"Gardner Dozois - The Year's Best Science Fiction 15th Annual" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dozois Gardner)

and much of the Canadian stuff seems pale and bloodless when contrasted to the more vigorous and
exuberant (although sometimes rawer) Australians. Perhaps part of the problem is that On Spec is edited
by a collective, rather than by a single editor who could impose his or her personality powerfully on the
magazine. Still, On Spec has published a lot of interesting stuff over the years and has helped to find and
develop a lot of new writers, so it is worth your support. All three of these magazines have been around
long enough to be considered fairly stable and reliable, as such things are judged in the semiprozine
market, and all have good track records for delivering interesting and unusual fiction, so they're good bets
for your subscription money; odds are they they will all be around and producing issues next year.
Eidolon and Aurealis managed only two issues out of a scheduled four this year, while the
morereliably-published On Spec brought out all four of its scheduled issues.
Of the other fiction semiprozines, the most interesting of the American newcomers was probably
Terra Incognita, which published some of the best stuff to be found in the semiprozine market this year,
including good, high-end professional-level stories by Timons Esaias, Terry Mcgarry, Brian Stableford,
and others, including a couple that made my shortlist of stuff to consider for this anthology. On the other
hand, they only managed to produce one issue in 1997, so they'll have to increase their reliability before
they really become a contender, and their self-imposed restriction of publishing only stories that take
place on Earth still strikes me as being too limiting-seems to me that to survive and prosper, a magazine
must publish any really first-rate fiction it can find, whether it's set on Earth or Mars or inside a black hole
or wherever. Still, Terra Incongnita is a very promising magazine, well worth keeping an eye on. Good
professionalquality work was also being published this year in the long-established Tales of the
Unanticipated,which managed two issues this year, featuring strong work by R. Neube, Stephen
Dedman, Martha A. Hood, Gerard Daniel Hourarner, Neil Gaiman, H. Courreges Le Blane, Robert J.
Levy, and others.
Also worth checking out, although not quite at the level of the above two magazines yet, is a
promising new Canadian magazine called Transversions, which seems to be publishing livelier stuff than
On Spec has managed of late. Non-Stop Science Fiction Magazine (somewhat clumsily subtitled Ultra
Dystopias of Future 6 Fantasy Utopias) reappeared in a new, somewhat smaller (although still larger than
digest-sized) format this year, and managed one issue out of a scheduled four. Non-Stop is still a brash,
swaggering, boastful magazine, proud of its in-your-face arrogance, that doesn't quite live up to the
self-congratulatory claims it makes for itself, although there is some interesting stuff here, and at least the
magazine can't be accused of being dull or stuffy. There's worthwhile fiction (although no actual science
fiction) here by Barry N. Malzberg and Paul Di Filippo, but, as was true the last time they published an
issue, the nonfiction here is considerably more interesting than the fiction, including an interview with
Vernor Vinge (listed as "Vernon" Vinge on the contents page) and intriguing essays by Paul Di Filippo
and Charles Platt. In England, The Third Alternative seems to be one of the most prominent semiprozines
at the moment, and Back Brain Recluse is still going strong, although both of these magazines tend
toward literary surrealism and horror rather than core science fiction, and may be too far out on the edge
for some readers. A confusingly named Irish semiprozine called Albedo I (which leads to issues being
listed as, say, Albedo I #14) is very crudely printed and amateurish-looking compared to the above
magazines and also leans toward literary surrealism; but it also published some interesting
professional-level work this year by Brain Stableford, Ian Mcdonald, and others. Space & Time, which
tends more toward fantasy, in spite of its title, had one issue this year (with interesting work by Bill Eakin,
Don D'Ammassa, Don Webb, Sue Storm, and others), as did Xizquil. Adventures of Sword 6 Sorcery
continued to publish, up to issue four now (featuring, I notice, a story from the wiquitous Stephen
Baxter!), but I didn't see it. If there were issues of Plot Magazine or The Thirteenth Moon Magazine out
this year, I didn't see them. Keen Science Fiction officially died, and I believe that Argonaut Science
Fiction and Next Phase are also dead.
Promised for next year is a SF fiction semiprozine called Age of Wonder, which is already
announcing that its premiere issue will feature stories by Gregory Benford and Stephen Baxter-sounds
pretty promising.