Chindi by Jack McDevitt
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
We're dropped into a whirlwind of a novel, as the Captain and crew of the City of Memphis journey from one awe-inspiring, death-defying adventure to the next. It starts when a strange signal, and the relay system passing it on, is discovered around a nearby neutron star. Priscilla Hutchins, a starship captain who has become a little bored with the routine of hauling freight from one star system to the next, is hired to lead an expedition to follow the signal and find out who or what is at the other end.

A Conversation With Sean McMullen
An interview with Nick Gevers
On introspection by characters:
"In real life, you very rarely get deep introspection from people, apart from -- say -- when some work colleague has a few drinks too many at the pub and dumps his innermost opinions on you whether you want to hear them or not. I think a novel should be like looking at real life, rather than getting a telepathic tour of people's minds. I prefer to give cues and clues about my characters' thoughts, just as you get them in real life. It is completely deliberate. All that said, there are certainly moments of deep introspection in my work, but they do not dominate the text."

Agog! Fantastic Fiction edited by Cat Sparks
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Every time you're browsing in a bookstore you see the searchers: people desperate to find somebody "new" to read. Well, if for some unfathomable reason you aren't familiar with our Australian contingent in the genre, here is your chance to correct that mortifying oversight and score 29 "new" authors to get excited about. This anthology just might be your best chance yet to sample the best that Australia serves up in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction realms. A veritable smorgasbord!

Babylon 5.1
TV reviews by Rick Norwood
Rick has been watching a lot of TV lately. He gives us his views of recent episodes of Firefly, Smallville, Enterprise, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, John Doe and some thoughts on Twilight Zone. And he's thinking about what to watch in October.

The Fifth Man by John B. Olson and Randall Ingermanson
reviewed by Suzanne Krein
What would be the greatest danger facing astronauts living in tight quarters on the surface of Mars? Would they be more likely to face catastrophe because of an internal technical failure in their life-support systems or from an external threat, such as a Martian life form? Might the lives of the astronauts be endangered from an even more personal source -- themselves?

The Burning Heart of Night by Ivan Cat
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
Pilot Lindal Karr is one of the few humans able to withstand fugue, the immune system of the vast living entities called fugueships. Instead of falling into a coma-like sleep, as most humans do, Karr simply slows down. Passing a subjective day for every real-time year, he travels the universe in symbiosis with his ship, seeding human colonies among the stars. Sometimes, though, the seeded colonies don't thrive -- as on the ocean planet of New Ascension, where the small human community lives in constant peril. Initially judged a paradise, New Ascension hides a terrible secret...

Worlds Glimpsed, Worlds Lost: Why Farscape Should Be Saved
by Caitlin R. Kiernan
"After a decade as a professional author of dark and speculative fiction, it's become apparent to me that television SF is often, at best, considered the ugly stepsister of written and motion picture SF. And, in most instances, it's easy enough to understand how such attitudes have come about and why they remain entrenched among many readers, and perhaps most writers, of science fiction. Indeed, in most cases, "ugly stepsister" would, no doubt, be an incredibly kind description of what television has passed off as SF, time and time again. It hardly seems necessary to invoke Sturgeon's Law at this point ("90% of everything is crud"), though tradition would seem to demand it, but with the added proviso that maybe as much of 99% of TV SF is crud. There are notable and marvelous exceptions, of course..."

Vox: SF For Your Ears
a column by Scott Danielson
Scott Danielson is looking at audio SF -- on tape, on CD, on whatever. This time out, he has been listening to Shadow Puppets and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, Dreamcatcher by Stephen King, Gather, Darkness by Fritz Leiber and Song of the Wanderer: The Unicorn Chronicles Part II by Bruce Coville.

Full Unit Hookup, #1
reviewed by Rich Horton
Here is another in the recent near flood of small press slipstream 'zines. It offers six relatively short stories, and a number of poems, as well as two essays. It fits very readily in the same general category as Electric Velocipede, which Rich reviewed here recently, or the by now venerable Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, which he has called the "gold standard" of the SF/slipstream 'zines.

Dreaming Pigs by Lynne Carver
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
All of this concern over xenotransplantation would seem to make pigs cloned for xenobiotics a hot topic. What do such creatures have to do with this book? In the end, very little. A cloned pig's heart is used in a transplant operation, but the young girl recipient does not survive, suffering heart failure -- and thus largely eliminating the consequences of any pathogen transfer, and any controversy that might drive the the story's plot.

The Fall of Neskaya by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
In this new novel of Darkover, during the time of the Hundred Kingdoms, two young people are caught up in the invasion of their homelands. The first is Coryn Leynier, a young man who is just coming into his Laran. He's sick with the Threshold sickness, and a visitor offers to check to see how powerful he is. The other is Queen Taniquel. Her husband and his army are attacked and destroyed, and a rival king would have her marry his own son.

Firefly
Set 500 years in the future in the wake of a universal civil war, FIREFLY tells the tale of Serenity, a small transport spaceship without a homeport. Captain Malcolm ("Mal") Reynolds commands Serenity for legitimate transport and salvage runs, as well as, more "entrepreneurial" endeavors.

The most twisted new show on TV is coming to FOX. FIREFLY premieres on Friday, Sept. 20th 9PM/8C.

A Conversation With John Meaney
An interview with Lou Anders
On the world building of Paradox:
"I had a very clear picture of the lower, impoverished strata: the curtained-off dwelling-chambers; the marketplace; the fluorofungus splashed across the ceilings, providing light and replenishing the air. The wonders of the Palace, the motile floor and intelligent walls and membranous entrances grew in my subconscious, I think, while I was writing about Tom's impoverished upbringing. It's all about Zen and the art of dreaming, to me. The images -- more than visual: the scent of hemp in the market-chamber, the cold hard stone of the tunnels -- come leaping from that magical elsewhere. Resonances, such as between the curtains and the membranes, become apparent only in retrospect."

Geeks With Books
a column by Rick Klaw
"I tried to not write about it. Really. I'm not in the habit of complaining about TV show cancellations. Nine times out of ten, the show had already gone downhill, was never any good, or I didn't watch it anyway. This time is different. Farscape was easily the best science fiction show of its generation, and the premiere show on the self-proclaimed official network of the genre: the Sci Fi Channel. But somehow that genre so-called champion allowed this wonderful and important show to be canceled."

Mars Probes edited by Peter Crowther
reviewed by Rich Horton
The 16 stories include an impressive array of styles and points of attack. Half the stories are by Americans, half by natives of the U.K. There are stories by SFWA Grand Masters (Ray Bradbury and Brian W. Aldiss... and I trust Gene Wolfe at least will also be a Grand Master someday) and stories by hot newer writers (Alastair Reynolds and Patrick O'Leary). Some of the stories are humourous, some of the stories are serious and thought-provoking and some are sweet.

nemonymous #1
reviewed by David Soyka
The gimmick here is that the 16 authors in this quirky -- in both content and format (bound as it is in the shape of car owner's manual) -- publication are anonymous, at least until the next volume arrives in which their identities are revealed. (Not having seen the current second volume, they remain anonymous to me as I write this.) Even the editor is anonymous, although it has been reported in other venues that it is the British fiction writer D.F. Lewis.

Imagined Slights by James Lovegrove
reviewed by Martin Lewis
This short story collection is a winner from the very first page. Thanks to the helpful "Contents of Imagined Slights (expressed in the form of a pie chart)", the shortest story takes up 2.77% of the book and the largest 11.27%. For a writer most commonly associated with science fiction, this represents something of a mixed bag, tending strongly to hybridisation; urban fantasy, SF and horror spliced together.

New Arrivals
compiled by Neil Walsh
New books this time include the latest novels from Timothy Zahn, Mercedes Lackey and Sarah Hoyt, plus collections by Mary Soon Lee, Ken Wisman, Laura J. Underwood, forthcoming collections from Esther Friesner, George Zebrowski and Jack Chalker. There are also a fair number of classic reprints, and still more new books.

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.

Dragondoom by Dennis L. McKiernan
reviewed by Rob Kane
This is a bit of trip back to pure sword and sorcery type fantasy, containing all sorts of elements of a traditional epic fantasy. There are dragons; powerful, immortal, evil, and vengeful. Guarding their hoards and flinging death from on high to mortal creatures on the ground. There are humans; noble, strong, and adventurists. Dragon hunters and empire builders. There are dwarfs; proud with long memories. The loss of their greatest dwarvenholt fifteen hundred years ago is still fresh in their minds. There is the sorcerer; evil and scheming for power. He throws his power about to protect himself and his awesome treasure. And finally there are adventurers; courageous and unrelenting. The story belongs to them, with their long journey and what they learn along the way.

The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney
reviewed by David Maddox
A mysterious circus rolls into town by means of neither roads nor train. Its advertisement promises sights and wonders as yet unseen by mortal man. Its owner is a chameleonic Asian man of uncertain age and origin. Though at first unimpressed with its run-down appearance (heck, it doesn't even have an elephant!), the mundane citizens of Abalone, Arizona are soon to learn that the circus contains a bizarre collection of myths, oddities, fables and lore that will challenge the very nature of their lives and beliefs.