Interzone #292/#293

An average issue of Interzone, the last to be edited by Andy Cox, with interesting stories by Alexander Glass (three of them here), Cécile Cristofari and Tamika Thompson.

• "Wet Dreams" by Rich Larson: a story about a cat who appears to have swallowed something bad and it's consequences.

• "The Pain Barrier" by Alexander Glass: a man seeks a way to free a girl from an augmented prison surrounded by a wall of pain. It is only at the end does he realize how things were arranged for him to achieve his objective.

• "The Faerie Engine" by Alexander Glass: a Faerie visits a woman to ask for help to fix an engine. When the woman refuses, the Faerie finds a way to get her to help. In the process, the woman learns more about the Faerie world, and we learn it may be more real than fantasy.

• "The Soul Doctors" by Alexander Glass: an investigation by a detective goes wrong, and he gets help from a pair of truck drivers. As the story proceeds, we learn the drivers may be from an alternate world line and in this world, souls can be real and can affect how you live.

• "Thank You, Clicking Person" by Jeff Noon: a machine learns about the world through clicked images and makes some disturbing conclusions from the lack of people seen in clicked photos.

• "Subira's Lattice" by Val Nolan: an enslaved girl on Venus eventually gets freedom and learns of a secret after a catastrophe overtakes the planet, and she is one of the few survivors.

• "Walking in from the West" by Charles Wilkinson: an upper-class man who looks down on his neighbours is forced to accommodate them for a while due to a flood. As the story progresses, we learn about his high-class servant who takes liberties with his wealth and is punished as a result, and a strange ability of his neighbour's wife which will have consequences for the man.

• "Wind, river, angel song" by Cécile Cristofari: in a future when a strange disease can turn a human into a tree after heading an 'angel' sing, one new mother, who has been infected, has to struggle to raise her daughter, while hoping never to hear the singing.

• "The Thing About Ants and Astronauts" by Justen Russell: an astronaut in a scout ship investigates a mysterious dark nebula while thinking back to a time when her family had to deal with ants and realizes the connection between her situation and the ants investigating the contents of the house.

• "Bridget Has Disappeared" by Tamika Thompson: a journalist investigates the mysterious disappearances of his wife, which his wife constantly denies. The investigation would end with her final disappearance, but not before realizing what it may mean for their son and the world.

• "Rusting" by Lucy Zhang: a young girl gets infected and starts to 'rust' by turning into metal from the outside in. Eventually, a robot is sent to fetch her out of the house, and they begin an unknown journey into a rusting world.