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Bill Ward reviews Black Gate 13

Bill Ward reviews Black Gate 13

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Welcome back Bill!

We’ve missed Bill during his sabbatical from the BG blog. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been busy. On Sunday he posted another in his regular series of Black Gate magazine reviews. Here’s what he said about our latest issue, in part:

One look at Black Gate and you understand what makes it the leader in this field. Gorgeous cover and interior art, a huge amount of content including short stories and novellas, non-fiction, and an extensive reviews section that takes on both gaming and current fiction offerings, makes Black Gate a magazine that delivers on all cylinders…

Fans of John C. Hocking’s story in Lords of the Swords, ‘Vali’s Wound,’ will be excited to see the precursor story to that tale of vikings, ‘The Face in the Sea.’ Peadar Ó Guilín returns to Black Gate with another weird tale, ‘The Evil Eater,’ a contemporary fantasy in which a forbidden food leads to an underworld of horror. And John R. Fultz offers another strong fantasy, one of the best in the issue, with a tale of wizards and rebels in a most compellingly drawn setting in ‘Return of the Quill.’

You can find the full review here .

New Reviews of Black Gate 11!

New Reviews of Black Gate 11!

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This week we thought we’d take you on a tour of some of the online reactions to out latest print issue, Black Gate #11. You’ll find a gamut of opinions represented below, from both pros and amateurs.

Our first stop is The Fix, the longtime short fiction review magazine that over the last few years has reinvented itself as an online-only publication. Sherwood Smith delves into each story in #11, praising them by turns as “imaginative and complex,” “terrific and visual,” and “a masterly blend of image, action, and humor.” Sherwood has been a friend to the magazine since we started, and the care and attention she takes with all her reviews is obvious. This is another great overview that will have any fence-sitters out there panting to buy the issue.

Over at Michele Lee’s Book Love blog is a look at #11 originally intended for Tangent before that venue went on hiatus. Michele has a more subdued reaction to the issue, suggesting some readers might be irritated by continuing serials leaving some plot threads open, but that didn’t sting as much as calling Tolkien’s wizard “Gandolf,” instead of Gandalf. Ouch. Drop by and leave a comment anyway.

At Grasping for the Wind, another site dedicated to science-fiction and fantasy book reviews, John Ottinger offers a critical analysis declaring, that “nothing in this issue disappoints” (before admitting a bit further down, “I was a bit disappointed by this installment”). On the bright side, John has a lot of praise for selected stories, calling one “extremely well written and very creative in its approach. I’ve never read anything quite like it before.” To which tale was he referring? Click on the link and find out.

Finally, we end with our favorite review, courtesy of Karl Bradley at the Ultimate Sword & Sorcery Blog of Ultimate Destiny. As Karl puts it: “I wish I could’ve stayed up all night last night and read Black Gate Magazine cover-to-cover and given you a review today. Instead, I went to work. But I have to do something about Black Gate‘s recent release. So here is my review of the first sentence of every story in the magazine.” He actually goes through with it, and it turns out to be a lot of fun, so navigate over to US&SBoUD and enjoy.

And if you haven’t bought Black Gate #11 yet, what are you waiting for? There’s no magazine out there publishing more eclectic, thought-provoking, and action-packed tales of Sword-and-Sorcery and fantasy — visit our subscription page and place your order today.

Reading Black Gate 11

Reading Black Gate 11

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I’m more than halfway through the new Black Gate, and I can honestly say that, if anything, it’s even better than Black Gate 10. I’m not just saying that — (anyone who knows me knows that I’m neither a shill nor much of a salesman) — the writing from the regulars is even stronger than it’s been in the past. Much as I liked previous entries from Enge and Wells and Rowan, their entries this time had me so spellbound I had to constantly remember that I was supposed to be proofreading, not just devouring prose. I’ve been equally impressed with work from newcomers, and it is all I can do to put time aside for other duties rather than continuing my read.

A lot of people may not realize that I haven’t seen this fiction — indeed, it may still be a bit before anything I’ve sent on to John appears between Black Gate pages. All this is stockpiled from before I came aboard, so I feel a little like the ultimate fan, getting to open the Christmas presents before the rest of you. Some have crowned me with unearned laurels, saying that the adventure fiction quotient was higher than ever before in BG 10 due to me. It’s just not true. I was hired on because of the direction John was growing Black Gate and I have surely helped with the magazine; I have not, however, changed that direction myself.

I’m starting to see some art trickle in for the contents of Black Gate 12, and it looks pretty exciting.

Lastly, we have some new advertisers. One of them, Dark City Games, has had products reviewed twice by us (one product in issue 10 and one in issue 11) and between those reviews, their full-page ad, and the web site, I’m going to break down and try some of these. First John, then Todd McAulty, then Andrew Zimmerman Jones have been raving about these cool games, and I’m just going to have to try them out for myself.

More soon,

Howard