Way back long, long ago when I used to have time to regularly read multiple sci fi and fantasy magazines, F&SF was always known as the "literary" one -- if you wanted hard science fiction, Analog was a better bet. I recently read through the latest (Jan/Feb issue) of F&SF, and I can report that reputation is still intact.
It can be a bit of a problem sometimes, because it's hard to create a deep world in a short story. And this issue suffers from that -- many of the stories barely touch the surface of a much larger world, which can ironically make the tale seem shallow, despite its being caused by a greater depth of vision.
Two stories, however, stood out to me as balancing story and context, giving the reader something completely new yet telling a compelling story: The Long Retreat and City of the Dog.
The Long Retreat does barely touch on a larger (in this case indefinitely larger) world, but includes a compelling set of characters and politics. Despite the completely unfamiliar setting, it's a well told story, drawing you along and making you want to know where it will end up.
City of the Dog is a horror story. In this case, the feeling of there being an extended and unknown world of darkness beyond the immediate story adds greatly to the sense of horror. And the character development gives a context for internalizing that horror.
So if you're looking for good writing set in a very different environment, neither mainstream spoon-feed-the-reader-to-the-inevitable-happy-ending fiction, nor the familiarity and predictability of fiction set in our own world, give F&SF a try.
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