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This editorial marks the fifth anniversary of The ZONE online... The last few years
have seen a multitude of changes, both major and minor, across the varied forms of genre
publishing and media entertainment. On the book and magazine side of things, few patterns
or trends are readily discernable but, after a period of upheaval, most observers seem to
agree that the printed field of SF has reached stability, however temporary that might be.
British magazine
Interzone
survived the millennial transition and got a new editor-publisher. Not many other 'zines
(whether small press or semipro) appear to be flourishing, and even online sources (like
Ellen Datlow's Sci Fiction, which was, admittedly, of little interest to me - personally
- because I still hate reading fiction on a screen) have been closing down. Meanwhile, offering
consistently good value for money and winning a richly deserved critical reputation, relative
newcomer Elastic Press proved to
be a busily productive UK independent, delivering a stream of commendably genre-breaking,
single-author collections, and offbeat though usually worthwhile anthologies.
Last year, I was at the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention - Interaction (4-8 August,
2005) in Glasgow. It was actually my first ever visit to any such gathering. Although I did enjoy
(greatly, in fact) the long weekend, that Worldcon will probably be my last holiday at such
a big event. Despite meeting lots of interesting writers, and making some new friends, I discovered
that SF fandom at large (or, at least, regular convention-goers) was even more unhelpfully blinkered
and cliquey than expected.
In the screen worlds, the most curious (either disturbing or fascinating, depending on your
bias) and notable change has been that sci-fi movies no longer simply lag behind literary SF
by a decade or two. Nowadays, thanks in part to brainless action pictures such as
I, Robot and the rise to prominence
of popular superhero comic-book adaptations (most notably
Hulk),
the imaginative content of both genre cinema and television productions appears to be moving away,
and accelerating rapidly, from most of the usual visionary concerns. Driving this change in themes
and substance is the perceived 'death' of space opera - at least in its screen incarnations - following
the critical failure of the absurd Star Wars
prequels, and the recent cancellation of Star Trek's current flagship TV show,
Enterprise. Instead of bold new space adventures, we get dismal remakes like Spielberg's
War Of The Worlds,
derivative exercises in fetishistic martial artistry (Aeon Flux, etc), and charmless
nonsense (like Doom)
based on tawdry videogames. The revival of Doctor
Who acquired a strong new following, expanding the already international fanbase, but
the few episodes I saw lacked anything of merit - except some weird yet wearisome novelty moments
(oh, look, a Dalek going upstairs). Surprisingly, it looks as if the most genuinely addictive (if not
really the finest, or most creatively successful) TV fodder can be found in high concept thrillers
like real-time actioner 24, and even that show is perhaps best appreciated on DVD.
Thanks to our growing team of perceptive contributors, this website is now five years old. Yay for us!
(As usual, your feedback about the site's content is welcome for the
Grey Area.) We hope you will still be around when
The ZONE hits ten...
Tony Lee - editor, September 2006
This week (ending Saturday 21st September) marks the first anniversary of The ZONE website...
In the past year we have presented interviews with some of the biggest names in
science fiction, including Simon Clark,
Ursula K. Le Guin,
Michael Moorcock,
Kim Stanley Robinson,
Dan Simmons, and
Connie Willis, alongside many other prominent
genre writers, such as Robert Rankin,
Ken MacLeod, and
Mark Chadbourn.
We have thoroughly explored the movie
adaptations of
Tolkien with articles on the
animated versions and a profile of
film director Peter Jackson, and we have
published original articles on subjects as varied as
Frank Herbert,
Alan Moore,
sexuality in comics,
planet Jupiter in SF,
fantasy art,
heavy metal music,
robotics, and
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In addition to
all this, our frequently updated review sections have covered many new and recent genre
books and
movies.
We would be pleased to hear about your likes and dislikes regarding the content and
design of the website, so far. Any comments are welcome - send messages to:
editor@zone-sf.com. If you write during the next two weeks
(16 - 30 September 2002), please include your full name and postal address with correspondence,
as writers of the three best critical letters (among those published on the site's
Grey Area before end of this month), will
each receive a special mystery gift...
Tony Lee - editor, September 2002
The biggest change at Pigasus Press
this year concerns our premier SF magazine, The ZONE.
With so many small press fiction magazines folding, and while other editors switch
over to online publication (to save on rising costs of printing), as the genre readership and SF fans
seem to be drifting away from hardcopy formats in favour of electronic media, it was inevitable that
some changes would have to made at Pigasus Press, too.
Since there was no need to close the magazine, what we decided to do was separate
The ZONE's non-fiction content from its short stories, and create this website for our new SF
related articles and genre reviews. If you would like to contribute to this SF site, please read our
guidelines.
Subscribers to the printed magazine will continue to receive top quality, original short fiction in
the form of a new
Premonitions
magazine, with every issue of that resurrected title boasting a dozen new short stories, plus a
selection of genre poetry, furthering the model established by recent issues of The ZONE.
The advantages of this diversity means that we are now able to deliver a far higher
standard of production (with colour graphics and lots more images!), to complement The ZONE's
usual range of first class interviews and author profiles, its varied feature articles, genre essays,
retrospective listings, plus a comprehensive section of incisive reviews - covering books, cinema,
TV, video and DVD, and much more. For info updates about this website, join our mailing list - send a
blank message to subscribe.
Tony Lee - editor, September 2001
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