Realms of Fantasy
www.rofmagazine.com
$3.99 / $5.99 CDN
Bi-monthly
In my quest to be caught up on a large portion of the science fiction and fantasy short story markets, I decided to give Realms of Fantasy a try after being away from it for a long time (the last issue I had picked up before the October 2004 issue was back in the mid-1990s). This issue was quite good, so I decided to try the next one. While December 2004 wasn't quite as good, it still had some interesting stuff in it. Sure, it doesn't quite attract the big names in fantasy fiction (there is the occasional one, such as Gene Wolfe in the December 2003 issue), but it does have some authors that I have heard of. Kage Baker has had a story published in the magazine (I know! I know! Shut up about Baker!). Also, Stephen Popkes was in the October issue, but I don't think I would have ever heard of him if I hadn't read a couple of "Best of the year" anthologies. Then again, I guess that means he's pretty good.
The authors they do choose, however, seem to be quite good. Sometimes the stories are hit or miss, more so than in the other magazines in my experience. However, being bi-monthly, you're not getting as many stories on a monthly basis as you are with the others. Thus, it just seems like it's not as good. Overall, I'd say that the quality of the writing in this magazine is definitely up there, just not quite as good as the others. When I say Realms of Fantasy is my least favourite of the three that I buy, that is by no a put-down. The stories are always fantasy of some sort (hence the name of the magazine), and that is my preferred genre over science fiction, though I am beginning to like both. You get a wide range of fantasy stories because of that. There could be a sword-n-sorcery story alongside some modern-day fairy tale, or bit of Celtic lore. Probably the magazine's strength is the fairy-tale and mythological stories, which Fantasy & Science Fiction tends to shy away from. I like that.
Then, there are the covers. Egad, some of them are bad. I don't mean bad in an artistic sense, as a lot of them are quite good. I mean bad in the "do I want to be openly reading this on a bus?" way. The artwork tends toward the "chainmail bikini" cheesecake shots, which forced me to fold the October issue cover over when I read it on the way to work. Thank heavens for Lord of the Rings! From what I understand, many of the covers over the last couple of years have been photos from the movies, meaning we can avoid the cheesecake. Thankfully, the December issue is like that, with Frodo Baggins on the cover. Ideally, like Fantasy & Science Fiction and Asimov's, the covers would represent one of the stories. Alas, that's not the way it works.
The magazine does have regular media articles too, including a movies section, a book review section (usually covering a lot more books than either of the other two magazines) and a section on fantasy games. Also included is usually a folkroots article (the December issue had a story on the Mythic Journeys conference in Atlanta and the October issue had an article on historical and fantasy labyrinths), and the occasional "Past Lives" article, which seems to be about clothing a lot (one article is about medieval re-enactors' garb and another is about dressing for time travel). There is also always another main non-fiction article that's highlighted on the cover. The last two issues have been interviews or profiles of fantasy artists, though I can't say whether that's always the case.
Finally, I have to comment on the web site, which isn't always the case with a magazine. They have not updated their web site since the December, 2003 issue came out. That's what's listed under the "Current Issue" tab. This is unforgivable, especially in a magazine that is continuously published. It's not like the magazine is going defunct. They've managed to release an issue reasonably on time for a long while now, so why can't they update their web site? Thankfully, the guidelines for story submission are there, but part of me wonders if it's accurate any more. I suppose it probably is, but the fact that the rest of the site hasn't been updated does make me pause. Sometimes it's nice to go to the web site to see what's coming up, as well as to converse with other fans in the forums (as both Asimov's and Fantasy & Science Fiction have). I can understand not having forums, but the rest is just wrong.
All that being said, Realms of Fantasy is an interesting magazine. It helps that it's bi-monthly, so my wallet doesn't scream too much that I'm not getting my money's worth. I will keep it up for the time being. I am afraid, however, of when they run out of Lord of the Rings photos.
*update* 2/17/05
I just noticed that their web site has now been updated and is current with the February 2005 issue. Hopefully that will continue.
*update* 1/11/06
Just went to their web site, and now they have forums! Excellent!
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