NewsOur 2011 fund drive is underway! Donate via the main fund drive page, and see the current list of fund drive prizes here. Strange Horizons is looking for volunteers to help us prepare for our upcoming redesign, please see the blog for details. Contents12 September 2011COLUMN: Dice and D-Pads: Default Is Another Word for Fail, by Robyn FlemingWhat I mean by inclusiveness is whether or not a wide variety of players—not just the stereotypical audience of young, white, heterosexual males—will be able to see themselves represented at least a little bit as they play. FICTION: Messengers from the Stars Will Come To Help Us Overcome the Obstacles That Hold Us Back From Achieving Our True Potential., by Grady HendrixThe Staging Area was full of purpose that morning. Everyone was excited about the Upload and we were all on task for Mission Success. I woke up full of glory and went down to Room A to calorie load, which was what we called breakfast. POETRY: In the Third Cycle, by Rose LembergWhen your lips pressed / warm upon my palm, I should have known. REVIEW: This Week's Reviews, posted three times a weekMonday: Welcome to Bordertown: New Stories and Poems of the Borderlands, edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin 5 September 2011COLUMN: Lexias: World on a Wire, by Matthew CheneyWelcome to the future—which is also Paris in the winter of 1973. FICTION: The Fountain and the Shoe Store, by Paul Steven Marino"Look," I said, "this might be the last thing I ever build. And it'd be nice to have one last meeting where the review board doesn't ask if the Four Horsemen are going to show up, or if we've planned enough drainage for all the rivers of blood." POETRY: Lie-Father, by Gemma FilesI could always make you laugh. REVIEW: This Week's Reviews, posted three times a weekMonday: Game of Thrones, Season 1, reviewed by Niall Harrison and Nic Clarke 29 August 2011ARTICLE: Pat Cadigan: A Retrospective, by Tanya BrownA cursory web-search will tell you that Pat Cadigan is the Queen of Cyberpunk, but who wants to be queen of a moribund genre? BBC TV's Future Fantastic designated her, more promisingly, "the queen of modern science fiction;" Wired, though, may have come closest to the truth with the plaudit "sci-fi maverick." COLUMN: Intertitles: Adaptation (and Other Conversations), by Genevieve ValentineThe art of movie adaptation is a tricky one; though Hollywood has scoured literature for material since moving pictures were invented, it's awfully easy for the process to go unspeakably awry. FICTION: Introduction to "Home by the Sea", by Tricia SullivanCadigan's work spikes the envelope of Ballard's alienation and penetrates, bloodied, into that sense of bewilderment and near-panic that underlies nightmare. FICTION: Home by the Sea, by Pat Cadigan"At the hospital, people are offering themselves for exploratory surgery and vivisection. And the doctors who have a stomach for such things cut them open and explore their insides. Sometimes they remove internal organs and sew the people up again to see how they manage without them. They manage fine. And there is no blood, no blood anywhere." POETRY: Trenchcoat, by April GrantHere's your own world, bounded by one coat REVIEW: This Week's Reviews, posted three times a weekMonday: Dervish is Digital by Pat Cadigan, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy EDITORIAL: The 2011 Strange Horizons Fund Drive, by Niall HarrisonThese things seem to come around before you know it, don't they? 22 August 2011ARTICLE: Ecology and the Post-Apocalypse, by Banks MillerBy taking the time to think through their worlds scientifically, authors might not just find striking images and new apocalyptic possibilities, but will be able to engage their readers’ interest more thoroughly in speculation that presses beyond the pages of fiction. COLUMN: Diffractions: On Science, Emotions, and Culture (Part 1), by Vandana Singh[A] woman who had been a biology major confided in me that when she felt bad about killing baby mice for a biology research project, her professor (a woman, also) said something like: "How can you become a scientist if you are going to get so emotional?" POETRY: La Donna del Lago, by Mike Allenas he drowned unknowing, / pursued her murmur down into the deeps. REVIEW: This Week's Reviews, posted three times a weekMonday: A Brood of Foxes by Kristin Livdahl, reviewed by Chris Kammerud Strange Horizons is a weekly online magazine of science fiction, fantasy, science fact, opinion, art, and reviews. All material in Strange Horizons is copyrighted to the original authors and may not be reproduced without permission. Violators will be prosecuted. Updated every Monday Graphic design by Elaine Chen. |