Polite Dissent

Paizo, publisher of the Dragon, Dungeon, and Undefeated magazines, has started to publish a new version of the venerable Amazing Stories magazine. The numbering takes up where previous volumes left off, so #603 (September 2004) is their first issue, and #604 (October 2004) is their second. This new take on Amazing Stories aims to cover every aspect of the “stories” of fantasy, science-fiction and horror.

The magazine is standard sized, 82-86 pages long and square-bound. Each issue sports a photo cover and $5.99 cover price. The presentation is up to Paizo’s usual high production standards with full color pages and plenty of original illustrations. The ads are kept to a minimum and most are house ads for other Paizo magazines.

There are a few typos and editing errors in both issues, but nothing serious except in the Robert Silverberg interview in the premier issue where the graphics obscure entire words in several places.

Each Amazing Stories issue is divided into four sections. The first section deals with previews of upcoming movies, books and TV shows. The second section contains a variety of original articles. The third section contains a handful of short stories and the last section of the magazine contains reviews of a variety of media.

The previews are well-written and informative, but there are several that are about shows or movies long passed. This doesn’t matter as much in terms of books or music, but what is the sense of reading a preview of a television mini-series that aired two months ago? This problem is cleared up greatly by the second issue. The first portion of the magazine also contains a letter column as well as some mostly forgettable cartoons, though John Kovalic’s Redshirts looks promising.

The original articles in the magazine cover a wide rand of topics. The first issue contains articles on the new Batman movie and another about super-hero movies in general. There are two outstanding articles in the first issue. The first is about the Twilight Zone radio show and the second concerns Dabel Brothers Productions converting fantasy novels into comic books, focusing primarily on the Hedge Knight. This section ends with a reflective interview with Robert Silverberg.

The second issue has articles about R.A. Salvatore’s contributions to a new Forgotten Realms video game and a look at Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. The best articles in this issue are the interviews. One is a discussion with Ray Bradbury and the second is about Richard and Wendy Pini, creators of ElfQuest. There is also a lengthy look at the fantastic and science fiction shows in the upcoming TV schedule.

The weakest part of the first issue was the short stories. The authors are just not able to do much with 3-5 pages each. The best is Timothy Zahn’s story about a future prison; it has some intriguing ideas but a clich餠ending. Each story features a page of opening art of varying style. Unfortunately, the illustrations hinder several of the stories (particularly the ones by Bruce Sterling and Gene Wolfe) rather than allow the reader to draw their own conclusions. The final story of each issue is based on a clever idea (for short stories, that is; it’s an old idea in comic books). A well-known author is given a picture and must write a short story based on the illustration, rather than the other way around. The first issue contains a 200-word story by none other than Harlan Ellison. It is an ambitious story given its obvious limitations. Far better is Neil Gaiman’s introduction to Ellison’s story.

The stories in the second issue are much better. Patrick Weekes writes an enjoyable narrative exploring the fantasy clich頯f the talking sword and Mike Resnick has a clever tale about the perils of dealing with aliens. The third story by Larry Tritten is the weakest of the stories, but still an enjoyable read. It reminds me of some of Spider Robinson’s Callahan tales. In this issue, Joe Haldeman tackles the final story and concocts a fascinating tale based on an image by David Rankin.

Both issues contain a wide collection of reviews. Many different media are considered including books, comics (single issues and collections), DVD collections, movies and music. There are some problems with timeliness again as some movies are reviewed long after they’ve left the theaters. The reviews seem mostly accurate (to my taste anyway – your mileage may vary) and are long enough to give the reader a good taste of the piece without giving too much away. As an added bonus, each review is appended with a suggestion of three other similar works the reader may also enjoy. It’s a clever idea and has opened my eyes to several books I might have otherwise missed. The magazine also contains special reviews of some older and more obscure genre movies that have probably never been examined elsewhere.

The new Amazing Stories magazine is an ambitious project. It aims to cover all aspects of fantasy, horror and science-fiction. Each issue is a pleasant evening’s diversion, but not much more than that. By attempting to cover so much, some areas of the magazine seem very superficial. This is particularly true in regards to the short stories, which is unfortunate as that is what Amazing Stories has built its reputation on. The magazine certainly has some clever ideas and excellent production values, but may be too shallow for the casual fan at its current price and page count.