Interzone Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine #213 Read online

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  TTA Press

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  Copyright ©

  First published in 2007

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  NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.

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  INTERZONE

  SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

  ISSUE 213

  DEC 2007

  Cover Art

  Metal Dragon Year

  By Kenn Brown

  mondolithic.com

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  ISSN 0264-3596 Published bimonthly by TTA Press, 5 Martins Lane, Witcham, Ely, Cambs CB6 2LB, UK (t: 01353 777931) Copyright © 2007 Interzone and its contributors Distribution UK Warners (t: 01778 392417) Central Books (t: 020 8986 4854) WWMD (t: 0121 7883112) Australia Gordon & Gotch (t: 02 9972 8800) If any shop doesn't stock Interzone please ask them to order it, or buy it from one of several online mail order distributors such as BBR, Fantastic Literature ... or better yet subscribe direct with us!

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  Editors Andrew Hedgecock, Jetse de Vries, Andy Cox, Liz Williams, David Mathew ([email protected]) Book Reviews Editor (website also) Paul Raven Proofreader Peter Tennant Advertising and Publicity Roy Gray ([email protected]) Typesitter Andy Cox E-IZ Pete Bullock Website & Forum ttapress.com Subscriptions The number on your mailing label refers to the last issue of your subscription. If it is due for renewal you will see a reminder on the centre pages pullout. Please renew promptly!

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  CONTENTS

  INTERFACE (EDITORIAL, NEWS)

  EDITORIAL—Aztecs On Mars

  ANSIBLE LINK—David Langford's News & Gossip

  WORLDCON REPORT—John Paul Catton

  INTERMISSION (STORIES)

  METAL DRAGON YEAR—Chris Roberson

  Illustrator: Kenn Brown (mondolithic.com)

  MOLLY AND THE RED HAT—Benjamin Rosenbaum

  THE MEN IN THE ATTIC—John Phillip Olsen

  Illustrator: David Gentry (sixshards.co.uk)

  THE BEST OF YOUR LIFE—Jason Stoddard

  Illustrator: Warwick Fraser-Coombe

  ODIN'S SPEAR—Steve Bein

  Illustrator: Paul Drummond

  THE LOST XUYAN BRIDE—Aliette De Bodard

  Illustrator: Paul Drummond

  INTERVIEW

  A MULTITUDE OF IMAGINABLE FUTURES—Gary Gibson Interviewed by Andy Hedgecock

  INTERLOCUTIONS (REVIEWS)

  laser fodder—Tony Lee's Regular Review of DVD Releases

  SCORES—John Clute's Regular Review of the Latest Books

  BOOKZONE—More of the Latest Books Reviewed

  CONTENTS

  EDITORIAL—Aztecs On Mars

  ANSIBLE LINK—David Langford's News & Gossip

  YOKOHAMA WORLDCON SPECIAL REPORT—John Paul Catton

  METAL DRAGON YEAR—Chris Roberson

  MOLLY AND THE RED HAT—Benjamin Rosenbaum

  THE MEN IN THE ATTIC—John Phillip Olsen

  THE BEST OF YOUR LIFE—Jason Stoddard

  ODIN'S SPEAR—Steve Bein

  THE LOST XUYAN BRIDE—Aliette De Bodard

  LASER FODDER—Tony Lee's Regular Review of DVD Releases

  SCORES—John Clute's Regular Review of the Latest Books

  BOOKZONE—More of the Latest Books Reviewed

  A MULTITUDE OF IMAGINABLE FUTURES—Andy Hedgecock talks to Gary Gibson about faith, power, transformation and Co-codamol

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  EDITORIAL—Aztecs On Mars

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  aztecs on mars

  Chris Roberson sent us a story set in his Celestial Empire called ‘Metal Dragon Year'. A little later, Aliette de Bodard sent us ‘The Lost Xuyan Bride'. It struck us immediately how alike the backgrounds of these stories were: a world where China and the Aztecs are the dominant powers, and where the Spanish either didn't discover America or were defeated by the Aztecs. Both stories are also set in the late 20th/early 21st centuries where the competition between those other Eastern and Western powers is at least as intense as it was in our Cold War era.

  So, instead of rejecting the second story (which we liked too much to bounce anyway!) or hiding the similarity by publishing the stories separately, we thought it'd be more interesting to run them both in the same issue, and show that two writers living in different continents can, independently, come up with the same idea but then work it out in a completely different way.

  We asked the authors to tell us briefly how they imagined and then developed their alternate worlds:

  Chris: The Celestial Empire got its start in a hotel bar, as all good things do. I was invited by Lou Anders to contribute to his anthology Live Without a Net, in which tropes of cyberpunk were replaced by something else. I chose the computer, and banged together a story that mashed up John Henry and the Steam Engine with an anecdote from the biography of Richard Feynman, in a world colored by Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor. The next year in another hotel bar Lou asked me if I'd do a follow up. Since in the first story the Chinese emperor is establishing a space program, Lou asked me what happened next, and without thinking I answered that the Chinese went to Mars and found that the Aztecs were there waiting for them. Of course, having done no actual research for the first story beyond rewatching Bertolucci's film, I now had to work out the mechanics of the world, how the Chinese might have risen to power, and just what the Aztecs were doing on Mars. The result has been a dozen or more short stories and a handful of novels that will be coming out in the course of the next few years, which together comprise the sequence I call the Celestial Empire. Any readers interested in tracking down the others stories can find a full list of them at chrisroberson.net.

  Aliette: I've always been fascinated by China—and in particular by the country's spectacular decline into isolationism in the 15th Century. What if this hadn't happened—what if China had continued to reach outwards, and discovered America first? One other thing I found interesting is how incredibly lucky the Spanish were in conquering Mexico: what if, for instance, the Aztecs hadn't welcomed the conquistadores as gods? The two ideas somehow merged, and I started building a universe in which the first foreigners to reach the Aztecs would be Chinese colonists; and the Chinese and the Aztecs would ally to defeat the Spanish. My boyfriend then pointed out that my changes occurred on the West Coast and in Mexico: their outcome wouldn't immediately affect the English colonisation of the East Coast. Thus, I arrived at the world depicted in ‘The Lost Xuyan Bride', where three powers share the current US territory. First, to the west of the Rocky Mountains, Xuya, the former Chinese colony; then the Aztec Empire in the south; and finally, the much-diminished United States in the east. I'm currently working on other stories set in this universe. For more information about the rest of my work, visit aliettedebodard.com.

  We now leave it up to you to find how strangely similar yet still essentially distinct these stories are. We hope you enjoy the rest of this issue as well—Nick Lowe (Mutant Popcorn), by the way, is taking a well-earned break. Please visit our online forum at ttapress.com/forum to air your views, and please also start thinking about your favourite stories of the year. We'll list them all next issue and invite you to participate in the annual Readers’ Poll.

  Meanwhil
e, we think you'll be interested to learn that The Fix is now online, live and entirely free at thefix-online.com, headed up by managing editor Eugie Foster. The Fix is entirely dedicated to the critical coverage of short speculative fiction and reviews all the publications where it can be found, and supplements this with a wide range of features and interviews. It's updated constantly so visit often, bookmark, subscribe to the feed...

  Copyright © 2007

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  ANSIBLE LINK—David Langford's News & Gossip

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  Nippon 2007 was the first World SF Convention held in Japan. Its Hugo ceremony was dominated by the superhero Ultraman—an iconic figure of Japanese TV for 40 years—who opened the event by defeating various rubber-clad monsters and is commemorated in the Hugo trophy itself. And the winners are...

  Novel: Vernor Vinge, Rainbows End. Novella: Robert Reed, ‘A Billion Eves’ (Asimov's). Novelette: Ian McDonald,'The Djinn's Wife’ (Asimov's). Short: Tim Pratt, ‘Impossible Dreams’ (Asimov's). Related Book: Julie Phillips, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon. Dramatic (Long): Pan's Labyrinth. Dramatic (Short): Doctor Who, ‘The Girl in the Fireplace'. Pro Editor (Long): Patrick Nielsen Hayden. Pro Editor (Short): Gordon Van Gelder. Pro Artist: Donato Giancola. Semiprozine: Locus. Fanzine: Science-Fiction Five-Yearly. Fan Writer: David Langford (smirks modestly). Fan Artist: Frank Wu. Campbell Award for new author: Naomi Novik.

  In the 2009 Worldcon site selection Montréal defeated Kansas City by a clear majority of 507 votes to 341.

  Doris Lessing, both a ‘literary’ author and an unashamed writer of sf who was a guest of honour at the 1987 UK Worldcon, won the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature. Let this be a lesson to...

  Jeanette Winterson insists that her new novel isn't sf but ‘more than speculative': ‘I'm not a Luddite; I'm fascinated by technology. There's not a single thing in The Stone Gods that's not plausible; it's not flights of fantasy or science fiction, but completely within our reach.’ (Metro, September) In this book's far future, genetic fixing has eliminated ageing, an advanced AI robot can be one's soulmate, and mankind is starting anew on a fresh ‘Planet Blue'. But apart from that, what has sf ever done for us? Though liking the book, Ursula K. Le Guin is miffed—'It's odd to find characters in a science-fiction novel repeatedly announcing that they hate science fiction'—and deplores ‘the curious ingratitude of authors who exploit a common fund of imagery while pretending to have nothing to do with the fellow-authors who created it and left it open to all who want to use it. A little return generosity would hardly come amiss.’ (Guardian, September)

  Drop A House On Her From Orbit. It's The Only Way ... Todd McFarlane on his production plans for a new Oz film: ‘My pitch was “How do we get people who went to Lord of the Rings to embrace this?” I want to create [an interpretation] that has a 2007 wow factor. You've still got Dorothy trapped in an odd place, but she's much closer to the Ripley from Alien than a helpless singing girl.’ (Variety)

  Howard Jacobson runs true to form in a recent interview. Anna Metcalfe: ‘What makes you cross to read?’ Jacobson: ‘Science fiction and fantasy; or anything aimed at a child's mind. I don't think children's literature should exist.’ (Financial Times, September)

  More Awards

  British Fantasy Award, novel: Tim Lebbon, Dusk.

  James Tait Black, for fiction: Cormac McCarthy, The Road.

  Prometheus, libertarian: Charles Stross, Glasshouse; also a special award to V for Vendetta (the film).

  World Fantasy, life achievement: Betty Ballantine and Diana Wynne Jones.

  Ridley Scott told Wired that his best-known sf film owes little to Philip K. Dick: ‘Blade Runner involved full-bore imagination. Deckard's universe had to be expanded into credibility. That's probably the hardest thing I've done, because there was nothing to borrow from.’ [ ... ] Wired: ‘Is it true that you didn't read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the book on which Blade Runner was based, before making the movie?’ Scott: ‘I honestly couldn't get into it. It's so dense...'

  William Gibson invented Latin, or so the Guardian implies: ‘The purported inventor of the terms “cyberspace” and “matrix"...'

  Court Circular. ‘Like a hand emerging from a freshly dug grave, enmity has arisen in the once thought settled Harlan Ellison/Fantagraphics lawsuit...’ (Publishers Weekly). Perhaps in some alternate universe, Harlan Ellison decided that although he strongly disliked the tone of Gary Groth's rebuttal of certain Ellison allegations, he was nevertheless required by the terms of the settlement he'd signed to display this on his website for 30 days—and, being a man of his word, he did so and emerged from this affair with the maximum possible dignity. But in our timeline, the great man balked...

  Thog's Masterclass

  Dept of Atmospheric Physics. ‘The energy field vanished—as quickly as it came—replaced by a whoosh as a vacuum of air escaped from beneath the two sections, now divided. The air vaporised in the colder temperatures, creating wisps of steam that curled towards the sky before dissipating in the atmosphere.’ (Walt Becker, Link, 1998)

  Eyeballs in the Sky Special. ‘She watched as his eyes bounced around in his head, in perfect unison with the butt of the little courtesan in front of them.’ (Ibid)

  'Langdon's eyes were transfixed on the pyramids...’ (Dan Brown, Angels & Demons, 2000)

  'His eyes touched his body.’ ‘...his eyes picked it [a hover-sled] out of the red sand and examined it closely.’ (both Gardner F. Fox, Escape Across the Cosmos, 1964)

  'The green seethe of his gaze resembled weeping seas.’ ‘...the dangerous and fuming green of his eyes blazed vividly, as incandescent and unclean as small emerald suns tainted by despair.’ (both Stephen R. Donaldson, Fatal Revenant, 2007)

  R.I.P.

  Robert Bussard (1928-2007), US physicist whose theoretical starship drive the Bussard Ramjet featured in sf by Poul Anderson, Larry Niven and others, died on 6 October.

  Clive Exton (1930-2007), UK scriptwriter who adapted sf for Out of This World ('The Cold Equations') and Out of the Unknown, and scripted an episode of Doomwatch, died on 16 August; he was 77.

  Leslie Flood (1921-2007), UK bookseller and literary agent who co-founded the International Fantasy Award, reviewed for New Worlds, and continued the E.J. Carnell agency after John Carnell's death in 1972, died on 1 August; he was 85. Flood helped shape the Gollancz sf list as its chief reader through the later 1960s; on retirement in 1986 he received a special British Fantasy Award.

  Joe L. Hensley (1926-2007), US lawyer, judge and sf/crime author who was active in fandom from the 1930s, died on 27 August. He was 81. His first published sf was in Planet Stories, 1953; his sf novel was The Black Roads (1976).

  Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007), much-loved US author of the Newbery Medal winner A Wrinkle in Time (1962) and other admired fiction for children, died on 6 September. She was 88.

  James Rigney Jr (1948-2007), US writer who as Robert Jordan published the lengthy, best-selling ‘Wheel of Time’ fantasy sequence—beginning in 1990 with The Eye of the World and still unfinished—died on 16 September aged 58. In 2006 he had been diagnosed with the rare blood disease amyloidosis. There were many tributes from the sf world and outside.

  Copyright © 2007 David Langford

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  YOKOHAMA WORLDCON SPECIAL REPORT—John Paul Catton

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  JP is a British freelance writer based in West Tokyo. He writes a regular column about the dark side of Japanese culture and media for our sister magazine Black Static.

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  A Hugo award in the shape of the Ultraman TV character; men in rubber monster suits slugging it out on stage; nominees accepting their awards in full traditional kimono ... this was the Nippon 2007 Worldcon, Pacifico Hotel, Yokohama, Japan. The first convention of the World Science Fiction Society ever to be held in Asia was the scene of a mass invasion of writ
ers, artists and fans, all ready to be educated, entertained and enchanted by the home of Godzilla and Murakami.

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  As editor and anthologist Ellen Datlow said at the time: “We arrived on August 16th—the hottest day on record, as it turned out, and it was unbearable! But I think it's wonderful—the Japanese fans are trying their hardest to make everyone feel comfortable. I'm having a great time. We went to Kyoto, Gokoyama, took in some Noh dance and the all-female Takarazuka dance revues. I'm really impressed by what I've seen so far."

  Jon Courtenay Grimwood, whose new novel The End of the World Blues is set partly in a near-future Tokyo, has always been impressed at how guests are treated in this country. “One of the things about Japan is that they cut us the most phenomenal amount of slack. We [foreign visitors] do things that are deeply insulting almost five hundred times a day, and we don't even know we've done it ... so rather than be mortally offended by our inability to eat, drink, walk and talk the Japanese just say, ‘OK, they do it differently', and they cut us slack."

  Novelist and screenwriter Paul Cornell has had a long-standing interest in anime, and admitted the Worldcon and Japan in general was a powerful experience for him. “At the opening ceremony the Fan Guest of Honour, Takumi Shibano, was almost in tears when he said this was the happiest day of his life ... it's all very emotional."

  During the convention's five days there were a few minor glitches, such as incompatibility between local and foreign software and hardware, but in general the sheer number of panels and the precision with which they were run impressed all comers. Among some of the home-produced attractions were bilingual stage adaptations of Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, demonstrations of fun things to do with liquid nitrogen and Tesla coils, the Comic Market clueing people up on what's new in manga today, and the Japanese version of the Hugos—the Seiun Awards. The pick of this year's Seiun Awards: Sakyo Komatsu and Koshu Tani for Japan Sinks Part Two (Japanese Long Fiction), and Phillip Reeve for Mortal Engines (Translated Long Fiction).