January 2003 E-Magazine Roundup
an article by Trent Walters
Trent has read and provides commentary on several e-magazines including
Dark Fluidity, Fangoria, Ideomancer, Sci Fiction,
Strange Horizons and Vestal Review.
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The SF Writer's Online Resource: The Family of Summer SF Workshops
a column by Trent Walters
"The obvious choice as to which is best does not exist. If you get into one and not the other, don't whine that this one
obviously isn't as good. You just didn't fit for the readers over there. Or maybe
the cosmic powers of fate decided you will learn more here at this
point in your learning curve. Now, let's touch on each in the not-who's-best order of age."
The SF Writer's Online Resource: Michael A. Banks
a column by Trent Walters
So many writing books are a dime a dozen, shedding little new light on the
difficulty of writing. On the web are some free and interesting takes on
this eternal dilemma. Michael A. Banks, author of three SF novels and
several short stories, of a book that sets the record straight on
Understanding Science Fiction, and of a style not displeasing to the ear,
is one of those writers with something worthwhile to say.
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Anime
an article by Trent Walters
If you enjoy animation but have been burned by the hype from anime fans, this may be a place for a little more
discernment -- at least on a story level. For a little background on anime, a good DVD to start with
is The Animatrix. One of the extra features, "Scrolls to Screen: The History and Culture of Anime," gives informative background on anime and
points out a few classics in the genre.
Forrest Aguirre: Experimental Fiction
reviewed by Trent Walters
Forrest Aguirre writes a rarity these days: experimental fiction. The term
seems to cause confusion. Experiment is writing that hasn't been done
before. On the map of Here-There-Be-Dragons, this is where the experimental
writer heads. He pioneers. Though he may tread ground that other pioneers
have tread, he observes new details of that territory.
Online Animation
an article by Trent Walters
There's something immediately gratifying about story animation that novels
and live movies do not have: perhaps because of the animator's vision can
be born out without limitation of image (mostly in movies, but due to its
limitation, the novel relies much on the reader -- just as the eye depends on
the mind -- to fill in what it cannot show at once). In fact, almost any
movie of broad-scope imagination requires animation.
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Who Shot SF?
an article by Trent Walters
"God knows how long the Science Fiction Super Fish has flopped around out of
water. It gasped its last when H.G. Wells turned from SF as thought and entertainment
toward SF as utopian symbol, but revived in the nick of time, twenty years
later, with Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories and his infamous fan clubs and
decoder rings. It gave up the ghost during the Great Depression, but
John Campbell, Jr.'s Astounding pragmatic science of the 40s did chest compressions
while the 50s' literary wit of F&SF and Galaxy did mouth-to-mouth. "
J.R.R. Tolkien Is Dangerous
an article by Trent Walters
"This reviewer is now, to borrow a phrase from Michael Moorcock, about to exit 'that now familiar land
that Thatcher and Reagan built, where people become afraid to speak because they might lose their
jobs.' Lucius Shepard and Rick Norwood have already reviewed the greatest fantasy
film of all time, Lord of the Rings, directed by Peter Jackson (who also directed the greatest movie
of all time, Heavenly Creatures), so this reviewer backed off... until he received a link to a recent
essay by Michael Moorcock, 'Christmas Editorial', which changed everything.
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