Any Analog (Formerly Astounding) Readers?

[dkotschessaa]

Just curious. http://www.analogsf.com is a monthly sci-fi and fact magazine that has been around since 1938, formerly as "Astounding Science Fiction." The stories are classified as "hard" sci-fi, and the stories tend to have a more gritty and lest fantastical feel than most popular sci fi. Your more likely to read about a generation ship, or exploration of our own solar system, it's planets and moons, rather than warp drives, teleportation devices etc. (FTL travel happens occasionally to drive a story along, but I have yet to see anybody get "beamed" anywhere).

The science involved isn't always physics but might be biology, chemistry, genetics, or linguistics (in the case of regular contributor Juliette Wade, whose stories tend to be based on cultural linguistics).

The magazine also includes fact articles, which are not as technical as a dissertation but probably above the level of any popular science magazines. Sometimes a fiction story will be followed or preceded by a fact article pertaining to the science within the story.

Several of the regular contributors hang out on the forums associated with the website(above.) A lot of my renewed interest in science and the inspiration to go back into academia stems from reading this magazine and talking to the contributors here, including of whom are physicists, biologists, anthropologists, linguists etc. If one of your goals includes writing sci-fi then these are great people to connect with. Occasionally Analog has a story about the writing process itself.

Anyway, just wondering if anybody here is a fan or if there is even any forum crossover.

-DaveKA

 

[fresh_42]

I grew up in a different culture, so it's not me who knew it. We have another long running Sci-Fi story: Perry Rhodan. But it sounds interesting and now that I've found this old thread I'm curious, too:

Does anybody know AnalogSF?

 

[hmmm27]

Astounding/Analog/etc is (or at least was) a staple of corner stores' magazine section (US&Canada) . Wikipedia states the publication started in 1930, so we're almost at 90 years.

Being more a fan of full-length novels/series, I tend to treat short stories as snacks in-between meals, but the mag and its competitors certainly served as an introduction to some of my favourite authors. Always worth the read.

 

[phinds]

I read Analog regularly starting in the mid 50's and going for a decade or so. It tended to have a good story every now and then and a great story occasionally. I'm not familiar w/ its current incarnation.

 

[member 656954]

I used to read it, back in the day, even submitted a short to it once - it was rejected, but then Kindle came along, so I elaborated my short into a novel, and there you go, now a published author with readers paying and everything - but I've grown out of shorts (so to speak) and prefer to read novels.

As with any collection, quality was dependent on the day, which meant if the cover didn't have an author I liked, I'd tend to spend my money elsewhere. I do recall the technical essays, they were often over my head as a kid, but as with many threads in PF, even if you don't get the math, the concepts sure are fun to see batted about.

I'm actually surprised it's still going, so just had a look online and wow, the cover art for the current edition just looks so old school, LOL.

 

[Hsopitalist]

My father wrote several stories for these magazines, and others as well. (Dr. Arlan Andrews sr.)

 

[SPL]

Interesting site, I added it to my Favorites. I miss the era of Azimov, Lem, Clarke.

 

[hmmm27]

Interesting site, I added it to my Favorites. I miss the era of Azimov, Lem, Clarke.

There are actually some really decent modern authors. The only decline in quality I've noticed over the last <cough, cough, 'scuze me just a cold> years is cover art.

 

[Whipley Snidelash]

I read SF and science exclusively before 1970. I still have a couple hundred Ace paperbacks. I never liked any of the magazines. They just never cut it compared to books.