SF Magazines?

[PoeticExplosion]

In the "golden age" of SF, the biggest distribution method for SF short stories were the magazines. My question is, are there any left? Are there any SF magazines worth subscribing to?

Thanks in advance!

[Marky Lazer]

Well, I did a search for you through Duotrope, and found a fair few magazines: Have a look yourself: http://www.duotrope.com/index.aspx

[steve12553]

I think Analog and Isaac Asimov's are still around. I had subscriptions to several at one time but I haven't looked for anything in magazine format in several years. For me it's either books or electronic.

[PoeticExplosion]

Thanks for the help, both of you. Duotrope is a handy resource.

[I, Brian]

There's also Interzone as well, plus SFF Chronicles.

Some of the magazines are still around, but not necessarily easily found on news stands.

[rune]

Ive not board a SF mag in ages, use to buy them all the time when I was younger, just got out of the habbit

[Neal Asher]

Asimov's is good. I've been reading many magazines over many years and finding in each that I disliked more stories than I liked (or couldn't read them). Picking up Asimov's a few years ago I suddenly found myself reading a whole load of stories that were good, with maybe only one or two lemons. Rather reminded me of years back when I got hold of a load of mags including copies Analog and Galaxy (two of the mags contained Silverberg's Dying Inside).

http://www.asimovs.com/

[Andy Cox]

Professional magazines with experienced editors publish lemons, Neal? Surely not

Asimovs, Analog, F&SF, Realms of Fantasy and others are all still going strong, as are many smaller more independently minded magazines. In the same breath you need to mention the British magazine INTERZONE, now almost in its 25th year and fresher than ever. In recent online reviews, Lois Tilton called it the most exciting thing happening to the genre, and Rick Kleffel said that with Interzone sf finally gets the magazine it deserves.

Erm, I notice the kind things people say about sf magazines more than most, claro, but my point is that print fiction magazines are still very much around, and still very vibrant. At the same time I would urge all sf and fantasy fans to take out a subscription to at least one of them. (I hope you choose ours! )

-- Andy
Interzone
(forum won't let me post a URL, please google it)

ADMIN EDIT: Here it is http://www.ttapress.com/IZ.html

[BookStop]

The ones listed by other members are really the best SFF mags out there, but a lot of folks are now turning to ezines - look at Ralan.com - my husband even runs an ezine - Afterburnsf - he'd love to one day invest in a paper magazine, but the market for them is narrowing.

[I, Brian]

Hi Andy Cox, and welcome to chronicles.

I've taken the liberty of editing your post to add your link - don't think you're trying to advertise viagra to us.

Just a quick question for you - can you clarify what's happening with The 3rd Alternative? I remember speaking to someone at Derby who mentioned that it was becoming a different publication, but I'm a little sketchy on the details.

[Andy Cox]

Thanks Brian.

The Third Alternative, as briefly as I can: when we became publishers of Interzone it didn't make much sense for TTA to continue competing for any of the same kind of stuff, and people do subscribe to both magazines, so we took the opportunity to make TTA more distinct from Interzone. TTA was always much darker in tone than Interzone so it's shifted itself a bit further in that direction. Which has the added advantage, I think, of making TTA a more commercial prospect: TTA readers will still be getting everything they like about the magazine, but for others a horror magazine is a much more recognisable thing than a magazine that's kind of this, kind of that. TTA has always suffered a bit due to its slipstreamy nature, some people were never really sure what it did and I think this made them less likely to pick it up.

Having begun a process like that, we thought we should take another opportunity and repackage the magazine even more completely, making sure the message got through, so we decided to rename the magazine Black Static, give it a new look and some new content.

The stories, to my mind, are better than ever. Some TTA features continue, such as Stephen Volk's Electric Darkness. Steve took Electric Darkness over from Christopher Fowler, but Chris is now returning to the magazine with a new column. Muriel Gray will supply a regular 'Last Word' kind of comment. John Paul Catton's column from Japan will continue, and we're expanding our coverage of Asian horror and including a lot of DVD reviews headed up by Tony Lee. Peter Tennant's book reviews section will be similarly expanded and enhanced. And so on. Apologies to anybody I've forgotten!

It's going to be good... when it eventually gets done! There have been delays, too many delays... But it'll be back soon. Please watch the TTA forum (ttapress.com/discus) for updates, story acceptances, etc.

Thanks for asking, Brian!

[I, Brian]

Thanks for the clarification, Andy.

I remember speaking to Roy Gray at the Glasgow Worldcon, and earlier this year in Derby, and he mentioned there were a lot of ups and downs and reorganisation going on.

Anyway, feel free to mention any news and similar about Interzone and Dark Static here:
http://www.chronicles-network.com/forum/press-releases/



A few more discussion posts and the active links should work for you.

[Coops]

I have been a subscriber to Analog for over 20 years and I have all the old copies.