Sorry the blog’s been quiet! Not because nothing’s been going on… just that it’s been going on in other forums. One day I’ll get around to updating the bibliography and other pages, but in the meantime they’re like a peek back. Hard to believe the first posts are nearly 10 years old, moved here when I switched to WordPress all the way back in 2008!
RSS supporting our friends at Black Gate- Sheri S. Tepper, July 16, 1929 – October 22, 2016Sheri S. Tepper, the prolific fantasy author who was awarded the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement last year, died on Saturday. Sheri S. Tepper was the author of dozens of popular fantasy and science fiction novels. Her first published novel was King’s Blood Four (1983), which became part of an ambitious 12-novel series set in […]
- One Last Time into the Primal Land: Sorcery in Shad by Brian LumleyAll good things must come to an end. I get that, and as I’ve gotten older I appreciate that more than ever. However, they do not all have to end badly. Sometimes, though, as with Brian Lumley’s Primal Lands stories, they do. Despite some rough-hewn edges and some too-purple prose, I completely enjoyed the first […]
- An Experiment in Gor: What Are John Norman’s Books About, Really? The Hidden Secret of the Counter-Earth Saga is an Over-Abundance of…I’m positive that I read the first book in the [Counter-Earth Saga/Tarl Cabot Saga/Chronicles of Counter-Earth/Gorean Cycle/Gorean Saga/take your pick], sometime back in junior high. That would be Tarnsman of Gor, first published in 1966 by Ballantine, which recounts how Earth professor Tarl Cabot is mysteriously transported to our solar system’s hidden tent […]
- Go Ahead. Judge The Starlit Wood by its CoverWe know not to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes it’s just so hard. You look at a book and think, Wow, I need to take a look at that. As a writer or an editor, you dream of that perfect match, of that gripping cover that perfectly conveys the story you’re eager […]
- The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Poul Anderson’s “The Archetypal Holmes”As far as Sherlockians go, I have a rather large Joseph Campbell library. I’ve even written about Holmes and the Monomyth (“The Hero’s Thousand-and-First Face”). Through Campbell, I discovered Carl Jung’s The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. However, all attempts to read it were abandoned rather quickly. I found it tough going. I do have […] […]
- New Treasures: The Apothecary’s Curse by Barbara BarnettDo you like the TV show House? So does Barbara Barnett. In 2010 she wrote Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House, M.D., and in 2014 she released House, M.D.: The Unofficial Guide to Season Seven. In 2016, she channeled her love for the show into her first novel The Apothecary’s Curse, which publisher Pyr […]
- Invaders of Pluto, and Brain Stealers of Mars: Rich Horton on The Ultimate Weapon and The Planeteers by John W. CampbellWhen I was twelve years old I read a book that changed my life. It was Before the Golden Age, a collection of Isaac Asimov’s favorite pulp tales from his own early teen years, and it inspired in me a love of the pulps that endures to this day. One of the most captivating stories was […]
- Future Treasures: Bridging Infinity, edited by Jonathan StrahanJonathan Strahan’s Infinity books have gradually earned a reputation as the finest ongoing anthology series in the genre — and perhaps, one of the finest in the history of the genre. In my June article The Most Successful Anthology of 2015, I pointed out that over half of the contents of the fourth book in the series had been […]
- The B&N Blog on Nine New Horror Books to Keep You Terrified Until HalloweenSam Reader at the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog has assembled a delicious list of nine new horror books to keep you terrified until Halloween — including several we’ve already covered here at Black Gate, such as The Fisherman, by John Langan, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay, and Hex, by Thomas […]
- Get Cozy with Tor.com Publishing’s Winter 2017 TitlesTor.com Publishing has given us a peek at their upcoming fall and winter titles, and it looks like another dynamite line-up, with novellas by Black Gate author Ellen Klages (“A Taste of Summer,” BG 3), Seanan McGuire, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Adam Christopher, Emma Newman, Paul Cornell, Maurice Broaddus, and many others — including the sequel […]
- Sheri S. Tepper, July 16, 1929 – October 22, 2016