Science Fiction Encyclopedia

The third edition of the Science Fiction Encyclopedia is now on-line. It includes an article about Jupiter magazine that mentions my Roadmaker series, much to my excitement.

Latest Magazines

I have a small collection of paper magazines to look forward to reading over the next couple of weeks:

Jupiter XXXII
Interzone 233
Murky Depths #16

All three generaly contain stories that I enjoy and I've been reading them for quite a few issues now.

Meanwhile, in other UK based genre 'zine news:

AltHist #2 is in the works, with stories also accepted for #3.
CossMass Infinities is up to podcast #11, but that was put on line in November.
Dark Fiction Magazine podcast #7 is available. I don't know if it's just my computer, but I can barely read the light blue font. :o(
Spectra magazine is on issue #2, but is now on hiatus due to some technicality that I don't understand.
Singularity will be available for download 'in the coming weeks'.
Midnight Street #14 has been available for a while, now in electronic format.
The Winter 2010 edition of Estronomicon is still available to download.
Hub magazine is up to issue #139, rather impressively.

That should be enough short fiction for anyone.

Favourite Stories of 2010

It's time to look back over a year's worth of reviews and a collection of other magazines I read during the year to see which were my favourite stories of the year. Here's the result, in alphabetical order:

A Clown in Apus – Gary Budgen – Jupiter XXVIII
Agents of Repair – Rosie Oliver – Jupiter XXIX
Alternate Girl’s Expatriate Life - Rochita Luenen-Ruiz – Interzone 229
Frogs on my Doorstep - Annette Reader - Albedo One 39
Ishin – Madelin Ashby – Shine
Over Water – Jon Ingold – Interzone 228
Plague Birds – Jason Sanford – Interzone 228
Served - Rauri MacInnes – Murky Depths 11
Spare Change – Jay Eales - Murky Depths 12
The Bottle Garden – Mike Wood – Jupiter XXIX
The Cloth from which she is Cut – Gareth Owens – Fun with Rainbows
The Shipmaker – Aliette De Bodard – Interzone 231
The Shoe Factory - Matthew Cook – Interzone 231
The Story of Andrew Haddock, Part 2 - Dave Barnett – Murky Depths 11

Half the Moons of Jupiter

I've been reading the latest issue of Jupiter magazine this week, entitled Hermippe after Jupiter's 30th moon. In his editorial, Ian Redman makes the point that when he started publishing the magazine, he thought 63 moons will be plenty. Now he's half way through them and the last dozen or so still haven't been named! Thirty issues is an impressive number for a small press magazine and I still enjoy reading each issue.

Two Magazines

I've read 2 magazines over the past few days:

Jupiter XXIX, with 5 stories, of which I'm undecided as to my favourite. Mike Wood's The Bottle Garden or Rosies Oliver's Agents of Repair.

The latest edition of the BSFA' critical journal Vector also arrived. The theme this time was children's and YA genre fiction. Lots of books were highlighted, none of which I read as a child. I talked about my early reading habits in this post. What were you reading in the old days?

Frisian Translation

The Frisian translation of Dog's Best Friend has been published this week on Ensafh, the Frisian literary website. This flash fiction story is set in the world of the Roadmaker and originaly appeared as a piece of Friday Flash Fiction. It was later published in Jupiter, where the original Roadmaker series appeared, and has since been translated into Bengali for the Sonajhuri literary webzine.

Frisian is my twentieth published language.

Zooniverse

I read the new issue of Jupiter this week. As usual I enjoyed the whole issue - it seems to be the magazine closest to my taste in short stories. One story in particular stood out though - Gary Budgen's A Clown in Apus. It's a brilliantly clever idea of a CERN-type set-up creating a pocket universe, set in a zoo (there is a reason for that!) The way the author has applied complex physics into a mundane setting is genius.

Now Reading

This week I've finished Trevor Denyer's excellent debut collection The Edge of the Country, and read Jupiter XXVI, in which I particularly enjoyed David Conyers' The Octagon.

Today I've started on Paul McCauley's Gardens of the Sun, and after much translatlantic delay, my contributor copy of Pow!erful Tales finally arrived. It's a shiny-looking book with lots of atmospheric pencil drawings to accompany the superhero stories.

Latest Magazines

Jupiter XXVI: Isonoe is on its way, which I'm looking forward to. Of all the magazines I've read, Jupiter most closely matches my taste in stories.

Also out this week is the latest issue of Estronomicon, described this time as being darker than usual.

Go, read, and enjoy yourself!

Dog's Best Friend Reviewed

Jupiter has been reviewed at The Fix for the first time, and David Hebblethwaite has this to say about my contribution:

Rounding things off is “Dog’s Best Friend” by Gareth D. Jones. This is a very short piece (one page), attached to the universe of Jones’s “Roadmaker” stories, but it stands perfectly well on its own. It is a character study of Alf, who lives in a post-apocalyptic society, and would rather spend time with dogs than seek out human contact. The story is nicely effective within its limited parameters, and ends the magazine on a poignant and thoughtful note.

Reading Jupiter

Just finished reading Jupiter XXV and I must say it's hard to pick a favourite from the bunch. At least 3 of the 5 stories were particularly effective and had strong emotion-filled conclusions. Just pipping them for me was the final story of the issue - Vera Sepulveda's Dusting Tycho.

New Jupiter Review

A new review of Jupiter XXIV has appeared, on SF Site. Of my story Dog's Best Friend it says:

To begin at the end, with the shortest story, Gareth D. Jones offers an enjoyable snippet, a little character sketch, in his Roadbuilder sequence.

:o)

A Pleasure to Read

The first review of Jupiter XXIV has appeared, over at SF Revu. It has this to say about my contribution:

Last of all, we have "Dog's Best Friend" by Gareth D Jones. Set in the world of Jones' wonderful Roadmaker series, the story features Alf, an old man, who has no human friends but still finds some companionship of the four-footed kind. This was a pleasant affectionate look at humans and dogs that was a pleasure to read.

Dog's Best Friend

Jupiter XXIV is now out, and includes my flash fiction story Dog’s Best Friend, set in the world of the Roadmaker. I had a few complimentary comments when the original version appeared on my blog, not least the request to reprint it in Jupiter.

On the Road Again

I’ve had confirmation that Dog’s Best Friend will be appearing in the April issue of Jupiter magazine, my sixth appearance in that magazine. It’s set in the world of the Roadmaker and revolves around one of the minor characters from that series.

Roadmaker Nears Catalonia

The first issue of Catalan science fiction magazine Catarsi is almost ready. The editors asked for my bio this week and the table of contents is up on their blog. You can read the English Google translation here, where you’ll see that Roadmaker becomes Road Openers in Catalan, or maybe only when translated back into English again.

I’m sharing the billing with Santiago Examino, formerly the editor of Efimeras, who has translated six of my flash fiction stories into Spanish.

Roadmaker is also due to appear in Hebrew in Bli Panika this year. Dog’s Best Friend, set in the Roadmaker world, is due to appear in Jupiter and has been translated into Bengali. I have yet to find a market for that though.

Nominations

It’s that time of year again when I start compiling my list of favourite stories of the year. I have 14 so far – stories that I’ve found entertaining, enjoyable, touching or just fantastic. I’m trying to whittle this down to a shorter list to nominate for the BSFA award.

For the first time ever I’ve actually read some novels that were published this year so I may nominate one of them too. I’m usually reading books that are up to 50 years old.

I’ve had five stories published this year too, four in the Roadmaker series published in Jupiter and Travel by Numbers in Nature, should you fancy nominating any of them.

Not that I’m kidding myself into thinking they have much of a chance. Jupiter is a small press magazine so presumably doesn’t have as great a circulation as some magazines. Nature has a circulation in the hundreds of thousands, but how many of those readers are also BSFA members? It may seem unfair that good stories from some venues will be overlooked (and I’m not talking about my own stories here), but that’s just demographics. Awards that rely on nominations will naturally receive more nominations for publications with higher circulations. The alternative is an award decided by judges, but this is equally unfair as it depends entirely on their personal choice. I’m sure when you see my list of favourite stories at the end of the year you won’t have liked half of them.

I guess it’s best to be philosophical about awards. If at some point in the future I ever receive one, I’m sure I won’t be worried about how it was decided. So I’ll put in my nominations and see if many others agree with my choices.

Roadmaker's Return

My recent Friday Flash Fiction, Dog's Best Friend, was set in the world of the Roadmaker and received some positive comments from readers. In fact, Jupiter editor Ian Redman liked it so much that he's asked to reprint it in Jupiter. So look out for the Roadmaker's return in a future issue of Jupiter.

Roadbuilder Reviewed Again

Another reveiw of Jupiter XXII is on-line at SF Crowsnest and has this to say about Roadbuilder:

Gareth D. Jones' road stories have eventually run their course with 'Roadbuilder', the last of the five part series. I'll try not to make any puns about transport, which is difficult, but it has been an excellent journey. The people of this quaint land get to grips with computer technology in order to control the road-making machine. Whatever happened to make this a post-apocalypse world we don't really know but the machine has acted to connect disparate communities, strengthening society and advancing communication. However, one wonders how long will be before double yellow lines are painted along the new roads and parking wardens make an appearance?

Now there's an idea for the novel...

First Final Review

The first review of Jupiter XXII containing my final Roadmaker story has appeared at SF Revu. Of Roadbuilder, Sam Tomaino writes:

The third story, "Roadbuilder" is, alas, the last installment in Gareth D. Jones' "Roadmaker" series. In this one, we get updates of the characters we have come to love from the other installments and more old technology is discovered and made to work. Things get wrapped up somewhat but I do hope that sometime Jones will turn this into a novel. He is talented at creating characters and has a style I enjoy.

Regular readers of this blog will know that there is indeed a Roadmaker novel in the pipeline, currently hovering around the 60,000 word mark.