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Who reads the pulps: Analog, Asimov's, F&SF?
- Thread starter CarlZog
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sniffles
First Post
Ah, nostalgia. I used to have a subscription to Analog in the '70s, as well as to OMNI (does that even exist anymore?). I read F&SF pretty often, too. But I haven't picked up a copy in years. I don't see them on the newsstands these days; are they now available by subscription only?
Ah, OMNI. The Penthouse of science magazines...
The sci-fi digest magazines are still available at some newsstands, but as a niche market, you have to go pretty far to find one. I don't recall if the massive magazine racks you see at Barnes & Noble has them...
I used to read the digests, and I still do when I want short stories and don't have an anthology handy. They are all a bit hit or miss, of course, what with their wide sampling of authors, ou can never predict if you'll like what's in them.
But, for that same reason, they're a great way to check out a larger number of authors for smallish money.
The sci-fi digest magazines are still available at some newsstands, but as a niche market, you have to go pretty far to find one. I don't recall if the massive magazine racks you see at Barnes & Noble has them...
I used to read the digests, and I still do when I want short stories and don't have an anthology handy. They are all a bit hit or miss, of course, what with their wide sampling of authors, ou can never predict if you'll like what's in them.
But, for that same reason, they're a great way to check out a larger number of authors for smallish money.
James Heard
Explorer
My father has collected Analog since the 60s and Asimov's since it was created, so every so often I get several years worth of them handed to me to read and return, and I suppose I'll inherit an enormous amount of magazines one day.
Asimov's has sort of suffered since Asimov died and I don't think it's ever really recovered. Analog generates something I'm really impressed with about once every 3 issues I think, which is probably a decline since the 80s when I was still at home and reading them more often (or maybe I just have different tastes in science fiction). I never cared for F&SF though, which might be directly related to filling that sort of need in my reading by consuming large amounts of role playing games - including Dragon & Dungeon.
Asimov's has sort of suffered since Asimov died and I don't think it's ever really recovered. Analog generates something I'm really impressed with about once every 3 issues I think, which is probably a decline since the 80s when I was still at home and reading them more often (or maybe I just have different tastes in science fiction). I never cared for F&SF though, which might be directly related to filling that sort of need in my reading by consuming large amounts of role playing games - including Dragon & Dungeon.
WayneLigon
Adventurer
Umbran said:
They should, usually around either the writer's guides, literary mags, or gaming mags depending on who stocks the thing.
I still read them occassionally, along with the occassional small press horror magazine, Weird Tales, or Realms of Fantasy, or (now) Cyber Age Adventures. Man, I miss Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine.
Honestly, and this is lousy of me to say as somebody who still tries to sell short stories... not really.
I had a subscription to F&SF for a year, and started making a template for how each issue would go:
- Near-future story in which bad things are happening and the protagonist has a chance to do something but then doesn't, because this is the kind of modern story we apparently want to read nowadays, when the protagonist chickens out or doesn't make the choice and then sits on the sidelines while the world passes by in a bad direction.
- Crap story from famous author whose name can be put on the cover.
- Yet another story that is actually not so much a story as a little riff on quantum physics or quantum entanglement (which seem to be the cool ideas these days) with some characters to move around to get to the punchline.
- Random story that is arguably SF/F, but it's a stretch, and is probably only in there because the author also sells SF and F. Really, it's not actually SF at all, but a few unexpected things happen and it's suggested that this is due to the hand of fate, a fantasy convention.
- Whatever else the editor has room for.
Sometimes one or more of those stories was good, but not always, and not often enough for me to want to re-up my subscription. The combination of a whole lotta writers trying to get into very few slots in a magazine that is running on a shoestring budget and is one step away from cancellation unless each issue continues to do well has resulted in a lot of magazines that don't really do it for me.
I had a subscription to F&SF for a year, and started making a template for how each issue would go:
- Near-future story in which bad things are happening and the protagonist has a chance to do something but then doesn't, because this is the kind of modern story we apparently want to read nowadays, when the protagonist chickens out or doesn't make the choice and then sits on the sidelines while the world passes by in a bad direction.
- Crap story from famous author whose name can be put on the cover.
- Yet another story that is actually not so much a story as a little riff on quantum physics or quantum entanglement (which seem to be the cool ideas these days) with some characters to move around to get to the punchline.
- Random story that is arguably SF/F, but it's a stretch, and is probably only in there because the author also sells SF and F. Really, it's not actually SF at all, but a few unexpected things happen and it's suggested that this is due to the hand of fate, a fantasy convention.
- Whatever else the editor has room for.
Sometimes one or more of those stories was good, but not always, and not often enough for me to want to re-up my subscription. The combination of a whole lotta writers trying to get into very few slots in a magazine that is running on a shoestring budget and is one step away from cancellation unless each issue continues to do well has resulted in a lot of magazines that don't really do it for me.
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