Recently in her blog "Cheryl's Musings," Cheryl was commenting on fans who lament the sad state of reviewing nowadays. I've heard similar complaints from fans for years, either the amount of serious reviewzines available, or the quality of reviews being published. I don't think these complaints are totally valid though. True there are not as many "serious" reviewzines, both on paperzines and webzines, as some of us might like, but there are still a fair number out there which concentrate either in part or in whole on serious discussions of f&sf. And while not all reviewers are as "professional" and unbiased as we might like, others are both serious and free of specific agendas.

I read the complaint of the fan who sparked Cheryl's musings, and his attack on LOCUS was foolish. Any magazine which prints as many reviews as LOCUS does regularly is bound to select some books which will disagree with nearly every fan's taste. If somebody does not enjoy LOCUS’s reviews, then read SF CHRONICLE instead, or SF SITE, a regular bi-monthly review webzine, or Cheryl’s equally-faithful monthly webzine EMERALD CITY. Or do what I did nearly twenty years ago when I noticed the lack of reviewzines available. I started my own reviewzine, originally a semi-annual, now a quarterly. I may only have a circulation of 130 readers, but at least I’m doing my part rather than attacking other people because I just don’t agree with everything they say. Wasn’t it Abraham Lincoln who said “You can’t please all the people all the time?”

WHAT I'M CURRENTLY READING: WYST, the last novel in Jack Vance's ALASTOR series, is perhaps the finest of the three novels. As usual, it is primarily a mystery containing the usual Vancian color and sense of wonder. Highly recommended.