Black Gate

I love these big double issues of Analog. Chiefly because they have space for longer stories — and indeed, the latest double issue, July/August 2016, has two big novellas by Arlan Andrews, Sr. and Brad Torgersen.

In fact, this issue has several nice surprises, including fiction by Ian Creasey, John Shirley, Nick Wolven, and James Van Pelt — and a brand new short story by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, “Story Night at the Stronghold.” On top of that, there’s a special feature by editor emeritus Stanley Schmidt, titled “THE END, or, Leaving the Reader Satisfied.” Here’s editor Trevor Quachri’s teaser for the issue on the Analog website.

O, the double issue! I sing your praises! What can’t you do? Present a lead story ab out a future where social media and augmented reality have converged with mixed results? Indeed, we have “No Strangers Any More,” by Ian Creasey.

Can you give us not one but two novellas? Yes! When you take a path, it necessarily means there are other paths you cannot go down, and when humanity as a whole goes down one path, well . . . you’ll see, in Brad R. Torgersen’s “Purytans.” We’ll also look in on the travels of Arlan Andrews’ Rist in “Fall.”

What of material by luminaries like John Shirley, or Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle? Indubitably! In fact, there will be both! See “Cory for Coriolis” and “Story Night at the Stronghold” for proof that your eyes do not deceive you!

Perhaps more short pieces, fiction and nonfiction alike, from authors such as Nick Wolven, Stanley Schmidt, James Van Pelt, Elisabeth R. Adams, Andrew Barton, Sean Vivier, Christina De La Rocha, and Karl Bunker? I believe we can accommodate you there, yes.

And columns. Oh the columns. Never will you see columns such as these again . . . except perhaps in the issue that follows.

All that for roughly the price of a paperback! How can you go wrong?

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When I was at the Nebula Awards weekend in May, I met a charming young man named Julien Wacquez, the co-editor of the French SF magazine Angle Mort, which publishes English SF in translation for French readers. I learned that he and his co-editor, René-Marc Dolhen, were launching a brand new English magazine to bring the best of French SF to English audiences, Blind Spot. He was kind enough to send me a copy of the first issue last week, and it looks terrific. Here’s René-Marc and Julien, from their introduction.

Angle Mort was founded in France in 2010 to translate innovative science fiction stories written by authors such as Aliette de Bodard, Jeffrey Ford, Kij Johnson, Kelly Link, Ian McDonald, Vandana Singh, and to publish French original narratives written by Stéphane Beauverger, David Calvo, Thomas Day, Jean-Claude Dunyach, Léo Henry, and Laurent Kloetzer among others. Our work has been recognized several times by the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire and nominated as “best translated work of the year” or “best short story of the year…”

Going forward, we wish to widen our audiences to pursue our two main goals:

1 – Bolster the ties between French and American science fiction, by launching a new magazine, Blind Spot, that translates French stories into English. We think that French science fiction is rich from finding new ways to describe human experiences and contradictions, the weight of structures upon our lives, and the role of collective entities on our destiny.

2 – Bridge art, science, and literature, by supporting people who try to remold original perceptions of the self or the surrounding world, regardless of whether their works are fictional stories, academic papers, or visual arts, as long as they relate to science fiction.

Both French and English online magazines owned by the group are conceived as an endeavor to find new languages, new ways of telling true stories. They will be published at a frequency of two issues per year each. The narratives will be available for free on their dedicated website and exclusive additional content (interviews with contributors) can be accessed by ordering the complete online issue for $3. The proceeds will help us pay our contributors and translators.

Read the first story, Jean-Claude Dunyach’s “Landscape with Intruders,” free online here. And buy the first issue in PDF, epub and mobi formats for just $3 here. Broaden your horizons, and support a new SF magazine!