INTERACTION

Does anyone ever go back and re-read some of their old issues of Interzone? I suddenly realised I had a fairly large pile of old issues, but had never actually had the time to go back and revisit them - so I thought I'd go back to the very first one I ever bought, issue #63, September 1992. Wow - that makes me feel old!



Anyway - still good stuff, after all these years. I've read Kim Stanley Robinson's 'Mars' trilogy twice in the intervening years, so the extract from the (then forthcoming) 'Red Mars' was the only thing which was pretty familiar to me. Good stuff, but I found it blown out of the water by my highlight of the issue, Ian Watson's 'Swimming with the Salmon'. The contrast between Robinson's functional but fairly stiff prose and Watson's playful language is incredible - I really enjoyed this distinctly fishy tale of pheromones, and it reminded me that I really need to check out more of Watson's novels (a shame most of them are out of print). David Garnett's 'Off the Track' is an alternate world story that comes close to being all about the 'spot the celebrity' punchline, but it's short, well written, and the central set-up of the lost couple taking the wrong track is a neat metaphor for the whole 'taking a turn down the wrong trouser-leg of history' theme. 'Maud' by David Wishart (who seems to have gone on to make a career writing Roman detective novels) is a very brief but readable alternate history contrasting robotic rights with the Suffragette movement, whilst 'She-Devil' by Diane Mapes (who doesn't seem to write SF at all anymore) takes the male vs. female battle into a virtual reality world of experiencing life as other members of the animal kingdom. This story was very convincing and well-written regarding the relationship aspect, but I didn't quite buy the final twist. Finally Nicholas Royle's 'The Cast' is the sort of story that would be published in Black Static these days, a horror-tinged fantasy where people freeze inside casts at the moment of ultimate achievement. Royle does well to take a bizarre idea, and make it convincing by treating it so matter-of-factly.

I also liked the Small Ads section at the back, where someone was trying to sell a 'biofeedback linked dreammachine' for the princely sum of £77.50!

Not sure if I'll ever get the chance to go back and read any more, but if you already have this one - or see it on ebay, it's certainly worth a read!

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My fiction

Interesting Lawrence, I borrowed the first 4 issues and then subscribed so I have them back to #5 but re reading them looks a forlorn hope at the moment. I'm sure I'd enjoy it but finding the time ...

It would be fascinating to be able to read early interzone. I'm trying to figure out the best economical way to do this. eBook format or collected anthology would be best, for space reasons.

Edit:
Space as in 'cubic centimeters,' not 'final frontier' reasons.

If by early Interzones you mean pre TTA issues then http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=past+issues&adpos=3s1&crlp=10922857120_2113181&MT_ID=10&tt_encode=raw&_osacat=0&keyword=past+issues&geo_id=32091&clk_rvr_id=611315779709&crdt=0&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0&_nkw=interzone+back+issues&_sacat=0&_from=R40 will find a few plus an anthology and the postage will probably be costlier than some of them.
Someone is offering issues 1 to 246 for £399.

E books at present go back to 230 and that issue is free on Smashwords. The earliest E books TTA published started with issue 211, July Aug 2007. PM me for more on that.

TTA started publishing from issue 194 and I hold a few issues from 202 onwards to sell for TTA at conventions. PM me if you are interested and I'm hoping to be in Glasgow, Manchester, Derby, London and York with them this year.