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    Interzone #278 (November-December 2018)
    Interzone #278 (November-December 2018)
    Interzone #278 (November-December 2018)
    Ebook191 pages3 hours

    Interzone #278 (November-December 2018)

    By TTA Press

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    About this ebook

    The November–December issue contains new cutting edge science fiction and fantasy (this time with a specific theme) by Tim Lees, Fiona Moore, Natalia Theodoridou, Eliza Ruslander, Sheldon J. Pacotti, and Louise Hughes. The cover art is by Vince Haig, and interior colour illustrations are by Richard Wagner, Dave Senecal, and Martin Hanford. Features: Ansible Link by David Langford (news and obits); Mutant Popcorn by Nick Lowe (film reviews); Book Zone (book reviews, including an interview with Aliya Whiteley); Andy Hedgecock's Future Interrupted (comment); Aliya Whiteley's Climbing Stories (comment); guest editorial by Tim Lees.

    Cover Art: Abductees 5 by 2018 cover artist Vince Haig

    Fiction:

    Soldier's Things by Tim Lees
    illustrated by Martin Hanford

    Doomed Youth by Fiona Moore
    illustrated by Richard Wagner

    The Path to War by Louise Hughes
    illustrated by Martin Hanford

    Heart of an Awl by Eliza Ruslander
    illustrated by Dave Senecal

    Zero Day by Sheldon J. Pacotti
    illustrated by Richard Wagner

    Birnam Platoon by Natalia Theodoridou
    illustrated by Richard Wagner

    Features:

    Guest Editiral
    Tim Lees

    Future Interrupted: When I'm in the Crowd...
    Andy Hedgecock

    Climbing Stories: Fear of Freedom
    Aliya Whiteley

    Ansible Link: News, obituaries
    David Langford

    Reviews:

    Book Zone

    Books reviewed include The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction edited by Francesca T. Barbini, The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley (plus author interview), Modern Masters of Science Fiction: Arhtur C. Clarke by Gary Westfahl, An American Story by Christopher Priest, The Song My Enemies Sing by James Reich, Buying Time by E.M. Brown, Death's End by Cixin Liu, By the Pricking of Her Thumb by Adam Roberts, Unholy Land by Lavie Tidhar, Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates

    Mutant Popcorn
    Nick Lowe

    Films reviewed include Venom, Upgrade, Duplicate, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, The House with a Clock in its Walls, The Man who Killed Don Quixote, Mirai, The Predator, Smallfoot

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTTA Press
    Release dateNov 20, 2018
    ISBN9781370895397
    Interzone #278 (November-December 2018)
    Author

    TTA Press

    TTA Press is the publisher of the magazines Interzone (science fiction/fantasy) and Black Static (horror/dark fantasy), the Crimewave anthology series, TTA Novellas, plus the occasional story collection and novel.

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      Book preview

      Interzone #278 (November-December 2018) - TTA Press

      interzone_0_20_89_0.ai

      ISSUE #278

      NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2018

      Publisher

      TTA Press, 5 Martins Lane, Witcham, Ely, Cambs CB6 2LB, UK

      w: ttapress.com

      e: interzone@ttapress.com

      f: TTAPress

      t: @TTApress

      shop: shop.ttapress.com

      Books and films for review are always welcome and should be sent to the above address

      Editor

      Andy Cox

      andy@ttapress.com

      Events

      Roy Gray

      roy@ttapress.com

      © 2018 Interzone & contributors

      Submissions

      Unsolicited submissions of short stories are always very welcome via our online system (tta.submittable.com/submit) but please be sure to follow the contributors’ guidelines.

      logo cmyk.tif

      SMASHWORDS REQUESTS THAT WE ADD THE FOLLOWING:

      LICENSE NOTE: THIS EMAGAZINE IS LICENSED FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE/ENJOYMENT ONLY. IT MAY NOT BE RE-SOLD OR GIVEN AWAY TO OTHER PEOPLE. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE THIS MAGAZINE WITH OTHERS PLEASE PURCHASE AN ADDITIONAL COPY FOR EACH RECIPIENT. IF YOU POSSESS THIS MAGAZINE AND DID NOT PURCHASE IT, OR IT WAS NOT PURCHASED FOR YOUR USE ONLY, THEN PLEASE GO TO SMASHWORDS.COM AND OBTAIN YOUR OWN COPY. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE HARD WORK OF THE CONTRIBUTORS AND EDITORS.

      INTERZONE 278 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

      TTA PRESS

      COPYRIGHT TTA PRESS AND CONTRIBUTORS 2018

      PUBLISHED BY TTA PRESS AT SMASHWORDS

      CONTENTS

      abductees5contents.tif

      ABDUCTEES 5 by 2018 COVER ARTIST VINCE HAIG

      www.barquing.com

      INTERFACE

      EDITORIAL

      TIM LEES

      v.tif

      FUTURE INTERRUPTED

      ANDY HEDGECOCK

      great sf stories.tif

      CLIMBING STORIES

      ALIYA WHITELEY

      Servalan.tif

      ANSIBLE LINK

      DAVID LANGFORD

      FICTION

      Soldiers Things.tif

      SOLDIER’S THINGS

      TIM LEES

      story illustrated by Martin Hanford

      www.deviantart.com/martinhanford1974

      doomed youth (alt).tif

      DOOMED YOUTH

      FIONA MOORE

      story illustrated by Richard Wagner

      rdwagner@centurylink.net (email)

      path to war.tif

      THE PATH TO WAR

      LOUISE HUGHES

      story illustrated by Martin Hanford

      heart of an awl.tif

      HEART OF AN AWL

      ELIZA RUSLANDER

      story illustrated by Dave Senecal

      www.deviantart.com/senecal

      zero day (refined).tif

      ZERO DAY

      SHELDON J. PACOTTI

      story illustrated by Richard Wagner

      birnam platoon (new).tif

      BIRNAM PLATOON

      NATALIA THEODORIDOU

      story illustrated by Richard Wagner

      aliyawhiteley-contents.tif

      THE LOOSENING SKIN

      Aliya Whiteley interviewed by Daniel Carpenter

      REVIEWS

      Liu_03_DEATH'S END_PB_2018.tif

      BOOK ZONE

      books, including an interview with Aliya Whiteley

      venom-contents.tif

      MUTANT POPCORN

      NICK LOWE

      films

      EDITORIAL

      TIM LEES

      Some years ago, in my hometown of Manchester, a young man stopped me in the street and asked me for directions. I obliged. He thanked me, and, without pausing for breath, handed me a flyer. And I’d like to invite you to a church service, he said.

      It wasn’t the first time I’d come across this kind of proselytising. He hadn’t wanted directions at all, of course, only an excuse to talk to me. Well, OK. No harm done. Except for this: presumably, he was touting a way of life he considered spiritually and ethically superior to others (or at least to mine). And he’d begun his pitch by lying to me.

      Should I trust him? Or anybody else I might meet at his church service? I think not.

      We’re living in an age of lies, as any glance at the news will tell you. Does truth matter anymore? And in fiction, which is lies from start to finish, does it have any relevance at all?

      Truth and realism are different things. I believe that all fiction, no matter how fantastic or bizarre, needs some core of truth in order to succeed. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. It doesn’t have to be obvious. But it has to be enough for you to trust the author, trust their story, and trust their take on life.

      Frankenstein works because its portrait of hubris and obsession is utterly credible. Given that, we can believe a man might breathe life into a stitched-up, patchwork corpse.

      H.G.Wells’s genius was, in part, to place ordinary people at the heart of his scenarios; not supermen, not world-saving soldiers or scientists, but folk like you and me, who just happen to get caught up in the mess.

      Even the unabashed pulp of Lansdale’s The Drive-In opens with some astute remarks about small-town Texas life, before diving headlong into lunacy. It’s only a few pages, but it’s enough. If you’re going to destroy the world – or Texas – it helps to know what the world’s like first.

      We’ve seen some ugly campaigns in SF lately, from the various shades of Puppies to the Twitter wars over The Last Jedi. There’s a whine of resentment at the rise of women, LGBTQ people and people of colour as significant creators and pace-setters, as if they’re – horror! – gate-crashing some private club whose members always thought themselves special and exclusive.

      Well, for better or worse, I’m a white male writer. But a large part of the world is neither white nor male, nor able-bodied, nor heterosexual, nor cis, and to see authors from these once-hidden areas come to prominence can only be good for the field as a whole, bringing with it new ideas, new perspectives, and, with luck, new audiences too.

      If you want, you can deny their importance. You can claim they’re all part of a plot to force diversity upon the poor beleaguered white man (and it’s curious, how fast the cries of victimhood start up). You can try to game the awards system, demand a return to traditional values, or fill the internet with memes and slogans (I’d suggest Make SF Irrelevant Again). But the fact is, if you try to cut out the wider world, you create a lie: a false premise as to what the world is like. And that’s not a good start for anything – fiction or reality.

      Or, come to that, an invitation to a church service.

      FUTURE INTERRUPTED

      ANDY HEDGECOCK

      WHEN I’M IN THE CROWD…

      Riotous mobs were established as a key motif in the cinema of the fantastic between the wars. Think of the workers’ rebellion in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, a film reflecting the idealism, repression, poverty and uncertainty of its era; or the final scene of James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931), which features a vengeful crowd with blazing torches in their hands and malevolence in their hearts.

      Sf novelists have been fascinated by the threat and power of crowds for well over a century. The retributive mob in the climactic scene of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man (1897) is a symbolic critique of science divorced from ethical constraint. In contrast, the violent urban unrest in Jonathan Trigell’s Genus (2011) highlights the danger of creating a marginalised underclass.

      There are countless representations of savage and unpredictable crowds in sf and fantasy. There’s the Mephi rebellion against repressive ‘One State’ in Yevgeny Zamyati’s We (1921); the soma-riot of Brave New World (1932) and J.G. Ballard’s examination of the nexus of fascism, consumerism and hooliganism in Kingdom Come (2006). In the cinema there’s the battle between soldiers and refugees in Children of Men (2006), the race riots of District 9 (2009) and, in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Christopher Nolan’s outrageous use of organised crime as a proxy for the Occupy movement.

      Let’s consider the case of Homer Simpson – not Matt Groening’s yellow chubster, but his namesake from Nathanael West’s Day of the Locust (1939). West’s Homer is a disappointed, sexually repressed accountant who commits an appalling act of violence that transforms a resentful movie premiere crowd into a bloodthirsty and destructive rabble. A scene with enormous emotional clout, it’s also freighted with symbolism concerning the collapse of the American dream, the alienation of the middle class and the dangers of America’s growing obsession with celebrity.

      Crowds are portrayed as stupid, evil or sorely provoked and the results of unrest are sometimes beneficial, sometimes toxic. But the mass is nearly always seen as a destructive force, something to be feared.

      I asked Professor Martyn Amos of Northumbria University, a computer and information scientist using computer modelling to facilitate understanding of crowds and collective psychology, why we focus on the destructive potential of large gatherings. His response was unambiguous:

      "Because we’ve been told to. Historically, power fears the crowd, and it’s in the interests of the ruling class to portray the crowd as unruly, dangerous, mad, and unpredictable.

      It started with Gustave Le Bon’s treatment of revolutionary France, and his reactionary perspective is still perpetuated today. Whenever we talk about ‘panic’, ‘stampede’, and ‘epidemics of violence’, we reduce the crowd to an insensible mass, devoid of agency. As the crowd psychologists Cliff Stott and John Drury have pointed out, if a crowd is inherently stupid and prone to violence and destruction, then it must be suppressed if civilisation is to survive.

      There are sf and fantasy writers who take a different view of the psychology and politics of groups. In his 1977 essay Starship Stormtroopers, Michael Moorcock excoriated Tolkien and other ‘middle-class Christian fantasists’ for their fear of the mob: The working class is a mindless beast which must be controlled or it will savage the world. In books such as The Condition of Muzak and Mother London, Moorcock explores the tribulations of city living, but also celebrates the joy and positive energy of crowded urban environments.

      The idea of the wisdom of crowds, suggested by Aristotle and the statistician Francis Galton, is considered in John Brunner’s The Shockwave Rider (1975). Groups known as ‘delphi pools’ outperform individuals in making complex decisions.

      There’s a comparative dearth of stories highlighting the positive potential of crowds. In the film version of V for Vendetta a mob wear Guy Fawkes in tribute to V, a mysterious freedom fighter, in an act of passive resistance towards a reactionary UK Government. Then there’s Gully Foyle, antihero of Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination (1957), who teleports around the world distributing PyrE, a telepathically activated synthetic explosive, to cities round the world. Foyle’s belief is that the ‘common people’ don’t need wealthy elites to manage their lives.

      You are right to highlight the positive potential of crowds, says Martyn Amos, "even going beyond notions of ‘wisdom’.

      "Crowds often provide tremendous resilience; in a disaster, they generally serve as first responders, ahead of the emergency services. As Fred Rogers (TV’s Mr Rogers) said, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ As we move towards a point where 60% of the world’s population lives in densely-populated urban areas, and climate change wreaks regular havoc, the study of individuals en masse, and how they behave, will become only more important."

      Amos has always been interested in intersections between computer science and other disciplines:

      "Much of the work I’ve done on biocomputing focuses on simulating large populations of bacteria and trying to predict how they’ll behave, so you could argue that crowd science is fundamentally the same, only at a scale that’s larger by several orders of magnitude. Our bacterial simulations have to incorporate factors such as flow physics and communication between cells, and crowd studies are remarkably similar.

      I was originally drawn to crowds as an area of study when I was a young lecturer at the University of Liverpool, It was only seven years after the Hillsborough disaster, and the memories were still quite raw in the city. I had a student who wanted to build a simple simulation of the Leppings Lane end, to see what effect different interventions might have had on the way in which events developed. Since then, I’ve worked on aircraft evacuation and nightclub disasters, and I’m now looking at various aspects of crowd behaviour, from ‘wisdom’ in groups, to the effect of different individual behaviours in disaster situations.

      I asked Amos to what extent his work can increase public understanding of the threats and possibilities of large groups:

      "Our early work used a mathematical concept known as ‘mutual information’ to detect the onset of fatal crush conditions in crowds. Basically, it measures how much notice different parts of a system are taking of the other parts. If everyone is taking notice of everyone else (that is, mutual information levels are high), we get nice smooth flow, which, in the context of a crowd, is safe. However, when flow becomes turbulent, communication breaks down, and mutual information levels drop to zero.

      That’s the warning sign that crush is about to occur, as people are no longer able or willing to take notice of anyone else. So, as soon as you find yourself unable to easily change your trajectory in order to accommodate other people, you should take that as a warning sign that the situation could potentially get dangerous quite quickly, and you should do your best to move to a less densely-populated space (whilst, of course, making sure that you don’t endanger others in the process).

      So how does an understanding of biocomputing inform work on mass psychology and vice versa?

      "The biocomputing simulations we built contain relatively mechanistic models of bacterial behaviour; they act very much like ‘programmed’ micro-bots, with relatively simply ‘programs’. So I was quite surprised to learn that current simulations of humans are also remarkably deterministic, and contain pretty crude approximations of individual human behaviour.

      "One of the things we’re working on is a way to encode more ‘realistic’ behaviours into crowd simulations, and to incorporate processes that occur between individuals."

      The recent melee in London, involving police, anti-fascist protesters and the ludicrously styled ‘Democratic Football Lads Alliance’ is a timely reminder of the importance of understanding the behaviour of individuals in groups. If humanity is increasingly trammelled into cities, the energy crisis deepens and there is increased fear about the loss of income due to automation, an understanding of the factors, forces and characteristics that determine cooperation and chaos in crowds will be vital. Storytellers and scientists will continue to play an essential role in illuminating the problems and solutions.

      CLIMBING STORIES

      ALIYA WHITELEY

      FEAR OF FREEDOM

      Mark Kermode’s recent BBC series about how

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