The Bsfa Review
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THE ISSUE 2 BSFA WINT ER 2017 REVIEW EDITED BY SUSAN OKE WINTISSUE ER 2017 2 THE BSFA REVIEW REVIEWED IN THIS ISSUE... The Weight of the World by Tom Toner Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones Reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller ... 4 Reviewed by Dave M. Roberts ... 16 Then: Science Fiction Fandom in the UK The Shadowed Path: A Jonmarc Vahanian 1930-1980 by Rob Hansen Collection by Gail Z. Martin Reviewed by Andy Sawyer ... 5 Reviewed by Jared I. Magee ... 17 Revenger by Alastair Reynolds Reviewed by Paul Graham Raven ... 6 Camera Obscura by Lavie Tidhar Reviewed by Kate Onyett ... 18 The High Ground by Melinda Snodgrass Reviewed by Martin McGrath ... 7 Fair Rebel by Steph Swainston Reviewed by Nick Hubble ... 18 Swastika Night by Murray Constantine Reviewed by Anthony Nanson ... 8 Spellhaven by Sandra Unerman The Rift by Nina Allan Reviewed by Ben Jeapes ... 21 Reviewed by Gary Dalkin ... 9 An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows You Don’t Belong Here by Tim Major Reviewed by Nick Hubble ... 22 Reviewed by Graham Andrews ... 10 The Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi Reviewed by Andy Sawyer ... 11 Reviewed by Christopher Owen ... 23 The Particle Beast by Ian C. Douglas A Study in Sable by Mercedes Lackey Reviewed by Rsaal Firoz ... 12 Reviewed by Estelle Roberts ... 24 Bridging Infinity edited by Jonathan Strahan Reviewed by Graham Andrews ... 12 The Murders of Molly Southborne by Tade Thompson Crisis And Conflicts edited by Ian Whates Reviewed by Gary Dalkin ... 25 Reviewed by Stuart Carter ... 14 Terraforming: Ecopolitical Transformations Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Twenty and Environmentalism in Science Fiction Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and by Chris Pak Around the World in Eighty Days Reviewed by Anthony Nanson ... 26 by Jules Verne Reviewed by Alex Bardy ... 15 THE BSFA REVIEW #2 – Winter 2017 Outside of writing and editing, I work as an English VIEW FROM tutor. Amongst my students, there are a handful of enthusiastic creative writers. It is an honour to encourage and nurture these talented young THE EDITOR people. To that end, I would like to welcome a new volunteer to the community of BSFA reviewers: elcome to the Winter edition of the BSFA Rsaal Firoz. At 13 years old, he’s the youngest WReview. It’s that time of year again, when member of the team! As always, a big thankyou to our dedicated team few days of blissful sloth. On that theme, here of reviewers who give freely of their time, effort arelife kickssome uptasty a notch titbits, before mouth-watering finally sliding morsels, into a and imagination. Without their hard work the succulent soupçons… too much? production of the BSFA Review wouldn’t be I guess you’re right. Let’s keep it simple. Here is a possible. If you’d like to join the team, send a sample of your work to me ([email protected]). enjoyment (sorry, couldn’t help it). Drag yourself All that remains is to wish you all a wonderful awayselection from of thebook ubiquitous reviews for TV your programming edification long and holiday break and an exciting New Year. enough to have a look—you won’t regret it. We start our journey in the 147th century, take a walk through SF Fandom, hunt treasure with a Susan Oke to higher ground. Picking our way through a Nazi [email protected] dystopia,couple of bonereaders,we interrogate before the nature being forcedof belief to andflee come to the awful realisation that we don’t belong Are you interested in of Martian conquerors and the obliteration of middlehere. Time England. to go with Unfazed the flow by andthe facechallenge the horrors of a helping us celebrate the particle beast from a pocket dimension, we bridge BSFA’s 60th Birthday in 2018? facinginfinity humanity. only to find General ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross If so, we’d love to hear from you! ready with his report on the crisis and conflicts On the Fantasy front, we’re challenged by an We’re after your memories of the engrossing twist on the werewolf myth, before BSFA, be they good or bad — and if wandering down the shadowed path and getting there is anything you specifically tangled up in a nineteenth century thriller mashup. remember from those early Vector magazines, we’d be especially keen while on the other an Edwardian rebel faces off againstOn one side,magical fair abductors. rebels fight Worldwalkers off a hoard of wanderinsects, to hear from you! into a strange world of intrigue, and colourless Alice must navigate a magical land where colour Did an editor, article, interview, or is currency. Elemental magic comes to the aid of maybe a certain review stick in your Sherlock Holmes, whilst poor Molly is cured with mind or leave an impression? a life of routine, endless slaughter. Did something you read in a BSFA publication have a lasting or assessment of the historical development of profound effect on your SF reading? On a more serious note, we finish with a critical Please, if you can help, get in environmentalAll the above produced, science offiction. course, by our wonderful touch and let us know! reviewers. page 3 THE BSFA REVIEW #2 – Winter 2017 The Weight of the World by Tom Toner this, embark on a journey of their own, taking with (Gollancz, 2017) future. Reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller them Eranthis’ child, also significant to the Empire’s To say that The Weight of the World is wide-screen baroque is to wildly understate things. Cordwainer e join Tom Toner in the 147th century, when Smith and Jack Vance have been invoked, and there is Whumankind as we know it has been trans- a strong hint of Dunsanyesque high fantasy about the formed, almost beyond recognition in some instances, Amaranthine Spectrum, even though it is also situated into a range of post-human breeds. They have spread in a post-singularity world familiar to readers of Iain across the universe, which is notionally under the Banks and other exponents of the new space opera. sway of the Amaranthine Empire and its Immortal And therein lies the problem. rulers. There is so much in play in Toner’s deeply allusive narration it takes an attentive reader to keep up with the labyrinthine story. I am too often reminded of other things, and those memories intrude a little too hard. This is a novel I can admire for its ambi- The barrage of words and images is at times almost tootion muchwithout to necessarilyprocess; plot finding and story it a satisfactory seem a little read. too often secondary to language and imagery. Stunning as the prose is, I longed at times for more certainty as to where the story was heading. Then: Science Fiction Fandom in the UK 1930- 1980 by Rob Hansen (Ansible Editions, 2016) Reviewed by Andy Sawyer Some things do not change, however, and various here are not a few readers who have grown up individuals are jostling for control of the decay- T ing empire. Among them are Sotiris and Aaron the history of British fandom as nothing much to do with with sf who would see Rob Hansen’s mammoth Longlived, the latter revealed at the end of The Promise them. There are others (and I confess I’m one of them), - who sneakily turn to the index to see if they are men- tention is ownership of a mysterious weapon, the Soul tioned. And while I do have an interest, I can only do of the Child to be an artificial intelligence. Also in con my best to persuade the agnostics that this is an impor- he has less bargaining power than one might suppose. tant book; as important as any book coming out of an WitnessEngine, createdto their byvarious the human, activities Corphuso, is Lycaste, who a young finds academic press. Then isn’t exactly a history of science giant so beautiful that people once travelled to gaze upon him, and who is in truth rather naive. out of it). Nor is it about the readership of sf (although infiction some itself ways (though it’s the thenearest history thing of tosf aweaves history in of and sf- During the course of Promise of the Child, Lycaste reading in the UK that we have): “fandom” never was have committed murder. He exchanged his quiet life fled his home and inheritance, believing himself to (and is) a committed and articulate minority. for that of a wanderer, dragged across the universe by any sort of reflection of mass readership, but it was The half-century Then covers is the period in which has meanwhile formed an alliance with Aaron. In something that we can call “sf” crystallised as a genre TheSotiris, Weight and ofthen the his World confidant,, Lycaste’s Hugo seemingly Maneker. aimless Sotiris and grew to adulthood. It is also a period in which the journey continues, now in the company of Huereop, a mechanics of book and magazine publication, and the Vulgar, while his childhood friends, Pentas and Eran- ability of readers to communicate and share opinions, grew and changed radically. British fandom begins page 4 THE BSFA REVIEW #2 – Winter 2017 with half a dozen people communicating with each even conscientious objectors, during the war.) We other via the letter-columns of US magazines and see fandom gradually picking itself up after the wartime trauma, and eventually the foundation of the the Theosophical Hall, Leeds in 1937. In 1980, when BSFA in 1958. We see squabbles and feuds and new with 14 people attending the first sf convention in the story on until the middle of the decade), a World sfthis convention book ends in (officially: Brighton a had pair upped of supplements that 14 by carry well aregenerations themselves attacking the target the ofstuffiness younger andrebels.