Vector 271

Artwork by Cecile Matthey

The latest mailing from the British Science Fiction Association contains Vector 271 and Focus 59.

The contents of Vector can be found here, except for the book review section which can be found here. I’ve reviewed Robert Jackson Bennet’s The Troupe for this issue.

The contents of Focus aren’t listed online so you might be interested to know that this issue is guest-edited by Keith Brooke and has articles by Kristine Kathyrn Rusch, Garry Kilworth, Michael Swanwick, Kim Lakin-Smith, Steven Savile, Linda Nagata, Lisa Tuttle, Jeff Noon and James Patrick Kelly. Pretty damned impressive, eh? Now go and see what’s in Vector. And then join the BSFA.

Vector 269

Artwork by John Martin

Vector 269 is now available from the BSFA. The contents can be found here and a list of the books reviewed can be found here. I’ve reviewed Tim Lebbon’s Echo City. This mailing also includes a Newcon Press sampler which has fiction from Andy West and Kim Lakin-Smith.

 

Andrew M. Butler’s review of the John Martin exhibition at the Tate is one of the pieces in this issue.

Johnny and Emmie-Lou Get Married

And Kim Lakin-Smith’s story from Interzone 222 is also available online for free.

Black Static 13

Black Static 13 is now available and features fiction from Tim Lees, Kim Lakin-Smith, Carole Johnstone, Joel Lane and James Cooper, alongside non-fiction from Peter Tennant, Chrisopher Fowler, Tony Lee and Mike O’Driscoll. Available from the usual suspects, or order direct.

Lynda E. Rucker’s story from Black Static 8 has just been reprinted in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 20 (as has Steve Rasnic Tem’s story from another TTA Press title, Crimewave 10), which also mentions “Black Static‘s attractive sister magazine, Interzone“.

Black Static 12

Of course, Interzone used to publish a lot of dark fiction (or horror, if you prefer) back in the days when it was edited by David Pringle. Nowadays most of the dark stuff finds a home in Black Static, and issue twelve is out now, with fiction from Steve Rasnic Tem, Nina Allan, Kim Lakin-Smith, Sarah Totton, Tim Casson and T.F. Davenport. There is also an interview with Gary A. Braunbeck, and dark non-fiction from Christopher Fowler, Stephen Volk, Mike O’Driscoll, Peter Tennant and Tony Lee. The cover is suitably disturbing.

If you take out a joint Interzone/Black Static subscription you’ll get a magazine a month. That works out at more than a story a week.

Interzone 222

Artwork by Adam Tredowski.

On 14 May Interzone will equal a British SF magazine record when issue 222 is published. So far only New Worlds has published that number of issues but, barring the end of the world (or New Worlds suddenly starting up again), Interzone will have the record before the summer is out. I’ve got a great love of both magazines – if you’ve got a complete run of both you’ll have an excellent history of British post-war science fiction, not to mention a massive collection of some of the best short stories ever published.

And what is inside Interzone 222? Fiction from  Sean McMullen, Aliette de Bodard, Tim Pratt, Sarah L. Edwards, Nina Allan, and Kim Lakin-Smith, plus news’n'reviews from David Langford, Nick Lowe and Tony Lee. And the result of the Readers’ Poll. You did vote, didn’t you?

In the Bookzone this month Peter Loftus gives us a review of Paul Di Filippo’s Cosmocopia as well as a interview with both Paul and illustrator Jim Woodring. I seriously recommend taking a look at some of Jim’s artwork while you’re here. Other books reviewed this month are:

Lavinia by Ursula le Guin (reviewed by Lawrence Osborn)

Green by Jay Lake (reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller)

The Accord by Keith Brooke (reviewed by David Mathew)

“It” Came From Outer Space by Christopher Priest (reviewed by Duncan Lunan)

Psychological Methods To Sell Should Be Destroyed by Robert Freeman Wrexler (reviewed by Paul Kincaid)

The City And The City by China Mieville (reviewed by Mike Cobley)

And Andy Hedgecock delivers a massive review of British SF anthologies (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction Volume 3, Subtle Edens, Premonitions: Causes For Alarm, Fantastic Bristol, and Subterfuge).