"Iron Joan" by ElizaBeth Gilligan
"The Knight of the Lake" by Elaine Cunningham
"The Chinese Sandman" by Mike Resnick
"Another Man's Burden" by Harry James Connolly
"A Taste of Summer" by Ellen Klages
"A Dark Miracle" by Darrell Schweitzer
"Tav-Ru's Troth" by Michael R. Grist
"Three Nights in Big Rock City" by Jon Hansen
"The Haunting of Cold Harbour" by Todd McAulty
"Ringard and Dendra" by Brian McNaughton
"For the Love of Katie" by Gail Sproule

This is the first issue the new fantasy magazine Black Gate that I've gotten my hands on. These guys aren't kidding around. This heavy-duty volume, bigger than many trade paperbacks, is very classy. It's got a gorgeous wrap-around cover illustration (by Hung Vin Mac), a clean layout, and nice touches like author bios (with photos) alongside each story. This one issue alone contains ten new stories and one classic reprint, plus a survey of current fantasy magazines, game reviews, book reviews, young adult book reviews, and a history of comic books. John O'Neill insists in his editorial that "it really isn't true" that there aren't enough good sources for short fantasy these days, but even so, Black Gate is a welcome addition.

"Iron Joan" by ElizaBeth Gilligan is set in a familiar medieval fantasy world. Iron Joan, the titular character, is a noblewoman who has been married off to a drunken village lout for reasons that are initially mysterious, but may have something to do with her family's connections to sorcery. The story is told from the point of view of one of the townsfolk, smithy Kerwin, who is initially suspicious of her strange ways, but is eventually won over by her goodness and fortitude, and who becomes one of her staunchest defenders. (We don't actually learn the name, age, profession, or marital status of this narrator until about halfway through the story, which might be a little distracting if, like me, you were imagining a different sort of character.) The best part of this story is the way it convincingly portrays the steely grit and determination of Iron Joan as she works doggedly for years to make the best of her unfortunate circumstances. Then her father, the High Chief of Glen Cluain, comes to collect her. This reveals some shocking details about their relationship, about why she was banished, and why she is now invited to return. Unfortunately, the ensuing showdown is a bit anti-climactic. The High Chief is so foolish and shrill, and Iron Joan is so assured and powerful, that there is little doubt who will prevail.

"The Knight of the Lake" by Elaine Cunningham tells the story of a young Lancelot, who is brought by his mother the Lady of the Lake to learn magic at the foot of his distant kinsman, Oberon of the fairies. Lancelot is infused with the fairy gift of music, but has learned only rowdy drinking songs among the lowbrow Britons. Oberon endeavors to teach him, but in the course of their lessons they inadvertently encounter a pair of rampaging Saxons. For all his quiet power and gentle condescension, Oberon proves to be shockingly ineffectual, and it's up to young Lancelot to save the day. The resulting battle is clearly and briskly told, though the characters rely on magic to save themselves. Since the rules of magic are unfamiliar, the reader doesn't really have a chance to anticipate what will happen, but some of the touches, such as using a silver sword to complete a fairy circle, seem clever in retrospect. The story's greatest strength is the well-drawn relationship between the crotchety Oberon and the exuberant Lancelot.

"The Chinese Sandman" by Mike Resnick features the return of detective John Justin Mallory, who first appeared in Resnick's novel Stalking the Unicorn. When Mallory's partner Winnifred reveals that she regrets having traded a cherished memory to the Chinese Sandman, who deals in dreams and won't give it back, Mallory takes along the catlike Felina and sets off to enlist the aid of his arch-nemesis, a demon named the Grundy. This light piece is a nonstop avalanche of quips, puns, comebacks, one-liners, and groaners. "I'm not afraid of detectives," a troll tells Mallory. "I'll be busy disemboweling you with my axe while my comrades are turning your pet [Felina] into a tennis racket." "I don't think they string rackets with catgut anymore," says Mallory. The troll replies, "They do at the Grundy's castle." Mallory is a detective in the Sam Spade mode–unperturbable, and so impressive that even his enemies fawn over him. Thus he is able to team up with the Grundy and turn the tables on the Chinese Sandman. Fans of this type of humor will enjoy the story the most.

Harry James Connolly apparently made a big splash in the summer 2001 issue of Black Gate with his story "The Whoremaster of Pald." "Another Man's Burden" is a follow-up of sorts, set in the same fantasy setting. It's a hot day in Pald when a mysterious swordsman arrives in the city. He wields a magic sword that does all the fighting for him, but it's not enough to save him from an unstoppable barrage of arrows fired by the town guard. The enchanted sword falls to the ground and is claimed by Sotul, chief Archer of the city, who proceeds to make a fortune in dueling fees. He is hated by the families of the men he kills, but no one can stand against the sword, including eighteen pirates who charge Sotul en masse. (It's not clear why nobody repeats the masses of arrows trick). A man named Jebul is enlisted by his brothers to help steal the sword. They lure Sotul into an alley in order to firebomb him, but the plan goes awry and all hell breaks loose. While reading the story, it's often difficult to keep the characters straight because most of their names sound so similar–Jebul, Sotul, Wendul, Binsul, Linut, Pulsu. The story really gets going with the brothers' ambush attempt and its aftermath, which demonstrates in a clever way why it might not be such a good idea to have a battle-ready sword making all the decisions.

"A Taste of Summer" by Ellen Klages is about a young girl named Mattie. She's on vacation at a summer cottage, but her family doesn't have time for her, so Mattie wanders into town and meets a friendly local woman named Nan. When a big storm hits, the two take shelter in Nan's storm cellar/laboratory. Nan, it turns out, is a scientist who manufactures flavors, and she's been cooking up some special ones. The story doesn't do much beyond presenting an idea, but it's a neat idea, and cleanly presented.

"A Dark Miracle" by Darrell Schweitzer is a story set in a less often used fantasy setting–Massachusetts shortly after the Salem witch trials. (Most readers will probably recognize this society mostly by association with Arthur Miller's play The Crucible.) Goodman Hawkins is carrying on an adulterous affair with Caroline, a secret witch and the wife of Goodman Fletcher. Hawkins is summoned one night by Caroline's ratlike familiar, and he goes out into the night knowing that he must kill or be killed by the jealous Fletcher. But there's dark magic about. "Our religion is like this single lantern," the Deacon has said, "to push back the darkness, our colony a frail thing on the very edge of a continent otherwise completely ruled by the Evil One." (This is an interesting echo of Lovecraft: "We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of the black seas of infinity.") Hawkins finds his love murdered, and escapes blame due to a morbid confluence of events, but he cannot escape judgement. The story, and particularly the last line, do a great job of conveying a genuinely creepy atmosphere.

"Tav Ru's Troth" by Michael R. Grist is about a hideous creature named Tav-Ru. He doesn't know where he came from, and has always lived apart from other people. Then a beautiful woman named Wiy enlists his aid. A mysterious evil is killing her people, and she needs his help to stop it. But nothing he does will ever make her love him, and he pays a heavy price for his good deeds–he learns the awful truth about what he is. It's a solid tale, dreamlike and weird.

"Three Nights in Big Rock City" by Jon Hansen is lighthearted and charming. It features a dwarven private detective named Joe, who also happens to be female (though "most men see my beard and assume I'm a guy"). She is hired by a woman named Bridgit (O'Shaughnessy?) to retrieve a magical item, a wooden rod with a gem at one end. Joe recognizes the item immediately–"A McGuffin." An evil wizard named Tamalar won it playing dice at the casino. He's been cheating, and Joe has to figure out how. The story involves a suitable number of twists, double-crosses, and plenty of magic. Lots of fun.

"The Haunting of Cold Harbour" by Todd McAulty is science fiction, though its virtual-reality games feature a fair helping of fantasy elements. The premise of this story actually isn't as science-fictional as it once would have been, with the recent advent of MMORPG's (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) such as Ultima Online and EverQuest. In this future, such games are played in virtual reality for huge stakes. The most complex and rewarding of these games is called Midnight in Cold Harbour, which seems to be sort of a combination of Machievellian intrigue and Lovecraftian horror. The protagonist, Sammy Ron, had been set to conquer this game and realize his dreams as a professional player when he experienced an eleventh-hour backstabbing (character death is permanent). He's given a second chance when the owners of Cold Harbour hire him to play a permanent villain, but things quickly go awry when seven expensive virtual "children" are found tortured and murdered within the reality of Cold Harbour, and the wealthy "father" of one of them (also a top-rank player) threatens to shut down the game. Sammy has 48 hours to solve the case, or he can kiss his new job and his favorite game goodbye. I found it constantly difficult to believe that the owners of the game had so little control over it. Why is the game programmed in such a way that the torture and murder of children is an accessible feature? If the virtual children are simply digital entities, why isn't their data safely backed up somewhere? The plot is structured like a murder mystery, but I found the explanation of the killer's motive to be somewhat murky. The real strength of this story are the wonderfully realized gameworlds, especially Cold Habour; they make you itch to play them: "Those were the days of the Unknown Prince. Before the failed revolution, before the Prince's enemies had readied a marble-walled tomb for him in the center of Cold Habour cemetery. Before Baron LeMaul had betrayed him on the very steps of City Hall. Dickhead." Or: "He stopped short of directly challenging Cold Harbour's deadliest players–especially the night sovereigns, those secretive players who'd mastered the game's complex and hidden rules for necromancy." Sammy Ron himself is also a strong character. When he questions an informant about the identity of the killer, the informant tells him, "If you want the honest truth, Sammy…I kinda assumed it was you."

This issue's classic reprint is "Ringard and Dendra" by Brian McNaughton, a story that originally appeared in the author's 1997 story collection The Throne of Bones. This story really is a classic. Ringard is a poor boy with a gift for seeing shapes within wood, and carving them free. In the forest he meets a young noblewoman, Dendra, who has a skill for painting. Together, they spend their days carving and painting small statuettes, until her wealthy family discovers their secret rendezvous and the pair is forced to flee in order to stay together. It isn't easy for the aspiring artists to make it on their own, until they encounter a patron, the mysterious and sorcerous Dwelphorn Thooz, who keeps a strange garden. As Ringard and Dendra fall further and further under the wizard's spell, the story becomes a vividly grotesque tour-de-force of magical horror.

"For the Love of Katie" by Gail Sproule is a story about Braveheart, a small dragon who was genetically engineered to be the perfect pet. But that concept isn't flying (literally) with the Versa-Pet corporation, because Braveheart just can't take to the air, no matter how hard he flaps his wings. But when some thugs try to kidnap his young friend Katie, Braveheart rises to the occasion. It was fun reading a story from the point of view of a tiny, excitable dragon, but nothing really unexpected happens here.

Overall, I was pretty impressed by this issue of Black Gate. If your taste in fantasy runs more towards the swords, spells, and monsters end of the spectrum, I would definitely give it a look.

Dave Kirtley's fiction has appeared in magazines, anthologies, textbooks, and online. His fiction will be appearing soon in Weird Tales, On Spec, Cicada, Gothic.net, and in the anthology Dead But Dreaming: New Excursions into the Lovecraftian Universe from DarkTales Publications. He has received the Asimov Award and the Phobos Award for his work. His previous review experience includes reviewing beer for his college newspaper. Visit his website: http://www.sff.net/people/davekirtley/