March SF Site and February Emerald City

The latest issue of SF Site has been posted, and it includes a review I wrote of Mere by Robert Reed, a writer whose work I often like (and I sort of liked Mere. I just wanted it to be more ... well, go see the review).

The Reader's Choice poll results have been posted, too, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell easily took the first place spot, as it had done earlier in the poll of SF Site contributors.

Cheryl Morgan has also just put Emerald City 114 online, and it deserves a look not just because it includes her usual copious set of reviews, but because she makes some very astute recommendations (although I think she's bloody bonkers with a certain comment about the Fan Writer category). I wanted to most heartily support the following:
As usual I am going to plead with you to choose some book editors in the Best Professional Editor category. David Hartwell is top of my list, but Juliet Ulman deserves credit for picking up some wonderful British books (as does Lou Anders but his are only just starting to come out next month). As far as magazines go, Ellen Datlow's Sci Fiction is the only one I read regularly. I’ve listed Nalo Hopkinson as she's done some great anthologies recently. And Peter Crowther deserves a little more recognition (this time outside of the World Fantasy Awards) for the marvelous job he's doing with PS Publishing.
Juliet Ulman at Bantam has scooped up many of the best writers and books of the past few years, and deserves huge accolades. I'd also recommend Sean Wallace, as the more I read from Prime, the more impressed I become (in fact, a couple of the books Juliet Ulman snapped up were originally published by Prime). I usually recommend authors and titles to people, but with Prime I feel comfortable recommending the whole publisher -- if the Prime name is on a book, it's more than likely going to be a book that captures your imagination without insulting your intelligence. (That sounds like a blurb. Its not. I've been meaning to praise Prime and Sean for a month now, and the opportunity just presented itself. I've read a pile of Prime books in the past year and a half, and I actively disliked only one. I can't say that about any other publisher.)

For magazines, I certainly second Cheryl's championing of Ellen Datlow -- SciFiction had a great year last year -- and would add Gordon van Gelder to the list, as F&SF also had a very strong year.

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