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.

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.

Gothic Miserablism

Stuart Jeffries interviews Alastair Reynolds in today’s edition of The Guardian.

I suspect that every time Reynolds mentioned “SF”, Jeffries wrote down “sci-fi”, but worse things happen at sea. Missing from the online version is the companion piece that lists  a dozen other writers in “British sci-fi’s golden age”, including a couple of members of the GSFWC, which is nice, but now everyone will be thinking that Gary Gibson and Mike Cobley are  on the same money as Alastair Reynolds…

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 220

artwork by Adam Tredowski

Interzone 220 should be out on January 5th.  In the Bookzone this time we will have:

The Physiognomy/Memoranda/The Beyond by Jeffrey Ford (reviews and interview by Rick Kleffel)

The Gabble And Other Stories by Neal Asher (review by Tony Lee)

Agent To The Stars by John Scalzi (review by Juliet McKenna)

The Engine’s Child by Holly Phillips (review by Mike Cobley)

The Magic: The Story of a Film/Real-Time World/Ersatz Wines by Christopher Priest (reviews and career overview by Andy Hedgecock)

Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale by Russell T. Davies & Benjamin Cook/The Torchwood Archives by Gary Russell/Doctor Who: Shining Darkness by Mark Michalowski/Doctor Who: The Doctor Trap by Simon Messingham/Doctor Who: Ghosts of India by Mark Morris/Torchwood: Pack Animals by Peter Anghelides/Torchwood: Skypoint by Phil Ford/Torchwood: Almost Perfect by James Goss (reviews by Paul F. Cockburn)

There are more reviews and commentary from Tony Lee (again), Nick Lowe and David Langford.

There’s also fiction from Jason Stoddard, Leah Bobet,  Gareth L. Powell, Eugie Foster, Rudy Rucker, and Neil Williamson.  I’m particularly looking forward to the stories from the last three for personal reasons.  As well as being my editor at The Fix, Eugie is a damned fine fantasy writer.  Neil is another member of the Glasgow SF Writers Circle and is far too talented for his own good.  And Rudy Rucker is Rudy Rucker.  The man is psychologically incapable of writing dull fiction.

From the cover inwards, this already feels like one of my favourite issues.

Interzone: the gift that keeps on giving.  Sign someone up here.