Reviews and Comments

An average issue of Interzone, with interesting stories by E.G. Condé, Prashanth Srivatsa, Matt Hollingsworth and R. Wren.

• "Sibilance" by E.G. Condé: an investigator goes to Jupiter to discover why production of a vital source of fuel for fusion is diminishing. What he discovers would be an unexpected source of intrusion that can drive people, and machines, mad.

• "Warmth" by Seán Padraic Birnie: in a bedroom, a shadow moves in a way that shadows don't, and the occupant can only freeze in fear, or be warmed by the end.

• "Drafting" by Rachael Cupp: a teenager drafts a letter to a friend, first for hating her for stealing her boyfriend, then correcting it to maybe it is for the best, in a world where they are isolated from each other in shelters.

• "The Spirit Machines" by Prashanth Srivatsa: in an alternate past and future, two robots animated by magic guard a Buddha's relic from the relatives of a king who want to claim in. In the end, they fail; or do they?

• "When I Was the Red Baron" by Matt Hollingsworth: in a story containing violence and self injury, a young boy sees his father commit suicide, which has him rolling his crayon in the blood, which gives him chilling powers of destruction when used from drawing. As he becomes a parent, having used the crayon a few times to deadly effect, he is now faced with one final choice. But it may be his young son who might change his decision.

• "Carrigan" by R. Wren: an Irish person goes home to the farm where he/she grew up. But having to deal with relatives who don't know what to make of her is the least of her problems when her uncle accidentally awakens ancient people from the bog. Now they need to be appeased to leave the land alone.

• "The Clockwork Heart of Heaven" by Roby Davies: a fantastical story about a mechanical deity born from the mind of a man who might go on to dominate the earth and absorb humanity in its quest for godhood. But not if one man and a team of intelligent primates can stop it in time.

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Alice Towey, Fiona Moore, Carolyn Zhao, Carlie St. George.

• "Fishy" by Alice Towey: a fun story of an AI-based robotic fish to lived out its days on the shelf of a researcher. Until one day when the researcher dies, and his daughter comes looking for his last piece of work that could change the world, and the fish may provide the answer.

• "The Portmeirion Road" by Fiona Moore: in a future after the collapse of civilization, a woman goes to a town containing an archive in the hopes of finding a way to help a child at asthma live for longer. But the price the archive asks for the information may be too much for her.

• "In Which Caruth is Correct" by Carolyn Zhao: a woman has to learn to deal with her past traumas in a world where such traumas can create singularities that get people caught in the past.

• "The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video" by Thomas Ha: in a future where works are digital, one person discovers an old book whose contents would not change. That would lead him into a conflict with another person who only wants to get rid of such content, for it cannot be changed to suit what the person wants.

• "The Texture of Memory, of Light" by Samara Auman: an out of work artist is mourning the death of her mother. She then discovers her mother's artificial arm, which brings back a flood of memories, tainted by her implant. Now she has to decide whether to continue with her artistic career at the company that may have killed her mother, or join striking workers, just like her mother did when she was alive.

• "The Blinding Light of Resurrection" by Rajeev Prasad: a surgeon is smuggling printed body parts out of a hospital to save his wife from cancer. But his activities are suspected by his friend, who also used to love his wife. The surgeon's love for his wife drives him to take risks: perhaps too many, when love turns to jealousy.

• "The Weight of Your Own Ashes" by Carlie St. George: an alien on earth has an accident and dies. But the alien's consciousness inhabits several bodies, and another body arrives to take the previous one's place on earth. But this leads to tensions in a relationship the alien is having with a human, who cannot deal with the death of the previous body or accept the replacement.

• "Our Father" by K. J. Khan: on the life of a man who has to wake up while on a colony ship on its way to another planet and accept his fate that he may not have descendents.

A fascinating and readable book about how the ecology of roads (and cars) is changing the face of the earth. With millions of kilometres of roads on the face of the earth, it is no wonder they are changing how animals behave and move about (or don't) when faced with a road. But it's not just animals: in the last chapter, the author shows how roads have been used to enforce racial segregation in the USA.

The first part of the book deals with how roads can kill animals. The most obvious is ending up as roadkill. But roads (and cars) also cut across migration paths, forcing animals to either starve (by staying where they are on one side of the road) or risk being killed trying to cross. Roads also cut across the territories of animals like the mountain lion in California, isolating them and causing in-breeding. Roads are especially deadly to amphibians and reptiles who bask on roads to get warm and whose natural instinct is to stay still instead of running from danger.

The second part looks at other effects roads have on the environment. The US Forest Service maintains roads in wild areas for access and safety. But these roads affect wildlife, and there is now a movement to restrict roads or to remove them. Noise pollution from roads also have an effect, with wildlife either having to call louder to be heard, or by failing to hear predators due to the covering noise. Road verges are a controversial topic, for they often have high levels of road pollution, yet may offer a refuge for animals driven off land beside the verges due to development. The story of the Monarch butterfly is a case in point, with milkweed being planted on road verges to help they survive; but doing so may kill them in the long term. Road kill also attracts scavengers like vultures, which can help them thrive, if the road doesn't kill them. Beside the land and air, roads can also affect water life. Roads cross streams and rivers using culverts, with can block the migrating path of salmon and other water life, and cause pollution in run-offs.

The third part looks at what can be done to mitigate the effect of roads. One change has been the building of wildlife crossings to help animals cross roads. But these usually work only when the crossings have been properly designed for them. People who help rehabilitate wildlife struck by vehicles also have a role, but an unappreciated one, which could lead to stress and even suicide among them. Instead of discarding roadkill, it can be collected to aid in research to learn about the condition of animals when they are killed. New road building could also be done with the needs of animals in mind, instead of adding them to roads afterwards. Finally, roads could also be removed or redeveloped, especially in areas where roads have historically been used to demolish or obstruct communities as a form of racial segregation.

An interesting book, set as a series of stories as 'retold' by the author of his childhood in a small Swedish town that was host to a powerful underground particle accelerator known to the locals as the Loop. In the alternative past, powerful magnetic based technology has given rise to levitating transporters, walking robots and other sources of energy. But it has also given rise to various myths, like wormholes created by the Loop that let rumoured creatures like dinosaurs roam the present.

But all is not well. The stresses of living just above a machine that might twist reality causes social and communal problems (like divorce and family violence). The author's tales talk about these problems, as well as the times the author and his friends played among the debris that littered the landscape from the building and, later, decommissioning of the Loop.

The illustrations and sketches in the book give a good impression of the landscape the author imagines playing in, full of life and the unusual machines that make up the author's 'childhood'.

A fantastic exploration of an alternative biology. In our world, the cells in an organism belong to it: attempts to directly transfer cells from one organism to another usually result in rejection by the immune system. But in this story, groups of cell (cytes) communicate with each other and with other cells to determine their course of action. Given the right signals, the cells can decide as a group to, for example, leave a person for another person which provides a better environment.

The story starts with two main characters: one who wakes up with parts of her body missing, her cells deciding to leave her for unknown reasons, leading her to become a researcher stuying how cytes communicate and decide on their roles in people's bodies. The other is a Swapper, a person who actively seeks out others to exchange their cytes, hoping to find a better combination of cytes that may eventually let them live as Flourishers, a group of people whose cytes cooperate so well that they can live for hundreds of years.

Both would eventually meet, in unusual circumstances, when the research leads to the discovery of a set of signals that can persuade the cytes to change their roles. But danger lurks, for there is another group that wants to use the research for their own purposes and are not above using murder to stop others.

Through the characters, we get to see how people live in this world, where evolution has lead to a world that looks much like our own: but on the level of cells, groups of them can decide to migrate to another body, or even change their role in the body. This has repercussions in the act of reproduction, but you'll have to read the story to discover how this happens in this alternate world.

A good issue, with interesting stories by Tia Tashiro, Rich Larson, Derrick Boden, Shen Dacheng and Kelly Jennings.

• "The Lark Ascending" by Eleanna Castroianni: people sweep clean the former house of a dissident, leaving behind the house robot, who now only has memories of its owner and his daughter whom it cared for.

• "An Intergalactic Smuggler's Guide to Homecoming" by Tia Tashiro: a smuggler returns home with her latest item to be passed on. The trip brings back memories of her struggles with here sister to leave the planet, whom she thinks gave up their dream to leave together. But a sudden decision to save the smuggled items, instead of handing it over, would change her life, perhaps for the better, and rebuild relationships.

• "The Indomitable Captain Holli" by Rich Larson: a fun and fascinating story about a girl living in a tower who plays a game with a 'puppet' in her virtual reality goggles. The game has her running up a tower, while her family, and another invasion force from another tower, pursue her. As the story progresses, the history of how the people came to live in two mutually hostile towers is told, and the importance of the girl for the future of humanity is revealed.

• "The Arborist" by Derrick Boden: the relationship between a tree, transplanted to an alien world to destroy its native life so that human can begin terraforming it, and an android are the focus of this story about the tension between letting native life live and killing so that humans, who have lost the Earth, can settle it.

• "The Rambler" by Shen Dacheng, translated by Cara Healey: an unusual story of a pedestrian bridge which suddenly decides to start walking. Most of the story is told from the viewpoint of rubbish truck workers who chase after it after the city administration couldn't decide whose jurisdiction a runaway bridge falls under.

• "Occurrence at O1339" by Kelly Jennings: a story of a mining robot in space who suddenly makes First Contact with an alien civilization which threatens to destroy humanity unless they can prove they are sentient within 10 questions.

• "The Oldest Fun" by Natalia Theodoridou: an open-world video game appears at a school, and pulls in students who play it.

Another good anthology of World SF, featuring authors from around the world. As in any anthology with such a wide range of styles, there will be some stories that I didn't like, but it is still valuable by exposing the reader to writers they may never have encountered before. The stories I found interesting were by Diana Rahim, M.H. Ayinde, Luo Longxiang, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Andrea Chapela, Fadzlishah Johanabas, Efe Okogu, Chen Qian, Choyeop Kim, Eugenia Triantafyllou, Christine Lucas and Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen.

• “A Minor Kalahari” by Diana Rahim (Singapore): on an island turning dry and grey, a watermelon suddenly appears from the ground. The reactions of the person whose garden it appeared in, the neighbours and the local town council form the heart of the story.

• “Behind Her, Trailing Like Butterfly Wings” by Daniela Tomova (Bulgaria): a reporter interviews one of many travellers on a road who are following in the path of a mysterious lady, in a world where 'mouths' that may be wormholes can suddenly open and 'feed' on humans: but not those on the road.

• “Cloudgazer” by Timi Odueso (Nigeria): rumours of clouds spotted in the sky send a girl chasing after them, for she needs the water from the clouds to save her grandfather. But there comes a time when she has to stop dreaming to really save her grandfather.

• “The EMO Hunter” by Mandisi Nkomo (South Africa): on another world, a Mother Earth Knight (bounty hunter) faces a challenge from an unexpected enemy who wants more from him than he can emotionally give.

• “Tloque Nahuaque” by Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas (Mexico), translated by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: at attempt to recreate the origin of the universe leads to an unexpected manifestation.

• “The Walls of Benin City” by M.H. Ayinde (UK): a survivor of an alien attack makes his way to Benin City, the last surviving city on Earth. On the way, he is rescued by a robot with artistic flourises, who shows him the role of art in surviving the attack, and how he can relearn to live with himself, and others, at the city.

• “The Foodie Federation’s Dinosaur Farm” by Luo Longxiang (China), translated by Andy Dudak: think Jurassic Park in space, only here, the dinosaurs (some intelligent) are harvested for food. When they inevitably rebel, the last surviving human on the ship has to work with them to survive as the dinosaurs work to survive tribalism to unite and overthrow the rest of humanity.

• “The Day The World Turned Upside Down” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (The Netherlands), translated by Lia Belt: one day, the world literally turns upside down and things tumbled down into the sky. For one survivor, who days before suffers through a relationship breakup, it is at least of his problems, as he makes his way back to his ex, bearing a gift and hopes at getting things right.

• “The Worldless” by Indrapramit Das (India): two people living on a world that survives by providing service for spaceships docked at the planet yearn for more. What they yearn for is a place to call home, and that place might be Earth.

• “Now You Feel It” by Andrea Chapela (Mexico), translated by Emma Törzs: an interesting story about a woman who can illegally manipulate the emotions of clients. Now, she has been asked to manipulate the emotions of a teenager who did a horrible thing to a girl so that an investigation would find him innocent of the action. The results show that people should be careful what they want, and she also reconsiders whether she wants to continue doing those jobs.

• “Act of Faith” by Fadzlishah Johanabas (Malaysia): an old man is given an android to take care of it. The man asks the android to act more human. When it does, the man goes further and introduces the android to the Quran, which leads to an argument with the local Iman over whether the android can become a Muslim. In the end, an event causes all involved to reevaluate when it means for an android to become religious.

• “Godmother” by Cheryl S. Ntumy (Ghana): an officer whose job is to make sure people only tell the truth is assigned to investigate an AI medical diagnostics system, nicknamed Godmother, which is popular with people. He is to determine whether the AI is deceiving people into following it by deceiving people. But what he discovers instead is the human need to be acknowledged and to communicate with each other.

• “I Call Upon the Night as Witness” by Zahra Mukhi (Pakistan): in a world where physical Lines are drawn by the powerful on the earth, dividing people from their properties and turning them into refugees, one person wants to find a way out of a land that all refugees eventually end up in: a land where there be dragons.

• “Sulfur” by Dmitry Glukhovsky (Russia), translated by Marian Schwartz: an interrigator questions a woman over the murder of her husband. It gradually turns into a critique of the sulfur mining town, the way people live and the hold the dead there have over the living.

• “Proposition 23” by Efe Okogu (Nigeria): a fascinating tale set in a future where 'citizens' live in a city with implanted nanosensors that cater to their needs; but there are also the 'undead', outcasts whose sensors have been disable and left to survive the best they can. Into this situation are thrown a police office out for revenge against a terrorist who has perpetrated an act of terrorism against the city, and a hacker who discovers somebody or something flitting through the city's system. They would all be thrown together over Proposition 23, whose ramifications would overturn their way of life and entrench the rulers of the system.

• “Root Rot” by Fargo Tbakhi (US): even on Mars, the inequalities between Palestinians and Israelis still fester, as one man tries to keep on living.

• “Catching the K-Beast” by Chen Qian (China), translated by Carmen Yiling Yan: a funny tale about two people sent to a planet to catch the K-Beasts. Problem is, how do you catch beasts that can see twelve minutes into the future? The solution may involve paradoxes about cause and effect.

• “Two Moons” by Elena Pavlova (Bulgaria), translated by Kalin M. Nenov and Elena Pavlova: on an alien world that is mostly uninhabitable, a voyager encounters a living travelling city. Her exploration of it would reveal some answers about the origins of the world, but also more questions.

• “Symbiosis Theory” by Choyeop Kim (Korea), translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort: the story starts with an artist who is obsessed with bringing an imaginary world to life through art, which often moves people emotionally when seeing it. The mystery deepens when a planet is eventually discovered, after her death, that matches the artist's description. A possible, and intriguing, solution is presented when the story switches tracks to look at the work of people trying to neurologically decode the thoughts and speech of babies. It turns out that babies have very sophisticated thoughts, and it is also related to the alien world.

• “My Country is a Ghost” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Greece): in a world where ghosts of the dead can accompany the living and provide guidance, one lady feels lost when she is forced to give up the ghost of her mother when she moves to another country. She is fearful of losing the memory of her mother and her culture; until another migrant with a familiar looking ghost comforts her and provides a way for her to recall her memories of her mother.

• “Old People’s Folly” by Nora Schinnerl (Austria): an old lady with a crippled leg finds a disc that contains the personality of a person from an earlier age from before the flood. The person is aghast at the changes climate change have caused and tries to rally the old lady into helping a young boy who is suffering abuse. The lady is reluctant to get involved, in a time when pollution is still causing environmental damage. But perhaps the personality can encourage her to start making small changes for the better.

• “Echoes of a Broken Mind” by Christine Lucas (Greece): a person with a brain implant scavenges for a living, hoping to make enough to send a message to her child, taken away at birth. And one day, she does: but the repercussions of the message would change her world view and make her realize the danger she is in from the person she thought was her child. But her implant, suddenly working better than ever, may be the key for her to fight back against people who deceived her and many others.

• “Have Your #Hugot Harvested at This Diwata-Owned Café” by Vida Cruz (Philippines): on an unusual café that serves both humans and mythic people with food containing an emotional ingredient that can only come from humans.

• “Order C345” by Sheikha Helawy (Palestine) — translated by Raphael Cohen: an unusual order about replacement body parts that can awaken would grant their owners an unusual liberty.

• “Dark Star” by Vraiux Dorós (Mexico) — translated by Toshiya Kamei: possibly a metafictional tale about fiction (and rabbits?) told in verse form.

• “An excerpt from ‘A Door Opens: The Beginning of the Fall of the Ispancialo-in-Hinirang (Emprensa Press: 2007)’ by Salahuddin Alonto, Annotated by Omar Jamad Maududi, MLS, HOL, JMS.” by Dean Francis Alfar (Philippines): a very short tale with long annotations about how the opening of a magical door lead to the rise of a country that had been colonized.

• “Ootheca” by Mário de Seabra Coelho (Portugal): in a city where people survive after the reality of the world has been overturned by an unstated entity, a man whose teeth have been replaced by cockroaches (in the story, this means they have been 'hagged' by a Hag) starts up a relationship with an old friend. As the story progresses, we discover the girl's guilt over another hagged person, and he struggles to keep her safe from the Hag as well.

• “Where The Trains Turn” by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen (Finland) — translated by Liisa Rantalaiho: a narrated story by a woman who tells the story of her strange son who grows up alone and fascinated by trains. Until one day, when he is suddenly horrified by an event involving a train. From then on, the mother tries to prevent his interest in trains and fantasy elements, keeping him (and herself) rooted in reality by only studying 'real' things. As the son grows up, it appears to work: until another incident with a train causes a crisis that will throw both together on a journey to confront an evil that is housed in a particular train. But the journey would change both their futures and their pasts.