Vector 272

 

Artwork by Julie Dillon

Vector 272 is available from the BSFA.

A list of the books under review can be found here along with the results of the BSFA reviewers poll. Graham Andrews, Gary Dalkin, David Hebblethwaite, Patrick Mahon, Paul Kincaid, Maureen Kincaid Speller, Paul Graham Raven, Ian Sales, Sue Thomason, Sandra Unerman, Lynne Bispham, Liz Bourke and myself all contribute pieces on our favourite books of 2012, and there are also articles from Shana Worthen, Martin Lewis, Sophie Halliday, Alison Page, Tony Jones, Mike Barrett, Andy Sawyer, Paul Kincaid (again) and Stephen Baxter.

Vector 270

Artwork by Mega11

The Late Spring issue of Vector has summations of 2011 from Graham Andrews, Lynne Bispham, Nic Clarke, Mark Connorton, Gary Dalkin, Alan Fraser, Naill Harrison, David Hebblethwaite, Tony Keen, Paul Kincaid, Maureen Kincaid Speller, Martin McGrath, Kev McVeigh, Anthony Nanson, Paul Graham Raven, Partick Mahon, Ian Sales, Andy Sawyer, Donna Scott, Sue Thomson, Sandra Unerman, Jonathan McCalmont, Alison Page and me. The rest of the contents (including articles from Shana Worthen, Victor Grech, Clare Thake-Vassallo, Ivan Callus, Melanie Keene, Terry Martin, Stephen Baxter and others) can be found here. Book reviews editor Martin Lewis’s editorial can be found here along with a list of the books reviewed in this issue.

This British Science Fiction Association mailing also comes with the latest issue of the BSFA writers magazine, Focus 58. Again, follow the link to discover the contents.

There is also an anthology,  BSFA Awards 2011, which reprints all of the shortlisted stories, giving us Nina Allan’s The Silver Wind (Interzone 233) and Al Robertson’s Of Dawn (Interzone 235) as well as stories from Paul Cornell, Kameron Hurley and China Miéville.

Vector 266

The Spring edition of the BSFA critical journal is the first to be edited by Shana Worthen and has features from Terry Martin, Anthony Nanson, Andy Sawyer and Stephen Baxter; and summations of 2010 from Martin Lewis, Graham Andrews, Mark Connorton, Gary Dalkin, Alan Fraser, Niall Harrison, David Hebblethwaite, Tony Keen, Paul Kincaid, Jonathan McCalmont, Martin McGrath, Anthony Nanson, Martin Pots, Paul Graham Raven, Martyn Taylor, Sandra Underman, Anne Wilson, Ian Sales, Lynne Bispham, Alison Page and me. Jonathan McCalmont, in his review of 2010, says, “As with Interzone, the quality of non-fiction in Black Static is really superlative”. In fairness it should probably be pointed out that he does write some of the non-fiction in Interzone.

There are also lots of reviews, including Dave M. Roberts’s review of Music For Another World. He says that “This is a nicely varied theme anthology [...] also manages to maintain a fairly high standard throughout. On the strength of this collection, it is to be hoped that Mark Harding’s project with Mutation Press is a successful one.”  and picks out the stories by Cyril Symsa, Gavin Inglis, Aliette de Bodard, Chris Amies, Jackie Hawkins, David K. Hendrickson and Vincent Lauzon for special mention. He also says that ”My own personal favourite is probably Shostakovich Ensemble, The by Jim Steel. [...] The picture painted of the time is remarkably vivid”.

This BSFA mailing also comes with Focus 56 which includes articles on writing by Martin McGrath, Nina Allan, Terry Jackman, Aliette de Bodard, Elliot Summerhayes, Christopher Priest, Dev Argarwal, Gareth L. Powell, Gareth D. Jones and Gary Budgen. There is also poetry from Fay Symes, John F. Keane, K. Potter and Scott E. Green.