Customer Reviews

Leading Edge

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Leading Edge presents a fine polyglot of stories, poetry, essays and art, which, if not always unsurpassed by that which appears in wider publications, are certainly worth the price. Stories have ranged from the silliness of "Devil in an Ocean Bloc Container," about the havoc created when the long-vanished Satan is accidentally rediscovered in a bargain-store purchase, to the lyrically tragic "Key to Pain," in which a paralyzed man finds a way to create beauty out of agony, and cover everything in between and beyond besides. An especial draw are surprise interviews with such sci-fi/fantasy greats as Orson Scott Card, Larry Niven, and Terry Brooks. The magazine's editors also offer good-natured, solid advice to aspiring authors on writing, editing, and getting oneself published.

Points of interest:

1. Leading Edge publishes work from just about anyone anywhere,

2. maintains strict standards of integrity and cleanliness, and

3. is run almost entirely by college students (but don't let that fool you).

The only downsides to this magazine are the sorts which plague many smaller publications. The somewhat small and cramped font can be hard on both the eyes and the mind, and the magazine's tight binding does not allow for easy one-handed reading. But what does that matter, really? The contents more than overcome such trifles, and the covers are terrific.

All in all, this magazine is excellent for readers roughly 13 and up.

I love the Leading Edge. It's a semi-pro Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine with fantastic production values. For starters, all the stories have amazing art work accompanying them. I, for one, feel that art and fantasy go together and it's disappointing to not have such images in otherwise excellent magazines like Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine or in a podcast format like Escape Pod / Pod Castle. (Though all of those are excellent in their own right.)

One of the reasons they get such great interviews in this magazine is because it's run by the same (or at least overlapping) people that put together the Life, the Universe, and Everything SF Convention.

And the stories are often excellent for a semi-pro format. For example, in the most recent issue, M.E. Pickett's "Steele" is one of the most profound SF short stories I've read this year. On the surface it seems to be merely a tale of what happens when the hero (superhero) fails. But it's so much more than that for those that look behind the surface.

My only real complaint is that it's only published every 6 months.