Exclusive Reynolds in Tähtivaeltaja

The new issue of the Tähtivaeltaja zine appeared in my mailbox a couple of days ago, and it contains a very curious item: an exclusive Alastair Reynolds short story not available anywhere else—even the author doesn’t have a copy any more.

As Reynolds himself wrote a while ago,

After several pints too many in a Helsinki bar, [the editor of Tähtivaeltaja] Toni and I came up with the idea of translating a story of mine into his native language, and then destroying all copies of the original english-language version—including mine. So that’s what we’re going to do, as soon as Toni has a good translation in hand. So I’ll have a story that exists in Finnish, and Finnish only, and if I want to read it again, I’ll need to pay someone to translate it back into English. Of course the fact that it’s Finnish, not exactly a language everyone can dip into with the greatest of ease, only adds to the fun.

The story in question is Pandoran lipas (Pandora’s Box, translated by Toni Jerrman) and it appears in the 2/2009 issue of Tähtivaeltaja. It’s a story about a journalist chasing a scoop on Titan and stumbling on a strange tale about an alien artifact, multiple timelines and a large corporation conspiracy. Definitely worth reading (but as said, only available in Finnish).

If you’re interested in owning a copy of this very special publication, you can order the issue from Toni by sending 10 € ($15) to him to:

Toni Jerrman
Itämerenkatu 22 B 21
00180 Helsinki
Finland