It’s a bonanza of print this month… all the titles above are print magazines, with the exception of Kaleidotrope (top row, second from right), which is new to the list. Kaleidotrope was a recommendation from Rich Horton; I’d never heard of it, but it featured prominently in Rich’s 2018 Hugo Recs list, so I thought I would check it out this month. Rich is right — it’s a very impressive magazine, with brand new fiction by Mari Ness, Octavia Cade, and others.

But they don’t seem very web-savvy, especially for a web magazine. The site loads extremely slowly, and the culprit seems to be the beautiful but massive 1.26 megabyte (!!) PNG cover image. I was able to convert it to a visually identical 90 Kb jpeg file less than 8% the size in about 15 seconds on my machine. Doing that at their end would greatly speed up loading times, and cut their monthly bandwidth costs by about 90%. I hope someone helps them get that sorted.

Here’s the complete list of magazines that won my attention in early March (links will bring you to magazine websites).

[Click the images for bigger versions.]

Analog — A double-sized issue with stories by Alec Nevala-Lee, Suzanne Palmer, Rich Larson, Brendan DuBois, Jerry Oltion, Mary A. Turzillo, Bruce McAllister, Gregory Benford, James Van Pelt, and many others — including the second installment of Derek Künsken’s The Quantum Magician
Black Static— Brand new fiction by E. Catherine Tobler, Jack Westlake, David Martin, Kay Chronister, and Michael Wehunt
Kaleidotrope — new SF and fantasy from Mari Ness, Heather Morris, Kat Otis, Octavia Cade, and Julia August
Tin House — The Spring 2018 issue has stories by Steven Millhauser, Tara Ison, Maria Adelmann, Julia Elliott, Sean Ennis, and Joy Baglio
Weirdbook — new stories by John C. Hocking, Adrian Cole, W. H. Pugmire, Darrell Schweitzer, Cynthia Ward, Allen Mark Price, and lots more
Interzone — New fiction from James Sallis, Antony Johnston, Julie C. Day, Michael Reid, T.R. Napper, Alexandra Renwick and Eliot Fintushel
Meeple Monthly — This board game magazines features articles from Alderac Entertainment Group, Arcane Wonders, Starling Games, MODIPHIUS, and Rather Dashing Games
Fantasy & Science Fiction — A big novella by Andy Stewart, plus stories by Marc Laidlaw, Susan Palwick, Ted Rabinowitz, Charlotte Ashley, Joseph Bruchac, William Ledbetter, Wole Talabi, and G.V. Anderson

Our February Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

Earlier this month we also covered:

Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, November 1969: A Retro-Review by Adrian Simmons
Steven Silver’s Birthday Reviews — covering Venture Science Fiction, Astounding Science Fiction, Analog, Realms of Fantasy, Asimov’s SF, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, Interzone, Fatastic, and more

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 51 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
Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, edited by a rotating staff
Apex, edited by Jason Sizemore
Ares Magazine, edited by Michael Anderson
Asimov’s Science Fiction, edited by Sheila Williams
The Audient Void, edited by Obadiah Baird
Back Issue, edited by Michael Eury
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, edited by Scott H. Andrews
Black Static, edited by Andy Cox
Bloke’s Terrible Tomb of Terror, edited by Jason Crawley
Broadswords and Blasters, edited by Matthew X. Gomez and Cameron Mount
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
Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by C.C. Finlay
Galaxy’s Edge, edited by Mike Resnick
Gathering Storm Magazine, edited by Michael McHenry and Cinda McHenry
GigaNotoSaurus, edited by Rashida J. Smith
Grimdark Magazine, edited by Adrian Collins
Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, edited by Adrian Simmons, David Farney, William Ledbetter and James Frederick William Rowe
High Adventure, edited by John P. Gunnison
Holdfast, edited by Laurel Sills and Lucy Smee
Inhuman Magazine, edited by Allen Koszowski
Interzone, edited by Andy Cox
Kaleidotrope, edited by Fred Coppersmith
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
Luna Station Quarterly, edited by Jennifer Lyn Parsons
Meeple Monthly, edited by Jenna Piller and Amy Clarke
Mythic Delirium, edited by Mike Allen
Nightmare, edited by John Joseph Adams
Occult Detective Quarterly, edited by Sam Gafford and John Linwood Grant.
Outposts of Beyond, edited by Tyree Campbell
Postscripts, edited by Nick Gevers
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
Shoreline of Infinity, edited by Noel Chidwick
Skelos, edited by Mark Finn, Chris Gruber, and Jeffrey Shanks
Space & Time, edited by Hildy Silverman
Swords and Sorcery Magazine, edited by Curtis Ellett
Tor.com, edited by a cast of thousands
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 also cover many fine magazines that are now defunct:

All Hallows
The All-Story
Amazing Stories
Arcane
Blood, Blade and Thruster
Bull Spec
Cosmic Crimes Stories
Crossed Genres
Dark Realms

Darker Matter
Doc Savage
El Conquistador
Electric Velocipede
Fantastic Novels
Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, edited by Warren Lapine
Fantastic Stories
Fantastic Universe
Fantasy Magazine
Fantasy/Fantasy Newsletter
The Fantasy Fan
Fantasy Review
Fantasy Scroll, edited by Iulian Ionescu, Frederick Doot, and Alexandra Zamorski
Flashing Swords
Future Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction
Gygax, edited by Jayson Elliot
H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror
I Palantir
Infinity
Innsmouth Magazine
Interfictions Online, edited by Delia Sherman
Jabberwocky

Kobold Quarterly
The Last Province
Level UP
OMNI
Other Worlds
Paradox
Planet Stories
Port Iris
Pulphouse
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:

3×3 Illustration
Adventure House Pulp Reprints
Alarums and Excursions
Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
Against the Odds
Alter Ego
Betwixt
Blind Spot
Dark Worlds
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
Entertainment Weekly
The Excellent Travelling Volume
Faerie Magazine
Game Informer
Goblin Fruit
Graphic Classics
Granta
Heliotrope
The Lorelei Signal
Lovecraft eZine
New Realm
The New Yorker

The New York Review of Science Fiction
On Spec
PC Gamer
Primeval: A Journal of the Uncanny
Rue Morgue
The SFWA Bulletin
The Best of Star Trek
Strange Aeons
Strange Horizons
Stupefying Stories
Tin House
Vanity Fair
Virginia Quarterly Review
Whistling Shade
Wired

Check out all of our recent magazine coverage here.