The New York Review of Science Fiction

July 2012 Editorial: The Fifth Age of NYRSF

And now we are grinding onward down the ringing grooves of change toward August and the Hugo Awards at Worldcon in Chicago. By the time we get there, we will have changed a lot. For in August we produce the September issue, which will be the first of the new age for NYRSF. For now we transcend all the pain we have suffered in the last months, and continue in all formats. We will have electronic issues for subscribers and for sale individually available via <weightlessbooks.com>; [see the sidebar] and also in pdf format, for ease in printout. And in addition, we plan to offer two-issue print-on-demand booklets to subscribers who prefer hard copy on a subscription basis, six books a year. We are firming up the details now. But we will never print a single copy issue again, though you can do it yourself from the pdf if you wish.


July 2012 Table of Contents

ESSAYS

Christopher S. Kovacs: Suspended in Literature: Patterns and Allusions in The Chronicles of Amber: 1

Judith Collins: The Evil That Scholars Do: 1

Fred Runk: Greg Benford’s Galactic Center: 17

Dave Drake: The Roads to the RCN Series: 20

Dave Drake: On The Arrogant History of White Ben, by Clemence Dane: 22

REVIEWS

The Lathe of Heaven, adapted and directed by Edward Einhorn, reviewed by Eugene Reynolds: 14

PLUS

Novels and drama (16), screed (23), and an editorial (24).

Samuel R. Delany, Contributing Editor; Kris Dikeman and Avram Grumer, Associate Managing Editors.

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

Staff: A. P. Canavan, Ann Crimmins, Jen Gunnels, Heather Masri, Lisa Padol, M’jit Raindancer-Stahl, Eugene Reynolds, and Anne Zanoni.

Special thanks to Arthur D. Hlavaty and Eugene Surowitz.

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A PDF copy of the NYRSF issue in which this TOC first appeared is available for purchase at Weightless Books.

Suspended in Literature: Patterns and Allusions in The Chronicles of Amber, by Christopher S. Kovacs

In February 1967, Roger Zelazny finished writing Nine Princes in Amber, the first of a five-book series that became known as The Chronicles of Amber. Its first-person narrative begins with Carl Corey awakening in a private hospital in upstate New York, afflicted with a head injury and recently broken limbs from a motor vehicle accident, but lacking all memories of who he is. He soon learns that he is Prince Corwin, heir to the throne of the real world, Amber. As he recovers his identity and memories, we discover that compelling science fantasy world with him. Our own Earth is but one of an infinite number of parallel universes which are Shadows of Amber. Amber represents Order and is opposed by the Courts of Chaos; all potential Shadows lie in between these extremes. Corwin and his blood relatives can traverse and possibly create these Shadows, but they are preoccupied with internecine schemes for control of Amber itself. The throne is vacant because their father, King Oberon, is missing and presumed dead. In the first book, Corwin says that he is recounting the tale to someone while standing at the Courts of Chaos; in the final book (The Courts of Chaos), we learn that he has been telling the tale to his son Merlin after the final battle at the Courts.

A Cloudish Word-Hoard, by Michael Swanwick

Being a By No Means Comprehensive Selection of Obscure

and/or Interesting Words of Particular Interest to the Reader of Greer

Gilman’s Moonwise (1991 Roc; 2005 Prime Books).

A

airt: A direction, or point of the compass. [The tinker had marked

from what airt of heaven Mally’s cloudgeese had flown, and had set

out contrary.]

aldercarr: The alder, Alnus glutinosa, is a tree related to the beech

and common to wet places. A carr is a fen or bog.

Anthelion: One of Sylvie and Ariane’s invented (or, possibly,

discovered or intuited) worlds. Literally, “a luminous, white,

halolike area occasionally seen in the sky opposite the sun on the

parhelic circle.” However, the word is derived from the Greek

anthelios, meaning “opposite the sun,” which is the more likely

meaning.

Blast Radius, reviewed by Jen Gunnels

written by Mac Rogers, directed by Jordana Williams

produced by Gideon Productions & the BFG Collective Residency, featuring Becky Byers, Jason Howard, and David Rosenblatt at The Secret Theatre, Long Island City

I.

The fourth page of the program for Mac Rogers's Blast Radius intrigued me. A matrix barcode bore the caption "Scan below for a personal message from Bill Cooke . . . It's all gonna be alright." Huh? Luckily, I possessed the equipment to scan it and was treated to an innovative use of technology to further narrative and flesh out the world of the play. In the first video Bill Cooke (Sean Williams) and his wife Amelia (Kristen Vaughn) speak from what looks like basement shelter. He wants to address us before "the wireless towers come down and the power runs out." Cooke tells us not to fight or hide from the aliens. "They will kill you if you fight, and you will run out of food if you hide." He instructs people listening to go outside and wait if they heard the aliens coming; they would lead everyone to where they were supposed to go. Cooke or a team member would come by for orientation. Cooke closes by assuring us that everything will be okay.

June 2012 Table of Contents

ESSAYS

Dave Drake: A Kind of Humor: 1

Michael Andre-Driussi: Notes on the New Translation of Roadside Picnic: 5

Dave Drake: Storytellers: A Guided Ramble into Sword and Sorcery Fiction: 14

Richard L. Kellogg: Philip Wylie: The Crusader of Science Fiction: 15

Michael Levy: Christopher Pearse Cranch’s The Last of the Huggermuggers: An Early American Colonization Fantasy: 17

Mike Barrett: Memories of the Red Planet: Leigh Brackett’s Mars: 20

REVIEWS

Blast Radius, written by Mac Rogers, directed by Jordana Williams, reviewed by Jen Gunnels: 1

Margaret Atwood’s In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination
and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Cheek by Jowl, reviewed by Eugene Reynolds: 11

PLUS

Screed (23) and an editorial (24).

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A PDF copy of the NYRSF issue in which this TOC first appeared is available for purchase at Weightless Books.

June 2012 Editorial: The Big and Bigger News

I am pleased to say that although the mailing labels sent to
our printer for the last issue got caught in their spam filter and
the issue delayed by 8 or 9 days, it is out. But that is the “normal”
in “snafu.” The big news we have is that we have begun to
master the technology of conversion to e-book formats, so that
in the future we will be able to offer that electronic alternative
to the pdfs we have been able to supply for the last few years to
electronic subscribers. More about this in a moment. Even better
(but also more expensive for those who choose the option),
we think we have found a relatively reasonable way to provide
bi-monthly hard copy issues in POD Format—essentially six
48-page issues per year.