Black Gate

While I was at my local Barnes & Noble on Saturday, picking up the new issues of F&SF, Analog, and Asimov’s, I was delighted to see the February issue of Locus peeking out from behind Mystery Scene. I don’t always have the best luck finding Locus on newsstands, and I really didn’t want to miss the February issue.

The February Locus is always a special event… it’s their annual Year in Review issue, and this one does not disappoint. It has detailed looks back at the best new books and short fiction from the last twelve months by virtually all of their reviewers, including Gardner Dozois, Rich Horton, Jonathan Strahan, Russell Letson, Faren Miller, Gary K. Wolfe, Cheryl Morgan, Ellen Datlow, Paul Kincaid, and many others. It also includes the 2015 Locus Survey ballot, their annual Magazine Survey, a long interview with Tom Doherty, and — as always — plenty of reviews of short fiction and books. There’s also an obituary of David G. Hartwell, and a promise of additional appreciations next month.

In addition to all the news, features, and regular columns, there’s also the indispensable listings of Magazines Received, Books Received, British Books Received, and Bestsellers. Plus Letters, and an editorial. See the complete contents here.

We last covered Locus with the December 2015 issue. Locus is edited by Liza Groen Trombi, and published monthly by Locus Publications. The issue is 62 pages, priced at $7.50. Subscriptions are $63 for 12 issues in the US. Subscribe online here. The magazine’s website, run as a separate publication by Mark R. Kelly, is a superb online resource. It is here.

See our March Fantasy Magazine Rack here, and all of our recent Magazine coverage here.

In her editorial in the latest issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction, Sheila Williams pens a passionate and thoughtful defense of Young Adult fiction.

I’m used to being told that the engineering in one story is too realistic or the fantasy in another too pervasive. The critic will avow that the tale would have been better off in Analog or F&SF. On rarer occasions, I have been criticized for featuring tales about children and young adults. The implication is that Asimov’s is a magazine for adults, which means the tales should all be about adults as well. This last criticism has always been the one that most surprises me.

It’s hard to imagine a magazine that purports to cover all the conditions of humanity not covering the early years every so often. Any reader of Asimov’s has certainly experienced childhood and the ’tween years. Many of the issues that faced us then reverberate throughout our lives. With any luck, some of our readers picked up the magazine as precocious young adults….

It can be argued that there are two types of stories about young protagonists. One is really written for the adult who is looking back on those early years…. The other seems to be written specifically for the child or young adult… I’ve also enjoyed many works that fall into the second category… That young people will learn much about the world from reading adult literature does not mean that adults can’t find pleasure and illumination in works that were primarily written for the young.

Hear, hear! You tell ’em, Sheila. I discovered Asimov’s with the Summer 1977 issue at the tender age of 12, and the fact that the magazine was very friendly to young readers was a huge plus for me. I hope it continues to attract young readers, and having an occasional YA component to the fiction is a huge piece of that.

Read Sheila’s complete editorial here.

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