The August Realms of Fantasy is its 101st issue, the significance of which editor Douglas Cohen makes some sage observations. Fiction includes “The Progress of Solstice and Chance” by Richard Bowes, “Isabella’s Garden” by Naomi Krtizer, “Collateral Damage” by Katie Riedel, “Snake in the Grass” by W.R. Thompson and “Leap of Faith” by Alan Smale. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.
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As I began the second story in the latest issue of Black Gate, I was forcefully (but not forcibly) reminded of a review I wrote some years ago for Tangent Online. The review covered a 2009 edition of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the salient section being a paragraph I’d penned in response to Fred Chappell’s “Shadow of the Valley”:
As with heist movies and Tom Clancy thrillers, “Shadow of the Valley” thrives on the appeal of the expert, in this case Falco. He’s a man’s man, the icon of so many Westerns, the sort who can accurately predict the motives and movements of others, then exploit them to a tee. He has no emotional connections of any kind (indeed, women and children are notably absent from the story), and would likely deny needing any such thing. For experts, need is weakness. Think of Moorcock’s Von Bek, Fleming’s 007. We love these all-knowing cynics at least in part because they are so patently broken. Like them, Falco is the sort of tough-guy to whom readers cotton easily; his smarts and his world-weariness are butter for the bread of our reading experience. And so the story’s success stands or falls on Falco’s confident, wary shoulders; we follow the turns of this short story-cum-novelette to the degree that we bet for or against Falco’s success. Will he and his outlaw band reach the prized plants before Mutano, and will he get them back to semi-safe civilization before misfortune overtakes him? The pages turn readily in search of the answers.
Marvin Kaye, author and editor of 28 genre anthologies, including Weird Tales: The Magazine That Never Dies, Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown, and the World Fantasy award-winning The Fair Folk, has reportedly purchased Weird Tales from John Betancourt of Wildside Press, with the intention of editing it himself.
Current editor Ann VanderMeer reported the news on her blog:
I am very sad to have to tell you that my editorship at Weird Tales, which has included one Hugo Award win and three Hugo Award nominations, is about to come to an end. The publisher, John Betancourt of Wildside Press, is selling the magazine to Marvin Kaye. Kaye is buying the magazine because he wants to edit it himself. He will not be retaining the staff from my tenure. I wish him the best with the different direction he wants to pursue, including his first, Cthulhu-themed issue. The current issue of Weird Tales is #358, just published. My last issue will be #359, which Kaye plans to publish in February…
The past five years reading fiction for Weird Tales magazine has been an honor for me. I had a blast doing this but I have also contributed to the canon of “the weird tale”— a responsibility I take seriously, not only for the readers of today, but for the readers of tomorrow. This iconic magazine originally blazed a trail for new approaches to dark fantastical fiction, and I did my best to return to that legacy.
Technically the Weird Tales name is owned by Robert Weinberg and Victor Dricks, who purchased it in the late 1970s, and who have licensed it to multiple publishers over the past three decades, including Terminus Publications, DNA Publications, and Wildside Press.
While VanderMeer’s tenure at Weird Tales was occasionally controversial — especially among sword & sorcery fans — she took some brave risks with the magazine. With Stephen H. Segal she presided over an ambitious and successful redesign in 2007, brought home the first Hugo Award in the history of the magazine in 2009, and she assumed his post as editor-in-chief when Segal departed in January of last year. I thought she did a fine job, and she will be missed.
On the other hand, always glad to see a good Cthulhu-themed issue. I’m looking forward to seeing where Kaye intends to sail with Weird Tales. I expect it will be places both strange and familiar.
The new Interzone features “Insha’ Allah” by Matthew Cook, “For Love’s Delerium Haunts the Fractured Mind” by Mercurio D. Rivera, “The Walrus and the Icebreaker” by Jon Wallace, “Eleven Minutes” by Gareth L. Powell and “Of Dawn” by Al Robertson. There’s also an interview with Lisa Goldstein and the usual assortment of book and video reviews. as well as David Langford’s “Ansible Link” column.
The publishers are reintroducing lifetime subscriptions. What you’re buying, in essence, is a 10-year subscription at the current rate. If you think you’re going to live for at least another decade, and you think the magazine will also be around for as long, and this could be a bargain for whatever time you and the magazine have after that. If that weren’t enough, you can also opt for joint lifetime sub that gets you sister publication Black Static for a slightly reduced rate than the individual rates. Sign your life away here.
I first encountered the name Charles Tan a few months ago, through publisher Erzebet YellowBoy of Papaveria Press. Mr. Tan kindly agreed to review the first two books in the new Wonder Tales series, Jack o’ the Hills and The Winter Triptych.
I did what one usually does. Commented on his blog. Friended him on Facebook. You know. The rounds.
On Facebook, Charles is a friendly presence, often wishing me a, “Good morning!” with such exuberant emphasis that I realized it must not be morning wherever he was. So I looked into it — and lo! As I’d begun to suspect, he’d been wishing me good morning from his evening — in the Philippines! So I started writing, “Good evening!” right back, which, at 10 AM, never fails to strike my silly bone.
As for who Charles Tan is, the World SF Travel Fund site (a crowdfunding effort to bring Mr. Tan to the states for the World Fantasy Convention — where he’s up for the Special Award – Non Professional ) sums him up nicely:
“Charles is a tireless promoter of speculative fiction. Besides his own Bibliophile Stalker blog, he contributes to the Nebula Awards blog, the Shirley Jackson Award blog, SF Signal and The World SF Blog. He also edited two online anthologies of speculative fiction from the Philippines. Charles is highly regarded in the SF scene both in the USA and internationally.”
But Ms. Cooney, you ask, what does this have to do with your subject line?
Well, darling thing! I’ll tell you.
Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry:
“Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the rye!”
…Dear Mr. Carroll and Ms. Rossetti,
I AM SO SORRY!
But I couldn’t help myself!
I’m just so excited because the summer issues of Jabberwocky and Goblin Fruit are up!
Sincerely,
Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
P.S. I’ll talk about both issues LOTS if you keep reading! Promise!
Apex Magazine is a monthly on-line publication of science fiction, fantasy and horror edited by Catherynne M. Valente. The current issue features three stories: “The Whispered Thing” by Zach Lynott, “The Tiger Hunter” by Rabbit Seagraves, “The Secret Protocols of the Elders of Zion” by Lavie Tidhar and, continuing with titles that all start with “The,” poetry by Saladin Ahmed, “The Djinn Prince in America: A Micropic in 9 Tracks.” Jason Sizemore’s non-fiction piece is “Five Genre Books that Raise Mind-numbing Philosophical Questions.”
You can subscribe and get 12 issues for just $19.99.
In another matter, you can read my review of Thomas Liggoti’s aptly named short story collection, Grimscribe. If you dare.
[Stealth Edited by Editor to add: There is also poetry by Rhysling-nominated poet Elizabeth McClellan in Issue 27, entitled “Down Cycles.” The lady’s work is worth a look!]
Apex Magazine is a monthly on-line publication of science fiction, fantasy and horror edited by Catherynne M. Valente.
The issue features three stories: “The Neighborly Thing to Do” by T.J. Weyler, “The Widow and the Xir” by Indrapramit Das and “The Rapid Advancement of Sorrow” by Theodora Goss. Paul Jessup’s non-fiction piece is “The Top 10 Experimental Genre Books You’ve Never Heard Of.”
You can subscribe and get 12 issues for just $19.99.
The May/June double issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction went on sale June 28.
Robert Reed, one of the most prolific and impressive contributors to F&SF over the past decade, has the cover story this issue: a big new novella titled “The Ants of Flanders.” Novelets are Peter David’s “Bronsky’s Dates with Death,” Steven Saylor’s “The Witch of Corinth,” and KJ Kabza’s “The Ramshead Algorithm.”
Short stories this issues are “The Way it Works Out and All,” by Peter S. Beagle, “Less Stately Mansions,” by Rob Chilson, “Hair” by Joan Aiken, “Sir Morgravain Speaks of Night Dragons and Other Things,” by Richard Bowes, and “Someone Like You,” by Michael Alexander.
Plus the regular departments, including Charles de Lint’s column “Books to Look For,” book reviews by Elizabeth Hand, “Plumage From Pegasus: A Short History of the ETEWAF Revolution,” by Paul Di Filippo, “Films: Free Will Hunting,” by Lucius Shepard, and “Science: Pattern Recognition, Randomness, and Roshambo,” by Paul Doherty & Pat Murphy.
F&SF is published six times a year; issues are 258 pages. It is the longest-running professional fantasy magazine in the country, and has been published continuously since 1949.
The cover price is $7.50. The magazine’s website, where you can order subscriptions and browse their blog, is at www.sfsite.com/fsf/.
F&SF is edited by Gordon van Gelder. The cover this issue is by Maurizio Manzieri. We covered the May/June issue here.
The June-July 2011 Black Static cover features a still from the film Agnosia and a crop of the artwork by Riki Rawling for V. H. Leslie’s story “Time Keeping.” Here’s the opening paragraph:
Monday, 11:29 am
Time waits for no man. But Howard wasn’t just any man and Time would wait if it had to. Howard didn’t like to keep it waiting if he could help it. In fact, the only time he had kept time waiting was June 5th 2006 and that was only for 5 minutes and 45 seconds while he, agitated and bewildered, ran through darkened streets back to his flat, then around his workshop hastily setting in motion the mechanisms to resume it once more.
Other fiction for this bimonthly dark horror magazine includes “For Their Own Ends” by Joel Lane, “Electric Dreams” by Carole Johnstone, “Hail” by Daniel Kaysen, and contest winner “The Harvesting of Jackson Cade” by Robert Davies.
You can subscribe to the print version here, or the electronic edition here; there’s also a special discounted rate for a joint subscription to both Interzone and Black Static.