Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine #41
Reviewed by Leigh Kimmel
Review copyright 1996, 1998 by Leigh Kimmel
For permission to quote or reprint, contact Leigh Kimmel
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine # 41 is the latest installment of this long-running (in its eleventh year) magazine that straddles the break between prozines and semiprozines (it pays professional rates and has never missed an issue, but because of its low circulation numbers, I believe that SFWA does not consider it adequate credentials for membership).
The issue opens with MZB's editorial on beginnings, middles and ends. There are three other editorial-type columns in later parts of the issue. MZB Talks to Writers, in the middle of the issue, is a collection of grammatical pet peeves. This time, rather than writing an essay, she has ammassed other people's comments as well as her own list of problems she frequently sees in the slush. Writers Talk Back, by Elisabeth Waters, discusses the matters of taxes and estate planning for writers. At the end there is The Last Word, by Rachel Holman, which is more of a chatty editorial, although it does touch on some pretty weighty issues dealing with copyrights, particularly their duration. There is also a letter column and an interview with Nancy Springer.
And of course there are the stories. "Tiger, Tiger" by Carol E. Leever is another story of Neko, child of the Kami of old Japan, who now must best a tiger that threatens a peasant village. Cherith Baldry's "Gryphon Rider" is a story of a POW in a fantasy world, facing unknown tortures and torments in the stronghold of her enemies, who instead finds a gentle, sensitive man forced into the role of her jailer by a bullying brother. "Three Nights Pennance 'til Lakkas Day" by Janna Silverstin is a story of the perils of too much curiosity about the fairy folk. MZB herself also contributes a short-short of her own, "Well Met by Moonlight," which takes yet another look at the story of Oberon and Titania. Connie Wilkins' "Steelwing" is a story of an older hero who struggles with her own age and the idea that she can no longer do the great deeds she once did. "Shadders" by Carrie Martin
Review posted January 1, 1999