Interzone 225; ending 2009 on a high note

[Roy1]

Five stories in issue 225

The Killing Streets Colin Harvey

By Starlight Rebecca Payne

Funny Pages Lavie Tidhar

Bone Island Shannon Page and Jay Lake

Here we are Falling though Shadows Jason Sanford

Rebecca Payne is the debut author this issue. By Starlight, the first story she submitted anywhere, was accepted straight off. That's pretty cool. Rebecca lives in Cambridge and is a tax advisor when not writing.

 

[Roy1]

And the cover art can be seen in the art section

 

[ctg]

Roy1, first of all, I like the cover very, very much. To me it seems as they're building a some sort of stargate or dimensional port, because it certainly cannot be a large hadron collider.

Secondly, a debut writer. She must be very, very good to get published in the interzone. I wonder if she's equal to my fellow countryman: Hannu Rajaniemi, is she?

 

[Patrick Mahon]

Looking forward to seeing it, Roy. When will it be out?

 

[Roy1]

November 12 is due date and she must be good ctg but you have to decide who you prefer.

‘By Starlight’ is the first story Rebecca submitted to any magazine or publisher and, as such first time success is very difficult, suggests that she has all the attributes necessary to make a career as an author.
Rebecca told me her debut story was inspired by a dusk spentwatching ships sailing off the coast of Cornwall. My blurb in the PR note was that it tells of "an infinite sky where two lovers face the consequences of choosing freedom over conformity.”

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[Roy1]

The full spec for IZ 225 plus a feature on the 2009 cover artist.

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[blacknorth]

Really enjoyed the double-whammy of The Killing Streets and Here We Are Falling Through Shadows. KS read like an urban Tremors, liked the UK setting.

 

[Roy1]

Glad you are enjoying it Blacknorth. I hope the sames applies with the remaining contents. 'Killing Streets' author Colin Harvey lives in Bristol and edited the Future Bristol Anthology

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[Anthony G Williams]

The December issue of the SFF magazine features another strangely evocative cover from Adam Tredowski; a vast and incomprehensible machine - is it a spaceship? Is it wrecked? - at the foot of a misty cliff dwarfs the trees and two small, tailcoated human observers. The usual news and book, film and TV reviews are accompanied by only five stories this time, as they are longer than usual.

Here We Are, Falling Through Shadows, by Jason Sandford, illustrated by Mark Pexton: Earth has been invaded by creatures of angular shadow, dubbed Rippers, who absorb their victims into a barely-glimpsed, incomprehensible world of savage horror. A fireman struggles to protect his family in a disintegrating world.

By Starlight, by Rebecca J Payne: A renegade couple, detached from their home fleet, sail their wooden ship across the world. It only slowly becomes clear that they are not sailing on the ocean but up in the sky, forever wary of the Grounders living below. A glimpse into a mysteriously alien world.

The Killing Streets, by Colin Harvey, illustrated by Mark Pexton: More invading creatures eating the population, this time enormous genetically-engineered supermoles tunnelling at high speed to catch their victims, drawn by the sound of regular footprints (shades of the sandworms of Dune). That isn't the only horror to have escaped the laboratory in a world which has become despotic and stratified.

Funny Pages, by Lavie Tidhar, illustrated by Warwick Fraser-Coombe: Strange superheroes battle through and over the streets of Tel Aviv. A very different take on comic (in both senses) figures.

Bone Island, by Shannon Page & Jay Lake, illustrated by Mark Pexton: a remote present-day island, where different kinds of magic still hold sway in parallel with our normal world, sees two fearsome women battling over possession of a young man with a gift - and a responsibility.

The first and the last were the most memorable and I particular liked the quality of the writing in Bone Island, which is my pick from this issue.

(An extract from my SFF blog)