Profiles of November 1998 Issues

F&SF October/November 1998 The 49th anniversary issue includes major works by Judith Moffett, John Kessel, Tanith Lee, and Mary Rosenblum, plus stories by Pat Murphy, Avram Davidson (an extract from an early unpublished novel), Rachel Pollack, Robert Sheckley, and Adam-Troy Castro. • Paul Di Filippo's impish ''Plumage from Pegasus'' feature depicts a corporate partnership among the descendants of Michael Crichton, Stephen King, and John Grisham. • Gregory Benford concludes his saga of designing a plaque for the Cassini spacecraft, which launched in November 1997. They debate how to stage a photo of a group of humans, and later deal with tacky signature disk add-ons. More about this from Benford in a forthcoming book. • Jonathan Lethem contributes a Curiosities page about a surrealistic 1937 book by Charles Finney, The Unholy City. • Editor Gordon Van Gelder reacts to one of this year's most controversial opinion pieces, Jonathan Lethem's Voice Literary Supplement essay (quoted here) about SF. (Short fiction reviews) (Sun 18 Oct 98)