Comments on: Farewell, Realms of Fantasy

By: Fabrice

Fabrice — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:49:25 +0000

Bottom line is Sovereign Media killed a profitable SF Age in the 90′s, and now it is killing a profitable RoF. That’s a crime against SF/F pure and simple. Fortunately, we still have F&SF and the Dell sister magazines (I have a soft spot for print magazines)

By: Jasmine

Jasmine — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:13:44 +0000

I stopped reading RoF because I read too many mediocre stories by big name authors–clearly no one was bothering to screen them.
And this is a slight tangent, but it was a Carrie Vaughn story that made me stop reading Weird Tales (the main character Googled something to make a zombie talk and reveal the perpetrator of a crime who just happened to be in that very room!). Her novels must be better.

By: Samantha

Samantha — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 05:57:46 +0000

I was so sad to hear about ROF going away, but this this the first thing I read about it that made me tear up.

(Probably because of wee Tempest).

By: Adam Lipkin

Adam Lipkin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:15:50 +0000

Ooh, and Google reveals that it's available online, saving me the trouble of searching through my office. Thanks!

By: tempest

tempest — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:55:02 +0000

It’s called A Hunter’s Ode To His Bait.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:41:14 +0000

And I hope that there will still be great magazines that high school girls who love Star Trek and Martian Chronicles and Narnia can stumble upon that will change everything for them and open up a new world of awesomeness.

Oh yes, thanks for that. Nice post.

(Also, wee!Tempest! *tickled*)

By: Adam Lipkin

Adam Lipkin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:40:54 +0000

Sadly, my first reaction to this post is, “wait, there’s a story by Carrie Vaughn with dead unicorn sex? I must own this!”

Worse, I likely do, as I’ve got many, many unread issues of RoF sitting around the house.

That said, although my reaction to the mags isn’t quite the same as yours (F&SF in the ’80s has a similar place for me, introducing me to the Book Club, alerting me to the Year’s Bests, etc), it’s a market I’m sad to see vanish.