The New York Review of Science Fiction

ISSUE #245 January 2009

ISSUE #245 January 2009

Volume 21, No. 5 ISSN #1052-9438

ESSAYS

Iain Emsley: Lighting the Lamp: Destabilizing the Occident in Aladdin: 1

Jess Nevins: The Nineteenth Century Roots of Steampunk: 1

Michael Swanwick: The View from the Wharf Rat: A Letter from Otakon 2006 in Baltimore: 10

David Drake: Surreal Splendor: Three Novels by Mark S. Geston: 11

Mark S. Geston: Fires Far Away: 12

Traci N. Castleberry: Twisting the Other: Using a “Third” Sex to Represent Homosexuality in Science Fiction : 13

Robert Guffey: Jack Kirby’s OMAC: Captain America Loves Big Brother: 17

Gary G. Garner: Observations Regarding the High-Tech Piracy Science Fiction of Murray Leinster: 19

 

REVIEWS

Thomas M. Disch’s The Wall of America, reviewed by Eugene Reynolds: 6

Ben Bova’s Mars Life, reviewed by Pierce Watters: 21

John Brunner’s The Compleat Traveller in Black, reviewed by Robert Bee: 22

 

PLUS

Lovecraftian anime (15) 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.

 

Production Staff: Ann Crimmins and Alex Donald.

Weekly Meeting Crew: Avram Grumer, Joshua Kronengold, Lisa Padol, and Christine Quiñones.

Special thanks to: Arthur D. Hlavaty, Eugene Surowitz, and Ann Zanoni.

 

Published monthly by Dragon Press.

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Copyright © 2008 Dragon Press.

Slow Progress, Fast Times

From NYRSF ISSUE #245, January 2009

Well, the world rolls on, and not entirely downhill. Thanks to all of you who have recently renewed your subscriptions; and for those of you who have not, please do. We have decided to cut back our print run, after nearly a decade of unfounded optimism that the store market would perhaps recover and that our subscription level would increase. Instead, our subscription level has stayed rock steady at the same level and our increase in bookstore distribution totals three copies monthly. And so we have decided to stock fewer copies of our back issues.

And after working frankly too slowly on this for months, we are about to launch electronic subscriptions for our Canadian and overseas subscribers, who are being forced to pay a huge premium in postage for hard copies. If you live outside the US and want to participate in this new service, for which we will charge the same rate as a domestic US subscription, please email us and tell us so, at <[email protected]> and we will respond. We are particularly interested in updating our database of international email addresses, which is woefully incomplete.

Our plan is to fulfill current subscriptions with both physical copies and electronic at the current rate. After that, we will offer renewals and new subscribers either an electronic subscription, or a combined electronic and physical subscription at the higher rate to cover postage. If you are paying via SFRA or IAFA, we will figure out how to make a transition.

We are establishing a password-protected FTP site, on which we will place a PDF copy each month for a period of time. We will email the password to subscribers on the day of release and the issue will remain available at the site until the next issue is published. We are, admittedly, concerned that unlimited circulation of the PDF (either electronically or via multiple printed copies) will reduce our paid circulation, but we hope that will be balanced by the number of subscribers we will gain from making this lower-cost option available. If our subscription base drops significantly, we will fall below the break-even point and will be forced to reconsider the program. 

As a side benefit, we are establishing a PayPal account linked to the email address above, to receive electronic payments from all subscribers (electronic or paper). We hope it will be active by the time you read these words.

One benefit of these changes in the long run is that we will potentially be able to post back issues for free when we run through our supply of physical copies, probably within a year of publication. Sad to say, we lack electronic files for many of our early issues, and currently have insufficient volunteer time, equipment, and software to create such files. But maybe someday.

So as 2009 begins, there are hopeful signs of progress on our end. We wish you a year of happy reading.

—David G. Hartwell

& the editors