Cheap Truth
In the early-to-mid 1980s author Bruce Sterling, under the pseudonym "Vincent Omniaveritas", edited a series of mostly single-sheet reviewzines titled Cheap Truth. (It was usually referred to as a samizdat, after the typescripts dissidents circulated in Communist Eastern Europe, but that's just a highfalutin name for a fanzine.) In them, Sterling, Lewis Shiner (as "Sue Denim"), Rudy Rucker, and other members of a loose-knit group of SF writers (calling themselves "the Movement" but soon dubbed cyberpunk) attacked what they considered the stagnant state of the time's popular science fiction, its awards (especially the Nebula), and hyped their own works. As such, they document the development of the literary consciousness of the sub-genre's writers.
David Langford published The Complete Cheap Truth containing all the issues below as a 2019 ebook for free download from the TAFF website: "Subversive and fun, Cheap Truth was explicitly not copyrighted and so has been assembled into an Ansible Editions ebook without any tiresome formality about asking permission."
| Issue | Date | Pages | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1983 | 2 | |
| 2 | 1983 | 2 | |
| 3 | 1983 | 2 | |
| 4 | 1983 | 2 | |
| 5 | 1984 | 2 | |
| 6 | 1984 | 2 | anonymous poem "SF: A Rhapsody. After Swift" (also in Paperback Inferno 50, Oct '84), by Brian Aldiss? |
| 7 | 1984 | 2 | |
| 8 | 1985 | 2 | |
| 9 | 1985 | 4 | datestamp JAN 7 1985 at end of p2; 2 extra pages are "Electronic Letter Column", these dated 26 Jan ("RE CT 9", responding to an article in the issue! possibly due to earlier BBS distribution?) to 17 Feb |
| 10 | 1985 | 2 | |
| 11 | 1985 | 2 | |
| 12 | 1985 | 2 | |
| 13 | 1985 | 2 | |
| 14 | 1986 | 2 | |
| 15 | 1986 | 6 | 4pp "Cheap Truth Letter Column" mostly from writers inc. "Orson Card"; from 3 Dec 85 to 22 May 86 (first response to CT15 on 16 May), ending with a xerox from 13 July UK newspaper |
| 16 | 1986 | 4 | "special issue" "Cheap Truth London" on UK fiction with 2 extra pages of "Pilgrimage to Node Zero by Seth L. Lapcart" (Charles Platt) |
| "The Last" | November 1986 | 2 | "The Last Cheap Truth"; the only dated issue |
| no number | 1986 (post-May) | 2 | "Special Unnumbered Edition", big title "Sturgeon: Mercury plus X" – tribute by Brian Aldiss |
- Cheap Truth online at fanac.org (image scans, one PDF)
- The Complete Cheap Truth at TAFF website – all standard eboook formats, 33,500 words
| Publication | 1983—1986 |
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