Interzone #295

A good issue of Interzone. Hopefully a sign that the magazine's new editor, Gareth Jelley, is now hitting his stride. Stories I particularly enjoyed were those by Alex Penland, Sloane Leong, and a fabulous one by Marie Brennan.

• "0x11 Scenarios to Stop the Train" by Jon Lasser: a story about the various 'what might happen' scenarios if Anna Karenina had access to Siri and asked it what to do (elope or stay with her partner). Many of the scenarios involve a train.

• "Sfumato" by Alexander Glass: the Mona Lisa has been stolen, and a former thief turned detective is on the trail. Readers might be able to guess that the robbery and some of the characters involved in the story are not from that time period in Paris.

• "We Are Only Ourselves" by Alex Penland: a man returns home to find his wife has turned back into a man. The story then proceeds to tell the tale of their initial friendship, which became more than just friendship, the apparent divine intervention that turned him into a woman, and what their future may be for them and their daughters, for the family can also divine the future, and what they see is darkness for their land and for themselves.

• "Our Lady of the Void" by Hesper Leveret: a researcher goes on a trip to deep space to study the culture of the people making such journeys. But what she learns about the superstitious and religious beliefs of the crew would put the crew, and herself, in danger.

• "Another Country" by Rachael Cupp: a nurse struggles to take care of a notable senile person, while in the background the world is apparently tethering on the edge of a conflict.

• "With the Blade as Witness" by Sloane Leong: a fascinating story set on a world where people live in tribes, each guarded by large biomechanical guardians with a living heart housing a person who controls them. Now, one such person has to seal a proposed merger with another tribe, but in doing so, learns more about herself, her potential partner, and what effects the guardians can have on the people housed in them for too long.

• "999 Swords" by Marie Brennan: a fabulous story set in a feudal-like Japan, where a master swordsman and his monk-warrior servant wait for their deaths from a traitorous enemy. To pass the time, the monk-warrior tells the story of his life, leading up to becoming a servant for the swordsman, which contains a twist at the end that would involve the swordsman's teacher.

An average issue with interesting stories by Amal Singh, Katie McIvor, Corey J. White, Frank Dumas.

• "Plague Dream" by Seán Padraic Birnie: in a world full of crisis and plagues, one person is isolated from others and yearns for contact, including from her recently deceased mother.

• "Significant Disruption" by R.L. Summerling: a commuter waits for a late train and muses about possible futures, from missing the train, or meeting unwanted colleagues on it, or possible train disasters. Only one of those futures may come true.

• "Easels" by Amal Singh: a mother tries to reconnect to her teen daughter after an accident kills their father. But the connection would take an unusual turn when the daughter's skill in painting life-like objects turns out to be more than just a skill.

• "We Are A Little Hotel" by Ai Jiang: workers at a hotel struggle to fulfill the wishes of their customers, while hiding their grumbles and the hotel's dilapidated state: much like certain members of families when faced with irrational grumblings.

• "O Sole Mio" by Katie McIvor: a mother taking care of her infant sees an ice cream truck on their street in the middle of winter. Taking a break from being home bound and stressed from taking care of her child, she approaches it one day, only to end up in a strange time situation with implications for the future of both her and her child.

• "Anomalous Instances of Black Ball Lightning in Daggett, Michigan" by Stephanie Lane Gage: a story featuring excerpts from people who have encountered a strange form of ball lightning, leading them to suspect unusual events have happened to their loved ones.

• "Glory Hounds" by H. Pueyo: in the jungles of South America, a duo and a jaguar which have a link with one of the due make a journey to a magical place in the heart of a jungle to try to get back what they had in the past: one has lost his immense strength, the other has lost his mental link with the jaguar.

• "Hollywood Animals" by Corey J. White: a touching story of a future where Hollywood animators have unionized for higher pay, leading film studios to do the 'obvious': create and train genetically engineered animals as aliens instead of getting artists to render them on screen. But one animal trainer has had enough of the animals being 'disposed' after filming, and a strike gives him the opportunity to do something about that, even if it means losing future work with the studios.

• "Copper" by Jendia Gammon: a robot main accidentally reveals a secret to its owner. And now both have a lot to talk about.

• "The Fifth Horizon" by Nozaki Mado, translated from the Japanese by Cat Anderson: in an unusual future, Genghis Khan now rules the steppe grasslands in space. But even here, doubts gnaw at him about the future. But a companion shows the way for him to see all the multidimensional grasslands.

• "The Lunar Asylum" by Frank Dumas: a 'steampunk' alternate future where famous scientists from the Victorian England era group together to send the first rocket to the moon.

• "Supernaut" by Edward R. Morris: another alternate future story, involving one Hugo Gernsback becoming involved in another version of Amazing Stories and looking at the changes wrought by a different version of World War I.

• "Notes From the Meeting of the First ~~State Feder~~ World Court: Walker Dairy, Freeville, NY, ~~198~~ Year One: Jessica Jane Pearson Vs. ~~The Stranger~~ Mr. Jacob Hampton" by Rachael Cupp: in a future where a calamity is hinted to have happened, children run a trial with the court records being rewritten as the trial proceeds.

• "Building Blocks" by Aigner Loren Wilson: an unusual person from a moon travels to the Earth to join a group of people building homes. Their (singular) abilities are noted by others, who are puzzled over his fixation to work.

• "Strung Along in Seaforth" by Jonathan Laidlow: a story about a man who enters a strange competition with an unusual life-like model of his dead father, sewn together from the skin of the father's cadaver. He had been denied the top prize in the competition by a rival for years but now has high hopes to win it, with some collusion from others, both alive and dead.