Search Results for: tale covers

Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction, November 1979: A Retro-Review

Asimov’s Science Fiction, November 1979 Edited by George H. Scithers Published by Davis Publications. 196 pages, $1.25 I heard you missed me! I’m back! Technically, this is Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (now known as Asimov’s Science Fiction). It was a refreshing change of pace after Galileo’s ‘story behind the story,’ and Analog’s massive book review. Asimov’s was pretty much fiction and nothing but fiction. 192 pages of it, as the cover advertises! Also advertised, Dungeons and Dragons — and not…

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Invincible Warriors and Goofball Sidekicks: Robots in American Popular Culture by Steve Carper

Cover by Emsh Steve Carper has been blogging about robots at Black Gate ever since his first post, The First Three Laws of Robotics, appeared back in November 2017. His delightful and entertaining articles have explored every facet of robots in America over the last century and a half. And now his first book on the subject, Robots in American Popular Culture, has been published by McFarland. Here’s what Steve tells us about it. Robots in American Popular Culture is the first truly…

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Vintage Treasures: Heroes and Horrors by Fritz Leiber

Cover by Michael Whelan If you want to get permanent editions of the brilliant short fiction of Fritz Leiber, these days your best bet may be the Centipede Press hardcovers like Swords in the Mist. These are gorgeous books, but they’re also a little out of my price range ($75 for the unsigned editions). Still, if there’s someone who deserves editions this beautiful, it’s Leiber. Or you could do what I do: happily buy one of Leiber’s many vintage paperback…

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Goth Chick News Interviews Thomas Morrissey, Author of Supernatural Thriller, Faustus Resurrectus

Sometimes a martini is more than just a martini. Such was the case when on a recent visit to NYC, dinner in a small Italian restaurant began with a drink at the bar and a chance encounter with mixologist extraordinaire Thomas Morrissey. Turns out Thomas’ talents go far beyond creating delectable adult libations. Much to my utter delight, I learned he is also the author of a rather fabulous piece of supernatural fiction entitled Faustus Resurrectus. The cosmic alignment couldn’t…

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Vintage Treasures: Machines & Men by Keith Roberts

Cover by Anthony Roberts I love discovering British vintage SF paperbacks. There’s a lot to discover, they’re relatively inexpensive, and they’re virtually unknown here in the US. Recently I’ve been accumulating British short story collections by John Wyndham and Keith Roberts, and they’ve been well worth tracking down. I admit I enjoy the covers as well — especially the ones featuring exotic spaceships. My latest discovery is Machines and Men, the second collection by Keith Roberts, published by Panther in 1973 and…

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The Money Where the Mouth Is – Derek Writes an Ongoing Webcomic

In my four or five years blogging for Black Gate, readers have probably become used to me interviewing comic creators and editors, reviewing new comic books and webcomics, small press and large, as well as revisiting classic comic runs and discovering new podcasts that dig into how the sausage is made. It was becoming increasingly obvious to me that it was time for me to ante up and join the game rather than sitting on the sidelines. And it is a…

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Vintage Treasures: The Perfect Lover by Christopher Priest

Cover by Walter Bachinsky Christopher Priest is one of the most celebrated modern British science fiction authors. He won a World Fantasy Award for his 1995 novel The Prestige (filmed under the same name in 2006 by Christopher Nolan, with Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale), the British Science Fiction Award award for Best Novel no less than four times (for Inverted World, The Extremes, The Separation, and The Islanders), and he’s been nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel,…

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A Letter from the Mighty Skull

Cover by Sanjulian There’s been lots of buzz about the Tales From the Magician’s Skull Kickstarter here in the Black Gate offices. The first two issues — packed with sword & sorcery stories by James Enge, John C. Hocking, Chris Willrich, Howard Andrew Jones, C.L. Werner, James Stoddard, and Violette Malan — were a huge hit both with our staff and our readers. The brand new campaign to fund the third and fourth issues of the magazine wraps up this week,…

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John DeNardo’s Adventures in Short Fiction

Last month I checked in with John DeNardo, the most well-informed man in science fiction, to get his take on the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy in June. I posted a brief summary on June 26, and John dropped by to leave the following in the Comments: Oh, and speaking of short fiction, my article on cool, recent short fiction reads is now up, too. Adventures in Short Fiction: Supernatural Detectives, Civil War Airships, Harvesting the Dead, and Reality Shows…

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Carol Emshwiller wins the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award

Author Carol Emshwiller, who died in February of this year at the age of 97, has won the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award, which honors overlooked and neglected science fiction and fantasy writers who deserve to be discovered by modern readers. I met Carol only a couple of times, always at the World Fantasy Convention. I’m pretty sure she was in her 90s both times we met. She was friendly, approachable, and absolutely charming. Many writers have a late flowering in…

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