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The February 2008 issue of Interzone has stories by Jason Stoddard, Jennifer Linnaea, Christopher Priest, Jennifer Harwood-Smith and Mercurio D. Rivera. It also had the usual fine articles by David Langford, Nick Lowe, Tony Lee, John Clute and others.

The fiction begins with "Far Horizon" by Jason Stoddard. Alex is a brilliant man whose company has been absorbed by a mega-company called Winfinity. He tries doing other things, including educating an artificial winged being he names Shekinah. Mars is being terraformed and he decides to terraform Venus, keep it a secret and be there in 2800 years when it's completed. He goes into a cryogenic sleep. What will greet him when he wakes? In the next story, Jennifer Linnaea's "Pseudo Tokyo", Sean Randall is going on a tour of Tokyo through some kind of transporter accompanied by an odd tour guide. He is soon abandoned in a city that is definitely not the Tokyo of our world. What can he do to survive?

Next, we are treated to a tale by veteran writer Christopher Priest. This is a simple, quiet but lyrical story about a woman returning to the home of a former lover, a great writer who has died. She is given little notice by his family and friends, but when she visits the room in which he wrote, she experiences something special. "The Faces of My Friends" by Jennifer Harwood-Smith is the winner of the James White Award. The writer wanted to deal with the loss of freedom by women under the Taliban. She did this by telling of some future where a group of people are being persecuted and killed for merely expressing themselves. This did seem a bit arbitrary but was nonetheless quite effective.

The fiction concludes with a brilliant novelette by Mercurio D. Rivera, "The Scent of Their Arrival". The inhabitants of another planet wonder why communications from a ship orbiting their planet have been unsuccessful. The problem is that their race communicates by scent. We see the messages from the ship and they are from a future Earth which has been invaded by a race of vampire-like beings. Further, this planet appears to be ruled by inhabitants who are either "supernatualists" or "naturalists". They cooperate and share power. The story of both Earth and this planet develops in an exciting way with a great finish. This story will be on my Hugo Award short list for next year.

Once more, I highly recommend subscribing to this fine magazine.