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The blog posts of Black Gate Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones and Editor John O’Neill

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in May

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in May

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Four Thousand Year Old Bread from Ancient Egypt

Sean McLachlan was the top draw at the Black Gate blog last month, with three posts in the Top Ten for May — including the #1 article, a mouth-watering report on 4,000 year-old bread found in a tomb in Ancient Egypt (with pics!) Sean’s adventure-filled report on braving scorpions and impassible tunnels at the Queens’ Pyramids at Giza came in at #7. While he was in Egypt, Sean also interviewed Egyptian Science Fiction writer Mohammad Rabie, and that rounded out the Top 10 for the month.

It’s tough to compete with 4,000 year-old bread, but a few brave souls made the effort. Andrew Zimmerman Jones came closest to glory, with an exclusive scoop on two new Starfinder Starships, which came in at #2 for the month. Next was our advice on creating an instant SF collection (with loot pics from the Windy City Pulp & Paper show), followed by our report on the release of the second issue of Skelos, and Mick Gall’s review of the album Hardwired… to Self Destruct, “Cthulhu in Metallica.”

Coming in at #6 for the month was the update on the Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Volume II Kickstarter, followed by Doug Ellis’s reminiscence on art and vintage paperback collecting, “Why You Should Go to Conventions.” Closing out the list was our May 21st report on the 2016 Nebula Award winners.

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Support the Literary Wonder & Adventure Show!

Support the Literary Wonder & Adventure Show!

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Literary Wonder & Adventure Show

Dream Tower Media, fine folks behind the Literary Wonder & Adventure Show, have launched a Patreon site to help fund it and offset some of the extensive costs of creating a top-notch audio program. And you know what that means. That’s right — you can now help support the creation of new episodes in this fine podcast series!

And Robert Zoltan (and his pal Edgar the Raven) have some terrific new episodes in the pipeline. They will be following up their popular interviews with BG blogger Ryan Harvey, fantasy author Scott Oden, and neglected genius Howard Andrew Jones, with THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION. With Special Guest, Hugo, Locus and Robert A. Heinlein award-winning author, Allen Steele in Part 1, and Hugo-nominee Becky Chambers (A Closed and Common Orbit) in Part 2.

Check out some of their earlier episodes, and learn more about how to support this worthy project at the Patreon site.

It’s Not Too Late to Catch Up on Your May Reading (But You’re Cutting it Close)

It’s Not Too Late to Catch Up on Your May Reading (But You’re Cutting it Close)

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Injection Burn Jason Hough-small Mormama Kit Reed-small Shadows & Tall Trees 7-small

Well here we are, the last day of May. And you know what that means: the usual recriminations and blame for not getting all my reading done. Might as well get this over with.

If you’re like me, you made a good run at it this month, but were defeated by the sheer volume of top-notch fiction in May. How do we know about all the good stuff we missed? Because we have the tireless John DeNardo, the most connected man in the industry, to keep us fully briefed. John excels at his self-appointed task… which is chiefly to make me look bad, but it at least has the added benefit of cataloging the best new fiction every month. This month John highlights new books by Robin Hobb, Gregory Benford, Robert Jackson Bennett, Mike Carey, Jason M. Hough, Faith Hunter, Gini Koch, Foz Meadows, Chelsea Mueller and many others.

Here’s the complete list of the Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Reads in May, according to John DeNardo.

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The Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog on the Best SF and Fantasy Books in May

The Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog on the Best SF and Fantasy Books in May

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D’Arc Robert Repino-small Extinction Horizon-small The Caledonian Gambit-small

I’m never going to get through my May reading list. Heck, I’m not even going to finish compiling my May reading list.

But that’s okay, because the good folks at the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog made one, and it’s better than mine anyway. In fact, it’s got a whole bunch of great titles — by Timothy Zahn, Robin Hobb, M.R. Carey, Gregory Benford, Robert Jackson Bennett, Jack Campbell, Gini Koch, Faith Hunter, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Isabelle Steiger, Robyn Bennis, and many others — including a bunch of stuff I didn’t even know about.

For those who missed it when we discussed it here earlier, there’s also some long-anticpiated books by several notable Black Gate contributors, including Martha Wells, Ellen Klages, and Foz Meadows.

The B&N article was authored by Jeff Somers. Here’s some of the highlights.

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The 2016 Nebula Award Winners

The 2016 Nebula Award Winners

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All-the-Birds-in-the-Sky-medium Every-Heart-a-Doorway_Seanan-McGuire-small Arabella of Mars-small

The 2016 Nebulas were presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America at the 52nd Annual Nebula Awards Weekend on Saturday, May 20th, at the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center in Pennsylvania.

Unlike the last two events (which were held in Chicago), I was unable to attend this year, which I regret. But somehow they went on without me, and gave out Nebula Awards anyway. Here’s the complete list of winners.

Novel

All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Books)

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The Top Black Gate Posts in April

The Top Black Gate Posts in April

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Traveller Core Rulebook Mongoose-back-small Traveller Core Rulebook Mongoose-small

The most popular topic at Black Gate last month was the new edition of the classic SF role playing game Traveller from Mongoose Publishing. And the most popular blogger was our roving games reporter M Harold Page, who covered the new edition in two posts that both made the Top Ten. Well done, Mr. Page! (However, we need to talk about those expense reports from that Altairian space bar. What exactly is a “Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster?”)

Meanwhile, back here on Earth, Ryan Harvey had the overall most popular post in April, with exciting news on the upcoming Godzilla sequel. Hot on his heels was David B. Coe, with an article on setting and the craft of worldbuilding. Next up was Sean McLachlan, our man in Egypt, who donned a worn fedora and penetrated deep into the early tombs of ancient Egypt, sending back a trove of photographic evidence (and two mummified spiders, which thrilled Goth Chick to no end.) Rounding out the Top Five was Robert Zoltan’s far-ranging discussion with BG Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones, on the master of Sword & Sorcery himself, Robert E. Howard.

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Keep Up With the Latest Releases from Black Gate Authors

Keep Up With the Latest Releases from Black Gate Authors

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Soverign Silk ElizaBeth Gilligan-small Black Mask Spring 2017-small All Systems Red The Murderbot Diaries-small

One of the things readers frequently ask me for is updates on their favorite Black Gate authors. We published hundreds of writers in the decade-plus the magazine was alive, and at least as many in the 10 years that we’ve been running the blog… that’s a lot of talented authors to keep tabs on!

Nevertheless, we do our best. Here’s a quick snapshot of the current and upcoming releases from some of your favorite Black Gate writers.

ElizaBeth Gilligan (“Iron Joan,” BG 3) releases Sovereign Silk, the long-awaited third novel in her Silken Magic series, from DAW on June 6
Bob Byrne, our Monday morning blogger (and resident Sherlock expert), has a story in the Spring 2017 issue of the revived Black Mask magazine
Martha Wells (the Giliead and Ilias tales in BG) published All Systems Red, the first book in The Murderbot Diaries, through Tor.com on May 2
Ellen Klages (“A Taste of Summer,” BG3) had her second collection Wicked Wonders come out from Tachyon Publications on May 9
James Enge (the Morlock stories) released his latest Kindle volume Iris Descends on January 15.
Derek Kunsken’s debut SF novel The Quantum Magician (“Ocean’s Eleven meets Guardians of the Galaxy“) will be published by Solaris Books in October 2018
Howard Andrew Jones has a brand new Dabir & Asim tale, “The Black Lion,” in the latest issue of Skelos magazine

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How to Assemble an Instant Science Fiction Collection

How to Assemble an Instant Science Fiction Collection

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Windy City Pulp and Paper 2017 Science Fiction Paperbacks-small

I came home from the 2017 Windy City Pulp & Paper Show with a lot of books.

The 120 SF & fantasy paperbacks books above represent the bulk of my purchases this year. I found plenty of additional treasures — including early issues of Hugo Gernsback’s Science Wonder Stories, a handful of hardcovers, art books, bargain graphic novels, and plenty of magazines — but this year, it was mostly about the paperbacks.

And man, what a haul. As I mentioned in my brief report Saturday morning, one of the highlights of the convention was discovering a vendor in the back of the room selling mint condition, unread SF paperbacks from the 70s and 80s at cover price (about $2 each). It was like stepping back in time 30 years into a well-stocked bookstore. You can’t reasonably expect someone to keep their head under circumstances like that.

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Support the Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Volume II Kickstarter!

Support the Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Volume II Kickstarter!

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Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Volume 2

In his review of Volume One of The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Fletcher Vredenburgh wrote:

Regular readers of my monthly short story roundup know how great I think Heroic Fantasy Quarterly is, ranking it the most consistent forum for the best in contemporary swords & sorcery. Some may think I’m laying it on a little thick, but The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Volume 1, 2009-2011, a distillation of the mag’s first three years, should prove that I’m not.

It’s too late to get in on the ground floor and support the creation of Volume One — but you can help support the publishers and editors of HFQ in their noble effort to produce a second volume. I asked editor Adrian Simmons to give us the scoop, and here’s what he told me.

At Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, we swore we wouldn’t be one of those sites constantly begging you for change. But we’ve swallowed our pirde (one bite at a time, which is why it has taken so damn long) and come to you, our readers and fans, for support so we can get our best-of anthologies moving again.

If you only support Kickstarters that are clear winners, you’re in luck — as of early Monday morning, the campaign has already surpassed $700 on a $500 goal, with roughly seven weeks to go. Check it out here.

Collecting (and Selling) Ace Doubles

Collecting (and Selling) Ace Doubles

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black-gate-booth at Worldcon 2012

Selling vintage paperbacks at the Chicago Worldcon, 2012.
That’s Peadar O’Guilin and Kristin Janz in the background,
and David Kyle’s hand at left

I’ve been collecting science fiction paperbacks for around forty years, and attending SF conventions for roughly the same period. So it’s natural to eventually combine the two. About fifteen years ago, after I’d started selling Black Gate magazine at conventions, I decided to package up some of the older duplicates sitting in my basement and bring them along too.

That quickly became the biggest draw at our booth. As I learned the hard way, struggling in vain to launch a new fantasy magazine, the audience for short fiction in this field gets smaller every year. But interest in vintage science fiction seems to sharpen and grow with each passing month.

It was especially gratifying to see young SF readers approach the booth, eyes wide, taking in the colorful rows of hundreds of paperbacks published before they were born. Sometimes they’d make appreciative comments like, “I can’t believe you have such an incredible collection… it seems a shame to sell it!” Of course, if four tables stacked with books seemed unbelievable, the truth (that this wasn’t my collection, but just a small fraction of the duplicates from my collection) would probably tax their fragile credulity to the limit, so in those moments I’d usually just smile and say, “Shucks. Thanks.”

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