Big Sky 4 August 2557 / 2O14
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for big skY loncon 3 4 sf masterworks 2 sf masterworks 2 “The new covers are also loaded with microchips that shout "Buy me!" while subliminally commanding you to 4 reach into your pocket to fish out the required £7.99…” — Gollancz rep at Odyssey 2010, speaking on condition of anonymity Part-genzine, part-perzine, variable sercon/fannish content. If you are not satisfied with this product please contact your nearest SF Masterworks dealer. The next letters column will be in issue #5 – please be part of it ! Send all Letters of Comment, articles and artwork to [email protected]. Edited and published by Peter Young. This fanzine has been produced independently of both Gollancz and Loncon 3. Cover: The Sky Is Falling — Andrew Nelson, 2011 (cc) Fanzines in trade can be sent to: Pages 2–5: Gold in the Blue — © 2014 Sue Jones, used by permission 136/200 Emerald Hill Village, Soi 6, Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan 77110, Thailand Pages 6 & 9: ©2014 Peter Young or if postage is less: Page 191: Just Testing — Andrew Nelson, 2013 (cc) c/o 22 Tippings Lane, Woodley, Berkshire, RG5 4RX, England Thanks to all contributors for use of their articles and artwork. See page 178 for full credit details and brief author bios. contents We Didn’t Start the Fire Peter Young 6 Christopher Priest, Inverted World Keith Stevenson, Andy Wixon, Kate Sherrod 10 Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle Manny Rayner, Peter Young 12 H.G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau M.J. Nicholls, Basil Williams, Joel Cunningham, Ben Babcock 15 Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren Steve Shipman, Ian Sales 18 Brian Aldiss, Helliconia Nigel Quinlan, Mark Yon 21 2014 H.G. Wells, The Food of the Gods G.K. Chesterton, Mark Yon 24 Jack Finney, The Body Snatchers Mark Yon, Peter Young 27 Joanna Russ, The Female Man Peter Young, Ademption 30 Gold in the Blue M.J. Engh, Arslan Abigail Nussbaum 32 Bruce Sterling & William Gibson, The Difference Engine Carlos Ferreira, Howard Mittelmark, J.G. Keely 42 Sue Jones 2 sf masterworks 2 contents - continued Christopher Priest, The Prestige David Hebblethwaite, Jonathan Terrington 47 Brian Aldiss, Greybeard Charles Dee Mitchell, Tony Atkins 50 Olaf Stapledon, Sirius Manny Rayner, Stuart Carter, A.C. Fellows 52 Dan Simmons, Hyperion Ben Babcock, Jesse Hudson 54 Clifford D. Simak, City Rhys Hughes, Mark Monday, Christy M. Tidwell 57 Frank Herbert, Hellstrom’s Hive Rob Weber 59 William Tenn, Of Men and Monsters Peter Young, Charles Dee Mitchell, Mark Yon 62 Karel Capek, R.U.R. & War with the Newts Matthew Lloyd, Rhys Hughes, Andy Wixon 65 Christopher Priest, The Affirmation David Hebblethwaite, Vacuous Wastrel, Rob Adey 71 Cecelia Holland, Floating Worlds Iain Merrick, Bruce Gillespie, Antony Jones 74 Algys Budrys, Rogue Moon John DeNardo, Charles Dee Mitchell 77 Harlan Ellison, ed., Dangerous Visions Mark Yon 80 Olaf Stapledon, Odd John Antony Jones, Manny Rayner 83 Dan Simmons, The Fall of Hyperion Ben Babcock, Kemper 85 Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Manny Rayner, J.G. Keely, Lee Battersby 90 Pat Cadigan, Synners Steph Bennion, Sylvia Kelso, Chris Mander 94 Nicola Griffith, Ammonite Alix Heintzman 96 Karen Joy Fowler, Sarah Canary Ben Babcock 99 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein Mark Monday, Nicholas Whyte, Martin McClellan, Bruce Gillespie 101 3 sf masterworks 2 contents - continued D.G. Compton, The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe Ian Sales 106 Connie Willis, Doomsday Book Donna Carter, David Norman 108 Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker Chris Mander, Stephen Zillwood 110 David I. Masson, The Caltraps of Time Stuart Carter 112 Rachel Pollack, Unquenchable Fire Karen Heuler, Peter Young 114 John Crowley, Engine Summer Bill McClain, Peter Young 116 Colin Greenland, Take Back Plenty David Hebblethwaite 119 Nicola Griffith, Slow River Ben Babcock, David Langford 121 Sheri S. Tepper, The Gate to Women’s Country Stuart Carter 124 George Turner, The Sea and Summer Mike Dalke 126 Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog Christine Bellerive, Ian, Simon McLeish 128 Eric Frank Russell, Wasp Jo Walton 131 Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves Manny Rayner, Rob Weber 133 James Morrow, This Is the Way the World Ends Michael Brown, Tracey, Bruce Gillespie 136 John Crowley, The Deep Rhys Hughes, Jonathan Thornton 138 Michael Bishop, No Enemy But Time Megan Medina 141 Connie Willis, Time Is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis Kev McVeigh 144 Robert A. Heinlein, Double Star Sarah Pinsker, Jonathan Thornton 147 Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space Mark Monday 150 4 sf masterworks 2 contents - continued Jack Womack, Random Acts of Senseless Violence Paul, Kate Sherrod 152 Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Manny Rayner 155 Michael Bishop, Transfigurations Joachim Boaz 157 Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything Dave Haddock, Paul Bowers, Jonathan Terrington 159 Robert A. Heinlein, The Door Into Summer Rich Horton, Liam Proven, Marion Pitman 161 T.J. Bass, Half Past Human Jonathan Thornton 164 Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow Charles Dee Mitchell, Peter Young 166 T.J. Bass, The Godwhale Eddie Tomaselli, J.P. Lantern 168 James Tiptree, Jr., Her Smoke Rose Up Forever Niall Harrison 171 Arkady & Boris Strugatsky, Monday Begins on Saturday Zalka Csenge Virág, Dan Harlow 175 The Contributors 178 5 We Didn’t Start the Fire Peter Young ’LL BEGIN WITH a musical analogy. A famous New York pianist and singer, who once aspired to be a history i teacher, wrote a song in 1989 that hit the top of the charts in his home country and did almost as well around the world. Having just had his fortieth birthday, he chose to sing about stuff that had happened everywhere in the first forty years of his life, and put it across as a rapid-fire list of events, year by consecutive year. He even mentioned Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. If you don’t know either the song or the singer I’m writing about here then this probably doesn’t sound exactly musical, but you can hear the end result (and watch the video) here. The guy realised it wasn’t the best melody he ever wrote and remains ambivalent about that song to this day, but in his defence even his harshest critic would have to admit it’s hard to weave a catchy tune around such material. So why did he spend the time doing it? Well, the obvious reasons: he was interested, and needed to get something out of his system. The idea had probably been sitting around his subconscious for some time, quietly nagging “So when you gonna do me, huh?” Similarly with me and this SF Masterworks fanzine. I’m the first to admit that a publication of reviews, of what is essentially a publisher’s own selection of their favourite books, isn’t the most creative use to which two large issues of a fanzine could be put, but it was timely and I reckoned it could be done. From its first sketching-out in late January 2014, I had six months to pull it together before Loncon 3, and that meant roughly two to three hours every single day of reading already-published reviews or asking people for new ones (often people I have never met or even encountered online before this project), then asking for permissions, assembling it all and editing it down over the next six months to arrive at these two issues of Big Sky you have here. The whole process went astonishingly smoothly, made all the easier by quickly encountering entertaining and lively reviews online (ones that don’t begin with “I read this in high school 014 and thought it was really great.”). Instead, I was rather knocked out by the range of often unsung creative voices writing about books I both knew and didn’t know, in ways and with viewpoints I had often never even conceived. I don’t know where I first heard the phrase “There are two kinds of people in this world; those who do things and those who have things done to them.” It’s too simplistic, of course, because we all occupy both those positions in different situations, but from a fannish point of view (and speaking as a non-writer of SF) you could say that Masterworks 3 2 everyone writing and commenting in this fanzine is on the receiving end here, is having “science fiction history” done to them. We didn’t start this fire, we’re just observing and thinking and writing about it and above all hopefully enjoying this most creative circus of the human imagination. Rather like Mr. Joel. Thanks, everyone, it’s been fun. Peter Young Young Peter 7 Style notes With so many reviewers appearing here with work not initially written for this publication, I’ve necessarily had to adopt a very laissez-faire approach to ‘house style’. To make so many conform to my own style preferences might risk upsetting a large number of this fanzine’s contributors, all for the want of some vain notion of adherence to my own taste. Therefore you will encounter several ways of conveying the same two important words – “sf”, “SF”, “science- fiction”, “science fiction” and even (goddammit) “sci-fi”, as well as several other individual quirks of taste which I have simply let stand. Bibliographic notes It’s been a necessity to divide this fanzine into two issues. For clarity’s sake, I’ve sequenced all titles in the second series as per the date of their first appearance as an SF Masterworks title. Several titles across both series have had cover art misattributed on their back covers.