What a curious document – a fanzine about science fiction that looks and reads like an academic journal. The “NCF Guide” is more of a resource list for Canadian SF fans than a fan-based zine, with the majority of its contents dedicated to all-encompassing guides to individual authors and publishers and a lack of subjective, editorial material. Sometimes the zine feels like filler, such as the almost ten-page glossary of slang terms used at SF conventions, but there’s enough real information here to warrant the $2 cover price. My favorite section of the zine is the back page, which presents a flowchart to the history of speculative fiction. (Science Fiction — Future Fiction — Dystopias — Cyberpunk. Ah-hah, so that’s how we got William Gibson!) The biggest criticism I have of the NCF Guide is that it hasn’t been updated since 1989, and contains absolutely no information about fandom on the Internet, which is where the majority of the SF fan industry is now concentrated. Still, a recommendation from me, even if it is a reserved one. (JP)
Zine, 36 pages, $2, Robert Runte, PO Box 4655, Postal St. S. Edmonton, Edmonton Alberta T6E 5G5.