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    Interzone 249 Nov: Dec 2013
    Interzone 249 Nov: Dec 2013
    Interzone 249 Nov: Dec 2013
    Ebook247 pages4 hours

    Interzone 249 Nov: Dec 2013

    By TTA Press

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    The November–December issue of the 2013 British Fantasy Award winning magazine contains new science fiction and fantasy stories by John Shirley, Tim Lees, Lavie Tidhar, Jason Sanford, Claire Humphrey, and Sarah Brooks. The cover art is by Jim Burns, and interior colour illustrations are by Wayne Haag, Richard Wagner, Martin Hanford, and Ben Baldwin. All the usual features are present: Ansible Link by David Langford (news and obits); Mutant Popcorn by Nick Lowe (film reviews); Laser Fodder by Tony Lee (DVD/Blu-ray reviews); Book Zone: reviews of many recent releases plus an interview with John Shirley and Jonathan McCalmont's Future Interrupted column.

    Fiction this issue
    Unknown Cities of America by Tim Lees
    Paprika by Jason Sanford
    Filaments by Lavie Tidhar
    Haunts by Claire Humphrey
    The Kindest Man in Stormland by John Shirley
    and by Sarah Brooks Trans-Siberia: An Account of a Journey, with added notes from The Cautious Traveller's Guide to Greater Siberia by L. Girard (Mauriac Publishing, Paris, 1859)

    Artists this issue
    Jim Burns
    Richard Wagner
    Ben Baldwin
    Wayne Haag
    Martin Hanford

    Books reviewed this issue
    Book Zone, edited by Jim Steel, has
    NEW TABOOS John Shirley
    plus author interview
    EXIT KINGDOM Alden Bell
    SWORDS OF GOOD MEN Snorri Kristjansson
    21st CENTURY SF editors David G. Hartwell & Patrick Nielsen Hayden
    WE SEE A DIFFERENT FRONTIER editors Fabio Fernandes & Djibril alAyad
    EVENING’S EMPIRES Paul McAuley
    THE VIOLENT CENTURY Lavie Tidhar
    PHOENIX SF Said
    THE SECRET OF ABDU EL YEZDI Mark Hodder
    THE DETAINEE Peter Liney
    SOME REMARKS Neal Stephenson
    SHAMAN Kim Stanley Robinson
    HIDE ME AMONG THE GRAVES Tim Powers
    THE DIAMOND DEEP Brenda Cooper
    And Jonathan McCalmont's column FUTURE INTERRUPTED

    Nick Lowe's movie reviews this issue
    Thor: The Dark World, Ender's Game, How I Live Now, Justin and the Knights of Valour, About Time, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, Riddick, R.I.P.D.

    Tony Lee's TV/DVD reviews this issue
    Ikarie XB-1, Lifeforce, Grimm Season 2, Dr Mabuse the Gambler, My Amityville Horror, The Night of the Hunter, Pacific Rim, Under the Dome

    See ttapress.com/1731/interzone-249/0/4/ for images/ details of the issue.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTTA Press
    Release dateFeb 21, 2014
    ISBN9781311179494
    Interzone 249 Nov: Dec 2013
    Author

    TTA Press

    TTA Press is the publisher of the magazines Interzone (science fiction/fantasy) and Black Static (horror/dark fantasy), the Crimewave anthology series, TTA Novellas, plus the occasional story collection and novel.

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      Book preview

      Interzone 249 Nov - TTA Press

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      Smashwords 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 or Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the contributors and editors

      Upload 5 Smashwords ISBN:  9781311179494

      CONTENTS

      Xianth-contents.tif

      COVER ART: XIANTH BY JIM BURNS

      prints are available: contact the artist via his website at www.alisoneldred.com/artistJimBurns.html

      INTERFACE

      EDITORIAL

      ANSIBLE LINK

      DAVID LANGFORD

      news, obituaries

      FICTION

      unknown cities.tif

      UNKNOWN CITIES OF AMERICA

      TIM LEES

      illustrated by Richard Wagner

      Paprika.tif

      PAPRIKA

      JASON SANFORD

      illustrated by Ben Baldwin

      Filaments_FINAL_2.tif

      FILAMENTS

      LAVIE TIDHAR

      illustrated by Wayne Haag

      haunts.tif

      HAUNTS

      CLAIRE HUMPHREY

      illustrated by Martin Hanford

      Stormland_FINAL.tif

      THE KINDEST MAN IN STORMLAND

      JOHN SHIRLEY

      illustrated by Wayne Haag

      trans-sibera.tif

      TRANS-SIBERIA: AN ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY

      SARAH BROOKS

      illustrated by Richard Wagner

      REVIEWS

      BOOK ZONE

      books by John Shirley (plus author interview), Alden Bell, Snorri Kristjansson, David G. Hartwell & Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Fabio Fernandes & Djibril al-Ayad, Paul McAuley, Lavie Tidhar, SF Said, Mark Hodder, Peter Liney, Neal Stephenson, Kim Stanley Robinson, Tim Powers, Brenda Cooper, plus Jonathan McCalmont’s Future Interrupted column

      MUTANT POPCORN

      NICK LOWE

      films, including Thor: The Dark World, Ender’s Game, How I Live Now, Justin and the Knights of Valour, About Time, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, Riddick, R.I.P.D.

      LASER FODDER

      TONY LEE

      blu-ray/DVDs, including Ikarie XB-1, Lifeforce, Grimm Season 2, Dr Mabuse the Gambler, My Amityville Horror, The Night of the Hunter, Pacific Rim, Under the Dome

      EDITORIAL

      INTERZONE WINS A BRITISH FANTASY AWARD!

      On November 3rd at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton Interzone received the British Fantasy Award for Best Magazine. This was a very pleasant surprise! Many thanks to everybody who voted us onto the shortlist, to the judges who then made the final decision, and to every one of Interzone’s contributors for providing us with such high quality work.

      A few contributors to Interzone and other TTA publications appeared on various British Fantasy Award shortlists: Stephen Volk for his Black Static column Coffinmaker’s Blues, Nina Allan for her Black Static story ‘Sunshine’, Mike O’Driscoll for his TTA Novella Eyepennies, Ben Baldwin for his artwork here and elsewhere, and a gobsmacked Ray Cluley to whom Ramsey Campbell handed the Best Short Story award for ‘Shark! Shark!’ (Black Static #29). You’ll know Ray from his appearances in Interzone, but he’s a more regular contributor to Black Static with a story in the current issue, and another in the latest volume of our genre-bending Crimewave anthology series. Congratulations to Ray and all the other winners, listed by Dave Langford in this issue’s Ansible Link.

      READERS’ POLL

      Once again we’re asking you to let us know what you enjoyed in Interzone over this past year. You may vote for and against any number of stories published in issues #244 to #249 inclusive. You don’t have to have read every issue in order to cast a vote. Martin McGrath will be overseeing the poll as usual, and there are two ways you can send him your votes: by email to [email protected], or via the form on ttapress.com/interzone/readerspoll/. We’re as keen to hear your opinions of the magazine as we are to get your votes, so don’t be shy in letting us know what you think. The results will be published in issue #252, so please make sure your votes are in before March 31st.

      ONLINE SUBMISSIONS

      At long last we have set up a proper system for receiving and responding to online submissions of short stories. Please read the updated guidelines on our website and follow the link there. You’ll need to set up an account but it’s free and will enable you to log in any time to check on progress of submissions. As always, we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

      Return to Contents

      ANSIBLE LINK

      DAVID LANGFORD

      Sir Ben Kingsley says the Ender’s Game film (he plays Mazer Rackham) has transcendent qualities which mere sf fans won’t appreciate: ‘I think there’s a much bigger audience than just your science fiction fans – we’ll get them as well – but we’ll also get people who want a philosophical journey, that journey of spirit through the film.’ (Getreading.co.uk)

      Awards presented at the 2013 World Fantasy Convention. British Fantasy. Fantasy Novel: Graham Joyce, Some Kind of Fairy Tale. Horror Novel: Adam Nevill, Last Days. Novella: John Llewellyn Probert, ‘The Nine Deaths of Dr Valentine’. Short: Ray Cluley, ‘Shark! Shark!’ (Black Static #29). Collection: Robert Shearman, Remember Why You Fear Me. Anthology: Jonathan Oliver, ed., Magic. Small Press: ChiZine Publications. Nonfiction: Pornokitsch. Magazine: Interzone. Artist: Sean Phillips. Comic/Graphic Novel: Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples, Saga. Screenplay: The Cabin in the Woods. Newcomer: Helen Marshall for Hair Side, Flesh Side. Special: Iain Banks. • Gemmell (heroic fantasy). Novel: Brent Weeks, The Blinding Knife. Debut Novel: John Gwynne, Malice. Cover Art: Didier Graffet & Dave Senior for Joe Abercrombie’s Red Country. • World Fantasy. Novel: G. Willow Wilson, Alif the Unseen. Novella: K.J. Parker, ‘Let Maps to Others’ (Subterranean). Short: Gregory Norman Bossert, ‘The Telling’ (Beneath Ceaseless Skies). Anthology: Danel Olson, ed., Postscripts #28/#29. Collection: Joel Lane, Where Furnaces Burn. Artist: Vincent Chong. Special Professional: Lucia Graves, translation of The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Special Non-Professional: S.T. Joshi, Unutterable Horror.

      The Analogizer™. ‘If Lord Justice Leveson is the Voldemort of press freedom, then I guess that makes the editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, Harry Potter.’ (Fearlessly outspoken Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine on BBC Radio 4 What the Papers Say)

      Robert Silverberg, in London en route to the World Fantasy Convention, had a heart attack on 29 October. Treatment went well, with a stent inserted and discharge from hospital after only two days; but sadly he had to skip the convention.

      Richard Dawkins missed out on a Hugo nomination, according to the retired Pope Benedict XVI, who in a recently published letter declares: ‘The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is a classic example of science fiction.’ (Independent)

      Jennifer Ridyard explicates: ‘I guess sometimes they just call the science fiction that girls love fantasy, because girls tend to shy away from the tacky sci-fi label.’ (Guardian)

      The Weakest Link. Dan O’Connell: ‘How many dwarfs were there in the Snow White story?’ Caller: ‘Ten.’ (XFM) • Hallowe’en dialogue. Richard Bacon: ‘Is there a ghost story you would recommend for children under 11?’ Susan Hill: ‘Anything by M.R. James.’ RB: ‘Oh, she’s great.’ SH: ‘She is a he.’ RB: ‘I did not know that.’ (Radio 5 Live)

      Vin Diesel may need a quick reality check. Time: ‘You fight some scary aliens in Riddick. Are there any creatures that you’re scared of in real life?’ Diesel: ‘Huh. Uh…dinosaurs?’ Time: ‘I meant creatures that actually exist now.’ Diesel: ‘I would say King Kong, but I’m not really scared of King Kong. That would be inaccurate.’ (Time interview)

      David Birnbaum, US jeweller turned philosopher, solves the mysteries of the universe in his self-published Summa Metaphysica (‘The cosmic trajectory is from the bottomless VOID to the limitless EXTRAORDINARY’). According to a comment at the US Chronicle of Higher Education website, this ‘reads like L Ron Hubbard had drunken sex one night with Ayn Rand and produced this bastard thought-child’. (Guardian)

      Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five was cleared by the Sunday Times literary tribunal of any horrid genre taint: ‘The cultish Vonnegut’s part memoir, part study of psychosis and escape is not the sci-fi it’s often dismissed as.’

      Thog’s Masterclass. Hostage to Fortune Dept. ‘And then, as if written by the hand of a bad novelist, an incredible thing happened.’ (Jonathan Stroud, The Amulet of Samarkand, 2003) • Joy of Anatomy. ‘The hole was off-centre, so the end of the belt projected upwards and then dangled down again under its own weight, like a failed erection.’ (Anne Holt, Blind Goddess, 1993; trans Tom Geddes 2012) • Dept of Bilocation. ‘A single walnut door stood either end of the long, grand hallway.’ (R.S. Johnson, The Genesis Project: The Children of CS-13, 2011) • Secrets of Elegant Sentence Construction. ‘But Zuberi did not see this, nor did anyone else, and as he slid his pistol back into its holster, the main door to the room flew open and about a dozen men and women, who had been sleeping only moments earlier, poured in, their weapons held and ready to fight if need be, a few more arrived soon after.’ (Ibid) • Multiple Messianic Mot Juste Dept. ‘The look of Polish had begun finally to fit his eye-sockets without estrangement…’ ‘A moan: or not exactly a moan. Rather, the sound of indecipherable syllables evaporating at the bottom of the sea.’ ‘Lars, looking with all his strength, felt his own ordinary [eye] pupil consumed by a conflagration in the socket. As if copulating with an angel whose wings were on fire.’ ‘Dr. Eklund, meanwhile, was nodding his big face up and down, cheering her on like a human baton.’ ‘One idea remained like an exclamation mark in the sweet-tasting pink wax of their heads: the stewpot, the stewpot!’ (all Cynthia Ozick, The Messiah of Stockholm, 1987) • Neat Tricks Dept. ‘A gang of priests gathered around Cushing’s old white head, kissing his ass.’ (John Flood, Bag Men, 1997) • Dept of Eyebrow Motility. ‘Things here are just hopping, he told me, his eyebrows flying all over his narrow face.’ [A different chap:] ‘His eyebrows were winging around his face in interrogation.’ (both Charlaine Harris, Real Murders, 1990)

      R.I.P.

      Patricia Anthony (1947–2013), US author whose 1987 story debut was followed by seven idiosyncratic novels from the sf Cold Allies (1998) to the World War I slipstream fantasy Flanders (1998), was reported on 2 August as having died; she was 66.

      Martha Bartter (1932–2013), US critic, editor and author of some short sf whose major work was The Way to Ground Zero: The Atomic Bomb in American Science Fiction (1988), died on 18 June aged 80.

      Gary Brandner (1933–2013), US horror/thriller author best known for his werewolf novel The Howling (1977), its two sequels and the film franchise it spawned, died on 23 September; he was 80.

      Tom Clancy (1947–2013), bestselling US author of spy technothrillers, died on 1 October; he was 66. His ‘Jack Ryan’ sequence enters near-future sf territory with nuclear terrorism in The Sum of All Fears (1991; filmed 2002), war with a nuclear-armed Japan in Debt of Honor (1994), and further doomsday scenarios.

      Ann C. Crispin (1950–2013), US author made Grandmaster by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers for her Star Trek, Star Wars, V etc franchise novels, died on 6 September aged 63. Solo work includes the sf StarBridge sequence; she co-founded the essential scam-alert service Writer Beware.

      Anthony Hinds (1922–2013), UK film producer and (as John Elder) scriptwriter who created the X-rated Hammer Horror film phenomenon, died on 30 September aged 91. His first productions in this vein were The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and The Curse of Frankenstein (1956).

      William Harrison (1933–2013), US author and screenwriter who adapted his 1973 ‘Roller Ball Murder’ – title story of his 1974 collection – for the film Rollerball (1975; remade 2002), died on 22 October; he was 79.

      Stanley Kauffmann (1916–2013), US critic, author, editor and film reviewer who while at Ballantine Books acquired Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, died on 9 October aged 97.

      Dot (Dorothy) Lumley, UK agent who ran the Dorian Literary Agency and represented various genre authors including former husband Brian Lumley, died on 5 October. Earlier, as Dot Houghton, she was a publisher’s editor at NEL and Methuen.

      Nick Robinson, UK editor/publisher who founded Robinson Publishing in 1983 and chaired Constable & Robinson (merged 1999) from 2009, died on 30 August aged 58. He published many genre anthologies including the Mammoth Books titles edited by Mike Ashley, Stephen Jones and others, and UK editions of Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Best SF.

      Leland Sapiro (1924–2013), US fan who edited the thrice-Hugo-nominated academic fanzine Riverside Quarterly (formerly Inside, with others) from 1962 to 1993, died on 8 October aged 89.

      Takashi Yanase (1919–2013), Japanese manga writer/animator famed for his widely franchised superhero Anpanman (whose replaceable head – sometimes fed to the needy – is an anpan, a bun stuffed with red bean paste), died on 13 October. He was 94.

      Return to Contents

      UNKNOWN CITIES OF AMERICA

      TIM LESS

      illustrated by Richard Wagner

      unknown cities.tif

      He can say ‘bananas’. Go on, boy – say it. Say it, boy.

      Bananas, says the dog.

      Everyone laughs. Even the dog looks pleased. A big man in a baseball cap says, Go again? and cracks a peanut shell between his teeth.

      Ba-na-nanas, says the dog. It has a squishy, not-quite-human voice, like a slowed-down Donald Duck. I don’t know what kind of a dog it is. A terrier or pug cross, maybe. The old geezer who owns it puffs his chest out, rocks from foot to foot, and puts his nose up in the air. A long white braid hangs down his back.

      Say other stuff? asks someone in the crowd.

      Oh, sure.

      Go on, they say. Let’s hear.

      He can say – The old man chuckles wickedly. Pardon, ladies. He can say ‘Fuck the Democrats’.

      Let’s hear, let’s hear!

      Come on, boy. Say it. You say ‘Fuck the Democrats’. You say it, boy.

      Bananas, says the dog again. It looks up at its master with a puzzled, half-expectant air.

      No boy. Not ‘bananas’. ‘Fuck the Democrats’. You say it now.

      Bananas, says the dog.

      "Alright! The old man claps his hands. Y’all hear that?"

      Yeah, says the big guy, spitting shells into his fist. Kinda…yeah. I think.

      I heard it, says his wife.

      I heard it too, says someone else.

      The old man stoops and pets the dog. Clever, clever boy! He takes a treat and flips it to the animal, which gulps it down, looking for more.

      Here miracles can happen every day; here signs and wonders are expected of the world. The old man’s crowd drifts off. The little dog jumps up at him. Bananas, it keeps saying, scrunching up the word as if its jaws are mashed with gum. I call the guy aside, then take the photo from my wallet, show him.

      Seen this woman?

      He squints, running a hand over his head. A small, pink tongue peeks through his teeth. He frowns.

      Show it the dog, he says at last, and so I do.

      You can guess the dog’s reply.

      ***

      It was a night flight, Denver to Newark, three hours twenty; I was ten years old. I slept a while, and when I woke, the land beneath was blotched with light, the yellow spattered on the black like floating galaxies, and I thought of all the lives going on right below me, right that second, all the people there I’d never meet or see or know about. I tried to pick out shapes, put names to things, familiarise the stuff I saw: a ballpark or a shopping mall, a freeway or a railroad track…

      We passed a seven-pointed star, big as – what? Manhattan? Something like that, anyway. Dark in the middle, dark all round, bright at the edge, a cookie-cutter shape, stencilled in light. I watched it sliding slowly past, and vanish inch by inch behind the window seal. I pressed my face against the glass; but by the time I woke my Mom, it was already gone.

      There’s nothing on the map, on any map of any route that we could possibly have taken, and I’ve checked them all a hundred times since then. Yet it was real, I know; real as the lights of Jersey that would sweep towards us in the hours to come.

      In those days, I believed what I’d been taught in school, and seen on television. Later, I’d learn other things: a notion of the vastness of America, the limits of cartography; and of the cities, some strange, some almost wholly unremarkable, that don’t show up on maps.

      Treetops, Arizona, has been named ironically: there are no trees, not one, although the man I meet, standing at the crossroads, is so tall and massive that he’s like a tree himself. He doesn’t move. A broad

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