Heroic Fantasy Quarterly–Q41

August has arrived and with it comes Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #41. We bring tales of adventure and action, from mythic history to the American West to remote islands of South America, and our poetry delves into the story that often lurks behind the story.  Dig in!

 

Fiction Contents

Kamazotz , by Greg Mele, with artwork by Justin Pfeil. Mele is back with another tale of adventure set in his alternate history Central America. Piracy and vengeance lead the rag-tag crew of Captain Khossos as he and his first mate Sarrumos hunt down their rival on the high seas. But the ancient island has secrets of its own.

Then, Stars , by Michael Meyerhofer, with artwork by Simon Walpole. The ruins of a battlefield are littered with the dead and dying, and they have their own tales.  A somber story about the victors and the defeated, the hale and the wounded. Check it out!

Fistful of Spells , by Zach Chapman with artwork by Ben Terdik. There’s trouble in the small town of Elyia, And when there’s trouble, you need a spellslinger to take care of it, and Rick is that spellslinger. A weird west tale of the finest grade!

 

Poetry Contents

Swords , by Colleen Anderson, with audio by the author.  The favored tool of heroes and adventures has its own story, its own origin, and its own thoughts upon itself.  And it is awesome!

The Last Tale , by Jennifer Crow.   At Heroic Fantasy Quarterly we love stories, we love tales, and stories and tales and those who tell them have their own stories and tales.  Jennifer Crow returns with this wonderful piece!

 

Artwork

For issue #41, we bring back Jereme Peabody for our banner art with “Wrath of the Storm Giant”.   Jereme is a software engineer in the DC area and is also a freelance concept artist working mostly on video games and books.  He started his artistic career dabbling with sculpting, pencils, and even still-life oil painting.  As tablets became available, he crossed over from traditional art to digital by first digitally painting still-lifes, then through experimentation and practice, transitioned to landscapes and fantasy.

 

Goings On

David Farney has been doing a heaping share of work on the Best-of 3 anthology.

Adrian Simmons has also been diving deep into past issues, mining the hoard of gold to find the gems hidden between the coins. He has work coming out at Circova in September, and Strange Constellations in October.   He also attended the Campbell Conference in June—want to do a deep dive into science fiction?  The Campbell Conference is for you!

 

Tales From Around the Fire

We are happy to report that our Kickstarter Campaign for Best-of Volume III was successfully funded! In fact, we were 140% successful.   The joyous work of producing the anthology is ongoing.

Want to help HFQ keep the flame of S&S burning bright? Support us on patreon .

Because it is so cool, we had to keep pushing Robert Zoltan’s Rogues of Merth. How cool is it?  Rich Horton, Editor of the The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy” has this to say:

“Colorful and Exciting. The more involved stories show an imaginative force and a real belief in the core of the characters’ motivations that compel the reader’s interest. Dareon and Blue are interesting and involving people to spend time with. There is plenty of room for additional intriguing adventures for this pair of characters, and I for one will be happy to see where their lives lead them.”

And, although it is a bit of shift from our usual S&S advertising, we are featuring longtime friend of HFQ Todd McAulty’s book “Robots of Gotham”.  Publisher’s Weekly has this to say:

“Debut author McAulty, an expert in machine language learning, extrapolates a scary AI-overrun 2083 that’s only a few steps removed from today’s reality. This massive and impressive novel is set in an America that outlawed the development of artificial intelligence and quickly lost a short and bitter war against robot-led fascist countries… McAulty maintains breathless momentum throughout. Readers will hope for more tales of this sinister future and eagerly pick up on hints that Barry and his companions may continue their exploits.”