Blogetary (Weblog + Commentary = Blogetary)

So, I was reading July’s F&SF when I realized that I have never reviewed this zine. In the past I’ve reviewed zines that were either new or new to me. I don’t know if reviewing them did them any favors or did me any favors, or if anyone ever really reads my reviews, but I just did it, just cuz. One of the cool things about calling yourself a writer is that reading and watching movies and tv can be considered required homework. So, I guess writing reviews is part of that homework.

However, because I’ve been subscribing to a few zines off and on for a few years, I guess I never considered putting them up for review. They’re already part of the landscape. And let’s face it, they’re the big zines who could care less what I say about them anyway, so why bother. But that’s not really fair, either, so this time I AM going to review one of the heavy hitters: Fantasy & Science Fiction.

But first a Sidebar on Short Stories —

I can’t find the quote and I left the information at work, but in Edgar Allen Poe’s opinion, the short story and/or poem was better than the novel because it was written so the story and concept could be read and digested in one sitting. I believe the words were a perusal of half-hour to an hour or two. Faulkner had his definition, as did Hawthorne. There are probably as many definitions as there are writers. It all boils down to a complete arc to be enjoyed and mulled over by the reader in one sitting.

In any case, I never got into short stories as a kid. I wanted books. But back then I didn’t have a job or responsibilities. I could sit in a corner and read for hours. I can’t do that anymore. These days, most of my reading occurs in 20 minute increments (or so). I may be able to string 2 or 3 increments together (if I’m lucky and all three buses are not crowded so I get a seat where I can read quietly), but I mostly can only count on 20-30 minutes of reading time in one sitting. This makes sense for most people since most adults are gainfully employed and can only read during lunch breaks or a little bit after dinner and before bed or on the public transit. So, you have magazines all over the place that can accommodate your current need for short-span reading material. These magazines range from literary to romance to sci/fi fantasy to horror to murder mystery to a mix of everything. Lifestyle magazines even carry short stories for reading. I started reading anthologies once I had a job where the only reading I could do was during the 10 minute break and 30 minute lunch break. The CatFantastic series by Andre Norton and the Sword and Sorceress series by Marion Zimmer Bradley were my meat and potatoes back then. Sadly, both writers have passed on and while there are people who have decided to pick up and carry the S&S torch, no one has yet to continue Norton’s anthologies on the fantastical lives of cats. But, when I had read those and needed more, I turned to magazines. And while zines such as The New Yorker have interesting articles and stories, they can be a bit looooooong. (When you’re used to action and adventure, the slice of life type stories can be a bit dreary. But when they’re well written, they are really well written.) And that’s when I discovered F&SF, Azimov’s, Analog, and Realms of Fantasy.

I’ve been picking them up and reading them for so long now that I rarely pay attention to them. Oh, I read them and I note specific authors or articles, but mostly I just eat them up – read them like candy. Until I actually started thinking about submitting stories to them, I didn’t note how they were put together or the feel of their stories or layouts. So, it’s interesting to think of reviewing something that’s just become part of the background.

Back to our regularly scheduled Review…

F&SF is in a digest format and measures about 5 x 7. It has a cardstock colored cover, the front being artwork and back usually being an advertisement for a new book or series. The inner papers are on newsprint quality paper with a standard Times New Roman font and and 8 or a 10 size font – half inch margins. The art on the inside is usually limited to advertising and the occasional funny or wry comic. There are five departments that are basically 5 separate review departments. Regular reviewers include Charles DeLint and Elizabeth Hand. This issue also has reviews by Lucius Shephard and Graham Andrews, though I can’t remember if they’re in other issues as well. Lately I’ve noticed that F&SF has one novella, two novelets, and two short stories. Usually no poetry, though I’ve seen them break that rule before.

Now, IN THE PAST – I remember there being MORE ARTWORK. I think they decided to change that a few years back. ALSO, I remember there being more short stories. The last few issues have pissed me off cuz I don’t want to read long ass drawn out stories that last forever when I’m trying to read and watch for my bus stop at the same time. But I know the last few issues, at least, have had at least one novella and one or two novelets and then just a couple or so short stories. It used to be all short stories and every once in a while a long one would get snuck in. That was better. Back then I felt like I was getting my money’s worth. Okay, I’ll quite haranguing on that and get back to the review – but really – these novella issues are all beginning to piss me off.

I was a little bit mollified LAST time because the novella was by Gene Wolfe. And it was a Gene Wolfe issue. This time I was mollified because Lucius Shepherd wrote the novella, Stars Seen Through Stone, and while I wasn’t sure about the story at first, I did like the title and I did agree with his review of Pan’s Labyrinth, so I decided to keep reading. And I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t long and dreary. It kept me reading and it wasn’t full of action, though it had good tension. And it wasn’t one of those stories where the writer thinks they have to start in the middle of the action – he meandered into the story and I like that, too. It had lots of good description and yes, dammit, the characters did sit down to have a cup of coffee! People keep telling me these types of things aren’t supposed to be done in a well told story. Well, that’s because they aren’t “in style” anymore. But I really enjoy reading that particular style and that’s what I end up writing. Good GOD doesn’t anyone read Poe or Dickens or any other lush writers anymore? What about the Russians? Tolstoy who spent a good 10 pages describing the room and what people wore?
Anyway, what really won me over was this remark by the main character: “Whatever his story, I think he has found his true medium and is becoming a minor obscenity slithering among the large obscenities that serve a different kind of star, anonymous beneath the black flood of the Hollywood sewer” (Shepherd, Stars Seen Through Stone in Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 2007, p. 107).

If you have ever lived here, you’d get it. Obviously, Lucius Shepherd gets it.
I know, that was long winded for a review of a short story, but it was a novella, gimme a break!

Daughters of Prime, one of the novelets, by Lawrence Connolly, after I got into it (three pages in – which is pretty long considering it’s a short story), kept me reading. I really wanted to make sure it would turn out okay. But I almost quit reading it because it starts kind of in the middle of things and the reader is forced to muddle about figuring things out. Yes, I know, the reader of speculative fiction usually has more patience for this sort of thing. I think I used to have more patience for this kind of thing, but not anymore. I think because it smacks of being a gimmick. Starting in the middle of the action and making the reader figure things out used to be new and it was exciting to get caught up in the action. These days it’s done so often (ie ALL THE TIME BECAUSE THAT’S ALL EDITORS WANT), unless it’s done really well, it just feels like a gimmick to pull the reader in quick. And it bothers me. Fortunately, with The Daughters of Prime, by the time I got pulled in, I did care about the characters and the story so I stayed hooked and enjoyed the interesting aspects of the story.

The second novelet, Car 17, by P.E. Cunningham, also started in the middle of the action – or at least in the middle of something, but I was hooked from the second paragraph. The first paragraph I was still adjusting, but this story pulled me right in. Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for car stories. This one had elements of the 1970s movie, The Car. Though, I supposed you could also say it had elements of The Love Bug and Stephen King’s Christine. (Notice I said elements of, I didn’t say that they were similar stories.) The narrator has a folksy voice that was easy for me to follow (not always the case) and it kept pulling me through the story. I didn’t notice that this was a novelet while reading it, only after I looked back at the Table of Contents.

I wasn’t sure about PowerSuit(tm) by M.K. Hobson at first. That was one of the short stories. At first, it just seemed too predictable. I could see where it was going and I felt myself getting annoyed with it because of that and because I hate the business world and this story reminded me of all the reasons I hate the business world. However, she was able to pull away from the predictable and present a story with a pretty good ending. There were some fun and funny parts to it that made me chuckle so by the end I was glad I’d read it after all.

Cold Comfort by Ray Vukcevich made me chortle, out loud, at the bus stop with strangers looking on. It was clever, brief, original and I really enjoyed it.

So, despite my annoyance that this zine is doing this whole format of more longer stories and fewer shorter stories, I did enjoy this issue.

Now, Pye is thwapping me with his tail (means it’s time to go) I am still trying to get the hang of that going to bed on time thing. My landlord has decided to paint the outside of the building in the middle of summer. His painters have decided our window screens are in the way and have taken them down, so I have a choice between cooling off the apartment with bugs or a hot closed apartment without bugs. Since they took the screens out while I was at work, that let in a bunch of bugs and I need to go chase them out now before I sleep.

*sigh*