Reference articles on history, science, culture and more
Surprise meSurprise meSubscribe
Encyclopedia

Science Fiction Chronicle

American magazine (1979-2006)

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
5 min read
Source updated September 13, 2026
Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Science Fiction Chronicle (SFC]) was an American science fiction magazine (or "semiprozine") published from 1979 to 2006. During its last four years, its title was shortened to Chronicle.

01History

Science Fiction Chronicle was founded, and initially owned and published, by Andrew I. Porter, originally as a section of Porter's older fanzine Algol, appearing there first in 1978. SFC became an independent publication in October 1979. The magazine was first published monthly, then bimonthly, then monthly again, though its publication became irregular for its final few issues. The magazine's circulation reached its highest point around 2001, with over 10,000 copies per issue. It had various subtitles such as "the Monthly SF and Fantasy News Magazine" and "SF, Fantasy and Horror's Monthly Trade Journal".

Porter sold SFC to DNA Publications in May 2000 and was fired from it in 2002 (which led to "swirling rumors" in the science fiction circles); his final issue was #226, July 2002.

From around the same time (issue #228, September 2002), until its final few issues (issue #265, December 2005/January 2006), the magazine was renamed Chronicle, ostensibly to avoid confusion with the San Francisco Chronicle. Its last issue was #267 in June 2006.

02Editors

Porter was also the initial editor of the magazine for about two decades, until 2002. According to ISFDb, from 2001 to 2006 the editor of Chronicle was Warren Lapine; SFE instead lists later editors as (from #229, October 2002) John R. Douglas and (from #257, April 2005) Ian Randal Strock.

03Content

SFC published literary criticism, news on authors, artists, events and publishing, information related to fandom, interviews related to the genre (including, among others, Michael Kandel, Michael Swanwick and George Zebrowski), information on the science fiction literary market, convention reports, and fiction.

Its contributors included Vincent Di Fate, Jo Fletcher, Harris Lentz III, Frederik Pohl, Jeff Rovin and Robert Silverberg.

04Reception

Gardner Dozois described it as "not quite as vital as Locus" but "also full of interesting information". Peter Nicholls and David Langford also remarked that its "coverage was not as broad" as that of Locus; although it also covered some other topics. They noted that it was "something of an East Coast institution" and that it "offered an alternative voice for the sf community".

In Issue 32 of Abyss, Dave Nalle noted "What SFC has to distinguish it is a rather nice line on the intrigues of publishing, and short but consistently on-target book reviews." However, Nalle also pointed out editorial problems, including, "an amateurish editorial attitude, a nauseating orientation towards the lowest common denominators of SF fandom, annoying convention reports, and trouble keeping up with its [publication] schedule." Nalle also rated the actual amount of content only 2 out of 10, commenting, "On the whole there are actually less than a dozen pages of densely printed text [out of 42] in an issue of SNC." Nalle concluded by giving it an overall rating of 4 out of 10, saying, "The price is reasonable, and SFC is different enough ... that you might find it worth looking into."

05Awards received

Porter received a Special Award at the Worldcon in 1991 for his "years of continuing excellence" in editing Science Fiction Chronicle. The magazine was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine numerous times, winning the award twice (consecutively in 1993 and 1994).

06SF Chronicle Award

From 1982 to 1998 SFC presented an award for achievements in the field of science fiction, in a number of categories. It was based on a reader's poll, similar to the Locus Award. Sources discussing the award refer to it variously as: the SF Chronicle Award, the Science Fiction Chronicle Readers Poll or the Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Award.

Some of the categories and awards given included:

Novel
Novella
Novelette
Short Story
Dramatic Presentation
Watch videos about Science Fiction ChronicleExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Science Fiction Chronicle”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.