Black Gate

NESFA Press is one of my favorite small publishers. They’ve done some of the most essential collections of the past few decades, including From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown, the massive six-volume Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, the two-volume Complete Science Fiction of William Tenn, the magnificent Major Ingredients: The Selected Short Stories of Eric Frank Russell, Transfinite: The Essential A. E. Van Vogt, and dozens more. They’ve been relatively quiet recently (except for releasing a new volume in The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson every year or so, which admittedly is enough to keep anyone busy), and I admit that I was growing concerned that the once tireless NESFA machine was perhaps not as tireless as most of us thought.

So I was very pleased to see the release of The Grimm Future last month, an anthology collecting reimagined Grimm fairy tales by Garth Nix, Max Gladstone, Carlos Hernandez, Jeffrey Ford, Peadar Ó Guillín, John Langan, Seanan McGuire, and many others.

Blending fresh new science fiction with a futuristic dash of magic, The Grimm Future is a unique anthology of reimagined Grimm fairy tales from some of today’s most exciting authors — along with the original stories that inspired them. The Grimm Future examines our humanity and what that term might come to mean through the eyes of future generations as society advances into an age when technology consumes nearly every aspect of our lives or has ultimately changed life as we know it. How might these timeless stories evolve? Given the relentless onrush of technology, there is even greater need for fairy tales and Grimm magic in our future. Read on!

All the stories are new.

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Barnes & Noble announced their Bookseller’s Picks for March earlier this month, including their top SF and Fantasy releases. It’s an impressive list — including BG author Myke Cole’s upcoming novel Javelin Rain.

While this is technically the fifth book in Cole’s Shadow Ops series, it’s really a sequel to the prequel novel Gemini Cell. Set in a future in which magic’s reappearance in the world is just beginning to erode the old order, Jim Schweitzer is a U.S. Navy SEAL serving with the Gemini Cell — until he’s killed in action. And then brought back from the dead via occult means. His escape is coded “javelin rain,” indicating the worst possible security threat — one that must be stopped as quickly as possible, by any means necessary. As Schweitzer discovers his resurrection has made him immortal, his family certainly isn’t, and he has to use all of his skills — old and new — to protect all that is important to him. Combining military heroics, espionage intrigue, and magic-infused action, Cole adds new layers to one of the most unique SF/F universes on shelves today.

We covered B&N’s picks for the Best SF and Fantasy of 2015 here.

Javelin Rain, by Myke Cole, will be published by Ace Books on March 29. It’s priced at $7.99 in paperback and digital formats. Myke’s last posts for Black Gate were Drizzt Do’Urden Simply Won’t Stop Adventuring: Learning to Love Serial Fantasy and Selling Shadow Ops. Our roving reporter Patty Templeton interviewed him here.

Well here’s something interesting — a Victorian era superhero novel. Debut novelists Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas bring us the tale of Evelyn Wyndham and her sister Rose, a Victorian adventure featuring evening parties, abductions, a love triangle, witty dialog, mysterious and secret societies, fog-shrouded London, villains with phenomenal abilities, intrigue, mystery, and more. It’s being called Jane Austen meets X-Men, which isn’t a description I hear very often.

These Vicious Masks was published by Swoon Reads on February 9, 2016. It is 320 pages, priced at $9.99 for both the trade paperback and digital editions. The cover is by Rich Deas. Click on the back cover above to read the complete description. See the complete details, including a brief excerpt, at the Swoon Reads website.

See all of our coverage of the best in New Fantasy here.