Description
Book SynopsisMike Ashley's acclaimed history of science-fiction magazines comes to the 1980s with
Science Fiction Rebels: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1981 to 1990. This volume charts a significant revolution throughout science fiction, much of which was driven by the alternative press, and by new editors at the leading magazines. The period saw the emergence of the cyberpunk movement, and the drive for what David Hartwell called 'The Hard SF Renaissance', which was driven from within Britain. Ashley plots the rise of many new authors in both strands: William Gibson, John Shirley, Bruce Sterling, John Kessel, Pat Cadigan and Rudy Rucker in cyberpunk, and Stephen Baxter, Alistair Reynolds, Peter Hamilton, Neal Asher and Robert Reed in hard sf. He also shows how the alternative magazines looked to support each other through alliances, which allowed them to share and develop ideas as science fiction evolved.
Trade Review'The information Mike Ashley has put together is really astonishing: researchers of the field, and anyone who’s interested in popular fiction of the period are going to find this book an immense help.'
Andy Sawyer
'Ashley has a skilled historian’s sense of proportion... he picks up on the rise of various themes in science fiction and notes the importance of the blurring of the lines between genres… his work focuses on some of the most well-known aspects of science fiction literature.'
Gary K. Wolfe,
Locus'Ashley writes with skill, passion and insight. The excitement he feels for the genre is apparent on every page. The depth and breadth of the research is stunning, covering countries as diverse as Uruguay, Croatia, Finland – and even Mongolia, which had a pocketbook sf magazine between 1976 and 1990.'
Mark Greener,
Fortean Times‘Taken as a whole, Ashley’s ongoing history of the SF magazine is an astonishing achievement. This is vital work in uncovering and making available elements in the publishing history of SF that would otherwise be easily forgotten or neglected.’
Derek Johnston,
Fantastika Journal 'Science Fiction Rebels fills a niche but tremendous void in SF scholarship of 80s literary magazines and history [...] Ashley gives other scholars of SF magazines valuable insight to the world of editing SF in one of the world’s most eclectic decades. Ashley makes Science Fiction Rebels a scholarly must-have for research and editorial history within 80s SF.'B.L. King,
SFRA Review '[
Science Fiction Rebels] is essential reading for anyone needing to make sense of a decade of competing obsessions and styles, complex emergent technologies and mounting financial pressures on publishers. Ashley has produced a fascinating chronicle, a piece of thorough and dazzling scholarship and an invaluable work of reference.'
Andy Hedgecock,
Foundation‘This fourth volume in Mike Ashley’s comprehensive chronology of the SF magazines offers more of what came before it: a breath-taking depth and breadth of SF knowledge written in clear, comprehensible prose by an experienced and capable writer of encyclopaedias and anthologies… these books represent a supreme effort of scholarship and history-making, and they will be an invaluable tool to academics and fans alike.’ John McLoughlin, Fafnir
Table of ContentsList of TablesPrefaceNote on TerminologyAcknowledgementsChronologyChapter 1: Before the Revolution: Bastion of Excellence
Chapter 2: The First Revolution: Cyberpunk Days
The McCarthy Years
The Impact of Omni
Cyberpunk Daze
The Analog Dimension
Dozois in Charge
Amazing Rebirth
Chapter 3: The First Interlude: The Dark Corners
Twilight Zone
Horror Struck
Chapter 4: The Second Revolution: The British Hard-SF Renaissance
Out of the Wilderness
Interzone
Beyond Interzone
Chapter 5: The Second Interlude: Other Worlds
Éire
Canada
Australia
Far Corners
Chapter 6: The Third Rebellion: The SF Underground
SF Renegades
Dangerous Pulphouse
Chapter 7: Postlude: Back to Basics
Stuck on the Launch Pad
Shared Worlds
Small-Press Endeavours
Magazine with a Mission
A Qualified Success
A Problem Shared …
Chapter 8: Epilogue
Appendix 1: Non-English-Language Science-Fiction MagazinesAppendix 2: Checklist of English-Language Science-Fiction MagazinesAppendix 3: Directory of Magazine Editors and PublishersAppendix 4: Directory of Magazine Cover ArtistsAppendix 5: Schedule of Magazine Circulation FiguresSelect BibliographyAddenda and CorrigendaIndex
