Manifold: Space by Stephen Baxter
reviewed by David Soyka
What is particularly neat about this is how it subverts the traditional space opera conceit of galaxies just sitting out there waiting for human colonization. At the same time, just as it thoroughly belittles egocentric human notions about our importance in an incredibly vast and uncaring reality, it embraces our sense of individuality and purpose as possibly an underlying, maybe even defining, principle of cosmological sentience.

Dislocated Fictions
a column by Gabriel Chouinard
Gabriel Chouinard is SF Site's new columnist. His column is dedicated to exposing the risk-takers working in SF and fantasy. He calls them the Next Wave, in a nod to the obvious influences that the New Wave writers had upon them. Here, he introduces the topic and asks Michael Moorcock for his thoughts.

Nanny Ogg's Cookbook by Terry Pratchett, Stephen Briggs & Tina Hannan
reviewed by Hank Luttrell
While we are all waiting for the next novel, this book is a very good and funny addition to the Discworld library. The recipes are based on the characterizations in the novels, and frequently make use of plot details. As well-remembered characters step forward, each with a unique recipe, it becomes clear that food really does show up a lot in the Discworld books.

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
Things have not been good lately for Chicago's only professional wizard. His previous case, in which he worked with the Chicago PD to solve a series of gruesome murders committed by a mad warlock turned druglord, brought him a lot of publicity, but not the helpful kind. When another set of brutal killings comes to light, his police contact, Lt. Karrin Murphy, is the only one who makes the connection between the timing of the killings and the full moon.

Talebones #20
reviewed by Rich Horton
This magazine reaches a milestone: 20 issues, well worth celebrating for a small press publication. This is an attractive, digest-sized, perfect bound, publication, with pretty nice artwork, both on the cover and in the interior. They publish a good range of stories -- there is a slight bias towards "dark fantasy," but they do straight SF as well. This issue also boasts poetry, book reviews by various writers, as well as a music review column, an interview, cartoons, and more.

April Books
compiled by Neil Walsh
New books include John Clute's first SF novel, new novels from Paul McAuley, Piers Anthony, David Feintuch, Sharon Shinn, and new anthologies from Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois, and Martin Greenberg & John Helfers. Some unearthed classics that have recently been brought to our attention include the works of Brian Aldiss from UK publisher House of Stratus; the continuation of Nebraska University Press' Frontiers of Imagination series, with commemorative editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs, A. Merritt, E.E. "Doc" Smith, and H.G. Wells; and Stealth Press' return to the early works of authors like Robert A. Heinlein and F. Paul Wilson.

Lady Crymsyn by P.N. Elrod
reviewed by Hank Luttrell
At one time, Jack Fleming would have been styled as a vampire detective, as he sometimes teamed up with a pal who is a private investigator. With this volume of the series, he seems to be headed in the direction of being a vampire gangster. He steadfastly maintains that he isn't a criminal, but he's likely in denial.

Paradox by John Meaney
reviewed by John Berlyne
Set on Nulapeiron, a world long-colonized by humanity, it is one where society is stratified, both physically and politically. In the lower levels, life is hard despite the vast organic technologies that shape this world. Young Tom Corcorigan is minding his own business when a stranger hands him an odd talisman. The next day, he sees the same stranger brutally killed by the local militia. With her distinctive obsidian eyes, he realizes she must be a pilot -- previously thought to exist only in folklore and legend.

Dark Terrors 5 edited by Stephen Jones and David Sutton
reviewed by Lisa Brunetta
If you have a soft spot in your heart for horror and you enjoy the short story genre, here's an anthology for you: the stories here are clever and well selected. If you're in the mood to get freaked out, spooked, frightened and creeped out, you could have a great time with this book.

The Collected Stories by Arthur C. Clarke
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
One thing that becomes apparent early in the collection is the range of the author's philosophical thinking. Many of the early tales reflect a certain fatalism towards human history. At the other extreme are stories steeped in the "What will those amazing humans do next?" attitude that pervades much of 1940s SF. The combination of the two outlooks is at the heart of much of his best work.

Interzone, February 2001
reviewed by David Soyka
One of the highlights of this issue is Richard Calder's "The Nephilim," a polemic about the conflict between rationality and spirituality in confronting the forces of darkness, represented as magical creatures emerging from the Netherworld to disrupt a deteriorating 56th-century English aristocracy; another is Stephen Baxter's "Lost Continent," a conversation between two old university chums in yet another variation of the "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean I'm crazy" theme.

Babylon 5.1
TV reviews by Rick Norwood
Rick offers his notes on how he expects TV watching to change in the future and 3 capsule reviews of Star Trek: Voyager and The X-Files episodes. There were 2 four-star episodes in the past 2 weeks.

Star Wars: Darth Maul - Shadow Hunter by Michael Reaves
reviewed by David Maddox
Set mere days before the latest movie, the book begins when a rogue Neimodian decides to get rich by selling information on the Trade Federation's impending blockade of Naboo. The evil Darth Sidious sends apprentice Darth Maul to eliminate the traitor and anyone else he's interacted with. This turns out to be Lorn Pavan, a rogue information broker with a grudge against Jedi along with his sarcastic partner, a 'droid named I-Five. Along the way, young Jedi Padawan Darsha Assant, out on her first mission, gets caught up protecting the two from the deadly Sith Apprentice.

Five Forbidden Things by Dora Knez
reviewed by Trent Walters
This falls somewhere in the middle of the "dangerous" chapbook spectrum though, thankfully, a little more toward the dangerous end. No classics as yet, but a small cult following seems imminent. The majority of her fiction bucks the standard formula. Instead of character development and change, she focuses on the minute qualities of writing, like metaphor, structural artifice and the aesthetics of language.

Forthcoming Books
compiled by Neil Walsh
Here's a sampling of some of the F&SF books that are headed our way in the coming months...

Tik-Tok by John Sladek
reviewed by Rich Horton
The book is purportedly written by the title character, a robot, as he awaits his trial and certain execution for murder. We are quickly told of the first of Tik-Tok's crimes, the first time he realizes his "asimov" circuits must be damaged: he murders a little blind girl while his owners are away, and then covers up the bloodstains with a mural. It is the mural which provokes interest though: it is evidence that robots can be creative. The ironic linkage between creativity and murderousness should probably not be missed.