Profiles of May 1998 Issues

Interzone May 1998 More Gary Westfahl flack; letters of objection to Westfahl's essays in previous issues, from Darrell Schweitzer, Stephen Baxter, and others. • Molly Brown, author of ''Bad Timing'', is interviewed at length (via email) about her past as a stand-up comedienne and her interest in quantum mechanics and parallel worlds. She has a website at http://www.okima.com. • Nick Lowe explores how The Postman came to be Costnerized; ''much the scariest thing about The Postman's vision of the future isn't the wandering gangs of jackbooted militiamen, but the check-shirt revival and the frightful acoustic balladry.'' He finds the dishonesty of Fairytale: A True Story reprehensible, and Flubber even worse. Not a good month. • Wendy Bradley reviews the Stephen Gallagher's TV series Oktober. • Gary Westfahl takes Geoff Ryman's proposals about interactive fiction, in the latter's story a few issues ago, far too seriously. • Fiction includes a sharp Paul J. McAuley story about telomeres and plots of the rich and famous; exotic fantasy by Stephen Dedman and Madeleine Cary; promising inventiveness from new writer Alexander Glass; Don Webb's secret history of Soviets and Martians; and Thomas M. Disch's tale about ''the first mass murderer ever to be funded by the N.E.A.'' (posted Thu 11 Jun)

F&SF May 1998 Excellent fiction by Bruce Sterling depicting how computer networks might be used in near future Japan. • Paul Di Filippo imagines imaginary realism. • Plus a mythic far-future novelette by Mark S. Geston, and amusements by Mike Resnick and others. • Book reviewer Douglas E. Winter explores Ira Levin and H. P. Lovecraft. (posted 26 Apr 98)

Science Fiction Age May 1998 A new chapter in Stephen Baxter's ''Saddle Point'' series depicts deep mining the Moon for volatiles to sustain human life. • Time travel stories from Karen Haber and Eric T. Baker, hijinks from Adam-Troy Castro, and old-fashioned alien predators from Gene O'Neill. • Geoffrey A. Landis chats with Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle about science and science fiction: Mars, FTL travel, computers. Pournelle's defense work in the '70s, it seems, was responsible for the computer revolution. • Karen Haber profiles the art of Nicholas Jainschigg. • Melissa J. Perenson visits the sets of the current Star Trek shows (thus the cover). (posted 26 Apr 98)

Asimov's May 1998 More from Robert Silverberg in East Germany, where fans still take SF very seriously and writers, no longer subsidized by the state, learn to survive free-lance or find other work. • A hilarious novella by Terry Bisson (a likely best-of-the-year candidate) leads excellent stories by Swanwick and Kandel and good ones by Baker, Watson, and Person. • Adventurous book reviewer Paul Di Filippo surveys works by genre writers from Blaylock and Bear to MacLeod and Moorcock. (posted 4 Apr 98)

Analog May 1998 Stephen Goldin contributes a novelette about cookbook writers and an alien race with a taboo about eating in public. • Columnist Jeffery D. Kooistra tackles a Marilyn vos Savant puzzler and admits his first answer was wrong. • Editor Stanley Schmidt goes on a hike and considers the old debate of jobs vs. the environment. • Part 2 of H. G. Stratmann and G. David Nordley's article on human adaptation to space considers long-term effects. The authors explain why, contrary to common SF assumptions, generations raised in lower gravities than Earth's will be shorter, not taller and thinner, that their terrestrial ancestors. (posted 4 Apr 98)