Bewildering Stories welcomes...

Jörn Grote

As our Readers’ Guide says, Jörn’s story “Brute Force,” in this issue, has an ambiguous title. Although Jörn loves science fiction and says he likes action in it, his first story for us is very genteel: it contains no “force and violence” at all. The title refers to a process in cryptanalysis where a computer decodes a cipher by systematically trying keys one after another. The computer cracks a code not by logic but by digging away at it; hence a “brute force” solution. Maybe Jörn has borrowed a little from his studies in computer science. Judging by his story, that’s a good place to start!

And Jörn mentions discovering poetry in Bewildering Stories! We have plenty of poetry. In fact, one of our Big Projects is to compile a linked index of it, which is our version of an anthology. That will make it all the more accessible to readers.

We’ve interviewed Jörn about science fiction in general and German science fiction in particular. The result is a very pleasant and informative conversation. Be sure to check out Jörn’s biographical sketch. The format is quite unusual.

Welcome to Bewildering Stories, Jörn. Auf baldiges Wiederlesen! — We hope to hear from you again soon.