Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
reviewed by Michael M Jones
This being Harry Dresden's life, he's immediately plunged into a vicious multi-element struggle that makes the Maltese Falcon affair look like a Bobbsey Twins adventure. The crazies start popping out of the woodwork, everyone looking for either the Word of Kemmlar, or an ancient book about the mythical Erlking, and they either want Harry to find said books, hand them over promptly, or please die now. In some cases, all three. The really bad news? Six of the new nasties in town are necromancers. Before you know it, Harry's up to his wizard's staff in zombies, with no end in sight.

New Arrivals
compiled by Neil Walsh
New books this time include the latest novels from Ben Bova, Sara Douglass, Andre Norton, and Mark Chadbourn, plus sneak peeks at forthcoming works from Paul McAuley, Michael Moorcock, Connie Willis, and many more.

Vox: SF For Your Ears
a column by Scott Danielson
Scott Danielson is listening to audio SF -- on tape, on CD, on whatever. This time out, he has been listening to the audio CDs included in Orson Scott Card's Posing as People. The book includes each original story, comments by the authors of the scripts, and the scripts themselves. A 4-disc audiobook is also there made up of a reading of each original story and a performance of each script by the actors.

Babylon 5.1
TV reviews by Rick Norwood
Rick offers his thoughts on two episodes of Star Trek Enterprise, "Terra Prime" and "These Are the Voyages...", the latter of which is the series finale. He also gives us a list of his most fondly remembered Star Trek episodes.

A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
The Sidhe now have a murky coexistence with te modern world, based in North America. A nation within a nation, they are in some ways similar to Native Americans. The central character, and narrator, is Meredith Gentry, a runaway from the Unselie Court. Merry as she is known to her friends, has been in hiding for three years, establishing herself as a glamour shrouded member of The Grey Detective Agency, a firm specialising in cases involving magic.

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
Should an artist's life be kept separate from his or her work? Alice Bradley Sheldon thought it important enough at the beginning of her writing career that she used the name James Tiptree Jr. as a pseudonym and a P.O. box as an address in order to keep the rest of her life private. But she was writing science fiction, and her audience was a community in which readers knew writers, writers knew readers, and writers all knew each other.

A Terrible To-Do about Voodoo: an interview with Stephen Gallagher
conducted by Sandy Auden
"Voodoo is actually quite a sweet natured religion. I'd always fancied doing something about the reality of voodoo, but there are frequently surprises with the way a project can work out."

Chaotic Lives: an interview with Michael Moorcock
conducted by Sandy Auden
"I'm naturally given to plunge into all kinds of things, though maybe less so these days. Linda, my wife, is the same. We'll go places that most people would be too scared to go. If we're travelling abroad, we'll wind up in the dark alleys rather than on the brightly lit boulevard. You'll find much more interesting stuff in the dark alleys."

Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
reviewed by Alisa McCune
Jason, Sookie's brother, is experiencing his first full moon as a werepanther. Amazingly enough, Jason embraces his new life and enjoys shifting. As much of a relief as this is for Sookie, trouble is looming. Someone is killing shifters and Jason is the prime suspect. To add to Sookie's turmoil, Eric does not remember his time with Sookie, but knows something important happened.

Sequential Art
a column by Matthew Peckham
Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers is being marketed by DC as "the most ambitious new storytelling venture in modern comics history," an attempt to "redefine the concept of the super-hero," "a colossal tale unlike any seen in comics before."

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 2005
reviewed by Chris Przybyszewski
This edition of Fantasy & Science Fiction offers writing from Alex Irvine, Esther Friesner, Paul Di Filippo, John McDaid, Arthur Porges, Lucius Shepard, and Bruce Sterling, among others. The results are mixed, though some bits are worth the price of admission by itself.

Seal Island by Kate Brallier
reviewed by Charlene Brusso
With its Gothic atmosphere and moody setting, this twist on the old selkie legend is the kind of romance Mary Stewart might've written thirty years ago -- in about 250 pages. Recently down-sized from her dull New York City office job, Cecilia ("Cecil") Hargrave is more than ready to head north when she inherits her Aunt Allegra's house on Seal Island, just off the Maine coast.

Boxing Stories by Robert E. Howard
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
For many of the stories, some never reprinted before, the editor has gone back to the original typescripts or magazine appearances: restoring 10,000 words to "The Iron Man" cut by the editors of Fight Stories; restoring Sailor Steve Costigan as the protagonist of Dennis Dorgan stories, a name change brought on by Howard having to disguise his authorship to avoid having two stories under the same by-line in a single magazine issue.