Editorial

Gil Williamson

Thank you to all contributors, and welcome to the August 2017 issue of Mythaxis.

It is a continuing delight to me that original stories still appear in my in-tray.

Each issue gets about 3000 unique visitors, who make an average of two visits, and each visitor looks at an average of six stories.

Authors first published in Mythaxis have gone on to be published elsewhere. If you like the stories in Mythaxis, make sure to tell your friends and social media, and extend the readership.

I have been reviewing my sf library lately, and I am struck by the fact that many of the 1950s pioneers of science fiction are now almost forgotten. Alfred Bester, James Blish, Eric Frank Russell, Damon Knight, Henry Kuttner, Pohl and Kornbluth, Poul Anderson, Roger Zelazny, to name but a few. I recently re-read Zelazny's Lord of Light - a dazzlingly original novel, somewhat eclipsed these days by his Courts of Chaos series, which, however entertaining, pales by comparison. And then there is Bester's Tiger, Tiger and Blish's Cities in Space series.

Happily, we still have my favourites - William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. David Mitchell hovers as a bridge between mainstream and fantasy, as does Nick Harkaway. I much mourn the demise at the age of just fifty-nine of Iain M Banks, but his oeuvre deserves a re-read. Within the last year, I've read Matter, Player of Games and Consider Phlebas.

So, it is to be hoped that the next decade's author is lurking in the (HTML) pages of Mythaxis. I certainly feel there is considerable talent here. Read on, and enjoy.

(The heading picture is not in fact a volcanic eruption, but the daily magic of sunrise over the mountains of Crete, taken from Koutouloufari.)

© Gil Williamson 2017 All Rights Reserved