Karen D Fishler’s story ‘Living’ (illustrated by Chris Nurse) also suffered from being overlong, though it lacked the imaginative qualities of Calder’s. The story certainly gets off to a good start with the main character, Dake, lying in a hospital bed, close to the end of his life. His wife Marguerite is visiting with their dog, Chesty. It’s in these personal and more intimate moments that the story works best. But Dake is offered the opportunity of a new body, the chance to be twenty again, as long as he goes back to the army to fight in a war against China. Afraid of death, he agrees, but Marguerite, an old woman herself, feels betrayed. Such technology is only offered to soldiers, and his decision will mark the end of their relationship. Most of the story is set among a group of soldiers, and resembles many Hollywood grunt movies, and the scenes of guerrilla fighting against the enemy go on too long and drag the pace down. Perhaps it was me, but by the end, I felt no empathy for the character, in spite of what should have been a poignant conclusion. The military sections seemed to kill off the emotional thread. The story could have been half as long and a lot more engaging.

In fact, after enjoying the previous two issues of Interzone, I found 203 on the whole more disappointing. Paul di Filippo, who was responsible for one of my favourite stories of the last year (‘Harsh Oasis’ in Interzone 201) gives us ‘The Furthest Schorr: 32 Fugues Based on the Paintings of Todd Schorr’. I haven’t seen the work of this artist, and therefore I could only read the 32 brief short stories as flash fiction. Although there was a current of humour running through them, they failed to grip, and none stood out from the rest. Again I think a less is more approach would have worked better, at least for the purposes of Interzone. It might have been a different situation entirely if each story could have been accompanied by a painting - easier to accomplish in a book or on the internet.

’Ten With a Flag’ by Joseph Paul Haines (illustrated by Martin Bland) was a bit of a relief after overly long contributions. The prose is trim and moves along at a good pace. The story centres on a couple who have been given a rating for their unborn baby which tells them something about its future importance to society and which determines their standing in the community. It’s the idea that genetics etc can determine our fate, and therefore there are things that can be predicted at birth. The problem for the couple is that while their baby is a 10, which is very good, the rating comes with a flag that could indicate a problem which has been left undefined. Believing that his wife’s life might actually be in danger from the birth, the husband convinces her to have an abortion. The twist is that it is the husband’s behaviour that the authorities have anticipated rather than the baby’s. The film ‘Gattacca’ plays with similar ideas of our fate mapped out by genetics, but in Haines’s story, the idea is in a simpler form, with a twist in the tale.

Jay Lake’s ‘The American Dead’ (illustrated by Rik Rawling) is set in a future world of disease and decay. A boy sells images cut from porn magazines, while women and girls begin to disappear. The local priests have something to do with developments. There is a disease that is killing the rich men in the city. The priests have been told by God that having sex with a clean woman takes the disease from the man and gives it to the woman. These women and girls die and their bodies are dumped, but the men die too because the cure doesn’t work. But still women and girls are taken. It’s a scenario that resembles the claims of witch doctors in Africa that Aids can be cured by sex with a virgin. Many women and young girls have been raped and infected as a consequence. This similarity to real life makes Lake’s story more powerful. The wealthy tombs and mausoleums in the American Cemetery stand in contrast to the poverty of the Latin American locals, as do the images of healthy tanned men and women in the porn magazines. ‘The American Dead’ is a memorable story that offers no happy ending.

Elizabeth Bear returns with ‘Wane’ (illustrated by Ian Simmons), another of her alternative history stories of New York (the previous story, ‘Wax’, appeared in Interzone 201). This is a world where the American Colonies are still under British control, and New York is still called by its old Dutch name, New Amsterdam. But it’s the early twentieth century - there are airships, for example. Nevertheless, Detective Crown Investigator Abigail Irene Garrett uses supernatural means to solve the murders she encounters. Aristocrats, ambassadors, and royalty pass through this story, and there’s the same sense of lush detail and atmosphere as there is in Calder’s three-part novella, After The Party. ‘Wane’ is perhaps less gripping than its predecessor, ‘Wax’, though Henry, Prince of England’s use of a dirigible to travel to New Amsterdam is a nice touch, as is the presence in this world of the Aztec empire which has long been allied with the British against the French. Since I’ve never read a novel by Elizabeth Bear, I have no idea whether this story is part of a world she has already created in a longer work - Calder’s ‘After The Party’ may be linked to a world he created in a novel. Bear’s alternative world would be interesting to see in the wider and more in-depth context of a novel, or a collection of linked short stories.

Interzone 203 picks up some of the threads of the previous issues with Calder and Bear, and though still an enjoyable read, was let down a bit this time by some of the long-winded pieces whose contents and plots did not ultimately justify their length. There’s no question though that all these writers are gifted and imaginative. In that respect, the quality of Interzone is as high as ever.

© 2006 Laura Hird All rights reserved.