Wolfsangel by M.D. Lachlan
reviewed by Katherine Petersen
King Authun, son of the god Odin, has only daughters, so with the help of the witches who live on the troll wall, he finds a way to give himself an heir. He travels to a Saxon village to steal a baby, who in turn, was stolen from the gods. To his consternation, he finds twins instead of one child and takes both and their mother back with him, assuming the witches will know which should become his heir. King Authun leaves no witnesses to his crimes.

Wolfsangel by M.D. Lachlan
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
Viking King Athun goes on a raid against an Anglo-Saxon village, but not for the usual rape and pillage that such chaps traditionally enjoy. On this occasion, Athun is acting on a prophecy which told him that the Saxons have stolen a child from the Norse gods. The deal is, if the childless Athun takes the boy and raises him as his heir, the child will lead his people to glory. However, what the King discovers is not one, but two boys.

Mercedes Lackey

Secret World Chronicle by Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libbey
a podcast review by Nathan Brazil
The work is a new, vibrant take on superhero fiction, aimed at savvy fans who want something that has all the buzz of the classics, but also a gritty real-world depth. It's like Wild Cards for a new generation, with its own distinctive blend of characters, dark comedy, and an updated enemy which everyone loves to hate.

Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet

Atmosphere by Michael Laimo
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Ever glare over your shoulder at the ghostly notes leaking out of some jerk's earphones and roll your eyes at their choice of music? No matter how old you are or to what your own tastes lean, you know you've done it. And if you're among the billions who just don't get what people see in trance? Then you can really relate. Mindless, some call it. Endlessly repetitive? Maybe so (okay, definitely so), but what if there is something between those monotonous tones. What if the rest of us just can't hear it?

Fall into Time by Douglas Lain
reviewed by Trent Walters
The first of four stories, "The Last Apollo Mission on the Moon" is about a young writer, Paula Austin, who thought she was headed for great things, but her career never panned out. Years after a long dry spell, Stanley Kubrick visits her in her job at a bookstore and recruits her to write a script about the moon for him -- a script to be shot on the Twin Towers. Strangely enough, two of Kubrick's henchmen are sent to corral Austin into delivering are Nicolas Cage and Scarlett Johansson although they never present themselves as a true menace.

Wave of Mutilation by Douglas Lain
reviewed by Trent Walters
In the present day, Christian is an architect whose father has died and phoned him to say that, due to a nuclear experiment gone awry, unreality is leaking from the world. Meanwhile, back during the confusion of the 2000 elections, his pregnant wife, a woman who feels empty both literally and figuratively (her chest holds an empty cabinet), begins spewing eggs from her mouth. Christian and his wife are then forced at gunpoint to exchange their clothes at neighborhood block party.

Ivy and the Meanstalk by Dawn Lairamore
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
The jacket art introduces us to Princess Ivy riding her trustee dragon, Elridge who is desperately trying to avoid the ravenous Meanstalk. Other than these two there is another equally funny character, Gizzle the Green, a Plant Mage. No, that's not quite right, he's a former Assistant Head Plant Mage at the Blooming Brightly Institute of Magical Flora, and he is key to the plot. Drusilla and Gizzle were once an item and she broke off their affair, leaving Gizzle feeling bad about the whole thing, and who can blame him.

Ivy's Ever After by Dawn Lairamore
reviewed by John Enzinas
Like many of her kin, Ivy is a princess whose mother died in childbirth and who was left with a father who had lost his mind from grief. Due to his mental absence and her disinclination to listen to her nursemaid, Ivy grew up as something of a wild child, fond of running around with her friends and much less interested in being a quiet princess as her nursemaid would prefer. Then she discovers the terrible secret of the kingdom.

Baby Killers by Jay Lake
reviewed by Trent Walters
It sketches seemingly random scratches on a broad canvas of a Philadelphia steampunk -- where the Queen of England, presumably, still reigns. The connection between scratches gradually take shape. The bleak, black comedy, opens with a mad scientist, Dr. M.T. Scholes experimenting on children, cobbling them together into mechanical human brass spiders that will rid the world of the unemployed.

Jay Lake's Process of Writing by Jay Lake
reviewed by Trent Walters
The book consists of blog posts organized around certain subjects: story ideas, outlines, drafts, world-building, revision, writing habits, story length, genre, writing the other, critiques, reviews, rejections, publishing, and the business end. Clearly, this is not your typical writing book. The articles eschew well-covered territory of traditional story parts in favor of less familiar territory with surprisingly mature attitudes towards author jealousy, rejections and negative reviews.

The Baby Killers by Jay Lake
reviewed by Kit O'Connell
The catalogue description of this short novel refers to the book as a restaging of mankind's fall from grace in the form of a steampunk fable. Any deeper symbolic meaning in this book takes a back seat to the fact that it is simply a hell of a good read. There is more story and setting stuffed into this short volume than in many full length novels,

Trial of Flowers by Jay Lake
reviewed by Matthew Hughes
It is a defensible proposition that the job of a fiction author has two parts: first, create characters that the reader can care about; second, put those characters through hell. In this foray into the New Weird, the Campbell Award-winning author takes on the job with gusto and no small measure of fantastical invention, creating flawed yet interesting characters then giving them a prolonged and thorough roasting, with liberal bastings of irony and pity.

Rocket Science by Jay Lake
reviewed by Matthew Hughes
Set in a Kansas small town just after the end of World War II, the story has the feel of one of those Heinlein-Asimov adventures from the Golden Age. Vernon Dunham is a sensitive young man, the son of the town drunk, who was kept out of the war by the damage done during a childhood bout with polio. But his lifelong best (and only) friend -- that girl-chasing good ol' boy, flamboyant Floyd Bellamy -- has not only been to see the elephant but has come back from the Battle of the Bulge with a Nazi half-track full of radar tracking gear and what he thinks is an experimental airplane that is centuries ahead of the times.

Greetings from Lake Wu by Jay Lake
reviewed by Sherwood Smith
The danger with many collections is that, when one spends so much time exclusively with one author, one becomes aware of similar themes, frequently used tropes, sometimes obviously favorite plot devices that get repeated. Even if one is fond of the author's work, sometimes collections can be a little like eating one's way through a box of the same kind of candy. The breadth of his interests and his authorial skill avoids this pitfall, even for the reviewer who rereads the entire collection in a couple of sittings.

The Door to Lost Pages by Claude Lalumière
reviewed by Richard A. Lupoff
The book starts somewhat deceptively with an image straight out of a Lovecraftian nightmare. Yamesh-Lot seems to be a cross between an evil demon and a malevolent god, summoning up the dead to create an army of terrifying reanimated corpses. A little Lovecraft with a touch of George Romero? The author doesn't stay in the supernatural horror mode for long, though.

Super Stories of Heroes & Villains by edited by Claude Lalumière
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
All of the stories are directly or indirectly connected to the worlds of comics, pulp fiction and larger than life heroes or villains. There are twenty-eight stories in total, some of which are interconnected, with the majority being stand-alone pieces. Well known authors abound, including Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Kim Newman, Gene Wolfe, Tim Pratt, and George R.R. Martin. Eschewing any attempt to present a cohesive theme, the editor instead selects a wide spectrum of styles and themes.

Island Dreams: Montreal Writers of the Fantastic edited by Claude Lalumière
reviewed by Kit O'Connell
From this American's perspective, Montreal has always seemed to be one of Canada's cultural hotbeds. In his introduction to the anthology, the editor explains that within that city is a dedicated group of science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors many of whom write primarily in the English language. it introduces us to twelve up and coming authors, most with only a few story publications to their name. In fact, some of the best stories come from the authors with the fewest credits on their bio.

Open Space edited by Claude Lalumière
reviewed by Steven H Silver
Canada is a vast land, comprised of ten provinces and three territories and covering nearly 10 million square kilometers, it is the second largest nation on Earth. It would be silly to assume that Canadian science fiction was any more homogenous than the science fiction of its southern neighbor. In this anthology, the editor has selected twenty-one Canadian science fiction authors and allowed them to demonstrate the breadth of Canadian science fiction.

Witpunk edited by Claude Lalumière and Marty Halpern
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
No doubt about it. No matter where you live in this world, now is not a time supplying you with big laughs. Dread, resignation, and anger, maybe, but not the chuckles you really need to take your mind off (insert relevant impending doom here). The editors couldn't help but notice and they've come to your rescue with a literary tweak. Whatever your complaint, there is something in this anthology that will make it all better -- for a time, at least.

Witpunk edited by Claude Lalumière and Marty Halpern
reviewed by Rich Horton
The editors open this book by recalling a question that came up in an online forum in 2001: "When did reading SF stop being fun?" They object to the implication that SF is no longer fun to read, and this anthology addresses one area of "fun": humourous SF, or more specifically, "sardonic" SF. The book assembles 26 stories, 15 reprints, one revision of an earlier story, and 10 brand new pieces. Are they all funny?

Black Juice by Margo Lanagan
reviewed by David Soyka
This short story collection is quite inexplicably classified as juvenile fiction. Though the author is perhaps closer to Angela Carter (to whom she is often compared) than Ray Bradbury, they do share the same strange landscapes just once removed from everyday reality, frequently seen through the eyes of an adolescent narrator, or involving an adolescent protagonist. But, like Bradbury, the subject matter is hardly limited to adolescence and one suspects that those who consider this "juvenile" fiction "safe" for younger readers probably haven't read it.

White Time by Margo Lanagan
reviewed by Trent Walters
She was finalist for the Ditmar (Australia's Hugo, more or less), shortlisted for the Convenor's Award, shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier's Award, eight-time finalist and one-time winner of the Aurealis. Peter McNamara selected her story "White Time" as one of the ten best stories in the past decade of Australian speculative fiction for his Wonder Years collection. The University of Canterbury graduate-level course on young adult literature lists her novel, Touching Earth Lightly, as a required text alongside Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass. You've heard of her, haven't you?

Impact Parameter and other Quantum Realities by Geoffrey A. Landis
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
This author is a rare breed in the world of SF, a writer with a strong background in science and an almost tragic sense of romance. The author knows his physics, but he also knows that the best way to approach the world of science is through the human heart. And he has created characters that will stay with you long after the story has finished.

The Cold Minds by Kristin Landon
reviewed by Michael M Jones
It has been centuries since the malevolent machine intelligences known as the Cold Minds conquered Earth and sent the remnants of humanity fleeing into the depths of space, where they established a refuge in the form of the Hidden Worlds. There, humanity has built itself a new home, but it's by no means a paradise. The Pilot Masters, an elite caste who hold the secret of interworld and interstellar travel in an iron grip. And somewhere out there, the Cold Minds are still looking to finish the job of subjugating the human race.

Finding Poe by Leigh M. Lane
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
Edgar Allan Poe has influenced many new writers with his short stories that ranged from the strange, to the eerie and bizarre. They were dark, but one novel he never completed was The Lighthouse, and this is the basis for the novel, as well as other characters the author has added for creative reasons.

We, Robots by Sue Lange
reviewed by David Soyka
Avey, the robot narrator, is built in the Asimov mold, with an appearance more in keeping with gadget-looking R2-D2 than the anthropomorphic C-3PO, but updated to the eve of the Singularity, the event when machine intelligence exceeds human intelligence. To ensure their subservient status despite their superior intellect, robots are retrofitted with a "safety feature" that provides them, for the first time, with the sensation of pain.

The End of Harry Potter? by David Langford
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
As the climax of the Harry Potter series approaches, so the twittering about what J.K. Rowling has planned gets louder. Somebody, somewhere, has probably worked it out correctly. But until readers know for sure, guessing is a lot of fun. Such has been the impact of the series that it's easy to believe people will buy any old cobblers, if it has the boy wizard's name on the front.

Maps: The Uncollected John Sladek edited by David Langford
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
When John Sladek passed away on 10 March 2000, hardly a ripple passed through the speculative fiction audience as a whole. Possibly the greatest satirist of our time had died far too soon and most readers had never even heard his name. With many of his novels back in print and more coming out soon, everyone who missed out on his biting wit and stunning characters has a chance to explore the wealth of material he left us.

The Leaky Establishment by David Langford
reviewed by Rich Horton
This novel, it should be mentioned, is not strictly speaking SF, though it is fiction about science. It is more generally in the comic tradition of such writers as Kingsley Amis. The story features Roy Tappen, a cynical scientist at NUTC, a fictional British nuclear center. By mistake, he manages to smuggle a warhead out of the place, and takes it home. When he finds it he realizes he needs to take it back, but security has been tightened, and he can't just waltz back in with it.

Troll Fell by Katherine Langrish
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
When Peer's father died, the last thing the twelve-year-old expected was to have an uncle lay claim to him. Demanding that the boy accompany him to Troll Fell, where he runs a mill, he lets Peer know right away that he's not going to a better life. When he gets there he meets his other uncle. Both men are large, oafish and greedy, as he soon learns when he overhears them dividing up the money they got from selling everything Peer and his father owned, and making dark references to the Gaffer.

Aspects of a Psychopath by Alistair Langston
reviewed by Chris Przybyszewski
We are offered the diary of a killer, one who takes a victim, stores her in a closet, and then mutilates and kills her in graphic fashion. The killer (he goes by the name of Saul Roberts) then cuts up the body, puts it in his fridge, and then uses the meat for various meals throughout the rest of the text. Roberts is hardly done there, however. He tells of multiple victims in the course of the diary, as well as his relationship with Laura, whom Saul tolerates to live.

Bleeding Shadows by Joe Lansdale
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
One of the most acclaimed storytellers in the field of dark fiction, Joe R. Lansdale moves with ease from horror to crime from supernatural to western stories. This volume collects many of the most accomplished short stories penned by him throughout the years. Each story in the book is accomplished and quite enjoyable, in keeping with his well-known narrative talent, but some are especially worth mentioning.

The Ape Man's Brother by Joe R. Lansdale
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
This slim work, written in the first person as a recollection of events, may or may not be true. The narrator is the brother of the title, and the sibling to whom he refers is, as most people will already have guessed, an alternate take on the most famous ape man of all. In deference to the author, we shall also refrain from using his theatrical name. Also playing prominent roles in this tale are several of the characters familiar to anyone who has previously encountered the Hollywood Ape Man's legend, in movies and full length novels.

Deadman's Road by Joe R. Lansdale
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
If you ever met Reverend Jebidiah Mercer in some book by Joe R. Lansdale, I'm sure you loved that character at first sight. So, the good news is that the whole package of stories featuring the Reverend are now collected in one volume courtesy of the smart people at Subterranean Press.

The God of the Razor by Joe R. Lansdale
reviewed by John Berlyne
To some horror fans, this early collection is a genre classic, and it certainly displays many of the admirable qualities and definitive traits we now associate with this most original of authors. Certainly no other writer comes to mind so capable of fusing revulsion and comedy together so effectively, often in the space of a single sentence, although The Nightrunners contains a good deal less amusement than many later Lansdale works. At the same time, the story radiates a nastiness that curiously seems to date it -- what may have been shocking for readers back in the early 80s has become, if not exactly the norm, certainly less taboo than it was back then.

Bumper Crop by Joe R. Lansdale
reviewed by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
He writes some damn horrific stuff, things that one wouldn't go within a hundred miles of otherwise. But the author has such a natural skill with the written word that you become enraptured by the raw elegance of his storytelling down to the sentence level. He writes with such an unabashed confidence -- treats the most hideous subjects with a reverent tenderness, shovels the most rancid cow pies with the straightest face -- that there's almost no way a reader can't fall under his spell.

Bumper Crop by Joe R. Lansdale
reviewed by Alisa McCune
This is an imaginative collection of 26 short stories each introduced by the author. It, along with High Cotton, are a definitive collection of his short stories. The author's introductions to each story alone are worth reading the book. We are advised that many of his stories are the product of his wife Karen's popcorn.

Crucified Dreams edited by Joe R. Lansdale
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
Editors of anthologies featuring only original stories have to make the best of the solicited or unsolicited submissions they receive and select what they think are the most accomplished contributions. On the other hand, when assembling reprint anthologies editors are free to include anything they deem to be suitable from the huge material already appeared in books and magazines. A great advantage indeed, especially when dealing with theme anthologies.

Son of Retro Pulp Tales edited by Joe R. Lansdale and Keith Lansdale
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
A sequel to the acclaimed Retro Pulp Tales, this new anthology, where Joe Lansdale teams with his son Keith to edit more stories in the old pulp tradition, assembles eleven brand new pieces of imaginative and thrilling fiction aimed to entertain, astonish and, most of all, make us forget for a while the dullness of daily life. While it may be beneath the scope of great literature (the purpose of which is supposedly also to educate and to elicit lofty thoughts and feelings), but it is one of the main properties of good fiction.

Retro Pulp Tales edited by Joe R. Lansdale
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
A bit of imagination, a lot of action and a gripping narrative style: those were the ingredients of the so-called pulp fiction which has filled the pages of many old magazines, delighting more than one generation of avid readers and shaping up the creative minds of many future writers. This anthology bring back to life that beloved, although often underestimated genre, challenging a group of distinguished authors to produce new material using the atmospheres, the themes and the time-frame of the old pulp tales.

Daughters of Earth edited by Justine Larbalestier
reviewed by Alma A. Hromic
Feminism as a philosophy has travelled quite a rocky road over the time frame covered by this anthology -- it is in fact debatable if it was anything like the same animal in the era from which the first story in the book dates, and the era of the final story (which, having been published in 2002, is barely within the scope of this volume).

The Stormlord Trilogy by Glenda Larke
reviewed by Dominic Cilli
In tone and quality, Glenda Larke's Stormlord Trilogy is the closet thing Dominic has read to Robin Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy in a long time. The setting, characters, world-building, theology and plot are all done with exceeding care and all come off without a hitch. The magic system also deserves to be mentioned. It's all based on water, not all that original, but Larke uses it in some very imaginative ways with a clearly defined set of rules.

The Celtic Ring by Björn Larsson
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
The pure adventure novel, without fantasy or science fiction elements, has become a rare breed. But here's one that packs all the adventure, suspense, mystery -- and even a smidgen of pagan mysticism -- you can handle. It's a novel about small craft sailing in and around Scotland, something many might not associate with adventure. Notwithstanding this, if you are one of the few remaining addicts of good adventure yarns, don't miss this book.

Foreshadows: The Ghosts of Zero edited by Jeff LaSala
reviewed by Susan Dunman
Stories have always been a source of inspiration for musicians, but this illustrated cyberpunk anthology turns the tables by using music as an idea catalyst for the authors of these stories.  A group of twenty-eight authors, musicians and graphic artists have combined their talents under the name of "The Very Us Artists" to create a near-future world that is dark and gritty, but not without hope.

Hurricane Moon by Alexis Glynn Latner
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
In science fiction, one of the most difficult feats to accomplish is a simultaneous appeal to both the romance of the intellect and the romance of the heart. Hard SF writers are all used to invoking a sense of wonder that thrills the imagination, it's what that particular game is all about. Fewer are able to at the same time involve the reader's emotions in a story that evokes the character's personal emotional attractions.

Talisker by Miller Lau
reviewed by John Berlyne
We meet Duncan Talisker just as he is released from an Edinburgh prison having served 15 years for a series of murders that he didn't commit. No sooner is he back on the streets than another death occurs with the very same modus operandi. We also learn that this story also takes place on Sutra, a place that very much conforms to Tolkien's definition of a secondary world. Sutra's indigenous race are The Fine -- a Celtic people who seem to be living around the time of Highlander. Sutra is also home to The Sidhe, a race of magic-wielding shape-shifters (and Lau's elaboration on the Sidhe of Celtic mythology) who interact and co-exist with The Fine, but clearly have origins and agendas all of their very own.

First Contact: The Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction: Volume One edited by Dave A. Law & Darin Park
reviewed by Steven H Silver
The book is is a collection of twenty essays dealing with science fiction as a genre, ostensibly for the purpose of helping the reader write stories and get them published. Although the book does offer some useful advice, it also includes several oddities which detract from the book's overall usefulness.

Grail by Stephen Lawhead
reviewed by Steven H Silver
Lawhead has quite definitely done his research into the classic tales of King Arthur and his knights. Steven found it imbued with freshness.

Blood of the City by Robin D. Laws
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
It starts out in the mundane setting of Magnimar's city streets where Luma Derexhi, a cobblestone druid, works with her family of mercenaries who deal with any problem of the people from the city's elite. The wealthier they are the better chances the mercenaries have of making a tidy profit. Luma is the oldest child of the family, yet due to her half-elven heritage no one takes any notice of her.

Sorrow by John Lawson
reviewed by Stuart Carter
Faina is a young girl sent to the rich and privileged land of Vestiga Gaesi ostensibly as part of her education, but actually as a hostage against the debts of her unfortunate parents. Faina lives -- or rather, is tolerated -- at the decadent court of Viscount Palus and his Mercurial wife, the Viscountess Chrysanth. However, this previously peaceful land is under threat from the depredations of a master assassin known only as Sorrow.

Justice League of America: Wonder Woman Mythos by Carol Lay
reviewed by Gil T. Wilson
Wonder Woman decides to visit her island home after hearing that a man has disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, which is in the vicinity of Themiscyra. A man's appearance on Themiscyra could escalate into a dangerous situation for both himself and the Amazons on the island. After arriving home, Diana is taken to the Oracle, who warns Diana of the Island of Opposites and that Themiscyra will be attacked. Knowing that this prediction may be linked to the missing man, Wonder Woman begins looking for him. What she finds is the man's new bride searching where her husband was last seen scuba diving.

Polyphony 2 edited by Deborah Layne and Jay Lake
reviewed by Sherwood Smith
Polyphony seeks to establish a place between the literary mainstream and science fiction/fantasy genres. Many long-time readers who enjoy short fiction across the breadth of the literary spectrum welcomed the first anthology, full of strong stories told in distinctive voices. Would the promise hold up in the second volume?

LC-39 #3
reviewed by Steven H Silver
This issue feature stories by Mark Rich, A.R. Morlan, Laurent McAllister, Mark Siegel and Alan De Niro, whose "Crossing the View of Delft" is an existentialist story in which we are given several basic assumptions about 2 protagonists and then the author proceeds to demolish most of those assumptions, leaving us with a story completely different from the one originally presented.

Alaric Swifthand by Steve Lazarowitz
reviewed by Jonathan Fesmire
Alaric Mason, later to be called Swifthand for a battle he had not intended to fight, lives in a dangerous world and often finds himself thrust into situations more perilous than he could conceive. Almost everyone he meets has a secret, sometimes shocking, sometimes deadly. His adventures lead him to a powerful magic sword, rat people, and maidens in peril.

Dream Sequence and Other Tales from Beyond by Steve Lazarowitz
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Interested in a fiction smorgasbord? Let's start out with something light -- "Alchemy 101." Then you can move on to some SF in the form of "The Fate of the Ambrose Colony" or some horror with "Life and Death in the EDMC." How about one of the fantasy selections? "The Challenge" is recommended. A hearty menu for any reader.