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Contents : FANZINES 8 August 2001 By Ted White NOVA EXPRESS (Lawrence Person P.O. Box 27231 Austin TX 78755-2231 e-mail to lawrenceperson@jump.net available for $5 a copy or $12 for four issues $15 after September 15 2001) Nova Express is yet another type of fanzine: what is now called the sercon fanzine. Sercon stands for serious and constructive and the term was originally coined (in the early 50s) as a sarcastic put-down of overly earnest and humorless efforts but by the late 80s the term had been co-opted by the publishers of serious science-fiction-oriented fanzines. This kind of fanzine owes its existence to the Richard Geis fanzines of the 70s variously titled but best known as The Alien Critic. The typical sercon fanzine runs an article or two on science fiction topics at least one interview with an author and many book reviews. Unfortunately none of the editors of these fanzines has the deft touch of Geis and consequently none of their fanzines are as lively. Nonetheless the 21st issue of Nova Express does have a lively feature interview with Tim Powers which takes up over a third of the (44 page) issue followed by three reviews of two of Powers books. Powers talks about his friendship with Phil Dick ( Among other things he was probably the best-read person I ve ever met. And probably the only actual genius I ll ever know well. And also the funniest guy I ever met. ) about selling his first two books to the absurd Roger Elwood s Laser Books and about his dealings with Lester del Rey as an editor ( When he would reject a book he would send you a four-page single-spaced rejection letter and many of the points would be totally correct so you d think All right thanks! ) as well as discussing his own work at length. There is one article in this issue The Falling Rate of Profit Red Hordes and Green Slime: What the Fall Revolution Books are About by Ken MacLeod. In it MacLeod responds to an editorial query to write about his four books why you wrote these four books what you meant to say and how they fit together. The rest of the issue is largely taken up with two Featured Reviews and twenty-five more book reviews plus less than a page of letters (one of which is mine). The book reviews are generally intelligent and literate and written to what I consider a professional level. Indeed the entire production is professional in appearance with clean graphic design boxed pull quotes in the interview and article and a small cover banner that announces One-Time Hugo Nominee! Small touches however deliberately belie the professional appearance: A larger cover headline proclaims Winner of the Invisible City Good Citizenship Award! Really! a cover motto We go to Eleven calling the letters Viewer Mail and crediting righthand editorial staffer book reviewer and interviewer Fiona Kelleghan in the extensive masthead as Sound Engineer. In the letter column editor Person argues with me as he did an issue earlier with E. B. Frohvet that Nova Express is a fanzine and not a semiprozine. And I guess these little touches are part of why he regards it as a fanzine. But he wants to sell it and makes no mention of giving away issues for trades or letters of comment two practices typical of most fanzines so Nova Express lies in a gray area between the two types of publications. For what it is it is very well-done and I recommend it to those of you looking for literate intelligent commentary on current science fiction. Ted White

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