Interzone 212 : Britain’s Longest Running Scifi & Fantasy Magazine
(Sept/Oct 2007) Due on Sale September 6 2007.

Read to the end for a subscription offer.

Cover Art: Science fiction imagery from a South American perspective by Argentine artist Osvaldo Gonzalez who now works from Florida.

Fiction:
Feelings of the Flesh Douglas Cohen’s novelette is this issue’s debut story. Its theme is the conflicts between desire and instinct for individuals, and society, when change is necessary. Douglas is single, almost 30, and has a BA in English from Hofstra University, Long Island. His day job in New York City involves organizing medical conferences for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc. He lives an approximate 40 minute rail commute away in Valley Stream, NY. This is his first published story. Illustrated by Warwick Fraser-Coombe

Ack-Ack Macaque is Gareth Lyn Powell’s second Interzone story and he has sold a novel and a collection on the strength of his first appearance last year. Illustrated by SMS.
On the strength of his original publication in Interzone Gareth has progressed to two book deals; one for a novel (Silversands - Pendragon Press due 2009) and the other for a collection of short stories (Distant Galaxies Colliding - Elastic Press due August 2008). This second story features a one-eyed, cigar-smoking monkey wreaking havoc in Gareth’s home city, Bristol. There’s an interview with Gareth here.

A Handful of Pearls by Beth Bernobich. Beth is new to Interzone but she is making a name in the US magazines. Illustrated by Jesse Speak.
Beth is an author, software engineer and mother of a teenage boy. She studied in Heidelberg and Virginia and now lives in Connecticut, PS will publish her novelette Ars Memoriae as a limited-edition chapbook in 2009 and she has featured in Asimovs Magazine and Strange Horizons.

Dada Jihad by Will McIntosh, author of Soft Apocalypse in IZ 200. Chris Nurse illustrates.

The Algorithm by Tim Akers. After Toke in IZ 210 comes Tim’s fourth Interzone story. Illustrated by Warwick Fraser-Coombe
(more…)

Let’s Just Shuffle Up The Postbag, Reach In And See What We Pick Out:
(Picture Swap Shop, only in the 21st Century).

Here’s an interesting letter from Peter Rogers of Scunthorpe (location changed to protect the innocent):

He says: I keep telling the wife that Stargate and Atlantis are more real than Eastenders or Corrie but she will not have any of it. Perhaps we could meet half way and have a Stargate in Albert Square or have the cast of Walford eaten by a Wraith Invansion?

Either way at least she would get some sort of History lesson rather than just pure escapism.

We say: Peter, that’s true, very true.

Stargate excretes pure realism, whereas Eastenders and Corrie are but figments of someone’s deluded mind, portraying apparently real people in such a chaotic setting, with unrealistic storylines and baffling lingo, which teeters on the edge of being Ricki Lake.

Meeting halfway would be particularly thought provoking idea, especially if the cast in Walford are teleported away into oblivion. Or even teleported into Coronation Street - at least we’d only have one of them to watch.

Now that makes eighteen pence.

Another solution, would be to play all ten series of Stargate, for her, back to back, then top it off with Atlantis, repeat if necessary. Eventually she’ll come around to the idea that Stargate is more real, than boring, over the top soap operas.

Dark Tales : Issue Ten

Reviewed By Gareth D. Jones

This is my first experience of Dark Tales, a glossy A5 magazine that’s filled, predictably, with stories of a dark slant. It advertises itself as a magazine of fantasy, horror and SF, but disappointingly for me contained little in the way of SF. Still, reviewers can’t be choosers, as the old saying goes.

Merlins Pool is a story about fishing by Trevor Hicks. That makes it sound dull. It’s actually very atmospheric and with a sense of the mysterious that makes it quite a satisfying read.

John Morgan’s Still Life is a very short piece that shows what lengths some people will go to for art. Like all good flash fiction it gets to the point quickly, and that point is nice and sharp.

Sophie Duffy’s heroine in Hot and Cold is a lonely woman haunted by memories of her twin sister who went missing on the way to school over 20 years earlier. Now an estate agent, she feels strangely drawn to a creepy old house. There’s a nice balance of suspense being built, then shaken off as the woman dismisses her fears, that build to an over all emotive tale.

In The Model Colin Leonard gives us another troubled artist. this one blind and under the seemingly beneficent influence of a mysterious woman who has served as his muse. The story is told from the artist’s viewpoint, rather cleverly considering his blindness, and you really come to appreciate his dark world. I may have missed something at the end though. Although it built to a dramatic climax, I didn’t quite see what it was. Ironically enough.
(more…)

Forgotten Worlds : Issue Nine

Reviewed By Gareth D. Jones

As the months passed and no further issues of Forgotten Worlds appeared I began to fear the worst. Then all of a sudden issue #9 arrived in the post, bringing another varied selection of stories that fill this 56 page A5 magazine to capacity.

We start the magazine with the entertaining Flotsam Jewel by Fraser Ronald, a story of mysterious jewels, wizards and guilds. What’s particularly interesting about this story is the setting in the floating suburb known as Flotsam – a shanty town of old boats and shacks built on rafts that constantly moves with the swell of the tide. The setting is an integral part of the story rather than just a gimmick and along with the well-developed central character it gives the whole story a solid basis.

The Box is a truly unnerving tale by Neil Davies, in which a desperate man with a secret decides his new neighbour’s large wooden box could be very useful. It’s very well written, building the suspense while also surprising you with unexpected developments.

There are some excellent concepts in Graeme S Huston’s The Unregistered Daydreamer: Bold technological concepts, a humorous relationship with an alien, nightmares breaking out into reality. It’s all tied together well, until the pacing picks up towards the end. I got the impression that had the piece been longer the ideas would have developed better, rather than the rushed impression that I was left with. The character of the unregistered daydreamer himself is a great idea though.
(more…)

Un Vaso di Buio (Italian Title), A Vase Of Darkness (English Title)

In production from Pulsemedia situated in Reggio Nell’ Emilia, Italy, this enticing fantasy follows a small nine year old boy on his journey and destiny.

It is directed by Lazzaro M. Ferrari, written and produced by Tara Thomson and the executive producer is Roberto Ruini, founder of Pulsemedia. Director of photography is Tobia Sempi. It was shot on state of the art HD equipment and is currently about 12 minutes long.

The story is based on a Native American Legend, where an old man has stolen the night and placed it in a vase. The villagers bake under the sun all day and cannot sleep nor dream because night never comes. The boy goes on a journey with the horse and discovers his destiny/curse restoring the balance. The imagery is modern and surreal.

A Vase Of Darkness will have two versions; one all in Italian and one with English narration and English subtitles. It will be very easy to follow as there is very little dialogue.

In process is the cutting of the back stage interviews with the director, writer and other people involved in the project. Including the animal trainer who supplied the ‘fable like’ white snow pony that is used for a major part of the film, and the head of one of the largest and oldest factories in Europe, bombed for manufacturing war planes. The village looks like an abandoned village from the past and creates an ideal backdrop for the story. A scene includes a shot in the warehouse space which holds an enormous furnace which was used to melt metals.

The soundtrack was done by Massimo Zamboni of the former CCCP and CSI. The final publicity shot selection and captions will be finalized soon and I will put them up then.

Pulsemedia are a few weeks away from the final cut and final soundtrack, hoping to meet the deadline of August 31st ready for the Torino Film Festival (if they decide to enter). Eventually they hope to submit it to top Film Festivals around the world.

The Dresden Files On DVD
WIN Season One!

Lions Gate Home Entertainment is soon to release the The Dresden Files - The Complete First Series, based on the best selling novels by Jim Butcher and stars Paul Blackthorne (24, Deadwood), Valerie Cruz (Nip/Tuck) and Terence Mann (Law & Order).

It was written and created by Jim Butcher. produced by Nicholas Cage and Norman Golightly and is an adult story full of wizards, dark forces and enchantment. The Dresden Files combines heavy weight super powers and magic with the modern day world, in which each exist side by side only unknown to most people… except for Dresden.

The Dresden Files is a contemporary story of good versus evil, with a twist. Harry Dresden is a private detective with unusual powers he has had since a child. Using these special powers, he helps those in trouble or need and regularly assists on some of the more bizarre and unusual cases that Chicago police investigator Lt. Karrin Murphy (Valerie Cruz) cannot solve.

The Dresden Files - Season One DVD Product Details
(more…)

BlinkBox: Express Yourself With Scifi Film And TV Content

BlinkBox: Beta Phase

Blinkbox lets you express yourself with great film and TV content. Blinks, as they are called, are film clips tagged with personal messages that can be sent to anyone via email or mobile, and are embeddable on blogs, sites and social network profiles. There’s already loads of SciFi (only a small part of the full content) to be blinked from.

We’re currently in the middle of ‘getting the hang of it’, so once we’ve used it in anger, we’ll be able to give you the low down. As a taster, I’ve created a most non-scifi, yet hilarious, blink from the scifi film . Unfortunately, after that I couldn’t either retrieve it via my mobile phone or actually navigate from the blink creation page - these things are to be expected on a beta system, so be patient. I’ll update you once I’ve gotten the blink to blink on.

There’s limited availability of invites for the beta phase, but anyone who signs up will receive £1 free credit. It’s free to email blinks, it only costs 25p to send to a mobile device.

Heads-up! Competition:
In addition to this for the first two weeks of the campaign we are running a competition to win one Golden Pass and two Standard Passes to the London Comicon on the 1st and 2nd September for the best Sci–Fi blink created. Click here for details.

Update: It’s now blinking, so: As a taster, I’ve created a most non-scifi, yet hilarious, blink from the scifi film A Scanner Darkly. (Minus any text, which I believe you can add at build time).

www.blinkBox.com

It works well on a mobile phone too, a lot clearer than I thought it would be, and the download speed is respectable.

P.S. Youtube is Old Skool. Well, in all fairness, BlinkBox seems to be geared around films and tv, rather than home-movies, so they’re different beasts… probably.

Complete Fabrication

It’s What They Do
Whether you need an intergalactic space transporter or Artificial Intelligence to deal with the housework, a hostile environment movie set or a product prototype, we will have or can, invent the solution for you.

It’s In Their Blood
Under the direction their creative director Don Jack, we bring together blue sky thinkers, designers, artists, model makers and imagineers in a common goal to create a whole bunch of crazy stuff that hithero did not exist. You’ll see our work on photography and film, at visitor attractions, conferences, exhibitions and in corporate and private ownership.

Fiction Becomes Fact
Their esteemed client Dr. Bruce Davis (Intelligent Compliant Engineering Limited), the inventor of a new biomimetic robot technology robot system, renowned for its intelligent sensing and organic motion, recently took delivery of a new outer skin for his second generation Vorscht, funded by NESTA, the organisation which works to increase the UK’s capacity for innovation.

The site is a bit minimalist, and to be honest, doesn’t really say exactly it is that they do, but from what I gather, they will attempt to design just about anything you want (after initial talks, of course), and then, if the idea is do-able, they’ll construct it.

And based on some of the pictures they look scifi-ish. So ask ‘em for Termi-lek or a Da-minator! Exterm-back!!! I’ll-Be-Inate!!!!

How Would You Like To Hire A Travelling Scifi Exhibition?

Well here’s a site, Invasion, which contains everything you need, regardless of available space, to host a successful and engaging temporary exhibition.

It can be set up in one day and the ‘loan package’ as they call it, includes spectacular exhibits, display cases, plinths, large format photography and detailed show cards.

There’s also a promotional package which includes customisable poster art, press release flyers / press ads., high quality promotional material and ‘tested bolt-on event ideas’.

You also get an Invasion magazine, Invasion photography and Invasion merchandise.

You can see some of the exhibits here and more here.

Invasion’s range includes Stormtroopers, Jawas and Darth Vader from Star Wars; Robocop; The Terminator’s Chassis and Predator prosthetics.

From reading the press’ thoughts (pdf), the children have loved it (and I bet a fair few adults too), their smiling faces a testment to how they enjoy coming face to face with real-life movie-star-props. It would make a neat surprise birthday or christmas present or a kinky honeymoon addition for any budding scifi enthusiast.

Do You Ever Overhear Conversations On Scifi?

Let me tell you about a couple I’ve heard in the past few weeks:

Conversation One:

“Transformers, didn’t do it for me.”

(Look of astonishment) “Wah? That’s the best film of the year.”

“Optimus Prime is da maaan.”

“Nah, Megatron, he rocks.”

“What about Ironman?”

“Ironman, you mean they’re making a film of that?” (daft voice) “Ooh, let me power up me suit, let me just put me suit on, hang on, the zip’s stuck, ooh.” (laughs)

“Ironman, that a film about a triathlon?”

“Yeah, 24 hour film.” (laughs)

“Live?”

(conversation then goes off at a tangent)

Conversation Two:
(more…)

Rebody: Clive Warner

“Murdered in 2009. Revived in 2373. Grafted to a vaccum cleaner. Enslaved as a domestic robot. It’s a hell of a time to be Rebodied.”

The main character in Clive Warner’s Rebody, Hugh, must be the luckiest and unluckiest run-of-the-mill professor to have lived. He is lucky in that he gets to mix with one of his students at poetry nights. Yolanda, five eight, french looking, makes a pair of jeans and baggy sweatshirt look Paris-chic, takes a liking to the professor. The professor is unlucky as Yolanda has a mean boyfriend who kind of manages to take him out with a size ten boot. He’s also unlucky (or you might say lucky I guess) because he managed to win a Cryo Freeze prize at a funfair, while out with Yolanda, earlier that same evening.

Satire and comedy in the genre have to be treated with the utmost care. Rebody tackles it well, never trying to be satirical for the sake of it. Even though the author himself has said its satirical, its reads very much tongue in cheek. From the internal dialogue of Hugh, to how he comes to terms with his environment, Hugh keeps his sense of humour. I mean, you’ve got to if the last thing you remember is getting beaten to a pulp and then waking up ’seconds later’ a few hundred years into the future, inside a vaccum cleaner.

Some of the subject matter is downright bordering on sexually explicit, but this is delivered in a genre-esque way. Having a human head grafted onto different bodies, each with its own pros and cons, but actually being gradually taken over by it. One example is Hugh having his head attached to an apes body, and talking about the size of its manhood, in human terms its quite small, in ape terms its apparently quite big. Even thinking about it now makes me guffaw. Clive delivers these tidbits in a fashion I’ve never quite seen before.
(more…)

Interview With Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura In Heroes)

Power: Can Bend Time And Space

Can you tell us a little bit about your character and what his powers are?

My character is Hiro Nakamura. He’s an office drone in Japan and he’s a big comic book enthusiast. He learns that he can bend time and space, so teleportation and chronokinesis, and he’s just absolutely exhilarated with the fact that he can do this. It’s been his dream all along and he’s so happy that he’s been chosen.

The character is a big sci-fi and comic book fan. Is this a trait which you relate to?

I believe so. I am definitely a big enthusiast of science fiction and special effects. I grew up with Japanese Manga (Japanese comics), so I know a lot about the Manga world.

I really, really love the character and I believe the writers are doing an amazing job writing Hiro and bringing who I am into the character and extending me in terms of being a big comic book enthusiast. “Heroes” is a big extension of who I am.

There is an online graphic novel which goes hand-in-hand with the series. How important is this to the show? How does it feel to see yourself in cartoon form?

I think it’s just absolutely wonderful. When we went to the comic convention, we had a screening of the pilot episode and we knew we had something absolutely special and magical when we saw the fans’ reaction. We knew we hit it right on the head and that we had served the comic book community really well. And you know, in particular with Hiro being the comic book enthusiast as he is, he’s somewhat the representative for that voice of comic book fans. To have him as part of a comic book too is just absolutely thrilling, both in support of the character and for myself.

You worked on special effects before becoming an actor. Do you find yourself looking over people’s shoulders as the effects are produced for the show?
(more…)

Hybrids: David Thorpe

A brand new voice in children’s literature offers an eerie contemporary tale on the fusion of man and machine. Hybrids was the winning entry in HarperCollins Nationwide search for an author competition with Saga Magazine, beating 882 other manuscripts to first place.

Johnny Online and Kestrella are hybrids - victims of Creep, a pandemic sweeping the country which causes suffers to merge with items of technology when over-exposed to their use. Kestrella persuades a wary Johnny to help her find her missing mother, but the sinister Gene Police have other plans for him.

The story is narrated alternately by Johnny and Kes, which is an interesting technique and works well, as it shows the same situation from both persons point of view. Meaning you can see the difference in their thoughts, especially how each sees the other. Hybrids questions our human dependence on technology, and our reactions in the face of nationwide panic. Based in a world which is current, but not quiet; which is real, but only just; which is horribly close to our fears of what is happening and may happen in the future.

A virus, Creep, has swept Britain, causing the merging of technology with people; bass guitars(!), monitors and computer innards, mobile phones, it’s all there. The people infected as deemed dirty and dangerous by the non-infected, and as such are rounded up and kept seperate. Those on the run feel isolated and live on the edge, mostly banding together to survive.

The writing is at a steady pace and as a children’s book, will easily be followed. There’s no ‘over your head technology’ to content with, it’s really just people who are different to ‘the norm’. I feel this is a nice introduction to cyberpunk. It has messages too, loving someone, not for their physical appearance, but for their ‘internal beauty’; public panic at the unknown; dependency on technology. The depenency on technology is, while reading, the message which struck me most.
(more…)

Skaters, Trekkies And Cool Dudes

To get your hands on a signed for you copy of Skaters, Trekkies And Cool Dudes by Derek Lawrence, all you have to do is answer the following really, really hard question:

What are Trekkies commonly said to be into?

Is it:

A) Walking
B) BMXing
C) Skateboarding
D) Star Trek

Send you answers in through the competition page with your answer, name, age and email address.

We’ll contact you if you are a winner and Derek will then the books, so you get a personal signing.

Thanks to Derek for contributing the books for this competition!

See more competitions!

The Alchemyst, The Secrets Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel: Michael Scott

“An ancient book is lost. The modern world could be ripped apart at the seams.”

The Alchemyst: The Secrets Of Nicholas Flamel is the first in a brand new series starring The Immortal Nicholas Flamel (of Harry Potter fame). Released through Kids At Random House publishing, it’s aimed at the young adult market and, as seems to be the norm with this kind of age targetted book, has two fifteen year old siblings, Sophie and Josh Newman.

On their summer break in San Francisco, they take jobs and end up working across the street from one another, her in a coffee shop, him in a book shop which is owned by husband and wife, Perry and Nick (who is infact Nicholas). The action starts immediately, with some animated men made from mud attacking the bookshop, capturing Perry and stealing a rare book called the Codex. Luckily, Josh manages to grab the last two, and most important pages as it’s snatched away.

The Codex contains magical wisdom, and most disturbingly to Josh and Sophie, a prophecy about ‘twins’. They learn that Nicholas is a 14th century alchemist who has been hiding out and laying it low, with his wife Perry, since discovering the secret to immortality.

Attempting to recover the book and Nicholas’ wife, they encounter mythical beings, mythical places and some glowing characters: An Irish woman warrior, trained in martial arts, in the body of a young girl. A greek Hekate - The Morrigan and a poweful Egyptian cat-goddess Bastet to name but a few.
(more…)