The Fixer by Jon F. Merz
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
Lawson isn't your typical hit man. He's a fixer, which means when vampires step out of line and threaten the law of
Balance, (the code of ethics that protects the oblivious humans as well as vampire kind) he steps in and takes care of
them. It's easy for him, because he's not worried about their mythological strength, or their hypnotic power. He's a vampire too.
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
Girl moves to a small, boring, almost constantly overcast town, where she attends high school and falls hard for a gorgeous
young boy, who has the added bonus of being an outsider, seemingly very rich, and is initially trying to drive her away.
This story has probably been done a thousand times in the annals of young adult literature and television; except, it
turns out he has a pretty good reason for avoiding her, he's a vampire.
Firethorn by Sarah Micklem
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
In a mediæval setting, where those of the feudal aristocracy, "the Blood," lord it ruthlessly over a
conquered agrarian class, the "mudpeople," and where women are largely heir-bearers or drudges, an unusually
red-haired foundling girl is raised by a well-meaning high-born female herbalist. Upon the latter's death, and
after being raped by a man of the Blood, the now teenage "Luck," rather than becoming just another drudge, flees
to the woods, where she overwinters and undergoes a physical and spiritual ordeal to be reborn
as "Firethorn".
Swarmthief's Dance by Deborah J. Miller
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
Long ago, in punishment for the crime of offering immortality to a human, Aria, one of the six spirits known as
the Nulefi, was banished to the underworld -- the realm of the god Rann, whose passionate advances Aria once
spurned. But before Rann could do more than gloat, Aria's sisters did the unthinkable, and rose up to defend
her. In wrath, the gods' leader, Herrukal, dispersed their spirits into the ether. But gods are eternal and
indestructible. Even scattered, the substance of the Nulefi survived.
Death Draws Five by John J. Miller
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
It was a world where an alien virus had been deliberately released in Earth's atmosphere, with the intention of testing its
ability to turn ordinary people into super-powered soldiers. It killed ninety percent of those it affected, usually in horrific
ways. The unfortunates were said to have drawn the Black Queen. A further nine percent of victims found their bodies or
minds cruelly twisted. The world called them Jokers. The remaining one percent gained special abilities, ranging as far
and wide as anything ever imagineered in comic books. They were the Aces.
Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman by Walter Miller, Jr.
reviewed by Steven H Silver
For Steven, Miller's world is far more complex than glimpsed
in the classic A Canticle for Leibowitz. Miller examines the cultures of
the novel's nomadic tribes, focusing on
the war and alliances between them, the Church, and Texark.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
reviewed by Stephen M. Davis
Here is a novel that demands to be read. The author speaks
through his characters on a number of universal issues -- euthanasia,
abortion, the differences between men and animals, and the conflict
between the Book of Nature and the Book of God. The long-awaited sequel,
Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman, has
just been published in hardcover.
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
Lud-in-the-Mist, situated at the confluence of the Dapple and the Dawl
rivers, is the capital of the country of Dorimare, a land of sensible,
prosperous, stodgy, conservative merchants. Some centuries ago a debauched,
impulsive, hedonistic sometime poet, and worst of all fairy lore-loving
aristocrat, Duke Aubrey, had been deposed by a growing merchant middle
class. To the west of Dorimare, beyond the Debatable Hills and home to the
source of the Dapple, is Fairyland -- the taboo, unmentionable source of all
the worst things that can undermine an ordered society such as exists in
Lud-in-the-Mist. Fairyland is also from whence are smuggled the
unmentionable fairy fruit, which when eaten lead to exuberant, impulsive
behaviour and a heightened sense of wonder. These are items so utterly taboo
that merely naming them is considered the vilest of obscenities.
The Changeling Plague by Syne Mitchell
reviewed by Donna McMahon
Geoffery Allan is a young man with everything to live for, but he's dying of cystic fibrosis. With nothing to lose and a huge fortune at
his disposal, he bribes a genetic researcher to engineer an illegal cure for him -- a viral treatment that will repair his defective DNA at
the cellular level.
It works, but instead of rewriting his DNA and then stopping, it keeps rewriting. And the virus is highly contagious.
Technogenesis by Syne Mitchell
reviewed by Donna McMahon
Jasmine Reese is brilliant, and even better she's a "natural." As her boss
says: "You slip into network protocols like the computer's clock cycle is the beating of your own heart." Jaz spends all her waking hours
connected to the net, and most of them working at her job as a "data miner" for a software company.
But when her top-of-the-line data mask breaks down, this arrogant workaholic is unwillingly thrust into a real Seattle where she can't go
anywhere or do anything without a connection -- she can't even switch on her own apartment lights.
The Changeling Plague by Syne Mitchell
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Nothing packs the gut-wrenching fear of a pandemic; no disaster evokes the all-out panic that a killer virus let loose on the world
instantly spreads. How much more quickly that terror blooms, when we learn that the lethal plague is man-made. Do you feel that rush of
ice water in your veins at the admission that our best medical minds have no way to stop this catastrophe? Well, prepare yourself for
that kind of impact as you embark on her latest, breathless bullet-train of suspense.
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Murphy's Gambit by Syne Mitchell
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Thiadora Murphy knows all about the prejudice and the pain of being a
second-class citizen. She was born a floater, one of the humans who live
their lives in zero-gee who wants to serve in the Collective Enforcement
Agency. That puts her physically in the world of "grounded" society -- not
that they accept her as an equal. The fact that she is an ace pilot hasn't
won her many friends at the Academy.
Escape from Earth edited by Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois and Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
All of the 420 pages of Escape from Earth, even the stand-out stories by Joe Haldeman and Orson Scott Card,
are put to shame by the 135 pages of Naomi Mitchison's Travel Light. First published in 1952,
it is a model of how a story should be written for teenagers. No, let's
make this right, the book may have been written for teenagers, but it can be read with real pleasure by anyone. Which
is probably the secret of its success: there is no implication of talking down to the audience, of an adult saying I know how you feel.
Burning the Ice by Laura J. Mixon
reviewed by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
On a frozen moon, Manda, a singleton and outcast of the clone society there, stumbles into a
peculiar mystery. A computer-projected syntellect of Carli, the long-deceased founder of the colony, inexplicably shows Manda a
secret room that is cut off from all electronic surveillance. A room that also holds the frozen corpse of the original Carli. As if
that wasn't enough, the syntellect leaves Manda with an ominous warning that the colony ship that deposited the clones upon Brimstone
decades before never actually departed the system, and even now is in orbit around the planet, monitoring the colony's terraforming efforts.
Proxies by Laura J. Mixon
reviewed by Kim Fawcett
Which of the hordes of books in stores is worth your time and money?
Here's a tip -- the next time you go to the bookstore, look up
Proxies. The only reason it doesn't actually leap off the
shelf is because it's jammed in too tight.
The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
It has certain thematic similarities to the imaginary voyage novels of the
16-18th century (e.g., Gulliver's Travels) in that each life of the
bluebear, while couched in broad comedy, presents as an underlying theme one
or more foibles of humanity (but don't worry, the serious stuff is well
buried in weird and goofy fun and thrills). The author keeps the laughs and
adventure at a fever pitch, managing to write a book that would appeal to
and be appropriate for both children and adults.
Twenty Epics edited by David Moles and Susan Marie Groppi
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
With the rather grandiose goal to leave you feeling "joyous, melancholy, rejuvenated, satisfied,"
it's hard to see how the authors of this themed anthology have addressed it any more effectively, or indeed any
differently, from other writers of fantastic fiction who conjure up imaginary worlds or drop their characters
into the midst of pivotal events. What's not in doubt, however, is that this is a superior collection -- entertaining,
inventive, original, and almost without exception, very well written, with remarkably few entries that drag or miss the mark.
All Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories edited by David Moles and Jay Lake
reviewed by Sherwood Smith
Several of the stories try to recapture that golden, curiously innocent, age of heroic fantasy, and a couple spoof it. The rest of the stories range in
amazing variety, tone, and idea. The two shared elements are zeppelins in some form, and strong writing. Some
are idea stories, some character, many are both. And what zeps! At least two stories feature live ones. Flying
cities, balloons that attract ghosts, pirate airships -- the breadth of vision represented by these authors
completely disproves the idea that one-idea anthologies don't work. This anthology takes off and soars.
A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
reviewed by Alma A. Hromic
The authors, with a degree of apparent effortlessness that is astonishing, have pulled off not one but
several very difficult things in this book. The first, and by no means the least, is the sometimes vexed
collaboration issue. You I have read co-authored books in which you could have chopped out and parceled
into neat little piles the bits that belonged to the various authors because the voices
simply never gelled enough to produce perfect seamlessness. Here, it just doesn't even matter. It flows. The two authors
work as one; it's not so much cooperation as a symbiosis. A job very well done.
Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
MacKayla Lane Mac tends bar, paints her nails, wears a lot of bright colours,
and doesn't think too deeply. Until her sister is murdered while studying in Dublin, Ireland. Mac decides that the Irish police have not tried
hard enough to find the killer. Crossing the Atlantic, she sets about the daunting task of
uncovering the truth about her sibling's brutal demise. Almost immediately, she finds herself neck deep in a world where ancient
and lethal magic is vying with other local parties to find a powerful, ancient tome.
Fearful Symmetries by Thomas F. Monteleone
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
The themes of the stories in this collection range widely from
revenge, black magic, Lovecraftian monsters to stories of cruel wagers, obsessive fatherly
love, sheer madness, sometimes with a gentle Twilight Zone touch, sometimes with a nasty taste.
The Lazarus Drop by Paul Moomaw
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
A Lazarus drop, in spy lingo, implies that once the agent is
inserted, the contractor will disavow all knowledge of them. In this case, Nathaniel
Blue's employer is the US government. That means he's working for the
"good guys" this time, right? Don't be so sure.
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