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VECTOR 272 — SPRING 2013 Vector The critical journal of the British Science Fiction Association Best of 2012 Issue No. 272 Spring 2013 £4.00 page 1 VECTOR 272 — SPRING 2013 Vector 272 The critical journal of the British Science Fiction Association ARTICLES Torque Control Vector Editorial by Shana Worthen ........................ 3 http://vectoreditors.wordpress.com BSFA Review: Best of 2012 Features, Editorial Shana Worthen Edited by Martin Lewis ................................ 4 and Letters: 127 Forest Road, Loughton, Essex IG10 1EF, UK [email protected] In Review: The Best of US Science Fiction Book Reviews: Martin Lewis Television, 2012 14 Antony House, Pembury Sophie Halliday ........................................... 10 Place, London E5 8GZ Production: Alex Bardy UK SF Television 2012: Dead things that [email protected] will not die Alison Page ..................................................12 British Science Fiction Association Ltd The BSFA was founded in 1958 and is a non-profitmaking organisation entirely staffed by unpaid volunteers. Registered 2012 in SF Audio in England. Limited by guarantee. Tony Jones ................................................... 15 BSFA Website www.bsfa.co.uk Company No. 921500 Susan Dexter: Fantasy Bestowed Registered address: 61 Ivycroft Road, Warton, Tamworth, Mike Barrett ................................................ 19 Staffordshire B79 0JJ President Stephen Baxter Vice President Jon Courtenay Grimwood RECURRENT Foundation Favourites: Andy Sawyer ... 24 Chair Ian Whates [email protected] Kincaid in Short: Paul Kincaid ................. 26 Treasurer Martin Potts Resonances: Stephen Baxter ................... 29 61 Ivy Croft Road, Warton, Nr. Tamworth B79 0JJ [email protected] THE BSFA REVIEW Membership Services Peter Wilkinson Inside The BSFA Review ............................ 33 Flat 4, Stratton Lodge, 79 Bulwer Rd, Barnet, Hertfordshire EN5 5EU Editorial by Martin Lewis............................ 34 [email protected] In this issue, Dan Hartland fills his time in MEMBERSHIP FEES Empty Space, Paul Graham Raven breaks UK £29 per annum (Unwaged: £20 pa) down The Fourth Wall, Mark Connorton Life Membership £500 and Cherith Baldry investigate some new Outside UK £40 Joint/Family Membership Add £2 to the above prices Strange Chemistry titles, Patrick Mahon en- ters the Vampire Empire, Shaun Green vis- Cheques (Pounds Sterling only) should be made payable to ‘BSFA Ltd’ and sent to Peter Wilkinson at the address above, or join via the BSFA its The Mall, Donna Scott plays with Chuck website at www.bsfa.co.uk Wendig’s Blackbirds and more .............. 35 FOCUS: THE BSFA MAGAZINE FOR WRITERS Design Editor: Alex Bardy [email protected] Published by the BSFA Ltd © 2013 ….. ISSN 05050448 BSFA AWARDS Administrator: Donna Scott All opinions expressed are those of the individual con- [email protected] tributors and not BSFA Ltd except where expressly stat- ed. Copyright of individual articles remains with the ORBITER WRITING GROUPS author. Online: Terry Jackman [email protected] page 2 VECTOR 272 — SPRING 2013 Torque Control 've a real fondness for best of year issues. They're a phe”, as Sawyer argues, the 1957 novel deals with the glimpse of what everyone else was doing/reading/ tensions of climate change, crop failure, and nuclear I watching in that year. They're a slice of what we explosions from the safety of the Cotswolds. think, right now, was important in that recent back- If Hoyle's novel deals with the physical annihilation then – in this case, a snapshot of early 2013's thoughts of much of humanity almost as an aside while on Earth, and memories of year just passed. then James Tiptree Jr.'s story “And I Awoke and Found The annual Reviewer's Poll, edited by Martin Lewis, Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side” is, in its way, its oppo- samples what BSFA reviewers thought the best thing site. Not only does no one die, but emotion and addic- they read (or, in some cases, watched) in 2012. It's not tive relationships are the crux of the tale. Paul Kincaid limited to books published in that calendar year, only unpicks the context and implications of the story, read in it, which means the results can reach far back which is about literal addiction to aliens, sex, and living into the past in some cases. Which books topped the in farflung outer space. It's about the desolation of 2012 poll, and how do those results compare to the BSFA compulsive yearning. Award shortlists? Turn to the next page to find out! Finally, of course, Martin Lewis brings you the BSFA In television, Alison Page assesses how the UK did Review, with plenty of recent books reviewed by the on the whole, while Sophie Halliday takes on the high- BSFA's reviewers. Terry Martin's column on comics, lights of the US's televisual year. In both cases, The Picture This, will return in the next issue of Vector. Walking Dead was one of the most thought-provoking, We don't currently have any one person doing layout well-realised shows on the screen. Fitting, as Page ob- on Vector. Ben Jeapes and John Medany have both put serves, for a year through which science fiction televi- recent time and effort into issues. My particular thanks to sion largely sleep-walked. Alex Bardy for taking on this one on top of his usual Focus This year, for a change, Vector examines the broad duties. Vector, like all BSFA projects, relies on the gener- swathe of ways in which audio recordings contribute to osity of volunteers to accomplish everything it does. the quality of science fiction being produced and aired The BSFA Awards booklet was originally going to be in the UK, thanks to Tony Jones. If you, like me, are un- posted out with this issue of Vector, but we decided it familiar with the range of ways you could be listening was more urgent that the booklet arrive promptly than to new sf audio plays on a regular basis, be sure to read that Vector 272 show up with an accompanying bonus. his guide to it. Happily, the awards administrator, Donna Scott, re- Another wide-ranging guide in this issue isn't a 2012 ports that the Awards booklet arriving two weeks be- retrospective at all: it's an extensive and affectionate ret- fore the voting deadline has indeed led to a substantial rospective on Susan Dexter's oeuvre, written by Mike increase in advanced voting for the awards. Barrett, which considers where her work has developed Speaking of which, since I'm doing final edits on this from and where – should her books labeled “forthcoming” issue right after Eastercon this year, we have this year's ever come forth – it might be going. Barrett covers the BSFA Award winners! Best Novel went to Jack Glass, by way her published works relate to one another, both in Adam Roberts (Gollancz); Best Short Fiction to "Adrift her use and undermining of character types, and specific on the Sea of Rains" by Ian Sales (Whippleshield recurrent interests such as unicorns, as well as how her Books); Best Artwork to Blacksheep for the cover of writing matured over the course of the books. Jack Glass; and Best Non-Fiction to The World SF Blog, Dr Who fans will be very much aware that this year whose editor-in-chief is Lavie Tidhar. Congratulations! marks the fiftieth anniversary of the show. While there As ever, we encourage your letters of comment or wasn't a full season on television, there were plenty of au- response for inclusion in future issues. Please send dio plays, as Jones discusses. The show's heart lies in them to [email protected]. broadcast television, however, and it's that which Stephen Shana Worthen Baxter discusses in his regular column. The BSFA Presi- Editor dent compares the major themes of the show's fifth season (1967-8) to its thirty-third (2012) to tease out the ways in which Dr Who's treatment of the past, present, and future reflects contemporary concerns of its respective decades. Cover art: "Breaking Through" Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud is also very much a by Julie Dillon product of its time, as Andy Sawyer explains in this www.juliedillonart.com issue's Foundation Favourites. A true “cosy catastro- page 3 VECTOR 272 — SPRING 2013 BSFA Review: Best of 2012 Edited by Martin Lewis Graham Andrews on The Little People cover many things. Aging, for example.” Perhaps someone thought he could make Hitler live as long as the thousand-year by John Christopher Reich. For whatever mad reason, the Nazis supplied Hofricht &SF serials are few and far between but always worth with experimental subjects – guinea pigs, white rats, and Jewish waiting for. The Little People by John Christopher prisoners from the death camps. John Christopher’s lucid expo- F (originally serialised January to March in 1967 before sition makes it all seem eminently reasonable, without detract- being published in book form later that year) makes a good –if ing from the horror! the horror! Housekeeper Mrs. Malone is the verging on the buck mad– case in point. Christopher was a first victim: “They harried me, and they took my voice from me pseudonym for the late lamented Samuel Youd (1922-2012), so I could not cry out. The stairs door was open, and I made for one of those British authors who followed John Wyndham’s that. And they threw me down. I heard them laughing up above, apocalyptic lead to achieve prominence in the Fifties by killing and I lay as though I was dead and prayed.” First but not last…. off humanity and/or destroying the Earth itself in a myriad of The 1968 Avon edition of The Little People has become a fascinating ways. Christopher’s variations on the theme in- sought-after collector’s item due to Hector Garrido’s cover paint- volved a blight that de- ing featuring a veritable horde of whip-wielding ‘leprechauns’ – stroyed all cereals and grains all of them wearing Swastika armbands.