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

Black Gate Online Fiction Presents the Complete The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells

Black Gate Online Fiction Presents the Complete The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells

The Death of the Necromancer KindleBlack Gate is very proud to announce that we will be presenting the complete fantasy novel The Death of the Necromancer, by Martha Wells, as part of our Online Fiction series, starting this Sunday, June 2.

The Death of the Necromancer is one of the most important fantasy novels of the past 20 years. When I ran SF Site, we received an advance proof in 1998, and it electrified our entire office. In his review, senior editor Wayne MacLaurin wrote:

Take a great Sherlock Holmes novel, mix in a heavy dose of Steven Brust’s Jhereg, and you’ll have some idea of what you can expect… Martha Wells’ first two novels, The Element of Fire and City of Bones, were praised for their rich detail and original concepts. The Death of the Necromancer raises those two points to new levels… It’s a stunning achievement.

When we polled all 40 regular reviewers for our “Best of the Year” awards, The Death of the Necromancer topped more ballots than any other book, and to no one’s surprise it was nominated for a Nebula Award.

Martha Wells has a long history with Black Gate. We published three long novellas featuring her heroes Giliead & Ilias, starting with “Reflections” in Black Gate 10; followed by “Holy Places(BG 11), and “Houses of the Dead (BG 12). Her stories are fast-paced mysteries, filled with deeply human characters on a splendidly realized stage, and her appearance in BG brought us a whole new audience. Her most recent article for us was “How Well Does The Cloud Roads Fit as Sword and Sorcery?,” which appeared here March 13.

Martha Wells is the author of fourteen fantasy novels, including City of BonesThe Element of Fire, The Cloud Roads, and The Serpent Sea. Her most recent novel is the YA fantasy Emilie and the Hollow World, published by Strange Chemistry Books in April. Her web site is www.marthawells.com.

The Death of the Necromancer was originally published in hardcover by Avon EOS in 1998. The complete, unedited text will be serialized as part of our Black Gate Online Fiction line, starting this Sunday, June 2.

Jack Vance, August 28, 1916 — May 26, 2013

Jack Vance, August 28, 1916 — May 26, 2013

The Dying Earth HillmanJack Vance, one of the greatest fantasists of the 20th Century and one of the last living links to the pulp era, died Sunday at the age of 96.

Vance was an electrician in the naval shipyards at Pearl Harbor in 1941, working for 56 cents an hour. He left a month before the Japanese attack; during World War II, he was in the Merchant Marines.

His first published story, “The World-Thinker” in the Summer 1945 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories, was written at sea. Over the next six decades, he wrote more than 60 books (and perhaps as many as 90).

Vance was a prolific contributor to the pulp magazines in the 40s and 50s, especially Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder. Some of his most famous work during this period included “The Five Gold Bands” (Startling Stories, 1950), “Son of the Tree” (Thrilling Wonder, 1951), “Telek” (Astounding Science Fiction, 1952), “The Houses of Iszm” (Startling Stories, 1954), and “The Moon Moth” (Galaxy, 1961).

Vance won his first Hugo Award for the brilliant novella “The Dragon Masters” (Galaxy, 1962); “The Last Castle” (Galaxy, 1966) won both the Hugo and Nebula Award.

During this period, he also wrote most of the stories that were collected as The Dying Earth in 1950. Famously, Vance was unable to sell his collection to genre publishers, as a result one of the most important works of American fantasy was published by tiny Hillman Periodicals, who chiefly published comics.

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The Top 50 Black Gate Blog Posts in April

The Top 50 Black Gate Blog Posts in April

Pressure mounts, but Tales was my most successful and well received novel, so I'm still feeling the love.We presented nearly 100 new articles on the Black Gate blog last month, covering virtually every aspect of fantasy — from Kickstarter to Red Sonja , Space: 1999 to exotic food.

Why do we do it? Here’s a clue: it’s not the great pay, or the breezy offices of our rooftop headquarters here in downtown Chicago. It’s not the allure of maverick journalism, and the way publishers tremble when we walk into a room. It’s not the travel, or the lousy expense accounts, or the drunken nights playing poker with George R.R. Martin and Gordon van Gelder (man, that guy can bluff). It’s not the endless review copies of the latest fantasy releases, or the —

Hold up there, Sparky. Review copies? Ummm, those are pretty cool. Yeah, free books never get old. Forget what I just said. We pretty much do it for the freebies.

Plus, we do it for you, our fans. For the great letters to send us, and the thoughtful comments, and those books you mail us with sticky notes that say, “Just thought you’d like this!” Seriously, you guys rock. Also, free books. Those are great too.

Here’s what the Black Gate supercomputer tells us were the 50 most popular articles we published last month. Enjoy. And keep those comments and mail coming!

  1. Art of the Genre: The Joy and Pain of Kickstarter [and How Backed Projects Still Fail]
  2. An Open Letter from Jeremy Lassen at Night Shade Books
  3. Vintage Treasures: Chaosium’s Thieves World
  4. Red Sonja: The Novels
  5. Teaching and Fantasy Literature: Writing Fantasy Heroes
  6. Night Shade Attempts to Avoid Bankruptcy with a Sale to Skyhorse Publishing
  7. The Company That Time Will Never Forget: A Visit to Edgar Rice Burroughs, Incorporated
  8. Red Sonja: The Movie 
  9. Are You Going to Eat That?
  10. Vintage Treasures: The People of the Black Circle by Robert E. Howard 

     

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The Top 15 Black Gate Fiction Posts in April

The Top 15 Black Gate Fiction Posts in April

Nina Kiriki Hoffman-smallNina Kiriki Hoffman’s tale of a rest stop gone horribly wrong, “Truck Stop Luck,” was our top fiction post last month.

Coming in a close second was Ryan Harvey’s sword & sorcery tale of intrigue and dinosaurs, “The Sorrowless Thief,” followed by Aaron Bradford Starr’s 35,000-word epic fantasy mystery “The Sealord’s Successor,” in which Gallery Hunters Gloren Avericci and Yr Neh find themselves battling a deadly conspiracy centered around a very peculiar painting. Also making the list were terrific stories by Emily Mah, Steven H Silver, Jason E. Thummel, E.E. Knight, Joe Bonadonna, Harry Connolly, David Evan Harris, and many others.

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 Fifteen most read stories in April, for your enjoyment:

  1. Truck Stop Luck,” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
  2. The Sorrowless Thief,” by Ryan Harvey
  3. The Sealord’s Successor,” by Aaron Bradford Starr
  4. Disciple,” by Emily Mah
  5. The Cremators Tale,” by Steven H Silver
  6. An excerpt from The Bones of the Old Ones, by Howard Andrew Jones
  7. The Poison Well,” by Judith Berman
  8. Assault and Battery,” by Jason E. Thummel
  9. An excerpt from The Waters of Darkness, by David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna
  10. The Terror in the Vale,” by E.E. Knight
  11. The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum,” by Joe Bonadonna
  12. The Whoremaster of Pald,” by Harry Connolly
  13. Seeker of Fortune,” by David Evan Harris
  14. A Princess of Jadh,” by Gregory Bierly
  15. The Pit Slave,” by Vaughn Heppner

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Mary Catelli, Michael Penkas, Vera Nazarian, Robert Rhodes, Ryan Harvey, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, E.E. Knight, C.S.E. Cooney, Howard Andrew Jones, Harry Connolly, and many others, is here. The Top fiction from March is here.

We’ve got plenty more in the coming months — including a big surprise this Sunday — so stay tuned!

Forrest J. Ackerman and the Days of the Do-It-Yourself Anthology

Forrest J. Ackerman and the Days of the Do-It-Yourself Anthology

Forrest J Ackerman Starlog 1978-2When I was 14 years old, I stumbled on an article in Starlog magazine titled “The World’s Greatest Science Fiction Fan.”

It was about Forrest J. Ackerman, of course: writer, literary agent, and editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland. But Forry’s greatest claim to fame was his legendary science fiction collection, housed in the Ackermansion in Los Angeles.

The article was accompanied by some mind-blowing photos. Forry standing before one of his greatest prides: his complete collection of Weird Tales. Forry posing with the original model used in George Pal’s War of the Worlds. Forry shaking hands with the Maschinenmensch from Metropolis. [Click on the image at left or below for bigger versions.]

The article appeared in the 1978 issue of Starlog, and it had a pretty profound effect on me. After I read it, I knew what my life’s work would be: to build a science fiction collection that could stand with pride alongside Forrest J. Ackerman’s.

These are the things that only a 14-year-old can dream.

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Fun with the Original Star Trek Crew

Fun with the Original Star Trek Crew

I saw Star Trek Into Darkness last week, and quite enjoyed it… although overall, I tend to agree with those critics, like Gary Westfahl at Locus Online and Keith Decandido at Tor.com, who’ve pointed out that it’s kinda a mindless action flick with more in common with contemporary summer blockbusters than Star Trek. Still, my kids loved it — and so did the packed house — and I firmly believe that any filmmaker who can successfully re-imagine Star Trek, and ignite fresh interest in a whole new generation, deserves praise. Even if it’s not exactly the same Star Trek I enjoyed 40 years ago.

Besides, no one’s done anything to tarnish that Star Trek. So I’ve been quietly enjoying it at home. I watched “Space Seed” on DVD, and Star Trek The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on Blu-Ray. And I’ve recently discovered a host of Trek-themed advertisements from the 80s, including this delightful ad for a British power company starring William Shatner and James Doohan:

If that’s not enough for you, there’s also this AT&T ad from the late 80s, featuring virtually the entire cast… and a nice surprise at the end.

Enjoy!

Vintage Treasures: The Amazing Space Race

Vintage Treasures: The Amazing Space Race

Amazing Stories January 1969A few weeks back, I purchased a lot of 27 Amazing Stories digests from the mid-60s and early 70s in great condition, for $35 (including shipping) — or about a buck an issue.

This was simultaneously delightful and dismaying. Delightful, of course, to get a fine set of SF magazines for not much more than they cost on the newsstand 45 years ago; dismaying to find that pristine vintage copies of one of the most important SF magazines command such little interest in the market.

Seriously, this doesn’t bode well for the thousands of SF magazines I’ve been gradually accumulating in my basement for the last 35 years. I  consider them treasures, but it seems the number of people who share my interest is shrinking every year. I just hope they don’t all end up getting recycled when I shuffle off this mortal coil.

Well, all collectors can really do is delight in those treasures we find, and share our enthusiasm with those around us. To that end, here I am, talking about a handful of issues of Amazing Stories, starting with the January 1969 issue, at left.

The late sixties was a bumpy time for the Granddaddy of Science Fiction magazines. Perhaps its finest editor, the talented Cele Goldsmith, left when the magazine was sold to Sol Cohen’s Ultimate Publishing Company in March 1965. At the time, Ultimate was simultaneously publishing Great Science Fiction, Science Fiction Classics, and other profitable reprint magazines — profitable chiefly because they didn’t pay for any of the reprints. Cohen wanted to pursue a similar strategy with Amazing.

Cohen hired Joseph Wrzos to edit both Amazing and Fantastic magazines, and indeed for several years Amazing offered almost exclusively reprints — although Wrzos reportedly did get Cohen to cough up funds for one new piece of fiction per issue. Wrzos left in 1967, and Harry Harrison was briefly editor from September 1967 to February 1968, when the talented Barry Malzberg stepped into his shoes.

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2012 Nebula Award Winners Announced

2012 Nebula Award Winners Announced

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the FallMajor award-granting institutions continue to heap accolades on books I haven’t read.

This is a chronic problem. I think the guidelines should be changed to allow voters to select a specific title, “No Award,” or “Wait, wait, I haven’t read any of the nominees yet!”

Until that happy day, we continue to report on tantalizing books and short stories that we haven’t personally enjoyed yet. It’s a curse.

The 2012 Nebula Awards were presented Saturday, May 18, 2013 at SFWA’s 48th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend San Jose, California. The winners were:

Novel

2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)

Novella

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)

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Vintage Treasures: Robert E. Howard’s Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors

Vintage Treasures: Robert E. Howard’s Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors

Robert E Howard Cthulhu The Mythos and Kindred HorrorsOn April 27, I wrote a Vintage Treasures article about Robert E. Howard’s The People of the Black Circle, one of the first fantasy books I ever owned.

The Comments section quickly became a discussion of REH collecting, with readers swapping photos of their favorite Howard books. Joe H. shared a LibrayThing catalog of his Howard collection, noting the hardest title to find had been Cthluhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors. “It took me years to track down a copy,” he said.

Well, that’s exactly the kind of thing that perks up a collector’s ears. Intrigued,  I went on a quest to find my own copy of Cthluhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors, a collection of Robert E. Howard’s Cthulhu stories.

I finally succeeded this week, after a two-week search. I settled in with my new copy today. First thing I noticed is that the cover, by Stephen Hickman, depicts a treasured artifact from my own collection: the Hickman-designed Cthulhu statute by Bowen Designs — a prized collectible these days. Now that it’s worth something, maybe my wife will let me bring it up out of the basement.

The other thing I noticed is that this is a sizable collection: 250 pages. While I knew Howard had made some minor contributions to Lovecraft’s famous milieu before his death, I had no idea he’d written so many stories that could be categorized as part of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Perhaps editor David Drake has been fairly liberal with his selections. I note that “Pigeons from Hell” is included, and that’s only peripherally a Cthulhu story — but it’s a damn good tale, so I’m not complaining.

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New Treasures: Dead Boys by Michael Penkas

New Treasures: Dead Boys by Michael Penkas

Dead Boys Michael PenkasI first met Michael Penkas in 2010 at the Top Shelf Open Mic in Palatine, Illinois, a friendly local reading event hosted by C.S.E. Cooney.

The Top Shelf Open Mic has attracted some extraordinary talent over the years. Gene Wolfe read chapters of his upcoming novel The Land Across, Joe Bonnadonna shared early drafts of Waters of Darkness, David C. Smith read from his supernatural thriller Call of Shadows, and of course C.S.E. Cooney regularly entertained us with boundless energy, reading from The Big Ba-Ha, Jack o’ the Hills, and other acclaimed publications.

But I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Michael Penkas has become the unexpected true star of our local reading group. His creepy and electrifying short stories have mesmerized us month after month.

Michael has an uncanny ability to pry open your heart with sparkling prose, humor, and warm and genuine characters… and then drive a cold spike through it with relentless and diabolical twists. All with some of the most compact and economical prose I have ever encountered.

Michael has published over a dozen stories since 2007. While he’s best known for his extremely effective horror and dark fantasy, he’s equally at home with mystery, science fiction, and gonzo humor — as his upcoming story for Black Gate illustrates. “The Worst Was Yet to Come,” a chilling retelling of Moses’s unexpected conversation with God immediately after the Ten Plagues of Egypt, will appear here this Sunday. It’s sure to win him many more fans, or possibly get him strung up — or both.

Michael has just released his first — and long awaited — collection, assembling four of his earliest published stories. It’s a delightful sampling of some of the best work of a fast-rising dark fantasy and horror author.

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