The New York Review of Science Fiction

NYRSF Issue 333 Editorial: A British Story

Recent events have reminded me of an incident from a few years back.

At Anticipation, the 2009 Worldcon in Montréal, I noticed that there was an event each morning called “Stroll with the Stars.” The strolls, the invention of Stu Segal, were simply an opportunity to get a pleasant walk in the area outside the convention center in the company of other fans, some of whom might also be writers, artists, puppeteers, editors, or otherwise professionally involved in the field. The Sunday stroll was an hour before one of my panels, so this seemed like an excellent opportunity to get my brain working through light physical activity and light conversation, and Old Montréal is so lovely one needs no excuse to wander it.

NYRSF Issue 333 (May 2016): Table of Contents

• Christopher S. Kovacs and Susan M. MacDonald: A Sixth Survey of Medical Myths and Errors in Genre Fiction
• Mike Barrett: Under the Sign of the Unicorn’s Head: The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series
• The Merril Theory of Lit’ry Criticism: Judith Merril’s Nonfiction, edited by Ritch Calvin, reviewed by Arthur D. Hlavaty
• Sarah Yoon: Differences over Dualisms: The Left Hand of Darkness
• Brian Stableford: Nightmares of a Utopian: The Science Fiction of Régis Messac
• Mack Hassler: Quark Sonnet
• Science Fiction Double Feature: The Science Fiction Film as Cult Text, edited by J.P. Telotte and Gerald Duchovnay, reviewed by Joe Milicia
• Watch This
• Screed
• Editorial: A British Story

The Merril Theory of Lit’ry Criticism: Judith Merril’s Nonfiction, edited by Ritch Calvin, reviewed by Arthur D. Hlavaty

Seattle: Aqueduct Press; 2016; $22.00 tpb; 360 pages

Like many other fields, science fiction is being reminded that the women were here all along. There were always some writing for the prozines (cue James Blish grumbling about “Tony Boucher’s gaggle of housewives”), and by the ’60s Bantam was telling us on the back of other paperbacks that WOMEN (in this case Margaret St. Clair) are writing sf, and it was strange and wonderful. Along with the writers, women began to direct the shape of the field then. From 1958 to 1965, Cele Goldsmith edited Amazing and Fantastic for the Ziff-Davis magazine factory. She proceeded to discover and publish Ursula K. Le Guin, Thomas M. Disch, Roger Zelazny, et al., and when her employers’ needs changed, she went off to Modern Bride Magazine, presumably with the same aplomb and skill.

Brian Stableford: Nightmares of a Utopian: The Science Fiction of Régis Messac

Régis Messac was the first writer of French roman scientifique to become acquainted with American science fiction and to write his own work in the French genre with a sophisticated knowledge of the manner in which the analogous genre had developed and was evolving, thus becoming an interesting special case in the evolution of the still-separated literary brethren.

Mike Barrett: Under the Sign of the Unicorn’s Head: The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series

From 1953 onwards, Ballantine Books was responsible for many fine science fiction titles under their characteristic logo of a pair of mirrored “B”s. Often distinguished by evocative Richard Powers cover art, they specialized in paperback originals—sometimes published simultaneously with hardback editions—and printed important titles by such authors as Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Vance, Theodore Sturgeon, and Frederik Pohl.

NYRSF Issue 332 Editorial: The Caucus Race

This is the April issue; as I write this, it is June 5. We’ve managed to lap ourselves: I’m putting the finishing touches on this issue after beginning work on the next one. Sigh.

We actually have a plan worked out whereby we will be back to our regular schedule (with the issue coming out late in the month on the cover) by the end of July. It will be somewhat demanding, especially this month—I hope to have the May and June issues both out by the Independence Day holiday weekend—but it’s achievable.

NYRSF Issue 332 (April 2016): Table of Contents

• Lisa Padol: Wombats in the World: Delving into Morality
• Gina K. Abercrombie-Winstanley and Dr. Anne-Marie Callus: Disability in Intergalactic Environments: The Representation of Disability in Star Trek
• Brian Stableford: Locating the Future Within the Past:Louis Geoffroy’s Invention of a New Romantic Genre
• The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu, translated by Joel Martinsen, reviewed by David Mead
• Mike Barrett: Out of the Angry Darkness: The Weird Fiction of L.C.T. Rolt
• Joe Sanders: Maps without Legends: The Peculiar Explorations of Felix Gilman
• Editorial: The Caucus Race

K. Abercrombie-Winstanley and Dr. Anne-Marie Callus: Disability in Intergalactic Environments: The Representation of Disability in Star Trek

The science fiction series Star Trek is peopled with various humanoid species living and working together, reflecting the philosophy of its creator, Gene Rodenberry, that diversity is a strength to be celebrated, a belief reflected in the Vulcan ideal of “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.” Among the issues of diversity that feature in many episodes, there are those related to disabled people. On the whole, the representation of disability in Star Trek encourages the viewer to challenge stereotypes about people with disability and to see them not simply in terms of their impairments but as people who go about their work in ways which are sometimes different from the norm; simply beings with “differing abilities.” This is especially the case for people with sensory or mobility impairments. They may see in a different way, communicate in a different way or move around in a different way, but they still give a valid contribution, and in some episodes it is their very difference that saves the day. When it comes to intellectual disability, however, the representation takes on a more negative turn.

Lisa Padol: Wombats in the World: Delving into Morality

I am going to take a very cursory look at three types of fantasy: modern fantasies that embrace ethical and moral questions; myth; and roleplaying games. These come together into a kind of fantasy that can fit as a cushion and as a set of guidelines between ourselves and often painful questions of morality.

In Ursula Vernon’s serial comic, Digger, the eponymous wombat heroine finds herself far from home and wants to return. She becomes entangled with events and people in her new location, and she finds herself trying to live by and clarify a moral code.