Black Gate – Page 745 – Adventures in Fantasy Literature

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 182 Now Available

Thursday, September 24, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Beneath Ceaseless Skies #182 has new stories by Margaret Ronald and Jack Nicholls, a podcast by Suzanne Palmer, and a reprint by Wendy N. Wagner.

“Murder Goes Hungry” by Margaret Ronald
“It’s not—” I sighed as we reached the doors of the veterans’ wing. “It was a cruel thing for him to do. She has her vows, and too many of us veterans are too scarred to be any sort of decent companion.”

“Flying the Coop” by Jack Nicholls
They were in sight of the churchyard gates when the witch’s hut hopped out from between two buildings, thirty paces behind them.

Audio Fiction Podcast: “Moogh and the Great Trench Kraken” by Suzanne Palmer
It was more water than ever should be in one place, something so vast he scarcely could find the words. “Oh,” he said. “This is a very large river indeed.”

From the Archives: “Cold Iron and Green Vines” by Wendy N. Wagner (from BCS #69, May 19, 2011)
Most people didn’t bother replacing teeth; they all went wicker-and-cogwork as young as they could.

Issue 182 was published on September 17, 2015. Read it online completely free here.

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Aztec Empires, Amazons, and the Spanish Armada: Rich Horton on John Brunner’s Times Without Number

Wednesday, September 23, 2015 John ONeill Comments 7 comments

In addition to his reviews here at Black Gate, Rich Horton has been quietly reviewing neglected SF and fantasy classics on his own blog, Strange at Ecbatan, to great effect for the past few years. We recently highlighted one of his more intriguing choices, the 1961 Ace Double Wandl the Invader/I Speak For Earth.

This month he turns his attention to another neglected John Brunner masterwork, the 1962 fix-up novel Times Without Number, originally published as an Ace Double in 1962 (cover here).

This is one of my favorite time travel/alternate history novels, and it’s a novel that to my mind does not get the notice it deserves… This book is about Don Miguel Navarro of the Society of Time. It is set in an alternate 1988/1989 in which the Spanish Armada succeeded, and established an Empire. The Moors reconquered Spain, but much of Western Europe, including England, remained under Spanish rule, and the independent Mohawk nation in North America was also allied to the Empire. In 1892 the secret of time travel was discovered, and under the auspices of the Pope the Society of Time was established…

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The Round Table at Winchester Castle: A Genuine Arthurian Fake

Wednesday, September 23, 2015 Sean McLachlan Comments 1 comment

502px-Winchester_RoundTable — Cool looking, but not Arthurian. Photo courtesy Martin Kraft.

King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table are shrouded in myth. While stories of their deeds have been popular since the Middle Ages, there’s no hard evidence that they actually existed…

…except that the Round Table hangs in the Great Hall of Winchester Castle!

Well, not really. For centuries it was reputed to have been the genuine article, until archaeologists took it down in 1976 and using radiocarbon and tree ring dating found that it had been made in the 13th or early 14th century, long after King Arthur and his merry knights were supposed to have lived.

Killjoys.

The dates vindicate historians’ long-held belief that the table was made by King Edward I (reigned 1272-1307) around the year 1290 to celebrate the betrothal of one of his daughters. Generally a tournament would be held on such an occasion, and since the chivalry of the day loved to hear stories of Arthurian romance and derring-do, a Round Table would be a fitting decoration. Places around the table are set with the names of Arthur and 24 of his famous knights such as Lancelot and Galahad. One wonders if Edward and his knights actually sat around the table for a feast, and which real-life knights were honored with which places.

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New Treasures: Fish Tails by Sheri S. Tepper

Wednesday, September 23, 2015 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Sheri S. Tepper is one of the most beloved genre authors of the last few decades. Her fantasy series include the nine-volume The True Game, the Marianne trilogy, and The Awakeners trilogy.

Even among that impressive body of work, her 35th novel, Fish Tails, is uniquely ambitious, as it weaves together characters and storylines from eleven previous fantasy novels spanning nearly three decades of her writing career, starting from King’s Blood Four (1983) to her recent The Waters Rising (2010).

Fish Tails see two of her most popular characters, Abasio and his royal wife Xulai (from A Plague of Angels and The Waters Rising) and their children traveling across the land of Tingawa, searching for those interested in adopting their sea-dwelling lifestyle. As they travel they meet visitors from the far-off world of Lom, characters Tepper’s fans will recognize from The True Game: Mavin Manyshaped, Jinian Star-eye, and Silkhands the Healer… all of whom have been gathered by a mysterious, time-traveling, rule-breaker. For the waters are rising and will soon engulf the entire planet, transforming it utterly.

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The Mid-September Fantasy Magazine Rack

Wednesday, September 23, 2015 John ONeill Comments 2 comments

Plenty of great new magazines to read in September, to help close out summer with a bang. This month we start coverage of Ranylt Richildis’ splendid Lackington’s magazine, with the Summer issue (above), and in his August Short Story Roundup, Fletcher Vredenburgh looks at the latest issues of Swords and Sorcery Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our early September Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

As we’ve mentioned before, all of these magazines are completely dependent on fans and readers to keep them alive. Many are marginal operations for whom a handful of subscriptions may mean the difference between life and death. Why not check one or two out, and try a sample issue? There are magazines here for every budget, from completely free to $12.95/issue. If you find something intriguing, I hope you’ll consider taking a chance on a subscription. I think you’ll find it’s money very well spent.

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Multiple Passes: A Post About Editing

Tuesday, September 22, 2015 Aaron Starr Comments 1 comment

Playing it where it lies is sometimes not so simple: an editing allegory

The Black Gate executive golf course was built on the highest volcano in Scotland, and, between the snow and the lava, I would have been hard pressed to make par. Had I been actually playing, the round of golf would have taken far longer, and, looking at the rumbling caldera to one side, I wasn’t certain we could spare the time. John O’Neill, however, was having the sort of game that allowed the group to clip along at an unprecedented pace.

Being the cart driver, I listened to him chatting on a phone to this or that business associate as we navigated the narrow tracks between holes. But, as the sixteenth hole approached, he had not gotten another call, and I took my chance.

“I was thinking about a new blog post, and wanted your opinion, sir,” I ventured. Mr. O’Neill , startled from his reverie, grunted and looked over at me.his eyes opening into narrow slits.

“Are you still blogging, Starr?” he asked.

“Uh, yes, sir,” I replied. “I was thinking about the topic of editing, actually, and –”

“Editing?” he asked, his incredulity awakening him fully, and he fixed me with an icy stare. “Why can’t you write anything exciting? Like something about aliens?”

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An Intoxicating Blend of Steampunk and Gothic: Jeff Vandermeer’s City of Saints and Madmen

Tuesday, September 22, 2015 Connor Gormley Comments 7 comments

There I was, quite happily dawdling through life, free of all unhealthy obsessions, more or less content, sleeping, eating, breathing and only occasionally contemplating suicide all without a care in the world. How can I, innocent young boy that I am, be blamed for not knowing what I was getting into when I saw City of Saints and Madmen languishing on the shelf of my local Waterstones, its nondescript, faintly pretentious cover standing out as slightly less nondescript and slightly more pretentious then all the book covers, how can I be blamed if, eager to seem like the haughty intellectual I think I am, I picked it up, plopped it on the counter and handed over the criminal £10.99? I was ignorant, I was foolish, I was young and naive and romantic. I was just trying something new, buying something on impulse because, let’s face it, my life is nothing if not a series of impulse purchases and suppressed subconscious truths like ‘Connor, maybe you shouldn’t jam that entire screwdriver down your throat.’ Don’t get me wrong, though, I don’t regret buying City of Saints And Madmen — it’s the big dog’s biscuit — it’s just that it’s too good; I’m a busy guy, you know? All this saving the world from the Neo-Nazis on the moon and wrestling bears and kissing pretty girls (right on the lips, too!) is pretty time consuming stuff — I just don’t have the time to sit and grow increasingly obsessed with ridiculously good books like this. It’s just not feasible. But I did, anyway. And I loved it.

How could you blame me, though? This book is beautiful. It’s this intoxicating blend of steampunk and gothic, the twisted and the strange, its equal parts romantic and surreal, decadent and utopic and as cynical as it is intangibly hopeful; it’s written with such indefatigable passion and energy that you can feel it sparking off the page, spilling out, breathlessly, into the room around you. It’s in the thick miasma of Vandermeer’s wonderful prose, the breathless detail of his lurid settings, the unrelenting weird of his twisted narrative. There are so many reasons you should read this book I don’t know quite where to start — it’s this huge, sprawling intimidating thing that excites on so many levels explaining it is like describing the Coliseum to a man with no eyes, and only the basest knowledge of human history.

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SEPTOBERFRIGHT 3: The Frightfully Ubiquitous Terror of… Star Wars? (And Other Horror Films Coming Your Way)

Tuesday, September 22, 2015 Nick Ozment Comments 0 Comment

Last week’s absence threw me off my game plan of a new horror-themed post every week through Hallowe’en. I have a pretty good excuse! My wife twisted her ankle and had to go to the ER, and ever since then things have been a bit chaotic what with my better half wobbling around on crutches. Now I’m the only one who can carry all the laundry down to and up from the basement — and you know what could be lurking in the basement!

(There’s a whole blog post right there, just contemplating the fears associated with that space where our safe, comfortable above-ground homes intersect with the hidden depths of the subterranean unknown, lying there beneath the surface like the subconscious id of the house.)

And now for a somewhat labored segue: we also had a broken TV set, and since my wife has had to spend much of her time on the recliner with her leg propped up, I set off to alleviate that problem. Visits to Target, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy confirmed one thing: Star Wars has taken over retail this season almost as much as Halloween.

I swear to the Great Pumpkin, in every electronics department I heard the Star Wars theme playing. The logo is plastered everywhere; tie-in products are so ubiquitous that, were future archeologists to dig up a store preserved from September 2015, they might conclude that Darth Vader and stormtrooper masks and fuzzy wookie dolls are as much a part of this particular autumnal celebration as werewolves and jack-o-lanterns.

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Future Treasures: Souldrifter by Garrett Calcaterra

Tuesday, September 22, 2015 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

Garrett Calcaterra’s most recent posts for us were “Fantasy Clichés Done Right and “Can SF Save the World From Climate Change?” But in addition to all the investigative reporting he’s been doing for Black Gate, he’s also been managing a career as a fast-rising fantasy author. His novel Dreamwielder (2013), the opening book in The Dreamwielder Chronicles, is a terrific sword & sorcery adventure, widely praised by fans and critics alike. James P. Blaylock called it “fast-paced, colorful, and richly detailed… My kind of book,” and Tim Powers proclaimed it a “good solid fantasy adventure.”

Souldrifter, the long-anticipated second volume in the series, finally arrives next week. Emperor Guderian’s empire has fallen, and young Queen Makarria finds herself in grave danger. The Old World Republic is demanding that she form a new empire, one she would rule as their puppet. When she refuses, the Old World threatens war… and sends a dangerous spy into the heart of her court. Wendy Wagner, author of Skinwalkers, describes it as “packed with sorcerers, spies, and high-stakes intrigue… a real page-turner.”

Souldrifter will be published by Diversion Publishing on September 29, 2015. It is 298 pages, priced at $15.99 in trade paperback and $4.99 for the digital edition. Get more details at Garrett’s website here.

August Short Story Roundup

Tuesday, September 22, 2015 Fletcher Vredenburgh Comments 1 comment

Though I spent much of August traveling, sipping drinks in distant lands (South Carolina), and taking a break from swords & sorcery, I still found time for my monthly dose of short fiction. Over the years I’ve really come to feel that it’s my obligation to get the word out to the S&S reading population about what’s going on in the land of short stories (and the occasional novella).

Swords and Sorcery Magazine #43 presented a strong issue this past month. Its two tales are by authors unknown to me, but for whom I will keep an eye open in the future.

The first, “Stragglers in the Cold,” is by Connor Perry. Theor Stormcrow is a skinchanger, refugee from the last survivors of a lost cause, and is dying of starvation. Stormcrow and his kind do not actually change into different creatures, but instead send their minds into them. Now, near death and fearing it, he has decided to commit the gravest crime of his kind: to steal the body of another skinchanger.

In a mere 3,000 words, Perry creates a complex and violent universe. As in the better S&S short fiction, “Stragglers” alludes to events outside the narrow confines of its first and last paragraphs, giving context to its characters and building atmosphere. In this case the context is a lost war, and the atmosphere is one of desperation.

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