The top articles at Black Gate in July and August were both features on Conan, and last month Bob Byrne managed to nab the top slot with his look at a strange mash-up of police procedural and sword & sorcery, the Conan tale “The God in the Bowl.” Conan was created by Robert E. Howard in the pages of Weird Tales in 1932; 85 years later, he’s still the most popular character among our readers. That’s durability. The second most popular article at…
Aside from his own terrific swords & sorcery tales, the thing I’m most grateful to Joe Bonadonna for is hipping me to the Gonji stories of T.C. Rypel. For those unfamiliar with him, Gonji is a half Viking, half Japanese warrior, cast out of Japan and in search of his destiny across a monster- and sorcery-ravaged Europe. His epic struggle against malign magical powers are told in a series of five novels: Red Blade from the East (2012), The Soul…
One thing I cherish about the zines in this genre is their endless diversity. We have gritty SF and fantasy (Grimdark magazine), literary adventure fantasy (Beneath Ceaseless Skies), Canadian speculative fiction (Lackington’s), contemporary horror (Black Static), pulp replicas (Magazine of Horror #36), and much, much more. Best of all, we have writers capable of crossing all those boundaries — such as the amazing Natalia Theodoridou, who appears in no less than three magazines this month (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clarkesworld, and Shimmer). Here are the…
The September/October Analog has a diverse mix of tales, of time travel, uplifted animals, ghostmail, siege engines on Mars, cryo-prisons, space elevators, crash landings on hostile worlds, mysterious alien invaders, and Norman Spinrad’s tale of the Order of the Galactic Eye. Here’s Nicky Magas at Tangent Online to give us the highlights. An exciting new world that is hostile to technology awaits Mbasi in “Orphans” by Craig DeLancey. No probes sent to the planet teeming with vegetation have survived through to…
I know, I know. We’re in October already. But I’m still not finished with all of September’s great magazines yet. Here are the ones that grabbed my attention in the last half of the month (links will bring you to magazine websites). Apex Magazine — Issue #100, with new fiction from Andrea Tang, plus reprints by Kameron Hurley & others Back Issue #100 — our second issue #100 this month is a 100-page centennial featuring Bronze Age comic fanzines Pulp Literature — with a story…
Another month, another roundup. While I’m still dubious of any sort of serious swords & sorcery revival, there is most definitely a renewed interest in the older roots of fantasy and science fiction going on. Howard Andrew Jones is editing a new magazine, Tales from the Magician’s Skull, that is inspired by Gary Gygax’s fabled Appendix N. The folks at Castalia House have built up a serious following based on their love of pulp and Appendix N. One of the most serious…
Creighton Broadhurst is the founder and head honcho of Raging Swan Press, one of Pathfinder‘s leading third party publishers. His Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands is the spiritual successor to the old moat house in The Village of Hommlet. Creighton plays Pathfinder, but he approaches the rules-heavy game with an old school style, which is something I’ve been trying to figure out for myself. His blog features lots of lists: GM advice, player tips, favorite modules, etc.. I broke his…
Plenty of great fiction to distract us in September! Here are the magazines that grabbed my attention this month (links will bring you to magazine websites). Beneath Ceaseless Skies — new fiction from Michael J. DeLuca and William Broom Cirsova #6 — stories by Adrian Cole, Harold R. Thompson, and others Knights of the Dinner Table 245 — with a great Jack Kirby tribute cover! Clarkesworld — new fiction from Suzanne Palmer, A. Brym, and others Galaxy’s Edge — John…
Reportedly, Ernest Hemingway bet Howard Hawks that the director couldn’t make a good movie out of his worst book. Hawks took the bet and we ended up with Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not (it’s not Bogie’s best, but I vote Hawks the winner of the bet). Suppose I told you I could show you that one of what’s commonly considered among the worst Conan stories isn’t really that bad – and that it’s a pre-genre police procedural? Ready to take…
Those who know me, or who have read some of my previous posts on the subject, know that I’m a big fan of anthologies, particularly those featuring original stories. For my general remarks on the subject, you can look here. I’ve mentioned that the anthology is a wonderful thing for readers, who can encounter authors new to them, sample the work of people they’re not familiar with, and, in the case of the themed anthology, explore an idea that interests…