Jason Stoddard won the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest a couple years back, but somehow I managed to miss the first handful of stories he’d had published at the time. The first stories I remember seeing were published at Strange Horizons, but I really sat up and noticed when he made his Interzone debut with novella “Winning Mars”. Smart SF is disappointingly thin on the ground these days, and it was a breath of fresh air. I made a note of the story for this year’s ‘year’s best SF’ and moved on. Now, all of a sudden, it seems like it’s Jason Stoddard week.

Way back on Monday, Interzone 200 dropped through the mailbox with Stoddard’s “Saving Mars”, the same day that his new novella “Exception” was published on Strange Horizons. Then yesterday I was over at SciFiction and read his new novelette “Panacea”, which I think is pretty fine.

Any alternate history, when summarised, has the potential to suffer from what I call the Matter of Credulity. When summarised, no matter how intelligent or serious, alternate histories tend to sound a little silly. It may only be me, but when I hear that so-and-so has a new story where Billy the Kid teams up with Jack-the-Ripper to save the Confederacy, I think it’s bound to be … silly.

And yet Stoddard’s “Panacea” is not a silly story at all. Set in a world that diverged from ours in the 1830s when a chemist stumbled upon a serum that conferred long life (if not actual immortality) on those who drank it, “Panacea” presents a world where Edison and others of his generation are still living, powerful and very influential in the late 1980s. Most of the action takes place on a luxury liner steaming towards the Antarctic on a holiday cruise. Edison and his young wife are, ostensibly, on holiday, though much more is going on. Edison is travelling to a scientific installation to review progress on some investigations being made on his behalf. At the same time, he is being strongly petitioned by a young employee to change one of is most profitable businesses, and she in turn, finds herself affected by the views of an unpredictable young man.

That summary is deliberately vague. I think “Panacea” is a strong story, well worth taking the time to read, and possibly amongst the year’s best. Rather than list all of the name checks to be made and so on, I’ll leave them for you to enjoy.

Stoddard’s website suggests that more short stories should be coming up soon, and I’ll be waiting with great interest. He’s definitely one of the newer SF writers to watch.

And a link for the eager.

The word is that Tim Powers has completed and delivered his new, as yet-untitled, novel to his publisher. The world stops. The waiting begins….

I’ve not posted here about the Ashes yet. The only reasonable thing to do is congratulate England. While we played nowhere near our best, they played way past what we expected theirs to be. They were the better side on the ground, for more days of more matches, and deserved the win. This time. There’s always next time. Come Christmas 2006, Vaughan & co will make the journey down to the hard, bouncy wickets Down Under and we’ll get to have a turn and taking back the urn*. Honestly, not that much of the Test cricket scheduled anywhere in the world seems to hold much interest, when compared to the thought of another Ashes series. Makes you wonder if the ICC’s ten year plan approach is really the best for the game. A return bout would surely be a sellout, if it happened soon-ish.

And on that, it will be June 2009, four years away, before Australia tours England again. I suggest, humbly, that a campaign be started to persuade Shane Warne that losing is not the way to bow out of the game. Stay on for the return tour, play the old enemy at home one more time, and then retire at 40, as a winner (with a thousand test wickets). It’s physically possible. He could do it.

* On the urn, they need a bigger, more macho trophy. Vaughan just looked silly holding it up after they’d won.

I was down at the post office on Monday, mailing contracts out and such, and was pleased to see the latest issue of British SF magazine Interzone show up. As regular readers know, IZ was taken over by Andy Cox’s Third Alternative a while back, and he and his editorial crew have been steadily rebuilding the old campaigner, turning it into a slicker, more modern beast.

The latest issue, number 200, is easily their best looking yet. The cover is striking, and the color interior art is good. I’ll probably always feel the interiors are a trifle overdesigned, and I don’t like reading fiction on glossy paper, but those are personal quibbles. Basically, it’s just about the only SF magazine that looks like it was designed in the 21st century, and that’s got to be a good thing.

And the fiction? I haven’t had a chance to read any of the fiction in this issue yet, but I’ve noticed that Cox & co are definitely finding their feet this year, and have featured some good stuff. I was particularly impressed with Paul Di Filippo’s “The Emperor of Gondwanaland” from the Jan/Feb issue, and Jason Stoddard’s ‘Mars’ stories have been getting good write-ups. Is it worth subscribing too? I’d say so. Better go do it now, because according to their site, they’re actually selling out of issues!