As I communicated to some of you via email and Facebook, I’m the fortunate recipient of an early December copy of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. In today’s world of magazines that go out of business faster than I can turn the channel when The Golden Girls reruns come on, F&SF is a dinosaur. The current issue on newsstands (Oct-Nov) is the 60th anniversary edition, and it may be one you want to add to your collection. Personally, I have read the magazine off and on for many years, and collect old issues whenever I can get them at a good price.
One of the things that makes this magazine stand out to me is that it covers fantasy, science fiction, and a smattering of dark fantasy, bordering a wee bit on horror. There are other digest-sized magazines out there, but their focus tends to be on just science fiction (and then there are the mystery/crime digests, along with some smaller sized “horror” digests, but F&SF puts it all together in such a neat package that a speculative fiction fan, upon discovering it for the first time, feels like standing up and applauding!).
Another thing F&SF has going for it is the cardstock cover and back. It feels almost like an oversized paperback, rather than a magazine, which definitely adds appeal. For this particular issue I’ll be covering until I’m finished reading it, we are greeted by a grinning skull with curved horns coming out of its head. Well, it’s actually a skeleton, but we can’t see past the upper ribs. A pitch trident, or perhaps more fitting, a pitchfork, is assumed to be held by this happy-go-lucky hell-spawned creature. Perhaps he’s the ruler of his underworld kingdom, and as Mel Brooks said, “It’s good to be king.” Anyway, I do believe the cover connects to one of the stories listed on the front entitled, “Hell of a Fix.” But that’s pure speculation on my part.
The magazine starts off with an editorial by Gordon Van Gelder, the Publisher/Editor of F&SF (anyone who pays much attention to genre fiction is more than likely familiar with this name – to some of us he almost seems like a family member…not that he’s been over to the house lately for a cup of coffee and a relaxing discussion on theoretical particle physics), and I’m always one to read the editorials. If you usually skip this sort of thing, you can learn an awful lot about the history or state of being of the genre. Hmmm, funny how I said that one this editorial does cover a bit of history, and a little of the future too.
Next up was a novelet by Alex Irvine called Dragon’s Teeth. Being that I read this during my lunch break and there were various loud conversations taking place around me, I found myself re-reading the first page. As you may agree, when reading a fantasy and you suddenly find yourself thrust into a world very much unlike your own, you want to make sure you understand, to the best of your ability, just what the setting is and what is going on. I wasn’t sure if I was going to care much for the way this story started, because of this singer character. For some reason I’m not big on singers in fantasy. Anyway, the singer ends up biting the dust. Big time (if you read it, you’ll see what I mean). So I was glad the singer wasn’t the protagonist, but instead it was a soldier named Paulus, who seems to have led a rather strange life, but has good fortune when it comes to battles and life and death situations. As a reward for accomplishing a particular task, he is sent on an errand that most would not particularly relish. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but the story is called Dragon’s Teeth. That’s clue enough for you. It ended up pulling me in and I am very glad I read this story. I wanted more at the end though. There were things I never got to find out about. Perhaps Alex Irvine is saving that for another day.
The story was followed up by Books to Look For by Charles de Lint and then Books by James Sallis. These columns are always great places to find something of interest when you need a new book to read.
The last I read before this posting was a science fiction story called Bad Matter by Alexandra Duncan, and the intro compared her writing to Ursula LeGuin. What a huge compliment for Alexandra. So was the story any good? You bet it was. I absolutely love science fiction (as many of you may know, I’ve written a science fiction novel and am currently trying to get an agent – and my book contains a race of beings called the Calisari – hence the name of my space here, The Calisari Cafe), and I read a wide variety of it. I regret the fact that I will die before I can read it all! Anyway, this is an interesting story that takes place in the 26th century, and goes into some of the customs and cultural differences between those on earth and spacefaring merchant crewes. Great stuff that I recommend.
Look back here soon (perhaps tomorrow night? Hmmmm, what kind of a life do I have if I spend my Friday night posting to my blog? And what kind of life are you leading if you read it on a Friday night?) for more on the December 2009 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
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