2 Vector· Contents 3 Front Line Dispatches - Letters 8 Geoff Ryman Interviewed by Kev Mcveigh 12 Two Short Articles about Biopunk Introduced by Cyril Simsa 15 First Article by Eva Hauser 16 Second Article by Miroslav Fiser 19 Compass Points 7 Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books 20 First Impressions Reviews edrted by Catie Cary 27 Barbed Wire Kisses - Magazine Reviews edrted by Maureen Speller 30 Paperback Graffiti edited by Stephen Payne Back Cover Artwork by Jana Kupcova Mutants drawn by Eva Hauser and originally published in Wild Shaarkah No 2 Printed by PDC Copyprint, 11 Jefferies Editor & Hardback Reviews Passage, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4AP Catie Cary 224 Southway, Park Barn, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 6DN Vector is printed bimonlhly by lhe BSFA © 1993 Phone: 0483 502349 Contributions: Good articles are atways wanted. Al1 MSS Paperback Reviews Editor should be typed doubles spaced on one side of the page. Stephen Payne 24 Malvern Rd, Stoneygate, Submissions may also be accepted as ASCII text files on IBM, Atari ST or Mac 3.5" discs. Leicester, LE2 2BH Maximum preferred length is 5000 words; exceptions can and will be made. A preliminary letter is advisable but not Magazine Reviews Editor essential. Unsolicited MSS cannot be returned without an Maureen Speller 60 Bournemouth Rd , SAE. Folkestone, Kent, 5AZ Please note that there is no payment for publication. ens Members who wish to review books should first write to Editorial Assistants the appropriate editor. Alan Johnson, Camilla Pomeroy Artist s: Cover art, illustrations and fillers are always welcome. Production Assistants Alison Sinclair, Carol Ann Green, All opinions belong to contributOfs and are not necessarily Steve Grover those of the editor°' the BSFA. Vector 3 shonlisled books, he seems IO suggesl that lhe judges should not have disa>unted the less ptblic money lhal the pA)ishers paid out. Are the pooishers complairing because they coutli't buy lhe jt.dges,7 Did they really think Iha:, because they had paid tor some Of me trils, one of lhe MptA>lishefs seriousty lm/ot.t9d in SF pubishingN should have won? ltwouidn1""""'8metohea,thatMh~ ~ (/~f should have chosen Body of GlaH . ;~:=i~!~~1~=nnot ·1 V~rt{! because the pt.blishW did not make any P financial contribution. 'w\'hal.ever the merits ol John aute·s arguments on the quaity of the + shoftisted books, the SbU:t\a'"e is ba.S8d on moralty~louncJationsandthuscasts 00lbt on the basis Of al the n.motn and orher unattrib..(abMt Slillements that a-e Fmm Lisa Tuuk, Argyll Some people are totally opposed to Mterary awards and after reading Maureen Spellel's 'Judge's Summary of the Clarke Award' in about, and the coll8cli11e senior editors Vector 173 I find mysell feeling inclned 1hat referred to by John Clute an doing nothing way. I was pleased when Lost Futures was passing the Hit is as more than buck. not, shonlistedfotlheClaluAward,yetatter From Nicola Griffith. Atlanta, &orgia John Clute ciaims, I hen I for one woutJ like 10 reading this summary I lel: errbarfassed. H my know a itlle more abolJI hOw the judges we novel was as weak as this judge thought it I 9f10Y9d reac1no the intElfView: caro1 Ann (id sel9cled. and hOw the panel has changed then wha! was ii (or the McOonats, or the the a good job of transcribing my ramblngs. over years. Russo) doing on the !isl? Say what you ike HOW9Y'8I' I would like 10 add one footnoce. rve no pa,ticuLar problems with the Ides of abou the Booker or 01her mainstream literary "wikf.caRf' entries, !hough have dotbls When the imEW\'iew wen1 10 pr855, I was Slil I awa"OS, tMJI you dOrft hear the Judges talking abolA the w;ry in which a major pubbhing undergoing various medical tests; the results Of about the contender.I as iflheirwere a 591 of lhoselestsarenowin,andlhavemulliple company such as Penguin Books was given hurdles lo be leaped and all, sav9the 5derosis. Ack. I'm doing fine ... But I'm in the such an apparently Inside ll'ack. Would John triuq,hantwinner. hadstumbledalleast ma11e1 tor a cool-looking walking slicil. If Clute have objected it ii had boon a Yf!ll'J small once. A reason for despising awards is anyone has any ideas, IOI me know. puolisher, unwilling 10 riSil entering books In because it can i~ly not that there has been a thenormalwayl difficult ancl somewtial arbitrary chOice of I also wooder ii the Arlhur C Clarke Award "best" among individual works of an, bol has a sufficiently high profile, when there are rather tha1 1here is one clear winner amid a so many rather parochial iterary awards. I fieldollo.sers. Thanksalol. We'renotin From David &II, Nonh Kt!lsey can undersland why an outside company competition when we wrile, and Ian might not emphasise it 101he J)ldc in the way McOonats, Marge Piercy, Kim Slanley 1hal 1hey would some Olher awams, though ii I am not i~essed by John Cllle's aiticisms Robinson. RichMs Paul Russo, Michael can be argued lhat a high-profile liler.wy Of lhe Antu C Claf'ke Award to Body of Swanwick, Sue Thomas, Connie lMllis and Glau. rve heard some Of the rumcus that award like the Booker Prize is just as narrow• m)'S81f were al setting differenl tasks for and as any award for genre various people in !he ptt>fishing industry are lffnded parochial ousetves. an9"1lting ditfere!'t things, ar.:t fictk>n. B~ the Booker Prize is much bigge,-, offended by the judges' choice, 9Y811 IO the succooding or !ailing, in OU' cifferent ways. QetS on TV. seems hyped- point ol withdrawing financial 5UppOf1 for such and reported and I am In lall(U of awards when they serve ~ incidenfals as the aw-ams c«emony. Only John OUI of aH propcrion 10 its importance. to ce6ebrale what is good and draw it 10 the am tar more worried b)' the CIUte is prepi!fed 10 put his name to any I relalionstip attention of more raackn.: not when they between the pubishers and the John criticisms. with nothing more significant awatd. create losers and bad feeings. otherwise than a vague account of audience Clu1e seems 10 be suggesting that, apar1 from Writers get SCOided when they respond to the ac1ual prize to the author, the award is reaciion on the night OI the awardce,emony. negative reviews, I know, butt was horrified S1ripped of 108 emotional vefblage, John Clute oep8nclanl on lhe fillllncial support ol a ~miled by Maureen's misreading of Lost Fututes. number ol publishers. These companies have comes uncomfortabty Close lo saying that The She's welcome 10 i,is~ke ii, and I'm wilWng 10 a commitment to SF and are prepared to definition of SF should be based on what !he aixep11hal my attempt to explain lhe SF publishers (whoever they might be) choose cover the incidental costs of such things as connection between drearring and abemase the award ceremony. Solar, fair enough. He to label and sell as SF. I can'I help wondering universes haS failed miserably, or even thal Ihen goes on 10 say th.la !his support shOuld just who is pu• ng l'is strings. rve written tnlShy soap opera, ye1 I do 1hink betakeointoaocountbylhe}udges."They I cannot comment on Iha obvious ques&ion that a judge !or a literay award should read deart)' IM they'd had lheir money taken, and ofwtielher BodyotGlns islhebestbook.l with suffidenl atf8nfjor) lo notice lhal Luz their time wasted, undef false pretences.M t1av9n•1,eaa any of !he shOn·isled books. and comes not ln>rn the IUlure bYI: - ~ke all of WhileJohn Clute says elsewhere Chat ii nottq I've read so tar tempcs me to read any w.n Clare Beck.en's other selves - from a rightlorlhe~tocbXul!Arthu"C o11nem. "ii is the best SF now! pubish9d in cont~ alternate reality. Also, at Clarke's public for ooe of the 1992 the pobishers have nothing 10 complain suppon lhe end (which is not as a superficial reader 4 Vector might assume, set in her "baseWne reality" nor Sarah Canary isn't any less a great book were employed with assurarice and 10 an is there any such lhing as a baseline reality in because i1 cannot spor1 "Winner of lhe Arthur overalleffectthatlloundatleastaspleasirig this book) the man she meets is nO{ just any C Clarke Award" on ils front cover. as any of the olher books oo the shortlist. old romantic:: figure -- his identity is extremely Perhaps of more concern is the secood 2) Other shortNsted titles clearly show important. He's a kind of personification ot her issue, also raised by Colin Greenland in " something is happening" and Clur:e thinks own guilt-feelings, having been the boy she lntenone73. This is that the wrong book won "the panel of exper1s should have noticed was dallying wilh when she might have beeo because it didn't belong to the British SF lhis". They did. That was presumabty why savingherbrOlher's life -- that she is able to publishing stable, or (Greenland here) ii they shortlisted the books. recognize him now is a result of aH she has wasn't won by an up-and-coming, needy Bur: if he means simply lhat these others been lhrough and a sign ol how she has British wrtter. This is a more serious issue and were better boo!(s, we are back w~h personal changed. A se11:ual recoociliation is suggested, it worries me because ii smacks of lokenism opinion.