The Portal Archive: Beneath Ceaseless Skies #56

Beneath Ceaseless Skies is an online magazine dedicated to literary adventure fantasy (in their words, “adventure fantasy plots in vivid secondary worlds, but written with a literary flair.”)  Every two weeks, they publish an issue containing two new stories; they also release selected stories in audio format on a slightly delayed schedule.  The audio fiction was not reviewed, but is easily available from the magazine website.  Past issues are easily accessible on the website, all the way back to Issue #1.  (110 more delectable stories! My cup runneth over.)  BCS also publishes an anthology featuring fourteen of the previous year’s stories.  The first edition of their anthology is available now in a plethora of formats that should put any e-bookseller to shame.

The Portal Archive: Lightspeed #6, November 2010

Lightspeed is a rather new publication with a run of six issues, but, if I am to trust my first impressions, then it will grow a sizable following. It is marketed as an online magazine. The reader has the option to sample every single article of the issue for free on the website and then buy it as either Kindle or E-Pub format. Lightspeed shows incredible versatility by offering their fiction as podcasts as well. Published by World Fantasy Award-winner Sean Wallace and with John Joseph Adams as editor, Lightspeed is a professional market, interested in original fiction as well as reprints.

Imaginários 3

After a few years of apparent stagnation, the speculative fiction market has been gaining strength in Brazil, with top publishers bringing foreign authors, and independent publishers opening the door for local ones. There are exceptions, but that’s how most publishers operate. Imaginários 3, from Draco Pub. Co, is a fantasy, science fiction and horror collection from different generations. In its third volume it brings stories from Eduardo Spohr, Marcelo Ferlin Assami, Rober Pinheiro, Douglas MCT, Lidia Zuin, Marcelo Galvão, Cirilo S. lemos, Fernando Santos de Oliveira, Ana Cristina Rodrigues & Fábio Fernandes. Below is my take on some of them.

The Vilcek Foundation’s Shattering Stereotypes Issue

The Vilcek Foundation’s summer newsletter focuses on Shattering Stereotypes: Immigrant Artists and Writers Transform the World of Cartoons and Comics. Here’s their table of contents:

• Straddling Worlds: The Immigrant Connection to Superheroes
• Playing Against Type: Marvel Comics’ Greg Pak Creates a New Kind of Hero
• Comics, Cartoons, and Covers: Françoise Mouly Does Them All

You can read more here.