SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES

   Academic journal, published both from the USA and from Canada, founded Spring 1973, current, 65 issues to Mar 1995, 3 issues a year. S-FS was co-edited from the outset by R.D. MULLEN and Darko SUVIN, with Mullen also acting as publisher; the magazine was first published from Indiana State University, where Mullen taught. He left at the end of 1978, and in 1979with \#17 the magazine moved to McGill University in Montreal, where it was ed Suvin, Marc Angenot and Robert M. PHILMUS, joined by Charles Elkins with \#20 (1980). Suvin's last issue was \#22 (1980) and Angenot's \#25 (1982). Philmus and Elkins remained in charge until \#52, Nov 1990. With\#53, 1991, Mullen resumed the editorship along with Philmus, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Arthur B. Evans and Veronica Hollinger, Philmus dropping out with \#54. S-FS returned to Indiana with \#56 (1992), now published at DePauw University.S-FS is the second youngest of the 4 academic journalsabout sf (EXTRAPOLATION and FOUNDATION are older, JOURNAL OF THE FANTASTIC IN THE ARTS is younger). It does not normally reviewcontemporary sf, though it runs excellent reviews of books about sf. Over the years it has probably published more good, substantial articles on sf than any of its competitors, being especially strong on European sf, on debate about the nature of the genre, on UTOPIAS, on FEMINISM and on POSTMODERNISM, but very patchy on GENRE SF. There have been 2 specialissues on Philip K. DICK, 1 on Ursula K. LE GUIN, and sporadic articles on authors like Gregory BENFORD, Pamela SARGENT and William GIBSON, but these are in a minority, so that sometimes S-FS gives the impression of looking anywhere rather than at the heart of its subject. Unusually for a US journal, some of its critical material is Marxist-oriented. S-FS is a responsible, intellectually robust journal which, while it reflects some of the excesses of academic criticism generally (e.g., too much critical jargon), also reflects its strengths.

   PN