Black Gate – Page 550 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

Interzone #269 Now on Sale

Wednesday, April 12, 2017 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

The March-April issue of Britain’s longest running science fiction and fantasy magazine has new fiction by Sean McMullen, Tim Akers, Richard E. Gropp, Christien Gholson, and Steve Rasnic Tem, plus David Langford’s Ansible Link, film reviews by Nick Lowe; book reviews, columns by Jonathan McCalmont and Nina Allan, and a guest editorial by Steve Rasnic Tem. Kat Day, writing at Tangent Online, had lots of good things to say about the issue.

This issue of Interzone brings us five substantial short stories… The illustrations in this magazine also deserve a mention – Richard Wagner has created some absolutely gorgeous images to accompany the first three stories in particular….

In “Still Life With Falling Man,” by Richard E. Gropp… we meet Julian, whose job is to hunt down “nexûs” — places where time has inexplicably slowed so much that it almost seems to be frozen, sometimes trapping people with it. We learn that ten seconds for such victims would last a little over twenty-seven million years, giving them (from their point of view) a speeded up journey to end of the universe. This story is a really clever take on the notion of relativity, and also tackles themes of relationships and the difficult idea of accepting oneself as a tiny part of an infinite reality. This was very much my favorite story in this issue…

“The Common Sea,” by Steve Rasnic Tem (who also writes the editorial in this issue) is set in a near-future where sea levels have risen so much that Tom and his extended family are living in a house sitting in water, raised up on stilts. The only form of travel is by boat. One day he sets off the “the Dock” — a collection of floating barges and platforms connected to a small strip of land. The normal trajectory of such a tale would be to describe a hopeless, dystopian future where everything is awful and everyone is downtrodden and depressed. It’s refreshing that Rasnic Tem doesn’t take this route — instead choosing to reflect on the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. A pleasing end to this issue of Interzone.

Read Kat’s complete review here.

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Rich Horton on the 2017 Hugo Nominations

Tuesday, April 11, 2017 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

All the Birds in the Sky Charlie Jane Anders-smaller

The 2017 Hugo Award Nominees were announced earlier this month, and there’s lots of great stuff on the ballot this year. Over at his website Strange at Ecbatan, Rich Horton has a look at the results, and compares them to his predictions. Here’s his thoughts on the nominees for Best Novel.

I think this shortlist looks very impressive indeed. I had already read All the Birds in the Sky and Too Like the Lightning before my previous article, and I had suggested that I’d nominate All the Birds in the Sky (which I did). I also praised Too Like the Lightning… Since then I’ve gotten to Ninefox Gambit, and I very enthusiastically support its nomination. (I’m working on a review post about it.) Ninefox Gambit is complicated Military SF, which sort of teaches you how to read it as you go along. It’s got a fierce moral core, which is slowly revealed, and it opens up beautifully at the end, so that I don’t think the second book in the trilogy will be a “middle book.” And – this novel is reasonably speaking complete in itself.

I haven’t read the other three. But everything I’ve seen about A Closed and Common Orbit suggests I’ll like it – and also suggests that I really need to get to Chambers’ previous novel, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. The other two novels are sequels to the past two Hugo winners, and I have no reason to doubt their quality as well. This is probably the Best Best Novel shortlist in at least 5 years.

And, hey, three first novels! Is that the first time that’s ever happened?

See Rich’s complete piece here, and his preliminary Hugo Nomination Thoughts for 2017 here.

Space Pirates and Interplanetary Intrigue: The Far Stars Trilogy by Jay Allan

Tuesday, April 11, 2017 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Shadow of Empire, the first novel in Jay Allen’s Far Stars Trilogy, opens with Captain Blackhawk stripped to the waist on a hostile planet, armed with a shortsword, facing off against a 9-foot monster in an alien arena. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the tone and target audience for this series — it’s a straight ahead, unapologetic space adventure, with a protagonist who commands a ship called the Wolf’s Claw, and whose “eyes focus like twin lasers” in combat.

Jay Allen is one of the most successful of a new generation of authors who, like Vaughn Heppner, Michael Anderle, and others, skirted traditional publishing and found an audience self-publishing digital books. His Crimson Worlds series includes 9 titles, and has sold over 800,000 copies in digital format. The Far Stars Trilogy looks like Allan’s first foray into traditional publishing, but it’s not his last — his latest book, Flames of Rebellion, the start of a brand new military adventure series, arrived in trade paperback from Harper Voyager on March 21.

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There’s Something Magic About a House: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Tuesday, April 11, 2017 Steve Case Comments 1 comment

Howl's Moving Castle Greenwillow-smaller

There is something magic about a house, or there should be. There are hints of this in James Stoddard’s The High House, in which the house is a universe unto itself, or in the Professor’s home in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, in which the house is a gateway to universes. We realize in some way that every house holds secrets, that every house is in some sense a castle, and that the portals of every house open either into a wider world without or an inner world within.

This ineffable something about houses motivates Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle, which despite the title isn’t really about a castle but rather a house and the family that gets collected inside it. My kids and I are big fans of Studio Ghibli, so the 2004 animated film adaptation by Hayao Miyazaki was our first exposure to the work. Before seeing the film, I had not heard of the late British fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones. Howl’s Moving Castle remains the only work by her I’ve read, though she wrote at least two other novels in which these characters also appear.

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Vintage Treasures: Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge

Monday, April 10, 2017 John ONeill Comments 7 comments

Dark Harvest Norman Partridge-back-small

We got, I dunno, a month or two (or six) before Halloween? But that doesn’t mean you can’t start your spooky Halloween reading a little early this year. My recommendation? Dark Harvest, by Norman Partridge.

Norman Partridge is the author of five collections of horror stories, including The Man with the Barbed-Wire Fists (2001) and Lesser Demons (2010). His short novel Dark Harvest is the tale of Sawtooth Jack, who rises from the cornfields every Halloween and relentlessly makes his way towards town, where gangs of teenage boys await their chance to face off against a creature of nightmare. It was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, and won both the International Horror Guild Award and the Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction. It was also selected as one of Publishers Weekly‘s 100 Best Books of 2006.

Dark Harvest was published in hardcover by Cemetery Dance in October 2006, and reprinted by Tor Books on September 4, 2007. It is 171 pages, priced at $16.99 in trade paperback and $7.99 for the digital edition. The fabulous cover is by Jon Foster. It is still in print.

Modular: Castles & Crusades 7th Printing

Monday, April 10, 2017 Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones Comments 2 comments

Troll Lord Games has just hit its funding goal for the 7th edition of Castles & Crusades Player’s Handbook, to be released in June of 2017. What’s Castles & Crusades and why should you want it when you have so many other fantasy games to choose from? Take it away, Troll Lords:

You’ll find with C&C that the game is easy to play, but more importantly is its versatility. You can take your house rules and drop them right on top of the C&C mechanic (the Siege Engine) and keep on playing. You are in control. Take the advantage/disadvantage system from 5E and use it with C&C. There’s nothing stopping you.

What’s even better, because the whole game is driven by attribute checks that have only loose guidelines, the game master chooses what attribute check the player rolls. If they want the wizard to swim better, make the character roll an intelligence check to swim the river. It’s your game. Take it.

How does the Siege Engine Work?

You are already familiar with Castles & Crusades.

You’ll find the same classes, races, attributes and many of the same monsters as in most other games.

To succeed at any action, you need to make an attribute check (unless the CK deems it doesn’t need one)

There are two types of attributes: Primary & Secondary

Primary attributes have a base chance to succeed of 12 on a d20. Secondary have a base chance to succeed of 18. The CK adds a challenge level based on hit dice and other circumstance. The character adds their attribute bonus and level to their roll.

You are playing C&C.

It’s fast, versatile and open. Allowing you to make it as complex or as simple as you desire.

I happen to agree with the advertising copy; Castles & Crusades is one of my very favorite role-playing systems because everything discussed above is quite true.

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Modular: Chaosium Announces New Version of RuneQuest

Monday, April 10, 2017 John ONeill Comments 8 comments

Chaosium announced last week that a new version of its classic RPG will be released by Christmas 2017.

The new edition of the iconic roleplaying game RuneQuest will be formally known as RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, or ‘RQG‘ for short, Chaosium announced today… RQG is built off the chassis of the acclaimed RuneQuest 2nd Edition (1980). This enables RQG to be compatible with RuneQuest Classic, the updated reprints of the RQ2 line which Chaosium recently kickstarted to great success.

“Fans had been referring to the new rules variously as ‘RQ4‘ and ‘RQ7‘”, said Chaosium creative director Jeff Richard, “But our new game is simply not a layer atop the Avalon Hill edition (RQ3) or the Mongoose variants that came after that. Nor is it built from the version Design Mechanism produced under license (RQ6). So, rather than try to give the new edition a number, calling it ‘RQG‘ neatly avoids any confusion…”

The products scheduled for 2017 release are the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha core rules, a Gloranthan Bestiary, and a scenarios book featuring adventures by game design legends Steve Perrin (RQ1 & 2), Ken Rolston (RQ3‘s ‘rune czar’, Morrowwind, Elder Scrolls), Chris Klug (DragonQuest II, James Bond 007 RPG) and the ‘grand shaman of gaming’ himself Greg Stafford… The first new RQG product is the RuneQuest Quickstart, which will be available in June for Free RPG Day and at the Chaosium website from July 1, 2017.

The products will not be kickstarted. The Art for the RuneQuest Quickstart is by Andrey Fetisov; old-school gamers will recognize it as an homage to Luise Perrine’s much-loved cover for the classic 2nd edition.

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Future Treasures: Dogs of War, a New Joe Ledger Novel by Jonathan Maberry

Sunday, April 9, 2017 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Joe Ledger is a Baltimore detective recruited to lead a secret rapid-response group called the Department of Military Sciences. His first case, Patient Zero (2009), involved stopping a group of terrorists from releasing a bio-weapon that could trigger a zombie apocalypse, and things have gone downhill for the poor guy ever since. In the seventh volume, Predator One (2015), Joe and the DMS battled killer drones and a computer virus that turns Air Force One into a flying death trap; in Kill Switch (2016), they went up against terrorists who’d crashed the power grid and could turn ordinary citizens into deadly assassins. The Joe Ledger novels are New York Times bestsellers with some pretty imaginative villains; more than a few of the novels are tinged with horror elements, and even elements of the Cthulhu mythos. Kill Switch made Brandon Crilly’s list of the Ten Best Books he read last year; here’s his take:

Eight books into the Joe Ledger series and, much like Jim Butcher, Maberry hasn’t lost his stride. As a fan of 24 and Fringe, I’m crazy about these books, which have so far have tackled zombies, vampires, aliens, and other basic premises but twisted into a military science setting. Kill Switch applies Maberry’s unique storytelling to Cthulhu, taking something I think has long been overdone and using it in a really interesting way.

The newest novel, Dogs of War, introduces robot dogs that have been re-programmed to deliver weapons of mass destruction to cities across the country. It goes on sale in trade paperback from St. Martin’s Griffin on April 25th.

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My Favorite Game: Mount and Blade/Warband – Part One

Sunday, April 9, 2017 Bob Byrne Comments 3 comments

I have spent a lot of hours on a lot of different PC/video games over the years – mostly of the fantasy/RPG variety (though Out of the Park Baseball is my favorite simulation game). And from Temple of Apshai to Dungeon Master to Baldur’s Gate to Age of Conan, I’ve quite enjoyed them. But Mount and Blade (and the stand alone expansion, Mount and Blade: Warband) holds a unique spot for me and several years after last playing it, I’m in up to my elbows again.

I spent my first round playing the original, Mount and Blade (M&B). Now, I’m playing Warband. There are some gameplay differences, the most prominent being that the latter includes multiplayer. However, I have never tried that option and don’t plan on doing so. Mount and Blade and Warband are overall, quite similar and I’ll be using the phrases interchangeably, distinguishing between versions when relevant.

The Game

M&B is a combination first person combat and strategy wargame, with some role playing elements. It is a sandbox, without a storyline. The latter is both a strength and a weakness. You create a character, form a band of troops and roam around the land, solving unrelated quests, fighting enemies and either serving a liege or carving out your own kingdom (creating your own Faction was a Warband addition). You won’t survive long if you don’t build a strong war band, and recruiting, commanding and building up your troops is really the heart of the game.

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New Treasures: Bite by K.S. Merbeth

Sunday, April 9, 2017 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Bite is K.S.Merbeth’s debut novel. I like debut novels… that sense of discovery, of something new happening? It reminds me of my days reading submissions for Black Gate, discovering unpublished writers like James Enge, Todd McAulty, and Harry Connolly. And that’s a great feeling. Also, I flipped through the first few pages of Bite, and was impressed with the writing. So all in all, Bite has a lot going for it. But what really sold me was that quote on the back cover: “A full throttle, sand-in-your-eyes, no holds barred ride through a Mad Max-style wasteland.” That’s a killer hook, right there.

Bite is a thriller with a cast of quirky and deranged characters set in a world nearly destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Booklist says it’s “Filled with dark humor, wit, and a realistic dystopian setting… Think Carl Hiaasen thriller set in a Mad Max world.” The Eloquent Page keeps the comparisons a little more topical for gamers like me: “If you enjoy movies like Mad Max: Fury Road, or games like Fallout 4 and Borderlands, then Bite is the book for you.”

Bite was published by Orbit on July 26, 2016. It is 409 pages, priced at $9.99 in mass market paperback and $6.99 for the digital version. The cover was designed by Lauren Panepinto.