3SF

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3SF.
3SF # 2 publisher: Ben Jeapes. editor: Liz Holiday. pub: Big Engine. 74 page magazine. Price: Ł 3.50 (UK)/6Euro or Ł20 for 6 issues. ISSN: 1476-8798.

check out website: www.3sfmag.co.uk and www.bigengine.co.uk

‘3SF’ is a damn good magazine.

The last issue of Crowsnest contained an interview with Ben Jeapes, the man behind the publisher Big Engine.

The same outfit is responsible for ‘3SF’. I've read the first issue and base this review mainly on the second, but by the time you read this, the third will be for sale.

What do you get for your money? Quality Science Fiction is the answer. Seventy-two pages of stories, reviews, comment and interviews.

Eleven stories were printed.

My particular favourite was 'The Last Robot' by David Langford, which took me back to the old Asimov days.

Subject matter varied - there was something for everyone - but of particular interest were 'Looking for God' by Paul E. Martens and 'Nowhere Man' by Sabine Furlong. I haven't a clue who the last person is but surely this name can't be real? An ancient Italian tribe associated with an old Roman measurement unit?

While the reviews and interviews were good, my favourite was still the fiction. I'm glad the fiction wasn't of a variety that was incomprehensible and pretentiously avant-garde. There was no bullshit here...no emperor's new clothes stuff! It was to be read and enjoyed.

Maybe it was thought-provoking at times. Stories took place in this world, other worlds and in the mind - opening the cover took you on a journey.

There is talk of an on-line version coming some time in the future. This will be a useful addition which will add rather than detract from the existing publication. While paper magazines are fairly ubiquitous, another format can't do any harm and there are even those who prefer reading from the computer.

How will ‘3SF’ prosper in the future? It's hoped that it will do well because quality Science Fiction is thin on the ground. I do, however, have reservations as to its financial viability.

Any magazine has a difficult future these days and unless this particular one captures enough devoted fans and subscribers, it will be buried in the mass grave where many such efforts have gone before.

The covers haven't been particularly appealing. There are economic reasons for the lack of proper colour but it should still be possible to get better artwork, especially if this is to appeal to customers in shops and newsstands.

The other problem is that there are quite a lot of pages within which are simply full of text. I think this is great, as do many others, but for mass market appeal this is a turnoff. For years, general educational standards in this country have declined.

We now have lots of people with the attention span of a gerbil - they require little ditty bits in magazines and are aghast at the sight of a page containing a thousand words with no pictures!

However, what can you do?

Change style to lowest common denominator, throw in plenty of glossy and irrelevant pictures, cut stories by half, fill with silly advertisements and issue with a lobotomy kit for general consumption?

There is a Catch 22 here and it won't go away. The only solution is to make the magazine a little bit brighter and attractive without changing the content and hope that the Science Fiction aficionados out there purchase it in sufficiently large numbers to promote financial viability.

However, I'll send some of my ever so humble writings to editor Liz Holiday at some point in the future with the hope that she'll be beneficent to a poor wretch like myself.

I suspect, though, that there will be a huge in-tray of submissions.

If only everyone who submitted a story actually subscribed then their future would be assured.

Rod MacDonald

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