I’ve been relying more and more on Charles Payseur’s Quick Sip Reviews to point me towards the fiction that will interest me each month. Charles doesn’t just tell me why he enjoys each story… he gives me enough detail to let me know which stories will grab my attention right out of the gate. Here he is on Rich Larson’s 12,000-word novelette “The Green Man Cometh” in the latest issue of Clarkesworld, for example.

This is a rather thrilling story about technology and damage, about ideology and fanaticism… [it] shows a nicely cyberpunk vision of Earth post-Calamity (which sounds familiar and I can’t remember if I’ve read a story or stories set in this world before), where most of the population has concentrated into one megacity. And in that megacity Eris is a cab driver with prosthetic arms and a bit of a chip on her shoulder because she was born on a neoprimitive colony and then sent away because of her disability… The action is fierce and the characters are fun. I quite liked the play between Eris and Kit, the government agent that gets assigned to her. The tech and the setting are richly explored and it’s a fun story with some nice points… Eris has to grapple with her own frustrations with the system against the terror that is what the cult plans. And yeah, it’s fun and it’s fast and it hits a lot of nice beats with its twists and turns. For an edge-of-your-seat thrilling science fiction, look no further. Very fun and very worth checking out!

Read his complete review of the issue here.

In the last two weeks we also took a look at The Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Year Seven, and roving reporter Joe Bonadonna checked in with the latest news on Weird Tales. For our vintage magazine fans, Rich Horton gave us a retro-review of a 1964 issue of the long-forgotten magazine Gamma, with fiction by Bernard Malamud, Miriam Allen deFord, George Clayton Johnson, and Ron Goulart.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our mid-August Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

As we’ve mentioned before, all of these magazines are completely dependent on fans and readers to keep them alive. Many are marginal operations for whom a handful of subscriptions may mean the difference between life and death. Why not check one or two out, and try a sample issue? There are magazines here for every budget, from completely free to $35/issue. If you find something intriguing, I hope you’ll consider taking a chance on a subscription. I think you’ll find it’s money very well spent.

Black Gate reports exclusively on fantasy magazines, although we also cover the occasional science fiction or mainstream magazine with some fantasy content. We currently cover 43 magazines (links will take you to our latest coverage):

Adventure Tales edited by John Betancourt
Albedo One edited by Robert (Bob) Neilson
Analog, edited by Trevor Quachri
Apex, edited by Jason Sizemore
Ares Magazine, edited by Michael Anderson
Asimov’s Science Fiction, edited by Sheila Williams
Back Issue, edited by Michael Eury
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, edited by Scott H. Andrews
Black Static, edited by Andy Cox
Cemetery Dance, edited by Richard Chizmar
Cirsova, edited by P. Alexander
Clarkesworld, edited by Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace
The Dark, edited by Jack Fisher and Sean Wallace
The Digest Enthusiast, edited by Arkay Olgar
Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, edited by Warren Lapine
Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by C.C. Finlay
Fantasy Scroll, edited by Iulian Ionescu, Frederick Doot, and Alexandra Zamorski
GigaNotoSaurus, edited by Rashida J. Smith
Grimdark Magazine, edited by Adrian Collins
Gygax, edited by Jayson Elliot
Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, edited by Adrian Simmons, David Farney, William Ledbetter and James Frederick William Rowe

Holdfast, edited by Laurel Sills and Lucy Smee
Inhuman Magazine, edited by Allen Koszowski
Interfictions Online, edited by Delia Sherman
Interzone, edited by Andy Cox
Knights of the Dinner Table, edited by Jolly Blackburn
Lackington’s, edited by Ranylt Richildis
Lightspeed, edited by John Joseph Adams
Locus, edited by Liza Groen Trombi
Mythic Delirium, edited by Mike Allen
Nightmare, edited by John Joseph Adams
Outposts of Beyond, edited by Tyree Campbell
Pulp Literature, edited by Mel Anastasiou, Jennifer Landels, and Susan Pieters
Red Sun, edited by Ben Richards
Science Fiction Classics
Scrolls of Legendry, edited by D.M. Ritzlin
Shimmer, edited by E. Catherine Tobler
Swords and Sorcery Magazine, edited by Curtis Ellett
Tor.com, edited by various
Uncanny, edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Michael Damian Thomas, and Michi Trota
Weirdbook, edited by Douglas Draa‎
Weird Fiction Review, edited by S.T. Joshi
Weird Tales, edited by Marvin Kaye

We’ve also covered many fine magazines that are now defunct:

Amazing Stories
Arcane
Blood, Blade and Thruster
Bull Spec
Cosmic Crimes Stories
Crossed Genres
Dark Realms
Darker Matter
Doc Savage
Electric Velocipede
Fantastic
Fantastic Novels
Fantastic Universe
Fantasy Magazine
Fantasy/Fantasy Newsletter
The Fantasy Fan
Fantasy Review
Flashing Swords
Future Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction

GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominatior
H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror
Infinity
Innsmouth Magazine
Jabberwocky
Kobold Quarterly
The Last Province
Level UP
Paradox
Planet Stories
Port Iris
Reader’s Digest
Realms of Fantasy
Satellite
Science Fiction Adventures
Shadis
Shock Totem
Spellbound
Strange Tales
Strategy & Tactics
Subterranean
Super Science Stories
The Original Science Fiction Stories
Unknown
Venture
Wizard
Worlds of If
Zahir

And we’ve covered the following magazines intermittently:

Against the Odds
Alter Ego
Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine
Betwixt
Blind Spot
Dark Worlds
Entertainment Weekly
The Excellent Travelling Volume
Faerie Magazine
Galaxy’s Edge
Goblin Fruit
Granta
Heliotrope
The Lorelei Signal
Lovecraft eZine
Meeple Monthly
New Realm
The New Yorker
The New York Review of Science Fiction
Primeval: A Journal of the Uncanny
Rue Morgue
The SFWA Bulletin
Strange Aeons
Strange Horizons
Stupefying Stories
Tin House
Vanity Fair
Virginia Quarterly Review
Whistling Shade

Check out all of our recent magazine coverage here.