Conference noted::sf

677.0. "The New York Review of SF" by MTWAIN::KLAES (Know Future) Mon Aug 22 1988 15:43

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers,rec.arts.books
Path: decwrl!ucbvax!unisoft!gethen!abostick
Subject: The New York Review of Science Fiction
Posted: 18 Aug 88 03:30:56 GMT
Organization: There's Unix there in Oakland
Xref: decwrl rec.arts.sf-lovers:17792 rec.arts.books:4171
  
    A while ago I posted a message about "The New York Review of
Science Fiction," a publication being put out by David Hartwell and
others.  I now have the relevant details. 
 
    Issue number zero of "The New York Review of Science Fiction" has
been published.  It is a sample issue, presumably produced to announce
the existence of the publication and to attract attention and
subscription money. 
 
    "The New York Review of Science Fiction" is published monthly (it
says here) by Dragon Press, P.O. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY, 10570.
Subscriptions are $24.00 per year.  I have no information about the
present availability of issue zero.  When I was in New York last week,
and visited the home of two of the editors, I was shown a copy, but
not allowed to take it home with me.  I am now looking over a copy
that my roommate, a co-owner of a SF specialty bookstore, received
while I was away.  This copy is basically a photocopy of pasteups.  I
would expect that subscriptions would commence with issue #1, but do
not know for sure. 
 
    The editorial staff of the publication is:  Kathryn Cramer,
Features Editor; David G. Hartwell, Reviews Editor; Patrick Nielsen
Hayden, Designer; Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Managing Editor; Susan
Palwick, Fantasy Editor; and Tom Weber, Short Fiction Editor. 
 
    All of these people, save Susan Palwick, are known to me, and I am
very much impressed by the array of talent.  (People familiar with
Hartwell's little magazine, "The Little Magazine" will probably
recognize these names as being on that publication's staff as well.) 
 
    The contents of this sample issue are, "Science Fiction and the
Adventures of the Spherical Cow,"  a rather sententious article on the
role of science in science fiction by Kathryn Cramer; John M. Ford's
"The Hemstitch Notebooks", containing some cute but nonetheless funny
pastiches of Ernest Hemingway; "I Was a Teenaged Crudfan" (Part I of
three) by Susan Palwick, which tells the story of Palwick's Progress
from misfit teenager to stfnal enlightenment via Star Trek fandom;
"Daniel M. Pinkwater Speaks", a column that, like all of Pinkwater's
writing, defies coherent description (and if it is indeed a regular
feature, then all people of taste should subscribe to the magazine for
it alone); some assorted reviews; and a Statement of Purpose, by the Editors. 
 
    The reviews are the heart of the magazine.  Reviewed here are
George Turner's DROWNING TOWERS, Elizabeth Scarborough's THE GOLDCAMP
VAMPIRE, Tim Powers' ON STRANGER TIDES, and Greg Bear's ETERNITY.  I
have read none of these books, so I can't gauge the critical acumen of
the reviewers against my own; but I did notice that the reviewers
tended to notice the kinds of things that I find worth noticing in
books.  The magazine promises to deliver real SF criticism, not plot
summaries; and reviews in depth, not abominable capsule reviews of the
kind that appear in LOCUS or (even worse) SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE. 
 
    Once again, in case it has scrolled beyond recovery on your
terminal, Subscriptions to "The New York Review of Science Fiction"
are available for $24.00 per year from Dragon Press, P.O. Box 78,
Pleasantville, NY 10570. 
 
				Alan Bostick
				ucbvax!unisoft!gethen!abostick
 
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      "If you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything."

      "Tell a man that there are 300 billion stars in the Universe, and
   he'll believe you.  Tell him that a bench has wet paint upon it and
   he'll have to touch it to be sure." 
 
  "God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire