"Interzone" is a British SF and fantasy "pro-zine." Back in the cyberpunk heyday of the Eighties, "Interzone" was a favorite artistic residence for many of the c-punk authors. Now, things have quieted down a bit. I find myself going from issue to issue finding less and less that interests me. There's lots of fanstasy fiction and a recent interest in the resurgence of space operas (both of which bore me). "Interzone" is still to be recommended in that there is little else out there at the the "pro-zine" level that tops it.
"Interzone's" editor David Pringle recently published "The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction." It has ratings for and gives short review of over 3,000 books. All but about two of the fiction books reviewed in this stack were listed. It's a handy reference when working on a project like this. Makes a fine as a bathroom browser, too.
(G. Branwyn)
Links:
ACCESS:
Interzone
David Pringle, editor
217 Preston Drove
Brighton BN1 6FL, UK
$5.00/issue
Here is the TEXT POPUP for Interzone:
George Feeley: So "The Moon World" is set in the mid-19th Century? Is it going to be about the Moon Hoax some New York newspaper did? [New York Sun, August-Sept 1835.]
Howard Waldrop: Part of it, yeah. That's the jumping off place, and the rest of the novel takes place thirty-four years later. And things happen a little differently in this world. So I told Bruce and Gibson, "I can't read your book, I don't want to know what you did." There are a couple of people who just have to be in there -- I mean, if you're doing certain things in England and America, there are only a few people who could have done it. So I know they had to do the same things.
So I guess you could call it a Steampunk novel. I was a bit worried about that, until Lew Shiner told me that I invented Steampunk twenty years ago [laughs]. And, of course, never did anything else with it.
GF: Which story does Shiner credit as the first appearance of Steampunk?
HW: Utley's and my "Black As The Pit From Pole to Pole..." The one where we put in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, the whole bit.
GF: The hollow earth story.
HW: Right. And we just never did anything like that again. I had forgotten. I'm not claiming to have invented Steampunk. Lew thinks I did.
