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Category: Editor’s Blog

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

Barnes and Noble to Stop Manufacturing Nook Tablets

Barnes and Noble to Stop Manufacturing Nook Tablets

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Nook-ColorToday wasn’t a very good day for Barnes & Noble and its Nook e-reader business.

Yesterday, the nation’s top brick and mortar bookseller announced earnings for fiscal 2013 and they weren’t pretty. Sales plummeted in the last quarter, and the company’s net loss for the year more than doubled to $475 million.

Nook sales, which were tooted as the company’s salvation as recently as last year, fell to just 1 million units in the fourth quarter, down from 1.4 million in the same period last year. At the same time, sales of Kindle e-readers have kept growing at a robust clip. As part of its earnings statement, B&N announced it would discontinue tablet manufacturing in an effort to stop the red ink.

The headlines have been ugly. AllThingsD reported “Barnes & Noble Gets the Nook Ready for Its Dirt Nap,” BusinessWeek said “Barnes & Noble’s Nook Business Sees Fifty Shades of Red,” The Wall Street Journal announced “Barnes & Noble Throws in the Towel on Tablets,” and Motley Fool‘s read simply “Barnes & Noble Finally Gives Up.” Today the stock took it on the chin, dropping 17 percent to $15.61.

I finally bought my Nook HD tablet a few weeks ago. I know, I know. The very moment everyone else is fleeing the Nook, I figure it’s a good time to get around to that new tablet purchase. Maybe not the best timing. But hey, the price was great, and I wanted to support a quality digital reader while I still could. Reminds me of all those dumb hardware purchases I made in the late 90s, trying to single-handedly keep the Amiga alive.

B&N is not exiting the hardware business entirely. It will continue to produce the black-and-white versions of the Nook and look for a partner to take on the production of the high-end color tablets. Speculation is swirling around Microsoft as a possible white knight, but it’s all simply rumors at this point.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying my new $149 tablet. It really is a great little Internet appliance and a handy way to watch movies and read books. I have no idea how long they’ll be available at that price, so if you’re interested you might want to move quickly.

New Treasures: Titan

New Treasures: Titan

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Titan Avalon HillThere are classic fantasy games and there are classic fantasy games. Jai Kamani and David A. Trampier’s Titan, a massive game of conflict between mythological armies of ogres, unicorns, griffons, and other creatures, was perhaps the most ubiquitous fantasy game of my youth. There were copies everywhere, tucked under arms at gaming conventions and on the shelves of department stores.

Titan was first published in an ultra-rare first edition in 1980 by tiny Gorgonstar, Inc. It was later made a hit by Avalon Hill, and remained in print for nearly two decades until Avalon Hill was sold and ceased operations in 1998. After that, copies of the most popular fantasy board game of the 80s and 90s gradually became harder and harder to find.

I remember getting my boys excited about Titan by nostalgically telling tales of epic battles between behemoths, dragons, and trolls. They clamored to play it.

I’d never owned Titan, but that’s not a problem in the age of the Internet. I found a pristine copy on eBay and hung on during a spirited bidding war. 90 bucks later, it was on my kitchen table.

Still in the shrink wrap.

It was perfectly preserved. My boys stood at my side, ready to go, anxious to throw down some dice, and experience some of that legendary Titan action. To shred the shrink and punch out counter sheets that had staunchly stood fast for over twenty years. My hands gripped the game, hesitating.

I couldn’t do it.

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Kim Thompson, September 25, 1956 – June 19, 2013

Kim Thompson, September 25, 1956 – June 19, 2013

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Kim ThompsonKim Thompson, one of the most important figures in independent American comics, died today at the age of 56.

I first encountered Thompson during his days as editor of Amazing Heroes in the early 1980s. Amazing Heroes, which ran 204 issues from 1981 through 1992, was Fantagraphics’ version of The Comics Journal for superheroes, a serious (or at least, semi-serious) critical fan journal that ran articles on overweight superheroes, how Bob Burden narrowly escaped flaming death in Chicago, every move Jack Kirby ever made — and even produced an annual swimsuit issue. The first time I can remember reading his words was his announcement, some time in the early 80s,  that Amazing Heroes would run a Top 100 Comics on the back page (which quickly collapsed due to the sheer effort involved).

Thompson began working for Fantagraphics in 1977, and became a co-owner with Gary Groth the next year. According to an article in The Comics Journal #254, Thompson saved the company from bankruptcy by investing his inheritance in 1978.

He edited many of Fantagraphics’ most popular comics, including Linda Medley’s superb Castle Waiting, Peter Bagge’s Hate, Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library, Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo, and many others. He edited all 50 issues of funny-animal anthology Critters (1985-1990) and the alternative comics anthology Zero Zero (also 50 issues, 1995-2000).

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Vintage Treasures: The Last Province Magazine, Issue #4

Vintage Treasures: The Last Province Magazine, Issue #4

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The-Last-Province-Issue-4I recently stumbled across a copy of a gaming magazine I’d never encountered before: The Last Province, a bi-monthly British publication that apparently lasted five issues, from October 1992 to September 1993.

This doesn’t happen very often, so it was definitely worth investigating. And I’m glad I did, as it turned out to be a delight.

I think the cover — a Martin Lennon character study of three very different adventuring fellows striding confidently across a green and pleasant land — effectively communicates both the content and editorial attitude. If the art doesn’t do it, the tag words “Independent British Roleplaying” at the top should give you the idea.

Paz Newis’s page 4 editorial is a perfect mix of defensiveness towards gaming stereotypes, and contempt for what others consider ‘normal.’ Pretty much exactly how I remember gamers talking in the 90s.

To my mind ours is one pastime with a wealth to offer its participants. It is to those of you who wish to take roleplaying out of the ‘spotty adolescents’ stereotype that this magazine is aimed.

Recently… I thought it would be a good idea to sit in front of the television. I was appalled! It really was brain numbing. All of my higher brain functions seized up. If this is what the majority of ‘normal people’ spend their time doing I have no desire to be normal.

The news section is jammed with headlines on the big events of the day — including Steve Jackson’s quarter-million dollar judgment against the US Secret Service for seizing their computer equipment during an investigation of GURPS Cyberpunk, the report that a young employee at a Glasgow branch of a well known game store chain was apparently fired for being female, and the release of a major new RPG from FASA with the strange title Earthdawn.

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Robert E. Howard and Appendix N: Advanced Readings in D&D

Robert E. Howard and Appendix N: Advanced Readings in D&D

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Weird Tales July 1936 Red NailsGary Gygax’s famous Appendix N, the list of titles he considered essential reading for Dungeon Masters hoping to create authentic adventures for their players, is perhaps the purest distillation of the literary recipe at the heart of modern adventure gaming.

Gygax put Appendix N in the back of his Dungeon Master’s Guide in 1979. Read all the writers on that list and you’ll understand the creative gestalt underlying 20th Century fantasy that eventually exploded into Dungeons & Dragons in 1974.

That’s the theory, anyway. Plenty of people have tried it. It’s sort of the gamer’s version of going walkabout. Immerse yourself in Appendix N and spiritual understanding will be yours. Plus, as a bonus, you end up with a rockin’ library.

Tim Callahan and Mordicai Knode are attempting this spiritual journey together, and they’re chronicling it at Tor.com. They begin with a look at Robert E. Howard’s Conan story “Red Nails,” originally published in the July 1936 issue of Weird Tales:

There is a giant mega-dungeon; it hardly gets more D&D than that. The two elements that really strike home here in terms of inspiration are the populated dungeons as its own character of rivalry and strife, and black magic. The city as one massive labyrinth is great, as is the characterization of its architecture & embellishment — gleaming corridors of jade set with luminescent jewels, friezes of Babylonianesque or Aztecish builders — but it is the logic of the city that shines brightest to me. “Why don’t the people leave?” There are dragons in the forest. “What do the people eat?” They have fruit that grows just off the air. “Where do all these monsters come from?” There are crypts of forgotten wizard-kings. There is a meaningful cohesion to the place; Howard manages to stitch dinosaurs, radioactive skulls, Hatfields and McCoys, and ageless princesses into something cogent.

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Jean Rabe Resigns as SFWA Bulletin Editor Amidst Controversy Over Sexist Articles

Jean Rabe Resigns as SFWA Bulletin Editor Amidst Controversy Over Sexist Articles

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SFWA Bulletin 200Jean Rabe, editor of the Bulletin of the Science Fiction Writers of America, has stepped down following a series of controversies in recent issues.

The problems began with the now-infamous issue #200, pictured at right, featuring a Jeff Easley Red Sonja cover. Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg, in their long-running column, wrote about “lady editor” Bea Mahaffey (among others), glossing over her significant accomplishments in the field to focus on her looks. In issue 201, CJ Henderson praised Barbie for maintaining “quiet dignity the way a woman should.” But things really blew up with issue 202, in which Resnick and Malzberg responded to mounting criticism by crying about censorship.

There’s been a great deal written about this in the blogosphere and fan press in the past month (Charlie Jane Anders at io9 has an excellent round-up), but I think Benjamin Rosenbaum put it best in his June 3 open letter “Dear Barry & Mike“:

It takes a certain kind of willful blindness not to get that slathering wolf whistles all over your tribute to women editors of years past might piss off… well, pretty much anyone born after 1960.

It’s not that we don’t know how it was when you guys came up. We know that back in the day, talking loudly about Andre Norton looking good in a bathing suit was supposed to be a gracious compliment about which she should be merrily grateful… We know this. We get it. We can make the imaginative leap to your context.

What upsets me, though, is that you apparently can’t make the imaginative leap to our context. You apparently don’t get that talking about how hot an editor is in a skirt — not in a love letter or a roast or an autobiographical reminiscence, mind you, but… in the central house organ of her writers’ organization — is, for us, kind of disgusting…

And then, honestly guys, the confused ramble about censorship?… That’s just painful. Like, if you say something that sucks, and we tell you it sucks, that’s… censorship? Stalinism?

SFWA President John Scalzi issued an apology to readers of the SFWA Bulletin on June 2.

Get the Latest on D&D Next from… Forbes?

Get the Latest on D&D Next from… Forbes?

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Ghosts of Dragonspear CastleI’m not used to seeing the latest D&D publishing news in Forbes magazine.

I’m not crazy, right? Forbes, the house organ of American capitalism, usually reports on panic-inducing Rolex shortages, fashion trends at Goldman Sachs, and how bubbly can boost brain power. Last time I read an article about role playing in Forbes was way back in… what am I saying. I’ve never read a gaming article in Forbes.

Well, last week there were two of them. Breaking news stories, even. Stuff I didn’t know about the first D&D Next release scheduled to appear at GenCon. Here, look:

A year ago today, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast launched a public playtest of a new edition of the classic fantasy role-playing game. Codenamed D&D Next, the rules are an ambitious redesign meant to unify four decades and five editions’ worth of players under one single system – and now fans will get to see them in print for the very first time.

To celebrate the playtest’s anniversary, Wizards of the Coast announced today that it will release a limited-edition commemorative book containing the most up-to-date D&D Next rules. Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle will be available exclusively at Gen Con 2013…

Wizards of the Coast will not say when it plans to will close the playtest and release a final version of the new rules, but many fans expect the game to be released in early to mid 2014, to coincide with the game’s 40th anniversary.

That reads like gaming journalism to me. What’s going on? Wait — the author is Forbes staffer David M. Ewalt, author of the upcoming book Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It. Is this Ewalt sneaking articles onto the Forbes website while his boss is on vacation? God, I hope so. That would be so cool.

As for Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle itself, it’s real news. Although you have to pre-order it to get a copy — and go to GenCon to pick it up — which probably means I won’t be getting one. It’s being described as more of a keepsake than a core publication (and even has places for owners to sign their copy), so it’s not a must-have. Still, it contains a big four-part adventure and the first publication of the D&D Next playtest rules, which is sure to make it a hot commodity.

Read Ewalt’s complete article here (and his second, “After A Year Playtesting A New Dungeons & Dragons, What’s Next?“), before his boss gets back from Maui and forces him to take them down.

Skyhorse and Start Publishing Complete Night Shade Acquisition

Skyhorse and Start Publishing Complete Night Shade Acquisition

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The Daedalus IncidentAs we first reported on April 4th, Skyhorse Publishing and Start Publishing have been in negotiations to acquire the assets of Night Shade Books. As co-owner Jeremy Lassen explained in an Open Letter on April 5th, the sale would allow Night Shade to avoid bankruptcy and keep it operating as an ongoing concern.

After several authors expressed concern over the terms of the buyout, Skyhorse and Start sweetened the deal with a more generous royalty rate. Now the publishers have announced that they have completed the acquisition of Night Shade, and that the first post-sale book to be published will be Michael J. Martinez’s The Daedalus Incident on July 9th. Here’s part of the official press release:

Founded by Jason Williams in 1997, who was joined by partner Jeremy Lassen shortly after, Night Shade Books has over 250 titles in its catalog, including some renowned genre fiction — written by multiple nominees and winners of Shirley Jackson, Bram Stoker, World Fantasy, Nebula, and Hugo awards. In 2003, Night Shade Books won the World Fantasy Special Award for Professional Achievement. Both Williams and Lassen will continue to be with Night Shade in a consulting capacity.

The agreement was reached following a spirited and public debate among authors, agents, fans, and publishers, which resulted in a deal approved by Night Shade’s authors….

“I am very excited to have found a buyer that is such a good fit for Night Shade, one that will be able to take us further than I was able to on my own. I look forward to building up Night Shade into the powerhouse of science fiction and fantasy for years to come,” said Night Shade founder Jason Williams. Night Shade had net sales of roughly $1.5 million for the 2012 calendar year.

Here at Black Gate, we’re very pleased to see that one of our favorite small press publishers will continue publishing great books.

Read the complete press release at io9.

Adventures in Bookselling: The Paperback Harry Dresden

Adventures in Bookselling: The Paperback Harry Dresden

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Summer Knight first edition (2002, Roc Books). Cover by Lee MacLeod
Summer Knight first edition (2002, Roc Books). Cover by Lee MacLeod

Paperback collecting is an odd hobby. For one thing, unlike stamps or coins, virtually no paperback is out of reach for the determined collector.

Want examples? As I mentioned in Jack Vance’s obituary last week, the first edition of The Dying Earth is one of the rarest and most sought-after genre paperbacks — it had a tiny print run, and no one knew who Jack Vance was when it first appeared in 1950.

What does that mean to your pocketbook? I paid just under $20 for a copy in mint condition a few years ago. As of today, around half a dozen are available at Amazon.com, with Very Good copies starting at $10.

Think about that. A first edition of one of the rarest science fiction books, by one of the top authors in the field, a full six decades after it went out of print, will set you back… around the same price as a brand new paperback today.

Perhaps that’s just our genre, you think. Let’s face it, half of the folks who read science fiction and fantasy are anal-retentive fanboys. Probably 50% of the print run of The Dying Earth ended up in protective mylar bags by 1955.

Maybe that’s an exaggeration. Still, the situation for mystery and western fans is pretty much the same. If you’re a paperback collector, it’s a buyer’s market. Walk into the Dealer’s Room at the Windy City Pulp and Paper show (or virtually any paperback show in America) with a crisp $20 bill, and you can walk out with a heavy bag of paperbacks published before you were born.

Hard to believe? Just have a look at the gorgeous assortment of 103 vintage titles I bought for around $50 at Windy City just last year.

Perhaps it’s different if we look outside genre fiction entirely. What’s the rarest and most expensive paperback known?

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Tabitha Reviews The School for Good and Evil

Tabitha Reviews The School for Good and Evil

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The-School-for-Good-and-EvilThe School for Good and Evil
By Soman Chainani
HarperCollins (488 pages, May 14, $16.99 hardcover/$10.99 digital)

The School for Good and Evil is a major summer release from HarperCollins, with a national marketing campaign and lot of pre-release buzz, and it’s already getting a lot of attention.

We know what to do with young adult books getting a lot of attention here at Black Gate – we give them to Tabitha, the thirteen year-old reviewer who covered The House of Dead Maids and All the Lovely Bad Ones for us, among others. We’re glad to have her join us again, even though she makes us feel old and out of touch.

Black Gate: Tabitha, welcome back to the Black Gate offices!

Tabitha: Thanks, I guess.

Before we get started, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself.

Didn’t we do that last time?

Yes but that was like a hundred years ago. All the people who read your last reviews probably got old and died.

Wow. Okay, in that case, I turn 114 this year. I’m going to high school next year. On the introvert scale, I’m beyond “vampire.”

“Beyond vampire.” What does that mean? Explain it for old people.

I scream in agony whenever I set foot outside my house.

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