The New York Review of Science Fiction

March 2012 Table of Contents

Volume 24, No. 7 ISSN #1052-9438

ESSAYS

Brian Stableford: The French Origin of the Science Fiction Genre: 1

Christopher S. Kovacs and Susan M. MacDonald: More Medical Myths and Errors in Science Fiction and Fantasy: 11

Amy J. Ransom: Horror from the Edge: The New Canadian Weird: 15

Mike Barrett: From Star Kings to Firebirds: John Jakes’s Fantasy & Science Fiction Novels: 18

March 2012 Editorial: To the Sunlit Lands Beyond

It is possible that this issue will appear on time, in late February or early March, well before the March 21 launch of the ICFA, where several of us will be. If so, it will be the first on-time issue in four months. In the meantime, I am finishing collaboration on four different anthologies in four months, two fantasy and two sf, including the usual Year’s Best SF and the unusual Year’s Best Fantasy (both with Kathryn Cramer).

The French Origin of the Science Fiction Genre by Brian Stableford

Many discussions of “the origins of sf” automatically take the form of combative attempts to identify “primal texts” that present significant analogies with the body of work (however defined) that later came to be identified as the genre’s principal constitution. Plausible examples for that honor include John Kepler’s Somnium (1634), Voltaire’s Micromégas (1752), and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), but many others have been suggested, depending on the particular identification made of the key features of sf.

February 2012 Editorial: Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons

The title of this editorial is borrowed from a Marilyn Hacker sonnet sequence, referring to an older comment that all poetry is about love, death, and the changing of the seasons. Award season is upon us, too. We are still eligible for the Hugo Award as Best Semiprozine, and we hope that you nominate us and vote for us.

It has taken a few years to recenter and recast that Hugo category, and it is now sort of settled down, pending a confirming vote at Worldcon this August, and we’re happy to be part of it.

February 2012 Table of Contents

ISSUE #282 February 2012

Volume 22, No. 6 ISSN #1052-9438

ESSAYS

Robert Guffey: Film Noird and the Multiple Realities Thereof: Bowery at Midnight, The Chase, and Kiss Me Deadly: 1

Takayuki Tatsumi: From Surrealism to Postmodernism: An Introduction to Chiaki Kawamata’s Death Sentences: 1

Darrell Schweitzer: Texts, Authors, and the Enduring Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe: 12

Gregory Benford: Dining with Dirac: 16

REVIEWS

John Baxter’s The Inner Man: The Life of J. G. Ballard, reviewed by Rob Latham: 7

Death Valley, written by Adam Scott Mazer, directed by Dan Rogers, reviewed by Jen Gunnels: 20

PLUS

An editorial (24).

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

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

Staff: Ann Crimmins, Alex Donald, Jen Gunnels, Heather Masri, M’jit Raindancer-Stahl, Eugene Reynolds, and Anne Zanoni.

Weekly Crew: Lisa Padol and Christine Quiñones.

Special thanks to Arthur D. Hlavaty and Eugene Surowitz.

---

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