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Grasping for the Wind reviews Black Gate 14

Grasping for the Wind reviews Black Gate 14

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twobladesclrJohn Ottinger III at Grasping for the Wind has posted the first review of Black Gate 14.  Here’s what he says about our latest issue:

One of the best collections of fiction on the market – whether books, magazines, or online. The latest edition has just been released, and Black Gate 14 is massive, topping out at 384 pages …  this massive collection of fiction shows why, even with their irregular publishing schedule, Black Gate is one of the most popular magazines (print or online) available today.

He reserves his highest praise for two novellas, including Pete Butler’s “The Price of Two Blades:”

Spectacular… a story of a pact made with old gods that costs a high and terrible price… Butler’s clever build of suspense and mystery, use of religious magic that costs a price, and multiple viewpoint telling of the story keep the reader glued to the action as it unfolds. This is undoubtedly one of the best stories of this issue, perhaps one of the best Black Gate has yet published.

And Robert J Howe’s “The Natural History of Calamity.” 

A piece of paranormal crime noir. Debbie is a karma detective, a person people hire when they feel that for some reason the universe is out of whack. When Will Charbonneau hires her to find out why his girlfriend left him for no apparent reason, it seems like a straightforward case. But then Debbie runs into an old boyfriend in the course of the case, and everything becomes a tangled mess. Surprise twists, a significant dose of self-deprecating humor, and a no-nonsense first person point of view make this story hard to walk away from. From the little teaser at the beginning, to the depth of character and clever use of karma as plot device, Howe’s story is a real pleaser from beginning to end. My favorite of the magazine and one I highly recommend.

Art by Malcolm McClinton for “The Price of Two Blades.”

The complete review is here. Thanks for the kind words, John!

Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek

Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek

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bg-14-cover3Black Gate 14 is a landmark issue — and at 384 pages, it’s also the largest in our history. 

It celebrates the growth and success we’ve seen over the last year, and it’s a big “Thank You” to all the readers who’ve supported us while so many small press magazines are struggling. We worked hard to get it out in 2009, but its sheer size and complexity (over 150,000 words of fiction, and nearly 25 full pages of art) made that impossible.  The issue shipped in March.

Special thanks are due to Contributing Editor Bill Ward, who assembled a huge 32-page review section, and Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones, for a 20-page gaming section.  Thanks also to Rich Horton, for his lengthy article on Modern Reprints of Classic Fantasy, and to Bruce Pennington for a magnificent cover.

What awaits you in BG 14? A young girl confronts an ancient evil on the rooftops of a decaying city, armed only with her father’s sword… A band of desperate men pursue the slave traders who stole their families across cold barrows where a dread thing sleeps… An ambitious witch finds her schemes for revenge may not be quite treacherous enough… And New York’s first karma detective discovers a simple case to re-unite two lovers conceals a sinister conspiracy. Includes new fiction from John C. Hocking, Michael Jasper & Jay Lake, Pete Butler, Martin Owton, Chris Braak, and a Morlock novella from James Enge!

Buy this issue — ­ only $18.95 plus postage and handling!
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Rich Horton reviews Black Gate 13

Rich Horton reviews Black Gate 13

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black-gateissue-13-coverEvery year, uberreviewer Rich Horton sets out to summarize the year in genre short fiction at his newsgroup on SFFNet.

Note I didn’t say “survey,” or “overview.”  Rich reads every story in every single magazine in the field — and more than a few outside it — and discusses each publication in detail.  It’s a process that takes months (not including reading time). As he put it in his final post last year:

I read various issues of 36 print magazines, 29 electronic sources, 50 original anthologies, 14 story collections with original pieces, 12 single story chapbooks, and a few other miscellaneous spots. I read a total of 2325 stories: 69 novellas, 434 novelettes, and 1823 short stories… word count total, a bit over 13.5 million.

Is he crazy? (That’s not a rhetorical question. The answer is probably yes.) But until he’s institutionalized, the rest of us benefit greatly from both his stamina and his superior taste.

How do we know his taste is superb? Because he likes Black Gate, for one thing.

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New Review of Black Gate 13

New Review of Black Gate 13

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black-gateissue-13-coverLuke Forney reviews the latest issue of Black Gate at his blog.

Black Gate kept my attention far better than any other fiction magazine… Almost all of the stories I found immediately wonderful, engaging, and very easy to lose oneself in. The quality was beyond impressive, and the extras (reviews sections) were brilliant.

Luke compares John C. Hocking to Robert E. Howard:

“The Face in the Sea” by John C. Hocking: This wonderful story tells of Viking-like people returning from a raid on their enemy’s stronghold to recover their princess, and one shaman’s all-out assault to stop them. A very well told story, reminiscent of Robert E. Howard. I’ll be looking for more by Hocking.

And was equally impressed by L. Blunt Jackson:

“Spider Friend” by L. Blunt Jackson: A brilliant fable-like tale, with an ending that I didn’t see coming, but that didn’t interrupt the wonderful style that Jackson worked throughout. One of the best “modern fables” I have read.

He also comments favorably on our non-fiction:

This issue also contained a number of comic strips, and two brilliant review sections. I have never seen a magazine have such a detailed, extensive reviews section that covered so many books. It was a wonderful surprise… The fiction reviews section was lovely, and covered far more than the large press magazines do.

He closes with a fine suggestion: 

Anyone who is a fan of adventure or fantasy should immediately check out Black Gate…  it contains a LOT of content (224 pages, full magazine size, not digest), good stories, interesting essays, wonderful departments, even an illustration for each story, which is a feature sadly missing in most other magazines. Grab issue 13 while you can, and keep your eyes peeled for the next issue!

You can read the complete review here.

Brent Knowles reviews Black Gate 13

Brent Knowles reviews Black Gate 13

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black-gateissue-13-cover-150Long-time reader and professional writer Brent Knowles recently posted a review of Black Gate 13:

I have every issue of Black Gate… a fantastic magazine. I subscribe to the print issue, but there is now a digital copy available too.

 Brent highlights several pieces, including “Naktong Flow” by Myke Cole:

A very strong and realistic, yet exotic, world, solidly anchors this story. Much like The Naturalist, which I’ll get to later, this is the kind of story that immerses you in a world first, a world that could only exist in this story, the only world in which this story could exist. Much of the ‘fun’ of reading a story like this is in being exposed to culture, that while based on our world is injected with such imagination and originality that it carries the story even if it is not that strong. And better yet, this story is strong, with an interesting protagonist. Great!

And “Spider Friend” by L. Blunt Jackson:

An unique fable, told competently, this is one of my favorite stories this time around. A man gains the blessings of spiders, but, as is so often the case is tempted to walk away from what is good in his life, for what he desires.

And the final installment of Mark Sumner’s novel The Naturalist:

 I have enjoyed the previous two parts to this story and the third is no different. This is a world I could imagine living in, it feels real, authentic, a variation of our own world with just enough of the marvelous/horrible to make this a tale of the fantastic. A very satisfying conclusion to a fabulous adventure. 

The complete review is here.

Thanks Brent! Stay tuned for issue 14, coming soon!

Tangent Online reviews Black Gate 13

Tangent Online reviews Black Gate 13

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The esteemed Dave Truesdale, founder of Tangent, has posted a detailed critique of our latest issue:

This thirteenth issue of Black Gate—with its usual complement of book and fantasy gaming reviews (not to mention a dandy article by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. on the magic in his popular Recluse series), and with its hallmark 200+ pages—was another wild ride, with some real standout pieces. Easily worth the $9.95 cover price.

Dave draws particular attention to two stories, including Myke Cole’s “Naktong Flow”:

Myke Cole‘s prose in “Naktong Flow” is smooth, evocative, and thoroughly professional. Some years ago he won the Writers of the Future contest, and it shows. “Naktong Flow” is set in the forest-jungles of the Far East, and follows Ch’oe, his men, their ancestor-magician, and a strange, magically-imbued wooden machine as they travel up the Naktong river in pursuit of the less-than-human creatures named the bonesetters… Think Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now and you’re on the right track. While totally self-contained and a proper short story, the ending is not what one might expect, and leads to the obvious conclusion that “Naktong Flow” should be part of a larger story. I, for one, will be eager to read it.

As well as the final chapter of The Naturalist by Mark Sumner:

An absorbing read and thoroughly enjoyable. Set in an alternate Central America in the 1830’s, it tells the tale of British explorers who encounter a race of swarming antriders who destroy everything in their path, including, of course, human settlements. Told through journal entries written by the protagonist, a Mr. Brown—the “naturalist” of the title–in the wonderfully expressive language of the time, it recalls the “lost world” tales of H. Rider Haggard and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sumner constructs a remarkably rich and well-researched world, full of detail and nuance, through which the naturalist, his entourage, and the British forces stationed there must fight to survive. Fraught with danger and excitement, and full of the mystery and color of a grand adventure, I heartily recommend The Naturalist.

The complete review is here.

SF Site reviews Black Gate 13

SF Site reviews Black Gate 13

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Sherwood Smith – who has reviewed virtually every issue of Black Gate – offers her usual detailed and thorough critique, this time at the SF Site:

“The Face in the Sea” by John C Hocking

Hocking’s story begins like a fragment from the middle of a Norse saga. We are at sea with the narrator Brand, taking ship after having rescued Asdia, daughter of Thorgeir Broadshield. Hocking hints at sparks between Brand and Asdir with the same economy one finds in the sagas as the action swiftly rises to disaster in the form of Einar’s dragon-ship chasing by magical means, aided by the evil Skorri…  a smashing action tale with strong evocation of northern myth.

The issue ends powerfully with Mark Sumner’s “The Naturalist, Part III: St. George and the Antriders.”

I believe a reader could catch up fairly rapidly, but to get the full impact, one really ought to read the earlier installments in Issues 10 and 11. This is a novel — complex, beautifully written in the idiom and cadence of the 1830s, but the horrifying battle against the alien antriders is so terrifying there is no danger of the reader finding the pace slow. Mr. Brown, a naturalist, is the narrator; the story is told in his journal as he follows Captain Valamont and his soldiers around, trying to investigate — and then escape — the invading antriders. Sumner brings the story to an elegiac close.. with an exquisite twist. This is a bravura story, well worth appearing in book form.

You can find the full review at www.sfsite.com/06b/bg298.htm.

Locus reviews Black Gate 13

Locus reviews Black Gate 13

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The June issue of Locus, the Magazine of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Field, contains this review from Contributing Editor Rich Horton, in his Locus Looks at Short Fiction column:

Black Gate‘s Spring issue is as ever stuffed with entertaining adventure fantasy, the best story this time being the longest, “St. George and the Antriders,” Mark Sumner’s concluding tale in a series about marauding antriders in an alternate 19th century Central America. Here Mr. Brown and the resourceful landowner Miss Marlowe lead a band of refugees back to the capital city where they find the corrupt governorship of the territory as menacing as the antriders.

Recommended Stories (all magazines, June)

“St. George and the Antriders,” Mark Sumner (Black Gate Spring ’09)

No online link, but Locus is available at finer bookstores everywhere, and you can buy single copies at www.locusmag.com.

Serial Distractions reviews Black Gate 13

Serial Distractions reviews Black Gate 13

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Shedrick Pittman-Hassett’s Serial Distractions has reviewed our latest issue.  Here’s an excerpt:

I have treasured Black Gate ever since I first discovered Issue 10.  I had dropped my charter subscription to another fantasy magazine a couple of years before because I wasn’t finding what I was looking for: old-fashioned, but highly imaginative, adventure fantasy.  Black Gate delivers this in spades and the latest issue is no exception.

The Evil Eater by Peadar Ó Guilín

A horror story about the price of deception…especially self-deception.  Toby, a somewhat-aspiring actor and his scheming girlfriend Marie walk into a world of ancient terrors while attending an exclusive restaurant on a “borrowed” invitation.  In the Lovecraftian horror of Ahriman’s kitchen Toby learns to see the truths of his life and the deceptions that have brought him to his current state. 

Return of the Quill by John R. Fultz

The conquered city of Narr is ruled by a council of Sorcerer Kings.  The darkest of these is Grimsort, who resides in the crypts and animates the ancient dead to protect the city from threats without and rebellion within.  His loyalties are soon put to the test as he begins to see the city as it once was and what it probably should be.  This powerhouse story aptly shows that rebellion does not live in riots, screeds, or demonstrations but in the desires inherent in all people.  This is probably my favorite story in this issue.

The complete review is here.

Internet Review of Science Fiction reviews Black Gate 13

Internet Review of Science Fiction reviews Black Gate 13

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Every month Lois Tilton covers the best new short fiction in her column at The Internet Review of Science Fiction, one of the genre’s most respected and enjoyable e-zines. This is what she had to say (in part) about Black Gate 13:

In recent issues, this zine has shifted its emphasis toward the Sword and Sorcery end of the fantasy spectrum, and every piece of fiction here could be described to some extent as Dark Fantasy. But there is dark Dark Fantasy and light Dark Fantasy, and most of the stories here are on the lighter side.

“The Good Sheriff”  by David Wesley Hill

Charles Duke, in a previous installment of this series, has found himself in another world, where the gold he has accumulated is worthless. Here, the local currency is grains of good. Duke locates a sorcerer who agrees to send him back to 1879 Texas in exchange for a fee, and since he has just killed the local sheriff, he takes over the job and finds several ways to make it pay. But of course there are complications:

“‘Ah, crap,’ Duke muttered, and sprinted for the constable’s office, where the three deputies were standing on the porch rail and goggling at the energy display.

Duke’s first instinct was to take down “Old Reliable” from its peg on the wall, but instead of the shotgun, he armed himself with his Henry repeater.”

This light fantasy is pretty fun to read and stands quite well on its own. Duke is an interesting character, well-suited to this sort of tale.

RECOMMENDED

You can find the complete review here.