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New Treasures: A Door in the Dark by Scott Reintgen

New Treasures: A Door in the Dark by Scott Reintgen

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A Door in the Dark (Margaret K. McElderry Books, March 28, 2023). Cover by Bose Collins

I’m such a sucker for a great cover. And Bose Collins’ glorious cover artwork for Scott Reintgen’s new fantasy A Door in the Dark — featuring the tantalizing and mysterious grounds of Balmerick University — definitely got my attention.

A Door in the Dark is the opening novel in the Waxways series, a fantasy thriller that follows six young wizards fighting their way home after a portal spell malfunction leaves them stranded in the Dires, and stalked by a terrifying revenant. Kirkus Reviews calls is “Truly fantastic… [with] elements of a locked-room mystery and an original magic system,” and I like the sound of that.

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Conan has Come Hither: The Book is in Print! (May 1)

Conan has Come Hither: The Book is in Print! (May 1)

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It’s here! You probably know that back in 2019, many of the leading Robert E. Howard experts and fans contributed to a terrific series here at Black Gate on REH’s Conan stories. Prior to that, Black Gate’s own Howard Andrew Jones, along with Bill Ward, had over on his own blog, done a deep dive into each story as well.

Jason Waltz and his Rogue Blades Foundation combined those two series’ and added much more content. Now, Hither Came Conan is a print book that is THE definitive guide to REH’s sword-swinging Cimmerian (Hollywood added ‘the Barbarian’ tag – that’s not REH).

Howard wrote 20 Conan short stories, and one novel. Plus, there’s one unfinished tale (“Wolves Beyond the Border”). Each of the twenty-two stories has an essay from the Black Gate series, as well as Howard and Bill’s blog entry. Plus, there are thirteen new essays related to various stories. Finally there, are eleven additional essays not tied to a specific story.

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Monsters in a Mist-locked Kingdom: The Shepherd King by Rachel Gillig

Monsters in a Mist-locked Kingdom: The Shepherd King by Rachel Gillig

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One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crows (Orbit Books,
September 27, 2022, and October 17, 2023). Cover design by Lisa Marie Pompilio

I enjoy a good fairy tale. Also a well told-gothic romance. My true love, of course, is monster movies. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a novel that took a stab at mixing all three. At least, not until I read this tasty copy on the back of One Dark Window:

Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom she calls home — she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head…

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it. Except the highwayman just so happens to be the King’s own nephew, Captain of the Destriers… and guilty of high treason.

One Dark Window is the debut novel by California author Rachel Gillig, the opening book in a duology. Sequel Two Twisted Crowns arrives later this year.

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The Thing Meets The Handmaid’s Tale: Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

The Thing Meets The Handmaid’s Tale: Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

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Camp Zero by Michelle Min (Sterling Atria Books, April 4, 2023)

Camp Zero, Michelle Min Sterling’s debut, is a climate change novel that takes place in a near future where only the wealthy can enjoy the best the world has to offer as the temperature and sea levels rise rapidly, forcing them to take refuge in floating cities, virtual worlds, and the great white north.

These wealthy individuals are invading Canada by buying up tracts of land where they can escape the 110-degree (F) average temperatures of places like LA. Meyer, a classic tech-bro architect, has a vision of Camp Zero, a far north city of geodesic domes, and has brought together a team of locals to build it, although that may not be his real agenda. He has also brought in a team of “hostesses,” complete with a madam, to keep the executive staff happy and as occasional treats for the “diggers.” Grant, the camp’s latest hire, is an English teacher fresh out of prestigious Walden University, eager to cut ties with his wealthy family and settle into a quiet academic life surrounded by Nordic furniture and fields of snow.

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New Treasures: Rubicon by J.S. Dewes

New Treasures: Rubicon by J.S. Dewes

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Rubicon by J.S. Dewes (Tor Books, March 28, 2023). Cover art by Shutterstock

J.S. Dewes’ two-book debut series The Divide was published in 2021 to plenty of breathless acclaim. In her mid-year wrap-up of The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Year, Sadie Gennis at Vulture called opening book The Last Watch “one of the most stunning sci-fi series debuts of recent years… [a] nail-biting space epic,” and Booklist proclaimed it “a bravura debut that blends great action with compelling characters.”

Her new novel Rubicon arrived this week, and it sounds right up my alley. A military SF novel that blends A.I. with a twisty plot and a far future setting, Rubicon has been called “A fresh and forward-looking story about the costs of “forever” wars… Witty and readable, it features an endearing cast of characters and fast-paced action” by Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly says it’s “A standalone outing that is simultaneously thoughtful and pulse-pounding… Fans of smart military sci-fi will be riveted.“

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The Cambion Journals series ends with Rise of the Despoiler by Andrew Paul Weston

The Cambion Journals series ends with Rise of the Despoiler by Andrew Paul Weston

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Rise of the Despoiler: The Cambion Journals, Book Six, by Andrew P. Weston (Raven Tale Publishing. Kindle edition; released Mar 2023, 186pages).

The Cambion Journals is a series of six novellas that ends with Rise of the Despoiler; it was just released March 15, 2023 (Raven Tale Publishing). Last August we highlighted the release of Book Three: The Siren Song and overviewed Andrew Paul Weston’s history with Black Gate.  Prior to that, veteran author and Black Gate contributor Joe Bonadonna reviewed Book One: A Hybrid’s Tale review and Book Two: Call of the Cambion.  Learn more about The Cambion Journals by reading the below novella summaries and visiting the author’s website and the series’ website.

“The world-building is sublime. Andrew Weston is a mastermind when it comes to world-building. He intricately lays the foundation in each book like a craftsman. It may be all in the author’s imagination, but on paper, it’s sheer brilliance. I got sucked into the world he created, and I loved every moment.” – N. N. Light – Amazon Vine Voice

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New Treasures: Summer’s End by John Van Stry

New Treasures: Summer’s End by John Van Stry

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Summer’s End (Baen Books, December 6, 2022). Cover by Sam R. Kennedy

John Van Stry is a darling of the indie publishing world. He’s self-published dozens of science fiction novels, including eleven volumes in the Portals of Infinity series, and 18 in The Valens Legacy, written as Jan Stryvant. Summer’s End is his first book with an established publisher, and it caught my eye this week at Barnes and Noble. It’s the tale of newly graduated Ship Engineer Dave Walker, who takes a job on the Iowa Hill, described as:

An old tramp freighter running with a minimal crew and nearing the end of its useful life, plying the routes that the corporations ignore and visiting the kinds of places that the folks on Earth pretend don’t exist. Between the assassins, the criminals, and the pirates he needs to deal with, Dave is discovering that there are a lot of things out there that he still needs to learn.

That’s the paragraph that sold me, and helped move this book up near the top of my already-towering TBR pile.

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Nonstop SF Adventure: The Mickey7 Novels by Edward Ashton

Nonstop SF Adventure: The Mickey7 Novels by Edward Ashton

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Mickey7 and Antimatter Blues (St. Martin’s Press,
February 15, 2022 and March 14, 2023). Cover design by Ervin Serrano

Truth to tell, I missed Edward Ashton’s novel Mickey7 last year, despite all the breathless praise heaped on it (NPR listed it as one of the Best Books of 2022, calling it “A wildly entertaining mix of action and big ideas peppered with humor and a bizarre love story”). It was our very own Brandon Crilly who tuned me in to the coolness of Mickey7 with his mid-2022 Roundup, in which he wrote:

Gods this was a fun read. Ashton begins with protagonist Mickey stuck at the bottom of a pit and certain he’s going to die, since he’s the Expendable and his colony will just regenerate him. Except things take various turns from there, due to the threat of alien attack, the idiosyncrasies of the colonists, or the bizarre experience of being the seventh iteration of yourself. If you’ve ever spent nights thinking Okay, but the transporter really kills folks and then duplicates them, right, this is most definitely a book for you.

And now the sequel Antimatter Blues, which arrived this week from St. Martin’s Press, is being called “A nonstop SF adventure from beginning to end” (Library Journal).

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New Treasures: Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

New Treasures: Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

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Dead Silence (Tor Nightfire, January 24, 2023). Cover by Timo Noack

Nightfire is Tor’s new horror imprint. Launched in 2019, it’s published books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Catriona Ward, Cassandra Khaw, Ellen Datlow, T. Kingfisher, and lots more.

That’s all well and good, but has it given us a haunted house story in space that’s a successful cross between 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien? No. No it has not.

Well, at least it hadn’t until the arrival of S.A. Barnes’ Dead Silence, which Library Journal calls “a compelling haunted-house-in-space frame [with] excellent worldbuilding and sustained tension,” and Locus says is a “great, immersive, atmospheric space horror that proves that, despite rumors to the contrary, horror belongs in space.” (And yeah, for the record, Mur Lafferty tells us Dead Silence offers “the suffocating claustrophobia of 2001: A Space Odyssey mixed with the horrors of Alien.” That’s just not a blend you see every day.)

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Noir, The Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Bang!, edited by Andrew Hook

Noir, The Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Bang!, edited by Andrew Hook

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Bang!: An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction (Head Shot Press, March 1, 2023)

For reasons I don’t quite understand I love horror fiction but I hate horror movies.

By contrast, I love noir films but I don’t particularly like noir fiction. 

Yet, this anthology of noir stories has made me change my mind.

I’m not saying that I liked all the stories (that would be statistically impossible, even with horror anthologies) but certainly I was pleasantly surprised by my own response to several of the dark tales featured here.

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