Interzone #244 Jan - Feb 2013

SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

ISSUE #244

JAN - FEB 2013

Cover Art
Jim Burns: 2013 cover artist

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PUBLISHED BY:
TTA Press on Amazon

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v2 Roy Gray

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ISSN
(Print edition) 0264-3596 > Published bimonthly by TTA Press, 5 Martins Lane, Witcham, Ely, Cambs CB6 2LB, UK (t: 01353 777931)
Copyright
›
©
2013 Interzone and its contributors
Worldwide Distribution
›
Pineapple Media (t: 02392 787970) › Central Books (t: 020 8986 4854) › WWMD (t: 0121 7883112)

› If you want the print edition and Interzone is not stocked by your local bookshop, newsagent or newstand please ask them to order it for you, or buy it from one of several online mail order distributors...
or better yet subscribe direct with us!

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Fiction Editors
› Andy Cox, Andy Hedgecock ([email protected])
Book Reviews
Editor
› Jim Steel ([email protected])
Story
Proofreader
› Peter Tennant ([email protected])
E-edition + Publicity
› Roy Gray ([email protected])
Podcast
› Pete Bullock ([email protected])
Twitter + Facebook + Google
›
Plus
Marc-Anthony Taylor
Website
› ttapress.com
Email
[email protected]
Forum
› ttapress.com/forum
E
Subscriptions
› Not available as yet.
Submissions
› Unsolicited submissions of short stories are always welcome. Please follow the contributors’ guidelines on the website.

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Note
we omit some images from this edition but those you can see are also in colour at http://ttapress.com/1543/interzone-244/0/4/

Note
live links are repeated in the
ENDNOTES

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Amazon Edition License Notes

This emagazine is licensed for your personal use/enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this magazine with others please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this magazine and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please go to Amazon and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the contributors and editors

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EDITORIAL & NOTES

ANSIBLE LINK
> David Langford's News, Gossip & obituaries

ENDNOTES
> Links etc. > last 'pages'.

READERS' POLL
– Readers' opportunity to vote on 2012 stories and art.

BACK PAGE

THE BOOK SELLER
by Lavie Tidhar

illustrated by Warwick Fraser-Coombe

BUILD GUIDE
by Helen Jackson

illustrated by Richard Wagner

THE GENOA PASSAGE
by George Zebrowski

illustrated by Martin Hanford

iROBOT
by Guy Haley

illustrated by Jim Burns

SKY LEAP–EARTH FLAME
by Jim Hawkins

illustrated by Richard Wagner

A FLAG STILL FLIES OVER SABOR CITY
by Tracie Welser

BOOK ZONE
edited by Jim Steel

books:
book reviews by Jim's team of reviewers

MUTANT POPCORN
movie reviews by
Nick Lowe

LASER FODDER
DVD Blu ray reviews by
Tony Lee

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All is Flux, Nothing Stays Still

One of the pleasures of working on
Interzone
is the way some issues develop a personality that comes as a surprise even to those of us who have read all the stories in advance. And we have to admit the occasional twinge of pride when we consider the variety of themes, subgenres, settings, tropes, techniques, symbols, storytelling styles and voices we’ve been able to include over the past fifty issues.

For example,
Interzone #242
included ‘Strigoi’, Lavie Tidhar’s tale of interracial alienation in the spaceways, and ‘Needlepoint’, Priya Sharma’s subtle but edgy story set in an alternative Albion. Both tales are admirably idiosyncratic: one has clearly identifiable science fictional elements, while the other skitters along in the debatable lands between fantasy and history.

But that’s enough about the pleasures of working on
Interzone
in its 30th year. What about the frustrations and failures? A major source of disappointment is however eclectic the taste of the editors and however determined we are to be flexible, it’s inevitable we are going to reject some elegantly structured, linguistically complex and strikingly imaginative stories simply because they have no valid and defensible fit with the genres of sf, fantasy, horror or crime. In other words, all too often the team at TTA Towers experience the pain of rejecting engaging and powerful stories because we can’t find a home for them in
Interzone
,
Black Static
or
Crimewave
. And the pain is heightened by our awareness that this kind of work is increasingly unlikely to find a place in a publication that will do it justice.

Three exciting submissions we’ve found it impossible to place in a TTA publication – stories by Tim Lees, Nina Allan and Tyler Keevil – have inspired us to create
Flux
,
an occasional supplement containing such stories, that we’ll send out free to subscribers of
Interzone
and
Black Static
.

As Heraclitus of Ephasus said: “All is flux, nothing stays still”. TTA Press is heading for a state of Flux – and we’re hoping you’ll feel a damn good Flux is just what you need.

The above applies to the printed edition for subscribers. I will have more on what we might do with the E book version in the next issue.

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Readers’ Poll

It’s time to start voting for your favourite
Interzone
stories of 2012. We welcome back Martin McGrath to oversee the poll, and there are three ways you can send him your votes: by post, email, or via a form on the website. Vote for or against as many stories as you like. There are more details and a list of eligible stories
later in this issue
.

We’ve decided to restrict the poll to fiction only this year, and not include artwork. Like the magazine’s nonfiction, the art is done by the same small team and it no longer seems right that they should compete with each other, especially as the work is commissioned rather than unsolicited. Let us know if you think that’s a mistake.

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E-Edition (An Apology):
This E edition of
Interzone 244
has been uploaded later than I hoped but at least you have time to vote in the readers' poll and
Interzone 245
will
not
be published when this is uploaded. Hopefully I can do better henceforward. Please accept our apologies for delays. Keep checking Smashwords or Amazon for new issues. Thanks for your patience! This issue, #244, has been out in print since Jan 14.

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Note you may find
references to Fictionwise.com as a source of TTA Press E Books and magazines.  Fictionwise closed in the USA in December and in the UK in January. Now we are not sure what will happen about TTA back issues and e books formerly held solely on the 3 Fictionwise sites. Many of our files were removed early from Fictionwise's TTA page. Many back issues may well be unavailable in E book formats now. 
More in the Endnotes
.

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The next print issue,
Interzone 245,
will be dated March/April. In print or as E book, don't miss it.

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As Others See Us.
Robert McCrum once again indulged in genre-bashing, with exceptions: ‘Science fiction is the cockroach in the house of books: it survives on scraps and never goes away. Occasionally, as in the work of HG Wells and JG Ballard, it becomes sublime.’ (
Guardian
)

Awards.
James Tait Black Award all-time “best of best” fiction winner since the award began in 1919: Angela Carter (1940–1992),
Nights at the Circus
. • New York Film Critics Circle: best animated feature,
Frankenweenie
. • Roald Dahl Funny Prize, funniest book for 7–14 year olds category: Jamie Thomson,
Dark Lord: The Teenage Years
. • 2012 SFWA Grand Master for life achievement: Gene Wolfe. (‘If you keep this up I’ll start thinking I’m a good writer.’) • US National Book Awards: the Young People’s Literature winner was a fantasy, William Alexander’s
Goblin Secrets
. • World Fantasy Award novel winner: Lavie Tidhar,
Osama
.

C.S. Lewis
will be honoured with a memorial stone in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey, on 22 November 2013 – the fiftieth anniversary of his death.

We Are Everywhere.
Jon Stewart on the copious intimate emails between a US general and a married woman: ‘30,000 pages of emails – I could understand it if Stephen King and George R.R. Martin were having an affair!’ (
The Daily Show
)

Camille Paglia
’s enthusiasm for sf sublimities earned her a
Private Eye
‘Pseuds Corner’ appearance: ‘…it is emotionally overwhelming, with the intensity and sweep of a Puccini opera. The long finale of
Revenge of the Sith
, leading up to Darth Vader’s tortured fabrication and the birth and separation of the twin babies Luke and Leia, is in my view the most powerful work of art in any genre in the past 30 years – including literature.’ (
Huffington Post
)