Unabashed

I don’t do many of these, but the folks at GUD were kind enough to send me an advance copy of their first second (they started at #0–whoops) issue to review. I printed it off and set about reading it with a very critical mindset, to be critical in the very definition of the word. But it’s hard to be overly critical with something you love, and I find myself loving this magazine.

The entire magazine is entirely readable, for starters, which is an accomplishment in itself. There’s not a single throw-away story from the first page to the pleasing end, and it’s packed with stories which I feel can appeal to every reader, whether they prefer speculative fiction in its many brands or mainstream contemporary literature or even slice-of-life non-fiction. It’s rare for a magazine to be put together so well, to be attractive and enjoyable from start to finish, but that’s exactly how I found GUD. I’m a subscriber to a few magazines currently, and I read a good many more than I subscribe to, and I can’t think of another single issue of any magazine that didn’t have at least one story that I didn’t like. Not so with GUD. It’s 200+ pages of fantastic fiction, some humorous and some dark, a bit of scifi, a touch of fantasy, a spackling of horror, poetry and art and tons of great reading.

And the writing? Well, from my point of view it’s exceptional. It’s a veritable how-to document for a new writer trying to come to grips with the “show don’t tell” mantra that’s so often repeated in critiquing circles. And, even better, it’s edited to near perfection. There’s not much to dislike in this magazine in which, when trying to put together a list of my favorite stories from it, every single title leaps off the page and begs to be included, and they are all worthy.

But of course, I set out to be critical and here’s the only God’s-honest critique I can come up with: They’ve set the bar too high. This may be the best single issue of a magazine I’ve ever read. If they keep this up, I’ll be a subscriber forever. And I should add that I’m not being paid to say this: this is my honest opinion. Regardless of how the magazine progresses from here, they’ve put together a work of art with this first issue that I’ll no doubt be reading again and again. It’s rare that I’ll put a magazine on my bookshelves, much less keep one for any length of time in anything other than a box in the attic, but this one is special. This one’s a keeper.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: GUD