Interzone 4, Spring 1983

by David Pringle (Editor)

36 pages, Unknown Binding

Published March 1, 1983

Reviews

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Sladek performs some reductio ad absurdum with “Calling All Gumdrops” where the roles of children and adults are reversed. It might work as satire but otherwise, without a raison d’etre it just seems a bit silly. Alex Stewart gives us the tale of Caulder, a man who has desired to be an astronaut since childhood, but who was grounded medically. His big chance comes when a nuclear waste satellite misfires in “The Caulder Requiem” and only Caulder can fix it. A stowaway “On The Deck Of The Flying Bomb” finds his plans come to naught when they encounter another flying bomb in David Redd’s vignette, while Malcolm Edwards supplies the highlight tale with his disturbing and memorable “After-Images”, where a triple nuclear strike creates a region where time has slowed a millionfold and the fronts of light, heat and radiation creep inexorably towards a small group of residents. Barrington Bayley examines the concept of “The Ur-Plant”, a master organism from which all existing plants come, designed in Argentina by a descendant of Dr. Mengele. But another device, the macroscope, discerns something unexpected in the plant’s blooms.