INTERZONE: The First Anthology

by John; Colin Greenland & David Pringle--Eds. Clute ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1986

From an international array of contributors: 13 mostly downbeat tales, one new, the rest 1982-84, from the British sf magazine Interzone; the style is distinctively transatlantic--speculative rather than science fictional, with high literary standards, the focus on ""inner space""--and is best described as mature New Wave. J.G. Ballard weighs in with a brilliant, frightening piece about an assassin, supposedly stalking Ronald Reagan as he visits Queen Elizabeth, whose actual target is a dangerously mad, charismatic, political-religious-extremist ex-astronaut. Elsewhere, Malcom Edwards contributes a chilling nuclear-war piece; John Shirley writes about reality as maybe controlled by enigmatic aliens as a sort of TV; Cherry Wilder offers a whimsical yarn where narcotic fumes accidentally permeate a city, leading to all sorts of odd goings-on; and Keith Robert presents a dark, complex, well-handled post-nuclear tale. And there are other yarns about: an extermination camp run by Nazi feminists; Edgar Allan Poe; alien bombs; Marilyn Monroe as President; an angelic/alien rapist; a stowaway aboard a flying bomb; dreams packaged as entertainment; and dissecting Ronald Reagan. A weird and sometimes disturbing assortment that, with its narrow range of concerns (politics, nuclear war, reality control) provides a revealing glimpse of the contemporary British psyche.

Pub Date: April 8, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION