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Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine # 46
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Albedo One's issue 39 - a prime issue with stories from Mike Resnick, Uncle River, Mari Saario, Annete Reader, Martin McGrath and J. L. Abbot, an in-depth interview with multiple Hugo Award winner Mike Resnick, and review columns from Juliet E. McKenna and David Conyers. Buy it now for only €5.95 and support Albedo One!! |
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It’s nice to see in this new world of easy publishing – where international barriers have fallen away and online fiction is the cheaper, safer and more accessible alternative for the small press, particularly when it comes to short fiction – that there are still hardcopy magazines in circulation with a focus on regional content. With the risk of sounding un-green, it’s ultimately more satisfying to read a magazine when it is in your hands, as opposed to a screen, and let’s face it: reviewers like receiving hard copies and are far more likely to review said magazines. Also, something about perfect bound print production says a lot about professionalism, that the editors and publishers believe in their magazine enough to go the extra effort, and take a financial risk forking out printing and distribution costs. The two hard copy magazines I’m referring to are Australia’s Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and Canada’s On Spec, issues 46 and 77 respectively. For various reasons, predominately because of government funding requirements, each magazine stipulates that a high percentage of content must be from the country in origin. Production values are excellent even if basic, with Andromeda Spaceways being far superior in the illustration department. Both magazines are perfect bound, (big) pocket sized, and do the all contributing authors the credit of listing them on the cover. Focusing on these two issues, the editorial in On Spec grabbed my attention more because it was less about the stories and more about a curious aspect of the editorial process. Unfortunately while of interest to me it was geared towards would-be authors rather than general readers, who one must assume, make up the majority of the purchasing market. As for the quality of the stories they range from average to very good. Publication costs being what they are and constrained by limited circulations, neither magazine can afford to pay authors much, so professional speculative fiction stars aren’t represented. That said it is magazines like Andromeda Spaceways and On Spec that are the breeding grounds for up and coming authors, and so when one reads a gem of a tale, one hopes the author might have a novel or two out in the big book stores in the years to come. It’s certainly happened before, and it is a credit to both magazines that they have achieved this. Reading the stories I was reminded of some sage words an editor once gave to me many years ago, that as an upcoming author it is very important to draw readers into your tale immediately. That means getting into the story and action straight away, getting dialogue underway the first couple of paragraphs, and making the conflict at the heart of the narrative interesting and intruiging as fast as possible. I found that several tales in both magazines seemed to be good on prose style but light on something actually happening, and after a few pages I gave up and skipped to the next tale. I suspect many readers adopt this approach, for fiction reading is ultimately about being entertained, and no one wants to struggle with a story that isn’t going anywhere. I don’t want to have to do all the hard work as a reader. The hard work is the writer’s and editor’s job. I’ll focus on the stories that I liked. That is the joy of reading magazines like Andromeda Spaceways and On Spec because they can surprise, and there are some really entertaining tales in both. Mark Farrugia’s issue 46 of Andromeda Spaceways standout stories were those of the horror genre. Jason Fischer’s “The School Bus” was the best with a post-apocalyptic Australia complete with zombified kangaroos. Told from the point of view of a child, it built its horror slowly so that when the final revelation hit hard, it was the human parents who were the scariest characters to be found anywhere in this dark and disturbing world that Fischer created. “Charlie” by Felicity Dowker was another very enjoyable traditional horror tale, again told from a child’s perspective who is bullied by an elder sibling and disconnected from her parents. The child finds solace in a reanimated skeleton, and like “The School Bus” Dowker demonstrates that the most horrific characters are not always who one initially suspects, with the child showing us just how evil she can be. Easily the stand-out tale in On Spec issue 77 was “The Far-Springer” by E. Catherine Tobler, an Ancient Greek fable told from the point of view of one of Medusa’s sisters, which perfectly balanced action, interest and human characters, ultimately leading to a very satisfying conclusion. “Emily’s Shadow” by Al Onia was a touching tale of two displaced persons discovering the best in each other and themselves while they lost so much in the rest of their lives. My only criticism was that the speculative component in this story was very light, and it could have easily appeared in a popular fiction journal or magazine. There were other good stories in Andromeda Spaceways by Christopher Green, Pete Kempshall and in On Spec by Cherie Burger. My biggest disappointment was that neither magazine featured what I like to call the big speculative idea settings, such as detailed fantasy or science fiction worlds. There are stories that verge on what I was hoping for, but often they felt ill-thought through, such as one high fantasy tale that unfortunately read like a transcript from a role-playing game session. With only a little work it could have been much better. In most stories, even the better ones, the speculative element is slight, which is unfortunate because I believe that the reading market wants to be blown away by fantastical ideas that no other genre can offer. Particularly absent was science fiction with a hard lean or a futuristic setting, and I’ve seen this absence many times in small press magazines. This I believe is not actually the fault of the editors, because very few authors seem to be able to write great science fiction. It is the most difficult of the three speculative fiction genres to write well as it is the genre most grounded in reality and requires at least some understanding of science to make it plausible. I suspect that when authors get good at this setting they are already on their way to semi- or professional level, and are snapped up by the leading magazines such as Interzone, Asimov’s and Fantasy and Science Fiction. Overall, I believe both On Spec and Andromeda Spaceways do a great service to speculative fiction communities, because each has produced some exceptional tales over their long lives, fostering authors, and providing many a reader with many hours of entertaining reading. If you want to get a handle on what some of the other English language speaking countries other than the United Kingdom and the United States are producing, these are the best from each nation. Andromeda Space Ways Inflight Magazine # 46, 116 pages (2010) |
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