Interzone Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine #226
Read Interzone Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine #226 Online
Authors: TTA Press Authors
TTA Press
www.ttapress.com
Copyright ©2010
EDITORIAL—A Testing Time for the Test of Time
ANSIBLE LINK—David Langford's News & Gossip
INTO THE DEPTHS OF ILLUMINATED SEAS—Jason Sanford
IN THE HARSH GLOW OF ITS INCANDESCENT BEAUTY—Mercurio D. Rivera
AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN—Rachel Swirsky
BOOK ZONE—Various Book Reviews
LASER FODDER—Tony Lee's DVD/BD Reviews
MUTANT POPCORN—Nick Lowe's Film Reviews
ISSN
0264-3596 ] Published bimonthly by TTA Press, 5 Martins Lane, Witcham, Ely, Cambs CB6 2LB, UK (t: 01353 777931)
Copyright
]
(C)
2010 Interzone and its contributors
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Fiction Editors
] Andy Cox, Andy Hedgecock
Book Reviews
Editor
] Jim Steel
Story
Proofreader
] Peter Tennant
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] Pete Bullock
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STORIES
INTO THE DEPTHS OF ILLUMINATED SEAS—Jason Sanford
Illustrator: Ben Baldwin
(benbaldwin.co.uk)
HIBAKUSHA—Tyler Keevil
Illustrator: Mark Pexton
(superego-necropolis.deviantart.com)
IN THE HARSH GLOW OF ITS INCANDESCENT BEAUTY—Mercurio D. Rivera
Illustrator: Jim Burns
(alisoneldred.com/artistJimBurns.html)
HUMAN ERROR—Jay Lake
Illustrator: Daniel Bristow-Bailey
(dbbcreative.co.uk)
AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN—rachel swirsky
AQUESTRIA—Stephen Gaskell
Illustrator: Jim Burns
(alisoneldred.com/artistJimBurns.html)
FEATURES
EDITORIAL—A Testing Time for the Test of Time
ANSIBLE LINK—David Langford's News & Gossip
READERS’ POLL—Vote for your favourite (and not so favourite) stories of 2009
BOOK ZONE—Various Book Reviews
LASER FODDER—Tony Lee's DVD/BD Reviews
MUTANT POPCORN—Nick Lowe's Film Reviews
Fantasy author Mark Charan Newton recently sparked a passionate blog discussion on the viability of sf and fantasy, concluding that sf is in terminal commercial decline while fantasy flourishes. Sf, he suggests, is falling victim to a positive feedback loop in which declining sales leave publishers unwilling to take risks.
Novelist Mark Chadbourn took issue with Newton's thesis, suggesting a definable ‘community’ makes sf more likely to stand the test of time. He lamented the fragmentation of audiences into ‘tiny tribes': in order to flourish, he argued, both fields need writers willing to cross the boundaries of micro genres.
It is dangerous to write off entire genres. They tend to flourish, decline, and re-emerge—consider the fortunes of crime and horror over the years. Modern publishers react rapidly to instantly available and detailed sales information, but that doesn't mean their indicators are reliable in the longer term.
In an era defined by corrosive anxiety, profound unease and free floating anger you'd expect a significant readership for fiction offering spiritual truth and new ways of understanding the world.
Alan Garner's celebrated essay ‘The Voice in the Shadow’ relates the true story of an artist caught up in the siege of Stalingrad. As winter stung and people starved he was asked to draw the witches, trolls, ogres and goblins of folk memory. Fantasy offered spiritual truth.
And so too does sf. I don't know much about the science in science fiction but I know what I like: at its best, contemporary sf is profound and mysterious; one of the few forms that deals with the unknown and offers possibilities for coping with a mutable world.
I enjoyed Newton's provocative piece, but he may have jumped the gun with this theory. We saw plenty of sf at its best in 2009, from writers such as Suzanne Palmer, Jason Sanford, Will McIntosh and Nina Allen. Sf free of the tiny tribe mentality. Sf offering new myths; conjuring fresh and provocative images; and helping us cope with a world of disaffection, transience and loss. Sf, we hope, that resists premature burial.
Copyright (C) 2010 Andrew Hedgecock
Tell Me The Old, Old Story.
Morena Baccarin, playing the lead alien in the new
V
, has a unique insight: ‘"V” is not necessarily a science-fiction show. It's more about relationships, drama and everyday stuff...’ (
Boston Herald
) Likewise BBC1's
Paradox
, featuring Dick-style efforts to avert future disasters displayed by a precognitive computer: Tamzin Outhwaite, playing one would-be averter, says ‘It's not sci-fi; it's more a police drama with a mad twist.’ (
Total TV Guide
) [MPJ] She did not reach this conclusion lightly: ‘Initially I thought it was a sci-fi project... Then I read the script and realised it wasn't. It's about police officers trying to work out whether there is a worm hole between two time zones.’ (
Teletext TV Plus
)
Frank Frazetta
's son Alfonso was caught red-handed removing $20m worth of parental paintings from the Frazetta museum in Pennsylvania, after an accomplice ripped off its door with a mechanical excavator (or backhoe, as they say over there). Alfonso informed police that his father
told
him to do this; Frazetta Senior says he didn't. (BBC)
Court Circular.
B.C. Bamber (who?) self-published a dystopian sf novel snappily titled
The Vast and Gruesome Clutch of Our Law
. When his father is bumped off by secret police, the hero ‘escapes and sets out to halt the vile purges of Intrum and Justica ...’ Could Bamber have a grudge against the feared UK debt collection agency Intrum Justitia? ‘The firm is consulting its legal advisers.’ Vile purges may follow. (
Times
)
Awards.
Booktrust Teenage Prize:
Neil Gaiman,
The Graveyard Book
.
World Fantasy Award
for novel (tie): Jeffrey Ford,
The Shadow Year
; Margo Lanagan,
Tender Morsels
.
Terry Goodkind
has been cruelly misjudged: ‘First of all, I don't write fantasy. I write stories that have important human themes. They have elements of romance, history, adventure, mystery and philosophy. Most fantasy is one-dimensional. It's either about magic or a world-building. I don't do either.’ (
USA Today
)
Roland Emmerich
, purveyor of filmic holocaust, destroys many world landmarks in
2012
—with one tactical exception, the holy Kaaba at the heart of Mecca. ‘Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit [...] But my co-writer Harald [Kloser] said, “I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie.” And he was right. [...] so I kind of left it out.’ (Scifiwire.com)
The Weakest Link.
Anne Robinson:
‘In
Winnie-the-Pooh
, what type of animal is Tigger?’
Contestant:
‘A rabbit.’ (BBC1)
As Others See Some Of Us.
Praise for a non-fantasy bestseller:
The Help
is ‘...a beacon in the darkness of contemporary book publishing—in a time when a vampire is the main character in a young adult novel responsible for four out of every twenty-five books sold...’ (
Huffington Post
)
James Cameron
's film
Avatar
seems strangely reminiscent of a Poul Anderson classic (
Astounding
, 1957): ‘Like
Avatar
,
Call Me Joe
centers on a paraplegic—Ed Anglesey—who telepathically connects with an artificially created life form in order to explore a harsh planet (in this case, Jupiter). Anglesey, like Avatar's Jake Sully, revels in the freedom and strength of his artificial created body, battles predators on the surface of Jupiter, and gradually goes native as he spends more time connected to his artificial body.’ (io9.com)
Contrast.
When ‘Ms Marmite Lover’ staged a Marmite-themed dinner at her home restaurant, the Marmite people sent product freebies. When she planned a (non-profit) Harry Potter dinner whose guests would dress as wizards, Warner Bros sent a cease-and-desist letter: ‘your proposed use of the Harry Potter properties [...] would amount to an infringement of Warner's rights.’ (
Telegraph
)
Thog's Masterclass.
Dept of Geography: The War on Canada.
‘To relieve even more of the population stress, the United States had invaded the much smaller country.’ (Junius Podrug,
Feathered Serpent 2012
, 2010) *
Simile Dept.
‘A swirling lava lamp of colors boiled on the screen like a hallucination that the cat had dragged in.’ (Alexander Besher,
Rim
, 1994) ‘...white sideburns that grew like a pair of moccasins at the sides of his head. His greying hair was slicked back carelessly to reveal a furrowed brow with a long bridged nose and brown eyes that dogged you like a pair of English spaniels.’
(Ibid)
‘Her eyes were like glass vacuum tubes, lit.’
(Ibid)
‘He looked up at Gobi with eyes like charcoal briquettes waiting to be lit.’
(Ibid)
‘They saw two matching crew cuts and eyes as dead as pool cues.’
(Ibid)
‘Looming just ahead of them on the maglev grid was an intersecting skyway ramp that looked like it would rip them off the truck as if they were medicated plasters of Salonpas.’
(Ibid)
‘It revealed Selinda as painfully young. Her nipples were still pink like goldfish snouts...’ (Robert Wells,
Right-Handed Wilderness
, 1973)