Absolute Magnitude #5, Fall 1996
Science Fiction Adventures
Quarterly, $4.95 per issue
Editor Warren Lapine
P.O. Box 13
Greenfield, MA 01302

THE OBJECTIVE "I"
Ruthless Reviews of Speculative Fiction Magazines
by Bryan A. Bushemi

It's been a while since I've had an opportunity to look at a copy of Warren Lapine's sci-fi magazine, so I was eager to check out this issue. At first glance, Absolute Magnitude catches the attention with a sharp, 8.5" x 11" color cover illo that also appears inside in B/W accompanying Barry B. Longyear's "Kill all the Lawyers." The inside art is slightly murky, but it is evocative and does give good visual accompaniment to the various fiction pieces. The little spaceship thingies used as end markers for the pieces within were a bit irksome at first until I took a closer look and began to appreciate the neat detail work.

Inside, the table of contents is adequate, but not exceptional. It doesn't label the lone poetry piece as such to differentiate it from the fiction pieces, which it really should. However, it is a decent, straightforward list of the magazine's contents that does its job well enough.

For the most part, I liked how the stories and other pieces were set up. None of them were split in the middle by the ad pages, which is something I hate, and I liked the way each piece ran without interruption. No "Continued on Page 36" foolishness here. There were only two or three instances where ads sharing page space with stories or poems made it hard to immediately locate the text. The end of Jamie Wild's "Behavior Unbecoming an Officer" and the page with Scott E. Green's poem comes to mind. As for the ads themselves, I found them good, clean, and useful. There are several products and publications advertised that Absolute Magnitude's readers would do well to check out.

I had a bit of a problem with the text and printing here.

It's not unreadable, but the darkness and sharpness of the print were inconsistent. There were also several pages, especially across from full page illos, which had black smudges on them, making it slightly difficult to read the text. On the upside, I found very few typos and proofreading errors, and the paragraph and scene separation was very evident. (9.5/9.1/7.0)

OVERALL APPEARANCE RATING: 8.4 out of 11.5

Now, on to the good part--the things with words (heh, eh, me like strowries, heh, eh, eh).

"High Five" by Brian Plante runs about four full pages and then some. It's a story about a young black man who loses an arm in an accident at a meat packing plant and receives an experimental mechanical hand replacement. I really liked this story; it's the second-best fiction piece in the issue. Plante makes good use of technology as seen through his protagonist's homeboy viewpoint, and the resulting character and story development is fascinating. Besides a few minor slips, Plante keeps the protagonist's character consistent and does a good job fleshing out the supporting cast. Brian is an engaging storyteller in the first person; I'm looking forward to seeing more from him in the future.

Individual Story Rating: 9.8 out of 11.5

"The Deckplate Blues" by Algis Budrys checks in at just under four full pages. It tells the tale of a fintip turret gunner on a galactic battleship, set during (what else) an interstellar war. As a veteran of combat myself, I have a strong affinity for stories that give the grunt's-eye view of battle, and boy, does this piece do that with style. By far, this is the best fiction piece of the issue. Mr. Budrys spins a gem of a story here. He brilliantly captures the essence of the common soldier and the sometimes uncommon heroics and self-sacrifice that such men are capable of. His ability to pull the reader into the piece with concise, elegant language is absolutely topnotch. Algis Budrys is a true master of speculative fiction, and he shows it again here.

Individual Story Rating: 11.0 out of 11.5

"The Melancholy of Infinite Space" by Geoffrey A. Landis is a short piece, about three-fourths of a page long. Although it was fairly interesting and beautifully written, it seemed more like a philosophical rumination on the nature of time, man, the universe, and other esoteric subjects than a short story. When I finished, I found myself thinking "O-kaayy, where's the story?" It didn't seem to fit. Still, it did give me something to think about for a minute or so.

Individual Story Rating: 8 out of 11.5

"Empirical Facts" by Don D'Ammassa goes about three-and-a-half pages but I'm not sure whether it should have gone more or less. I wasn't too keen on this piece, which was about negotiations between human military and political representatives and a mysterious, expansion-minded empire led by an imposing, predatorial alien race. D'Ammassa tries to do too much with the idea and as a result, he fumbles a bit. I never felt drawn into the story, despite the promising beginning. Usually, I'm not too fond of the cliched start-in-the-middle-of-the-action kickoff, but I've got to admit that the opening line where an alien matter-of-factly bites off the hand of the senior member of the human delegation got my attention. Other than that, the prose wasn't bad, but it wasn't very compelling.

Individual Story Rating: 7 out of 11.5

"Behavior Unbecoming an Officer" by Jamie Wild runs about seven pages and a spare paragraph. It's a story about a mercenary force going undercover as laborers to infiltrate a planet, protect a labor leader there, and make sure the planet takes the right side in an upcoming interplanetary war. I found this piece to be unconvincing and the characters hollow. In addition, this piece is a textbook example of how NOT to start a story if you are going to begin in the middle of the action. The opening fight scene is a lazy attempt to hook the reader in; I found it off-putting, to say the least. It would have been better if the first scene had followed the second, and a stronger exposition built into the opening. Wild's writing style is decent; not bad, but not very distinctive.

Individual Story Rating: 5.5 out of 11.5

"Sanitary Zone" by Leslie Lupin barely hits three pages in length, but it is well worth reading. It's another military sci-fi story (sense a kind of pattern here?), this time about a futuristic tank crew with a lackluster reserve lieutenant as the vehicle commander and a battle-toughened regular army sergeant gunner. I know what it's like inside the cramped turret of an Infantry Fighting Vehicle, which is pretty much the same as a light tank; I also know what it's like to have a green El-Tee dicking-up the works, just to prove he's in command. Mr. Lupin hits it pretty close to the mark with this story line; the strong characterizations in this piece make for a believable cast. The storytelling is slightly choppy, and the ending moral seems like it is reaching a bit to get the message across. One other thing: maybe it's just because I used to be a grunt myself, but infantry will always be part of the military equation, nerve gas, sanitary zones, or whatever. That's why we have chemical protective gear, my friends. Besides these little inconsistencies, this story works on several levels.

Individual Story Rating: 8.9 out of 11.5

"Kill all the Lawyers- Part II" by Barry B. Longyear is the longest piece in this issue, about 19 pages. Since it's the second installment in a three-part serialized novel and I haven't read the first part, I don't feel qualified to give a summary of this story; I'm missing much of the picture, and I'm not quite clear on some of the plot points. Suffice it to say that Longyear is a masterful storyteller who can spin a sci-fi tale with the best of them. Based on what I read here, I'm definitely going to get my hands on the first part of this story, which I think will improve my already very positive opinion of this piece.

Individual Story Rating: 10.6 out of 11.5

OVERALL STORY RATING: 8.7 out of 11.5

There's only one poem in this issue, "Space Black Banner Without Device" by Scott E. Green, but it's a good one. It's a 20 line free verse eulogy for a destroyed spaceship floating around a lonely planetoid. Despite the brevity of this poem, Green does a good job in bringing the space-bound hulk's history to life with vivid verbal imagery. After reading it, I actually sat for several minutes in contemplation, letting the pictures this poem evoked play out pleasurably in the theatre of my mind. Very nice.

OVERALL POETRY RATING: 10.5 out of 11.5

There are only two actual nonfiction pieces in this issue, an interview of Timothy Zahn by Darrel Schweitzer, and the Book Review section. A short, insightful editorial by editor Warren Lapine is also included at the beginning of the issue, and a Letters page closes the magazine out.

I usually find printed interviews useless, since I need to look at the subject's body language and unspoken communication as well as hearing his or her verbal replies to questions. However, there are exceptions, and this is one of them. Darrel Schweitzer is an able interviewer and he asks some good questions, but he's almost unnecessary here. Timothy Zahn is candid, personable, very well spoken, and seems like a really decent fellow. I highly recommend reading this piece for new writers, since Zahn is a model of what you should do to become successful at the craft; his insights are useful even to old pros.

The Book Review section is the most complete of any magazine I have come across. There are nearly three dozen books discussed here, all but a few fiction, and the reviews are as insightful and in-depth as any I've read. If I ran a magazine, I would definitely want a review staff like the one at Absolute Magnitude working for me. Of particular interest are the three or four nonfiction books talked about here, especially S. T. Joshi's Lord Dunsany, Master of the Anglo-Irish Imagination. It is a study on Dunsany's influence and history in relation to the rise and development of the fantasy genre. It sounds fascinating, and I'm definitely going to try to find it.

One last comment, concerning the Letters page. Of the six letters featured, none have even the slightest negative tone. No magazine is perfect, and I'm sure that Warren Lapine must get a few letters of dissent. I really respect an editor who is willing to print a critical letter or two, and then respond to those criticisms with class, grace, honesty and reason. If more magazines would do so, I think it would do wonders to make more harmonious the sometimes uneasy relationship between magazine editors and their contributors and readers. Other than that, I do agree entirely with the brief editorial replies to the featured letters. (11.2/11.5/10.8/9.8)

OVERALL NONFICTION RATING: 11.1 out of 11.5

All in all, Issue #5 of Absolute Magnitude is well worth the $4.95 price ($5.95 in Canada). The appearance could use a little improvement, and the quality of the fiction was taken down a bit by one or two of the stories, but the Book Review section is awesome (By the way, I gave it an 11.5). Based on my impression of this issue, this is one of the better magazines out there; from my experience with this magazine, the general high quality is consistent from issue to issue. Check it out.

OBJECTIVE "I" TOTAL RATING: 9.2 out of 11.5

If you've got a magazine you'd like an unbiased, comprehensive review of, send me a copy of your latest issue. I can't promise I'll get to it, but I choose my subjects randomly from those available to me, so you have as good a chance as anyone. Remember, though, I don't pull any punches; similarly, if it's good, I'll know it, and I will definitely say so.

Send correspondence to:
Bryan A. Bushemi
8721 West 166th Place
Orland Park, IL 60462-5713

Copyright © 1996 by Bryan A. Bushemi. All Rights Reserved.