| Author |
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Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 09:37 am: | |
I just got a box of fifty advance copies of the July 2006 F&SF sitting here.
I'm looking to give away these copies to the first fifty people who ask for one.
The catch is this: if you want one of the copies, you'll have to blog about the issue.
Your blog can say anything, even "I'm only writing this blog entry about F&SF because I said I would to get a free copy of this sucky magazine."
I'm particularly interested in getting younger readers to blog, so if you're a parent of a teen, ask him/her if they want a copy.
This promotion isn't limited to young readers, though. If you're 112 and you blog, you're welcome to a copy also.
Just post your mailing address here or contact us at Fandsf - at sign - aol dot com.
When the box of copies is empty, this promotion's over. |
Matt Hughes
| | Posted on Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 11:05 am: | |
Gordon: Would it be improper to cross-post this to the Asimov board's thread on the future of the mags?
Matt Hughes
www.archonate.com |
sharyn november
| | Posted on Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 03:05 pm: | |
okay, gordon, this made me laugh out loud.
sdn, subscriber |
Michael Kelly
| | Posted on Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 03:55 pm: | |
Okay, Gordon, I just blogged about it here:
http://lonesome-crow.livejournal.com/
Here's my mailing addy. Thanks!
M. Kelly
1905 Faylee Cres.,
Pickering, ON
L1V 2T3
Canada |
Michael M Jones
| | Posted on Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 04:30 pm: | |
What a great plan. I've already got a copy of the July issue, but I'll happily talk it up in my LJ. I just hope I don't end up preaching to the choir. :>
-Michael M Jones (oneminutemonkey.livejournal.com) |
Jonathan Strahan
| | Posted on Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 04:57 pm: | |
Gordon: I was just writing something about F&SF and went over to an online cover gallery to check out some old covers (http://www.sfcovers.net/Magazines/FSF/) and it crossed my mind that it'd be really cool to see an artbook collecting the best of the fifty odd years of F&SF's covers. There has been some terrific art on the front of the magazine over the years. |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Friday, May 05, 2006 - 05:44 am: | |
Jonathan---
Yeah, people have suggested an art book several times. I'm sure it will happen one of these days, but we don't have anything in the works now. |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Friday, May 05, 2006 - 05:45 am: | |
Regarding the blog giveaway, 70 or 80 percent of the copies are claimed, which means we still have a bunch available. |
John William Thiel
| | Posted on Friday, May 05, 2006 - 06:20 am: | |
Okay, I've got it blogged; it's http://360.yahoo.com
Not hurrying to get F&SF, but it's an interesting exercise. However, I'll take the advance copy, if I'm in time for it.
John Thiel
30 N. 19th Street
Lafayette, Indiana 47904 |
Melissa Mead
| | Posted on Friday, May 05, 2006 - 03:08 pm: | |
Are there any left? I'm brand new to blogging, but here's my attempt:
http://carpe-libris.livejournal.com/1189.html |
John Joseph Adams
| | Posted on Friday, May 05, 2006 - 03:30 pm: | |
There might be some left--go ahead and email your mailing address to the FandSF[at]aol.com addy. |
Melissa Mead
| | Posted on Friday, May 05, 2006 - 07:01 pm: | |
Thanks. Done! |
Andrew Drilon
| | Posted on Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 04:07 pm: | |
I just did! Hope I'm not too late!
http://andrewdrilon.livejournal.com |
Rob Bedford
| | Posted on Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 07:17 pm: | |
I mentioned FSF in my blog, too:
http://blogorob.blogspot.com/2006/05/crooked-genre.html |
Matt Hughes
| | Posted on Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 07:25 pm: | |
Rob:
Thanks for the plug.
Matt Hughes
www.archonate.com |
John Joseph Adams
| | Posted on Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 08:45 pm: | |
Andrew and Rob --
That's great, guys. Did you send your mailing addresses to the FandSF[at]aol.com address as instructed? You need to do that if you want the free issue. |
Rob Bedford
| | Posted on Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 08:51 pm: | |
No problem Matt.
I did send my address to the aol e-mail addy. |
Mary Robinette Kowal
| | Posted on Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 02:35 am: | |
It's probably too late, but I've got no problems plugging F&SF. |
Andrew Drilon
| | Posted on Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 01:20 pm: | |
Yup! I did right after I posted it! Thanks guys! :D |
Vanessa Van Wagner
| | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 12:42 am: | |
Is that the last one, there in the corner of the box? Here's my entry. |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 02:36 pm: | |
Sorry, Vanessa, that's not an issue in the corner of the box. It's my cat, Pugsley. But I'll ask him if he cares to pose as a bug-eyed alien for an upcoming cover.
Yes, the box is empty and the promotion's over. But based on the enthusiastic response to it, we'll probably try it again at some point. Stay tuned. |
Charles Coleman Finlay
| | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 02:59 pm: | |
Will we get a link to all 50 blogs? I don't have a story in the issue, but I'd love to see what people say. |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 06:12 pm: | |
I'll try to post links to 'em, but it would be great if bloggers would put up their own links here. |
Charles Coleman Finlay
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 04:27 am: | |
That's smart -- I hope most of them are reading this and do it on their own. |
Carl V. Anderson
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 07:31 am: | |
I would love one and would gladly blog about it...sci fi and fantasy are staples of my blog anyway and I'm always looking for things to write about. My address is:
Carl V. Anderson
507 SW 17th St
Blue Springs, MO 64015 |
Horia Nicola Ursu
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 03:15 pm: | |
I blogged about the latest issue of F&SF saturday, May 6, here: millennium newsblog and have sent my snail-mail address as indicated. Hope to be among the lucky ones, but if I'm not, let me tell you that I will nevertheless blog about every issue of F&SF that will come my way... All best! |
John William Thiel
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 04:44 pm: | |
As links to the blogsites involved are requested, I'll add a more complete link to mine http://360.yahoo.com/bonomo15
Probably won't be accessable by clicking on it, being that complete, but it can be gotten to otherwise. |
Horia Nicola Ursu
| | Posted on Thursday, May 11, 2006 - 12:07 am: | |
Is there hope that I could find out somehow if my blogging qualified me as a happy recipient, so I could warn my postman about it coming (the postal services being, as all other things in my beautiful country, Romania, a mess)? Thanks a lot! |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Thursday, May 11, 2006 - 06:48 pm: | |
I haven't seen any blogs yet specifically about the July issue (most of the issues are still in transit), but here are some blogs that came up already as a result of this promotion. Thanks for the nice comments, folks.
http://14theditch.livejournal.com/
http://mumpsimus.blogspot.com/
http://www.jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp/page/2/
http://www.cthreepo.com/blog/ |
Jason Horner
| | Posted on Thursday, May 11, 2006 - 09:30 pm: | |
http://draxamus.livejournal.com/
EDIT: Oh crap promotion is over 
|
heidi ruby miller
| | Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 04:21 pm: | |
Here is my LJ entry about R. Garcia y Robertson's 'Kansas, She Says, Is the Name of the Star.'
http://ambasadora.livejournal.com/40953.html |
heidi ruby miller
| | Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 04:29 pm: | |
Hi. I'm Heidi.
Apparently my post to this board yesterday didn't go through so, here's the general links to all the LJs where I'm posting my reviews everyday:
http://ambasadora.livejournal.com
http://community.livejournal.com/setonhillwpf
http://community.livejournal.com/speculativefics
http://community.livejournal.com/f_and_sf
I'm also posting them to the official Seton Hill University forums, but those are password protected.
It's nice to meet all of you and to see some familiar faces. |
heidi ruby miller
| | Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 06:15 pm: | |
Here's another community that mentioned they wanted my reviews:
http://community.livejournal.com/sfandf_critters |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - 06:27 am: | |
Thanks for the post, Heidi.
I'm looking forward to seeing more blogs as people read the issues we've sent. |
heidi ruby miller
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - 06:40 pm: | |
Here's my blog about Charles De Lint's 'Books To Look For.'
http://ambasadora.livejournal.com/41229.html
Along with the usual communities, I also posted this one to http://community.livejournal.com/sf_book_reviews |
heidi ruby miller
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - 06:49 pm: | |
I'm also linking to http://mallory_blog.livejournal.com and
http://highway_west.livejournal.com because they're blogging the July 2006 issue too. We're all finding each other through the reviews. |
heidi ruby miller
| | Posted on Thursday, May 18, 2006 - 06:47 pm: | |
I just put up review of James Sallis' review of Ian McDonald's River of Gods to all the usual places. |
Shveta T.
| | Posted on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 09:49 am: | |
I have not yet written a review of the July issue, but when I do, it will be located at http://lotus-faerie.livejournal.com. Thanks for the complimentary copy. |
Mallory
| | Posted on Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 02:41 pm: | |
Kansas, She Says, Is the Name of the Star by R. Garcia y Robertson is an inventive, active, romp of a story that invites the reader to get up close and personal within the limited territory of a space-born habitat. I enjoyed the story and kept turning the pages but then I noticed that I was ticking off the bits and pieces from the Wizard of Oz and I realized that part of my motivation or interest in the story lay in this treasure-hunt rather than in the story.
This is a dependency story that leans on the probability that the reader will know and remember the Wizard of Oz while it deliberately distorts and traffics upon L. Frank Baum's masterpiece.
This is fan-fiction in search of perverting the wonder of the original work. In the end I'm left with a sour taste in my mouth that Robertson's Oz is reduced to a trite, grimy world of sex slavers and pedophiles and that little girls caught against this tapestry are dependent on mysterious outside forces to save them.
As the Marquis De Sade would say, "...the desire to make off with the substance of others is the foremost - the most legitimate - passion nature has bred into us and, without doubt, the most agreeable one."
Poetic irony?
See the blog at:
http://mallory-blog.livejournal.com/24950.html |
John William Thiel
| | Posted on Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 04:36 pm: | |
It seems to me to be more of a happening than a story. |
Byron Bailey
| | Posted on Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 08:36 pm: | |
"This is fan-fiction in search of perverting the wonder of the original work. In the end I'm left with a sour taste in my mouth that Robertson's Oz is reduced to a trite, grimy world of sex slavers and pedophiles and that little girls caught against this tapestry are dependent on mysterious outside forces to save them."
Sounds good to me. |
J. Kathleen Cheney
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 08:13 am: | |
Haven't finished the issue yet, but I do have some reflections so far...
http://j-cheney.livejournal.com/2692.html |
J. Kathleen Cheney
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 08:13 am: | |
Haven't finished the issue yet, but I do have some reflections so far...
http://j-cheney.livejournal.com/2692.html |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 02:09 pm: | |
Here's another one:
http://treize64.livejournal.com/52073.html |
Lon Prater
| | Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 - 08:38 pm: | |
Here is my haiku review:
http://lonp.livejournal.com/21412.html
An unintended consequence of this promotion: I finally got an account here instead of just lurking. 
And lest I forget--Thank you for the complimentary copy! |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 06:20 am: | |
Haikus!
Here's another one: http://nhw.livejournal.com/649306.html |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 07:09 am: | |
Here's another:
http://www.stevethorn.com/blog/index.php?/archives/107-Fantasy-Science-Fiction-M agazine.html |
Gord A. Sellar
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 07:22 pm: | |
I posted my review of the issue here:
http://www.gordsellar.com/2006/05/24/fantasy-science-fiction-july-2006-issue/ |
Michael J DeLuca
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 07:53 pm: | |
I'm only halfway through my July issue, but I posted the first half of my reviews:
http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2006/05/fantasy_science.html
I hope you do this promo again, Gordon. Thanks! |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 05:25 am: | |
The results of the promotion thus far have been very interesting. Odds are good we'll do it again. |
heidi ruby miller
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 06:29 am: | |
Here's a link to my entry about Steven Popke's 'Holding Pattern'
http://ambasadora.livejournal.com/42464.html |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Thursday, May 25, 2006 - 12:03 pm: | |
Another one:
http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2355 |
Kim Frankenfield
| | Posted on Friday, May 26, 2006 - 12:26 pm: | |
Alright, now that I'm registered, I will try this again.
Not done reading, but I really wanted to get my first impressions down while I was experiencing them, so here they are. I'm interested in reading the comments made by everyone else. I really like this idea.
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=67127760&blogID= 125482235&MyToken=78c7dad6-9b55-4fbc-a54d-e8ebf4f8429a |
Mallory
| | Posted on Friday, May 26, 2006 - 12:43 pm: | |
[This Review is by request of F&SF Magazine and is cross posted to my blog at http://mallory-blog.livejournal.com/ as well at to a number of LJ communities]
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs is reviewed by Charles DeLint in the Books To Look For section of the July 2006 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. DeLint's tone is conversational and friendly as he examines this book in light comparison with "Shadow In The Starlight" which he also reviews in this issue. He does a good job of drawing the readers interest in how the book stands up to some of the foundational works of Fantasy, where it fits in the broader spectrum of the wide fantasy field. DeLint's engaging tone and frank observations are refreshing and persuasive and his review does its job admirably.
Shadow In The Starlight by Elaine Cunningham is the second title reviewed by Charles DeLint in this issue. In this review DeLint lightly compares "Moon Called" with "Shadow In The Starlight" and points out how each story is crafted differently as well as the pros and cons of the individual author's choices in how they brought their story to life and ultimately how they finished or didn't finish it off. DeLint asks questions about the absence of a satisfying ending to this novel and lightly chastises the book publisher for failing to uphold the contract between author and reader by allowing this book to make it to press without a strong ending. This review informs and asks questions without talking at the reader, allowing the reader room to make their own decision on whether this book would be a good choice.
The Cell by Stephen King is the third and final title reviewed by Charles DeLint in this issue. DeLint manages to deliver a strong review of this title, neatly avoiding the biting type of comments King is so often subjected to. DeLint compares this novel with King's earlier novel "The Stand" and takes a look at how both novels explore similar themes with very different results. The review is fair, informed and detailed without giving away the plot or focusing undue attention on the author or his fame making it a quality review and one I would consider strongly when purchasing books. |
Mallory
| | Posted on Friday, May 26, 2006 - 01:30 pm: | |
[This Review is by request of F&SF Magazine and is cross posted to my blog at http://mallory-blog.livejournal.com/ and to a number of LJ blogs!]
River of Gods by Ian McDonald is reviewed by James Sallis in the Books section of the July 2006 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Sallis starts off talking about his school experiences before launching into a section about the nature of science fiction, then he names a few high profile titles and tries to cobble this introduction together into an opening to talk about Ian McDonald’s novel. Not only am I not impressed by this technique I found the introduction disconnected and unclear.
The introduction is followed by two pages worth of character name dropping. As I waded through these miniaturized character studies I felt assaulted by information without context as if confronted with an enormous preamble of disconnected facts. As a reader, what thread is Sallis developing for me to invest in? He isn’t. He seems content to list and pile. He spends the last two pages of the review wandering about among interview fragments, orphaned comparisons with John Brunner and an ever increasing dose of the “bedrock of our experience” where he assigns global conclusions to his personal opinions.
Based on his review I wouldn’t buy the book, and that is almost certainly a shame. |
Mallory
| | Posted on Friday, May 26, 2006 - 02:50 pm: | |
[This Review is by request of F&SF Magazine and is cross posted to my blog at http://mallory-blog.livejournal.com/ and a number of LJ blogs
Holding Pattern by Steven Popkes launches the reader into an unkind future and the lives of seven brothers who have been altered to closely resemble the one named Tomas in order for Tomas to hide from justice for atrocities he has committed against others. Popkes does an excellent job of setting the stage and assembling the players in the form of spy drones that watch the primary character’s every move. When Tomas Coban, the primary character, meets Tomas Tikal while out on a morning jog the two engage in a dialogue thinly examining remorse and their questions about their true identity.
While engaging at the plot level, the characters lack emotional depth and resonance and the author relies on the trickery device within the story to carry the reader’s interest. The landscape and personalities remain sterile and absent of complexity. The ending doesn’t resolve the reader’s questions about identity and justice even after Tomas Tikal suicides himself. Tomas Coban’s response to this act is to grin sourly, leaving the reader questioning if this absence of human dignity is a reflection of the callous calculating mastermind of the original Tomas and is this merely an additional killing from a sociopath.
In the end I felt toyed with – this is a game of getting one over on the reader. If you enjoy such experiences then this story will do the deed. |
Mallory
| | Posted on Friday, May 26, 2006 - 03:29 pm: | |
[This Review is by request of F&SF Magazine and is cross posted to my blog at http://mallory-blog.livejournal.com/ and a number of LJ blogs]
Billy and the Unicorn by Terry Bisson This story is dark, twisted and amusing – which of course means that I liked it. It’s also short, very short – in fact this story is so short that if I tell you much more about it you will flip to page 50 in the magazine and discover the page is empty, all reviewed out and vanished. It is, of course, a story about Billy and the Unicorn and Billy does what boys do and the Unicorn does what unicorns do and you will wander off with a big blue jewel, and count yourself lucky that it is odor free, maybe. |
Mallory
| | Posted on Friday, May 26, 2006 - 04:30 pm: | |
[This Review is by request of F&SF Magazine and is cross posted to my blog at http://mallory-blog.livejournal.com/ and a number of LJ blogs]
The Meaning of Luff by Matthew Hughes is story crafted like Victorian jewelry, lots of intricate twists and turns and overdone finishes with an underlayment of formality. I wanted to like this story more than I did. It begins with a slow, almost halting insertion of the reader into the character’s world. This is a world that never feels fully exposed. All that is offered is visibility of a few shiny bits. I wanted more and I felt there was some reliance on information that was absent, as if I’m supposed to already know how this world operates, what it looks and feels like and where I should place my investment. Unfortunately, I’m not privy to this information source so the foundation remained patchy and incomplete.
The main characters are interesting yet held at a distance for the majority of the story. At the core of this tale is an idea that intrigues suggesting even more distant ideas that seduce the thoughts. But this idea retreats to become the game of shills and scams, its promise evaporating. Near the end of the story the primary character turns his examination inward in an awkward attempt to assail the heights of a missing climax and the reader is left with a bu-da-bump of the off-stage drums. |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 04:16 pm: | |
Another blogger heard from:
http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2006/05/fantasy-science-fiction-july-2006.htm l |
Matt Hughes
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 05:52 pm: | |
I've been interested to read the (widely) varying reviews of my story. They underscore my belief that, whatever a writer nay put down on the page, the reader's experience of a piece comes from an alchemical blending of what is said and what is heard.
Matt Hughes
www.archonate.com |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 05:20 am: | |
Here's another one:
http://grumpator.blogspot.com/2006/05/magazine-of-fantasy-science-fiction.html |
Mallory
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 11:41 am: | |
Review of The Lineaments of Gratified Desire by Ysabeau S. Wilce
[This Review is by request of F&SF Magazine and is cross posted to my blog at http://mallory-blog.livejournal.com/ and a number of LJ blogs]
In The Lineaments of Gratified Desire by Ysabeau S. Wilce, I am spun like strands of cotton candy into a madly exotic world of overdone, overblown excess. Dense. Thick. Saturated. Pummeled. There's no gentleness here and comprehension is something to be grabbed at with both hands as I follow the unwilling hero, Hardhands, as he chases after his four year old trick-or-treating wife, through the unsavory and magical streets of the city of Califa. Trickery is afoot, and that's the least of his problems. With a wife named Tiny Doom and her pink piglet underarm, Hardhand trails the girl through a whiff of pink magic all the way to Madame Rose's Flower Garden where he discovers that his wife, and piglet, are caged and being auctioned off to monsters or demons (this is never entirely clear.) Here he discovers the meaning of bait and the hard lesson of being eaten by a Goddess only to be rescued by a piglet while being forced to realize that the world isn't entirely as he thought it was. Overall, an intriguing short story but not one for easy reading. It is challenging to follow the characters, story and worldbuilding with every tiny detail so enormously overdone. |
Mallory
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 12:34 pm: | |
F&SF: Review of Republic by Robert Onopa
[This Review is by request of F&SF Magazine and is cross posted to my blog at http://mallory-blog.livejournal.com/ and a number of LJ blogs]
Republic by Robert Onopa, is an inverted first contact story with all the requisite armed warlike aliens who practice blood rituals on an Earth-like planet. This story is written with an indirect style that prevents an intimacy of experience in the reader and because the story is being told rather than shown, this experience is compounded with some passivity. Beyond this rather dry narrative style, the story didnt seem to add much to similar stories Ive read in the past. Where is the exciting, novelty adventure the idea pushing the mind, the envelope being stretched? Havent we done this story enough already? |
Mallory
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 02:01 pm: | |
F&SF: Review of Review Supercalifragilisticnanny911 by Kathy Maio
[This Review is by request of F&SF Magazine and is cross posted to my blog at http://mallory-blog.livejournal.com/ and a number of LJ blogs]
Films by Kathi Maio, titles itself Supercalifragilisticnanny911 and launches into nanny/fantasy film comparisons such as films with Julie Andrews and Angela Lansbury. While the review of these films as well as numerous television shows is competently done, I kept trying to figure out why, as a viewer reading a fantasy and science fiction magazine, I should be interested. It takes far too long for Maio to reach a current movie in this theme, Nanny McPhee and the sense of being buried in facts overshadowed any opinion on the film either pro or con sufficiently that I remained disinterested. I looked for any mention of speculative fiction movies in release such as this group of April listings: Alien Autopsy, Abominable, Celestine Prophecy, Scary Movie 4 and Silent Hill. Quite frankly, Im unlikely to be strongly interested in a nanny movie and even less likely to see it in a theatre. Im much more likely to want to know little bits of scoop on whats making it to the screen even with cheesy B rated horror movies. So I give Maios nanny review a generalized thumbs down. |
Mallory
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 02:42 pm: | |
F&SF: Review of Memory of a Thing that Never Was by Jerry Seeger
[This Review is by request of F&SF Magazine and is cross posted to my blog at http://mallory-blog.livejournal.com/ and a number of LJ blogs]
Memory of a Thing that Never Was by Jerry Seeger, is an almost hard-boiled science fiction tale that pits the perfectly imperfect warrior/mercenary/ex-military type against the invisibly visible aliens here to enslave our race, in the form of an alien leader named Cain. We are pulled through snapshot cutaways from past to present and obscurity to obscurity as very little is explained and much is leaned on. Its all smoky room and cigarettes grown up into oblique caf chats with weapons rolled up in out-of-date newspapers. Yeah! Lets get down with the secret military saving the world from the equally invisible enemy. Poof. What a dragman. |
Mallory
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 03:15 pm: | |
F&SF: Review of Just Do It by Heather Lindsley
[This Review is by request of F&SF Magazine and is cross posted to my blog at http://mallory-blog.livejournal.com/ and a number of LJ blogs]
Just Do It by Heather Lindsley, shoots the reader straight in the face with her chem-darts, zipper-front spandex jumpsuits and a CEO determined to get exactly what he wants without bothering to care about such minor inconveniences as individual rights. Fun and tough at the same time, this story makes your skin crawl with its pertinent day-in-the-life echoes and repugnant ramifications. Cudos to this new voice on the page! |
Mallory
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 04:37 pm: | |
Review Summary
[This Review is by request of F&SF Magazine and is cross posted to my blog at http://mallory-blog.livejournal.com/
On May 4, 2006 Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine passed the word around that they would send free copies of their upcoming July Issue to the first 50 persons who contacted them directly who agreed to review the magazine in their blogs. I was excited by this prospect and was lucky enough to be one of those 50 recipients. I received my copy of the magazine around May 15th and had to wait to review the contents until after I had finished my finals and could devote some serious time to the process.
I have now completed my reviews of the individual short stories and features and I've decided to conclude with a generalized summary of my experience of this issue. However, first I want to make some brief comments regarding the five pieces of artwork also featured in the magazine but not covered as yet in my review process.
The cover by Ron Miller, titled "The Fountains of Enceladus" is the most prominent piece of artwork featured. It is a view of a yellow ringed planet from the viewpoint of a harsh landscape where something is bursting up from the rocky surface (fountains?). It's fine. It's boring. It has almost no energy to it. It certainly wouldn't attract my attention as a consumer unless I was specifically looking for this magazine and basically was ignoring the cover art. It's just not dramatic.
The next piece of art is is a cartoon on page 39 by Arthur Masear which I actually skipped on my first handling of the magazine. It didn't really itch my funny bone. Next is a cartoon on page 49 by Tom Cheney that I did like though I wish it had been positioned at the end of the first story since there was a loose relationship there (Kansas...). Arthur Masear's second cartoon on page 134 cracked me up and was my favorite of the art pieces. The final cartoon is on page 146 by Frank Cotham and I thought it fit the magazine but wasn't much to my taste.
The advertising in the magazine is discreet and unobtrusive and the magazine only had a single card inserted (I dislike these) which was easy enough to remove.
My favorite story in the magazine turned out to be the last one I read, "Just Do It" by Heather Lindsley an author new to me. I found her story fresh and inventive with an unpredictability that was enjoyable. It was the kind of story I wanted to read. That means the other stories didn't intrigue or excite me nearly enough. This reviewing process has allowed me to ask questions of myself about what attracted me to early science fiction, fantasy, horror reading and do those same features attract me today. I "found" speculative fiction at around twelve years old and for the most part they were rolicking adventure stories with youthful protagonists, an abundance of raw action, gadgets and magic and ideas that simply weren't present in other reading material.
I still like nearly the same things some thirty years later, with a few new additions. I like some romantic angst added in here and there and I like a broader range of characters and I like non-upright-biped aliens (which are few and hard to come by) and I like stories that make me think or bend my brain. The best of all stories and books I read today have more than one of these elements at the same time.
I didn't find this to be the case while reading this magazine. There were certain themes that I experienced in the stories. The (primarily male) characters lacked emotional resonance - there seemed to be a lot of detached and isolated protagonists. The characters weren't motivated by issues I could easily empathize with. The majority of the featured characters were not in relationships and/or not relating to other people in a meaningful way.
The story 'ground' included settings or themes I'd certainly read before like - girl intended for sex slavery runs away and is rescued by outsiders, man finds magical device and uses it for material gain before having an epiphany and goes off to grow turnips in the mid-west, space ship flees dystopic Earth and finds parallel world, makes mini-war with aliens and flies home to find utopic Earth they can never land on - or marooned in space, secret government agency fights invisible aliens... It was this absence of investability and the abundance of well-travelled terrain that bothered me the most. Where is the adventure, the excitement, the edge of the envelope?
Based on this issue the intended market for these stories is certainly not me. I want well rounded characters, strong adventures or eye-popping ideas. I want more women in protagonist positions and I wouldn't mind seeing a few stories with a yound adult sensibility. Frankly, I thought ONLY the last story in this magazine would be interesting to young adults (under the age of 20) - it alone felt like it had immediacy and relevance in today's world.
I would like to see riskier stories and more fun!
Thank you again to Gordon Van Gelder and Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine for allowing me the opportunity to review your magazine. I have endeavored to be thorough, fair and candid. |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Thursday, June 01, 2006 - 02:09 pm: | |
Here's another short one, posted in two places:
http://thetalkingmoose.livejournal.com/89662.html
http://somefantasticeditor.blogspot.com/2006/06/fsf-blogging-promotion.html |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Thursday, June 01, 2006 - 02:15 pm: | |
And another:
http://delkytlar.livejournal.com/8046.html#cutid1 |
J. Kathleen Cheney
| | Posted on Saturday, June 03, 2006 - 11:27 am: | |
Finally done!
I am a notoriously slow reader, generally only completing a book or so a month, so I am probably one of the last to finish this.
Let me first say that of the seven works of fiction in this issue, I found Heather Lindsley's "Just Do It" to be the most charming and fun to read. I found I could relate to the main character and, since one of my degrees is in marketing, don't doubt that the future she portrays isn't all that unlikely. Woo-Hoo! I liked it. Too bad it was buried at the back.
To be perfectly honest, none of the other pieces lit a similar fire in my veins.
The first piece, Robertson's "Kansas, She Says..." started off with a great deal of promise. I thought it might be a piece that tackled the fright of a young girl on the run. Instead, it turned into a bizarre knock-off of "The Wizard of OZ" (fully-intentional, I'm sure), the lesson of which should logically then be "there's no place like home." Unfortunately for me, this story slid into a preachy ending, with a character actually spouting the moral of the story from her munchkin mouth. Personally, I would rather have seen it develop into a madcap series of adventures....
Speaking of madcap adventures, let me skip to Wilce's "Lineaments of Gratified Desire". Huh?
Everyone has different tastes, exemplified by the fact that both Moby Dick and Peter Rabbit continue to sell long after their creation. I tried, really I did, but I just couldn't get into this story. I believe that it was an inability to relate to the narrative voice. So what verdict am I giving here? Basically that I didn't enjoy the story. That doesn't mean it isn't a fantastic story--might just be me. I couldn't get into it.
All right, back in order. "Holding Pattern" by Steven Popkes uses the unreliable narrator well. Unfortunately, I didn't get the resolution I expected at the end. I wanted to be told whether I actually HAD an unreliable narrator, or otherwise, but instead the author tells me it doesn't actually matter. I thought the narrative well crafted, but would have like to have my questions resolved.
"Billy and the Unicorn" by Terry Bisson, runs exactly as billed in the header--the story of how awful it is to be a kid. What else can I say?
"The Meaning of Luff" by Matthew Hughes details the value of foreknowledge. It was an interesting piece, which I thought had a valuable statement--that sometimes it's better not to know. I didn't relate to either of the main characters, though, which is always important to me as a reader.
"Republic" by Robert Onopa tells the story of an expedition gone wrong. The story is told as backstory, and the narrative voice didn't reach me. I think it was well crafted, and the plot worked out logically, although I did wonder why it didn't occur to these people that they would be quarantined from Earth before they made the trip back. I didn't understand the meaning of the name of the story, and mentally tried to attach it to Plato's Republic, but I suppose I have just demonstated my ignorance in saying so.
Finally, Seeger's "Memory of a Thing that Never Was" was enjoyable to read. I followed the plot easily enough, although I personally have a bias against stories that revolve around giant world-encompassing hidden conspiracies. I did enjoy reading the story, despite that.
If this issue was aimed at younger readers, I will be curious to see what they have to say in their blogs. I don't know that any of these stories are really aimed at anyone under 30. I will troll around and have a look, because I'm curious to 'hear' their opinions. |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Monday, June 05, 2006 - 08:05 am: | |
Another one: http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/wordpress/?p=2199 |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 08:25 am: | |
Another one: http://secritcrush.livejournal.com/119929.html |
Steve Nagy
| | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 10:05 am: | |
Really enjoyed the issue. Posted review at my blog. |
Jacqueline Jenkins
| | Posted on Friday, July 28, 2006 - 11:15 am: | |
I know this promotion is over but I thought I might give my blog submission for any further promotions..
http://www.kittikity.com/kittiblog/ |
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