The New York Review of Science Fiction

ISSUE #248 April 2009

ISSUE #248 April 2009

Volume 21, No. 8 ISSN #1052-9438

ESSAYS

Darrell Schweitzer: An Interview with Charles Stross: 1

Mike Barrett: Mostly in Shadow: The Work of Mary Elizabeth Counselman: 1

Douglas A. Van Belle: A Comprehensive and Totally Universal Listing of Every Problem a Story Has Ever Had: 17

Donald M. Hassler: Entropy, Entertainment, and Creative Energy in Ben Bova: 20

REVIEWS

Eileen Kernaghan’s Wild Talent, reviewed by Ursula Pflug: 5

Michael Flynn’s The January Dancer, reviewed by David Mead: 7

Robert M. Price’s Blasphemies and Revelations, reviewed by Peter Rawlik: 13

Justina Robson’s Selling Out, reviewed by Jenny Blackford: 14

Justina Robson’s Going Under, reviewed by Niall Harrison: 15

John Scalzi’s Zoe’s Tale, reviewed by Joe Sanders: 16

Greg Egan’s Incandescence, reviewed by Karen Burnham: 19

Dirk Wittenborn’s Pharmakon, reviewed by Paul Kincaid: 22

PLUS

Dave Langford on Christopher Priest (10); much Screed (23); and an editorial (24).

 

Kathryn Cramer, Art and Web Site Editor; Samuel R. Delany, Contributing Editor; Kris Dikeman, Associate Managing Editor.

David G. Hartwell, Reviews and Features Editor; Kevin J. Maroney, Managing Editor.

Staff: Ann Crimmins, Alex Donald,and  Eugene Reynolds.

Weekly Crew: Avram Grumer, Aubrey Lynch, Lisa Padol, and Christine Quiñones.

Special Thanks to: Arthur D. Hlavaty, Eugene Surowitz, and Anne Zanoni.

Published monthly by Dragon Press, P.O. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY 10570.

$4.00 per copy.Annual subscriptions: U. S. Bulk Rate, $40.00; Canada, $44.00; U. S. First Class, $50.00 

Overseas Air Printed Matter, UK & Europe, $47.00; Asia & Australia, $48.00. Domestic institutional subscriptions $42.00.

Please make checks payable to Dragon Press, and payable in U.S. funds.

Electronic subscriptions are available; e-mail <nyrsf.payments@gmail.com> for information.

Send all editorial inquiries and submissions to <dgh@tor.com> and <kjm@panix.com>. 

An up-to-date index of back issues in Excel format is available; e-mail <nyrsf.mail@gmail.com> to request one.

New York Review of Science Fiction Home Page: www.nyrsf.com

Copyright © 2009 Dragon Press.

First the Flood, Then the Drought

From NYRSF ISSUE #248, April 2009

Today, the Sunday morning of the March work weekend, a water main broke and flooded Laurel Lane, just down the street. And so we are without water for the moment. Here is a picture of our water going away:

On February 16, Anderson News, the distribution company that controlled about 25% of the mass market and magazine in the U.S., closed, after failing to impose a distribution surcharge on the magazine publishing industry as of February 1. Anderson covered, for instance, much of Wal-Mart. Their delivery assets (trucks and such) have been sold to a competitor, News Group. A third distributor, Source Interlink, who account for another 25% of U.S. wholesale distribution, is suing the magazine publishers in order to stay in business for the moment. It appears that both magazine publishers and paperback book publishers are going to lose both money owed to them and distribution immediately. Bad news indeed in a time filled with economic difficulties. 

SFWA has announced a radical change in the rules and procedures for their Nebula and other awards, replacing the widely criticized practices (see for instance the article by John Clute in NYRSF #131) that have been accumulating around their awards since the 1970s, resulting in their awards having no commercial credibility or value and too little aesthetic basis or grounding as well. We applaud the changes and hope they are not too little, too late.

On page three you will see pictures from Boskone and from the O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference in early February. We’ll have a piece on the TOC Conference and more pictures in the next issue, but our intrepid reporter, Kathryn Cramer, left the conference with a virus that then kept her from attending Boskone, and the following weekend suffered an auto accident that resulted in a displaced vertebra in her neck, so the report is yet to be written.

This has been a long and stress-filled winter, with two minor operations, many colds, and one job loss within the core staff of NYRSF. We are grateful for the continued support of our readers and subscribers and hope for the immediate restoration of our water supply before another major snowstorm hits tonight. We look forward to warmer weather, in its time.

—David G. Hartwell

& the editors