The Mammoth Book of Best New Science Fiction: 23rd Annual Collection (3 page)

The print fiction semiprozine market, subject to the same pressures in terms of rising postage rates and production costs as the professional magazines are, continues to contract.
Aeon, Talebones, Paradox, Fictitious Force, Farrago’s Wainscot
, and
H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror
all died this year, and
Zahir
is transitioning from a print format to an electronic-only online format, something that
Subterranean, Fantasy Magazine
, and
Apex Magazine
did the year before. (I suspect that this will eventually be the fate of most print fiction semiprozines – they’ll transition into all-electronic formats, or they’ll die.)

Of the other surviving print fiction semiprozines,
Electric Velocipede
, edited by John Kilma, managed two issues in 2009, one a double-issue, publishing worthwhile material by Merrie Haskell, Mercurio D. Rivera, Yoon Ha Lee, and others. The Canadian
On Spec
, one of the longest-running of all the fiction semiprozines, edited by a collective under general editor Diane Walton, once again kept reliably to its publishing schedule in 2009, and featured interesting stories by Tony Pi and Jack Skillingstead, among others. Australia’s
Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine
, another collective-run SF magazine with a rotating editorial staff under editor in chief Robbie Matthews, managed five of its scheduled six issues this year, publishing good stuff by Damien Broderick and Paul Di Filippo, Brian Stableford, Jason K. Chapman, Caroline M. Yoachim, and others.

I saw two issues of Australian magazine
Aurealis
, edited by Stuart Mayne, in 2009, although they were both dated 2008. A small British SF magazine edited by Ian Redman,
Jupiter
, managed all four of its scheduled issues in 2009; I like the fact that it’s all-SF, but the quality of its fiction needs to come up. A Canadian magazine, edited by Karl Johanson,
Neo-Opsis
, ostensibly quarterly, produced three issues in 2009; the same comment made about
Jupiter
would apply equally well to them. Long-running
Space and Time
produced four issues, as did fantasy magazine
Tales of the Talisman;
there were two issues apiece produced by fantasy magazine
Shimmer
, the Irish
Albedo One, Greatest Uncommon Denominator
, and
Not One of Us
, and as far as I can tell there was only one 2009 issue of sword & sorcery magazine
Black Gate
, as well as the slipstreamish
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, New Genre
, and
Sybil’s Garage.
I saw no copy
of Tales of the Unanticipated
or
Aoife’s Kiss
this year.

Most of the print critical magazine market is gone. One of the hearty survivors, and always your best bet for value, is the newszine
Locus: The Magazine of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Field, a
twenty-eight-time Hugo-winner which for more than forty years has been an indispensible source of news, information, and reviews; co-founder, publisher, and longtime editor Charles N. Brown died this year, but
Locus
continues under the guidance of a staff of editors headed by Liza Groen Trombi, and including Kirsten Gong-Wong, Amelia Beamer, and many others. Another hearty perennial, one of the last men standing in this field, is the eclectic critical magazine
The New York Review of Science Fiction
, edited by David G. Hartwell and a staff of associate editors, which publishes a variety of eclectic and sometimes quirky critical essays on a wide range of topics.

Most of the other surviving print critical magazines are professional journals more aimed at academics than at the average reader. The most accessible of these is probably the long-running British critical zine
The Science Fiction Foundation.

Subscription addresses follow:

Locus: The Magazine of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Field
, Locus Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA, 94661, or online at https://secure.locusmag.com/About/Subscribe.html – $68 for a one -year first-class subscription, 12 issues.
The New York Review of Science Fiction
, Dragon Press, P.O. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY, 10570, or online at http://www.nyrsf.com/subscribe - today.html – $40 per year, 12 issues, make checks payable to “Dragon Press.”
The Science Fiction Foundation
, Science Fiction Foundation, Roger Robinson (SFF), 75 Rosslyn Avenue, Harold Wood, Essex RM3 ORG, UK, or online at http:// www.sf-foundation.org/joining.html – $39 for a three-issue subscription in the U.S.
Aurealis
, Chimaera Publications, P.O. Box 2164, Mt Waverley, VIC 3149, Australia, or online at www.aurealis.com.au – $59.75 (AUD) for a four-issue overseas airmail subscription, checks should be made out to “Chimaera Publications” in Australian dollars.
On Spec, The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic
, P.O. Box 4727, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6E 5G6, or online at www.onspec.ca – $25 for one year.
Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine
, 4129 Carey Rd., Victoria, BC, Canada, V8Z 4G5, or online at http://www.neo-opsis.ca/Subscriptions. htm – $25 (Canadian) for a three-issue subscription.
Albedo One
, Albedo One Productions, 2 Post Road, Lusk, County Dublin, Ireland or online at http://www.albedo1.com/html/albedo _1 _subscriptions.html – $39.50 for a four-issue airmail subscription, make checks payable to “Albedo One.”
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
, Small Beer Press, 150 Pleasant St., #306, Easthampton, MA 01027 or online at http://smallbeerpress.com/shopping/subscriptions/ – $20 for four issues.
Electric Velocipede
at http://www.nightshadebooks.com/cart.php?m=product_detail & p = 143 offers a two-issue annual subscription for $25.
Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine
has a six-issue subscription rate of $69 (AUD), visit them online at www.andromedaspaceways.com.
Zahir
is transitioning to an all-electronic format, see www.zahirtales.com for further information.
Tales of the Talisman
, Hadrosaur Productions, P.O. Box 2194, Mesilla Park, NM 88047-2194 or online at http://www.hadrosaur.com/order.html – $24 for a four-issue subscription.
Black Gate
, New Epoch Press, 815 Oak Street, St. Charles, IL 60174, or online at http://www.blackgate.com/black-gate-subscriptions/; there are multiple subscription options, including downloadable PDF versions for $4.95 apiece or $29.95 for a one-year (four issue) subscription.
Jupiter
, at 19 Bedford Road, Yeovil, Somerset, BA21 5UG, UK, offers four issues for 10 Pounds Sterling.
Greatest Uncommon Denominator
, GUD Publishing, P.O. Box 1537, Laconia, NH 03247, or online at http://www.gudmagazine.com/subs/subscribe.php – $22 for 2 issues.
Sybil’s Garage
, Senses Five Press, 76 India Street, Apt A8, Brooklyn NY11222-1657, or online at http://www.sensesfive.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=9 – $29.95 for four issues (2 years).
Shimmer
, P.O. Box 58591, Salt Lake City, UT 84158-0591, or online at http://www.shimmerzine.com/purchase/subscribe/ – $22.00 for a four-issue subscription.

The online world of electronic magazines seemed to have more energy and momentum this year than most of the print world, and probably published more good fiction than all but perhaps the top three or four print fiction magazines. Not that it was all good –
Jim Baen’s Universe
is scheduled to die after the April 2010 issue, and
Shiny
and
Lone Star Stories
are both already dead. On the other hand,
Apex Magazine
came back from the dead, Tor.com,
Subterranean Press, Strange Horizons, Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, Clarkesworld Magazine, Abyss & Apex
, and
Fantasy Magazine
still seem to be going strong, and a promising new ezine,
Lightspeed
, edited by John Joseph Adams, will be starting up in 2010.

Jim Baen’s Universe
(www.baensuniverse.com), once the Great White Hope of the online fiction-magazine world, is in its fourth year, and it will unfortunately be its last, since it’s been announced that the ezine will shut down after its April 2010 issue, a major loss for the field, and one that will be advanced as an argument against the long-term viability of ezines – if an ezine paying top-of-the field prices, attracting the biggest name authors, and getting major publicity and visibility can’t attract enough paying readers to stay alive, who can?
Jim Baen’s Universe
published only one really major story in 2009, a complex time-travel piece by John Barnes, but there was lots of other good work, both SF and fantasy, by David Gerrold, Jay Lake, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Naomi Kritzer, Lezli Robyn, Graham Edwards, John Lambshead, Gary Kloster, and others. Its editors were Mike Resnick and Eric Flint.

With
Jim Baen’s Universe
on the way out, the most important remaining site is probably Tor.com (www.tor.com). I once said that what we really needed was a Boing Boing that published science fiction as well, a place cool and eclectic enough to draw the Internet-savvy audience as well as the SF audience, and Tor. com, a website that regularly publishes SF, fantasy, and slipstream, as well as articles, comics, graphics, blog entries, print and media reviews, and commentary, may fit that bill.
Tor.com
had another strong year in 2009, publishing a wide range of different kinds of stories (although they tend to lean a bit toward slipstream and steampunk) by Jo Walton, Harry Turtledove, Damien Broderick, Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn, Kij Johnson, Ken Scholes, Elizabeth Bear, Steven Gould, Rachel Swirsky, and others.

The long-running ezine
Strange Horizons
(www.strangehorizons.com), edited by Susan Marie Groppi, assisted by Jed Hartman and Karen Meisner, ran good work, a mixture of SF, fantasy, and slipstream, by Lavie Tidhar, Sandra McDonald, Elliott Bangs, Benjamin Crowell, Tim Pratt, Jennifer Linnaea, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Rachel Manija Brown, Cat Rambo, Leonard Richardson, and others.

Clarkesworld Magazine
(www.clarkesworldmagazine.com), edited by Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace, ran good stuff this year, much of it SF, some fantasy or slipstream, by Kij Johnson, Gord Sellar, Jason K. Chapman, Lavie Tidhar, Sarah Monette, Tobias S. Buckell, Cat Rambo, and others.

Abyss & Apex
(www.abyssandapex.com), edited by Wendy S. Delmater, which seems to run more SF than many of the other sites, had good stuff by Samantha Henderson, Karl Bunker, Marie Brennan, Christopher Green, Paul Carlson, Ruth Nestvold, Richard A. Lovett, Bud Sparhawk, and others.

Apex Magazine
(www.apexbookcompany.com/apex-online), edited by Jason Sizemore, featured good work, most of it fantasy or slipstream, by Theodora Goss, Ekaterina Sedia, Gord Sellar, Peter M. Ball, Aliette de Bodard, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, and others.

Fantasy Magazine
(www.fantasy-magazine.com ), published by Sean Wallace and edited by Cat Rambo, had good work (almost all of it fantasy or slipstream, unsurprisingly enough, although there was one strong SF story by Lavie Tidhar) by Nancy Kress, Tanith Lee, Patricia Russo, Ruth Nestvold, Jay Lake, John Mantooth, and others.

Other than the stories selected by me for the issue I guest-edited, which I won’t mention,
Subterranean
(http://subterraneanpress.com), edited by William K. Schafer, had lots of good work, some of it first-rate, by Alexander C. Irvine, Garth Nix, Tim Pratt, James P. Blaylock, Kim Newman, Kris Nelscott, Lewis Shiner, and others.

The Australian popular-science magazine
Cosmos
(www.cosmosmagazine.com) runs a story per issue, usually SF, selected by fiction editor Damien Broderick, and also puts new fiction not published in the print magazine up on their website. They had a strong story by Karl Bunker this year, as well as interesting stuff by Craig DeLancey, Greg Mellor, Stuart Gibbon, V.G. Kemerer, and others.

The flamboyantly titled
Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
(www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com), edited by Edmund R. Schubert under the direction of Card himself, had good work by Peter S. Beagle, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ian Creasey, Tim Pratt, Aliette de Bodard, Eugie Foster, Tony Pi, and others, including a number of stories, both reprint and original, by Card. Although they publish both SF and fantasy (rarely slipstream), they tend to lean toward fantasy, which tends to be of generally higher quality than their SF.

Ideomancer Speculative Fiction
(www.ideomancer.com), edited by Leah Bobet and a large group of other editors that includes Elizabeth Bear and John Bowker, published good stuff by Steven Mohan, Jr., Swapna Kishore, and others.

A new ezine devoted to “literary adventure fantasy,”
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
(www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com), edited by Scott H. Andrews, had a strong year, featuring good work by Aliette de Bodard, Rachel Swirsky, Ian McHugh, Richard Parks, Sarah L. Edwards, K.D. Wentworth, and others.

Shadow Unit
(www.shadowunit.org) is a website devoted to publishing stories drawn from an imaginary TV show, something I find unexciting, but which has strongly impressed other critics, and which has drawn top people such as Elizabeth Bear, Holly Black, Emma Bull, and others.

A mix of science fact articles and fiction is available from the ezine
Futurismic
(http://futurismic.com) and from
Escape Velocity
(www. escapevelocitymagazine.com).

Book View Café
(www.bookviewcafe.com) is a consortium of over twenty professional authors, including Vonda N. McIntyre, Laura Anne Gilman, Sarah Zettel, Brenda Clough, and others, who have created a new website where work by them – mostly reprints, and some novel excerpts – is made available for free.