User Profile

When David Attenborough was just starting on his career at the BBC, he presented an unusual request to the broadcaster: to go on expeditions for the London Zoo to collect animals and film themselves there, wandering about and catching animals. This book is a collection of three of those Zoo Quests: to Guyana, Komodo Island and Paraguay. Written by him and updated with a new introduction, the book serves as an excellent travelogue and a snapshot of the countries at those time.

In each country he visits as part of the Zoo Quest, he had a particular set of animals he wishes to collect; but he also collects other animals as part of the quests. Along the way, he meets a colourful host of characters who either help or hinder his quest. Attenborough also describes the country as he travels, giving the reader a feel of how the various countries were in those days before cheap air flights and instant communication have made travelling so much easier.

Of course, as Attenborough notes in the introduction, Zoo Quest would never have been done now; collecting animals is now frowned upon and the London Zoo now acts as more of a way to preserve wild animals that may be close to extinction.

For those who enjoy watching and reading about David Attenborough, this is a good book to read. It fills in a lot of the details about the Zoo Quests left out in his biography and other books, and documentaries, about that period of time. The book also comes with a small selection of black-and-white and colour prints showing the various people and environments he encountered in those three Zoo Quests.

An above average issue, with a ghostly theme running through it, with various ghosts in various forms featured in some of the stories. Kate Wilhelm's ghost story is the strongest, with a test of wills between ghosts and the living. Marc Laidlaw's story is another good one, while the tale by J. R. Dawson features a metaphorical ghost from the future, or perhaps the past, depending on your time point of view.

• "Attachments" by Kate Wilhelm: an interesting story about ghosts who are cursed to be attached to an abandoned castle for all eternity. But two of the ghosts manage to attach themselves to a girl who wanders into the castle, setting off a chain of events involving apparent violent revenge by one of the ghosts against the girl he loves, and a hunt for gold by the other ghost to help free all the other ghosts trapped by the castle. But then the girl comes up with an alternative suggestion to free the ghosts which, perhaps also helps free herself from her own internal ghost of a relationship.

• "Carbo" by Nick Wolven: another story with ghost-like attributes. Here, an AI powered car nicknamed 'Carbo' has picked up the habit of constantly showing porn, taking inappropriate shots of women and taking sex-related routes for its driver. But how much of its behaviour is really due to the driver's own porn habit, and how much to illegally installed 'software enhancements' and malware is left as an exercise to the reader. Getting rid of the behaviour would take a very involved conversation with the driver's mother and intensive car hacking.

• "Big Girl" by Meg Elison: a fantasy tale about a girl who is suddenly very big and the problems it causes to both the nearby city and to herself personally, as told via voyeuristic social media posts about her nakedness. It gets too much, and she leaves, only to return when she starts to shrink again. But her problems aren't over.

• "Stillborne" by Marc Laidlaw: another interesting tale of Gorlen Vizenfirthe and the gargoyle Spar. In this story, partially told in flashback, we discover the circumstances by which Gorlen's and Spar's hands have been magically switched, and their ongoing quest to find the sorcerer who did it, so they can switch them back. The main story involves a journey towards the 'philosopher moths' which can grant mental insight or physical healing to those who imbue a certain liquid, perhaps aiding them in the quest. Caught up in it is the girl which was involved with Gorlen at the time of the hand switching and whom they encounter again during the journey. But when the depleted moths finally fly, the results may not be what the people making the journey expect and may lead the trio to reconsider their future path.

• "By the Red Giant's Light" by Larry Niven: a short piece of the far future when the sun is turning into a red giant and gradually swallowing the inner planets. Set on Pluto, it sees an inhabitant struggling to divert an incoming object (a comet) from Pluto: if only it can convince a robot with the right equipment to help.

• "Marley and Marley" by J. R. Dawson: an interesting tale of a time loop when an older self is sent back in time to take care of her younger self. The youngster resents her older self, especially when she (the older one) refuses to divulge what happens in the future. Question is, should she (the younger one) try to alter her future, and can the future be altered?

• "Water God's Dog" by R. S. Benedict: in a land that worships a god that provides water, an old priest is consumed by the god's desire for a certain young boy. After locating the boy, they proceed into the heart of the mountain where the god lives and see his water based gifts. But when the god's desire is satiated, what is the priest to do?

• "Racing the Rings of Saturn" by Ingrid Garcia: a fascinating story about a race around the rings of Saturn, tied in with politics as rebellious settlements around Saturn (and Jupiter) vie with authoritarian regimes for control and freedom.

• "Whatever Comes After Calcutta" by David Erik Nelson: (Calcutta here refers to Calcutta, Ohio) A man is nearly killed when he stumbles into an affair his wife was having. Chasing after her and her lover, he runs into an apparent lynching of a witch and rescues the woman. But all is not as it seems as the woman starts to have an influence on him as he continues the hunt for his wife.

A below average issue of Interzone, containing eerie tales not quite to my taste. The ones that I found most interesting are by Laura Mauro and the 2017 James White Award Winner story by Stewart Horn.

• "Looking for Laika" by Laura Mauro: a story about a kid living near a beach with his grandparents and younger sister who has a paranoid fear of nuclear war. He fights the fear by keeping to a routine while keeping his sister occupied with a story of the Soviet space dog, Laika, exploring the universe to find a new place to live. Things come to a head when his sister finds a strange dog tag and a tragic event occurs in London.

• "After the Titans" by Rachael Cupp: in a strange time when titan roam the earth, a girl makes an agreement with a titan to heal her injured brother. But it may force her to sacrifice the object of her desires.

• "Fully Automated Nostalgia Capitalism" by Dan Grace: in a future where nostalgia for things past is regulated, a couple tries to escape their regulated lives.

• "The Big So-So" by Erica L. Satifka: in a future, humanity has been divided into those who pass a 'test' via a pleasurable chemical and are accepted by aliens into 'Paradise' and those who do not. Naturally, civilization has broken down as people not accepted give up hope. But two people want to change things: one by stealing the chemical, and the other by raising civilization again. Only time will tell who succeeds.

• "The Garden of Eating" by R. Boyczuk: a tale of a boy in a brutal post-war like future, looking for food. He is warned by a mysterious guide who intones UN-like 'resolutions' against working with a woman who apparently represents America.

• "The Morrigan" by Stewart Horn: a tale of gang violence as told by one of the gang members in a town when a mysterious girl appears who offers weapons of violence and slowly begins to incite the gang members to take up arms against other gangs. When he survives the violence that ensues, he sets off to hunt down the girl; but is it to bring her to justice or to join her?