Black Gate, Summer 2007

This review was originally done for Tangent Online. It seems unfair that it should not be published because TO is on indefinite hiatus, so here it is.

“Where Beauty Lies in Wait” by Peador Ò Guilin
“The Lawless Hours” by James Enge
“The Wizard’s Daily Horoscope” by Maria V. Snyder
“Holy Places” by Martha Wells
“From the Heart of the Earth to the Peaks of the Sky” by Ian Rowan
“The Mudslinger” by David Evan Harris
“Soulthief” by Ben Wolcott
“The Entrance of Bob Into Valhalla” by William I. Lengeman III

The summer 2007 issue of Black Gate starts off with “Where Beauty Lies in Wait” by Peador Ò Guilin, an interesting tale where woman are not only the bane of male existence, but also the ultimate goal. Darrak, the youngest Husband of a fading Matron, tries desperately to protect his son, the Matron’s last hope of a heir, from the women of his race who seek to snatch the boy and whisk him away to add to their own stable of husbands. If Darrak succeeds in protecting the boy, he will change from a sweaty, ordinary male destined only to be sent into war, to a hypnotically powerful woman, a ruler of the race both in power and influence. His son Parm, has been targeted by a woman of much influence, and surprising few children. While intriguing this story would have worked better if the special circumstances surrounding Cyreen had been more prominent in the resolution. An interesting twist to an already interesting premise the final twist gets lost in a rush to end the story.

“The Lawless Hours” by James Enge features a repeating character, which can make readers feel like they are missing some part of the story. However this lengthier tale is nicely self contained, focusing on a sort of chi vampire, The Boneless One, his nightly hauntings of the woods surrounding the towns and on Roble, a man suffering the loss of his sister and niece to The Boneless One, who has since taken up the armor and arms of a Rider, one of the brave few who hunt the woods at night, bringing stray people and corpses back, or destroying them at the very least, to prevent The Boneless One from feeding. The fight against evil is never so simple, and when Roble finds the strange wizard Morlock the fiendish control of The Boneless One and its hidden aides begins to show itself, rousing Roble to either fight it or flee, for he can no longer bear to play its game. Morlock fills the role of “all knowing NPC” and while he approaches the spirit of similar characters such as Gandalf, the skill of subtleness is not quite at a Tolkien level.

“The Wizard’s Daily Horoscope” by Maria V. Snyder is a humorous tale that injects new life in the tried and true tale of a knight, a lady and a dragon. Told in a week’s worth of consecutive horoscope articles some readers might find it too cutesie for their tastes. But it’s enjoyable as a break from longer, more serious tales and for the spin it puts on a familiar storyline.

“Holy Places” by Martha Wells starts out as a straight forward tale of wizards and curses and the new Chosen Vessel of a god learning how to protect his village. But the “holy place” in this lengthy story has a much different connotation than just sacred spots of earth. After becoming very attached to Ilias, the child main character, the reader then has to become witness to his family abandoning him, leaving him to die in a dumping ground for children families can’t afford anymore. A sweet story with a bitter center this one has the excellent characterization and world building indicative of good fantasy.

The next story, “From the Heart of the Earth to the Peaks of the Sky” by Ian Rowan, reads like a mostly self contained section of a novel. That’s not surprising seeing as it is not billed as a serial, but is part of a larger story. It follows Dao Shi, a curmudgeon on a quest to discover why his son was killed and possibly to punish those responsible. In this tale Dao Shi has found refuge from the Emperor’s guards in a city underground that is filled with criminals and refugees and slowly being killed off by a demon of unknown origin. While the story is enough when it comes to character building and setting to draw in a reader it suffers from the same flaws as a serial, in that it feels like a chapter out of a longer work and while readers won’t suffer from not knowing what’s going on, they might reach the end and become irritated that while one story line is resolved there is obviously more that they might not get to see.

“The Mudslinger” by David Evan Harris is a tale of magic, part 300, part Anne Bishop’s Shadows and Light. When a ruthless tribe begins invading and conquering the kingdom the Prince takes 200 soldiers, plus a wizard, an Oracle and Dredge, an elemental (wizard with a calling to natural element and not just magic) drawn to mud, and therefore mostly useless, to face the invaders and save the land. But things go wrong immediately when the wizard is assassinated and the troops are vastly outnumbered. Still they try to follow the decrees of the Oracle and hope that the mudslinger might be useful in the end. While the ending is abrupt the story is appealing enough, managing to capture the humanity and dazzle of the previously mentioned influences.

“Soulthief” by Ben Wolcott is the short tale of a thief, hired by a dead wizard to scale his tower. Inside the thief is dragged into the wizard’s world of conjuring and extra planar creatures. Overall the tale feels like the start of a D&D adventure, not an unpleasant tale, but one with less meat on it than others in this issue.

The last piece of short fiction for this issue is “The Entrance of Bob into Valhalla” by William I. Lengeman III. An amusing modern fantasy piece about a modern day Viking warrior who dies in a roller coaster battle (literally) the tale has holes in it, not in plot, but in action. There are short skips, as if someone has momentarily touched the fast forward button. It’s disappoint because other than the holes this is a fun, enjoyable piece.