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

New Treasures: Lord of Bones

New Treasures: Lord of Bones

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Lord of Bones Justine Musk-smallI like to try new titles and new authors, especially a new fantasy series. This genre is so rich and diverse that no one can encompass it all, and if you’re not constantly willing to dip your toe in the water, then maybe you should try another hobby.

So I was delighted to see that Amazon had discounted the second volume of a promising new dark fantasy series, Lord of Bones, to just $1.30. I snapped up a copy immediately. (If you’re interested, I suggest you do the same — Amazon’s bargain pricing algorithm is notoriously fickle.)

Lord of Bones was written by Justine Musk, who has lived a fascinating life. I know, lots of writers claim to have lived fascinating lives, what with being an ambulance driver in World War I or assistant to Anna Wintour at Vogue or something. But seriously, Musk’s life is fascinating. She was the first wife of Elon Musk, founder of PayPal and SpaceX, and her famous article “I Was a Starter Wife”: Inside America’s Messiest Divorce” is filled with quotes like this:

In the late spring of 2008, my wealthy entrepreneurial husband, Elon Musk, the father of my five young sons, filed for divorce. Six weeks later, he texted me to say he was engaged to a gorgeous British actress in her early 20s… Her name is Talulah Riley, and she played one of the sisters in 2005’s Pride and Prejudice. Two of the things that struck me were: a) Pride and Prejudice is a really good movie, and b) My life with this man had devolved to a cliché…

The first crowded apartment we’d shared in Mountain View seemed like ancient history from our 6,000-square-foot house in the Bel Air hills. Married for seven years, we had a domestic staff of five; during the day our home transformed into a workplace. We went to black-tie fundraisers and got the best tables at elite Hollywood nightclubs, with Paris Hilton and Leonardo DiCaprio partying next to us. When Google cofounder Larry Page got married on Richard Branson’s private Caribbean island, we were there, hanging out in a villa with John Cusack and watching Bono pose with swarms of adoring women outside the reception tent… I spent an afternoon walking around San Jose with Daryl Hannah, where she caused a commotion at Starbucks when the barista asked her name and she said, blithely, “Daryl.”

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Vintage Treasures: The Lords of Underearth

Vintage Treasures: The Lords of Underearth

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Lords of Underearth-smallI’ve written before about the marvelously compact games from Metagaming that first introduced me to role playing, both in my editorial in Black Gate 12 and here on the blog.

It was the ubiquitous Metagaming ads on the inside cover of Analog and Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in the late 70s that first caught my eye. I carefully clipped out the order form (I bet you kids have never clipped an order form out of a magazine in your life. Bah! You don’t know what you’re missing. A gaping hole in the cover of your magazine, that’s what you’re missing) and mailed off my $2.95 for copy of Melee and $3.95 for the fabulously deluxe Wizard.

Both games were written by Steve Jackson — yes, the same genius designer behind Ogre, GURPS, Car Wars, Munchkin, and numerous others. For my money (all $6.90), those two early games still rank as perhaps his finest creations.

Steve Jackson left Metagaming in the 1980 to found Steve Jackson Games and his loss was keenly felt. But the rights to Melee and Wizard remained with Metagaming and its owner, Howard M. Thompson. Thompson supported the system with a series of excellent releases, including some of the best solitaire products this industry has ever seen, including Death Test, Death Test 2, Orb Quest, and Grail Quest.

I’ve been playing Grail Quest since 1980 — the last few years with my son Drew at my side — fruitlessly searching the treacherous woods and castles outside Camelot for the Holy Grail. It’s got to be in that damn game somewhere. I’m going to find it some day, I swear.

Anyway, Metagaming produced a total of 22 microgames before the company folded in 1983. Virtually all of them were science fiction and fantasy in theme, and they exhibited an imaginative range of settings and themes, from Rivets — the game of two dueling robot colonies — to Sticks & Stones, the first (and only) stone age RPG. I’ve gradually collected all of them over the years, and it was with some satisfaction that I finally completed my collection this year with the one that was the most difficult to track down: the fantasy game of subterranean warfare in an ancient Dwarven Stronghold, The Lords of Underearth.

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Frederik Pohl, November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013

Frederik Pohl, November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013

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Frederik PohlScience Fiction lost one of its brightest lights yesterday.

Frederik Pohl — award-winning writer, editor, agent, and fan — entered the hospital in Palatine, Illinois, in respiratory distress yesterday morning, and died that afternoon. He was 93 years old.

Pohl was one of the most important genre figures of the 20th Century. His first publication, at the age of 17, was the poem “Elegy to a Dead Satellite: Luna,” in the October 1937 issue of Amazing Stories. He followed it with over 200 short stories and dozens of novels, including the back-to-back Nebula Award winners Man Plus (1976) and Gateway (1977).

Pohl was equally lauded as an editor, starting with two pulp magazines, Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories, in 1939 (when he was still a teenager). In the late 1950s, he took the helm at Galaxy and IF magazines as H.L. Gold’s health began to decline, and under his tenure IF won the Hugo for Best Professional Magazine in 1966, 1967, and 1968.

By the mid 70s, Pohl was editing novels at Bantam Books; his acquisitions were cover-labeled “A Frederik Pohl Selection,” a rare honor. They included Samuel R. Delany’s groundbreaking Dhalgren, Joanna Russ’s The Female Man, John Brunner’s Web of Everywhere, and many others.

Pohl was a fixture in the field; well-connected and respected, extremely hard-working, highly talented, and good at almost everything he did. I can’t count how many times I’ve mentioned his accomplishments here on the blog; just in the last few weeks, I commented on his successful collaborations with Jack Williamson and C. M. Kornbluth. Rich Horton, who has been examining vintage SF digests for us, recently reviewed the July 1961 issue of IF, in which Pohl officially became editor.

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The 2013 Hugo Award Winners

The 2013 Hugo Award Winners

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The Emperor's Soul-smallThe 2013 Hugo Awards were given out last night at LoneStarCon3, the 71st World Science Fiction Convention in San Antonio, Texas.

The complete list of winners follows.

BEST NOVEL

Redshirts, John Scalzi (Tor; Gollancz)

BEST NOVELLA

The Emperor’s Soul, Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon)

BEST NOVELETTE

“The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi,” Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity)

BEST SHORT STORY

“Mono no Aware,” Ken Liu (The Future Is Japanese)

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New Treasures: Knights of the Dinner Table #200

New Treasures: Knights of the Dinner Table #200

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Knights of the Dinner Table 200-smallI am thrilled to report that Kenzer & Company, publishers of the fine Hackmaster and Aces & Eights role playing games, have published the 200th issue of the world’s best gaming comic, Knights of the Dinner Table.

Knights of the Dinner Table is written and drawn by my friend Jolly R. Blackburn, with editorial assistance by his talented wife Barbara. If Jolly’s name is familiar, it may be because of last Saturday’s appreciation of his earlier publication, the much-missed role-playing magazine, Shadis, where KoDT first appeared. Or you may remember the last time I shone a spotlight on KoDT, with issue #191 last September. Or maybe you’re a fan of the KoDT spin-off The Java Joint, which appeared in every issue of the print version of Black Gate, and was finally collected (with one new strip) last April. Or perhaps you’re simply a fan of KoDT all on your own, and don’t need me telling you how brilliant it is.

The first issue of Knights of the Dinner Table appeared from AEG in the summer of 1994. With issue five it switched to its current publishers Kenzer & Company, and it has appeared regularly ever since.

I don’t think I need to tell you what an incredible accomplishment it is for a comic to reach the 200 mark in today’s market — especially with the same creator at the helm. It is, in fact, an almost unparalleled achievement (the only comparable example I’ve been able to come up with is Dave Sim’s Cerebus). To reach issue 200 under any circumstances is an amazing achievement for an independent comic.

I wrote a book review column in the back of Knights of the Dinner Table for four years, starting in the late 90s (the incredible series of coincidences that lead to that happy state of affairs are related in my introduction to the collected Java Joint). I got to meet and game with Jolly, Dave Kenzer, Steve Johansson, Brian Jelke, Barbara Blackburn, and the entire KenzerCo gang — and let me tell you, I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.

But it’s my contributions to and relationship with KoDT that I’m most proud of during that era. KoDT has survived not simply because it occupies a unique niche in the gaming community, but because it is a singularly brilliant work from a uniquely talented creator. If you haven’t tried it yet, the massive issue 200 is a great place to come on board.

KoDT #200 was published July 2013 by Kenzer & Company. It is $8.99 for a 96-page black & white comic. The cover is by Larry Elmore; more details and order instructions are here, or try the free online strips.

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in July

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in July

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James FrenkelYou folks certainly have diverse interests.

The top article on the Black Gate blog last month was on the departure of senior editor James Frenkel from Tor, which I think reveals a healthy interest in publishing and the state of the industry. Good for you. Our second most popular post was Howard Andrew Jones’s enthusiastic report on the fan-made show Star Trek Continues, which demonstrates your excellent taste in television programming, followed by a detailed report on using a 40-year old board game to enhance your enjoyment of a 39-year old role playing game. I’m not sure exactly what that reveals about you, but I want you to know, it makes me very proud.

Foz Meadow’s essay on approaching fantasy by avoiding the classics was also in our Top Five articles, followed by Joe Bonnadonna’s review of the new anthology Dreamers in Hell.

The complete Top 50 Black Gate posts in July were:

  1. James Frenkel Leaves Tor
  2. Star Trek Lives
  3. The Secret Supplement: Greyhawk, Gygax, and Outdoor Survival
  4. Challenging the Classics: Questioning the Immutable Hallmarks of Genre
  5. Giving the Devil his Due: A Review of Dreamers in Hell
  6. “A Great Place to let Your Imagination Run Wild”: Joe Bonadonna Reviews Rogues in Hell
  7. The Doom that came to Kickstarter
  8. Hi yo Silver Awayzzzzzz: The Lone Ranger Defeats Insomnia
  9. Readercon 24: A Most Readerconnish Miscellany
  10. Vintage Treasures: The Best of Robert Bloch

     

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New Treasures: The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen

New Treasures: The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen

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The Black Fire Concerto-smallMike Allen is scary talented.

After ten years of editing Black Gate magazine, I respect anyone who grapples with the logistical nightmare of producing a nationally-distributed print journal, and does it on a semi-regular schedule. Mike edits two and he makes it look easy: the acclaimed fantasy anthology series Clockwork Phoenix (four volumes so far) and the fabulous poetry journal Mythic Delirium.

Mike is also a very talented writer in his own right, with a Nebula nomination under his belt for his 2009 short story “The Button Bin” and his first collection of short fiction, The Button Bin And Other Horrors, forthcoming from Dagan Books. Long time BG readers will also remember his massive three-part Monstrous Post on Monsters, one of the most popular blog series we’ve run in the past few years.

See what I mean about talent? If Mike admitted he also plays bass for The Civil Wars on weekends, I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

Which is why we were so intrigued when we heard that Mike was working on his first dark fantasy novel. The book was edited by our own C.S.E. Cooney, who demonstrated an unerring ability to spot talent as Website Editor for Black Gate from 2010 to 2012 — and whose own rare writing gifts are on display in her recent books, How to Flirt in Faerieland & Other Wild Rhymes and Jack o’ the Hills.

I read Mike’s book in draft last year and was wowed. He has created a singular feat of the imagination, a world of shape-shifters, ghouls, and worse things, where two young women with a very unique form of magic may be the only hope against a sorceress of untold power.

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The Top 20 Black Gate Fiction Posts in July

The Top 20 Black Gate Fiction Posts in July

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bones-of-the-old-onesA bit of a shake-up at the top of the fiction charts this month, as our exclusive excerpt from Howard Andrew Jones’ second Dabir and Asim novel, The Bones of the Old Ones, reclaimed the top spot from Martha Wells’ Nebula nominee The Death of the Necromancer. Coming up close behind were Joe Bonadonna’s perennially popular sword & sorcery tale “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum,” and E.E. Knight’s thrilling Blue Pilgrim story, “The Terror in the Vale.”

Three of Aaron Bradford Starr’s Gallery Hunter tales made the list this month, including the epic 35,000-word novella “The Sealord’s Successor,” which Tangent Online called “The real deal…  It put me in mind of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Gray Mouser.”

Also making the list were exciting stories by Jamie McEwan, Judith Berman, Ryan Harvey, David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna, Vera Nazarian, Jason E. Thummel, Gregory Bierly, Robert Rhodes, Emily Mah, Michael Penkas, Mary Catelli, and Vaughn Heppner.

If you haven’t sampled the adventure fantasy stories offered through our new Black Gate Online Fiction line, you’re missing out. Every week, we present an original short story or novella from the best writers in the industry, all completely free. Here are the Top Twenty most-read stories in July:

  1. An excerpt from The Bones of the Old Ones, by Howard Andrew Jones
  2. The Death of the Necromancer, a complete novel by Martha Wells
  3. “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum,” by Joe Bonadonna
  4. “The Terror in the Vale,” by E.E. Knight
  5. “The Sealord’s Successor,” by Aaron Bradford Starr
  6. “The Highwater Harbor,” by Aaron Bradford Starr
  7. “Falling Castles,” by Jamie McEwan
  8. “The Poison Well,” by Judith Berman
  9. “The Sorrowless Thief,” by Ryan Harvey
  10. An excerpt from The Waters of Darkness, by David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna

     

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Vintage Bits: Lordlings of Yore

Vintage Bits: Lordlings of Yore

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Lordlings of Yore-smallThere’s a lot of interest in retro-gaming today. Seriously, it’s a thing. There are fewer sales of big-budget shooters and a lot more people hunkered over tablets and cell phones, playing games that look like they were first compiled in 1995. I’ve seen my sons jump over more platforms and spill more monster guts in low resolution on their iPad recently than on their Xbox 360, let me tell you.

I appreciate the nod to the early days of the genre, but that ain’t true retro gaming. True retro games aren’t downloaded from the Internet. True retro games don’t even come in a box.

You really want retro gaming? You need to pull open a zip-lock bag, my friend. Respect.

I own a lot of computer games. A lot of them are old. Hell, most of them are old. The bulk of my collection comes from 1989 – 2003, when I still had time to occasionally insert a disk into my desktop machine and play Icewind Dale or Mechcommander a few hours a week.

Amiga games? I got ’em. Commodore 64? Couple hundred, easy. But we’re still talking the era of boxes here. You want real retro gaming, you need to go back even before my time, to when the first computer games were sold in zip-lock bags in small hobby shops, and almost exclusively for the Apple II.

I’ve collected a few of those fascinating relics over the years, but only a very few. I have Cranston Manor, Hi-Res Adventure #3, from an outfit called Sierra On-Line, Inc (1981). I have Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure, from Synergistic Software, from 1980 (purchased on eBay nearly 10 years ago for a ridiculous sum). But the rarest game — and certainly one of the most interesting — I possess is probably Lordlings of Yore, a marvelous fantasy strategy game I found on a used game shelf in a computer store in Champaign, Illinois in 1993.

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Vintage Treasures: Jolly R. Blackburn’s Shadis #15

Vintage Treasures: Jolly R. Blackburn’s Shadis #15

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Shadis 15-smallA few weeks ago, I stumbled on an eBay seller unloading a nice collection of vintage gaming merchandise. Quite a bit of it sold at high prices too, especially TSR’s Dragon Dice sets and several classic D&D modules in mint condition.

What wasn’t selling? The seller had haphazardly bundled some old gaming publications, in lots labeled “Magazine/Fanzine.” They included a pretty wide range of titles of various quality, including Game Trade Magazine, Games Quarterly, Game News, Gameplay, Games, Shred, The V.I.P. of Gaming Magazine, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Games Unplugged, Dungeon, White Dwarf, Arcane, and Shadis. All the lots were priced at a dollar.

There wasn’t much interest in them, to be honest. In some cases, it wasn’t really a surprise. The lots were oddly bundled — one contained eleven magazines, including four copies of Games Quarterly #7 and six copies of Game Trade Magazine #125.

I couldn’t figure out why the seller didn’t split those up into different lots. Who on Earth would want six copies of GTM #125?

I won most of the lots for between one to two bucks each, answering my own question. I now own six copies of GTM #125 — and 52 other vintage gaming magazines published between 1982 and 2012.

There’s a lot of great reading and gaming history in there. I was especially pleased to see Sorcerer’s Apprentice, White Dwarf, and Arcane, all of which are highly collectible today.

But the real delight, of course, was the single issue of Jolly R. Blackburn’s marvelous Shadis: issue #15, cover-dated Sept/Oct 1994, one of the most famous issues of the magazine ever published — and indeed, one of the highest selling single issues of any gaming magazine of the 90s.

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