The big news among magazine fans this month is the spectacular 70th Anniversary issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which has one of the most impressive line-ups I’ve seen in many years. It contains fiction by Michael Moorcock, Kelly Link, Maureen McHugh, Michael Swanwick, Ken Liu, Esther Friesner, Paolo Bacigalupi, Elizabeth Bear — and one of Gardner Dozois’ last stories. This one will be snatched off the shelf quickly; if you haven’t secured a copy already, I would move quickly.

In his editorial for the issue, C.C. Finlay talks about what really makes the magazine special.

For the past five years, one of my guiding principles as the editor of F&SF has been to find work that still accomplishes those two goals. I scour the submission queue for stories that are fun to read — entertaining, compelling, and well-crafted — with a narrative that pulls you from paragraph to paragraph, page to page, from the first sentence to the final line. At the same time, I’m also hunting for stories that have at least one additional layer to them beyond the surface, something that makes you think, even if it makes you think by making you laugh, that makes you want to discuss the story, to consider the way it reflects our lives and the world we live in. I believe that it’s this particular combination of qualities that has made the stories in F&SF continually feel fresh and relevant in every decade of its existence.

We have a wonderful collection of those kinds of stories for you in this issue as we celebrate the magazine’s seventy years of publication. In typical F&SF fashion, they span the genre from literary fantasy to wuxia adventure, from the near future on Earth to the far future in outer space, from ridiculous satire to thoughtful speculation, from one of the genre’s Grand Masters and some of its most awarded figures to up-and-coming authors, from the debut story of a brand new writer to the final tale from one of science fiction’s greatest writer/editors. Once you add in a couple poems, a special essay from Robert Silverberg, our usual columns and features, and some cartoons, you have an issue that is both like every other issue of F&SF and also something special.

Asimov’s SF and Analog can’t compete with a line-up like that, but they make a good run at it. This is Asimov’s annual “slightly spooky” issue, which is always one of my favorites. The two magazines contain fiction from Andy Duncan, Sandra McDonald, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Rich Larson, James Sallis, Adam-Troy Castro, Tony Ballantyne, Edward M. Lerner, Norman Spinrad, Brendan DuBois, Michael F . Flynn — and Black Gate blogger Marie Bilodeau! Here’s the complete Tables of Contents for all three.

First up that big, beautiful issue of F&SF.

NOVELETS

“The White Cat’s Divorce” by Kelly Link
“American Gold Mine” by Paolo Bacigalupi
“Kabul” by Michael Moorcock
“Erase, Erase, Erase” by Elizabeth Bear

SHORT STORIES

“Little Inn on the Jianghu” by Y.M. Pang
“Under the Hill” by Maureen McHugh
“Madness Afoot” by Amanda Hollander
“The Light on Eldoreth” by Nick Wolven
“Booksavr” by Ken Liu
“The Wrong Badger” by Esther Friesner
“Ghost Ships” by Michael Swanwick
“Homecoming” by Gardner Dozois

POEMS

“Last Human in the Olympics” by Mary Soon Lee
“Halstead IV” by Jeff Crandall

DEPARTMENTS

Three Score and Ten by Robert Silverberg
Books to Look For by Charles de Lint
Books by James Sallis
Films: Love Death + Some Regression by Karin Lowachee
Science: Net Up or Net Down? by Jerry Oltion
Plumage from Pegasus: A Giraffe Yoked to an Ox: A Review of Flora Columbia: Goddess of a New Age by Paul Di Filippo
Curiosities: Science Fiction: Complete with Everything: Aliens, Giant Ants, Space Cadets, Robots, and One Plucky Girl by No-Frills Entertainment (1981) by Thomas Kaufsek

CARTOONS

Mark Heath, Danny Shanahan

COVER

David A. Hardy‘s cover art shows Saturn as seen from one of its moons.

Next up: Asimov’s Science Fiction. Here’s editor Sheila Williams’ description from the website.

Our September/October 2019 issue features Gord Sellar’s blockbuster novella about high-tech farming in the Canadian North. “Winter Wheat” is a tour de force that begins in the dead of winter and takes us through a twelve-year cycle in Saskatchewan. You won’t want to miss this amazing story. We’ve also got a fast-paced novelette from Kristine Kathryn Rusch about an untrained captain desperately “Escaping Amnthra” and a novelette, “Then, When,” from Eric Del Carlo that explains how technology will bring on some unforeseen societal changes.

This is our traditional “Slightly Spooky” issue, and it’s full of eerie tales. “Charlie Tells Another One” to master storyteller Andy Duncan; Sandra McDonald sends us “Messages” from beyond the veil; Mercurio R. Rivera’s bone-chilling tale is set “In the Stillness Between the Stars”; Stephanie Feldman brings us an unsettling story about “The Albatwitch Chorus”; Michael Libling shakes reality “At the Old Wooden Synagogue on Janower Street”; Rich Larson reveals why you should be wary the next time someone says, “Can You Watch My Stuff”; “Personal Space” should clearly be respected in Lawrence Watt-Evan’s disturbing new tale; in Megan Arkenberg’s story, truth is disclosed slowly and on multiple levels as “All in Green Went My Love Riding”; and James Sallis lightens our mood as he spins a yarn about “When We Saved the World.”

In his Reflections, Robert Silverberg spends time “Rereading Shiel”; James Patrick Kelly’s On the Net has us “Deep Reading”; while Paul Di Filippo’s On Books considers works by Anna Tambour, Tim Powers, Jo Walton, Hannu Rajaniemi, and others. Plus we’ll have an array of poetry and more features that you’re sure to enjoy.

Here’s the complete TOC.

NOVELLA

“Winter Wheat” by Gord Sellar

NOVELETTES

“In the Stillness Between the Stars” by Mercurio D. Rivera
“Charlie Tells Another One” by Andy Duncan
“Messages” by Sandra McDonald
“Escaping Amnthra” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“Then, When” by Eric Del Carlo
“The Albatwitch Chorus” by Stephanie Feldman

SHORT STORIES

“All in Green Went My Love Riding” by Megan Arkenberg
“Personal Space” by Lawrence Watt-Evans
“When We Saved the World” by James Sallis
“Can You Watch My Stuff” by Rich Larson
“At the Old Wooden Synagogue on Janower Street” by Michael Libling

POETRY

All the Weight by Holly Day
Surfing at Night by Peter Payack
Brambles by Jane Yolen
The Celestial Body by Leslie J. Anderson
Nine Hypotheses Concerning a Mysterious Lump Under the Rug on the Foyer Floor by Jenny Blackford
E.A. Poe’s Electro-mechanical Raven by Kendall Evans

DEPARTMENTS

Editorial: Thirty-Third Annual Readers’ Awards’ Results by Sheila Williams
Reflections: Rereading Shiel by Robert Silverberg
On the Net: Deep Reading by James Patrick Kelly
Next Issue
On Books by Peter Heck
The SF Conventional Calendar by Erwin S. Strauss

And here’s Trevor Quachri’s teaser for Analog.

Another issue means another cache of cleverly curated chronicles for your indulgence! First, we check in on some old friends that we haven’t seen in some time — almost twenty years, in fact! When a prospector on the Moon sees people who couldn’t possibly be there, the only thing to do is check in with other people who couldn’t possibly be there. Get the rest of the story (though maybe not the whole story) in “The Gorilla in a Tutu Principle; or, Pecan Pie at Minnie and Earl’s,” by Adam-Troy Castro.

Then: we currently have two detectors searching for “ripples in space-time,” but what about making ourselves heard by any other civilizations that may be searching? Find out in “Building a Gravitational Wave Transmitter,” our fact article from Albert Jackson and Gregory Benford.

And as always, we have plenty of other stories, including an adult SF take on superheroes from Christopher L. Bennett, in “Conventional Powers”; a tale about paving the way for those who come after us, in “On Her Shoulders,” by Martin L. Shoemaker; a story that’s somehow exactly what it sounds like, in “Road Veterinarian,” by Guy Stewart, and more, from authors like Tony Ballantyne, Antha Ann Adkins, Norman Spinrad, Michael F. Flynn, Joe M. McDermott, Christian Monson, Julie Novakova, Marie Bilodeau, Mario Milosevic, Brenda Kalt, Brendan DuBois, Phoebe Barton, Sean Vivier, Edward M. Lerner, and Jennifer Povey, as well as all our regular departments (and maybe a bonus article or two).

And finally, here’s Analog’s contents this month.

NOVELLA

THE GORILLA IN A TUTU PRINCIPLE OR, PECAN PIE AT MINNIE AND EARL’S, Adam-Troy Castro

NOVELETTES

ON HER SHOULDERS, Martin L. Shoemaker
CONVENTIONAL POWERS, Christopher L. Bennett
TRESPASS, Tony Ballantyne
ROAD VETERINARIAN, Guy Stewart

SHORT STORIES

AWAKENING IN THE ANTEROOM OF HEAVEN, Brenda Kalt
PARADISE UNBOUND, Edward M. Lerner
THE SWARM, Mario Milosevic
THE ANNUAL ARGUMENT AT THE DE-EXTINCTION BOARD MEETING, Antha Ann Adkins
PERSONALIZED PEOPLE, Norman Spinrad
THE WATERS OF A NEW WORLD, Jennifer R. Povey
NEWS FROM AN ALIEN WORLD, Sean Vivier
A FAMILY RENDEZVOUS, Brendan DuBois
FROM SO COMPLEX A BEGINNING, Julie Novakova
A SQUARE OF FLESH, A CUBE OF STEEL, Phoebe Barton
SHUT-INS, Christian Monson
I DREAMED YOU WERE A SPACESHIP, Ron Collins
THE SINGING CITY, Michael F . Flynn
ASTROBOY AND WIND, Joe M. McDermott
MOLECULAR RAGE, Marie Bilodeau

SCIENCE FACT

BUILDING A GRAVITATIONAL WAVE TRANSMITTER, Albert Jackson & Gregory Benford

POETRY

CONTINUUM, G.O. Clark
SEQUOIAS AND OTHER MYTHS, Stanley Schmidt

READER’S DEPARTMENTS

GUEST EDITORIAL: MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SKIN A STARSHIP, Allen M. Steele
IN TIMES TO COME
THE ALTERNATE VIEW, John G. Cramer
GUEST ALTERNATE VIEW, Richard A. Lovett
THE REFERENCE LIBRARY, Don Sakers
BRASS TACKS
UPCOMING EVENTS, Anthony Lewis

All three are available wherever magazines are sold, and at various online outlets. Here’s the details; links will take you to the latest issues.

Asimov’s Science Fiction (208 pages, $7.99 per issue, one year sub $47.94 in the US) — edited by Sheila Williams
Analog Science Fiction and Fact (208 pages, $7.99 per issue, one year sub $47.94 in the US) — edited by Trevor Quachri
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (258 pages, $8.99 per issue, one year sub $39.97 in the US) — edited by C.C. Finlay

Asimov’s and Analog are on sale until October 22.

We last covered Asimov’s SF and Analog with the July/August issues, and F&SF with the last issue. See all our recent magazine coverage here.