INTERACTION

Ahh, so I'm not the only person that does this!

Often I'll have a 15-minute flick through the shorter pieces before I go to bed, although I always approach the stories in a longer session. I really don't like not reading a whole short story in one sitting. This could be for all sorts of reasons (narrative continuity, emotional investment, etc.) but is probably because I have the memory of... you know... little orange swimmery things.

_________________
Shaun C. Green

Nostalgia For Infinity
Literature, gaming, punk rock... and all that.

Aye, me too - so the longer stories (and there are some pretty long ones in Interzone) have to wait until I can set that time aside.

Having said that, and despite the fact that it usually takes me ages to get round to starting on the fiction, I've now read most of the stories. And have thus far been suitably impressed.

_________________
Neil Williamson
www.neilwilliamson.org.uk

Bet you read the Hal Duncan interview first, Neil.

You know, I never noticed that, Jim, but I see it now. Yes, I'll have a gander. Looks quite interesting.

_________________
Neil Williamson
www.neilwilliamson.org.uk

Reviews of IZ209 and Journey to the Center of the Earth have apeared on Tangent Online:

http://www.tangentonline.com/

courtesy of Nader Elhefnawy.

Is the bloodstain at the end of the Hal Duncan interview the same as the one on the front of the latest Crimwave?

No, we slaughtered a fresh virgin for that.



More seriously, a short blog review of Interzone #209 here (in which our 25th Anniversary gets mysteriously renumbered to #208. Apart from that, I have no complaints whatsoever).

_________________
In the Plane of the Ecliptic

Well, here's a very quick reaction to the stories in this issue:

'The Whenever at the City's Heart' I thought was quite interesting, but ultimately I felt rather lost. Going by the interview piece with Hal Duncan this is set in the same universe as his novels which I haven't read, so I could only dimly feel my way through as to what the hell was supposed to be happenning. Mind you having just read some of the reviews on Amazon.co.uk though maybe I wouldn't be any better informed had I read his novels...

'Winter' was...reasonable, but rather over-complicated in it's telling I think. It seemed to be rather needlessly convoluted - I'm not sure that a story that leaves the reader completely confused as to what's happenning until a last page massive info-dump is necessarily an enjoyable read.

'The Good Detective' by M John Harrison - hmmmmm- difficult to say, minor, moody, readable enough, though I'm not entirely sure I fully understand the whole thrust of the piece. OK I guess.

'Big Cat' by Gwyneth Jones - readable enough, but as with the Hal Duncan story I think I am somewhat missing out, as this is another tale that is a sequel to a book ('Bold As Love') that I've never read. As such a lot of the background to the piece is obscure to me, so it left me a little cold. Not bad, but I don't feel fully equipped to appreciate it.

'The Sledge-Maker's Daughter' by Alastair Reynolds - this is more like it, the first story in this issue with a clear beginning, middle and end, and that I don't feel slightly lost and confused by. Not brilliant, but a good enjoyable story, and it's nice to see Reynolds playing with one of those back to basics post apocalyptic settings, rather than his usual hi-tech space operatics.

The real standout story for me however is 'Tears For Godzilla' by Daniel Kayson - this wasn't merely good, this was brilliant - hilarious, bold, and with a point.

So for this reader I'd say one brilliant story (Daniel Kayson), one good story (Alastair Reynolds) and four average.

I'd love to comment on the online novella but I just haven't had time to read it thus far...

My first impressions:
I loved Hal Duncan's "The Whenever at the City's Heart", and it looked like a hard sell at first--I'm not much into style experiments nor a big fan of the present tense. But after the first few scenes I got used to the narration, and I really liked the ending.

"Winter" by Jamie Barras is just one of those stories that annoy me--nothing to do with actual craft, but I dislike being made aware that the viewpoing character (Christian in this case) was all along aware of something that was critical to the story, and only revealed it at the end. That, coupled with another hard-and-fast realisation--which had nothing to do with Christian, but it was one too many--threw me out of this one.

"The Good Detective" by M. John Harrison...not my usual style either, but I liked it. It's ambiguous and a nice change from PI stories.

"Big Cat" by Gwyneth Jones I enjoyed, despite the fact that the narration shifted midway through into a different set of characters, and that we didn't see too much of the first characters afterwards. But I did have the feeling of being in a world where the rules weren't fully clear, and I suspect it would have made a good deal more sense if I'd read the book first.

"The Sledge-Maker's Daughter" is my favorite story of the issue. The setting was well-drawn and convincing--it felt really medieval, and yet the small touches like the Sheriff's flying machine served as hints of the real setting. Kathrin is a very sympathetic character, and the ending was pretty cool.

"Tears for Godzilla"...well, I enjoyed it, but it probably won't stick around in my memory. I'm probably jaded about this, but I don't much enjoy writers as main characters. Purely irrational.

And may I say how flattered I was to see my name advertised in the insert (under the "new fiction by" heading) for the second consecutive issue Thanks, Andy!

Andy & Co

I've only read a couple of the stories so far (like others here, I tend to read the non-fiction first) but I loved both the Harrison and the Kayzen. They seemed to me to be quite atypical of recent IZ fiction in both setting and tone. It's good to see Harrison back in IZ.

I hope the rest iof the stories are as good!

_________________
http://www.colin-harvey.com

Novels:
Winter Song -- US launch May 2010
Damage Time -- UK launch May 2010
-- US launch June 2010

It certainly is.

_________________
http://www.garethlpowell.com

Looks great! I'm looking forward to reading it.

And the good month of April begins with a couple of reviews of Interzone #209:

Velcro City Tourist Board
SF Revu
Story South
SFCrowsnest

You win some, lose some.

Not all reviewers include Ed Morris's novella (available as free pdf), though...

(Hint,:wink:, nudge )

(While for a single one it's the *only* one being reviewed.)

_________________
In the Plane of the Ecliptic

Don't forget Andy's great interview with SciFi.com ... (can't post it, library computer is being all weird, but...) I printed that one out and framed it...

_________________
"Who needs sliced bread?"
---Jetse deVries

My copy of IZ 209 hasn't arrived in Iowa yet. Have other folks in the States been receiving theirs?