Interzone Magazine

Interzone is a British science fiction and fantasy magazine that publishes short stories, articles, interviews, regular columns and reviews of books, films and DVDs. During its 26 year history it has helped to jumpstart the careers of many of today’s most famous science fiction authors, including Stephen Baxter, Greg Egan and Alastair Reynolds.

Facts About Interzone:

Interzone’s table of contents is similar to other genre magazines, but unlike those others it is only published bi-monthly (every other month) with six issues coming out each year. The issues are numbered similar to comic books – with an issue number as well as the month and year it was published. So, for example, Interzone #218 is the October 2008 issue.

Interzone is currently owned by TTA Press, which also publishes two other genre magazines and a has published a handful of books as well. TTA Press wasn’t always the owner of Interzone though – apparently the reins of the magazine changed hands back in 2004 when the original founding editor of Interzone stepped down and TTA Press took over. TTA stands for “The Third Alternative,” which was the name of another magazine they published – although its name has been changed to “Black Static” since taking over Interzone.

All of these facts are interesting, but lately I have been quite intrigued with Interzone thanks to Jason Sanford. His short story “The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain” was recently published in the magazine, and in honor of the occasion (and also to boost readership of a well deserving magazine that publishes great science fiction short stories) he has been running a “win-a-subscription-to-Interzone” contest.

My Two Cents:

Anyway, not knowing too much about the magazine I spent several hours looking online for information about Interzone. Finding really good information was a bit challenging, but I was impressed by the quality of the artwork I saw, as well as the quality of stories contained in Interzone. Overall it seems like a really great magazine, although I must confess that I have never actually read a “real” issue. What I have read though are several science fiction short stories that have appeared in Interzone. If you are curious about the quality of Interzone’s stories then take a look at the following list – which links to some of my reviews about stories that originally appeared in Interzone.

• The Giving Plague by David Brin – Interzone # 23 (Spring 1988)
• Raft by Stephen Baxter – Interzone #31 (Sep/Oct 1989)
• The Clockwork Atom Bomb by Dominic Green – Interzone # 198 (May/June 2005)
• A Spy in Europa by Alastair Reynolds – Interzone #120 (June 1997)

Some Interesting Links:

If any of this has sparked your curiosity about Interzone then here are some excellent links worth perusing:

• TTA Press’s website for Interzone has a great blog that keeps readers and subscribers informed of its goings on. They also have some free downloads, and links for buying subscriptions directly from them – in US dollars or British pounds.
• If you like the magazine and have an Amazon account you can also subscribe to Interzone via Amazon.com.
• Fictionwise.com allows you to buy an e-subscription to Interzone for considerably less than a “hard copy” subscription.
• Also at Fictionwise, you can buy single electronic issues for a few dollars – what a great to try out an issue of Interzone!
• Greg Egan has a fairly comprehensive index to articles, interviews, stories and reviews that have appeared in Interzone.

So, to sum it all up: Interzone is a British magazine that consistently publishes some of the best science fiction short stories around! If you consider yourself a true connoisseur of science fiction short stories then I think you owe it to yourself to at least take a look.

Many happy reads! And if any of you are Interzone subscribers please tell us about your experience with the magazine.

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