Space & Time No. 111 Summer 2010

An alternate Aztec empire on the brink of civil war. Art that could consume the world. A flooded Britain fighting over the Lake District. And ninety years of science fiction history with Frederik Pohl.

The Summer 2010 issue of Space & Time opens with Aliette de Bodard’s “Fleeing Tezcatlipoca,” a tense alternate-history science fiction tale set in Greater Mexica, where Tenochtitlan is under the grip of the Loyalty Bureau and Jaguar Knights. When Necahual helps a wounded fugitive escape toward the border, she finds herself caught between authoritarian rule, rebellion, foreign intervention, and the increasingly complicated question of what loyalty to one’s country really means.

Edward Willett combines science fiction with wicked artistic satire in “Waterlillies,” in which an ambitious avant-garde artist gets his hands on experimental military “nanopaint.” Programmed to reproduce Monet’s famous water lilies, the self-replicating pigment performs beautifully until it decides that canvas is hardly the only surface worth painting.

Heather Parker turns climate catastrophe into very British absurdity in “Passport to Patterdale.” When relentless flooding leaves the Lake District among the highest ground remaining in Britain, the government decides to requisition the region for Very Important People. The locals have another idea: declare independence and close the borders.

The issue also features fiction from Kelly Barnhill, Michelle Muenzler, Robert E. Rodden II, and Vaughn Wright, ranging from apocalyptic visions and futuristic body theft to alien infection and love after nuclear devastation, alongside a full selection of speculative poetry.

A special highlight is Stephen Euin Cobb’s extensive Q&A with science fiction legend Frederik Pohl, conducted as Pohl celebrated his 90th year. Pohl looks back on a remarkable life as fan, writer, literary agent, and editor—recounting the early Futurians, the beginnings of science fiction conventions, becoming Isaac Asimov’s first agent, editing Galaxy and If, and hiring a young Judy-Lynn Del Rey.

Cover art by Patrick Thomas. Edited by Hildy Silverman, then Editor-in-Chief of Space & Time.

A fascinating piece of speculative-fiction history, combining emerging voices, strange futures, dark humor, political imagination, and firsthand memories from one of the people who helped build modern science fiction.