Search Results for: New Edge Sword

Modular: The Capharnaum RPG: A Kickstarter Combining the Campbellian Hero Path, Arabian Nights Multiculturalism, and Compelling Worldbuilding

Comments 0 Comment

Two years after running our very successful Kickstarter for the transhumanist SF RPG Mindjammer, Mindjammer Press is back with a new project — the English-language version of a fascinating French-language RPG “Capharnaum – The Tales of the Dragon-Marked.” As a soundbite it’s billed as “a fantastic Arabian Nights RPG of deserts, dragons, and crusaders” — but it’s so much more than that. I first came across Capharnaum and its gorgeous artwork in the Paris Games Fair in 2009, and even…

Read More Read More

The Late November Fantasy Magazine Rack

Comments 3 comments

If you’re a magazine fan, November continues to be very, very good to you. The latest crop of magazines include brand new fiction by BG regulars John C. Hocking and John R. Fultz, plus Charlie Jane Anders, Ashok K. Banker, Bruce McAllister, Keith Taylor, Nick Mamatas and Tim Pratt, and many more. Here’s the complete list of magazines that won my attention in late November (links will bring you to magazine websites). Albedo One — issue 47 is a bumper 88…

Read More Read More

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in October

Comments 0 Comment

Sword and Sorcery dominated the stage at Black Gate last month. The most popular topic in October was the new S&S magazine from industry pioneers Joseph Goodman and Howard Andrew Jones, Tales From the Magician’s Skull, which showed up twice in the Top Ten, first with a far-ranging interview with Joseph and Howard (and their undead overlord, the Talking Skull), followed by a report on the blockbuster Kickstarter that funded the first two issues. Gaming and game news were definitely popular as well….

Read More Read More

The Road of Azrael by Robert E. Howard

Comments 5 comments

I can remember when my dad brought home The Road of Azrael (1979) and Sowers of the Thunder (1980), collections of Robert E. Howard’s historical adventure tales. My reading tastes were so exclusively fantasy and science fiction then, I couldn’t imagine wasting any time on boring, mundane stories. No wizards, no demons? What the heck was anybody thinking? I grew out of that attitude a few years later and read both volumes. I remember liking them, but if you asked me…

Read More Read More

The November Fantasy Magazine Rack

Comments 0 Comment

A fine crop of magazines this month, with original fiction by Nancy Kress, Brian M. Sammons, Barry N. Malzberg, Mercedes Lackey, Tina Connelly, Karin Tideck, Sue Burke, and many others. Here’s the complete list of magazines that won my attention in early November (links will bring you to magazine websites). Black Static — fiction by Ruth EJ Booth, Ralph Robert Moore, Mel Kassel, Carly Holmes, Andrew Humphrey, and Georgina Bruce. Cover by Tara Bush Clarkesworld — new fiction by D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Sue Burke,…

Read More Read More

A Tale from the Archonate: A Wizard’s Henchman by Matthew Hughes

Comments 2 comments

I hate Matthew Hughes’ book, A Wizard’s Henchman (2016). Not for the wonderfully complicated cosmogony of its universe; not for the ease with which it slips between dark humor and nightmarish horror; not for its uber-compentent, sympathetic hero, Kaslo. No, I hate it because, although it’s the first volume in a new series, it turns out it’s also a culmination of sorts for Hughes’ long-running Archonate series, and I didn’t know that going in. I had no idea until well into AWH that it serves as a major hinge…

Read More Read More

Thick As Thieves by Ken Lizzi

Comments 5 comments

Swords & sorcery and hard-boiled crime stories share significant crossover in themes, characterization, and worldview. Both tend to have solitary heroes possessed of highly personal codes of behavior, flourish on the margins of civilization (be it the steppes of Turan or Poisonville), and over all, equal parts world-weariness and cynicism is de rigueur. Ken Lizzi’s newest novel, Thick As Thieves, amps up the comparison by being a hard-boiled swords & sorcery heist story. Thick As Thieves’ opening echoes one of roleplaying’s hoariest tropes, by introducing all its…

Read More Read More

The Late October Fantasy Magazine Rack

Comments 5 comments

There’s a new face in the crowd this week — Luna Station Quarterly, a speculative fiction journal that showcases emerging women authors. I’ve included issue #31 in the mix above; the magazine is now in its 8th year, so it’s high time we paid attention. Here’s the complete list of magazines that won my attention in late October (links will bring you to magazine websites). Analog Science Fiction & Fact — fiction by BG writer Bill Johnson (“Mama Told Me Not to Come,” BG4),…

Read More Read More

Nothing To Be Afraid Of

Comments 8 comments

I often find that the idea of something is more frightening than the thing itself – unless you have a phobia, of course, in which case the reality is much, much worse than you imagined. There’s a difference between fear and horror, but only because horror is, I think, a bit more existential. You can be afraid of something specific and not lose your grasp on the world, but horror is a feeling that sweeps over you like a wave,…

Read More Read More