On Spec #69

On Spec is a Canadian magazine publishing speculative fiction of all stripes (SF, fantasy, magical realism, horror, and anything in-between). Because it receives public grants—a concept we here south of the border should consider—from the Canadian government, 80% of the fiction published within its covers must be by Canadian authors. Although I have little […]

Analog, October 2007

Is it possible in the twenty-first century for science fiction to be sustained solely by ideas? Should the intention to generate a sense of wonder be the summit of the genre’s ambition? As children, when we read, we tend to be more forgiving of weaknesses in style, characterisation, and ambition, particularly if the story manages […]

GUD Magazine, #1

There’s one hell of a lot of content in #1 of GUD Magazine: over 200 pages with most of the contributors unknown to me. Starting the magazine felt like sitting down at a banquet without quite knowing what was on the menu and realising that it’s going to be a long meal. Was it […]

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 2007

Cover by Cory and Catska Ench

“Osama Phone Home” by David Marusek is a bold choice to open December’s issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This is the story of a group of old college friends who come together with one common goal—to track down Osama Bin Laden. They pool their collective talents, […]

Analog, December 2007

Analog’s December 2007 issue felt like a hat-tip to the more “golden age” themes of science fiction: eccentric aliens, self-thinking robots, and traveling back through time. These are the sorts of stories that can be fully associated with the genre, but without something to make them special, they can be considered a rather unoriginal […]

Withersin #1.1

The debut first issue of Withersin shows much potential. Although the cover art is more grotesque than scary, and they could make the table of contents a bit more user friendly by including one that doesn’t read like a run-on sentence (page number references would’ve been nice, too). I had to search through the magazine […]

Interzone, #212, September/October 2007

Perhaps the only statement that could equally apply to the handful of stories in issue #212 of Interzone is that after reading one of them, you’d never have guessed what the next would be like. The only real similarity is that they are all, on some level, science fiction, and what this issue may do […]

New Genre #5

Before the fiction starts, New Genre #5 sets the stage with an essay, “Assimilate This” by Jan Wildt, that is a paean to SF that dares to draw from influences beyond its usual fare. This is no manifesto of any particular school of thought or movement, but simply a celebration of those things SFnal […]

Analog, November 2007

For a reader who hasn’t been down these paths in a long time, the question was whether the strange odour in the air when opening the pages of the November 2007 issue of Analog (Vol. CXXVII, no. 11) was the whiff of nostalgia or the tang of formaldehyde.

Asimov’s, December 2007

The December, 2007, issue of Asimov’s features four SF stories and one fantasy one.
In “All Seated on The Ground” by Connie Willis, aliens have arrived in Denver. The Altari, as they’ve been dubbed (though no one really knows where they’re coming from), seem to be unable to communicate, other than through glares of reprobation—an […]