Interzone 288 is out now. (It arrived on my doorstep this morning.)

This is the one which contains my review of Tim Major’s Hope Island.

Along with many other goodies of course.

Titan Books, 2019, 407 p.

The supposed genesis of the conceit of this novel could have been lifted from John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids. In an event called the Fall, one day in 1808 green lights fell through the sky near the village of Ilam in Derbyshire. Unlike in Wyndham’s classic though, nobody was blinded. Instead a change was effected on the people living near where the lights fell. From that point on those few, since dubbed Charmers, on achieving adulthood shed a version of themselves every seven years. These sloughings-off are the Snakeskins of the title, which are identical to the original in every respect including memory, but last only a few minutes before turning to ashes; leaving the Charmer unblemished, younger, and longer lived as a result. Despite being a minority of the population, Charmers, in the guise of the Greater Britain Party, have been in charge of the Government for almost a century. Non-Charmers are second-class citizens at best, resentful of the advantages Charmers have, not least wealth and influence, though they still live and, in the case of one of our viewpoint characters, are schooled, side-by-side. She is Caitlin Hext, at sixteen soon to experience her first shedding. We also see this society through the eyes of Russell Handling, an aide to Government member, Ellis Blackwood, and of Gerry Shafik, an investigative journalist. Handling and Shafik are both non-Charmers.

This Charmers’ Britain is deliberately cut off from the outside world, technically backward. Hence references to Commodore 64s, an Acorn computer, VHS tapes and floppy discs. Yet one character sends a text message. And there is also a comment about an affected American accent. I’d have thought that was not likely to have been heard by the general public if the country’s isolation was as complete as suggested. (While reading it struck me that this book could have been written many years ago as a contemporary piece and only changed slightly for modern consumption after having been dug out of the metaphorical writer’s drawer.)

Caitlin’s Uncle Tobe’s latest shedding (like all such, attended by a Government employee) passes without incident. Caitlin’s, when it comes, provides a surprise. Her Snakeskin does not ‘ash,’ but stays alive. Only days later Uncle Tobe is found dead, a supposed suicide. Russell is contacted by the mysterious Ixion and asked to spy on Blackwood. Gerry begins to investigate the funding of the January care home.

It turns out that not only Caitlin’s but many Snakeskins do not ash, those in Government employ their surviving ones as substitutes in order to function twenty-four hours a day, but others’ – like Caitlin’s offshoot, soon calling herself Kit – are confined to the January care home until they do ash. (Though since the home is to all intents and purposes unregulated, that fate may not be as natural as the authorities pretend it to be.) A thriller plot then ensues with Caitlin helping Kit to escape the home with the aid of unregistered Snakeskins, and Gerry and Russell uncovering the designs Blackwood’s associates have to replace the Prime Minister and anticipate another Fall. The importance of the Hext family to goings-on are also revealed.

The setting-up of the situation is fine and the inter-personal dynamics are reasonably well-handled, those of a character named Dodie’s Snakeskins particularly so, but the text never really convinces as a conspiracy thriller. Moreover, Handling’s amour fou for Blackwood’s wife, Nell, is at best adolescent.

Pedant’s corner:- I read an ARC so some of these may have been changed in the final book. Time interval later count; seven. Otherwise; snuck (too many instances to count; sneaked,) focussed (x2, focused,) “off the edge off the bench” (of the bench,) “the catering company were scheduled” (was scheduled.) “‘What’s kind of trouble is Nell Blackwood in?’” (What kind of trouble.) “She nibbled at a corner of a sandwich” (the sandwich had been mentioned before, there was only one; ‘a corner of the sandwich’, then,) “on the world ‘your’” (on the word ‘your’,) fit (x2, fitted,) focussing (focusing,) sunk (sank.) “‘It was you that I met you in the…’” (It was you that I met in the,) staunch (stanch,) “none of them were experts” (none of them was an expert,) “none of the words were audible” (none … was audible,) “‘I’d be grateful it if you’d answer’” (no ‘it’.)

TTA Press

Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam takes the editorial slot and reflects on how growing up queer (her word) revealed that adults knew as little as children about navigating the world and instilled her with all sorts of phobias. In Future Interrupted Andy Hedgecock reveals how certain formative reading/viewing experiences still colour his tastes. Nina Allan’s Time Pieces reflects by way of her own experience and Marian Womack’s debut collection Lost Objects on how the short story is still the best pathway for a writer to come into his or her own.

The fiction kicks off with Grey Halls¹ by Rachael Cupp where a future musician famous for, but himself dismissive of, his one big success, Grey Halls, travels back in time for inspiration.
Superbright² by Ryan Row is set in a world where superpowers are common. This story totally failed to capture my interest.
In Tumblebum³ by Darby Harn, New York is flooded and everything is controlled by a huge corporation named TAG. Tumblebum is hired to find the missing photographer daughter of a racehorse owning family.
A species of harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex quaesitor; or P.q. starts building sculptures- or are they temples? – in P. Q.⁴ by James Warner.
In Tim Major’s Throw Caution⁵ pseudo-crab lifeforms have been found on Mars. Their bodies contain diamonds. (Well, not really. They’re silicon based.) The story follows two prospectors searching outwith the normal areas.
So Easy⁶ by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam is a post-apocalypse story. Well enough done but a bit inconsequential.
Paul Crenshaw’s Eyes⁷ has a young boy find a pair of disembodied eyes floating in the stream which runs by his house. They can still blink and so answer his questions thereby telling a tale of life, the universe and so on.

In Reviews Iain Hunter recommends the Jane Yolen edited Nebula Awards Showcase 2018 (rather confusingly featuring stories from 2016;) I am rather less enthusiastic about Paul Jessup’s Close Your Eyes; Duncan Lunan says Rob Boffard’s Adrift relocates the aeroplane movie to a tour shuttle from a habitat overlooking the Horsehead Nebula, Lawrence Osborn claims Revenant Gun, the last in Yoon Ha Lee’s trilogy which began with Ninefox Gambit is essential reading for military SF space opera or worldbuilding buffs (I still won’t be going near it;) Duncan Lawrie accepts Shattermoon by Dominic Dulley for what it is, fast-paced light reading; Andy Hedgecock lauds at least one entertaining and provocative story from an under celebrated master in The Adventures of the Ingenious Alfanui by Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio translated by Margaret Jull; Stephen Theaker⁸ likes Kameron Hurley’s fix-up Apocalypse Nix better than he did her God’s War trilogy and Andy Hedgecock returns to praise Juliet E McKenna’s The Green Man’s Heir.

Pedant’s corner:- ¹Written in USian, “He was fortunate, then, to not have Osorio’s fan base” (not to have.) ²Written in USian; “experiments with which had given her son” (either experiments which had given her son, or, experiments with which she had given her son,) “He shined.” (He shone.) ³Written in USian. ⁴Written in USian, “atypical climactic conditions” (climatic.) ⁵“sand….sunk away” (sank,) shrunk (shrank.) ⁶Written in USian. ⁷Written in Usian. ⁸“her ramshackle team of misfits are pretty much always doomed to fail” (her team is always doomed to fail.)

In Must Supply Own Work Boots by Malcolm Devlin¹ a man whose augmentations are old-tech seeks work.
Bullman and the Wiredling Mutha by R M Graves is a tale of gang warfare and genetic manipulation told in a degenerate English.
Thana Niveau’s The Calling of Night’s Ocean describes a late 1960s experiment with dolphins, when the dolphins are injected with LSD.
Finding Waltzer-Three by Tim Major² sees a group investigate a ghost spaceship, Marie-Celeste-like, except the bodies are still there.
E Catherine Tobbler’s Oubliette³ has a woman move through the levels of Aphelion Station, in time as well as space, in search of a locket, and peace.
Mind the Gap by Jennifer Dornan-Fish⁴ is narrated by an AI which is on the road to achieving genuine consciousness.
Tom Greene’s Monoculture is set well in the aftermath of a flu epidemic that has wiped out all of humanity except clones of Dave Williamson and a few “randoms”.

Pedant’s corner:-
¹ “discrete” where “discreet” made more sense.
² The captain, along with the bulk of the crew, are scheduled to sleep. (The captain are?) wigwam-like (as described it was more tepee-like.)
³ Written in USian; a slow exhale (exhalation?) to lay invisible (lie invisible,) lead to (led to,) lain bare (laid bare)
⁴ Written in USian: tick born disease (tick borne?)