Fantasy & Science Fiction
One of the longest-running and most highly regarded magazines in the field, F&SF is the original publisher of Stephen King’s Gunslinger stories, Daniel Keyes’ “Flowers for Algernon,” and many other classics.
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A monthly magazine of short stories? How can you go wrong?,
I’m a big fan of fantasy and science fiction short stories, picking up various “Best of” anthologies every year. In those anthologies, it always tells where each story came from, so I was always aware of the various magazines that are around. I never really went looking for them, however. Then, one day I was at my local science fiction book store and saw the magazine shelf and decided I should check one out. Being more of a fantasy fan then a science fiction fan, I decided to try out Fantasy & Science Fiction. Am I ever glad I did. Ever since that fateful day in January, I have been buying it every month.
NOTE: I buy it at the store rather then getting a subscription because I not only want to support the magazine, but I also want to support my local store. Being in Canada, there isn’t a lot of savings with the subscription, though there is some. I would definitely suggest getting a subscription unless you are in similar circumstances.
Fantasy & Science Fiction has been publishing continually since 1949. Each issue is full of stories and interesting columns from some of the big names in the genre today. Recent stories by Joe Haldeman, Peter S. Beagle and David Gerrold were all excellent, and even the stories by less experienced writers are usually quite good. As with any anthology or other group of stories, there may be the occasional clunker in there. Overall, though, the hit rate is very high. There do seem to be some almost regular contributors, such as Matt Hughes and Ray Vukcevich, but thankfully their work is usually good. There are always a mix of science fiction and fantasy, and each sub-genre is represented pretty well too. There’s urban fantasy, some high fantasy (though usually nothing like Lord of the Rings), modern science-fiction, far future, and many more. Stories vary from novellas to short stories, and everything in between. There are usually 7-10 stories per issue.
There are sometimes theme issues as well, such as the July, 2004 issue that was the “All American issue.” Each story took place in the United States, but even within that theme, the stories were quite varied. “The Battle of York” was an example of how history can be perverted when records are fragmented. It’s a story being told in the 29th century that takes bits and pieces of American history and twists them into a myth of George Washington, George Custer, Dwight Eisenhower, and the giant turned to stone that became the Statue of Liberty. It also contains a civil war tale and a modern-day story of science and terror.
Each issue also has some departments. There is “Books to Look For” by Charles de Lint, where he gives you the scoop on some books that you may have missed. There’s also another column on books from various authors who muse either on books they want to suggest or just about books in general. There’s also a films column by either Lucius Shepard or Kathi Maio. Usually these columns give interesting analyses of current genre films, sometimes commenting on the state of the industry today. They are always well-written, even when they are talking about something you may not be interested in.
The layout of the magazine is great. It’s bound rather then stapled, so it fits nicely on your bookshelf. Unfortunately, that means that it won’t lay flat like other magazines, so you’ll have to hold it. The stories and columns are spread around, interrupted with the occasional cartoon or other artwork. Each story is introduced by the editor, Gordon Van Gelder, giving a little bit of information about the author usually including when the last story by that author had been published in the magazine. He also occasionally writes an editorial that kicks off the issue.
The benefit of short fiction is that it doesn’t take very long to read, even if it’s something that’s not grabbing you. I have not skipped anything in any of the issues that I’ve read, and I’ve always been at least mildly entertained by even the lesser stories. It’s definitely a way to stay on top of current trends in the genre. If you like short fiction, you owe it to yourself to check this magazine out.
Dave Roy
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|Some SF, Some Fantasy, Some other stuff I’d skip,
F&SF, published on its own rather than as part of a larger stable of magazines, isn’t easily pigeonholed. As its title describes itself, it’s a magazine of Fantasty and Science Fiction. The fantasy is usually quite good, tending more toward humorous light fantasy than heroic sword-and-sorcery but some of the latter also shows up. Straight science fiction more suited to Analog can also find its way to F&SF, as will social SF or literary attempts that one might expect from Asimov’s.
Some pieces are harder to categorize. There is usually one horror piece per issue, and why this is still the case is beyond me. The editors have done several surveys of the subscriber base and every result has loudly complained about “the horror! the horror!” yet still it slouches on. Mainstream authors are more likely to appear in F&SF than the other SF digests; Joyce Carol Oates is a regular contributor. Some of these mainstream pieces have little fantasy or SF element to them, which is what makes people call F&SF “quirky.”
One nice thing about F&SF was that they used to sell lifetime subscriptions. I don’t know if they’ll still do it, but the cost used to be ten times the annual rate. I’ve been reading F&SF for almost 20 years, and the format hasn’t changed much, despite the new editor and publisher taking over from the Furmans. If you used to read it, you won’t be surprised if you come back to it.
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|You can’t go wrong with this magazine.,
There’s such an incredible choice of fiction contained within the pages of each issue of F&SF that there must be at least one or two stories each month that would satisfy every reader. It’s got fantasy and science fiction, obviously, but it’s got horror and occasionally publishes borderline slipstream stories. It’s stocked with quality fiction, from the likes of Joe Haldeman, James Patrick Kelly, Robert Reed, and Kate Wilhelm. If you’re a subscriber, you know of the quality of which I speak; if you’re not, then subscribe and see what you’ve been missing.
So, there is a compendium of quality fiction, and yet F&SF’s circulation is in decline, which is something that I find extremely sad. The three main professional SF magazines (Asimov’s, Analog, F&SF) are all losing subscribers–the fact is that too many people do not even know that these magazines exist anymore. Tell people about them, buy a subscription for your nephew who loves role-playing games, or your daughter, or whomever. If you have a website, start some free advertising. Write reviews. Tell people about these magazines, for goodness sake. If we all tell people about these magazines, and get more subscribers, then they can certainly live for many, many more years.
They certainly deserve to.
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