The New York Review of Science Fiction

Times of Best, Times of Worst (Editorial, NYRSF 315)

This is the November issue. Today is December 14, making this officially the most behind-schedule issue of NYRSF ever. People have told me that I shouldn’t obsess about deadlines, but I do, because it’s important to me: An issue every month is one of the explicit goals of NYRSF, and if I don’t beat myself up about it at least a little, I’ll stop trying to hit it.

Anyway, we’re late because November was jam-packed, partly good, partly terrible. Bernadette and I went to the World Fantasy Convention in Arlington, Virginia on close to the spur of the moment and had a terrific time. From our vantage point, the convention ran smoothly, and we saw many great friends. Bernadette and I had a mini-ICFA dinner one evening with Brian Attebery and F. Brett Cox (and Brett’s daughter whose name, maddeningly, eludes me). Of course, we mostly talked about film and television, which have become the canon of the modern world—it’s nothing short of miraculous that we live in a time in which there is enough genuinely good f&sf film & tv that one cannot easily keep up with it. Anyway, thank you, WFC, for being a delight; it was much needed.

The following week, Bernadette’s youngest sister died. Joanne’s death was very solidly in the “shocking but not surprising” category; she was chronically ill from lupus and related auto-immune diseases since before I first met her in the late 1980s, and this was not the first time she had come very close to death. Joanne was never a science fiction, fantasy, or horror reader, but she knew that they were important to us, so very few of you would have ever had occasion to meet her, but I wish you had; I feel honored for having known her and more people should have had the pleasure.

Anyway, we’ve been scrambling to catch up since before Thanksgiving. We have already started work on the December issue and I have some hope it will be on time, and then we should have righted ourselves and be back in clear channels.

Take care. Love those around you. Make a will. See you soon.

—Kevin J. Maroney and the editors

NYRSF Issue 315 (November 2014): Table of Contents

• Michael Bishop: Scalehunter: Lucius Shepard and the Dragon Griaule Sequence
• Damien Broderick: The Road to The Valley of the God of Our Choice, Inc., and Beyond
• Michael Andre-Driussi: SF Rock: The Human League
• Fear City, Repairman Jack: The Early Years by F. Paul Wilson, reviewed by Peter Rawlik
• The Uncanny Valley, created and directed by Francesa Talenti, reviewed by Jen Gunnels
• Mike Barrett: Margery Lawrence: Beyond The Round Table
• Fate of the Kinunir by Robert E. Vardeman and Shadow of the Storm by Martin J. Dougherty, reviewed by James Cambias
• Darrell Schweitzer: Peter Schlemihl and Other Classics That Nobody Reads
• Photos
• Editorial: Times of Best, Times of Worst