SCIENCE FICTION AGE

   US magazine; current; \#1 Nov 1992; bimonthly; by March 1995 up to vol 3, no. 3, whole number 15; saddle-stapled; small- BEDSHEET; full-colour; slick. Published by Mark Hintz, ed Scott Edelman, from Herndon, Virginia.This was the most impressive professional sf magazine launched inthe 1990s. With a cover price for two years of $2.95, it has settled to a respectable over-60,000 circulation: higher than FSF, lower than IASFM and ASF. The 1995 cover price is $3.95, with a 16-page insert with morefiction on non-slick paper announced. The magazine is not dominated by fiction. It has a good mix, most issues featuring an artwork portfolio, articles, reviews, columns and fiction, with many comparatively short pieces. Fiction authors have included Ben BOVA, David BRIN, Greg Costikyan, Paul Di Filippo, Geoffrey A. Landis, Barry N. MALZBERG, RobertREED, Mike RESNICK, Allen STEELE, Adam Troy-Castro and others. The fiction is not generally experimental, but by no means all conservative either. Not many of its stories have received award nominations, though a numberof good stories have been published. However it is the liveliness of the layout, the art work, and the non-fiction pieces that probably accounts for most of SFA's success; the covers are mostly reprint artwork, a policy that allows for a high standard. Not only fiction is reviewed; coverage includes comics, sf art and movies. Reviewers and columnists have included Edelman, Terry BISSON, John BRUNNER, Robert SILVERBERG. A companionmagazine (not sf), Realms of Fantasy, was distributed at the world sf convention with a cover date of Oct 1994, bimonthly, ed Shawna MCCARTHY; it, too, has been well received.

   PN