Fantasy News & Lifestyle Magazine

I don’t often post magazine reviews here, but Fantasy News & Lifestyle is new and from Germany. There are seven issues available in German, but the two most recent are also in English. So what’s going on in Fantasy in Germany?

The first thing that pops out at you is that title. Lifestyle? Really? Are they going to be running articles about recipes and home decorating? Well no, but the first English issue contains a report on the World Cosplay Summit and on a games convention in Taipei. The magazine is very much geared towards fans and, as they saying goes, ‘fandom is a way of life.’

That said, this is not a media-obsessed publication. The two issues also include author interviews, and the first issue has a piece about a much-loved German bookshop. The second issue has an article about SFWA, and one about the Leipzig Book Fair.

Although the magazine is originally written in German, the English translations are entirely understandable. There’s the occasional unnecessary apostrophe (e.g. a column titled “Tips for Author’s”), but that’s probably the fault of online translators or grammar checkers and anyway you see far too much of that from native English speakers.

My only serious reservation about the magazine is that the first issue contains a glowing article about the benefits of AI, particularly with respect to art. It occurs to me that some of the art in the magazine may be AI-generated. This is unfortunate. I have no idea what the state of the debate over AI is in Germany (hello, Cora, are you reading this?), but I would be surprised if German artists are not as furious about AI as those in the Anglophone world.

Regardless, Alex Struever clear puts a huge amount of effort into the magazine, which is beautifully laid out. If you want to check it out you can find it here.