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Interzone # 215 - April 2008
01/05/2008 . Source: Eamonn Murphy 
bi-monthly magazine: UK publisher/editor address: Andy Cox, TTA Press, 5 Martins Lane, Witcham, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB6 2LB. Price: £ 3.75 (UK) $ 7.00(US). ISSN: 0264-3596. check out website: www.ttapress.com
The cream of British magazine SF is out again with another fine selection of stories. This issue opens with 'The Endling' by Jamie Barras which tells of several different types of human in the far future, including one who believes he is the last man alive, hence the title. To reveal more would only spoil it. The story was hard to read, utterly confusing for the first half and I almost gave up. The conclusion is satisfying and clever but it's certainly not light entertainment.
'Dragonfly Summer' by Patrick Samphire is...elusive. It's a thoughtful story about the lost dreams of youth, with well-rounded believable characters. I have a notion that this theme is better tackled in a mainstream story but there being no market for those a chap has to chuck in a bit of fantasy to get it published. I enjoyed it though.
Greg Egan's 'Crystal Nights' is sort of cyberpunk. Daniel Cliff made his first billion with WiddulHands.com, a social networking site for 0-3 year olds. Since then, he's got very rich and plans to be God to a race of AIs, believing them to be an inevitable part of the future and wanting to control their development. He evolves them carefully in a virtual world. Smart stuff with a moral dimension but without a trite moral message.
The other stories were all good, especially 'The Imitation Game' by Rudy Rucker, a fantasy (I presume) about Alan Turing of Enigma fame. There is also an interview with Mike Carey of whom I had not previously heard but it was interesting all the same.
The book and film reviews were written in a sort of scattergun style and sometimes seem a bit too disdainful of lesser works. This is in tune with the generally downbeat atmosphere of the magazine. 'Interzone' is not a periodical you turn to when you want a spring put in your step and joy instilled in your heart. I suppose the high standards which make its fiction the best also mean that its reviews will be the most discriminating. Fair enough. A reviewer's job is to separate the wheat from the chaff but without a certain affection for the chaff you'll be a miserable bugger. Then you can get a job at 'Interzone'.
Eamonn Murphy
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