I’m very pleased, and somewhat relieved, to announce that the first issue of Into the Ruins is finished, proofread, approved, and ready for your reading pleasure. Subscribers should be receiving their issues shortly and those who aren’t ready to subscribe but who would like to check out the first issue anyway are encouraged to order a copy to peruse at their pleasure. Aside from purchasing directly from me (aka Figuration Press) at the previous link, you can also order directly from Amazon. For international readers, you can go to the issue page for links to international Amazon sites it’s available at or for a link to order directly from CreateSpace, which ships throughout the world.
All that out of the way, let’s talk about this issue and it’s content. The journal will arrive to you as a 110 page, 7″ x 10″ paperback with gorgeous cover art by W. Jack Savage; an Editor’s Introduction from myself, Joel Caris, who is your friendly editor and publisher; book reviews of three different science fiction novels, with many thanks to Justin Patrick Moore for his review of The Great Bay; a variety of letters to the editors from readers and subscribers across the world; and—most importantly—five fantastic new stories from G.Kay Bishop, N.N. Scott, J. Shamburger, Tony f. whelKs, and Catherine McGuire. I have to say, I can be a bit picky about my fiction and I worried at times about finding a series of stories that I both loved as fantastic stories in their own right, and that I thought represented a deindustrial future in a compelling and realistic way. Turns out, no worries. These five authors knocked it out of the park, and I’m incredibly proud to present their stories to you.
In fact, I’m incredibly proud of this product in general. It turned out better than I could have ever hoped, and I don’t say that purely for marketing gloss. It really is good, and I really am excited to share it with the world. I also can’t wait to hear what people think of it, and I’m hopeful that readers will share their thoughts with me at editor@intotheruins.com, both as casual emails (rambling acceptable!) and as official letters to the editor that I can consider for publication in the second issue of Into the Ruins, coming fast.
Lastly, I want to provide a huge thanks to John Michael Greer, without whose encouragement and assistance this magazine wouldn’t exist; Shane Wilson, who proved a steady and invaluable Assistant Editor; Justin Patrick Moore, who offered up a lovely book review for publication; my amazing partner Kate O’Neill, who has put up with me devoting so much attention to this project; to George Fehling, for taking a chance on advertising his novel, Dark Peak, in a not-yet-existent publication; to all those who wrote early letters to the editor in anticipation of this project; W. Jack Savage, for providing such a beautiful cover without even being solicited; and of course to all the fantastic authors published herein, whose imaginative works form the backbone of this publication and, ultimately, are the reason it exists. And finally, to everyone who has subscribed (or who still is yet to subscribe, from which you can still receive the first issue!), thank you for supporting this project and helping to make it happen. Your early support was critical to getting it off the ground.
Now go read the issue and enjoy some fantastic deindustrial and post-peak science fiction!
Into the Ruins 