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This is the second issue I have seen of Kaleidotrope, another small 'zine, : 8.5" by 14" paper folded and saddle-stitched, with cardboard covers. Fred Coppersmith is the proprietor. It features a wide selection of stories, many of them quite short, as well as some non-fiction: an interview with the writers of a Doctor Who book, a discussion of "female android sexuality in film" and a parody horoscope column. Add quite a few poems, and a comic strip, and some more art and photography, and you have a varied and interesting publication.

How does it stack up, then? I'd have to rank it in the middle range of these small publications. The stories are of variable quality, and none really strike me as brilliant. But in addition to variable quality, there is variation in tone and mode -- which keeps things lively and interesting. Stories I enjoyed in particular include Ashley Arnold's clever and surrealistic short-short "Word Count: Negative 1" (there are a few more words than that in the story, but not too many more!); Adam Lowe's moving "Paradise," about the rights of synthetic humans -- a familiar point, but nicely expressed here; Michael Obilade's "The Transparency," very much slipstream, about a man with a semi-invisible girlfriend; and Flavian Mark Luminetti's "Furrier," satire about a Senator who falls for a "furry" lobbyist -- a bit too obvious in passages, but still often quite amusing.

Rich Horton is an eclectic reader in and out of the SF and fantasy genres. He's been reading SF since before the Golden Age (that is, since before he was 13). Born in Naperville, IL, he lives and works (as a Software Engineer for the proverbial Major Aerospace Company) in St. Louis area and is a regular contributor to Tangent. Stop by his website at http://www.sff.net/people/richard.horton.