Interzone 244

Artwork by Jim Burns

The first Interzone of 2013 will be here soon. Inside it you will find fiction from Jim Hawkins, Guy Haley, Helen Jackson, Lavie Tidhar, Tracie Welser and George Zebrowski, the regular nonfiction columns from David Langford, Tony Lee and Nick Lowe, and artwork from Warwick Fraser-Coombe, Richard Wagner, Martin Hanford and Jim Burns. Jim will also be providing all of this year’s covers. Follow the above link for more information and samples.

Any regular visitors to this blog will have noticed that there didn’t appear to be much going on in December. This was because I was literally flat on my back my back with a seasonal plague. Andy Cox had to step in and finish editing the Book Zone for me, for which I am profoundly grateful and not a little embarrassed.

This issue’s Book Zone features reviews of the following titles:

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed (reviewed and author interviewed by Ian Sales)

Nexus by Ramez Naam (reviewed by Matthew S. Dent)

Bedlam by Christopher Brookmyre (reviewed by Paul F. Cockburn)

Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution edited by Ann VanderMeer (reviewed by Simon Marshall Jones)

Taken by Benedict Jacka (reviewed by Juliet E. McKenna)

Origin by J. T. Brannan (reviewed by Ian Hunter)

Helix Wars by Eric Brown (reviewed by Lawrence Osborn)

In Other Worlds by Margaret Atwood (reviewed by Barbara Melville)

The Corpse-Rat King by Lee Battersby (reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller)

The Creative Fire by Brenda Cooper (reviewed by me)

Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck (reviewed and author interviewed by Stephen Theaker)

It’s a particularly fine-looking issue even if I do say so myself. Hopefully I’ll have stopped coughing like a Romantic poet by the time it arrives.

Interzone 238 eBook

Interzone 238 is now available as an eBook from Smashwords and, for a few days, will be available at a reduced price.

Roy Gray has done an excellent job in ensuring that the electronic editions catch up with the paper ones.

Interzone 239

Artwork by Ben Baldwin

This month’s Bookzone features the following titles: 

In the Mouth of the Whale by Paul McAuley (reviewed by Elaine Gallagher)

Intrusion by Ken MacLeod (reviewed by Paul F. Cockburn)

The Wild Girls by Ursula Le Guin (reviewed by Juliet E. McKenna)

From Elvish to Klingon by Michael Adams (reviewed by Lara Buckerton)

Giant Thief by David Tallerman (reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller)

Sensation by Nick Mamatas (reviewed by Nathaniel Tapley)

Theme Planet by Andy Remic (reviewed by Stephen Theaker)

Babylon Steel by Gaie Sebold (reviewed by Lawrence Osborn)

I’ve reviewed Chris Beckett’s Dark Eden and have interviewed him for this issue. I could have filled the entire Bookzone with Chris; he’s a fascinating and gracious interviewee. He’s also turning into one of the most important SF novelists of the century.

This issue also has fiction from Steve Rasnic Tem, Jon Wallace, Suzanne Palmer, Jacob A. Boyd, Matthew Cook and Nigel Brown, artwork by Dave Senecal, Richard Wagner, Warwick Fraser-Coombe, Mark Pexton and Ben Baldwin, and non-fiction from David Langford, Nick Lowe and Tony Lee.

You can sample the fiction and artwork here. I normally try to post about the latest issue a week or two in advance but this issue may already be out. It’ll certainly appear in the next day or so.

Me? I’m going to try and find ways of stretching time. Or maybe I’ll just clone myself.

Interzone 238

Artwork by Ben Baldwin

Interzone 238 will be published in a couple of days. This issue’s Bookzone will have reviews of the following titles:

The Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemisin (reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller)

Lemistry: A Celebration of the Work of Stanislaw Lem, edited by Ra Page & Magda Raczyńska (reviewed by Andy Hedgecock)

White Tiger by Kylie Chan (reviewed by Lawrence Osborn)

Daylight on Iron Mountain by David Wingrove (reviewed by me)

The Cold Commands by Richard Morgan (reviewed by Paul F. Cockburn)

Kafkaesque: Stories Inspired by Franz Kafka, edited by John Kessel & James Patrick Kelly (reviewed by John Howard)

The Islanders by Christopher Priest (reviewed by Alan Fraser)

Manhatten In Reverse by Peter F. Hamilton (reviewed by Tony Lee)

In the Lion’s Mouth by Michael Flynn (reviewed by Paul Kincaid)

Songs of the Dying Earth, edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois (reviewed by Ian Sales)

The Joy of Technology by Roy Gray (reviewed by Ian Hunter)

You can see what else will be in this issue on Ben’s cover but for a more detailed look (including  interior artwork, story samples and lists of the the films reviewed) go here.

British Fantasy Awards 2011 Longlist

The British Fantasy Awards longlist can be found here. Patrick Samphire’s Camelot (Interzone 230) and Nina Allan’s Flying in the Face of God (Interzone 227) are both nominated for best short fiction, Andy Cox and TTA Press are nominated for best small press, and Daniele Serra (responsible for the cover of the Spring 2011 BFS Journal) is nominated for best artist. Well done to them and to everyone else.

Locus 594

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.

Locus 582

The results of the 2009 Locus poll were announced in the July issue. Interzone came 6th (again) in the Best Magazine catagory, and Andy Cox was 22nd (up from 26th) in the Best Editor catagory. Greg Egan’s Crystal Nights (Interzone 218) was 7th in Best Novelette and Paul Kincaid’s What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction was 4th in Best Non-Fiction/Art Book.

Gardner Dozois reviewed Interzone 221 and says that “The best story in Interzone 221, by a considerable margin, is “Black Swan“, by veteran cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling, which expertly spins us through a gyre of alternate worlds, all featuring well-thought-out and plausible alternate Europes; this is politically savvy, bitingly cynical, and infused with Sterling’s trademark deapan wit – a lot of fun.” He also has much to say about Will McIntosh’s A Clown Escapes From Circustown, citing it as an example of the ‘comic inferno’ type of story. “This is not my favorite type of SF, but at least the examples of it that Interzone have been running are pretty well-crafted. [...] if you can suspend your disbelief to get past all of that, McIntosh tells a satisfying and even rather traditional story…”

And a last thank you to Charles N. Brown, wherever you are.

British Fantasy Awards 2009

The longlist ballot for the BFAs has been posted. British Fantasy Society and Fantasycon members will vote in it and the top five or so will make the shortlist, and another round of voting will decide the winners. I think. Democracy is so confusing.

Anyway, congratulations to Neil Williamson and Hal Duncan from the GSFWC on making it onto the Short Story and Novel lists respectively.

Interzone is nominated for the Best Magazine Award, with Greg Egan’s Crystal Nights (Interzone 215) making it on to the Best Novella list, and M.K. Hobson’s Comus of Central Park (interzone 217) and Jason Sanford’s The Ships Like Clouds Risen By Their Rain (Interzone 217) making on to the Best Short Story list. Warwick Fraser-Coombe was nominated for Best Artist with his artwork in Interzone 215, and TTA Press was nominated in the Best Small Press catagory. Nick Lowe’s film column, Mutant Popcorn, was nominated in Best Non-fiction catagory, as was Bookzoner Paul Kincaid’s What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction. Another Bookzoner, Juliet E. McKenna, has a nomination in the Short Story catagory.

Ah, who else? I’m going to miss out someone, somewhere. Well done, also, to Beccon and Screaming Dreams for their nominations for Best Small Press Award, since they have also published (or are about to publish) some of my stuff.

And well done to everyone else. Just to be on the safe side.

It’s still not too late to add a write-in nomination if you think there’s something missing.

Editors & Preditors Results

… can be found here. Their numbering system is a bit unusual, but for Interzone, Warwick Fraser-Coombe’s Greenland is 17th in Best Artwork, Andy Cox is 30th for Best Book Editor and 22nd for Best Zine Editor, TTA Press is 32nd in Best E-Book Publisher, Interzone is 22nd in Best Fictionzine, Nick Lowe’s Mutant Popcorn is 11th in Best Non-Fiction, Jason Sanford’s The Ships Like Clouds, Risen in Their Rain is 26th in Best SF Short Story.

From the GSFWC, Hal Duncan is 4oth in Best Author, and his Escape From Hell! came 29th in Best Horror Novel and 32nd in Best SF Novel, Ian Hunter came 15th in Best Poet, and his A Little Piece of Your Life came 20th in Best Poem.

Vector is 15th in Best Nonfictionzine, Dark Horizons is 12th in Best Poetryzine, The Fix is 22nd in Best Reviewsite, and Whispers of Wickedness is 19th in Best Writers Forum.

Who have I missed out?

Interzone 218

- artwork by Warwick Fraser-Coombe -

The October Interzone was published last Thursday and should be speeding its way to your doormat or local retailer as you read this. Indeed, it may even have already arrived. This time around we have the following reviews:

The Last Reef and Other Stories by Gareth Powell (reviewed and interviewed by Paul Cockburn)
An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe (reviewed by Mike Cobley)
The Kingdom Beyond The Waves by Stephen Hunt (reviewed by Lawrence Osborn)
Template by Matthew Hughes (reviewed by Ian Sales)
Year’s Best Fantasy 8 edited by David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (reviewed by Paul Kincaid)
The Painted Man by Peter Brett (reviewed by Iain Emsley)
Stalking the Unicorn & Stalking the Vampire by Mike Resnick (reviewed by Juliet McKenna)
Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (reviewed and interviewed by Rick Kleffel)

A big thanks goes out to Paul Raven for his help and Andy Cox for making the review section look so damned good. The rest of the magazine’s not half bad either. It’s a bit of a Chris Beckett special and contains no less than three of his stories and an interview with him, plus more fiction from Daniel Akelrod & Lenny Royter, Hannu Rajaniemi, and Tim Lees. There are also film reviews from Nick Lowe, DVD reviews from Tony Lee, and news and stuff from David Langford.

Doesn’t that cover look wonderful?