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FTL [magazine]

Entry updated 2 April 2015. Tagged: Publication.

1. Irish Amateur Magazine published by the Irish Science Fiction Association, Dublin with a succession of editors, starting and ending with John Kenny (#1-#2, #11), plus David Egan (#3-#4), Michael Carroll (#5-#6), David Egan (#7-#8) and Robert Elliott (#9-#10). It ran from March 1989 to Winter (December) 1991 ending (from issue #9 Summer 1991) as a trim, A4-size, glossy magazine of 28 rather packed pages. It was rare for Eire to have its own magazine and the contents were soon filled with stories that revelled in that freedom of exuberance and the great Irish tradition of storytelling. As a result the stories were often shallow in detail but full of atmosphere and local colour. The stories ranged from the highly humorous to the deadly serious. At the one extreme was Robert Elliott, who had four satirical stories in the second issue (June 1989) but whose most amusing story was "Of Meat and Two Veg" (March 1989) in the first issue, where it is only in the very far future that Time Travel has been perfected by which time humans have evolved into vegetables. Starting with "Illegal Alien" (March 1989), Bobby McLaughlin contributed a series about an Alien who is stranded in Dublin, using the stories to satirize the contemporary Irish scene. At the other extreme were the works of John Kenny and Michael Carroll. Kenny's "Malachi's Return" (Summer 1990 #5) depicts a Far Future global tyranny based on the Catholic church. Carroll's "Sight Out of Mind" (Spring 1991 #8) contrasts the 1970s with the 1990s when a rebellious teenager Timeslips into the body of his prosperous future self. In similar mode "Shelter" (Autumn 1990 #6) by David Murphy shows how sectarianism and class distinction continues in the aftermath of a nuclear war (see World War Three). FTL retained the atmosphere of an amateur production even in its last three Semiprozine issues, but this was part of its charm, and what the editors learned they applied with greater skill and maturity to Albedo One. [MA]

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2. US downloadable Online Magazine which paid a full rate but only for the story chosen as best in the issue. It was produced by Patrick Burrows, who intended it to be a monthly magazine, but it only saw one issue, February 2002, all trace of which is now lost except for the editorial in the internet archives, which does name the four stories: "The Gallows" by Kim L Rivera, "The Robe" by Robert Rousseau, "Pupils" by Allan Ecker and "Atonement" by Rick Partlow. None of these stories seems to have surfaced elsewhere. FTL ceased when the editor was approached by a British science magazine of the same name and alerted to the clash of titles. [MA]

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