Interzone #252 May - Jun 2014

by Andy Cox, Neil Williamson, Katharine Duckett

Interzone is essentially a fiction magazine containing original and new science fiction and fantasy short stories. But it covers other aspects of the genre via news, comment, reviews of books, movies, DVDs and TV.
The May–June issue of the 2013 British Fantasy Award winning magazine contains new stories by Neil Williamson, Katharine E.K. Duckett, Val Nolan, Oliver Buckram, Claire Humphrey, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam. The cover art is by Wayne Haag, and interior colour illustrations are by Richard Wagner, Martin Hanford, Wayne Haag, Warwick Fraser-Coombe. All the usual features are present: Ansible Link by David Langford (news and obits); Mutant Popcorn by Nick Lowe (film re-views); Laser Fodder by Tony Lee (DVD/Blu-ray reviews); Book Zone: reviews of many latest releases, plus Andy Hedgecock's Neil Williamson interview and Jonathan McCalmont's Future Interrupted column. Martin McGrath delivers the results of the latest Interzone Readers' Poll along with comments from readers.
Fiction this issue
The Posset Pot by Neil Williamson
The Mortuaries by Katharine E.K. Duckett
Diving Into The Wreck by Val Nolan
Two Truths And A Lie by Oliver Buckram
A Brief Light by Claire Humphrey
Sleepers by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

Artists this issue
Wayne Haag
Richard Wagner
Warwick Fraser-Coombe
Martin Hanford

Books reviewed this issue
Book Zone, edited by Jim Steel, has The Moon King by Neil Williamson (with author interview conducted by Andy Hedgecock), Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, The Burning Dark by Adam Christopher, Descent by Ken MacLeod, Tesseracts 17 edited by Colleen Anderson & Steve Vernon, The Three by Sarah Lotz, Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor, The Boy with the Porcelain Blade by Den Patrick, Astra by Naomi Foyle, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, Europe in Autumn by Dave Hutchinson, Son of the Morning by Mark Alder, Famadihana on Fomalhaut IV by Eric Brown, We Three Kids by Margo Lanagan.

Nick Lowe's Mutant Popcorn movie reviews this issue
The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Legend of Hercules, Noah, Snowpiercer, Divergent, The Dou-ble, Under the Skin, The Last Days on Mars, The Machine, Escape from Planet Earth, The Zero Theorem

Tony Lee's Laser Fodder, TV/DVD, reviews this issue
Sparks, Scopers, The Last Keepers, As-tronaut, Ice Soldiers, RoboCop

Other non-fiction this issue
David Langford - Ansible Link
Martin McGrath - Readers' Poll results
Jonathan McCalmont - Future Interrupted column

More at ttapress.com/1798/interzone-252/0/4/

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction

174 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2014

Reviews

[Paul Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a regular reader of Interzone magazine back in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, along with Asimov’s, Analog and F&SF on occasion. The publication introduced me to some fine writers, many of whom went on to great things (or were already well-established and I had simply not come across them before).

I stumbled upon it again recently, pleased to find that the magazine is still going - now published by TTA press, having replaced their periodical The Third Alternative, rather than John Clute and David Pringle - and decided, on a whim, to take out a subscription. I’m glad I did.

Although in a smaller, glossier format than it used to be, much is as it was those years ago; a wide range of book reviews, Nick Lowe’s Mutant Popcorn film coverage and the great David Langford’s Ansible Link, a round-up of SF news, gossip and too many obituaries. And, of course, the stories.

I had heard of none of the writers in issue 252 before now, but will definitely be seeking several of them out in the future. The opening main feature, The Posset Pot by Neil Williamson is classic Interzone fodder; a weird, bleak post-apocalypse set story about loss and holding on to hope, little more than a vignette but enough to interest me, along with the interview with Williamson, to interest me in his new novel, The Moon King.

The Mortuaries by Katherine E. K. Duckett is likewise bleak, in a US where despite overpopulation due to the rising sea levels and dwindling resources, the dead are preserved and displayed a la Gunther von Hagens. Deliberate references to Make Room! Make Room! its movie, Soylent Green.

Val Nolan’s Diving Into The Wreck is similarly about preserving the past at the expense of looking toward the future, this time about the search for the lunar module that still sits somewhere in the dusty regolith.

Sleepers by the superbly named Bonnie-Jo Stufflebeam is odd and melancholy (definitely a theme here), the narrator keeping watch over her dying father while strange half-seen creatures run through the night and fascinate and terrify everybody.

The two stand out stories are the barely (if at all) SF A Brief Light by Claire Humphrey about a family dealing with loss and the funny and indescribable Two Truths and a Lie from Oliver Buckram where a relationship that may or may not be with an alien is plotted out over instants taken from a year, each described with the titular two truths and a lie.

As this is the first taste of my return to Interzone I'm not sure whether the downbeat, somber tone struck by the majority of the stories is typical, although I do remember that was often the case before - leavened by glints of hope and humour, to be sure, but Interzone always seemed to revel in its rather bleak reputation. Regardless, I am enjoying again an Interzone reader and am looking forward to the invention and quirkiness and independence that its semi-prozine status always allowed it to cultivate. And I'm sure I shall, once again, discover many great writers herein.

[Des Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, here goes. It is one of the most powerfully grim speculative stories I’ve ever seen in Interzone or perhaps ever seen anywhere. The essentially mind’s eye conception of the two towering Mortuaries standing in such a setting side by side will haunt me forever, plus the redolently described differences between them, the ‘living’ tableaux of plastinated dead within those Mortuaries, behind glass in one Mortuary, but not in the other, the various vivid characterisations involved, especially the point of view of Tem, the boy, as he grows up, regularly visiting one of these Mortuaries and then finally the second one, all of this being set amid the cataclysmic endgame of his whole surrounding civilisation and world, the history of the keepers of those Mortuaries, and, finally, the story’s exquisitely unbearable coda with his Mum and dead Dad, and what is likely to ensue from outside the Mortuary … all gradually built up by the author in an effective and memorable way.

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.

[Roddy Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Death is a recurrent theme in this issue of Interzone, most obviously in Katharine E.K. Duckett's 'The Mortuaries' but appears either overtly or obliquely in every tale. The quality is generally high with my top stories being by Humphrey and Stufflebeam (who together sound like a firm of Hogwarts solicitors)


The Posset Pot by Neil Williamson
The Mortuaries by Katharine E.K. Duckett
Diving Into The Wreck by Val Nolan
Two Truths And A Lie by Oliver Buckram
A Brief Light by Claire Humphrey
Sleepers by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam


The Posset Pot by Neil Williamson

Two men survive in a post apocalyptic city where a parallel world is exchanging sphere-shaped samples of itself with ours via mysterious 'bubbles that appear at random. Great characterisation. Works well.

The Mortuaries by Katharine E.K. Duckett

An intriguing piece about future mortuaries inspired by the work of van Haagens, where one's plastinated loved ones can be viewed.

Diving Into The Wreck by Val Nolan

An excellent story involving obsessive researchers hunting for the lost landing stage of Apollo 11. Explores the concept of ethics and mystery.

Two Truths And A Lie by Oliver Buckram

This piece is one of those experimental pieces that border on prose poetry. It doesn't quite work although may have done if it was substantially shorter and not so obscure.

A Brief Light by Claire Humphrey

Quite lovely. Not SF by any means but a gorgeously crafted piece in which the dead are returning to their old homes with the talent to turn into birds. Do they bring messages? Not unless, it seems, one wishes to perceive them as such.

Sleepers by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

Quite simillar to Claire Humphreys' 'A Bright Light.; in that odd white creatures are appearing and may or may not have some resemblance and connection to sick or dying relatives. Original. Very atmospheric, Quite moving too.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Posset Pot - Neil Williamson: Um apocalipse intimista, com dois sobreviventes a tentar manter um sentido de normalidade numa Glasgow deserta, esburacada, como o planeta, por esferas misteriosas que se materializam aleatoriamente. A física devora o planeta, talvez devido a singularidades descontroladas saídas de uma experiência do CERN. O que é certo é que as esferas materializam-se e desvanecem, levando consigo o que apanharem no seu interior. E, por vezes, deixam para trás objectos e indícios de outras eras, outros espaços e tempos.

The Mortuaries - Katharine Duckett: um muito bem escrito conto de climate fiction, com uma poderosa linguagem visual e uma inconsistência surreal que lhe dá o gosto. Num futuro já para lá do colapso, com a humanidade impotente perante um clima fora de controlo e a derrocada dos sistemas sociais, resta um estranho monumento à vontade de imortalidade: duas casas mortuárias, especializadas em plastinar cadáveres, uma preservando a utopia inatingível da felicidade material, a outra preservando o horror grand-guignol da morte real. Dois bastiões de anormalidade hierática no meio de um mundo que se desagrega, vistos pelo olhar de uma criança que sabe não ter futuro, e sente um estranho fascínio pelos silêncios dos espaços da morte, agudizado pela pressão de viver em espaços sobrecarregados. Conto fortíssimo, que usa elementos do horror - o fascínio pelas coisas fúnebres, para alinhar uma belíssima visão distópica de climate fiction e consegue tocar no desepero perante a desagregação que tudo o que se conhece, nas dores da morte, na vontade humana de lutar apesar da pouca esperança, e até do racismo.

Diving into the Wreck - Val Nolan: hard SF com um toque arqueológico. Num futuro próximo, com a humanidade a espalhar-se pelo sistema solar, a busca por artefactos dos primórdios da era espacial é objecto de estudo e obsessão por aqueles que querem manter viva a memória dos tempos em que não havia motores de fusão e elevadores espaciais. Equipes de arqueólogos vistoriam a órbita terrestre, recuperando satélites esquecidos e estágios de lançadores, ou perscrutam luas e planetas para trazer antigas sondas robóticas para uma segunda vida como objectos de museu. Um dos módulos abandonados da Apollo 11, perdido na superfície lunar, é o mistério mais apetecido pelos entusiastas e investigadores. Quando o amigo de um exo-arqueólogo é desafiado para partir numa expedição que o descobre perdido na superfície lunar, percebe que o verdadeiro sentido do artefacto reside no seu mistério. Desvendá-lo esvazia-lo-á de significado, e para isso tem de eliminar o arqueólogo.

Two Thruths and a Lie - Oliver Buckram: o experimentalismo literário mais radical anda muito arredado do panorama das revistas de FC, apesar do enorme peso histórico e conceptual da New Worlds. Este conto é uma raridade, estando mais no espírito experimental de J. G. Ballard do que do habitual no conto fantástico. A história constrói-se de fragmentos de texto e jogos intrigantes de palavras.

A Brief Light - Claire Humphrey: fiquei sem perceber se esta história tinha a ver com lesbianismo incerto, um casamento em crise ou infestações de fantasmas que ressurgem em todos os cantos. O que é certo é que esta é uma daquelas histórias em que o fantástico não passa de mero cenário para dramas românticos. A ideia de fantasmas que se vão multiplicando pelos espaços arquitectónicos tem a sua piada, mas tudo o resto lê-se como uma banal história melosa de revista femenina.

Sleepless - Bonnie Stufflebeam: neste conto o fantástico como elemento decorativo é levado tão longe que mal é aflorado. Estranha história para ser publicada na Interzone. Há umas criaturas que surgem durante a noite, mas a história é sobre uma mulher que está a aprender a lidar com a proximidade da morte do pai.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A less than average issue, with stories that tend to focus more on fantastic scenery than characters or story. Only Katharine E.K. Duckett's story about one of the last habitable places on Earth really caught my attention this time round.

- "The Posset Pot" by Neil Williamson: an interesting story set in a time when 'bubbles' can appear at anytime to transport parts of the Earth to another place or time. In this future, one man searches for a way to survive in what is left of civilisation, while searching for a way to become part of a bubble so that he can join his wife, which was lost in a bubble long ago. But time may be running out for him; for the bubbles' appearances are getting rarer.

- "The Mortuaries" by Katharine E.K. Duckett: a tale of the future when much of the land is no longer habitable. In one of the last remaining habitats, the community 'plastinates' its dead in its motuaries and one boy decides to explore one mortuary looking for his recently dead father. What he discovers would lead his to decide whether he should help the survivors of the outside world who are coming toward his town, one of the last livable places left.

- "Diving Into The Wreck" by Val Nolan: a man caught between the desires of his dead wife to document the history of space flight and his friend to find out where the remains of the Apollo 11 lunar ascent module has to decide what to do when the module is discovered.

- "Two Truths And A Lie" by Oliver Buckram: a tale of a woman who meets another man; or could it possibly be an alien? A tale where at times three statements are given and you have to decide which two are true and which one is a lie.

- "A Brief Light" by Claire Humphrey: in a world where ghosts from the past have started to appear, a man and woman must deal with the ghost of the man's brother whose reappearance raises old guilty feelings in his family.

- "Sleepers" by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam: sleepers are strange, alien-like beings who appear at night and one of which might be related to the father of a nurse, who lies in critical condition at a hospital. Will the nurse's attempts to contact the sleeper affect her father's condition?