On the 16th, johnjosephadams posted a note in his blog announcing that Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine would give free copies of the September, 2007 issue if the recipients blogged about it. And you had to write something of substance. As Mr. Adams puts it, So instead of blogging "The cover sucks," you're supposed to write "The cover OF THE SEPTEMBER 2007 ISSUE sucks." Not being one to turn down free words of quality, I volunteered. I tend read magazines hit-and-miss so I'm going to my comments in pieces. I won't call them "reviews" because, as Mr. Keen points out in the Cult of the Amature, I one of the monkey set.

First two items...

Requirements for the Mythology Merit Badge by Kevin N. Haw - I don't get it. It's a list of requirements for a merit badge, I guess the kind you used to get in the Boy Scouts. There was absolutely no context for this little piece. I just don't get it. Maybe if there was an opener about "Today boys and girls, we are going to work on your Mythology Merit Badge. As you know, this badge is mandatory to become a Junior Giant." There were some amusing ideas but I think some setup would have gone a long way.

If We Can Save Just One Child... by Robert Reed - This was an interesting story. The title was the thing that caught my eye; it sounds so much like our PC culture today. Everything is for the children. How did we manage to grow up? Reed's story resonates with ideas from the world today: the undercurrent of fear, the cameras, the "police" presence, the incident reports, the "I need to ask you a couple of questions." He did a good job keeping the reader wondering what the big fear is until the middle of the story. Some interesting interplay between the characters. Interesting climax and resolution. Could have been a little tighter, I think, but a good story.

More to come...

Mood-o-Meter: busy