Gardner Dozois reviews Interzone 227 in the July Locus: “The best story in Interzone 227 is Chimbi, by ‘new writer’ Jim Hawkins […] This is clearly one of the best stories of the year to date. Also first-rate is Flying in the Face of God by Nina Allan.” He also goes on to say that Mercurio D. Rivera’s Dance of the Kawkaroons is “Clever […] Entertaining and enjoyable” and lists Chimbi as one of his Recommended Stories.
Rich Horton also reviews Interzone 227: “The March-April Interzone is a very good outing. The best piece comes from a new writer: Jon Ingold’s The History of Poly-V […] Quite an impressive near debut. I also quite liked Mercurio D. Rivera’s Dance of the Kawkaroons.” He lists The History of Poly-V as one of his Recommended Stories.
The results of the annual Locus readers’ poll are published in the same issue. Bruce Sterling’s Black Swan (Interzone 221) is #30 in the Best Novelette catagory, Andy Cox is #25 in the Best Editor catagory, and Interzone is #9 and Ansible is #15 in the Best Magazine catagory.
Panglossian Hubris 
Hi Jim,
Thanks for posting the Gardner Dozois review of Chimbwi. I’m in Greece lying on beaches right now, with no chance of getting hold of a copy of Locus.
What else did he say???
I’m expecting very divided views on the new story in IZ 229 🙂
Love the web site. Bes wishes
Jim
Hi Jim,
Sorry for taking so long to reply; I’m stuck in deadline hell at the moment. Anyway, what Gardner said in full was, “The Best story in Interzone 227 is ‘Chimbwi’, by ‘new writer’ Jim Hawkins, whose previous sale was 40 years ago to New Worlds. This takes us to a near-future where, in an ironic twist, the overall fates of Africa and Europe have been reversed, so that it’s Europe that is impoverished and war-torn, riddled with famine and disease, while Africa has grown prosperous and technologically advanced beyond anything known in Europe. The storyline follows a European refugee, a physicist, on his harrowing flight from ruined Europe to Africa, through enslavement and forced labor, and finally to a position of trust in scientific circles in Zambia, the African superpower of the day. This is cleary one of the best stories of the year to date. The only quibble I have with it is that it ends so abruptly that I actually turned the page expecting the story to continue.”
I was very impressed with it as well. I haven’t had a chance to look at the fiction in IZ229 because of the deadline pile-up, but I’m looking forward to your new one. And Greece, eh? I’m jealous – I love the country.