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galacticjourney[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]
by Gideon Marcus
There are two poles when it comes to how science fiction magazines like to fill their pages. The Fantasy and Science Fiction approach involves lots of short stories -- it makes for an impressive Table of Contents and a lot of bite-sized pieces. Analog tends toward the other extreme: its stories tend to be novellas and serials, and you only get 4-5 piece of fiction each issue. As a result, the average quality of any given issue relies on a very few pieces. With Analog, if you don't like several of the authors, you're pretty much out of luck (and 50 cents).
The October 1962 Analog is, fortunately, not that bad, but a wide swath of it is taken up with a pretty lousy novella. If I'd started with it, I don't know if I'd have made it to the rest of the magazine. It's a good thing I read from the back first...
(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)
by Gideon Marcus
There are two poles when it comes to how science fiction magazines like to fill their pages. The Fantasy and Science Fiction approach involves lots of short stories -- it makes for an impressive Table of Contents and a lot of bite-sized pieces. Analog tends toward the other extreme: its stories tend to be novellas and serials, and you only get 4-5 piece of fiction each issue. As a result, the average quality of any given issue relies on a very few pieces. With Analog, if you don't like several of the authors, you're pretty much out of luck (and 50 cents).
The October 1962 Analog is, fortunately, not that bad, but a wide swath of it is taken up with a pretty lousy novella. If I'd started with it, I don't know if I'd have made it to the rest of the magazine. It's a good thing I read from the back first...
(see the rest at Galactic Journey!)
