Interzone #298

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Rating: 3/5

A better than average issue. Stories that I found interesting in this issue were by Mame Bougouma Diene, Ai Jiang, Antony Paschos and Joyce Meggett.

• “Perpetual Motion Sickness” by Mame Bougouma Diene: a story that starts out as a contemporary one about a refugee family working to start a new life in America turns savagely dystopian when they discover what tasks they must do to gain entry. At the end, you wonder is the mother’s sacrifice is with the price.
• “Tangles” by Rachael Cupp: a disjointed story of a scientist with dementia struggling to remember the current state of the world.
• “Pray for the Ravaged Temples” by Carlos Norcia: a story on violence and identity in the slum areas of a South American city.
• “Where the Grass Is Always Whiter” by Ai Jiang: a Chinese family move into an area where their grass is green while the others are white. The daughter’s efforts to make their grass whiter to match frustrates the family until one day she sees another lawn, and she learns to enjoy the differences.
• “You Can Never Stock Up Enough Fans” by Antony Paschos: in a chaotic augmented future, a werebeast brings a cub to a doctor for surgery involving a chip. But the operation might only succeed with a deal they make after they fight off other AIs also hunting for the chip.
• “In the Eye of the Giant” by Saswati Chatterjee: on a final talk between a resident, soon to be forced away by an incoming conflict, and a giant that has been lying in a field for ages.
• “We Have Known Bright Hillsides Redolent of Gorse” by Joyce Meggett: a machine is damaged while removing a mine. As it attempts to repair itself, it finds itself enjoying nature more than working with war machines and starts a revolution when it meets other war machines and frees them from the same tasks.

Magazine read from 2024/03/24 to 2024/03/27