Reviews and Comments

A good issue of Interzone. Hopefully a sign that the magazine's new editor, Gareth Jelley, is now hitting his stride. Stories I particularly enjoyed were those by Alex Penland, Sloane Leong, and a fabulous one by Marie Brennan.

• "0x11 Scenarios to Stop the Train" by Jon Lasser: a story about the various 'what might happen' scenarios if Anna Karenina had access to Siri and asked it what to do (elope or stay with her partner). Many of the scenarios involve a train.

• "Sfumato" by Alexander Glass: the Mona Lisa has been stolen, and a former thief turned detective is on the trail. Readers might be able to guess that the robbery and some of the characters involved in the story are not from that time period in Paris.

• "We Are Only Ourselves" by Alex Penland: a man returns home to find his wife has turned back into a man. The story then proceeds to tell the tale of their initial friendship, which became more than just friendship, the apparent divine intervention that turned him into a woman, and what their future may be for them and their daughters, for the family can also divine the future, and what they see is darkness for their land and for themselves.

• "Our Lady of the Void" by Hesper Leveret: a researcher goes on a trip to deep space to study the culture of the people making such journeys. But what she learns about the superstitious and religious beliefs of the crew would put the crew, and herself, in danger.

• "Another Country" by Rachael Cupp: a nurse struggles to take care of a notable senile person, while in the background the world is apparently tethering on the edge of a conflict.

• "With the Blade as Witness" by Sloane Leong: a fascinating story set on a world where people live in tribes, each guarded by large biomechanical guardians with a living heart housing a person who controls them. Now, one such person has to seal a proposed merger with another tribe, but in doing so, learns more about herself, her potential partner, and what effects the guardians can have on the people housed in them for too long.

• "999 Swords" by Marie Brennan: a fabulous story set in a feudal-like Japan, where a master swordsman and his monk-warrior servant wait for their deaths from a traitorous enemy. To pass the time, the monk-warrior tells the story of his life, leading up to becoming a servant for the swordsman, which contains a twist at the end that would involve the swordsman's teacher.

A collection of fantastic stories (of short, medium and long length) that shows how broad the author's writings can be. Stories that invite the reader to become part of the story, flash fiction and 'traditional' forms of writing can all be found here. Stories that I really enjoyed include a trickster Coyote's journey into the land of the dead, one involving Toad and other characters by Kenneth Grahame, a magnificent journey through a dreamland created by H.P. Lovecraft, and a story that asks the reader whether the characters should have the privilage of a happy ending.

• "Tool-Using Mimics": an unusual picture of a little girl wearing a squid or octopus-like costume triggers a speculative story about what the girl really is: just a girl in a costume, or perhaps an octopus mimicking a girl as a disguise, or something else.

• "Mantis Wives": the various ways female mantis deal with the fact that they eat the males.

• "Butterflies of Eastern Texas": a train conductor on an unusual train meets a girl on the train that constantly releases butterflies.

• "Five Sphinxes and 56 Answers": a retelling of the story of Oedipus Rex, as seen from the viewpoint of the Sphinx, who wonders whether her task was worth all the trouble. Interspersed is another story about a girl who has her own Sphinx-like troubles with her mother.

• "Ratatoskr": a young girl is terrified one night when she sees an image of a giant squirrel in a storm, which she later decides is Ratatoskr, who in old Norse mythology is a squirrel who runs up and down the world tree Yggdrasil to carry messages between the eagles perched atop Yggdrasil, and the serpent Níðhöggr. This would lead her to a 'spiritual' connection with squirrels that she would later encounter.

• "Coyote Invents the Land of the Dead": the trickster, Coyote, and her friends, enter the Land of the Dead to search for her dead lover. But the search may be futile, for the lover may not be easily found during the strange and unusual dead world that they journey into; and possibly beyond.

• "The Ghastly Spectre of Toad Hall": a tale based on the characters by Kenneth Grahame, this one has Toad telling a story to his friends of how a ghost haunts Toad Hall and possibly caused the death of his predecessors. Of course, the spectre turns up, and the friends look for a 'loophole' to prevent Toad's death. In the end, Toad prepares to meet his doom, but he may yet be saved by an unexpected loophole.

• "The Apartment Dweller's Bestiary": on the various beasts an apartment dweller can get or encounter and how they can fill your time or missing relationships with people.

• "The Apartment Dweller's Stavebook": on the various symbols you can draw on objects or yourself to encourage or discourage events.

• "The Apartment Dweller's Alphabetical Dreambook": on the meaning of various symbols or desires you see in your dream, and how to, maybe, interpret them.

• "The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe": a long and fascinating story set in the Dream World that may be familiar to those who have read Lovecraft. One day, a student from a women's college in the Dream World is enchanted by a man from our world (known as the Waking World) and runs away with him. Now, it is up to the Professor, Vellitt Boe, to track her down and bring her back. As the story develops, we learn more about this Dream World, where mad old gods rule and can bring death and destruction on a whim. And it is such destruction that Boe hopes to prevent when it is revealed to her how important the runaway girl is. She will have to travel through an underworld full of ghouls and other beasties, before she will meet the girl that, in a twist, may well change the nature of the Dream World.

• "Noah’s Raven": a raven on Noah's Ark laments the extinct birds that are lost as the ark struggles through the flood, until it is at last set free by Noah to find land.

• "Crows Attempt Human-Style Riddles, and One Joke": viginettes of jokes that may be told be crows.

• "The Privilege of the Happy Ending": a story of a girl and her old hen who set out on a journey to find a new home when their old one, and the surrounding land, are ravaged by marauding wastoures, hordes of devouring creatures. Their journey seems hopeless as they wander from place to place looking for a home, until an unexpected event makes them realise that the only way is to stop the wastoures. And the hen, who has special abilities for a hen, would have an unexpected role in this. But is the journey of the girl and the hen meant to have a happy ending? That depends on the author's whims and the reader's decision on when to stop the story; or not to end it.

An average issue, with interesting stories by Geoff Ryman and David Jeffrey, Amal Singh, Samantha E. Chung and Meighan Hogate.

• "The Many Different Kinds of Love" by Geoff Ryman and David Jeffrey: a long, interesting story about a sentient exploration rig on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. It is buried in the water under the ice on the moon. The rig houses the memories and experiences of a group of selected people, who are tasked with giving permission to the rig to execute decisions. When communications with Earth are lost, the rig, with permission, decides to organize an expedition to explore the rest of the moon. When the expedition discovers would change the world that they know. But it may be threatened, for when the expedition returns to the rig, they discover that its priorities have been changed under its new masters.

• "Karantha Fish" by Amal Singh: a girl's uncle is dying, but a cure is possible. But it would involve eating an 'unclean' food. But the girl's desire to save her uncle, and her ability to influence people through sorcery, may work. The outcome would leave to priests demanding penitence from her, but it may be for the better.

• "Longevity" by Anya Ow: in a future Singapore grappling with climate change, a worker, modified to deal with the weather and can live longer, deals with a case of an unmodified and troublesome person. A request for a meeting would change their futures, and perhaps the future of people who are leaving to have both long and short term goals for solving the climate crisis.

• "All That We Leave Behind" by Charlie Hughes: an understated story that starts with a book club gathering to read an unusual book. As the story progresses, we learn that the book contains some unsaid horrible actions by the main character, which may have truly happened. The arrival of the author of the story would lead to a terrifying conclusion over what the readers did upon finishing the book.

• "Portrait of the Dragon as a Young Man" by J.A. Pak: a prequel story about a young dragon who is injured, and is healed by a woman. During the healing process, the dragon transforms into a human and is accepted in the woman's village as an unusual human. As time passes, the former dragon finds itself forming a close and intimate relationship with her.

• "Twelve Aspects of the Dragon" by Rachael Jones: a short short story about what the title says.

• "Meeting in Greenwood" by R. K. Duncan: an unusual agent of a secretive agency goes on a mission to get information on a political rival. Only, the meeting is with the dead, and he may have to deal with rivals, both living and dead, to bring back the information to the living.

• "The Pigeon Wife" by Samantha E. Chung: an interesting story based on a Korean folktale, it tells the story of a woman who captures a pigeon who has transformed into a human. Such transformed pigeons are apparently useful for work, which he does, bringing in much-needed money for her. But it comes to an end when the pigeon shows that it has the agency to break the bonds of work.

• "Los Pajaritos" by Sam W. Pisciotta: in a future where birds are gone, one person manufactures one in memory of his wife and lets it go.

• "Pluto And Tavis D Work the Door" by Brooke Brannon: two people who grew up with abusive fathers confronts a chilling 'auntie' who wants the knitted clothes one of them wears. For the history of their life after running away from their fathers is knitted on them, and the last thing they want is for her to possess it.

• "Indigena" by Jennifer Maloney: on a strange world, some human colonists are suddenly enveloped by a mist. What develops from that would show the planet knows what to do with colonists.

• "New Stars" by Christopher Crews: a father and son watch as a space race re-enactment, where one of the ships was the son's grandfather.

• "High Tide at the Olduvai Gorge" by Kedrick Brown: a look at a future that is both dystopic and utopic, when Earth has been reformed by other humans who lived on another world for thousands of years and have returned.

• "Prisoner 121 is Guilty" by Renee Pillai: in a highly stratified society, a high caste youth is on trial for a crime. But in her eyes, the crime was her relationship to a lower caste friend.

• "Fools and Their Money" by Meighan Hogate: in this fantasy world, a large, sentient bird reminisces over current events, while preparing to pick over the remains of a party of people that wandered in a swamp, possibly tricked into using that way by the bird. Later on, another trick gets the bird into trouble with a relative of the party. But perhaps the bird will get the last laugh, as long as it takes care to separate reality from its vivid reliving of past events.

An interesting book on retro-computers. Unlike other book on retro-technology, this one presents trivia on the machines: lots and lots of trivia on lots and lots of early home computers, some of which I later had to look on up the internet as I've never heard of them before.

The book also presents trivia on numerous games and on the idiosyncrasies of the machine themselves, both the operating systems and the tape based systems used at the time to save programs, and on the BASIC usually found on the machines. Some bring back memories of some of the POKES and PEEKS done in the past to 'bypass' game protection systems or to hack games.

The chapters, with a numbering system that starts with 0 (zero) repeatedly, and then jumps to other entries via GOTOs, are not meant to be read in sequence (although you can do that). Instead, you are meant to start with an entry of interest (computer, game related) then follow the appropriate GOTO until the end of the journey, like a 'pick-your-adventure' type book.

But whatever way you use to read the book, those who have used early computers and those who are now into retro-computing will probably find lots of entries of interest in the book.

A necessary re-read as a prelude to appreciate the next book in the series, "System Collapse".

A re-read to prepare for "System Collapse". I'm refreshing my memory of Murderbot's interactions with its clients, so I don't have to read the stories in the correct order.

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Bo Balder, Hannah Yang and Tia Tashiro. I reserve judgement on Thoraiya Dyer's story until I've re\ ad the second half.

• "Eddies are the Worst" by Bo Balder: in a future with fewer people having babies, the only way to get a workforce is to hire cheap clones of people who've sold their genetic maps. But what happens when the clones working for you is from the last person you expect to have been cloned?

• "Bird-Girl Builds a Machine" by Hannah Yang: a child grows up watching, and later helping, her mother put together an unknown machine. But it is only after the machine is put to use at the end does the child realize the various clues her mother said about her future in the story.

• "The Long Mural" by James Van Pelt: On a generational spaceship heading to a new world, one person works on a mural with others. But he is a stowaway, and forever fearful that people will discover what he is. But the stress of hiding and the fear of discovery may finally drive him to admit his crime, but the results would be unexpected.

• "The Parts That Make Me" by Louise Hughes: a robot reminisces about its ancient body parts, especially one that had to be removed, but may yet be returned.

• "The Mub" by Thomas Ha: a 'mub' latches on and follows an artist as he journeys towards a city. But what the mub wants from him may end up costing his creativity.

• "Eight or Die (Part 1)" by Thoraiya Dyer: part one of a story involving a miner who is rescued from a mining incident by aliens who are after another alien that may be planning a crime. The aliens need the miner as he resembles the aliens on the planet the criminal is hiding out on. But their journey there, and their relationship with each other, will not be easy. This part ends when the miner arrives at the planet, trying to fit in and find the criminal, who is hiding out in a mine.

• "Thin Ice" by Kemi Ashing-Giwa: a man attempts to escape a sentient 'stealer of art' but is forced to tell it the stories of his home for it to steal and return to its masters.

• "To Carry You Inside You" by Tia Tashiro: a fascinating story of a former child actress, who gets fitted with a 'port' that feeds her her lines and emotions for her roles. She grows up, the roles dry up, and she now has another job: acting as a host for dead people who are now fitted into her port. But her latest job turns out to be more than expected, when the dead person she hosts wants more than just being allowed to act out his life for a brief moment in her.

A reread, in preparation for "System Collapse".

A fantastic and readable book on the history of invisibility. But before getting there, the author covers the history of the nature of light from the past through to the present. The excepts of fictional stories featuring invisibility found at the start of each chapter are also very interesting.

Once the nature of light is given, the author then shows how current research is looking into ways to take advantage of how light behaves to make things invisible, either by making light 'avoid' the object of interest, or by destructively interfering with the light emitted by the objects, so it cannot be detected.

The book closes with a look at how the technology and science used to make objects invisible to light can also be used to make objects invisible to other forms of energy, like sound, water waves and even earthquakes.

One property of charged particles mentioned in the book was especially interesting and new to me. Most people are probably told that accelerated charged particles emit electromagnetic radiation (light), which was one of the reasons models of atoms with orbiting electrons were hard to get correct before the advent of quantum physics. But the author points out that it is possible to accelerate charged particles on a small sphere without the emission of light, making such spheres invisible.

'Trivia' like this, as well as a good presentation of historial and current day research in to the properties of light, make the book an excellent read.

Another story in the author's Vampire Judge Dee's (and helper, Jonathan) series of stories, this one has the Judge travelling to an English castle, where its vampire master is certain somebody is trying to kill him. Despite the precautions, death does happen in a locked coffin and, given the clues given in the story, the reader might have a chance to deduce what happened before the Judge, or Jonathan, do.