Interzone 226 launches the new decade for Britain's leading and longest-running SF magazine with cover art by Warwick Fraser-Coombe, in the form of the first of six connected pictures that at the end of the year will form a new, much larger image.
Stories:
Four of the six contributors are IZ regulars; of the two debutants Tyler Keevil has appeared before in sister magazine Black Static.
Opening the fiction is Jason Sanford, who in penning Into the Depths of Illuminated Seas, makes his third appearance in as many issues. The accompanying artwork by Ben Baldwin is outstanding. Unlike Sanford's previous efforts which have all been SF, this is lush, epic fantasy, the tale of a girl whose flesh is criss-crossed by the names of men who are due to drown. It's a wonderful story in many ways, but unlike Sanford's SF there's a lack of something, which may simply be why it happens to this girl at this time -- perhaps at heart Sanford is too much of a rationalist. Nonetheless, Recommended.
Tyler Keevil, whose ‘Cleaning the Western Kittiwake’ featured in Black Static 4 takes the reader to a nuked London in the company of the eponymous Hibukasha, one of the survivors of the bombing now desperately searching for some trace of his lover: Standing for this long aggravates the pain in my shins...Like tiny slivers in my bones. To take my mind off it....I think of getting caught out in that thunderstorm near Pompeii – the way you laughed and spun on the spot as rain slapped down on your sun burned face... By turns gritty, lyrical and poignant, Keevil’s prose will stay with the reader long after the story’s close. Highly Recommended.
Mercurio D. Rivera
Mercurio D. Rivera ’s ‘In the Harsh Glow of its Incandescent Beauty’is set in the same universe as his ‘Longing for Lanaglaana,’ which won the Interzone Reader’s Poll in 2006. Humans are endlessly fascinating to the alien Wergen, two of whom accompany narrator Max on his quest to recover his wife Miranda, who has been drugged and abducted by their friend Rossi. The reader needs to study the story carefully to avoid feeling cheated by a twist that on re-reading is signposted for the diligent. It's fascinating, despite none of the characters being particularly sympathetic.
'Human Error' by Jay Lake tells of a prospecting team riven by internal feuds; one of the team blames another for the death of the third, while the team leader has an unexplained dislike for the narrator. None of this is adequately explained, which renders none of the characters particularly likeable, and the discovery of an alien artifact wrenches the plot into pot-boiler territory.
Rachel Swirsky
Rachel Swirsky ’s ‘Again and Again and Again’ takes a sardonic look at generation gaps through the ages, from Lionel Caldwell, born in 1900 to strict Mennonites who believed drinking, dancing, and wearing jewelry were sins against God, to the semi-distant future, when children can re-grow their limbs, as they delight in showing their parents. Wicked, funny, and highly recommended.
‘Aquestria’ by Stephen Gaskell tells of a colony falling apart, crops failing, famine spreading and civil war looming. The colonists are the descendants of settlers who put ashore when their generation ship began to fail, and the passengers split into factions; the schism has persisted, and when two settlers find a mute survivor of an ‘incident,’ their overriding concern is to identify to which side he belongs. The answer is surprising, and makes Gaskell’s outstanding debut the pick of the issue, and ends it on a high point.
Features
Books reviewed this issue include The New Space Opera 2, edited by Dozois & Strahan, Kessel & Kelly's The Secret History of SF, and Alexander Jablokov's Brain Thief. Tony Lee's regular decapitation of DVDs includes Godzilla, Moon and District 9, the latter two of which Lee had good things to say, and Nick Lowe's Mutant Popcorn features film reviews of The Box, Planet 51, New Moon and Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Another sold issue, made visually superlative by the return of the much-missed colour interiors. Take a bow, Mr. Cox and team..
Colin Harvey - Author six novels, and editor of four anthologies; professional reviewer since 2003, including six years at Strange Horizons. Member of ...
