Interzone #278

by Andy Cox

The November–December issue contains new cutting edge science fiction and fantasy (this time with a specific theme) by Tim Lees, Fiona Moore, Natalia Theodoridou, Eliza Ruslander, Sheldon J. Pacotti, and Louise Hughes. The cover art is by Vince Haig, and interior colour illustrations are by Richard Wagner, Dave Senecal, and Martin Hanford. Features: Ansible Link by David Langford (news and obits); Mutant Popcorn by Nick Lowe (film reviews); Book Zone (book reviews, including an interview with Aliya Whiteley); Andy Hedgecock's Future Interrupted (comment); Aliya Whiteley's Climbing Stories (comment); guest editorial by Tim Lees.


Cover Art: Abductees 5 by 2018 cover artist Vince Haig


Fiction:


Soldier's Things by Tim Lees
illustrated by Martin Hanford


Doomed Youth by Fiona Moore
illustrated by Richard Wagner


The Path to War by Louise Hughes
illustrated by Martin Hanford


Heart of an Awl by Eliza Ruslander
illustrated by Dave Senecal


Zero Day by Sheldon J. Pacotti
illustrated by Richard Wagner


Birnam Platoon by Natalia Theodoridou
illustrated by Richard Wagner


Features:


Guest Editiral
Tim Lees


Future Interrupted: When I'm in the Crowd…
Andy Hedgecock


Climbing Stories: Fear of Freedom
Aliya Whiteley


Ansible Link: News, obituaries
David Langford


Reviews:


Book Zone


Books reviewed include The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction edited by Francesca T. Barbini, The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley (plus author interview), Modern Masters of Science Fiction: Arhtur C. Clarke by Gary Westfahl, An American Story by Christopher Priest, The Song My Enemies Sing by James Reich, Buying Time by E.M. Brown, Death's End by Cixin Liu, By the Pricking of Her Thumb by Adam Roberts, Unholy Land by Lavie Tidhar, Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates


Mutant Popcorn
Nick Lowe


Films reviewed include Venom, Upgrade, Duplicate, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, The House with a Clock in its Walls, The Man who Killed Don Quixote, Mirai, The Predator, Smallfoot

ebook

Published November 20, 2018

Reviews

[Leo Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stand out story by Natalia Theodoridou: plant-based man soldiers who, when stressed, bear fruit that tastes like war. Thank you Natalia, very cool!

Sci-fi as always ranging wildly in its intelligibility for me at least.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A not very interesting issue of Interzone, mainly because the stories appear to be on the theme of conflicts (mainly military related) and not of much interest to me. Natalia Theodoridou's story about unusual genetically engineered soldiers is probably the most interesting.

- "Soldier's Things" by Tim Lees: a soldier returns home, injured from a war to discover that many things have changed: from the way people treat him to his own memories of life and the war.

- "Doomed Youth" by Fiona Moore: a story that mixes together a student's attempt to learn when and where giant ants started appearing with suspicions about 'foreigners' in an alternate world where conflict is more widespread and a terror attack is about the happen.

- "The Path to War" by Louise Hughes: a story teller wanders through the land, telling stories about peaceful times for food and shelter, as the country around him prepares for conflict. But when he is caught by a enemy scout and interrogate for information on a camp he had just left, it would be his storytelling and other abilities that might save him.

- "Heart of an Awl" by Eliza Ruslander: a strange story about the AI of a car that has been transplanted into the body of a deceased man and is now living with the widow. Lots of meandering passages as they travel around together.

- "Zero Day" by Sheldon J. Pacotti: a hacker for the military is on his off day when he meets what he thinks is the girl of his dreams. But his actions to find her and show off to her gets interrupted when various zero-day vulnerabilities are used on that day.

- "Birnam Platoon" by Natalia Theodoridou: a story about the aftermath of a military trial of a doctor who was part of an attempt to use unusual genetically engineered soldiers in conflicts; soldiers that finally decided that peace was better than war at the wrong time.

[Link Parish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Natalia Theodoridou's "Birnham Platoon" & "Soldier's Things" by Tim Lees are top notch.

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tim Lees takes the guest Editorial where he ponders truth and realism in fiction and welcomes more inclusiveness – more truths – in SF. Andy Hedgecock’s Future Interrupted wonders about the preponderance of negative perceptions of crowds in SF - and more generally - compared to their positive potential. Aliya Whiteley fills the gap left by Nina Alan’s columnistic departure in Climbing Stories, arguing that SF tales have no set structure like romances or horror stories do. Instead SF steals from everywhere. In Book Zone Tade Thompson laments the failure of The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction edited by Francesca Barbini to treat African Sf&F on its own terms rather than Western ones, Daniel Carpenter says Aliya Whiteley’s The Loosening Skin will haunt the reader long after it is read (and also interviews the author,) John Howard appreciates Gary Westfahl’s reappraisal of Arthur C Clarke in the latest Modern Masters of Science Fiction series, Val Nolan discusses Christopher Priest’s “September 11th” novel An American Story, Duncan Lunan finds The Song my Enemies Sing by James Reich enjoyable hard work - up to a point - and considers carefully E M Brown’s Buying Time, I characterise Death’s End, the culmination of Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, as a bracing intellectual tour-de-force but emotionally unsatisfying, Andy Hedgecock finds Adam Roberts’s By the Pricking of her Thumb too self-indulgent, Stephen Theaker says Unholy Land by Lavie Tidhar is quite terrific - a corker - and Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates to be heavy-handed satire but arguably what this moment needs.
As to the fiction:-
Soldier’s Things by Tim Lees tells of a soldier invalided out from an ongoing conflict journey back home only to find nothing familiar, his memory untrustworthy – about anything.
In Doomed Youth by Fiona Moore an infestation of giant ants occurred sometime in the 1950s with intermittent rises and falls in their population ever since. The story is supposedly narrated by a Chinese American called Kara Chong in a chatty style that didn’t sit well with the content. The background of a world elsewhere falling apart has led to distrust of foreigners.
The Path to War by Louise Hughes sees a storyteller whose audience finds her lacking take a mountain path between two newly-warring countries (after a litany of wars) rather than the coast road in the wake of the army.
In Heart of an Awl by Eliza Ruslander an AI that was a car is bequeathed its owner’s body after his death. It and his widow go on a road trip.
Zero Day by Sheldon J Pacotti is the story of an off-duty cyber soldier who meets a girl on a bus. Tracking her later online he misses the big cyber attack.
The SF premise of Birnam Platoon by Natalia Thoeodoridou is much the same as that of Green Troops by William King, ie the development of soldiers capable of photosynthesising by themselves. This lot take their mission of promoting world peace seriously though. The story is framed via the post-war trial of one of their commanders for war crimes.

[Cate Gardner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit behind with this issue - she understates.

There's an excellent editorial by Tim Lees about how we need true voices in fiction. The first story in the issue, Soldier's Things is also by Tim Lees. The landmarks were familiar, but I'd no sense of geography, how one place fitted with another. A soldier returned from a war that he may or may not have experienced, returned to a world that isn't quite what he remembers. A clever look at how we cannot always trust our own memories.

Xenophobia is the undercurrent in Doomed Youth by Fiona Moore, in a story about a giant ant invasion. "Oh her again. ANT-THEM! for Doomed Youth). As it turns out, the ants aren't really the threat here.

A car's memory is transplanted into a human body in Eliza Ruslander's decidedly weird Heart of an Awl.

[Des Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

And this is an intriguingly and frighteningly oblique fable upon an alternate world that, due to the accretion of clues, we eventually recognise as ours, given the madness of a nation world called Xenophobia First! My words, not the story’s. None of us belong here. Except for them! “…in a frustrating catch-22 system of paranoia,…” as we recognise the students, we recognise the neighbourhood of moving fashions and people.

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

[Robert Hudder · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 2018, things were both very much the same and really different. The Birnam Soldiers stood out for me, and yeah, it is a Shakespeare reference. A book review on the Evolution of African Fantasy and Fiction also stood out. I now have another book or two to read and a movie to add to my long list of to be watched.

[Pearse Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry, I did not like any of these stories. The one about plant-soldiers had the most potential, but in my opinion all fell flat.