Brain in a Jar

Brain in a Jar is the new ebook publishing line from Gary Gibson. The first title is Michael Cobley’s Iron Mosaic and there are forthcoming titles from Angus McAllister, Duncan Lunan, Fergus Bannon and others. I’ve already read some of the fiction  in one form or another and I highly recommend these books.

Interzone 230

And here’s what Warwick Fraser-Coombe’s artwork will look like on the cover of Interzone 230. This issue will have fiction from Aliette de Bodard, Tim Lees, Patrick Samphire, Nina Allen and Lavie Tidhar, with additional artwork from Ben Baldwin, Richard Wagner and Darren Winter. Non-fiction will be supplied by Nick Lowe, David Langford and Tony Lee. Bit of a Nick Lowe special issue, this one, including an interview by Jonathan McCalmont and tributes by Kim Newman, Christopher Fowler and Gary Couzens. 

This month (or next month, to be totally accurate) the Bookzone will feature:

Hannu Rajaniemi – The Quantum Thief (reviewed by Jack Deighton)

Conflicts edited by Ian Whates (reviewed by Ian Sales)

Charles Yu – How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (reviewed by Mike Cobley)

Harry Harrison – The Stainless Steel Rat Returns (reviewed by Ian Hunter)

Gareth Powell – Silversands (reviewed by Paul F. Cockburn)

Fritz Leiber – Selected Stories (reviewed by Paul Kincaid)

Robert Rankin – The Japanese Devil Fish and other Unnatural Attractions (reviewed by Duncan Lunan)

Alden Bell – The Reapers are the Angels (reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller)

Chris Wooding – Black Lung Captain: A Tale of the Ketty Jay (reviewed by a passing drunk)

Order now and enjoy at your leisure!

Interzone 227

Artwork by Warwick Fraser-Coombe

Can you tell what it is yet? The second of Warwick Fraser-Coombe’s six linked covers is another astonishingly striking piece that works equally well as an individual work of art. But then, I’m biased.  The interior’s pretty – um – pretty as well, with full-colour artwork from Robert Dunn, Jim Burns, Ben Baldwin and Dave Senecal. Chris Beckett contributes a guest editorial as well as a short story, and John Ingold, Mercurio D. Rivera, Jim Hawkins, Nina Allan and Steve Rasnic Tem provide the rest of this issue’s fiction. Regulars David Langford, Tony Lee and Nick Lowe contribute their usual high-quality non-fiction.

This month’s Bookzone has:

Paul F. Cockburn interviewing Connie Willis and reviewing her latest novel, Blackout.

Terminal World by Alistair Reynolds (reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller)

Geosynchron by David Louis Edelman (reviewed by Paul Kincaid)

Naamah’s Kiss by Jacqueline Carey (reviewed by Lawrence Osborn)

The Poison Throne by Celine Kiernan (reviewed by Ian Sales)

Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes (reviewed by Mike Cobley)

WE by John Dickinson (reviewed by Duncan Lunan)

Hyddenworld: Spring by William Horwood (reviewed by Iain Emsley)

Under in the Mere by Catherynne M. Valente (reviewed by Andrew J. Wilson)

A new distribution deal means that, from this issue onwards, Interzone is available in the USA, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Austria, Norway, Croatia, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Or you can always buy it here.

Interzone 225

Artwork by Adam Tredowski

Interzone 225 is out on November 12th in this jaw-dropping wrap-around cover and will feature fiction from Jason Sanford, Lavie Tidhar, Rebecca J. Payne, Colin Harvey, Shannon Page and Jay Lake, with non-fiction from David Langford, Tony Lee and Nick Lowe, and more artwork from Mark Pexton and Warwick Fraser-Coombe.

The Bookzone will carry the following reviews:

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (reviewed by Paul Cockburn)

Acts of Destruction by Mat Coward (reviewed by Peter Loftus)

Storm Glass by Maria Snyder (reviewed by Lawrence Osborn)

Years Best SF26 edited by Gardner Dozois (reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller)

Transition by Iain Banks (reviewed by Paul Kincaid)

Oceanic by Greg Egan (reviewed by Paul Graham Raven)

The Gift of Joy by Ian Whates (reviewed by Mike Cobley)

Bauchelian and Korbal Broach by Steven Erikson (reviewed by Duncan Lunan)

Broken Symmetries by Steve Redwood (reviewed by Ian Sales)

The Bride Stripped Bare by Rachel Kendall (reviewed by Andy Hedgecock)

Heart of Veridon by Tim Akers (reviewed by me)

Order your copy here. Or subscribe – it’ll provide a glowing light in the winter darkness.

Steel Fiction

The Glasgow SF Writers Circle is a-meeting tomorrow and I’ll be flying the opening of my latest novel past them. I hope they don’t manage to shoot it too full of holes; I’ve written much more of it than the little bit they’ll be seeing, and I hate extensive rewrites.

Ian Whates, interviewing Michael Cobley in the latest Matrix, says, “It’s rumoured that one or two of your fellow members of the Glasgow SF Writing Circle are pretty useful on the writing front themselves,” which is nice. I like to think I play a modest part in this by making almost everything else produced by by the Circle look like high art in comparison.

All I really want to do is write mannered political dramas after the fashion of  Anthony Trollope, but what can you do? You’ve got to go where your muse leads you and, unfortunately, my muse is a violent, drunken slut of a muse who keeps waking up in the gutter.

Satellite 2 Visited

Staggered around Satellite 2 at the weekend but I’ve far too many impending deadlines to spare the time to write about it, so here’s Mike Cobley’s report instead.

Oh Lordie, them deadlines is covering the horizon and I’m down to me last bullets.

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).

Walker of Worlds

Michael Cobley says nice things about the GSFWC in his interview for Walker of Worlds.

Seeds of Earth

Bookzone reviewer Michael Cobley has a new book out today. Seeds of Earth is available from all good bookshops in the UK. Or you can buy it through Amazon if you think it’s still too cold to wander outside. Or  (if you’re really tight and don’t give a toss about kickstarting the economy) you can win a free copy on his site.

Interzone 221

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artwork by Adam Tredowski.

Interzone 221 will be out by the 12th of March, and has stories from Bruce Sterling, Al Robertson, Matthew Kressel, Will McIntosh, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Paul Berger. In the Bookzone this time we have:

The Caryatids by Bruce Sterling (review and interview by Ian Sales)

Escape From Hell by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, and Escape From Hell! by Hal Duncan (reviewed by Paul Cockburn)

The Best of Gene Wolfe (reviewed by Paul Kincaid)

The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint (reviewed by Lawrence Osbourn)

One Second After by William Forschen (reviewed by John Howard)

Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley (reviewed by Peter Loftus)

Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts (reviewed by Kevin Stone)

Journey Into Space by Toby Litt (reviewed by Paul Kincaid)

UFO in Her Eyes by Xiaolu Guo (reviewed by Rick Kleffel)

1942 by James Conroy (reviewed by me)

That’s another remarkable cover, isn’t it?

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?