http://irosf.com/ The Latest Articles from IROSF en-us Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 Quintamid Publishing Platform http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss stacey@irosf.com ( Stacey Jannsen ) bluejack@irosf.com ( Bluejack ) 60 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10638 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10638 <p> Well, here we are. Twenty issues ago, when I first became Managing Editor of IROSF, I couldn't have fathomed what putting out the final issue would have been like&mdash;<wbr>I was having a hard enough time figuring out how to put out my <i>first</i> issue. Somehow, though, those few initiating issues came and went without dramatic hiccup. The journey from then to now has been amazing, and through all of it&mdash;<wbr>though we weren't without our various troubles&mdash;<wbr>there was a part of me that was sure that if we just kept fighting for it, we'd find a way to be self-sustaining in so many of the places where we were struggling.</p> <p> Regular readers of my editorials know that over the last twenty months, we've brought you new idea after new idea&mdash;<wbr>each one a stronger attempt to bring us closer to our goal than the one before it. Many made the site better while some were more of a lateral move, but in the end it wasn't about the ideas that we did or didn't have&mdash;<wbr>it was really about timing. Timing in the economy, in small press, and&mdash;<wbr>probably most importantly&mdash;<wbr>in our lives and our future plans. IROSF had an amazing run, and I will always be proud to have been associated with it. Still, closing is the right step for us right now. It's simply the time.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10638">Read More!</a></p> Editorial Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Stacey Janssen ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10635 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10635 <p> Howard Tayler used to work as a Collaboration Product Line Manager at Novell and draw on the side. But in June of 2000, he took his sideline public when he started publishing <cite>Schlock Mercenary</cite>, a webcomic that follows the trials and tribulations of Tagon's Toughs&#8212;a hard-bitten and rather eccentric mercenary company in the thirty-first century. The strip features the title character Sergeant Schlock, who is a carbosilicate amorph without easily definable limbs or organs, not to mention Captain Kaff Tagon and the rest of a motley mercenary hoard. </p> <p> Despite its webcomic format, <cite>Schlock Mercenary</cite> is classic space opera and has been nominated for a number of awards, including the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story. In September of 2004, he quit his job at Novell to work on the webcomic full-time, continuing to put out uninterrupted daily updates of the strip for over nine years so far (and he's not showing any signs of slowing). The strip is available <a href="http://SchlockMercenary.com">online</a> (with a full archive), and is also collected in a series of <cite>Schlock Mercenary</cite> books, the latest of which is <cite>The Scrapyard of Insufferable Arrogance</cite>, which came out in June 2009. </p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10635">Read More!</a></p> Interview Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Brent Kellmer ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10641 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10641 <p class="intro">This article does not express the opinions of <cite>IROSF</cite> or its publisher whose misspent youth involved an extraordinary number of hours playing Traveller, and who would have a few words of wisdom for anyone brandishing a scotch and disparaging that fine independent role playing game.</p> <p>At an SF/F convention not long ago I was <strike>mocking</strike> discussing the science-fiction roleplaying game Traveller with someone. My point, made with much waving of my single-malt scotch (thanks Tor party!), was that nobody every actually plays Traveller, so much as they collect it. In my misspent youth there was only one roleplaying game to go to when you wanted science-fiction action&mdash;<wbr>TSR's 1981 Star Frontiers.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10641">Read More!</a></p> Interview Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Dotar Sojat ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10628 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10628 <p>I'm going to write two essays like this in two months. This is the first; the second is for my column in <cite>Baen's Universe</cite>. Both magazines are going away, both for different reasons.</p> <p>If I were the pessimistic sort, I'd think I'll never work again. Or that internet magazines are doomed. Or that magazines in general are doomed. Or that writing is doomed.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10628">Read More!</a></p> Feature Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Kristine Kathryn Rusch ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10640 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10640 <p>It's almost too bad that Valentine's Day falls in the middle of February, usually at the exact moment the weather is at its winter worst, at least here in the northeastern United States. I suppose the reasoning is that it gives us something to look forward to other than bitter winds, bone-chilling cold and depressing five o'clock sunsets. Frigid weather is also conducive to spending Valentine's Day indoors with your significant other, which can certainly increase the romance factor. Not to mention increasing the opportunity to watch your favorite horror movies together. (Okay, so maybe Valentine's Day in the Kaufmann household is a little outside the box.) But all the heart-shaped chocolates and stuffed "I Love You" teddy bears lining the shelves of the chain drug stores in my neighborhood remind me that, even as I look forward to spending Valentine's Day with my girlfriend, there's another love that pierces my dark little heart as well, a lasting, consuming love shot not from Cupid's bow but from the lenses of filmmakers' cameras and the ink of authors' pens.</p> <p>My love of horror.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10640">Read More!</a></p> Feature Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Nicholas Kaufmann ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10642 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10642 <p class="intro">Review of <cite>Neuroshima Hex</cite><br> Designed by Michal Oracz<br> Published by Wydawnictwo Portal (Poland), Z-Man Games (USA)</p> <p>If you play only one Polish post-apocalyptic boardgame this year, make it <cite>Neuroshima Hex</cite>, imported to North America by Z-Man Games.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10642">Read More!</a></p> Feature Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Corey Rixle ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10631 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10631 <h3>Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future</h3> <p>It's often been said that science fiction predicts the future. I'd argue that this isn't generally the case. In fact, it's the future that predicts science fiction.</p> <p>First off, we have to understand what we mean when we talk about "the future." That definite article "the" implies that there is a single future, but of course there isn't&mdash;<wbr>despite how we talk about it, the future isn't a fixed, tangible thing, it's a psychological and social construct. (The past is also a psychological and social construct, but we won't get into that here.) Each of us has one or several possible models of the future in mind at any given time&mdash;<wbr>both our personal future and the future of the world&mdash;<wbr>and society as a whole also has several possible agreed-upon futures under consideration.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10631">Read More!</a></p> Essay Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( David Levine ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10633 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10633 <p><i>I signed on this ship to practice medicine, not to have my atoms scattered back and forth across space by this gadget.</i>&mdash;<wbr>Dr. Leonard McCoy, <cite>Star Trek</cite></p> <p>For the average Joe, the notion of matter transmission is an intriguing, though rather nebulous concept, which begins and ends with <cite>Star Trek</cite> and the pop culture catchphrase, "Beam me up, Scotty." Never mind, of course, that this phrase doesn't actually appear anywhere in the <cite>Star Trek</cite> canon. It's still sufficiently popular that it generates a couple hundred thousand Google hits (185,000 at last count). </p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10633">Read More!</a></p> Essay Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Bill Lengeman ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10634 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10634 <p>From its electrifying opening sequence, Satoshi Kon's animated TV series <cite>Paranoia Agent</cite> (<cite>Mousou dairinin</cite>, 2004) is clearly about widespread insanity. With Susumu Hirasawa's exultant techno music driving it, the sequence shows a dozen characters laughing hysterically in stressful surroundings: a young woman stands on the top of a skyscraper, obviously on the verge of jumping; two boys stand knee-deep in the flooded remains of their shattered neighborhood; a teenage girl stands among fish under the sea; a young detective falls through the sky like a bomb released from a plane; a sleazy private investigator laughs into his cell phone in the swampy ruins of a bombed-out city and more, reaching a climax with an older detective on a radio tower with a mushroom cloud roiling behind him. Linking them all together is a demonic rollerblading boy with a bent aluminum baseball bat ready to strike: he is "Lil' Slugger" (<i>shonen bat</i>), the mysterious agent of paranoia.</p> <p>The series begins simply enough as a detective story when a career woman named Tsukiko is the victim of an attack by a bat-wielding schoolboy on inline skates. Two police detectives are assigned to the case, and they sense that Tsukiko is hiding something, perhaps even making up the attack in order to get out of a stressful work deadline&mdash;<wbr>as a cartoon character designer, she is under tremendous pressure to create a new character to follow her big hit "Maromi," a super-cute pink dog.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10634">Read More!</a></p> Essay Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Michael Andre-Driussi ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10637 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10637 <p>Cormac McCarthy's <cite>The Road</cite> presents "the prospect of a post-apocalyptic wasteland" (Beck). It tells the grim tale of a father and his son struggling to survive in an America wrecked by nuclear war. The landscape has been utterly destroyed, and very few living things, including people, have survived the apocalypse. Moreover, the nuclear winters have proven themselves to be particularly cold and unbearable and so, the nameless father and son trek southwards to the coast, hoping to escape a more severe winter. But this literal trek is not the only journey that the characters undertake. A spiritual journey toward God also occurs within the novel, as the characters, notably the father, struggle to make meaning from the mess. The spiritual journey is considerably difficult, however, because the destruction of the earth has disrupted Natural Revelation. In the end, some measure of redemption is found as the father finishes his spiritual journey and his life by expressing a positive religious sentiment; even so, that the destruction of nature has severely impeded the characters from understanding God is most manifest, and the small measure of redemption is overcast by the stronger warning against the folly of using weapons of mass destruction.</p> <p>Natural Revelation is the theological idea that God and his attributes can be discerned through the beauty and splendor of nature. Just as a book gives witness to the existence of an author, so does the handiwork of creation give witness to a designer, Natural Revelation maintains. As expressed in Old Testament scripture, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands" (Psalm.19.1), and in the New Testament, "since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made" (Romans.1.20). But how might the ability to see God and understand his eternal attributes, such as love and goodness, be impeded if nature were utterly devastated by nuclear destruction? <cite>The Road</cite> depicts just this, within a destroyed nature, "barren, silent, godless" (McCarthy 4) where the "secular winds" blow (177) and humanity's faith has been all but extinguished.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10637">Read More!</a></p> Essay Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Anna Cates ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10639 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10639 <p>After one discusses how science fiction futures appear to omit such major aspects of life as the profession of journalism, concern for the future, and the pursuit of pleasure, analyzing the typical pets of the genre might seem a descent into the trivial. On the other hand, people can be passionate indeed about the animals they love, and venturing to suggest that science fiction prefers one favorite pet in its futures while disdaining another may arouse more furor than anything else I have written during a career often marked by controversies. Further, I do not approach this topic without bias because, as a lifelong cat-lover and lifelong dog-hater, I most definitely, so to speak, have a dog in this race. Still, with as much objectivity as I can muster, I wish to argue that dogs represent another conspicuous omission in the futures of science fiction.</p> <p>In our past and our present, humans have enjoyed the company of both cats and dogs as household companions, in roughly equivalent numbers: according to one recent survey, there are now more cats than dogs in our houses, but more of our houses have dogs (since cat owners are more likely to have more than one cat). Yet, in examining science fiction visions of tomorrow, we encounter a strange dichotomy. Cats are virtually ubiquitous: they are central figures in Robert A. Heinlein stories like "Ordeal in Space" (1948) and <cite>The Door into Summer</cite> (1957); travel in spaceships in Arthur C. Clarke's "The Haunted Spacesuit" (1958), Gordon R. Dickson's <cite>Mission to Universe</cite> (1965), the film <cite>Alien</cite> (1979), and the series <cite>Star Trek: The Next Generation</cite> (1987-1994); are intelligent aliens in the <cite>Star Trek</cite> episode "Assignment Earth" (1968) and the film <cite>The Cat from Outer Space</cite> (1978); and employ enhanced powers to function as heroes in Cordwainer Smith's "The Game of Rat and Dragon" (1956) and Andre Norton's <cite>The Zero Stone</cite> (1968). There are also numerous stories about humanoid cats or catlike aliens, including the infamous film <cite>Cat Women of the Moon</cite> (1953), Smith's "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" (1962), and Fritz Leiber's <cite>The Wanderer</cite> (1964). And it is not only in literature and film that one frequently finds cats: as anyone who has walked through the art show at a science fiction convention can testify, science-fictional or fantastic cats are a regular theme in the paintings, sketches, and sculptures on display. Indeed, cats are so common in the genre that there was actually a panel at the 2008 Los Angeles Science Fiction Convention on the topic of "Are There Too Many Cats in Science Fiction?"</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10639">Read More!</a></p> Essay Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Gary Westfahl ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10636 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10636 <p>In the oft-cited opening paragraph of <cite>The Haunting of Hill House</cite>, Shirley Jackson writes: "Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it has stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more" (1). The enigmatic novel itself (first published by The Viking Press in October 1959) has now stood for fifty years, holding darkness within seemingly for the duration of its existence. This golden anniversary thus marks an appropriate time to shine new light on the book, to reinvestigate <cite>Hill House</cite> and to consider the half-century legacy of Jackson's monumental work of dark fantasy.</p> <h3>I. Landscaping</h3> <p>Regrettably, the ivy of literary criticism attached to <cite>Hill House</cite> has tended to obscure its finer features. Biographers, scholars, and pop-culture commentators alike have proven dubious guides, telling tales riddled with factual error and taking interpretive leaps that a careful reader hesitates to follow. The first step, then, to pushing toward a clearer understanding and appreciation of the novel involves hacking through such accrued verbiage.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10636">Read More!</a></p> Criticism Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Joe Nazare ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10629 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10629 <p class="intro">Despair not, gentle reader, we knew that a reviewer of Lois' caliber would not languish in obscurity. Henceforward, her reviews can be found at <a href="http://www.locusmag.com/">Locus Online</a>. We all congratulate Lois for this transition, and look forward to her future efforts.</p> <a name="b1"></a> <p>A little over four years ago, I took over the position of short fiction reviewer from Bluejack, and now, sadly, I find myself writing my last column for <cite><a href="http://www.irosf.com">IROSF</a></cite>. In these few years I have noticed a number of changes in the genre, and one in particular: a deep and growing gap between two sets of short fiction periodicals. To a certain extent, but not entirely, it is a gap dividing electronic from print venues, fantasy from science fiction, even female from male authors. But above all it seems to be a generation<a href="#f1">*</a> gap.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10629">Read More!</a></p> Review Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Lois Tilton ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10630 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10630 <p>If H.P. Lovecraft and Saul Bellow had ever collaborated on a ghost story, the result might be very much like John Langan's debut novel <cite>House of Windows</cite>. Not so much in style, but in the way the two writers would temper each other and blend their signature motifs into something simultaneously more sinister and more sophisticated.</p> <p>The central characters in this story are both literature scholars, principally of the nineteenth century. Veronica, the narrator, is young, recently degreed, and teaches early nineteenth century literature, primarily Hawthorne. Roger Croydon is an expert on Charles Dickens. The novel opens at a retreat where mutual friends have gathered with Veronica snaring a young horror writer into listening to her account of what happened to her husband, Roger. He has been officially missing for over two years. Veronica claims to know what happened to Roger, but will not tell the authorities. "Because it's impossible," she says. "What happened to Roger is impossible."</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10630">Read More!</a></p> Review Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Mark Tiedemann ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10632 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10632 <ul> <li><cite>Mercy Thompson: Homecoming</cite> (Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 8/09), story by Patricia Briggs and David Lawrence, artwork by Francis Tsai and Amelia Woo <li><cite>Indigo Springs</cite> (Tor, 11/09) by A.M. Dellamonica <li><cite>Magic in the Shadows: An Allie Beckstrom Novel</cite> (Roc, 11/09) by Devon Monk <li><cite>Boneshaker</cite> (Tor, 10/09) by Cherie Priest <li><cite>Are You There and Other Stories</cite> (Golden Gryphon Press, 10/09) by Jack Skillingstead <li><cite>The Silver Skull: Swords of Albion: Book One</cite> (Pyr/Prometheus, 11/09) by Mark Chadbourn </ul> <p>The Fall 2009 SF/F season suggests some strong trends are just getting stronger. Another non-medieval high-fantasy series has launched; zombies are chewing up the, er, scenery; steampunk has achieved its highest profile to date; and HBO's popular <cite>True Blood</cite> TV series, based on Charlaine Harris's already-<cite>New York Times</cite>-bestselling <cite>Southern Vampire Mysteries</cite>, has proven a tipping point for urban fantasy (UF), transforming it from "popular subgenre" to "mass mainstream acceptance" (complete with devoted <cite>TB</cite> fans who've never heard the term "urban fantasy").</p> <p>One of the most popular&mdash;<wbr>and best&mdash;<wbr>of the established UF series is Patricia Briggs's sequence about Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson, the tough, female, part Native American auto mechanic/shapeshifter. This fall, Briggs's Mercy Thompson is, like Harris's Sookie Stackhouse before her, taking her popularity to a new medium&mdash;<wbr>in this case, the graphic novel.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10632">Read More!</a></p> Review Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Cynthia Ward ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10626 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10626 <p>The decision has been made. The announcements have been sent.</p> <p>IROSF will suspend publication after the February issue.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10626">Read More!</a></p> Editorial Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Bluejack ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10619 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10619 <p>I love my Kindle. I do. I love its white frame and its little screen. I love the way I can make the font bigger and bigger, so that I can pretend I no longer need trifocals. I love the way it brings me books in the middle of the night, when I need them the most.</p> <p>But my Kindle has drawbacks. I learned this when I read the instruction manual, which warned me about all kinds of things, like battery life and how to preserve my internet connection.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10619">Read More!</a></p> Feature Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Kristine Kathryn Rusch ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10624 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10624 <p>As I write this, just a few days before Christmas, the series of tubes we call the Internet is clogged with various and sundry Top 10 book lists for 2009. Unfortunately, 2009 was an abnormally busy year for me and I didn't make as much time for reading as I would have liked. In fact, I think I only read about ten books between January and December, well below my average, but I suppose that's what happens when you write three books in one year, two of which had extremely tight deadlines that forced them to be written simultaneously over the summer and early fall. That's not conducive to making the time or brainspace for reading, sadly. While this means I don't have a Top 10 of 2009 list to share with you, I would like to take a moment to point you toward two of this year's novels that I found exceptional.</p> <p> The first is <cite>The Little Sleep</cite>, a debut mystery novel by sometimes horror writer Paul Tremblay. The narrator, South Boston P.I. Mark Genevich, suffers from narcolepsy and hypnagogic hallucinations, an affliction that allows Tremblay to utilize the stunningly surreal imagery his speculative fiction has become known for. The opening of the novel involves a possibly hallucinated woman who hires Genevich because she believes her fingers have been stolen and replaced with someone else's. Despite the surreal imagery, the story stays grounded enough in reality to make the mystery gripping and its solution resonant.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10624">Read More!</a></p> Feature Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Nicholas Kaufmann ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10627 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10627 <p>This month, I'm going to tackle one of the standard-bearers for hard SF among MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games&mdash;<wbr>an acronym only a mother could love). <cite>EVE Online</cite> delivers a satisfying game experience while paying at least lip service to real-universe science. </p> <p>Beware, readers of the future! Moreso than most electronic games, MMOs change over time. In EVE's case, the game today is fundamentally different than the game was back in 2003 when the trade press reviewed it. And if you're reading this after, say, mid-2010, <cite>EVE Online</cite> will undoubtedly be different than what I'm about to describe. Furthermore, game designers plan on a typical MMO delivering 400 hours of gameplay, give or take. I wish I had that kind of time to devote to each game before reviewing it, but the tyranny of math prevents it. That's a second aspect of this review to beware: I have only secondhand knowledge (that of my fellow players) for what the game experience is like after you've invested hundreds of hours into it.</p> <h3>The Basics</h3> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10627">Read More!</a></p> Feature Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Corey Rixle ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10620 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10620 <p>French existential philosopher and writer <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1964/sartre-bio.html">Jean-Paul Sartre</a> had nothing at all to do with the 1957 movie <cite>The Incredible Shrinking Man</cite>, but it's fun to imagine what he would have made of it. The film is remembered for its still-impressive special effects, but it is even more notable for being a science fiction film that not only addressed the anxieties of its time but steadfastly refused to pander to its audience. There's no last-minute "cure." Its protagonist doesn't wake up and discover it was all a dream. The movie takes its premise to a conclusion that is more philosophical than climactic.</p> <p> Indeed, when one looks up the meaning of "<a href="http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/lit/chap10.htm">existentialism</a>," it sounds like a description of the movie: "A philosophical movement embracing the view that the suffering individual must create meaning in an unknowable, chaotic, and seemingly empty universe." In this case the suffering individual is Scott Carey (Grant Williams) who seems like a nice guy and loving husband, but whose life is about to go seriously off course. While on vacation with his wife Louise (Randy Stuart), he's exposed to a mysterious mist that may be a pesticide. Several months later he is similarly exposed to some sort of radiation and the combination somehow causes him to start shrinking.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10620">Read More!</a></p> Essay Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Daniel M. Kimmel ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10623 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10623 <p>The 1939 cinematic masterpiece <cite>The Wizard of Oz</cite> achieved many distinctions. It is among the most watched and beloved films of all time, and it is often ranked as one of the 10 best movies ever made. Its story has also shaped America's cultural consciousness to an extent that may transcend any other movie. This year, the seventieth anniversary of <cite>The Wizard of Oz</cite>'s film debut, we find its story alive in the memorable quotations it passed on, the spinoffs such as <cite>The Wiz</cite> and <cite>Wicked</cite> it inspired, and even in the number of irreverent, audacious spoofs it has engendered on YouTube and elsewhere. "Over the Rainbow," its signature song, was voted the greatest movie song of all time by the American Film Institute, and every day Judy Garland sings it on a million TV screens and computer monitors throughout the world. Forever young, this classic musical fantasy continues to delight with an archetypal depth and richness that is inexhaustible and endlessly adaptable to new storylines of childhood innocence imperiled by evil and the failure of adults.</p> <p>One of the film's insufficiently recognized themes is that of exile. Yet it is a dominant motif in <cite>The Wizard of Oz</cite>&mdash;<wbr>exile is pervasive throughout the film. The movie demonstrates that a painful sense of exile and loss can occur even in a child's dream. During her psychic adventures, Dorothy repeatedly says, "There's no place like home." While a dry Kansas dust bowl may seem drab and unexciting compared to the vivid Technicolor wonders of Oz, Dorothy makes her homesickness clear by imaginatively populating Oz with three friendly workers from her farm in an effort to soften her sense of estrangement. She also sees Aunt Em in the Wicked Witch's crystal ball. Even the "Great and Terrible Wizard" is an import from Kansas named Professor Marvel. Like the others, he is intended to alleviate her loneliness. In the movie, Dorothy's exile and estrangement begins early, when she is at home in Kansas. Elmira Gulch, a heartless townswoman, has a court order for Dorothy's beloved dog (who bit Gulch), and she plans to take little Toto away and have him destroyed. Twelve-year-old Dorothy looks to her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry for help, but as is often the case in a child's world, adults seem distant and uncaring, concerned with grown-up matters and daily business.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10623">Read More!</a></p> Essay Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( John Rosenman ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10617 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10617 <p>Gene Wolfe has distinguished himself as one of the most significant writers in the history of speculative fiction. In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, he became known for complex, brief fiction composed for the <cite>Orbit</cite> anthologies. Today he is most renowned for his novels, especially his early tetralogy <cite>The Book of the New Sun</cite>. Wolfe has written a significant amount of short fiction, and although that production has slowed since he started focusing on novels, he would still be a significant writer if that were his sole corpus.</p> <p>Due to the complex themes and dark tone of his writing, Wolfe's popular success has always been limited, but he enjoys a cult following among fans and enormous respect among writers and critics, as evidenced by his many awards. Despite Wolfe's impressive critical reputation, he is an unusual science fiction writer. Although SF writers generally receive praise for their ideas and their ability to explain those ideas in clear expository prose, Wolfe rarely creates new concepts and tropes. Rather, he takes traditional concepts and explores them in striking depth and complexity. His style, though clear, is sophisticated, ambiguous, and hints at meanings. The surface of a Wolfe story never gives the entire significance; his reader must decipher his work like a code.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10617">Read More!</a></p> Criticism Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Robert Bee ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10621 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10621 <p>Michael Chabon, who won the 2001 Pultizer Prize for a novel about a couple of comic book nerds, made his big splash in the SF world with the 2007 publication of his alternate history novel <cite>The Yiddish Policeman's Union</cite>. Thanks to this book, the once-mainstream writer soon found himself the recipient of both a Hugo and a Nebula, but Chabon had always been active in the murky area between the speculative genres and the mainstream&mdash;<wbr>even if he received more attention from the latter than from the former. Indeed, in his editorial for the October 1998 issue of <cite>The New York Review of Science Fiction</cite>, David G. Hartwell insisted that "[n]o one talks about slipstream but us sf genre geeks," but I consider Chabon's 2004 all-original anthology <cite>McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories</cite> an example of just such a mainstream voice finally weighing in on the same sorts of issues that come up when genre folks start talking slipstream.</p> <p>In essence, I see the ostensibly genre-bending stories in <cite>MECOAS</cite> as a significant part of&mdash;<wbr>or at least counterpart to&mdash;<wbr>a corresponding movement within the genre of speculative fiction, a movement that has only gained more momentum in the last few years. Whether or not we ought to call this movement "slipstream" is a question that lies beyond the scope of this review, but I will be using the term in its broadest possible sense; I recognize that I have my choice of imprecise terms&mdash;<wbr>interstitial, genre-defying, postmodern, mainstream crossover, and so on&mdash;<wbr>so I've simply selected the most euphonious.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10621">Read More!</a></p> Review Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( T. S. Miller ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10622 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10622 <p class=intro>&#332;oku: The Inner Chambers<br/> By Fumi Yoshinaga<br/> Viz Media LLC, 2009<br/> 216 pp<br/> ISBN-10: 1421527472<br/> </p> <p><cite>&#332;oku: The Inner Chambers</cite>, by award-winning manga writer and artist Fumi Yoshinaga, has been generating buzz ever since the first volume came out in Japan four years ago. "Is <cite>&#332;oku</cite> out in English yet?" Japanese readers would ask me, and sigh when I informed them that it wasn't. "Please license that manga about the female shogun," frustrated English-speakers begged editors at conventions. </p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10622">Read More!</a></p> Review Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Rachel Manija Brown ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10625 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10625 <p>Tis the season for annual awards and Year's Best lists. Here for your seasonal joy is the list of my own favorite stories from 2009. </p> <h3>Science Fiction</h3> <ul> <li><cite class=short>The Wind Blowing, and this Tide</cite> by Damien Broderick (<cite>Asimov's</cite> April/May) <li><cite class=short>Erosion</cite> by Ian Creasy (<cite>Asimov's</cite> October/November) </li> <li><cite class=short>The Jisei of Mark VIII</cite> by Berrien C Henderson (<cite>Clarkesworld</cite> February) </li> <li><cite class=short>The Motorman's Coat</cite> by John Kessel (<cite>F&SF</cite> June/July) </li> <li><cite class=short>Her Voice in a Bottle</cite> by Tim Pratt (<cite>Subterranean</cite> Winter) </li> <li><cite class=short>The Death of Che Guevara</cite> by Lewis Shiner (<cite>Subterranean</cite> Fall) </li> <li><cite class=short>Black Swan</cite> by Bruce Sterling (<cite>Interzone</cite> 221 April) </li> <li><cite class=short>The Dying World</cite> by Lavie Tidhar (<cite>Clarkesworld</cite> April) </li> <li><cite class=short>The Radiant Car Thy Sparrow Drew</cite> by Catherynn M Valente (<cite>Clarkesworld</cite> August) </li> <li><cite class=short>Riders of the Three-Toed Horse</cite> by Garrett W Vance (<cite>Jim Baen's Universe</cite> February) </li> </ul> <h3>Fantasy</h3> <ul> <li><cite class=short>To Kiss the Granite Choir</cite> by Michael Anthony Ashley (<cite>Beneath Ceaseless Skies</cite> October)</li> <li><cite class=short>Early Winter, Near Jenli Village</cite> by J Kathleen Cheney (<cite>Fantasy Magazine</cite>)</li> <li><cite class=short>Three Fancies from the Infernal Garden</cite> by C.S.E. Cooney (<cite>Subterranean</cite>)</li> <li><cite class=short>Lady of the White-Spired City</cite> by Sarah L. Edwards (<cite>Interzone</cite> #222)</li> <li><cite class=short>In the Lot and in the Air</cite> by Lisa Hannett (<cite>Clarkesworld</cite> July)</li> <li><cite class=short>Clockatrice</cite> by Tanith Lee (<cite>Fantasy Magazine</cite> October)</li> <li><cite class=short>The Bones of Giants</cite> by Yoon Ha Lee (<cite>F&SF)</cite> August/September</li> <li><cite class=short>The Spiral Briar</cite> by Sean McMullen (<cite>F&SF</cite> April/May)</li> <li><cite class=short>Mansion of Bones</cite> by Richard Parks (<cite>Beneath Ceaseless Skies</cite> June)</li> <li><cite class=short>The City Quiet as Death</cite> by Steven Utley & Michael Bishop (<cite>Tor.com</cite>)</li> </ul> <p>The sharp-eyed amongst the readers may note that my list differs significantly from a lot of the other YB lists appearing these days in the SFnal world. One reason, of course, is that every judge will have different tastes in fiction. But I must also note that my beat here is the periodicals. I don't review anthologies, and therefore publishers, sensibly, don't send them to me. Other listmakers that I have seen are making almost half their TB selections from the year's anthologies that I have neither seen nor read.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10625">Read More!</a></p> Review Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Lois Tilton ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10618 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10618 <p> Ah, December&mdash;<wbr>after a full calendar year of IROSF, it almost seems like...</p> <p> Wait. Did I just say "a full calendar year"? Twelve issues? Yes! We did it, folks! You may remember back in <a href=" http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10505">January's editorial</a> when I told you that 2009 would be the year we managed to do it, and everyone on the IROSF team has been working hard to make sure that it happened. I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone on staff for devoting their time and energy to getting the magazine out every four weeks or so, our contributors for providing us with material that we get excited about publishing, and of course, our readers for supporting us and reminding us why we work so hard. It all means so much to us. It is our readership and the positive feedback we receive that keeps us excited about putting out this magazine month after month, and what gets us fired up about reaching milestones like this one. </p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10618">Read More!</a></p> Editorial Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Stacey Janssen ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10608 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10608 <p>I was on my fourth margarita when the challenge came down: "You should write a column about games."</p> <p>Even the next day, the challenge made sense. I'm still reading the books you loved years ago, so fiction reviews are out of the question. I'm not well-read enough to drop tantalizing references in a general column, so that's out of bounds, too. </p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10608">Read More!</a></p> Feature Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Corey Rixle ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10612 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10612 <p>I'm beginning to adore Twitter. I find all kinds of articles and information I would never ever find otherwise. I feel like I'm at a major SF (or mystery [or romance]) convention every time I log on.</p> <p>This means that I find a few flamewars and more than a few folks I disagree with. I try to follow my own personal convention rules, which include this one: <i>Everyone is entitled to his own opinion</i> (or the SF version: <i>everything is entitled to its own opinion</i>). </p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10612">Read More!</a></p> Feature Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Kristine Kathryn Rusch ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10613 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10613 <p>They say that when it comes to stories, there's nothing new under the sun. Every conceivable plot, they say, has already been utilized a thousandfold in the millennia between <cite>The Epic of Gilgamesh</cite> in the 7th century B.C. and today. I don't know if that's true, but I do know it's not necessarily a bad thing. The key to a good tale isn't just plot but execution: even if the basic elements of a story have been told innumerable times before, it is the author's unique stamp on a story which make it a truly unique creation. It calls to mind the Vulcan concept of "infinite diversity in infinite combinations" (<a href=" http://everything2.com/title/Infinite+diversity+in+Infinite+Combinations">Gene Roddenberry</a>).</p> <p>But what happens when authors overtly piggyback on the works of others? Does this same concept still apply? Specifically, what are we to make of novels like <cite>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies</cite>?</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10613">Read More!</a></p> Feature Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Nicholas Kaufmann ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10610 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10610 <p>Although George Orwell wrote <a href="http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/1984-background-info.htm">1984</a> before I was born, I remember the <i>frisson</i> people felt as the real calendar year approached. The specter of Big Brother had been with us for years, <cite>1984</cite> having become synonymous with the concept of a totalitarian dictatorship. Of course for those of us in the western world&mdash;<wbr>even with Ronald Reagan in the White House and Margaret Thatcher at Downing Street&mdash;<wbr>Orwell's nightmarish vision of a Stalinist society had not come to pass. In fact, it can be argued that Orwell had helped prevent that future with his cautionary tale.</p> <p>The next year we "knew" long before it arrived was 2001. Back in 1964 filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and author Arthur C. Clarke began collaborating on creating what Kubrick called "the proverbial good science fiction movie." Four years later the result was <cite>2001: A Space Odyssey, </cite> arguably one of the greatest of cinematic achievements. Like <cite>1984</cite>, it remains so despite its "failure" as a predictor of the future. They couldn't even convince people that the 21st century wouldn't start the year in the year 2000. Today the actual year is remembered for 9/11, rather than the landmark movie. </p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10610">Read More!</a></p> Essay Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Daniel M. Kimmel ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10611 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10611 <p>Share a book signing with Anne McCaffrey. Network with authors from around the world. Stay at the Hilton Garden Inn across from the Pacific Ocean. Attend a weeklong workshop with Tim Powers and K.D. Wentworth. And get <i>paid</i>. A fantasy world? No&mdash;<wbr>this is the <cite>Writers of the Future</cite>.</p> <hr> <p> I still remember the phone call. Saturday, 4:37 pm, May 7, 2005. I don't recognize the voice on the machine, can't make out her name. "I'm phoning from the <cite>Writers of the Future</cite> offices in Los Angeles." Suddenly her voice takes on the most seductive quality imaginable. This could prove to be my first professional sale.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10611">Read More!</a></p> Essay Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Lee Beavington ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10614 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10614 <p>In science fiction stories and films involving space travel, intelligent aliens are ubiquitous, either as visitors to Earth or inhabitants of distant worlds contacted by human astronauts. In films, they often look and act just like humans (or like humans wearing funny makeup), and even the aliens with stranger anatomies found in science fiction literature generally interact with humans along predictable lines as friends, foes, or trading partners. Such stories can have value as entertainment, as social commentary, and even as vehicles for thought-provoking ideas.</p> <p>However, considered as predictions of humanity's future, these scenarios are dubious, for scientists have long recognized that such personal encounters with comfortingly familiar extraterrestrials are extraordinarily unlikely. Given the inhospitable conditions on other planets and moons in the solar system, they are almost certainly not the homes of advanced beings; given the sheer immensity of the universe, it is improbable that spacefaring aliens from elsewhere would happen to be in our vicinity at this moment in time; and while no one can speak definitively about the characteristics of extraterrestrial life, it seems absurd to expect creatures that evolved on an alien world to bear either a physiological or psychological resemblance to human beings.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10614">Read More!</a></p> Essay Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Gary Westfahl ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10615 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10615 <p>Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated film, <cite>Ponyo</cite>, is loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." But though Miyazaki keeps many of the plot elements and characters of the original fairytale, he reworks them to completely reverse Andersen's themes and turn a story of opposition and unrequited love into one of reconciliation and unconditional love. </p> <p>"The Little Mermaid" (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_little_mermaid">Wikipedia</a> has a concise summary of the non-Disney version) is a tragedy of missed connections, misunderstandings, and irreconcilable differences. The mermaid, a creature of water, can never be loved by the prince, a creature of land. Land and sea, men and women, humans and mermaids, good and evil, and even good and naughty children are some of the many opposed elements which exist in that story and which, for better or worse, can never meet.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10615">Read More!</a></p> Essay Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Rachel Manija Brown ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10616 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10616 <p>Speculative fiction is a field that specializes in imagining the unimaginable, and the black writers featured in the <cite>Dark Matter</cite> anthologies have been especially adept at doing that. When editor Sheree R. Thomas began organizing <cite>Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora</cite> and <cite>Dark Matter: Reading the Bones</cite>, she set out to find high-quality fiction with a speculative edge written by black authors. She writes in a recent "Strange Horizons" interview that she did this "[m]ainly because I am a reader first and foremost and the book that I wanted to read didn't exist at the time" (Brissett par. 6). Not all of the writers included in the anthology wrote stories officially deemed fantasy or science fiction when written, but all of the stories contain speculative elements.</p> <p>Notably, most of the main characters in these short stories are black. As Samuel R. Delany can testify, this alone is often considered beyond the pale in the literary world (no pun intended) (387-388; Thomas, Century). Not only do the writers featured in these anthologies frequently include characters of color, but they also feature stories with female characters who defy stereotype. The imagination shown in these works of fiction extends not only to race but to gender as well.</p> <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10616">Read More!</a></p> Criticism Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Bridgette Da Silva ) http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10609 http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10609 <div class=text> <p>So I gave the Inbox a kick and more zines fell out. Some of these will have to wait until January.</p> <p>I saw another disheartening sign recently: it seems that <a href="http://www.wheatlandpress.com">Wheatland Press</a>, publisher of the <cite>Polyphony</cite> anthology series, is now considering whether to put out another volume after the current hiatus. If they receive 225 pre-paid orders they will go forward with the project, otherwise not. This is not a Good Sign. Where are the readers? Wheatland is an established small press, and this anthology series has been well received. Yet it seems that there is a question of finding as few as 225 readers willing to buy the book. I suspect they found more than 225 manuscripts in their slushpile when they were reading for the previous volumes. </p> <div id="minitoc"> <h1>Zines Reviewed</h1> <ul> <li><a href="#asimov">Asimov's</a>, January 2010 <li><a href="#analog">Analog</a>, January/February 2010 <li><a href="#interz">Interzone 225</a>, December 2009 <li><a href="#clarke">Clarkesworld 38</a>, November 2009 (<a href=" http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/">Online</a>) <li><a href="#abyss">Abyss & Apex 32</a>, Fourth Quarter 2009 (<a href="http://www.abyssandapex.com/">Online</a>) <li><a href="#sh">Strange Horizons</a>, November 2009 (<a href=" http://www.strangehorizons.com/">Online</a>) <li><a href="#fantasy">Fantasy Magazine</a>, November 2009 (<a href=" http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/">Online</a>) <li><a href="#apex">Apex Magazine</a>, November 2009 (<a href=" http://www.apexbookcompany.com/apex-online/">Online</a>) <li><a href="#bcs">Beneath Ceaseless Skies</a>, November 2009 (<a href="http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/">Online</a>) <li><a href="#tor">Tor.com</a> (<a href="http://www.tor.com">Online</a>) </ul> </div> <a name="asimov"></a> <div class="img200"><img src="/i/09/asimovs_1001.jpg" width=200 alt="Asimov's" <p><a href="http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10609">Read More!</a></p> Review Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000 noreply@irosf.com ( Lois Tilton )