Runalong The Short Shelves - Interzone 303
Publisher - Interzone
Price - 5 euros via https://shop.interzone.press/b/E76yw
The short shelves have a little catching up to do and I’m tiring to the last Interzone who’s overall felt a mixed bag to me but still plenty to keep me reading
Fiction
Among the stores I enjoyed
The Chainsaw Surfer Against The Army of The Deep by Nathan Brown and Sasha Brown
This story had four friends going surfing out off the coast of Manhattan and then find themselves forst in a tsunami and the with New York under attack from creatures of the deep like sharks wearing mecha armour. The ocean fights back. Yes there is a touch of SyFy shark movies to this take but it is indeed fast and well paced tale with lots of action and knows to have fun. For me the one letdown was the few engine beats particularly when there are deaths felt a little clunky handled and diluted the story’s impact.
Project Star Train Final Report by Humphrey Price - our narrator tells us the world has had some huge form of technology collapse and now explains why. It’s an intriguing spin on first contact and how a simple mistake by humanity ends up ruining us. The way Price keeps this feeling real rather than what other writers would have done for laughs makes the structure feel original and effective.
Cautionary Pulses by Eyglo Karlsdottir and Ashley Stokes
In a world where everyone is doing what their Ai interfaces tells them to do two commuters ignore all the warnings and start a relationship. It’s got passion, humour and interrogates the idea of people trusting algorithms for everything from Relationships to Global politics. Making the narrator the technology adds an interesting perspective to the story especially how it punishes these transgressors and indeed this is a cautionary tale to remind us being human should be more important than what our apps tell us to be.
Meat by Rachel Cupp
A diary style tale where our narrator initially seems to e taking care of a leg but everything is not what it seems. I liked that this story required the reader to add the context and also the brutal finale makes us consider to whom we feel sympathy for.
The Canine Lodge by Giselle Leeb
Two holiday makers are amused by their b&b’s mysterious sign and a strange landlady. A decent horror story but does rely on people making a very obviously bad decision and things indeed go horribly wrong but I enjoyed it.
Bindweed by Kat Sedia
This was an engrossing but explicit tale of two people reconnecting a tale of passion that brings out the worst in them but their attraction is nevertheless strangely pure. For me the issue was the ending just slightly fizzled out but the writing was very interesting.
Baywater by Crystal Koo
The last story to make an impact was this strange tale of a woman who suddenly bisects herself and we follow her two halves. One going on a journey and the other just trying to get home. Very strange and engrossing to discover what is going on but gives us compassion for our main character(s) just in a situation they were not responsible for.
This issue there were a lot of tales I very quickly didn’t click with style wise and as clearly not for my tastes I’ll leave it at that.
Non-fiction
For me the strongest element of the region was the non fiction
In Climbing Stories Aliya Whiteley discusses time travel and notes the linear ways movies can do this but how books play with time in much more interesting ways
In Mutant Popcorn Nick Lowe gives their impressions of last years autumnal blockbusters ranging from Superman to Jurassic park yet again having another sequel. I didn’t get out to the cinema much last year but this reminds me I really miss that big screen experience. I just hope I get to see the right films!
In Dancing In The Library Una McCormack. Explores how Le Guin used ideas of earlier stories to tell new ones and reveals this also led to an approach in their own work. Nothing is ever wasted!
The Book Zone has a series of Alexander Glass, Kelly Jennings, Paul Kincaid, Nick Mamatas and Val Nolan give opinions on a huge range of tales. Temptations await for Spec Fic for Newbies Volume 2, Heartwood, Penric and The Bandit, Once Was Willem and Colourfields.
In Alexander Glass’s The A-Z of Zelazny Glass discusses the role of tricksters and the idea of the lowly ‘Jack’ that can upset the apple cart of a word.
Finally in Folded Spaces Val Nolan explores the SF concept of the Feontier and how that’s changed with a particular focus here on Kin Stanley Robinson’s work. I like this article exploration of how attitudes to this are changing and reflect changes in our own world too
Overall a very decent read and I look forward to the next issue as always!
