One of the UK's last print science fiction magazines, Odyssey, folds in a flurry of confusion
01/09/1999 . Source: Jessica Martin 

We've had some reports about the death of the UK's SF magazine Odyssey and contacted two members of staff; one who turned out to have left a long time ago (despite still being listed on their web site) and the more recently ex-editor cum publisher Liz Holliday.

Unfortunately we haven't been able to get much sense out of either of them.

Ms Holliday kept on promising to send us a press release on the subject, but the two e-mails she sent in both turned up blank (mastering the use of the attachment button in E-mail has never been a strong point among hacks).

Whether this qualifies as a 'no comment', we're not quite sure?

The puff piece on her career did happily get into our hands though.

Here it is …

Liz Holliday's SF and fantasy stories have appeared in anthologies and magazines. In 1994 she was nominated for both the EasterCon Award and the Crime Writers Association Short Story Dagger. A graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop, she has also written ten TV novelisations and a stack of SF journalism. She is fiction editor of (RPG magazine) Valkyrie.

Hey, that's one connected ex-editor!

Seriously though, we suspect that the demise of Odyssey owes much to our chums at newsagent super-power WH Smith, who we are told now favour big publishers so much that any poorly funded newbies trying to strike publishing gold don't get much of a look in. Boo hiss.

Once again, Interzone is the only professionally produced fiction magazine in the UK for sci-fi and fantasy.

Sadly, ever was it thus.

Odyssey's site (which like their URL, is somewhat shite) can be found over here.