Hello! Welcome to the part of the blog where I slate writers who are in all probability far better than I am!



Nice cover. Sci-fi factor 9. The schematic shadow echoes of the main structure are a bit naff, but it still manages to look awesome.

Johnny And Emmie-Lou Get Married: Kim Lakin-Smith.
What to make of this one? It's sci-fi in that there's reference to gas lights and stuff, but the story felt over-familiar. It's American redneck gangs driving fast cars and inflicting brutal injuries on each other. It all ends in tragedy, with Johnny and Emmie-Lou caught in the insurmountable hatred between the Rocketeers and the Flies. I didn't like it much, but it created it's own atmosphere.

Unexpected Outcomes: Tim Pratt
This is a twist on the 'World Isn't Real' theme, where after the cataclysmic day where planes crashed into the World Trade Centre, the beings outside decide to get involved directly and let us know that our world is a simulation! They let the Earth keep running, but take away humanity's desires to eat and sleep. This is the kind of story that Rob Shearman does so fantastically. This doesn't quite work, there's not quite enough that's different or distinctive about it.

Lady of The Whispered City: Sarah L Edwards
Now this was interesting and neatly put together. Essentially it's about time dilation, a mother named Evriel leaving her child on a planet and then coming back generations later to find if there is a trace of that child. Evriel also has to cope with the after-effects of her visit on the local population. Her quest is involving and moving, the resolution is perfectly sideways from what she expected.

Side note - There's a real chasm between the male and female writers in this month's Interzone. And it's an obvious one, the female writers create relationships and lyrical characters whose actions have layers and depths of meaning. The male writers go instead for muscular action or one-joke, one-twist stories, leaving the characters to be less poetic. There are two rival schools of writing here - and they are (very roughly) William Gibson and Ursula K Le Guin.

There're a few more stories and I may yet be completely wrong.

Microcosmos: Nina Allan
I wasn't in the best frame of mind reading this one, so I might be unfair in my impression that it ambled along, going nowhere, then a kid looks down a microscope and sees the world in a new light. There are hints at a sci-fi background to the story, a future dystopia where food and water are scarce, but that's about it. The characters are at the forefront of the action, but I didn't really buy into them. What can I say, I'm a cheapskate.

Ys: Aliette de Bodard.
How do you pronounce Ys? I thought this was going to be an homage to my favourite magazine in the late 80's, Your Sinclair (YS) but I was wrong. Some beautiful imagery in this story, evocative use of all the senses in writing. Sadly, it's about a woman who encounters a goddess and kicks her goddam ass. OK, so the Goddess had impregnated her with an imperfect child who could never be born whole, but still! It's a great build-up, but to end a story like this with fisticuffs is very disappointing.

Mother of Champions: Sean McMullen
Ah, here's the one that bucks the trend a bit. It's a 'twist' story, which looks into the nature of cheetahs. You see, we humans think we're in charge, but actually the Cheetahs (Champions) are convinced that they are in charge. In order to save the Cheetah from extinction, mankind introduces wolf-genetics into their make-up, so they start hunting as packs. However, the Cheetahs have been purebred for aeons, all the ones alive today are almost identical twins. Their genepool is very narrow and they like it that way. The Cheetah/Wolf creatures are reviled by the Cheetahs. So when a research laboratory taps into the way Cheetahs communicate, they bite off more than they can chew. Heh. Great concept, but I think the Cheetahs were taken too far and said too much. They should have remained more mysterious and aloof. Still, I really enjoyed this one.

So, we have stories from mother and stories from father. I think mother's stories are better overall. While father is flashy and ostentatious, mother is trying harder.