Interzone 294

by Gareth Jelley (Editor)

Contents:

Fiction
The Disappeared by J.F. Sebastian
Murder by Proxy by Philip Fracassi
The Black Box Killer by Kat Clay
The Coming of the Extroverts by Daniel Bennett
Seven Shots at the Ultimate High by Marisca Pichette
The Building Across the Street by R.T. Ester
Last Act of the Revolution by Louise Hughes
Neostalgia by Liviu Surugiu

Columns
Climbing Stories by Aliya Whiteley
Mutant Popcorn by Nick Lowe
Ansible Link by David Langford
The A to Z of Zelazny by Alexander Glass
Folded Spaces by Val Nolan

Book Reviews & Author Interviews
Gautam Bhatia, Georgina Bruce, Kat Clay, Alexander Glass, Kelly Jennings, Paul Kincaid, Laura Mauro, and Mike O’Driscoll on new books; an interview with Cassandra Khaw by Laura Mauro; and an interview with Christopher Priest by Paul Kincaid.

Art

"The Black Box Killer" by Dave Senecal
"The Coming of the Extroverts" & "Last Act of the Revolution" by Alex Maniezo
"Seven Shots at the Ultimate High" & "Neostalgia" by Dante Luiz
"The Building Across the Street" by Martin Hanford
"Murder by Proxy" by Vinayak Varma

255 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the January 2023 issue of InterZone magazine, #294. This is the first issue under a new management. This is the last big UK Semiprozine publication, which began in Spring 1982. There was a hiatus after #289 (November/December 2020), and a switch to a new format and new publisher that resumed publication in January 2023. There are some solid pieces, including one that ended up in the BSFA longlist for 2023. In modern SFFH fan-, semi- and prozines there is a lot of talk about discrimination based on a lot of factors. Interzone often has solid SFF pieces, but none of them even won Hugo, only Nebula (2009) and Locus (1999). In my humble opinion, the fact that Hugo voters rarely nominate British authors and/or publications is just as discriminatory. Rant off 😊

Contents:
Climbing Stories: Recommendations & Reservations [Climbing Stories] essay by Aliya Whiteley references too many works I never read, hard to follow. 2*
The Disappeared short story by J. F. Sebastian Ghalib gains consciousness of a safe British shore. He is an illegal refugee, and their boat sank with a lot of people, including his wife and infant son. However, the next morning, as Ghalib wants to visit them in a morgue, he is informed they aren’t there. Moreover, as the story continues its countdown (it starts with part 10, but goes chronologically) more and more people around Ghalib stop to exist. Not a sci-fi but a powerful speculative fiction. 3.5*
Murder by Proxy novelette by Philip Fracassi this is a future noir detective - Los Angeles Police Detective Dixon Merriweather investigates a case: a man in a closed room turned into a paste. The only witness is house AI, but is appears that a three-second record of the surveillance camera exactly during the murder was erased. Dixon has his problems – as a kid, he was left in a room with a ventriloquist doll and is sure that the doll tried to strangle him. A great mix of phobias, old and new! 4*
The Black Box Killer short story by Kat Clay an experimental story, written with the protagonist’s name and some actions redacted, i.e. blackened out. The protagonist works as a redactor, blacking out names of all criminals and now a serial killer appeared who hunts down these criminals while police cannot even identify victims – they were redacted! 3.5*
The Coming of the Extroverts short story by Daniel Bennett narrator’s friend is a musician. He rages, when a new group the Extroverts, steals his limelight and creates a conspiracy theory that all extroverts are aliens in a disguise. Then he dubs in some mad science to expose them. 3*
Seven Shots at the Ultimate High short story by Marisca Pichette a team of partiers on a night prowl that ends up in EVOLUTION, the slickest place to get high. A good story that tries to translate ‘partying like there is no tomorrow’ merged with future tech, but I ain’t a partygoer. 3*
Nothing But Beautiful Stories: An Interview with Cassandra Khaw interview by Laura Mauro they discuss a story collection I haven’t read
The Building Across the Street short story by R. T. Ester Leland is a homeless (he doesn’t think so because he works night shift cleaning jobs, resting there) is approached by agent Everly, who, he fears, is to inject him with a Homeless Tagging Chip. Instead she offers a deal – no tagging, but Each night on entering the office he cleaned, she wanted Leland to turn the fax machine on, wait for a fax to come in, call the number programmed into the flip phone, then read the fax to the person on the other end of the line. The texts he reads are like a SF in letters… 3*
Last Act of the Revolution short story by Louise Hughes this was the weakest for me: an interviewer tries to talk to a revolutionary hero, who is just drinking and damaging former corporate buildings in her depression, while whose who collaborated when she and her group rebelled, are celebrating. 2*
Semi-Playful Metaphors: An Interview with Christopher Priest interview by Paul Kincaid again a discussion of a book I haven’t read.
Neostalgia short story by Liviu Surugiu (trans. of Neostalgia 2021) a narrator tells a story himself and his father in Romania. In 1943 Allies run Tidal Wave operation - an air attack by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) based in Libya on nine oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania. The mission resulted in "no curtailment of overall product output". This operation was one of the costliest for the USAAF in the European Theater, with 53 aircraft and 660 air crewmen lost. The narrator’s father was just 15 months when a stray USAAF plane dropped a bomb on his house. He and his older sister survived and are adopted by a wealthy family in another village. Later his grandma came and demanded kids back, but this hasn’t happened so she cursed the family – this is the most SFF element of the story. The rest is a life in Romania between 1943 and the present day. 3*
Mutant Popcorn (Interzone #294) [Mutant Popcorn] essay by Nick Lowe
Ansible Link (Interzone #294) [Ansible Link] essay by David Langford
A Is for Amber [The A to Z of Zelazny] essay by Alexander Glass on Amber series. 3*
Utopia - The Problem of Definition [Folded Spaces1] essay by Val Nolan how to define. the account of a ‘non-existent society located in space and time’ which falls into one of ‘three simple categories’: the ‘eutopia or positive utopia, the dystopia or negative utopia, and the satirical utopia’. 3*

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this first issue of Interzone under new management, and greatly preferred the digest-sized style. Nice and chunky! There's a good mix of new and old articles - all of which were interesting, including the interview with Christopher Priest - and the artwork complemented the stories and felt relevant. With regards to the fiction, some pieces I enjoyed more than others, as happens in an anthology/magazine, but overall my favourite piece were Daniel Bennett's "The Coming of the Extroverts" and "The Black Box Killer" by Kat Clay. I also enjoyed how the magazine was quite liberal in the interpretation of SF, and the non-fiction(?) piece, "Neostalgia" by Liviu Surugiu was another highlight. Under the new team, Interzone has hit the ground running.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A better than average first issue of Interzone under new management. Some interesting stories here by J.F. Sebastian, Kat Clay, Daniel Bennett and a possible non-fiction piece by Liviu Surugiu.

- “The Disappeared” by J.F. Sebastian: a story that starts with a migrant that survived a boat disaster but mourns the deaths of his family. Then things begin to turn strange as the people in his camp (and the world) ‘forget’ about his dead family and then his relatives. Finally, only he remembers anything about them, and he fears to go to sleep and end up forgotten.

- “Murder by Proxy” by Philip Fracassi: a gruesome murder investigation by a detective leads to an unusual suspect who may have hidden plans to do more murders by proxy unless they can be stopped.

- “The Black Box Killer” by Kat Clay: in the future where committing a crime gets your name redacted from history, and you have to walk around with your face obscured, a detective in the Redaction Bureau has to track down a killer. Figuring out who is who in a story where names are “———” makes for a challenging read.

- “The Coming of the Extroverts” by Daniel Bennett: a musician becomes incensed when an act, the Extroverts, steals his limelight. The musician then comes up with a conspiracy theory-like explanation for the success of the Extroverts and a plan to expose them.

- “Seven Shots at the Ultimate High” by Marisca Pichette: a group of youngsters aim for the ultimate group dance high at a dance club.

- “The Building across the Street” by R.T. Ester: a man is given the task of entering a building and reading a series of faxes that tell a story of an alien searching for life in space. The ending would reveal what the faxes are really for.

- “Last Act of the Revolution” by Louise Hughes: when the revolution is won, what is the person who started it to do? A reporter tries to find out, only to be nearly involved in one final act before the revolutionary disappears.

- “Neostalgia” by Liviu Surugiu, translated from the Romanian by Teodora Vidrean, Ana Maria Bancea, Alexandru Maniu and Irina Mocanu: an apparently true non-SF story by the author, starting with Operation Tidal Wave to bomb Romanian oil refineries. One bomber goes astray, accidentally dropping bombs on a civilian target. One would-be victim survives by what some consider a miracle, and whose descendant would become the author, who now narrates the story with nostalgia for what might have been.

[Isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had some of the coolest short stories I've ever read, but some of them were more interesting than others.