Interzone 215
The April 2008 Issue Of The UK's Leading SF Magazine, From TTA Press
Greg Egan returns; Patrick Samphire debuts; Mike Carey interviewed; IZ regular Jamie Barras opens the issue
Interzone 215 is perhaps the most eagerly awaited issue of Britain's leading (and hugely influential) sci-fi magazine in three or four years, since TTA Press took over the ailing 'Pringlezone,' from the stewardship of then-editor David Pringle. For issue 215 carries Australian ultar-hard-SF writer Greg Egan's first story for the magazine since 'Singleton' in 2002.
Interface
But first, the non-fiction departments.
Editor Andy Cox previews two new titles from TTA Press, one of them the debut collection from Paul Meloy. The eponymous 'Islington Crocodiles appeared in Interzone in early 2007.
There is an interview with leading comic-book storyteller Mike Carey, perhaps now better known as the creator of freelance exorcist Felix Castor, "freelance exorcist adrift in a world in which reality is drifting," (p.7) and who must combat the ghosts, demons and other assorted invaders now present in our world.
In Interlocutions, there is a review of 2007 in Bookzone, and Nick Lowe dissects the new films, while Tony Lee laments the decline of space opera on film and television.
Intermission
TTA Regular Jamie Barras opens the fiction with 'The Endling,' an information-dense story of Humanity's Diaspora following the "murder" of the sun. The Solar System is caught in an on-going war between two alien races which results in the human race's near-annihalation, except for certain individuals, 're-grown' by the alien factions in one form or another. It's complexity is made worse by an over-reliance on sketchy descriptions long, tortuous sentences, and a paucity of exposition at the beginning off-set by a torrent of it at the end.
In 'Dragonfly Summer,' Patrick Samphire depicts a bitter paean to a long-forgotten summer and lost potentialities during a student reunion which never flinches in its tone, and adamantly -and admirably- refuses to take the usual genre ending.
Greg Egan
The expectation surrounding Greg Egan's 'Crystal Nights' is such that it would have been easy for the novelette to be an anti-climax when it finally appeared, but this detailed examination of one methodology of creating AI (Artificial Intelligence) with its resonantly multi-contextual title is as good as any Egan story of the 1990s, and is therefore a certain contender for one of the Year's Best collections.
'Holding Pattern' by Joy Marchand features an alien in love with a stewardess in what is a dark variation on 'Groundhog Day.' Wisecracking to the end, it's surprisingly poignant.
Will McIntosh
Will McIntosh's 'Street Hero' is the latest story in the sequence that began with 'Soft Apocalypse' in issue 200. Savannah is besieged by invasions of rampant gene-modified bamboo that is spread by bio-terrorists, but none of this is known to the wannabe hard-man Kilo when he plays vigilante one night. Kilo's coming-of-age when he discovers his vocation makes this an even better story than 'Dada Jihad' in IZ212. Highly recommended.
Rudy Rucker rounds off Intermission -the fiction section- with 'Imitation Game,' another contribution to what seems to be a virtual sub-genre of Alan Turing stories (other writers who've trodden the Turing Path include Greg Bear, Greg Egan, Alan Leonard, Janna Levin and Neal Stephenson) but this time linked to some of Turing's own 'Imitation Game,' in which Turing proposed a hidden computer impersonate one of three players. Rucker plays with the multiple meanings beautifully.
IZ215 is not one of the strongest issues, but even one of the weaker ones is still better value-for-money than most of its competitors best.
