The Mammoth Book of Best New Science Fiction 22nd Annual Collection (3 page)

The print semi-prozine market is subject to the same pressures in terms of rising postage rates and production costs as the professional magazines are, and such pressures have already driven two of the most prominent fiction semi-prozines,
Subterranean
and
Fantasy Magazine
, from print into electronic-only online formats, with
Apex
following this year (see a review of the
Apex
site in the online section below), and I suspect that more will eventually follow. Print semi-prozines such as
Argosy Magazine
,
Absolute Magnitude
,
The Magazine of Science Fiction Adventures
,
Dreams of Decadence
,
Fantastic Stories of the Imagination
,
Artemis Magazine: Science and Fiction for a Space-Faring Society
,
Century
,
Orb
,
Altair
,
Terra Incognita
,
Eidolon
,
Spectrum SF
,
All Possible Worlds
,
Farthing
,
Yog’s Notebook
, and the newszine
Chronicle
have died in the last couple of years, and I won’t be listing subscription addresses for any of them any more. Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw’s
Flytrap
, “a little ’zine with teeth,” produced two issues in 2008 and then died as well. It looks like
Say . . . and Full Unit Hookup
may also be dead, or at least on hiatus, since I haven’t seen them for a couple of years.
Weird Tales
survives in a new incarnation from a different publisher, and thanks at least in part to some clever promotional ploys, seems even to be thriving. Another refuge from the collapse of Warren Lapine’s DNA Publishing empire,
Mythic Delirium
, also still survives, publishing mostly poetry. Neither
H. P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror
nor the revived
Thrilling Wonder Stories
published an issue, but considering the erratic schedule on which most semi-prozines get published, with some supposed “quarterlies” unable to manage even one issue per year, it may be premature to declare them dead. Saw two issues of
Fictitious Force
, but since they’re not dated, it’s hard to tell when they were published, and since no address or subscription information is given anywhere, it’s hard to tell you how to order it; try website sciffy. com/dnw.

Warren Lapine and DNA Publications may be returning to the fray this year, with a newly relaunched version of
Fantastic Stories
, due to hit the stands in mid-2009.

Of the surviving print fiction semi-prozines, by far the most professional and the one that publishes the highest per centage of stories of professional quality, is the British magazine
Postscripts
, edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers. They published a huge more-than-double-length issue this year,
Postscripts 15
, which is most usefully considered to be an anthology and which is discussed in the anthology section below, but there was additional good stuff in
Postscripts 14
,
Postscripts 16
, and
Postscripts 17
by Ian R. MacLeod, John Grant, Sarah Monette, Lisa Tuttle, Robert Reed, Vaughn Stanger, Marly Youmans, and others.
Postscripts
has announced that they’ll be changing from a magazine to an “anthology” format, mostly by changing the format from two column to full width and upping the word count from 60,000 to about 70,000–75,000 per issue.
Electric Velocipede
, edited by John Kilma, seems to be publishing more science fiction these days, although they also continue to run slipstream and fantasy; they managed two issues in 2008, one of them a double issue, and published good stuff by William Shunn, Aliette de Bodard, Patrick O’Leary, Jennifer Pelland, Sandra McDonald, Elissa Malcohn, and others.

One of the longest-running of the fiction semi-prozines is the Canadian
On Spec
, edited by a collective under general editor Diane L. Walton, which once again kept reliably to its publishing schedule in 2008, bringing out all four scheduled quarterly issues; unfortunately, I don’t usually find their fiction to be terribly compelling; best work here was probably by Marissa K. Lingen, Kate Riedel, and Claude Lalumiere. The fiction in Australia’s
Andromeda Spaceways In-flight Magazine
, another collective-run magazine, one with a rotating editorial staff, which published its full six issues this year, tends to be somewhat livelier, and there were worthwhile stories there this year by Sarah Totton, Dirk Flinthart, Geoffrey Maloney, Aliette de Bodard, Lyn Battersby, and others. Another Australian magazine
Aurealis
, once thought to be dead, managed one issue this year under new editor Stuart Mayne, with worthwhile work by Stephen Dedman and Lee Battersby.
Talebones
, an SF/horror ’zine edited by Patrick Swenson, after surviving a rough patch last year, managed two issues in 2008, with good work by James Van Pelt, Paul Melko, Edd Vick, and others.
Paradox
, edited by Christopher M. Cevasco, an Alternate History magazine, only managed one issue this year.
Neo-opsis
, a Canadian magazine, edited by Karl Johanson, managed only two out of four scheduled issues in 2008.
Jupiter
, a small British magazine edited by Ian Redman, managed all four of its scheduled issues in 2008; it’s devoted exclusively to science fiction, a big plus in my book, but it’s a poorly produced and amateurish-looking magazine, and the fiction to date is not yet of reliable professional quality.
Shimmer
, Ireland’s
Albedo One
, and
Greatest Common Denominator
managed two issues this year,
Tales of the Unexpected
,
Sybil’s Garage
, and the long-running
Space & Time
, back from a close brush with death, one each. Turning to fantasy semi-prozines, Sword & Sorcery magazine
Black Gate
managed one issue this year, and there were three issues apiece of glossy fantasy magazines
Zahir
,
Tales of the Talisman
, and
Aoife’s Kiss
.

Many of the “minuscule press” slipstream magazines inspired by
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
have died or gone on hiatus in the last couple of years, but
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
itself seems to be still going strong, producing two issues in 2008. Mostly slipstream, literary fantasy, and fabulation here, of course, but there’s an occasional SF story, such as Charlie Anders’ in issue 22.

There’s not much left of the critical magazine market except for a few sturdy, long-running stalwarts. As always, your best bet is
Locus: The Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Field
, a multiple Hugo-winner, published by Charles N. Brown and edited by a large staff of editors under the management of Kirsten Gong-Wong and Liza Groen Trombi. For more than thirty years now this has been an indispensable source of information, news, and reviews, and is undoubtedly the most valuable critical maga-zine/newszine in the field. Another long-lived and reliably published critical magazine is
The New York Review of Science Fiction
, edited by David G. Hartwell and a staff of associate editors, which publishes a variety of eclectic and sometimes quirky critical essays on a wide range of topics.

Below this point, most other critical magazines in the field are professional journals aimed more at academics than at the average reader. The most accessible of these is probably the long-running British critical ’zine
Foundation
.

Subscription addresses follow:

Postscripts
, PS Publishing, Grosvenor House, 1 New Road, Hornsea, East Yorkshire, HU18 1PG, England, UK, published now as a quarterly anthology, $18 for one issue, 4 issues for $100 (
Postscripts
can also be subscribed to online, perhaps the easiest way, at store.pspublishing.com.uk.);
Locus
,
The Magazine of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Field
, Locus Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661, $68.00 for a one-year first class subscription, 12 issues;
The New York Review of Science Fiction
, Dragon Press, P.O. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY, 10570, $40.00 per year, 12 issues, make checks payable to Dragon Press;
Foundation
, Science Fiction Foundation, Roger Robinson (SFF), 75 Rosslyn Avenue, Harold Wood, Essex RM3 ORG, UK, $37.00 for a three-issue subscription in the US;
Talebones
,
A Magazine of Science Fiction & Dark Fantasy
, 21528 104th St. Ct. East, Bonney Lake, WA 98390, $24.00 for four issues;
Aurealis
, Chimaera Publications, P.O. Box 2149, Mt Waverley, VIC 3149, Australia (website: aurealis.com.au), $50 for a four-issue overseas airmail subscription, checks should be made out to Chimaera Publications in Australian dollars;
On Spec
,
The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic
, P.O. Box 4727, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6E 5G6, for subscription information, go to website onspec.ca; Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine, 4129 Carey Rd., Victoria, BC, V8Z 4G5, $28.00 Canadian for a four-issue subscription;
Albedo One
, Albedo One Productions, 2 Post Road, Lusk, Co., Dublin, Ireland, $32.00 for a four-issue airmail subscription, make cheques payable to Albedo One;
Tales of the Unanticipated
, P.O. Box 8036, Lake Street Station, Minneapolis, MN 55408, $28 for a four-issue subscription (three or four years’ worth) in the US, $31 in Canada, $34 overseas;
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
, Small Beer Press, 150 Pleasant St., #306, Easthampton, MA 01027, $20.00 for four issues;
Electric Velocipede
, Spilt Milk Press, see website electricvelocipede.com, for subscription information;
Andromeda Spaceways Infight Magazine
, see website androme-daspaceways.com for subscription information;
Zahir
, Zahir Publishing, 315 South Coast Hwy., 101, Suite U8, Encinitas, CA 92024, $18.00 for a one-year subscription, subscriptions can also be bought with credit cards and PayPal at zahirtales.com;
Tales of the Talisman
, Hadrosaur Productions, P.O. Box 2194, Mesilla Park, NM 88047-2194, $24.00 for a four-issue subscription;
Aoife’s Kiss
, Sam’s Dot Publishing, P.O. Box 782, Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-0782, $18.00 for a four-issue subscription;
Black Gate
, New Epoch Press, 815 Oak Street, St. Charles, IL 60174, $29.95 for a one-year (four-issue) subscription;
Paradox
, Paradox Publications, P.O. Box 22897, Brooklyn, NY 11202-2897, $25.00 for a one year (four-issue) subscription, cheques or US postal money orders should be made payable to
Paradox
, can also be ordered online at paradoxmag.com;
Weird Tales
, Wildside Press, 9710 Traville Gateway Drive, #234, Rockville, MD 20850-7408, annual subscription – four issues – $24 in the US;
Jupiter
, 19 Bedford Road, Yeovil, Somerset, BA21 5UG, UK, £10 Sterling for four issues;
Greatest Uncommon Denominator
, Greatest Uncommon Denominator Publishing, P.O. Box 1537, Laconia, NH 03247, $18 for two issues;
Sybil’s Garage
, Senses Five Press, 307 Madison Street, No. 3L, Hoboken, NJ 07030-1937, no subscription information available but try website sensesfivepress.com;
Shimmer
, P.O. Box 58591, Salt Lake City, UT 84158-0591, $22.00 for a four-issue subscription.

As more and more print markets die, emit distressed wobbling noises, or switch to online formats, electronic magazines and websites are becoming increasingly important, and that’s not going to change; if anything, it’s likely to become even more true as time goes by. Already, if you really want to keep up with all the good short fiction being “published” during a given year, you can’t afford to overlook the online markets.

Of course, as we discussed here at length last year, the problem of how these online publications are going to make enough money to survive continues to be a vexing one, with several formulas being experimented with at the moment. Proving that electronic publication alone is not a guaranteed formula for success, several ezines died in 2007, and this year
Aeon
and
Helix
folded –
Aeon
, oddly, almost immediately after announcing that it was going to raise its rate of payment to professional levels. Both markets produced a lot of good work in their time, and both will be greatly missed. (In their last year,
Helix
published good work by Charlie Anders, Samantha Henderson, James Killus, George S. Walker, Annie Leckie, and others, and
Aeon
published good work by Jay Lake, Bruce McAllister, Lavie Tidhar, and others.)

Now that the late lamented
Sci Fiction
has died, probably the most important ezine on the Internet, and certainly the one that features the highest proportion of core science fiction, is
Jim Baen’s Universe
(baensuniverse.com), edited by Mike Resnick and Eric Flint, which takes advantage of the freedom from length restrictions offered by the use of pixels instead of print by featuring in each issue an amazingly large selection of science fiction and fantasy stories, stories by beginning writers, classic reprints, serials, columns, and features, certainly more material than any of the print magazines could afford to offer in a single issue. The best SF story in
Jim Baen’s Universe
this year was Nancy Kress’s “First Rites”, but there were also good SF stories by Ben Bova, Jay Lake, Lou Antonelli, Bud Sparhawk, Marissa Lingen, David Brin, and others. The best fantasy stories here were by Tom Purdom and Pat Cadigan. There was a lot of good solid work in
Jim Baen’s Universe
this year, but somehow it didn’t seem like there was as much first-rate work as last year.