New SF, Fantasy, and Horror magazines seen, 1 - 31 March

• The third issue of this new UK bimonthly magazine has fiction by Jonathan M. Sullivan, Colin Greenland, Ian Watson, Karen J.H. Thistle, Cherith Baldry, Elizabeth Counihan, and Liz Williams. (Claude Lalumière reviews the 2nd issue of this magazine in his recent UK magazines column.)
• Features include several items with similar names: "Re:Post" (letters), "Re:Views" (reviews of UK books, by Gwyneth Jones), "Re:Instate" (reviews of US books, by Rich Horton), "Re:Takes" (short film reviews, by Steve Mohn), "Re:Media" (reviews of media-related music and books, by Alex Stewart), and "Re:Play" (game reviews, again by Alex Stewart).
• But wait there's more: the editor provides "In Media Res" about robots; Elizabeth Billinger's "FanBase" summarizes a year in the life of the British SF Association; "Stephen H Silver" [aka Steven H Silver] interviews S.M. Stirling; "Eclectica", a science column by Fran Wolber, is about prions; an "advertising feature" by Charles Stross, titled "Festival of Fools", is perhaps a preview from his forthcoming novel by that name; and there's an interview with Tim Powers by Robin Catesby, and a Readers' Guide to JRR Tolkien by Chris Adams; and a final-page "Who Goes There?" Q&A by Alex Stewart about Doctor Who.
• And all in 72 pages. Needless to say, most of the features, and stories, are quite short.
• (Mon 17 Mar 2003)

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• This issue has novelettes by Steven Bratman and Ken Wharton; short stories by Larry Niven, John C. Bodin & Ron Collins, and Don D'Ammassa; plus a "Probability Zero" vignette by Ian Randal Strock, and the conclusion of Rajnar Vajra's serial "Shootout at the Nokai Corral".
• The science fact article, by Richard A. Lovett, is about "The Search for Extraterrestrial Oceans".
• Departments include Stanley Schmidt's editorial about technological progress and the current state of computers and the internet; John G. Cramer's "The Alternate View" column, about a particle accelerator in Geneva that may be a black hole factory; books reviews by Tom Easton; and letters.
• (Mon 31 Mar 2003)

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• The issue includes a novella by Walter Jon Williams, novelettes by Chris Willrich, William Sanders, and Allen M. Steele (sometimes he's Allen Steele, sometimes Allen M. Steele..), and short stories by Gene Wolfe and Barth Anderson. Steele's story, "The Madwoman of Shuttlefield", is the first in a new series of "Coyote" stories, about the first interstellar expedition to colonize a new world; the earlier stories were novelized as Coyote, published late in 2002 by Ace.
• And there's poetry by PMF Johnson, James Patrick Kelly, William John Watkins, and Janna Silverstein.
• Robert Silverberg, in his "Reflections" column, contemplates the "Ancestral Voices" captured in his extensive collection of early SF magazines, and admires Bleiler's Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years, a mammoth reference work with detailed plot summaries of nearly 2000 stories published in the '20s and '30s. James Patrick Kelly's "On the Net" looks at websites by writers Kelly identifies with "The Next Wave". And Peter Heck reviews books.
• On the web: The Asimov's site has some sample columns from future issues, including Robert Silverberg on the Columbia disaster, but the 'current issue' page still shows April.
• (Mon 31 Mar 2003)

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• Fiction includes novelets by Ellen Klages and Robert Sheckley, and short stories by Bruce Jay Friedman, Ron Goulart, Arthur Porges, Kit Reed, John Morressy, Harvey Jacobs, and Robert Reed. (Three of these writers first published in F&SF in the early 1950s!)
• Reviews in this issue are by Charles de Lint and James Sallis, covering books, and Kathi Maio, who has reservations about both Lord of the Rings movies.
• Also, Gregory Benford's occasional column "A Scientist's Notebook" essays on "Last Things", and Jack Williamson contributes the Curiosities page, recalling a novel by Anthony Boucher.
• (Mon 3 Mar 2003)

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• Fiction is by Eric Brown, Darrell Schweitzer, Martha A. Hood, Chris Beckett, Zoran Zivkovic, and Claude Lalumière.
• The lead feature is the editorial "Interface" column, with results of the annual readers story poll for works that were published in 2001. Pringle tallies his poll differently than anyone else in the field: he invites readers to vote for both their favorite and least-favorite stories, and then subtracts the latter totals from the former totals for each story. The winner for 2001 is Chris Beckett's "Marcher". (Earlier results at The Locus Index to SF Awards.)
• Other features include David Langford's "Ansible Link", consisting of items you probably read somewhere online 2 or 3 months ago; an interview with Octavia Butler by Darrell Schweitzer; film reviews by Nick Lowe (mostly a well-informed analysis of The Two Towers), book reviews by Matt Hills (of Doctor Who novels), William Thompson, and Paul Beardsley; and David Pringle's annotated listing of "Books Received: December 2002".
• (Sat 29 Mar 2003)

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• Poetry in this issue is by Joe Haldeman, Ian Watson, Uncle River, Laurel Winter, Darrell Schweitzer, Timons Esaias, and others.
• Complete contents, along with the full wrap-around cover, are on Mike Allen's new page for the magazine at http://www.wwco.com/~mla/md.htm (he also has this homepage). Allen provides a history of how Mythic Delirium came to be.
• (Thu 20 Mar 2003)

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• Special "Cabin Fever" Issue. The lead essay is by Paul Kincaid, with a lengthy analysis of the fiction and nonfiction in Peter Straub's guest-edited Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists. Sharing the front page is a lengthy review by Greg Beatty of Steven Barnes's Lion's Blood, with perspectives on history and myth.
• Other features include an expanded version of Gregory Benford's introduction to Stephen Baxter's PS Publishing novella Riding the Rock; a speech/essay "The Uses of Fantasy" by Darrell Schweitzer ("which might also be titled: How to Be a Fantasy Writer in One Easy Lesson"); and an essay by Andrew Weiner about Walter Tevis.
• Reviews, by Jenny Blackford, David Soyka, Lisa Padol, Walter Minkel, Joe Sanders, Donald M. Hassler, Helen Pilinovsky, Graham Sleight, and John Clute, cover books by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, China Mieville, Steven Brust, Chris Roberson, Jack McDevitt, Eduard Prugovecki, Ellen Kushner & Delia Sherman, Poul Anderson, and Pete Hamill. (The Prugovecki book is published by Xlibris. Otherwise: Ace 2, Del Rey 1, Tor 2, Clockwork Storybook 1, Bantam 1, Little Brown 1.) John Clute: "It is hard not to be rude about Peter Hamill's Forever, but there are good reasons not to be."
• David G. Hartwell's editorial reacts to the Columbia disaster, and recent deaths in the SF field.
• (Thu 13 Mar 2003)

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• Special "Afterwords" Issue. The front page essays are by Michael Bishop--the afterword to his forthcoming Golden Gryphon collection Brighten to Incandescence: 17 Stories--and by David Smeds--the introduction to the story "Family Values" from his collection Embracing the Starlight. Inside, there's Damien Broderick's afterword to the Fictionwise e-book edition of his novel The Judas Mandala.
• Paul Witcover submits a "Read This"; David Griffin attends a party for Salman Rushdie's novel Fury; James Patrick Kelly offers his "Read This"; and David Langford recounts "Random Reading 5".
• And, Matthew Stevens reviews Ian Fleming (Dr. No), F. Brett Cox reviews James Patrick Kelly, Greg Beatty reviews Brian Hodge, David Griffin reviews Salman Rushdie, Joe Sanders reviews Theodore Sturgeon, Eugene Reynolds reviews Jeffrey Ford, Walter Minkel reviews Nancy Farmer, and Graham Sleight reviews Hartwell & Cramer's Hard SF Renaissance.
• Editor Hartwell quotes a 1955 review by Donald Barr of The Two Towers.
• (Thu 20 Mar 2003)

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• Fiction this issue is by David Barr Kirtley, Karen Traviss, Robert Silverberg, Gabriel Edson, Bruce Holland Rogers, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and Christopher Barzak. Silverberg's "Crossing Into the Empire" is a reprint, though from a fairly obscure 1996 anthology.
• There's no editorial; the Contributors page occupies that space. Departments include a "Folkroots" column by Ari Berk, about deer myths; Emma Bull's "Past Lives", about time-travel etiquette (as when visiting historical villages or Renaissance fairs); book reviews by Gahan Wilson and Paul Witcover; a "Gallery" presentation by Jane Frank of "The Haggard Project", selections from Howard & Jane Frank's invitations to contemporary painters to illustrate classic works by H. Rider Haggard; and a "Games" column by Eric T. Baker.
• (Wed 26 Mar 2003)

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