New Reviews

Semaphore, March 2009

The March 2009 issue of Semaphore Magazine is very much a mixed bag in terms of story genre and tone. For genre, that’s not too surprising; their website indicates that while they’re mainly interested in fantasy and detective stories, all genres are welcome. The variance in tone, though, is a little more startling, which may [...]

Clarkesworld Magazine, #31, April 2009

Clarkesworld Magazine has been nominated for a Hugo award in the category of “Best Semiprozine,” a fact prominently displayed on the website. Is that a reasonable proposition? Does it merit your Hugo vote? Yes, and—well, read the stories and decide for yourself—but read more than just a single issue, as the style and themes vary wildly from month [...]

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June/July 2009

The June/July 2009 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction leans towards the latter end of the combination with only two of the nine stories which could really be called ‘fantasy’. However, this is not to say that there isn’t a wealth of good material for the eager reader. All of the stories [...]

New Articles

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• Rocket Science: 1966 - 1967

  1966: Tricon, Cleveland, Ohio Short Fiction: "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison Next time you find yourself running late, consider yourself lucky to be living anywhere but in the society Harlan Ellison imagines here. The society is so obsessed with keeping it all running that, to prevent anyone from slowing things down, the government keeps track of all the time a person is late in life, and they'll subtract that time from the end of your life. If that sounds at all familiar to you... well, that's the point. (more...)

• Flickers on the Wall: The Roots of the Next SF Animated Features

  Big stars, big talent, and even more important for Hollywood, big money are transforming independent shorts into wham-bam features.  Nothing too surprising there.  Many filmmakers construct their short films as calling calls, pitches for paying gigs, and structure those shorts to be the best bits of bigger works, or small segments of them.  But that's mainly live action shorts, which serve little other purpose, only seeing the light of day-or the gloom of a theater-in under-attended fest screenings and within the ignobility of YouTube.  Animated shorts, however, are accepted as works on their own, not just a way to bigger things. (more...)

• From the Podosphere: March 2009

  PodCastle begins March, we are told, with the first of a run of Elf stories, though the creatures seem oddly absent in this example. Expertly read by Bill Ruhsam, Emma Bull's "De La Tierra" concerns a futuristic assassin, carrying out his profession with the aid of biological enhancements (or possibly elves) that speak to him. His quarry appears to be some kind of illegal immigrant with magical powers—one of a species who are attempting to infiltrate this modern, alternative Los Angeles. Unfortunately the setting and the characters' motivations are so obscure that the final transcendent act lacks the necessary build-up—resulting in mere confusion. (more...)

• The Day Job: What About the Day Job?

  Two weeks ago, Jonathan Safran Foer, the author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Everything is Illuminated, addressed a hundred or so high school writers at the Mesa State College High School Creative Writing Conference.  In the midst of giving them his opinions about what worked for him as an author, and, hopefully, giving them some inspiration to pursue their art, he suggested that writers should work at meaningless, unchallenging jobs that, preferably, they hate. (more...)