A Son of the Rock

Sep-Oct 2020, TTA Press

This issue’s Editorial is by Alexander Glass who reflects on the human need to define things, especially as regards gender, and contrasts two different approaches to this as found in Science Fiction. Andy Hedgecock’s Future Interrupted^a considers the failings of education systems to teach outside narrow parameters and SF’s almost complete recent failure to examine education at all by mention of novels that, in the past, did. In Climbing Stories Aliya Whiteley^b ponders the strange disjunction between these coronavirus times and SF futures, the necessary waiting involved before resolution, waiting that writers are habitually accustomed to. Book Zone again follows the film reviews and features an interview with M John Harrison plus a review of his new novel The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by Andy Hedgecock^c (who says the novel quietly, but surely, slips the bounds of literary realism, sf and fantasy and transcends the limitations of all three,) my guardedly welcoming take on Tim Major’s Hope Island, Duncan Lawie delights in Ken MacLeod’s mix of summer romance with Scottish folklore, Selkie Summer, Maureen Kincaid Speller^d says the buzz about The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez is justified, while Stephen Theaker^e gets a bite at three cherries – Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Firewalkers (not ground-breaking but a solid story,) Andres Eschbach’s The Hair-Carpet Weavers (a retitling of The Carpet Weavers published in 2005) and, despite flaws, very good, plus R B Lemberg’s decent but not outstanding The Four Profound Weaves – Graham Sleight finds William Gibson’s Agency terrific fun but at the moment suffers from being written pre-Covid. Finally things are rounded off with Barbara Melville^f interviewing Agnes Gomillion.

In the fiction:-
Told as in an interrogation transcript Time’s Own Gravity by Alexander Glass¹ postulates that time and energy are interconvertible – though it’s harder to do than with energy and matter. A man called Lukasz, of mysterious origins, developed (or brought with him) the Technology involved but something went wrong and emanations speeding time up locally are occurring with increasing frequency.

Soaring, the World on their Shoulders by Cécile Cristofari² is set in an alternate steam-powered France (there is mention of Marseilles and Spain) in the time of its tipping over into a brand of fascism. (“You know, what they say makes a lot of sense. Our country will be great again.”) Madame Santucci is a scientist who despises the regime and then herself for complying with it. Her research is double-edged though.

A Distant Hum by John K Peck³ is one of those stories that never quite explains itself and of which Interzone is relatively fond. It’s set in a city by an archipelago in a familiar demi-monde milieu where our female protagonist has memories to exorcise and revenge to take.

The Captured Dreams of the Dead Machine of Daniel Bennett’s story are old computer files from before the great information plague now worth a great deal to collectors. In this society, however, tech – of any sort – is not a universally accepted boon.
Warsuit by Gary Gibson⁴ sees a battlefield scavenger find the powered down suit of the title on one of his expeditions. It is operated by a downloaded human intelligence and they come to an accommodation.

Pedant’s corner:- ^afocussed (focused,) “Larrry Niven’s” (Larry,) “the population … are exposed to” (the population .. is exposed to,) Sf (SF.) ^b“This inability to see what’s coming next be considered ironic” (might be considered ironic.) “Six weeks or so separates us” (Six weeks …. separate us.) ^c“returns to finds the business suddenly closed” (returns to find.) ^dJimenez’ (Jimenez’s.) ^e“the centre of a ever expanding desert” (an,) “Nen-Sasaïr agrees to come with.” (Nen-Sasaïr agrees to come with her.) ^fDouglass’ (Douglass’s,)
¹“‘if you stay to close to it’” (too close) a missing comma before a piece of direct speech. ²“filled to burst” (filled to bursting.) “A second person hauls themselves into the nest” (that pronoun should surely not be plural.) ³Written in Usian, “These [lighthouse foghorns] were unique to the region, in that they each used a distinctly different sound, so that an experienced captain could not only avoid foundering on the rocks, but could use the varied tones as navigational guides.” (Not unique: all lighthouse foghorns were like this,) “none of them were …” (none of them was.) ⁴“They span ever faster” (spun.)