Browsed by
Category: Future Treasures

The Cover and TOC for Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016

The Cover and TOC for Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016

The Years Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016Ten years ago Rich Horton, who’d already published several highly detailed survey articles in the print edition of Black Gate (including “Building the Fantasy Canon: the Classic Anthologies of Genre Fantasy” and “The Big Little SF Magazines of the 1970s”) wrote the first installment of what was to become a highly ambitious series: Rich Horton’s Virtual Best of the Year.

Rich surveyed virtually every piece of short fiction published in the genre in 2005 (an astounding 9.5+ million words), and compiled a list of the best, and we published it here at Black Gate. He repeated that feat in 2006 and 2007, and his reports on the field became more in-depth and insightful each year.

In 2006, Rich also began publishing two anthologies with Prime Books: Fantasy: The Best of the Year and Science Fiction: The Best of the Year. In 2009 those books merged into one massive volume, The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, which quickly became one of the most respected and acclaimed anthology series in our industry. It has been published every year since.

Last week Prime Books released the cover of the 2016 edition (at right, click for bigger version), the eighth volume in the series, alongside the Table of Contents. This one contains fiction from C.S.E. Cooney, Kelly Link, Vonda M. McIntyre, Catherynne M. Valente, Naomi Kritzer, Seanan McGuire, Chaz Brenchley, Elizabeth Bear, Ian McDonald, Geoff Ryman, Genevieve Valentine, and many others.

Here’s the complete TOC.

Read More Read More

Future Treasures: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

Future Treasures: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

The Ballad of Black Tom-smallTor.com‘s first book in their new premium novella line, Kai Ashante Wilson’s The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, made several Best of the Year lists for 2015. The publishing experiment has proven successful enough that Tor.com is continuing with more novellas in 2016, including Victor LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tom, a tale in the Cthulhu mythos set in Brooklyn and Harlem in the early 20th century.

Victor LaValle is the author of Big Machine (2010) and The Devil in Silver (2013). About Black Tom, Laird Barron says “LaValle’s novella of sorcery and skullduggery in Jazz Age New York is a magnificent example of what weird fiction can and should do.”

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn’t there.

Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father’s head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping.

A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?

See the complete list of Tor.com novellas we’ve covered so far below.

Read More Read More

Fourth Time Around for Shortcut Man

Fourth Time Around for Shortcut Man

Ipso Fatso-smallshortcutMy favorite contemporary author, P. G. Sturges, is back with Ipso Fatso, the fourth novel in his Shortcut Man series.

An intoxicating blend of comedy, social commentary, and hardboiled fiction, the series concerns Dick Henry, a fixer known as “the Shortcut Man.” Henry solves problems others can’t resolve and works quickly and effectively. Among his clients this time out is a college student being sexually harassed by her tenured professor and three generations of a Latino family living under one roof who are threatened with eviction by unethical bankers and with deportation by opportunistic politicians.

Obviously when one resolves to take on bankers and politics, one is aiming considerably higher than normal. The nice thing here is neither Dick Henry nor his author have bitten off more than they can chew.

Read More Read More

Mysterion Submissions

Mysterion Submissions

MysterionCoverI’ve discussed Mysterion: Rediscovering the Mysteries of the Christian Faith, the anthology my wife and I are editing and publishing, on Black Gate before (here and here). We’re nearing the end of our submissions period, so I thought I’d discuss some of what’s going on with us. There’s a week left until submissions close on December 25th, so there’s still time to submit if you’d like to.

I’ve been keeping track of submissions on a weekly basis. As of Wednesday, we’ve received 385 submissions since we opened on October 15th, of which we’ve responded to 315. Most of those were rejections, but we’re currently holding 39 stories that we’re interested in publishing.

We won’t select any stories to go into the anthology until we’ve read them all. Instead, when we read a story that we think would make a good addition to the anthology, we tell the author that we’re planning to hold their story. After we’ve finished, I expect we’ll have somewhere around 50 stories that we’re holding. From those we’ll select the the ones that will go into the anthology.

At this rate, it looks pretty certain that we’ll pass 400 submissions overall. It’s even possible that we’ll pass 500, if we get a surge in the last week equal to what we got in the first week, but I think we’ll probably end up somewhere between 425-450.

Read More Read More

Future Treasures: The Alchemy of Chaos by Marshall Ryan Maresca

Future Treasures: The Alchemy of Chaos by Marshall Ryan Maresca

The Alchemy of Chaos-smallMarshall Ryan Maresca’s debut novel, The Thorn of Dentonhill, followed the adventures of Veranix Calbert, diligent college student by day and crime-fighting vigilante by night, in the crime-ridden districts of the port city of Maradaine. Library Journal said, “Veranix is Batman, if Batman were a teenager and magically talented,” and that’s not far off. Now comes word that the seqel, The Alchemy of Chaos, arrives from DAW in February, and I’m very much looking forward to it.

Veranix Calbert is The Thorn — the street vigilante who became a legend to the people of Maradaine, especially the gangs that run the neighborhood of Aventil. The Thorn continues to harass Willem Fenmere, the drug kingpin of the Dentonhill neighborhood. Veranix is still determined to stop Fenmere and the effitte drug trade, especially when he discovers that Fenmere is planning on using the Red Rabbits gang to bring the drug into Aventil.

But it’s also Exam Week at the University of Maradaine, where Veranix is a magic student. With his academic career — and future as a mage — riding on his performance, Veranix needs to devote himself entirely to studying and participating in a fellow student’s thesis experiments. There’s no time to go after Fenmere or the Red Rabbits.

Then a series of strange pranks begin to plague the campus, using a form of magic that Veranix doesn’t recognize. As the pranks grow increasingly deadly, it becomes clear that there’s someone with a vendetta against the university, and The Thorn may be the only one capable of stopping them. Between the prankster, the war brewing between the Aventil gangs, and the flamboyant assassins Fenmere has hired to kill him, Veranix may end up dead before the week is out. Which just might be preferable to taking his exams….

Maresca’s second novel, A Murder of Mages, began a second series set in Maradaine. The sequel, An Import if Intrigue, the second novel of The Maradaine Constabulary, is coming Fall 2016.

The Alchemy of Chaos, the second volume of The Maradaine Series, will be published by DAW on February 2, 2016. It is 400 pages, priced at $7.99 for both the print and digital versions. The cover is by Paul Young.

Cover Reveal: Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction edited by Dominik Parisien

Cover Reveal: Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction edited by Dominik Parisien

Clockwork Canada

You know how upcoming movies are nothing but boring press releases and studio gossip until the trailer arrives, and suddenly they’re HOLY COW THIS LOOKS FANTASTIC I WANT TO SEE THIS RIGHT NOW??

I’m the same with with book covers. Upcoming books aren’t real until I see the cover. And then I want them IMMEDIATELY.

That’s especially true of the upcoming Clockwork Canada, edited by Dominik Parisien and scheduled to be released by Exile Editions in May 2016. This collection of steampunk stories set in Canada features stories by some of the brightest stars of Canadian genre fiction. Check out Steve Menard’s dynamite cover above, and see the complete description and Table of Contents below.

Read More Read More

Future Treasures: A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly

Future Treasures: A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly

A Criminal Magic-small Lee Kelly, author of City of Savages, has a new novel of magical realism headed our way. A Criminal Magic has one of the most intriguing premises I’ve read in a while. It’s a tale of magic, high stakes and intrigue set against the backdrop of a very different Roaring Twenties… when Prohibition made magic illegal. It arrives from Saga Press in February.

Magic is powerful, dangerous and addictive — and after passage of the 18th Amendment, it is finally illegal.

It’s 1926 in Washington, DC, and while Anti-Sorcery activists have achieved the Prohibition of sorcery, the city’s magic underworld is booming. Sorcerers cast illusions to aid mobsters’ crime sprees. Smugglers funnel magic contraband in from overseas. Gangs have established secret performance venues where patrons can lose themselves in magic, and take a mind-bending, intoxicating elixir known as the sorcerer’s shine.

Joan Kendrick, a young sorcerer from Norfolk County, Virginia accepts an offer to work for DC’s most notorious crime syndicate, the Shaw Gang, when her family’s home is repossessed. Alex Danfrey, a first-year Federal Prohibition Unit trainee with a complicated past and talents of his own, becomes tapped to go undercover and infiltrate the Shaws.

Through different paths, Joan and Alex tread deep into the violent, dangerous world of criminal magic — and when their paths cross at the Shaws’ performance venue, despite their orders, and despite themselves, Joan and Alex become enchanted with one another. But when gang alliances begin to shift, the two sorcerers are forced to question their ultimate allegiances and motivations. And soon, Joan and Alex find themselves pitted against each other in a treacherous, heady game of cat-and-mouse.

A Criminal Magic will be published by Saga Press on February 2, 2016. It is 432 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $13.99 for the digital edition.

Future Treasures: Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Future Treasures: Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Passenger Alexandra Bracken-smallI’m a sucker for an eye-catching cover. And Alexandra Bracken’s new novel, the opening volume in a new series featuring an accidental time-traveler, definitely qualifies. It will be published in hardcover by Disney-Hyperion in January.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles, but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods — a powerful family in the Colonies — and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, his passenger, can find. In order to protect her, Nick must ensure she brings it back to them-whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home forever.

Alexandra Bracken is also the author of Star Wars: A New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy and the Darkest Minds series. Passenger will be published by Disney-Hyperion on January 5, 2016. It is 496 pages, priced at $17.99 for both the hardcover and digital versions.

Future Treasures: Drake by Peter McLean

Future Treasures: Drake by Peter McLean

Drake Peter McLean-smallPeter McLean’s first novel will be released in paperback by Angry Robot in early January, and it sounds pretty darn good.

Don’t believe me? Drake features a hitman who owes a gambling debt to a demon, his faithful magical accomplice The Burned Man (an imprisoned archdemon), the Furies of Greek myth, an (almost) fallen angel named Trixie, and oh, yeah. Lucifer. Dave Hutchinson calls it “a gritty, grungy, funny, sweary noir thriller with added demons. Don Drake is a wonderful creation.” I told you it sounded good. Drake is the opening installment in a new series titled The Burned Man.

Hitman Don Drake owes a gambling debt to a demon. Forced to carry out one more assassination to clear his debt, Don unwittingly kills an innocent child and brings the Furies of Greek myth down upon himself.

Rescued by an almost-fallen angel called Trixie, Don and his magical accomplice The Burned Man, an imprisoned archdemon, are forced to deal with Lucifer himself whilst battling a powerful evil magician.

Now Don must foil Lucifer’s plan to complete Trixie’s fall and save her soul whilst preventing the Burned Man from breaking free from captivity and wreaking havoc on the entire world.

Drake will be published by Angry Robot on January 5, 2016. It is 320 pages, priced at $7.99 in paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition. The very cool cover is by Raid71. Learn more at the Angry Robot website.

See all our coverage of the best in upcoming fantasy here.

Future Treasures: X’s For Eyes by Laird Barron

Future Treasures: X’s For Eyes by Laird Barron

X's For Eyes-back-small X's For Eyes-small

Laird Barron made quite a name for himself as a horror writer early in his career, but he’s really come into his own in the last few years. He was the guest editor of Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volume One, and the subject of the highly acclaimed tribute anthology, The Children of Old Leech. James McGlothlin reviewed his recent work for us, calling his collection The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All “a great combination of cosmic horror… [and] gritty noir,” and The Light is the Darkness evidence that Barron has become “a superstar… in the tradition of H. P. Lovecraft.”

His latest book, a slender novella from JournalStone, will be published this Friday. It features brothers MacBeth and Drederick, ages 14 and 12, wealthy sons of the superich Tooms family. Their father may be a supervillain, and it looks like the company’s newest space probe just accidentally contacted a malevolent alien god, but that won’t stop the lads from having a great summer vacation. Stu Horvath at Unwinnable says, “They’re like some kind of midnight reflection of the Hardy Boys or Johnny Quest and Hadji. If you ever thought The Venture Brothers needed more horror and less Star Wars references, then this is the book for you.”

X’s For Eyes is 98 pages, priced at $9.95 in trade paperback and $2.99 for the digital edition. Click the covers above for bigger versions.