Matthew Cook's Blog, page 2

Interzone Reader's Poll - "Insha'Allah" takes fourth!

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I just heard that last year's "Insha'Allah" took a whopping FORTH PLACE in the annual Interzone Reader's Poll... Wow!

http://ttapress.com/1259/readers-poll-results/0/4/

Given the quality of the stories the 'Zone published last year as well as the plethora of well-established authors who appeared in the magazine in 2011 (Jason Sanford, Mercurio D. Riveria, Suzanne Palmer, and others) this is, I think, a huge, huge event. Thanks go to everyone who voted for my story, and I'm so very happy that you liked it.
I plan to continue submitting to Interzone (as well as to Interzone's sister publication, Black Static), and hope that any future stories they may choose to publish are as well-received. Without an audience, every story I write is only half-finished. Again, thank you.
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Another "Railriders" review: Fantasy Literature

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Terry Weyna just posted a great review of Interzone #239 over on Fantasy Literature (including a very positive review of my story "Railriders". Here's the review:

"Another powerful story in this issue is "Rail Riders" by Matthew Cook. In the far future, hobos ride the rails – which, in this time and place, means that they sneak onto interstellar ships and move from planet to planet, the eternally homeless, looking just for a meal and a warm place to sleep. It's a dangerous way to live, as it has ever been; the dangers aren't just the "bulls," the enforcers who come looking for stowaways, but the possibility that the holds in which the hobos ride will suddenly be deprived of oxygen if the cargo doesn't require it. Drugs and sex hold their sway, as always, and death is omnipresent. It's a grim way to live, and a grimmer way to die. The more things change, the more things stay the same."

More reviews can be found here: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/magazine-monday/interzone-issue-239/
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SPACE BATTLES Anthology - Final Cover!

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Bryan Thomas Schmidt, the editor of the forthcoming SPACE BATTLES anthology (where my new Seventeen Systems short story "The Book of Enoch" will soon appear), just posted the final cover design for the book - soooooooooooo pulpy!!




















(Click for bigger..)
Read more about the forthcoming anthology project on BTS's blog:
http://bryanthomasschmidt.net/2012/03/30/space-battles-official-release-announcement-cover/
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Another "Railriders" review (John's Reading)

Well, they say you're doing something right when you start getting bad reviews.
http://johnsreading.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/interzone-239-mar-apr-2012.html
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"Railriders" Review at Neonomicon

.Neonomicon has a strange little review of "Railriders" (Interzone #239) up at: http://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/interzone-239/
Money quote:

"This story effectively comprises an atmospheric, cut-throat narrative via a rappy, expletive-sown monologue by one of the cobra- or blade-running female railriders, a member of a well-characterised (almost Dhalgren-like?) group, with whom we grow in sympathy as they negotiate the trials and tribulations of crude chancers and chancey drugs in this New Earth which is perhaps a Tem-type 'escarpment' shading in and out of our Old Earth: while we, as readers, also ride the links (or rail points) through some "public 'net" of blending in empathy with amenity-ghosts and chancers alike: luckily fixed for us here to aim at by actual, rather than electronic, print."

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"Insha'Allah" nominated for BSFA "Best Short Story 2021"

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Wow... I just learned that my short story "Insha'Allah" (which appeared in Interzone #235) was just nominated for the 2012 Best Short Story award by the British Science Fiction Association. The rest of the nominees can be found here:
http://www.bsfa.co.uk/news/bsfa-awards-nominations-update/
This is a great honor, indeed. Best of luck to all the other nominees - just like last year I'm up against some INCREDIBLE competition.
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Review: Shoe Factory on SF Site

Happy New Year!
Just saw this review of The Shoe Factory in Interzone #231 over at SF Site:
http://www.sfsite.com/01a/izo359.htm
Money quote:

"The Shoe Factory" by Matthew Cook is the similarly compelling story of a young pilot in a doomed asteroid mining ship who remembers his youth as a scavenger in a dilapidated future China. All five stories this issue are approaching best-of-the-year award quality.

And another for "Insha'Allah"...

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This time over on Neil Williamson's blog. There are several reviews posted there, but here's the money quote for "Insha'Allah":

Insha'Allah by Matthew Cook (Interzone) – This is the second Matthew Cook story I've come across in Interzone this year, and I've been impressed with the quiet sure-footedness of his writing. There may be question over whether the society of the Muslim-settled planet under threat from alien attack is enough of an extrapolation from a similar contemporary society to warrant being drawn as science fiction, but I greatly enjoyed the story nevertheless.

I'm not sure I completely agree with the assertion that my fictitious society MUST be sufficiently different from any contemporary society to warrant its inclusion in a science fiction story, but obviously if I said that the story is not at least in part an echo of our current world's troubles I'd be lying. That said, I do feel that the specific tropes available in sci-fi add to the story. The real question seems to be: should I have made the story MORE "science-fiction-y" than it already is? Some reviewers seem to feel so.
As for what *I* feel, well...
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Another Insha'Allah review...

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...this time over on Rob McCow's blog. Snippet:

Insha'Allah by Matthew Cook addresses concerns about Islamic society, in particular the role of women and the potential strength of the Mullahs in dictating the law. Science fiction often uses metaphor or extrapolation to make serious points about the way we live today. This story makes its points absolutely straight up with only a sprinkling of sci-fi in the background. It could be set in modern Afghanistan and be about a crashed fighter pilot, but the enemy being fought are the E'k, the fighter pilot has implants and technology under her skin and there are hints that the battle is taking place in the near future.

There's a bit more, but you get the point... And for what it's worth I think Rob makes a good point: I do think that good storytelling should, wherever possible, deal with universal issues and must contain characters that the reader can relate to. As such, I tried to consciously tell a story that COULD be "transplanted" from a sci-fi setting. As always, I leave it up to the reader to decide if I actually MET this goal.
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"Insha'Allah" in the news...

Anthony Williams has a mini-review of all the stories in Interzone #235 on his blog. Money quote:

Insha'Allah by Matthew Cooke, illustrated by Richard Wagner. A female doctor-turned-body-washer on a fundamentalist Muslim world is faced with treating a crashed female spaceship pilot, fallen from a battle for the planet raging overhead. A most unusual story which sticks in the mind.

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