Interzone

New subscribers can get this issue free by using "IZ268" as their Shopper Reference during checkout.

 

Cover:

417h3r105 v1 by 2017 cover artist Dave Senecal

 

Contents:

 

Fiction:

Everyone Gets A Happy Ending by Julie C. Day
illustrated by Richard Wagner

“Baby bunnies,” Steph says, “herald the apocalypse. Kendra, you know that, right?”

“Painful truth,” I reply, even as I luxuriate in the soft fur pressing against my arms. The heat is oppressive. Sweat soaks the back of my shirt, drips from the fine hairs at the nape of my neck. It’s dusk in southwest Arizona and Steph and I are far from home. Spring is supposed to mean daffodils and tender shoots of Chemlawned grass. Instead, the Arizona air pulls the moisture right from my lips – the dark reverse of a lover’s kiss.

 

The Noise & The Silence by Christien Gholson
illustrated by Martin Hanford

A stream of images flashed across Reen’s Wall, accompanied by the usual jarring noise. Jab-heads screamed, icon-campaigners blared, brand-sexers moaned. The giant face of Power K appeared, the ubiquitous morning jab-head, and hurled his usual tired clichés at Reen: “Silence is sickness! Silence is status quo!” The nonsensical aphorisms had been spliced into Reen’s Wall as part of his Love Energy Rehabilitation package after his release from prison. No one had changed it in twenty years.

 

The Transmuted Child by Michael Reid
illustrated by Richard Wagner

Sister Dao Nghiem shivers as she steps off the transport from Earth. She wraps her brown robes a little tighter against the midnight chill, pulls the knitted cap down over her shaved scalp. The handcuff makes these things a little more difficult, but only a little. Living for two years shackled to the girl have taught Dao Nghiem to do nearly everything one-handed.

 

Weavers in the Cellar by Mel Kassel

My limbs are a black blur in the gloom of the cellar. They draw the silk out from below, where I hurt, the ache that comes with being emptied. My claws hook the strands and my arms cross and uncross in a whirl of movement. I am old enough to have learned how to weave silently – others produce the sliding rasp of chitin on chitin, their arms bumping each other in the dark.

 

Freedom of Navigation by Val Nolan
illustrated by Richard Wagner

The barrage started at the million mile mark. Warheads blooming in the dark and one of the centaurs slaved to my plane – to my mind – among the first to be taken out. Its sudden absence spiked through my skull like a wiregraine but I set my jaw and pushed through, willing the aura away just in time to spot a flash to starboard which signalled the death of a crewed bird. No time to check whose it was. Gutierrez, maybe. Or Nyakane. Shit. I pulled hard on the stick as the shockwave rattled my wing and I re-tasked the surviving drones to sentry formation. Two of the flat, matt-black arrowheads swooped low and fast ahead of me to rake the oncoming sky with their guns. Beyond them another detonation but still no identifiable offence in the local volume; no evidence of particle beams or brilliant pebbles. Most likely LIDAR-scattering mines or missiles sheathed in stealth polymers. High-end gear. Ship-killers pure and simple.

 

The Rhyme of Grievance by T.R. Napper
illustrated by Dave Senecal

When the first Artificial Intelligence was given equal rights to humans, Khamla was cleaning vomit from the plush red carpet. The child of the vice-president’s mistress had eaten too many real meat hors d’oeuvre and made herself sick. Many of the pieces were undigested. Khamla shook her head at the waste, brushing the chunks into her gleaming waste container and scrubbing the stain while the speeches continued.

 

Black Static 56 Out Now:

Black Static is published at the same time as Interzone. Issue 56 contains new stories by Scott Nicolay, Eric Schaller, Danny Rhodes, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Eugenia M. Triantafyllou, Charles Wilkiinson, and Ian Steadman. Cover art is by Joachim Luetke and interior illustrations are by Richard Wagner, Ben Baldwin, Vince Haig, and George C. Cotronis. Features and reviews are supplied by Ralph Robert Moore, Lynda E. Rucker, Gary Couzens (films) and Peter Tennant (books, plus an in-depth interview with Stephen Volk). To take out a discounted subscription to Black Static, or Black Static + Interzone combined, please visit this website's shop.

Potential subscribers outside the UK should note that six issues of 12-issue subscriptions have absolutely no postage added: you'll pay exactly the same as a UK subscriber.

New subscribers can get this issue free by using "BS56" as their Shopper's Reference during checkout. The same offer applies to Interzone and a dual subscription to both magazines: use "IZ268" or "BS56/IZ268" as your Shopper Reference.

 

Interface:

Editorial by 2017 Cover Artist Dave Senecal

Future Interrupted: The Consequences of the Present
Jonathan McCalmont

On Tuesday 8th of November 2016, Hilary Clinton failed to beat Donald Trump in the presidential election. As news of Trump’s victory spread fear around the globe, people everywhere looked to the future and asked a question that lies at the heart of all great science fiction: What Next?

 

Time Pieces: Direction of Travel
Nina Allan

I find non-fiction writing difficult. Not the execution, necessarily – as long as I allocate sufficient time to the task in hand I can usually bring some words to order without undue hand-wringing. The problem is more ideological than that, more a question of why than how.

 

Ansible Link
David Langford

News, obituaries.

 

Reviews:

Book Zone
Maureen Kincaid Speller, Jack Deighton, Shaun Green, Duncan Lunan, Nina Allan, Elaine Gallagher, Ian Hunter, Paul Kincaid, Tony Lee, Jonathan McCalmont, Stephen Theaker, Jo Lindsay Walton

Books reviewed include The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo, Invisible Planets edited & translated by Ken Liu, Iraq +100 edited by Hassan Blasim, The Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter, Snakewood by Afrian Selby, and the 2016 Round Up featuring the favourite books of Interzone contributors

 

Mutant Popcorn
Nick Lowe

Cinema releases reviewed include Arrival, Your Name, Girls Lost, Train to Busan, Moana, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

 

How To Buy Interzone:

Interzone is available in good shops in the UK and many other countries around the world, including the USA where it is stocked by Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and others. If your local store (in any country) doesn't stock the magazine they should be able to order it for you so please don't hesitate to ask them. You can also buy the magazine from a variety of online retailers, or a version for e-readers from places like Weightless Books, Amazon, Apple, Smashwords, etc.

The best thing though is to follow any of the Shop/Buy Now/Subscribe links on this website and buy this new issue (scroll down to the bottom of the Shop), or better still take out a subscription (at the top of the Shop), direct with us. You'll receive issues much cheaper and much quicker, and the magazine will receive a much higher percentage of the revenue.

Potential subscribers outside the UK should note that six issues of 12-issue subscriptions have absolutely no postage added: you'll pay exactly the same as a UK subscriber.

SPECIAL OFFER: New subscribers can get this issue free by using "IZ268" as their Shopper's Reference during checkout.

 

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