d heard about the Writer’s Symposium, but had never attended. I found it extremely well organized, well-run, and, most importantly, it seemed a fine way for those interested in writing and publishing to pick up tips from the pros.

Here’s the official press release, freshly published last week. On that alphabetical list of names, you’ll see a lot that probably look pretty familiar, especially if you’ve frequented the Black Gate web site:

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Disney Shutters LucasArts

Sunday, April 7, 2013 John ONeill Comments 6 comments

Building on this week’s ongoing theme of death and dismay is the news that Disney has shut down legendary software house LucasArts.

LucasArts was founded in 1982, and released its first computer games in 1984. It published some of the finest and most admired games ever made, including Their Finest Hour (1989), The Secret of Monkey Island (1990), Star Wars: TIE Fighter (1994), Full Throttle (1995), Grim Fandango (1998), and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003).

In an official statement the company said:

After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games.

LucasArt offices were closed Wednesday by Disney, and about 150 employees were laid off. All current projects, including Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars: 1313, have been canceled.

The closure is no surprise for industry observers, after recent ominous developments. Its last few releases, including Kinect Star Wars, were disappointments, and most recent hit Star Wars titles were developed by outside licensees. Several recent titles (such as Star Wars Battlefront III) were canceled before release, and the company announced a freeze on all hiring and product announcements in September.

Fans became more optimistic when Disney acquired LucasFilm in October, but it’s clear new management was unable to turn the struggling software house around. Additional details are at GameInformer and Wikipedia has a complete list of LucasArts releases over the last three decades.

Altogether, it’s been a rotten week for fans of SF and fantasy.

Basil Copper, February 5, 1924 – April 4, 2013

Sunday, April 7, 2013 John ONeill Comments 5 comments

It’s been a tough week for the genre. Science Fiction writer Iain M. Banks announced on Monday that he has terminal gall bladder cancer, both Eclipse Online and Night Shade Books packed it in on Thursday, and Roger Ebert died on Friday. And prolific English dark fantasy writer Basil Copper, a World Horror Grandmaster since 2010, also passed away Friday at the age of 89.

Basil Copper was born on February 5, 1924. His first short story, “The Curse,” was published when he was only 14; his first novel The Dark Mirror appeared in 1966. His is perhaps best known to genre fans for his popular Solar Pons stories, a character originally created by August Derleth as a tribute to Sherlock Holmes.

Copper wrote many detective books, including 58 novels featuring hard-boiled Los Angeles private detective Mike Faraday, but he is remembered today chiefly for his horror and dark fantasy work. His horror novels include The Great White Space (1974), Necropolis (1980), The House of the Wolf (1983), Into the Silence (1983), and The Black Death (1991).

He had a long-standing relationship with Arkham House, who published Necropolis and his short story collection From Evil’s Pillow — nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 1973 — and And Afterward, the Dark (1977).

For modern readers interested in trying some of his best work, I strongly recommend the 1999 Fedogan & Bremer collection Whispers in the Night, and the massive two-volume set Darkness, Mist and Shadow: The Collected Macabre Tales of Basil Copper, edited by Stephen Jones and published by PS Publishing in 2010.

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