Eidolon

Eidolon
Issue Twenty-Eight
Editor: Jeremy Byrne
http://eidolon.net/
Cost: A$6.95

This is the first issue released in over a year from Eidolon Publications. Filled with stories and non-fiction, it lives up to the standard that they have had previously.

Chris Lawson's "Chinese Rooms" was well-thought out and challenging. Not one that was haphazardly thrown together, this one presents the idea of Searle's Chinese Rooms in a story whose storylines are, at the beginning, confusing, but intertwine by the end. Artificial intelligence; intelligent? The story revolves around a supercomputer learning, asking questions, but giving no answers.

Paul Hassings' "The Mars Tiles" was well-written, if nothing overly special. Taking the conspiracy theory one step further, it appears that the narrator is either correct about his suspicions or paranoid schizophrenic. It is up to you to decide. But if he were right, then the occurrences would be chilling.

"Making Contact in Skin-Tight Duds", by Brisbane writer Marianne De Pierres, is a nice little cyberpunk piece. The story is contained within itself, but the overly fast pace makes it hard to follow.

Anthony Morris' "Emotional Bypass" and Simon Ng's "The Heart Drummer" are lovely pieces with undertones in them that make one want to read them again and again. I felt that Morris' story was a nice piece that showed the bravery of a person in her life, and the lies that people grew up to believe in. The futility of militant action. Ng's story is opposite, showing hope in the drumming to keep the world alive. I'm not quite certain about Chinese mythology, but the story makes a great interpretation of one seem alive. If only.

The articles within once again seem to pepper the issue. Unfortunately Steven Paulsen's column has disappeared from the pages of Eidolon, which is lamentable, but the rest of the non-fiction make up for it. An interesting article on the perceptions of international SF by the US professional community—focusing on Australia—makes it clear that Australia is slowly making its mark in the foreign market. Greg Egan's column my eyes glazed over; calculations of any kind give me headaches, so I really couldn't comment on them, nor their accuracy. I'm sure that there are some physics buffs out there that would be delighted to read them, but with my limited high school physics, I am not one of them. I cannot see why it's in the publication, myself; I can see it fit more easily into any science fact journal.

A nice little compact issue, with a few good stories within, and some that were not so good. Featuring cover artwork from award-winning R&D Studios and internals by top Australian artists, this publication is certainly very attractive.