My review of the August fiction offerings from Strange Horizons is now up at The Fix. In particular, I liked "Down the Well" by Alaya Dawn Johnson and "The Secret Identity" by Richard Butner. For more details, check out the complete review.
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My review of the August fiction offerings from Strange Horizons is now up at The Fix. In particular, I liked "Down the Well" by Alaya Dawn Johnson and "The Secret Identity" by Richard Butner. For more details, check out the complete review.
Posted at 06:45 PM in Jason's writings | Permalink
Now that my power is back on after the "Great Midwestern Hurricane of 2008," I can officially launch the great Interzone promotion of 2008.
For those who don't know, Interzone is a bi-monthly British science fiction magazine often counted as one of the most influential genre publications of the last 25 years. Among the writers who got their start in their pages are Stephen Baxter, Greg Egan, Kim Newman, Alastair Reynolds and Charles Stross (per the magazine's Wikipedia entry). With a stable of authors like that, the 1980s and early 90s were truly glory times for Interzone.
A few years ago I heard whispers that the magazine--now under a new editorial team run by publisher Andy Cox--was once again making the SF world sit up and take notice. Intrigued, I tracked down a sample issue. Impressed by what I saw, I subscribed. Not only is Interzone again at the top of its game, publishing top-notch fiction and nonfiction, they also have the best design of any genre magazine. Finally, they have also been kind enough to accept two of my stories, for which I can't even begin to thank them.
To celebrate the publication of my story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain" in Interzone, and to pay the magazine back for the support they've shown my writing, I'm giving away a one-year subscription to the magazine. Here's the deal: Any blogger in the United States is eligible to take part. Simply drop me an e-mail at lapthai (at sign) yahoo (dot) com with your blog's url and a few words to the effect that you want to take part in the contest. In order to showcase what Interzone has to offer, I'll e-mail you a PDF of my recently published Interzone story (thanks to Andy Cox for letting me do this; here are a few of the reviews my story has received). Don't worry. You don't have to review the story, although I won't protest if you do. I simply want to give people a taste of what Interzone publishes.
If you like the story, post information on your blog about both this contest and Interzone, including a link to Interzone's main page. If you don't like the story, I hope you'll still post info about Interzone on your blog. Either way, once you've done a blog entry about Interzone you're entered in the contest. My hope is that these blog posting about Interzone will raise the magazine's profile in the United States.
This promotion will run for three weeks. After that time I'll take all the names of the blogger participants and throw them into a random number generator. The person whose number comes up wins the free one-year, six-issue subscription.
Before anyone asks, I'm limiting this promotion to the United States because my understanding is that Interzone gets really good distribution outside these shores. If the promo works, I'll consider doing it again one day, only this time offering a free subscription to anywhere in the world.
PS: Anyone can enter this contest, but do realize that if you win you'll need a snail mail address to receive the subscription. This may go without saying, but I guess it can't hurt to state the obvious.
The remnants of Hurricane Ike tore through the Midwest yesterday and we're now without power. By some quirk, my father-in-law's house still has electricity--and a wireless connection, hence this quick post--but my house is dark. Luckily we didn't have any damage, but some of our neighbors got hammered. It's an awe-inspiring thing seeing hurricane force winds in the Midwest.
Until the power is back up, I won't be able to launch the Interzone promo I had planned to kick off this week. The short and long of the promo is that I'll be giving away a one-year subscription to Interzone, the fabled British science fiction and fantasy magazine, to one lucky blogger in the United States. But until the power is back, I can't start the fun and games.
Fantasy and Science Fiction has been having an amazing run of stories recently, as evidenced by the fact that my next two choices for story of the week are both from that magazine. While you'll have to wait for next week's selection, the current story of the week is "Arkfall" by Carolyn Ives Gilman.
"Arkfall" is set on an alien world which is so primitive that life has yet to evolve (or so the main characters think). With the surface covered by thick ice sheets, the human colonists live at the bottom of the ocean in pressure-adjusted domes. Because the area in which they can live--delineated by volcanic vents on the ocean floor, which provide both heat and nutrients--is so small, the humans have evolved a very non-confrontational, inward-looking culture. People are so afraid to insult or offend someone they use the third person form of grammar when speaking to each another, and the worse insult one can give is to say that "You" should do something.
Enter Osaji, a young woman who lives on a floater, a giant living ball of gas and skin which travels a circular route over the ocean floor. Osaji is responsible for her aged grandmother, who is suffering from advanced dementia. Because of this responsibility, Osaji feels that she has never had a chance to find her own way in life. Needless to say, things are about to change for Osaji. Due to the intervention of a natural disaster and an offensive off-worlder, she is cast adrift on a floater into a voyage of discovery like no other.
This is a wonderfully written story set in as unique a world as can be created in science fiction. I have long been a fan of Gilman's story "The Honeycrafters," which was nominated for a Nebula Award back in the early 1990s. This story rivals that earlier effort and will, I predict, be on the short list for the major awards.
Posted at 07:28 PM in Stories worth reading | Permalink
According to an announcement on the Locus website, Gardner Dozois will be writing a monthly column on short fiction in the magazine. His first column will appear in the October issue. On the Asimov's forum, Dozois said that in the column he'll only be "mentioning stuff that catches my eye." A few weeks back Dozois expressed dismay at how little notice some of the best short fiction stories received in the Nebula Award balloting, so this column seems like a great way to bring more attention to worthy stories.
From author Matthew Hughes, commenting on the Asimov's forum about whether there are too many depressing SF/F stories being written:
"No conflict, no story. An account of a hero at ease in paradise is just travel writing."
Posted at 06:56 PM in Writing weirdness | Permalink
Editor Jetse de Vries has resigned from Interzone, as stated in an announcement on his website. According to Jetse, "The reason is simple: like a rock band where one musician quits because she/he doesn't like the musical direction the band is taking (the well-known 'musical differences'), I am unhappy with the direction and tone the fiction in Interzone will be taking."
Andy Cox and the other Interzone editors have expressed puzzlement at the change in direction Jetse mentioned. Andy even stated on the Asimov's forum that, "There are no changes afoot, no new direction, we've been doing what we've always done, and will continue to do it: simply, publish the best entertaining and thought-provoking modern sf and fantasy we can find, introducing more than our fair share of new writers along the way, and staying uniquely Interzone."
I'm also in the dark about this change of direction Jetse mentioned. But I do want to thank Jetse and the other Interzone editors for the support they have given my writing. Jetse was also the initial editor who picked two of my stories out of the Interzone slushpile (both "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain," published in issue 217 and receiving some very nice reviews, and "When Thorns Are The Tips Of Trees," which is forthcoming in Interzone). So I wish Jetse success in whatever directions his future SF/F work takes him.
