The Second Interlude: Other Worlds

This chapter charts to growth of the sf magazine in other English speaking countries, chiefly Canada, Australia and Eire, but also South Africa and Singapore. This brought other national identities into science fiction, with a wide range of approaches from Canada’s remote individuality to Australia’s recognition of its aboriginal influences.

Before the Revolution: Bastion of Excellence

Considers the sf magazine position in the USA and UK in 1980 and the distinction of the major magazines, notably the role of F&SF, which encouraged less conventional writers such as Harvey Jacobs, Thomas M. Disch, Avram Davidson, R. A. Lafferty, Joanna Russ and Lucius Shepard. In so doing it set the scene to encourage a more radical change in sf.

The First Interlude: The Dark Corners

Explores the reemergence of the horror fiction magazine following the success of writers like Stephen King and Dean Koontz, but now the emphasis was as much on the horrors of scientific development as they were the supernatural. As a consequence many of these magazines, notably TWILIGHT ZONE, NIGHT CRAY and THE HORROR SHOW were arguably as much sf magazines as horror. In the wake of cyberpunk the more extreme magazines created splatterpunk.

Epilogue

A summary of magazine changes in the 1980s together with statistics and a look ahead the changes arising from the internet.

The Third Rebellion: The SF Underground

The emergence of cyberpunk and the appearance of a new generation of writers saw the development of a more radical set of magazines for whom OMNI, ASIMOV’S and F&SF did not go far enough. These were called the SF Underground by John Shirley and included Scott Edelman, Lewis Shiner, Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker, Paul Di Filippo and others. Like the New Wave of the 1960s they influenced the sf mainstream through broadening ideas, techniques and content. Some of the fiction was dubbed slipstream. Key magazines were PULPHOUSE, NEW PATHWAYS and NOVA EXPRESS.

The Second Revolution: The British Hard-SF Renaissance

Parallel to the emergence of cyberpunk in the USA there was a determined change in sf in the United Kingdom thanks primarily to David Pringle, editor of INTERZONE. This had started as a more literary sf magazine influenced by the New Wave of the 1960s but Pringle called for more hard-edged, radical technical science fiction and this saw the emergence of a new generation of writers including Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, Greg Egan, Geoff Ryman and Eric Brown. The success of INTERZONE saw a revival in sf magazines in Britain ranging from the extremist BACK BROWN RECLUSE to the more traditional DREAM.

The First Revolution: Cyberpunk Days

Charts the emergence of cyberpunk, especially through the pages of OMNI, and considers its leading authors, including William Gibson, Pat Cadigan, Bruce Sterling and John Shirley. It also considers the growth of ASIMOV’S SF MAGAZINE under the editorship of Shawna McCarthy who strove to publish more challenging and daring stories. Between these two magazines science fiction began to undergo a new revolution. Even ANALOG, the most conventional of the sf magazines, saw changes introducing more challenging high-tech stories exploring nanotechnology and the technological singularity.

Postlude: Back to Basics

Inevitably with so much change and radicalism in the field there were a few editors and magazines that strove to restore some normality and seek to present a more traditional and less angry form of sf. Although some of these had a small measure of success, like ABORIGINAL SF, they lacked funding and generally fell by the wayside. Also it was evident that those who wanted the basic form of SF as represented in many films and TV series had shifted towards the gaming market and so the traditional core of magazine readers were being syphoned away by new forms of entertainment. However, there was also a growth in sf magazine production in colleges and universities, plus the reemergence of magazines as paperback anthologies.