{"id":923,"date":"2011-02-23T16:03:32","date_gmt":"2011-02-23T16:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=923"},"modified":"2014-06-24T18:14:46","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T17:14:46","slug":"albedo-one-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=923","title":{"rendered":"ALBEDO ONE 31"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This is an unusual issue of Albedo One<\/em> as the Irish magazine devotes the majority of its space to the six stories shortlisted for the inaugural Aeon Prize \u2013 a short-fiction competition organised by the people behind Albedo One <\/em>and awarded at last year\u2019s Worldcon in Glasgow.<\/h3>\n

The result is that the stories are rather atypical of Albedo One\u2019s<\/em> normal make-up featuring rather more straight-up sf stories and rather fewer of the darker urban fantasy\/horror mix that the magazine most frequently prints. They say a change is as good as a rest, but that only really counts if the quality of the writing in these stories stands up to the magazines normally high standards.<\/p>\n

The interesting thing about having all the Aeon Prize shortlist all in one place is that it allows the reader to assess whether the judges made the right choice. What is certainly clear is that they didn\u2019t have it easy \u2013 there are six very strong contenders here, but I think I agree with them \u2013 by a very narrow margin Julian West\u2019s My Marriage<\/strong> is probably the best of the stories: but I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t have to make the decision.<\/p>\n

My Marriage<\/strong> is a love story based around the mating habits of a species where the men live on land and the women live in the ocean. West\u2019s writing is exceptionally strong and the sense of melancholy he laces through the story is extremely affecting without ever lolling over into sentimentality. West has made a bit of a habit of winning Irish science fiction awards (he also won 2002\u2019s James White Award) and its easy to see why, he handles the alien nature of his creatures with real delicacy while never letting us forget how strange their lives are.<\/p>\n

Dev Agarwal\u2019s Queen of Engines<\/strong> must have pushed the winner very close \u2013 a thickly multi-layered story that wraps an attempt to assassinate Ada Lovelace into a struggle between reason and magic, the future and the past. The writing has a tendency to twist and turn and become as complex as the history of London \u2013 the city becoming as much a character in the plot as any of the living creatures. This is strong, unusual and rewarding stuff.<\/p>\n

Like Snow<\/strong> by Brian Richmond is a short, rather slight tale. The central image \u2013 of silent, motionless ghosts appearing in everyday places, disturbing the equilibrium of everyday life \u2013 is very striking, but the story doesn\u2019t then go anywhere in particular and, like the ghosts, it rather fades away. The writing, however, is strong and atmospheric.<\/p>\n

Dutch writer Tais Teng\u2019s Expatiating Ancestral Sins <\/strong>is another really strong story. In the far future, humanity has been forced to keep to the edges of the galaxy and hide their presence from a fierce whale-like species (the High Partners) who dominate space. Humanity\u2019s terror of being discovered is made worse by their \u201cancestral sin\u201d \u2013 causing the extinction of the whales \u2013 and the knowledge that the High Partners would wipe them out. Against this background the Daimyo (Earth\u2019s leader) discovers that the High Partners have collected an early earth space probe which included a disk containing the exact location of Earth and a sample of whale song (which, perhaps not surprisingly suggests the whales weren\u2019t very happy: \u201cBrothers, who swam to the stars, remember us, revenge us!\u201d). The Daimyo undergoes excruciating surgery to infiltrate the High Partners\u2019 inner sanctum in an effort to destroy the recording before it is played. Then he discovers an important secret. This is one of those stories that really grew on me, the opening paragraphs had me grunting and grumbling wondering what was going on, but by the end I was gripped.<\/p>\n

Andrew McKenna\u2019s Letting Out the Angels<\/strong> is the kind of dark fantasy I most normally associate with Albedo One \u2013 featuring a serial killer who believes he is releasing angels from the bodies of his victims. McKenna uses language nicely though he never quite succeeds in making us feel truly sympathetic for his protagonist \u2013 even as he meets his inevitable fate.<\/p>\n

In a world where everyone has the \u201cright\u201d to have themselves surgically altered and pneumatically tucked, you know it\u2019s only a matter of time before someone tries to have themselves turned into a cat or a hamster. That\u2019s the set-up in David D Levine\u2019s I Hold My Father\u2019s Paws <\/strong>but what could have been a rather silly story is saved by Levine\u2019s handling of the motivation behind one character\u2019s decision to change. I found myself surprisingly moved by this story.<\/p>\n

This issue of Albedo One also features one story that was not on the Aeon Award shortlist, A Coin For The Ferryman <\/strong>by Justin Stanchfield. I ended up liking this story rather less than the others featured here, not because it is any less well written \u2013 it\u2019s basically a rather good story set aboard a spaceship orbiting an unescapable prison planet as a lawyer attempts to buy time for her client. There were, however, a couple of issues I couldn\u2019t quite square. The first problem is one of science: no one can escape from the planet because the gravity is too intense to allow a spacecraft to reach escape velocity, but apparently not so intense that it doesn\u2019t crush anyone who sets foot on it. I couldn\u2019t see how this was possible, surely a deep gravity well \u201csimply\u201d requires a bigger engine and if mankind can afford to move people across the galaxy to imprison him, then big engines hardly seem a problem? More importantly, however, I wasn\u2019t keen on the conclusion, which requires the lawyer to abandon the principles she\u2019s spent the entire story espousing simply because she likes someone else better than her client.<\/p>\n

Albedo One<\/em> is a constantly strong small press magazine and this issue is one of the best it has produced for as long as I\u2019ve been reading it. The package is rounded off by a rather splendid colour cover featuring a surrealist-inspired image of a ballerina by Russian artist Alexander Kruglov, an interesting interview with Charlie Stross and the usual reviews and comments. I strongly recommend you buy an issue.<\/p>\n

Albedo One, 2 Post Road, Lusk, Co. Dublin, Ireland
\nA4, 56pp, \u20ac5.95\/\u00a34.95 (print) or \u20ac2.00 download or \u20ac23.00 (Ireland)\/\u20ac29.50 (RoW)\/\u00a319.50 (UK) for four issues<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Albedo One<\/p>\n

2 Post Road, Lusk, Co. Dublin, Ireland<\/p>\n

A4, 56pp, \u20ac5.95\/\u00a34.95 (print) or \u20ac2.00 download or \u20ac23.00 (Ireland)\/\u20ac29.50 (RoW)\/\u00a319.50 (UK) for four issues<\/p>\n

\n

Issue 31<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Martin McGrath<\/p>\n

\n

This is an unusual issue of Albedo One as the Irish magazine devotes the majority of its space to the six stories shortlisted for the inaugural Aeon Prize \u2013 a short-fiction competition organised by the people behind Albedo One and awarded at last year\u2019s Worldcon in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

The result is that the stories are rather atypical of Albedo One\u2019s normal make-up featuring rather more straight-up sf stories and rather fewer of the darker urban fantasy\/horror mix that the magazine most frequently prints. They say a change is as good as a rest, but that only really counts if the quality of the writing in these stories stands up to the magazines normally high standards.<\/p>\n

The interesting thing about having all the Aeon Prize shortlist all in one place is that it allows the reader to assess whether the judges made the right choice. What is certainly clear is that they didn\u2019t have it easy \u2013 there are six very strong contenders here, but I think I agree with them \u2013 by a very narrow margin Julian West\u2019s My Marriage<\/strong> is probably the best of the stories: but I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t have to make the decision.<\/p>\n

My Marriage<\/strong> is a love story based around the mating habits of a species where the men live on land and the women live in the ocean. West\u2019s writing is exceptionally strong and the sense of melancholy he laces through the story is extremely affecting without ever lolling over into sentimentality. West has made a bit of a habit of winning Irish science fiction awards (he also won 2002\u2019s James White Award) and its easy to see why, he handles the alien nature of his creatures with real delicacy while never letting us forget how strange their lives are.<\/p>\n

Dev Agarwal\u2019s Queen of Engines<\/strong> must have pushed the winner very close \u2013 a thickly multi-layered story that wraps an attempt to assassinate Ada Lovelace into a struggle between reason and magic, the future and the past. The writing has a tendency to twist and turn and become as complex as the history of London \u2013 the city becoming as much a character in the plot as any of the living creatures. This is strong, unusual and rewarding stuff.<\/p>\n

Like Snow<\/strong> by Brian Richmond is a short, rather slight tale. The central image \u2013 of silent, motionless ghosts appearing in everyday places, disturbing the equilibrium of everyday life \u2013 is very striking, but the story doesn\u2019t then go anywhere in particular and, like the ghosts, it rather fades away. The writing, however, is strong and atmospheric.<\/p>\n

Dutch writer Tais Teng\u2019s Expatiating Ancestral Sins <\/strong>is another really strong story. In the far future, humanity has been forced to keep to the edges of the galaxy and hide their presence from a fierce whale-like species (the High Partners) who dominate space. Humanity\u2019s terror of being discovered is made worse by their \u201cancestral sin\u201d \u2013 causing the extinction of the whales \u2013 and the knowledge that the High Partners would wipe them out. Against this background the Daimyo (Earth\u2019s leader) discovers that the High Partners have collected an early earth space probe which included a disk containing the exact location of Earth and a sample of whale song (which, perhaps not surprisingly suggests the whales weren\u2019t very happy: \u201cBrothers, who swam to the stars, remember us, revenge us!\u201d). The Daimyo undergoes excruciating surgery to infiltrate the High Partners\u2019 inner sanctum in an effort to destroy the recording before it is played. Then he discovers an important secret. This is one of those stories that really grew on me, the opening paragraphs had me grunting and grumbling wondering what was going on, but by the end I was gripped.<\/p>\n

Andrew McKenna\u2019s Letting Out the Angels<\/strong> is the kind of dark fantasy I most normally associate with Albedo One \u2013 featuring a serial killer who believes he is releasing angels from the bodies of his victims. McKenna uses language nicely though he never quite succeeds in making us feel truly sympathetic for his protagonist \u2013 even as he meets his inevitable fate.<\/p>\n

In a world where everyone has the \u201cright\u201d to have themselves surgically altered and pneumatically tucked, you know it\u2019s only a matter of time before someone tries to have themselves turned into a cat or a hamster. That\u2019s the set-up in David D Levine\u2019s I Hold My Father\u2019s Paws <\/strong>but what could have been a rather silly story is saved by Levine\u2019s handling of the motivation behind one character\u2019s decision to change. I found myself surprisingly moved by this story.<\/p>\n

This issue of Albedo One also features one story that was not on the Aeon Award shortlist, A Coin For The Ferryman <\/strong>by Justin Stanchfield. I ended up liking this story rather less than the others featured here, not because it is any less well written \u2013 it\u2019s basically a rather good story set aboard a spaceship orbiting an unescapable prison planet as a lawyer attempts to buy time for her client. There were, however, a couple of issues I couldn\u2019t quite square. The first problem is one of science: no one can escape from the planet because the gravity is too intense to allow a spacecraft to reach escape velocity, but apparently not so intense that it doesn\u2019t crush anyone who sets foot on it. I couldn\u2019t see how this was possible, surely a deep gravity well \u201csimply\u201d requires a bigger engine and<\/p>\n

Albedo One<\/p>\n

2 Post Road, Lusk, Co. Dublin, Ireland<\/p>\n

A4, 56pp, \u20ac5.95\/\u00a34.95 (print) or \u20ac2.00 download or \u20ac23.00 (Ireland)\/\u20ac29.50 (RoW)\/\u00a319.50 (UK) for four issues<\/p>\n

Issue 31<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Martin McGrath<\/p>\n

This is an unusual issue of Albedo One as the Irish magazine devotes the majority of its space to the six stories shortlisted for the inaugural Aeon Prize \u2013 a short-fiction competition organised by the people behind Albedo One and awarded at last year\u2019s Worldcon in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

The result is that the stories are rather atypical of Albedo One\u2019s normal make-up featuring rather more straight-up sf stories and rather fewer of the darker urban fantasy\/horror mix that the magazine most frequently prints. They say a change is as good as a rest, but that only really counts if the quality of the writing in these stories stands up to the magazines normally high standards.<\/p>\n

The interesting thing about having all the Aeon Prize shortlist all in one place is that it allows the reader to assess whether the judges made the right choice. What is certainly clear is that they didn\u2019t have it easy \u2013 there are six very strong contenders here, but I think I agree with them \u2013 by a very narrow margin Julian West\u2019s My Marriage<\/strong> is probably the best of the stories: but I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t have to make the decision.<\/p>\n

My Marriage<\/strong> is a love story based around the mating habits of a species where the men live on land and the women live in the ocean. West\u2019s writing is exceptionally strong and the sense of melancholy he laces through the story is extremely affecting without ever lolling over into sentimentality. West has made a bit of a habit of winning Irish science fiction awards (he also won 2002\u2019s James White Award) and its easy to see why, he handles the alien nature of his creatures with real delicacy while never letting us forget how strange their lives are.<\/p>\n

Dev Agarwal\u2019s Queen of Engines<\/strong> must have pushed the winner very close \u2013 a thickly multi-layered story that wraps an attempt to assassinate Ada Lovelace into a struggle between reason and magic, the future and the past. The writing has a tendency to twist and turn and become as complex as the history of London \u2013 the city becoming as much a character in the plot as any of the living creatures. This is strong, unusual and rewarding stuff.<\/p>\n

Like Snow<\/strong> by Brian Richmond is a short, rather slight tale. The central image \u2013 of silent, motionless ghosts appearing in everyday places, disturbing the equilibrium of everyday life \u2013 is very striking, but the story doesn\u2019t then go anywhere in particular and, like the ghosts, it rather fades away. The writing, however, is strong and atmospheric.<\/p>\n

Dutch writer Tais Teng\u2019s Expatiating Ancestral Sins <\/strong>is another really strong story. In the far future, humanity has been forced to keep to the edges of the galaxy and hide their presence from a fierce whale-like species (the High Partners) who dominate space. Humanity\u2019s terror of being discovered is made worse by their \u201cancestral sin\u201d \u2013 causing the extinction of the whales \u2013 and the knowledge that the High Partners would wipe them out. Against this background the Daimyo (Earth\u2019s leader) discovers that the High Partners have collected an early earth space probe which included a disk containing the exact location of Earth and a sample of whale song (which, perhaps not surprisingly suggests the whales weren\u2019t very happy: \u201cBrothers, who swam to the stars, remember us, revenge us!\u201d). The Daimyo undergoes excruciating surgery to infiltrate the High Partners\u2019 inner sanctum in an effort to destroy the recording before it is played. Then he discovers an important secret. This is one of those stories that really grew on me, the opening paragraphs had me grunting and grumbling wondering what was going on, but by the end I was gripped.<\/p>\n

Andrew McKenna\u2019s Letting Out the Angels<\/strong> is the kind of dark fantasy I most normally associate with Albedo One \u2013 featuring a serial killer who believes he is releasing angels from the bodies of his victims. McKenna uses language nicely though he never quite succeeds in making us feel truly sympathetic for his protagonist \u2013 even as he meets his inevitable fate.<\/p>\n

In a world where everyone has the \u201cright\u201d to have themselves surgically altered and pneumatically tucked, you know it\u2019s only a matter of time before someone tries to have themselves turned into a cat or a hamster. That\u2019s the set-up in David D Levine\u2019s I Hold My Father\u2019s Paws <\/strong>but what could have been a rather silly story is saved by Levine\u2019s handling of the motivation behind one character\u2019s decision to change. I found myself surprisingly moved by this story.<\/p>\n

This issue of Albedo One also features one story that was not on the Aeon Award shortlist, A Coin For The Ferryman <\/strong>by Justin Stanchfield. I ended up liking this story rather less than the others featured here, not because it is any less well written \u2013 it\u2019s basically a rather good story set aboard a spaceship orbiting an unescapable prison planet as a lawyer attempts to buy time for her client. There were, however, a couple of issues I couldn\u2019t quite square. The first problem is one of science: no one can escape from the planet because the gravity is too intense to allow a spacecraft to reach escape velocity, but apparently not so intense that it doesn\u2019t crush anyone who sets foot on it. I couldn\u2019t see how this was possible, surely a deep gravity well \u201csimply\u201d requires a bigger engine and if mankind can afford to move people across the galaxy to imprison him, then big engines hardly seem a problem? More importantly, however, I wasn\u2019t keen on the conclusion, which requires the lawyer to abandon the principles she\u2019s spent the entire story espousing simply because she likes someone else better than her client.<\/p>\n

Albedo One<\/em> is a constantly strong small press magazine and this issue is one of the best it has produced for as long as I\u2019ve been reading it. The package is rounded off by a rather splendid colour cover featuring a surrealist-inspired image of a ballerina by Russian artist Alexander Kruglov, an interesting interview with Charlie Stross and the usual reviews and comments. I strongly recommend you buy an issue.<\/p>\n

if mankind can afford to move people across the galaxy to imprison him, then big engines hardly seem a problem? More importantly, however, I wasn\u2019t keen on the conclusion, which requires the lawyer to abandon the principles she\u2019s spent the entire story espousing simply because she likes someone else better than her client.<\/p>\n

Albedo One<\/em> is a constantly strong small press magazine and this issue is one of the best it has produced for as long as I\u2019ve been reading it. The package is rounded off by a rather splendid colour cover featuring a surrealist-inspired image of a ballerina by Russian artist Alexander Kruglov, an interesting interview with Charlie Stross and the usual reviews and comments. I strongly recommend you buy an issue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an unusual issue of Albedo One as the Irish magazine devotes the majority of its space to the six stories shortlisted for the inaugural Aeon Prize \u2013 a short-fiction competition organised by the people behind Albedo One and awarded at last year\u2019s Worldcon in Glasgow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8,15,10],"tags":[89,43,46,90],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/albedo31.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27AP7-eT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=923"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":926,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923\/revisions\/926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}