Fantasy Magazine
http://fantasy-magazine.com
By A.M. Dellamonica
Fantasy Magazine may be best known for its popular Friday challenge, "Blog for a Beer," in which visitors are encouraged to post entertaining short commentaries on the SF field in general or, sometimes, on assigned topics like the Hugo Awards or the ending of Cloverfield. The contest's point might be said to be putting engaging reading material in front of SF fansand the same can be said for this webzine as a whole.  The Fantasy Magazine site is built around a showcase of original fiction by newer authors like Lisa Mantchev and Kelly Barnhill. The 'zine has an active book-review team, which includes some very seasoned readers indeed: Paula Guran, Victoria Strauss and Rich Horton, to name three. Tucked in among the stories and reviews are artist profiles, author and editor interviews and a lengthy round-table discussion about people of color in fantastic literature. New material is posted to the Web page on an almost daily basis, encouraging faithful readers either to check back regularly or to subscribe to the RSS feed.
This Web page has been in operation for about six months (after a period of two years as a print magazine), and it appears to be in robust healthit has an attractive, reader-friendly design, its content is scrupulously well edited, and it offers a competitive pay rate for fiction. The stories archived on the site tend to have an Old World tone to them, one that carries readers backward in time, but they cover a range of moodsthere are fables, bits of whimsy and darkly twisted fairy tales to be enjoyed within the virtual pages of this magazine. Though still young by the standards of Internet publishing ventures, Fantasy appears to be off to a very promising start. |