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Customer Reviews of Fortean Times

Curiousier and curiousier........
This is the one and only magazine I have been subscribing to for 4 years now, I just don't want to miss getting an issue at the bookstore. This magazine always tweaks my intellect and satisfies my curiousity. Also being a British publication you don't have that annoying 'continued on page 88' while reading an article , the article's pages run continously to the start of the next article.

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Review of Number 161: Aug 2002
I've been with the Fortean Times since way back at issue 31. Over the years since then it has got more glossy, but it still never ceases to amaze me. This latest issue is no exception.

Fortean Times is a monthly mag founded in 1973 to continue the work of Charles Fort, who, in the early part of the 20th Century was among the first to speculate that mysterious lights in the sky might be from outer space; coiner of the term "teleportation", and chronicler of all that these days are considered the realm of "The X Files". The magazine continues his tradition of reporting "damned" phenomena in an objective manner.

The "damned" covers a wide range, and in the pages of this magazine you'll find articles on such varied subjects as religious miracles, the latest happenings in UFOlogy, sightings of strange or out-of-place animals, and the weirdest cartoons in Christendom. Regular favourites include the "Strange deaths" column which details the many varied ways the human race can find to shuffle off this mortal coil.

This issue is well up to usual standards.
First up in the news section there is a report on how the Queen Mother's death led to a holiday park fire when the curse of the Koh-I-Noor diamond struck again; a reported 120 million year old map found carved in stone in the Ural mountains; a report of a family of nine children, all given up for adoption, who became close friends without knowing of their relationship and some great snippets on current advances in astronomy - including the interesting news that out towards the stars Pioneers 10 and 11 are slowing down. Not by much, but nobody knows why!

There's more news on an American on trial for murder who believed he was back in time killing Adolf Hitler; news of man-made structures off the coasts of Malta and the Isle of Wight; the latest on the Roberto Calvi Itlaian masonic banking affair; how to fold a dollar bill to see a representation of the Twin Towers burning; the origins of the stories about "The Curse of the Mummy" and the latest from the world of cryptozoology, including news on the search for a hairy man-beast in North East India.

And all that is before we get to the main articles, the meat of the magazine.

The first of the feature articles is a long piece on David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" murderer, who the writer Jon Vincent Sanders believes was not working alone, and was a member of a black magic underground in New York. I wasn't quite convinced by the article - it covered the history well, but didn't provide any strong evidence for the writer's theory.

The second article, by FT editor Paul Sieveking, is the sort of thing the magazine does so well. It is a run down of the history of feral children - those brought up by cats, dogs or monkeys. The writer traces many stories from all ages of human history, summarises the main points succinctly, and provides an exhaustive list of references. This is the way research on so-called "Weird" topics should be done.

The main article in this issue is a long profile of Sci-Fi legend Philip K Dick, detailing both his place in Fortean literature, and also his influence on current Sci-Fi cinema, particularly with reference to the latest blockbuster "Minority Report". Impressively, FT has garnered opinions on Dick from most of the big names in Brittish genre fiction, and some of them are very forthright in their views. There's also an investigation into Dick's very own "damned" life, including the super-intelligence VALIS that he believed he was in communication with.

The rest of the magazine is taken up by a couple of short articles, including a look at some of the odder events of the Queen mother's life, an extensive letters section that's, as usual, entertaining and enjoyable, and a reviews section covering books on George Bush's connection to big business, Jack the Ripper, and seeing ghosts; a review of "Minority Report" and more of the brilliant cartoons that are studded through the mag.

I write genre fiction, and this magazine is a constant source of ideas for stories, but above all else, it's the entertainment that counts, and FT provides that, consistently.

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I have subscribed for several years now.
There is ALWAYS something interesting in FT. I grant that it's a bit like World Weekly news with better writting and geared to a different audience, but the odd news stories (yeah, some of them aren't true sad to say) are worth the price alone. They heve a travel article and THE HIEROPHANT is incredibly good, there are book reviews and they aren't just saying it's all true, there was an excellent article about faking your own ghost photos and they do make attacks on the obviously misinformed. It's a fun read and I always look forward to my new issue. A few years back they had this article about a crop circle convention, on one hand the people wo say aliens made them on the other the group that say THEY made them.