The November–December issue of Britain’s longest running science fiction and fantasy magazine has reached bookstores here in Illinois, which means it’s probably available everywhere. This month has a terrific cover by 2016 cover artist Vincent Sammy (with an evocative title, “The Orion Crusades: Infection” — click the image at right for a bigger version) and new fiction by Harmony Neal, Ryan Row, Sarah Brooks, Rich Larson, Samantha Henderson, and David Cleden. There’s also a feature by Martin McGrath on the James…

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The last 2016 issue of Nightmare is now available. And it looks like a good one, with original fiction from Dale Bailey and Livia Llewellyn, and reprints by Brian Evenson and Priya Sridhar. Here’s Charles Payseur’s assessment at Quick Sip Reviews: The two stories in the December Nightmare magazine certainly show what makes speculative horror so captivating — revealing the uncomfortable truths and darkness that exists all around us, giving it physical form, and then making us face it. These…

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The December 2016 Asimov’s Science Fiction is something of a landmark, in that it’s the last monthly issue of Asimov’s — a magazine that has been publishing continually for 39 years. It’s as close as we come to an institution in this field, and while change is sometimes scary, in this case I think it’s a good thing. Like its sister publication Analog, the magazine is moving to a bimonthly schedule. I always enjoy the big double issues, and getting six of…

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Flash bulletin to all my fellow magazine collectors — Centipede Press has just announced the release of the latest issue of their massive annual Weird Fiction Review. It’s not yet listed at Amazon (or anywhere else I can find), and they don’t even have their usual sample pages up yet. But! As they often do, Centipede Press has early-bird pricing direct on their website — $16 off the regular price. But act fast; that pricing won’t last. Here’s the issue…

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The November/December issue of Uncanny is all about alien invasions and fairy tales. Here’s Bob Blough from his Tangent Online review, with some high praise for the stories within. This is my first read of this magazine and I am impressed. By this small taste I can tell that the editors favor good writing and well-crafted prose. Paul Cornell has written one of Britain’s “cozy catastrophes” in “Don’t You Worry, You Aliens.” In fact the catastrophe is never explained. Suddenly people seem to…

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I’m used to Cemetery Dance being a slim newsprint publication, so imagine my surprise on Saturday when I saw the massive 200-page trade paperback at right in the magazine rack at Barnes & Noble (click the image for a full-sized version). The huge double issue is the biggest issue of CD I’ve ever seen. On the website, editor Richard Chizmar explains the necessity for this Goliath-sized installment. This special issue not only features an original, never-before-published novella by Joe Hill,…

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The Dark switched to monthly publication in May, and has had a terrific year so far. It’s published original fiction from Steve Rasnic Tem, Steve Berman, Kali Wallace, Leena Likitalo, A.C. Wise, Cassandra Khaw, and many others, and reprints from Angela Slatte, Tananarive Due, Helen Marshall, Seanan McGuire, Gemma Files, Stephen Graham Jones, Robert Shearman, Mark Morris, and others. At $1.99 per issue, it’s one of the best bargains in the field. The Dark is edited by Sean Wallace, with…

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The November issue of Locus, the news magazine of the science fiction & fantasy field, is packed with great stuff, including reports on the British Fantasy Awards and the Gemmell Awards, interviews with Pat Cadigan and Cat Rambo, a column by Cory Doctorow, a report on Japanese Science Fiction, obituaries of Robert E. Weinberg and Ed Gorman, and reviews of short fiction and books by Alastair Reynolds, Juliet Marillier, Laird Barron, Ilona Andrews, Jonathan Strahan, and many others. In addition to…

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There’s a great mix of new and established writers in the latest F&SF, including masters such as Robert Reed, Gardner Dozois, Esther M. Friesner, and Matthew Hughes, and newcomers like Lilliam Rivera, Minsoo Kang, and James Beaumon. Tangent Online‘s Bob Blough has particular praise for Esther Friesner and Robert Reed in his online review. Esther M. Friesner starts it off with a fairy tale based on Puss n’ Boots called “The Cat Bell.” This concerns a famous actor at the…

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Uber-editor John Joseph Adams has had enormous success with his Kickstarter-funded DESTROY special issues of Lightspeed, Fantasy, and Nightmare. The original idea sprung from the ludicrous Alt-Right claim that women were destroying science fiction; that gave birth to the brilliant and groundbreaking Women Destroy Science Fiction! special issue of Lightspeed, a massive 479-page issue released in 2014. Since then there have been multiple successful iterations, including Queers Destroy Science Fiction in June of last year, and People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science…

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