The Year's Best SF 12 # 1994 Read online

  Pulphouse: A Fiction Magazine managed to publish only one issue in 1994, but announced a much more realistic quarterly publication schedule (they had originally, several years back, announced that the magazine was going to be published on an unheard-of weekly schedule), and there are signs that this magazine may be coming out of the doldrums now that the financial upheavals at parent company Pulphouse Publishing seem to be subsiding. Original editor Dean Wesley Smith, who stepped down in 1993 and was replaced by Jonathan E. Bond, returned as editor this year, something I think is a good sign, since I disliked the direction in which Bond was taking the magazine, almost completely away from fantasy and science fiction toward the fields of “dark suspense” and non-supernatural “psychological horror.” Smith seems to have reversed this trend, to some degree, at least, and perhaps things are looking up for Pulphouse: A Fiction Magazine. It’ll be interesting to see what they can do in 1995. Weird Tales lost the license to its title in the middle of the year, and was forced to change its title to Worlds of Fantasy and Horror; it only published two issues this year, one under the old title and one under the new title, and in spite of having won a World Fantasy Award last year, continued to lose circulation, declining by about 3,000 copies. Let’s hope they can do better in the coming year.

  There were a slew of new magazines, with more in the pipeline, but we’ll mention them below, in the semiprozine section; as it is, we’ve already mentioned several magazines here that by rights—using the yardstick of paid circulation—should have been discussed in the semiprozine section rather than in the professional section.

  As usual, short SF also appeared in many magazines outside genre boundaries, from Wired to The New Yorker. Playboy in particular, under fiction editor Alice K. Turner, continues to run a relatively large amount of SF. There was also a slew of new SF media magazines, too many to mention individually.

  As most of you probably know, I, Gardner Dozois, am also the editor of a prominent SF magazine, Asimov’s Science Fiction. And that, as I’ve mentioned before, does pose a problem for me in compiling this summation, particularly the magazine-by-magazine review that follows. As the editor of Asimov’s, I could be said to have a vested interest in the magazine’s success, so that anything negative I said about another SF magazine (particularly another digest-sized magazine, my direct competition), could be perceived as an attempt to make my own magazine look good by tearing down the competition. Aware of this constraint, I’ve decided that nobody can complain if I only say positive things about the competition … and so, once again, I’ve limited myself to a listing of some of the worthwhile authors published by each.

  Omni published good fiction this year by Pat Cadigan, Nancy Kress, Howard Waldrop, Bruce McAllister, Kate Wilhelm, Garry Kilworth, Kathe Koja, Allen Steel, and others. Omni’s fiction editor is Ellen Datlow.

  The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction featured good work by Mike Resnick, Robert Reed, Mary Rosenblum, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, L. Timmel Duchamp, David Gerrold, Ursula K. Le Guin, R. Garcia y Robertson, Ben Bova, Elizabeth Hand, Daniel Marcus, Carrie Richerson, Pati Nagle, and others. F&SF’s editor is Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

  Asimov’s Science Fiction featured good work by Ursula K. Le Guin, Maureen F. McHugh, Brian Stableford, Michael Bishop, Mary Rosenblum, Michael Swanwick, Mike Resnick, Brian W. Aldiss, Lisa Goldstein, R. Garcia y Robertson, Eliot Fintushel, Alexander Jablokov, Terry Bisson, John Brunner, and others. Asimov’s Science Fiction’s editor is Gardner Dozois.

  Analog featured good work by Michael F. Flynn, G. David Nordley, Geoffrey A. Landis, Charles L. Harness, Rick Shelley, Jack McDevitt, Bud Sparhawk, Ben Bova, Jerry Oltion, Stephen Goldin, and others. Analog’s longtime editor is Stanley Schmidt.

  Amazing featured good work by Ursula K. Le Guin, Pamela Sargent, George Guthridge, Terry A. McGarry, and others. Amazing’s editor is Kim Mohan.

  Interzone featured good work by Geoff Ryman, Greg Egan, Brian Stableford, Katharine Kerr, Stephen Baxter, Chris Beckett, Leigh Kennedy, Paul Di Filippo, Kim Newman, Garry Kilworth, and others. Interzone’s editor is David Pringle, now “assisted” by Paul Brazier.

  Tomorrow published good work by Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Reed, Eliot Fintushel, M. Shayne Bell, R. Garcia y Robertson, Michael H. Payne, Cynthia Ward, Felicity Savage, Norman Spinrad, and others. Tomorrow’s editor is Algis Budrys.

  Science Fiction Age published good work by Martha Soukup, Barry N. Malzberg, Rick Wilber, Daniel Marcus, Robin Wilson, Bruce Boston, Geoffrey A. Landis, Gregory Benford, and others. Science Fiction Age’s editor is Scott Edelman.

  Aboriginial Science Fiction featured interesting work in its final issue by K. D. Wentworth, J. Brooke, and others. The editor of the now-defunct Aboriginal Science Fiction was Charles C. Ryan.

  Weird Tales, which changed its name in mid-year to Worlds of Fantasy and Horror, published good work by Tanith Lee, Ian R. MacLeod, Jeff VanderMeer, and others. Worlds of Fantasy and Horror’s editor is Darrell Schweitzer.

  Pulphouse: A Fiction Magazine published interesting work by Steven Utley, Ray Vukcevich, Barry N. Malzberg, Carrie Richerson, and others. Pulphouse: A Fiction Magazine’s editor is Dean Wesley Smith.

  (Subscription addresses follow for those magazines hardest to find on the newsstands: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Mercury Press, Inc., 143 Cream Hill Road, West Cornwall, CT 06796, annual subscription—$26.00 in U.S.; Asimov’s Science Fiction, Dell Magazines Fiction Group, P.O. Box 5130, Harlan, IA 51593-5130—$39.97 for thirteen issues; Interzone, 217 Preston Drive, Brighton BN1 6FL, United Kingdom—$52.00 for an airmail one-year—twelve issues—subscription; Analog, Dell Magazines Fiction Group, P.O. Box 5133, Harlan, IA 51593-5133—$39.97 for thirteen issues; Tomorrow, Box 6038, Evanston, IL 60204—$18.00 for a one-year (6 issues) subscription; Pulphouse: A Fiction Magazine, P.O. Box 1227, Eugene, OR 97440—$15 per year (4 issues) in the U.S.; Worlds of Fantasy and Horror, Terminus Publishing Company, 123 Crooked Lane, King of Prussia, PA 19406-2570—$16.00 for 4 issues in the U.S.

  The fact that sophisticated desktop publishing technology is now cheap enough to be affordable by almost anyone, and that almost anyone can use it to produce a magazine that at least looks like a professional product, has opened the floodgates this year on a torrent of new magazines, most of them fiction semiprozines, many of them slick full-size productions, some of them even getting national newsstand distribution. Since the chances are that most of them run on a shoestring budget and are probably severely undercapitalized, I expect most of them will die off like the proverbial flies. A few may have a chance of survival; we’ll see.

  Among the new fiction semiprozines, most of them SF-oriented, that are struggling to establish themselves, are Crank!, Expanse, Offworld, Harsh Mistress Science Fiction Adventures (which changed its name this year to Absolute Magnitude), the revamped version of Galaxy, Mind-sparks, Sirius Visions, and so forth.

  Of these, by far the best, in terms of literary quality, and the only one that I would have no reservations about recommending—although it is perhaps also the one the furthest out on the fringes of science fiction—was Crank!, edited by Bryan Cholfin, which this year featured one of 1994’s best stories, Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Matter of Seggri,” as well as thoroughly professional (although often decidedly odd) work by Jonathan Lethem, Chan Davis, Gene Wolfe, A. A. Attanasio, Lisa Tuttle, Terry Bisson, R. A. Lafferty, and others; they announced four issues this year, managed to produce two—this is a very promising magazine that deserves to survive, and I wish them well. Absolute Magnitude, The Magazine of Science Fiction Adventures (formerly Harsh Mistress SF), changed more than its name, going from a cheap-looking digest to a slick, full-size magazine with full-color covers that is one of the best-looking products on the newsstands; to date, the fiction inside has been less impressive than the covers, although they have published professional-level fiction by Don D’Ammassa, Hal Clement, Barry B. Longyear, and others—they produced two issues this year, one under each name. Pirate Writings, Ta
les of Fantasy, Mystery & Science Fiction, also changed from a digest-sized to a large-size format, and although it’s not quite as slick-looking as Absolute Magnitude, the writing has been a tad livelier, perhaps because of its wider scope, with interesting work by Paul Di Filippo, Jane Yolen, Daniel Hatch, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, and others—they promised three issues, produced two, and announced a change to quarterly publication in future. Expanse is another nice-looking full-size magazine, but produced little of professional-level quality this year; they promised four issues, and actually produced two. Alas, I find it impossible to recommend the revamped version of Galaxy, which, in spite of featuring mostly professional authors, produced very little original fiction (there were a lot of reprints) that was worthwhile this year, with much of it downright awful; perhaps this is because, unlike any other magazine, almost all of it was in the form of short-short stories, a page or two apiece, which is a very difficult form in which to produce good work; the magazine also deserves mention as having more ads per issue than any other magazine I’ve ever seen, which I suppose reflects its origins (still very apparent) as a New Age catalog—Galaxy produced its announced six bimonthly issues this year. I was also not terribly impressed by Sirius Visions, A Speculative Fiction Magazine Specializing in the Literature of Hope, a “magazine” in a curious tabloid-sized newspaper format, which is published eight times a year on “Celtic holidays” such as Samhain, Beltane, and Lugnassugh, although it at least has published some professional-level fiction by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Sue Storm, and others; I’ve seen the “Samhain” issue, don’t know if there were any others. Offworld produced only one issue this year, and is already rumored to be dead. Mindsparks looks more like a fanzine than most of the slicker-looking magazines mentioned above, and has mostly been of note to date for some very professional-level (in fact, often quite technically sophisticated) nonfiction essays; there is less emphasis here on fiction, although they have published professional-level work by G. David Nordley, K. D. Wentworth, and others.

  Another promising new fiction semiprozine was launched in early 1995; we’ll talk more about it next year, but on the strength of the first issue, which I’ve already seen, I’m going to go out on a limb (none of the magazines here may be in existence by the end of 1995, including the one I’m about to mention—that’s the nature of the semiprozine market) and recommend Century, a new bimonthly fiction magazine edited by Robert K. J. Killheffer. Judging from the stuff in their first issue, Century looks like it’s going to be a thoroughly professional-level magazine, operating at a level of literary sophistication and eclecticism matched in the semiprozine field only by Crank!. So take a chance and subscribe now—maybe your money will make the difference between survival and death for this promising new magazine.

  (It’s interesting to note that most of these new magazines—Absolute Magnitude, Pirate Writings, Sirius Visions, Galaxy, even, to some extent, Tomorrow—are all self-consciously “retro” in sensibilities, dissatisfied with the current state of SF and harking back toward the “Good Old Days” when stories were less sophisticated and more “optimistic,” untainted with sex and negativity, and all promising to deliver good old-fashioned action/adventure space-opera stuff [almost none of them, with the occasional exception of Tomorrow, do deliver it, in any reasonably competent form, but that’s another story], the sort of thing that made your pulses pound when you were fourteen. In this climate, it’s interesting to see new magazines like Crank! and Century—which actually is calling for greater literary complexity and higher levels of literary sophistication than is usually found in the genre today—swimming against the current, and I hope that this brave and audacious act proves to be a successful strategy for them.)

  Things were chaotic among the longer-established semiprozines, with many of them dying or struggling. The most significant loss here was probably Steve Pasechnick’s Strange Plasma, which published two issues this year, featuring good work by Michaela Roessner, Colin Greenland, Jim Marino, Kathleen Ann Goonan, R. A. Lafferty, and others, and then announced that it was ceasing publication. New Pathways and Whispers have also died, meaning that most of the most prominent of the older fiction semiprozines are gone. Of the remaining long-established SF fiction semiprozines, the best probably are the Canadian magazine On Spec, and two Australian magazines, Aurealis and Eidolon. Unfortunately, while two editions of Eidolon were supposedly produced in 1994, we never saw them, and we’ve heard nothing about Aurealis at all this year, which makes me wonder if they’re still being produced. On Spec has been fairly reliable over the last few years, although this year it did produce only three issues out of a promised four; still, the magazine contains an interestingly eclectic mix of fiction, and the covers have improved over the last year or so to the point where they are probably the most handsome of any of the digest-sized semiprozines; worth your support. Aberrations is one of the most reliably published of the fiction semiprozines, bringing out twelve issues this year—unfortunately, the content is dreadful, usually a queasy combination of hardcore pornography and hardcore splatterpunk horror; not recommended. There was a one-shot “avant-garde” magazine called Proud Flesh out this year. As is usual with magazines that make a great fuss about how much more daring they are than the timid, stodgy old prozines, and how they’ll bring us dangerous visions too controversial for the prozines to publish, in practice these dangerous visions seem for the most part to be merely sniggering juvenile jokes about sex, including here a sequel to “The Frankenstein Penis” (from Semiotext (e) SF), called “The Dracula Vagina.” That seems kind of disappointing, considering all the really controversial issues that society is going to have to deal with in the near future. Grue, The Leading Edge, and Xizquil produced only single issues this year, while Space & Time, Deathrealm, and Next Phase produced two. I didn’t see Tales of the Unanticipated, 2 A.M., or Weirdbook, or any of the British semiprozines such as Back Brain Recluse, REM, or Strange Attractor, and it’s hard to tell which of these titles—if any—are still alive. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, in its seventh year now, is another reliably published magazine, getting out their promised four issues this year as usual, but I continue to be unimpressed by the overall quality of the fiction, which frequently doesn’t reach really professional levels. I haven’t been following the horror semiprozines closely of late, but in that market Cemetery Dance, one of the most prominent of them, seems to have run into a bad patch because of the illness of the editor, and only managed three issues in 1994.

  If you are looking for news and/or an overview of what’s happening in the genre, then, as always, Charles N. Brown’s Locus and Andy Porter’s SF Chronicle remain your best bet among that sub-class of semiprozines known as “newszines.” The New York Review of Science Fiction (whose editorial staff includes David G. Hartwell, Donald G. Keller, Robert Killheffer, and Gordon Van Gelder) is more of a “criticalzine” than a “newszine,” and by now has established itself as a fixture in this market; by far the most reliably published of the “criticalzines,” it kept to its twelve-issue schedule once again this year. Some people profess to find The New York Review of Science Fiction dull, and some of it is dull; every issue, there’s at least one piece that strikes me as extremely dull—but the magazine is also eclectic enough that I almost always find something in every issue that strikes me as interesting and absorbing, too. I’m also aware that the magazine publishes a varied enough mix of different types of material that something I find dull may strike someone else as fascinating, and vice versa. Steve Brown’s Science Fiction Eye is almost always entertaining and interesting, if you can find it—but they only published one issue this year out of a scheduled three, which is pretty much par for the course for them. Nova Express—edited by Lawrence Person, Glen Cox, and Dwight Brown—is also entertaining, when you can find it, but there was no issue produced in 1994, although they keep promising one for 1995. If the new criticalzine called Non-Stop Magazine, which debuted in 1993, published an issue this year, I didn�
�t see it, but I did receive a Winter 1995 issue just before this volume went to press. More reliable—they at least managed five out of their scheduled six issues—is another newish criticalzine, Tangent, which devotes itself to reviewing short fiction. The quality of the criticism still varies widely here, from professionally competent to embarrassingly amateuristic (although they seem to have gotten rid of their most inept reviewers), but this is a very important addition to the critical scene, since very little short fiction gets reviewed on a regular basis anywhere in the genre, except in Mark Kelly’s column in Locus—and in Tangent. Anyone who’s interested in short fiction should support this one.

  (Locus, Locus Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661—$50.00 for a one-year first-class subscription, 12 issues; Science Fiction Chronicle, Algol Press, P.O. Box 022730, Brooklyn, NY 11202-0056—$30.00 for 1 year, 12 issues, $36.00 first class; The New York Review of Science Fiction, Dragon Press, P.O. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY 10570—$30.00 per year; Science Fiction Eye, Box 18539, Asheville, NC 28814—$10.00 for one year; Nova Express, White Car Publications, P.O. Box 27231, Austin, TX 78755-2231—$10 for a one-year (four-issue) subscription; Tangent, 5779 Norfleet, Raytown, MO 64133—$20 for one year, four issues, make all monies payable to David A. Truesdale; On Spec, the Canadian Magazine of Speculative Writing, P.O. Box 4727, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6E 5G6—$18 for a one-year subscription; Crank!, Broken Mirrors Press, P.O. Box 380473, Cambridge, MA 02238—$12 for four issues; Century, P.O. Box 9270, Madison, WI 53715-0270--$27 for a one-year subscription; Non-Stop Magazine, Box 981, Peck Slip Station, New York, NY 10272-0981—$18 for one year, four issues; Aurealis, the Australian Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Chimaera Publications, P.O. Box 538, Mt. Waverley, Victoria 3149, Australia—$24 for a four-issue (quarterly) subscription, “all money orders for overseas subscriptions should be in Australian dollars”; Eidolon, the Journal of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, Eidolon Publications, P.O. Box 225, North Perth, Western Australia 6006—$34 (Australian) for $4 issues overseas, payable to Richard Scriven; Back Brain Recluse, P.O. Box 625, Sheffield S1 3GY, United Kingdom—$18 for four issues; REM, REM Publications, 19 Sandringham Road, Willesden, London NW2 5EP, United Kingdom—7.50 pounds sterling for four issues; Xizquil, P.O. Box 2885, Reserve, NM 87830—$10 for three issues; Strange Attractor: Horror, Fantasy, & Slipstream, 111 Sundon Road, Houghton Regis, Beds. LU5 5NL, United Kingdom—7.75 pounds sterling for four issues; Cemetery Dance, P.O. Box 858, Edgewood, MD 21040—$15 for four issues (one year), $25 for eight issues (two years), “checks or money orders should be payable to Richard T. Chizmar only!”; Pirate Writings, Tales of Fantasy, Mystery & Science Fiction, 53 Whitman Ave., Islip, NY 11751, all checks payable to “Pirate Writings Publishing”—$15.00 for four issues; Absolute Magnitude, The Magazine of Science Fiction Adventures, P.O. Box 13, Greenfield, MA 01302, four issues for $14, all checks payable to “D.N.A. Publications”; Argonaut Science Fiction, P.O. Box 4201, Austin, TX 78765—$8 for two issues); Grue Magazine, Hells Kitchen Productions, Box 370, Times Square Sta., New York, NY 10108—$13.00 for three issues; Expanse, P.O. Box 43547, Baltimore, MD 21236-0547—$16 for four issues; Sirius Visions, Claddagh Press, 1075 NW Murray Road, Suite 161, Portland, OR 97229, eight issues for $16.50; Galaxy Magazine, The Institute for the Development of the Harmonious Human Being, Inc., P.O. Box 370, Nevada City, CA 95959—$18 for a one-year subscription (6 issues); The Leading Edge, 3163 JKHB, Provo, UT 84602—$8 for three issues; Tales of the Unanticipated, P.O. Box 8036, Lake Street Station, Minneapolis, MN 55408—$15.00 for four issues; Mindsparks, Molecudyne Research, P.O. Box 1379, Laurel, MD 20725-1379, four issues for $18; Proud Flesh: Fiction for the Last Millennium, Chris DeVito, 402 West Washington Street #2, Champaign, IL 61820-3456, $4.50 for the single issue.)