September 11, 2001. Has all the fun been taken out of the post-apocalypse? Has the appeal of the genre been forever ruined by the events of Sept. 11? A great tragedy was visited upon the United States, and indeed the free world, last month. The short and long-term effects of this tragedy remain to be seen, but it is certain that the world is forever changed. We'll leave it to other sources and sites to ponder the social, economic, political and military changes that will surely come. Here at AFM, we are concerned with the effects that the tragedy and shifting world-view will have upon fiction and entertainment. Certainly the past month has been spent glued to the news reports coming in from New York (in fact AFM HQ is located just outside of the city), Washington, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Most television stations have preempted/rewritten the new fall season to make room for the continuing news coverage. But surely, people will need to get back to entertainment, to escape into fiction, at some point. Now more than ever. But the question is, are people still going to be interested in the same KINDS of entertainment? Will violence in fiction see a dramatic decrease, or will it remain unaffected? Has war fiction, post-apocalypse-fiction lost or gained any of its original appeal? What do you think? --Scott C. Carr, Editor --Editor, Scott C. Carr

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