Amazing Adult Fantasy by A.D. Jameson
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
To begin with, these short fictions are funny. They are also experimental, wayward and surreal, any of which might make them seem far more serious and "worthy" than they actually are. They are not stories in the conventional sense. Some of them may offer a narrative, but if you try to follow them too closely you will find characters change, chronologies wander all over the place, and an obsessive interest in something mundane and irrelevant will suddenly intrude into the text.

Back to the Future: the Game
a game review by David Maddox
"Your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. So make it a good one!" Wise words from the enigmatic Doctor Emmett Lathrup Brown that drew to a conclusion the phenomenal Back to the Future trilogy. Since that moment when Doc and his family left Marty and Jennifer by the remains of the wrecked DeLorean and flew off into the unknown in the time traveling train, fans have wondered just what adventures (if any) existed in that unknown future. The deceptive "The End" that wrapped up the films seems to have closed things up... or did it?

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
a movie review by Rick Norwood
The new Planet of the Apes movie is enjoyable, favoring appealing characters over heavy-handed satire. This film is a new beginning, and the setup for a new series. Whether it will take us all the way to the half-sunken Statue of Liberty remains to be seen.

Captain America: The First Avenger
a movie review by Rick Norwood
They killed Bucky! No, just kidding. I mean, of course they killed Bucky, but they always kill Bucky. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created Captain America in a simpler time, World War II, when comic book stories were complete in one issue, or even had several stories in one issue.

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2011
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
The Bird Cage" by Kate Wilhelm opens with Grace Wooten who refuses to allow Edward Markham to use himself as a test subject in the study of Parkinson's disease. Grace believes the monkeys are enough for the time being, and her team are working round the clock trying to find the solutions to the mystery, but Markham isn't satisfied, and makes her use him, or he will cut the funding for her project.

Clementine by Cherie Priest
reviewed by Jason Erik Lundberg
Cherie Priest's entry into the world of steampunk has been spectacular and explosive, qualities that match the protagonists of her new short novel Clementine. The book proceeds from the events in its incredible predecessor Boneshaker, following a minor character in that novel, Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey, an escaped slave on the hunt for those who have stolen his (previously stolen) airship, the Free Crow.

Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear by Terry Dowling
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
The collection doesn't include any misfires, the quality of the stories is consistently top notch, but some material is absolutely superlative. "The Bullet That Grows in the Gun" is the intriguing, tense, extraordinary report of a scientific experiment involving an apparently absurd theory about materialization. An unforgettable tale graced by excellent storytelling and superb characterization.

Love in Vain by Lewis Shiner
reviewed by Seamus Sweeney
In this beautiful limited edition paperback of the author's 1997 collection, these are great stories, ranging over genres and locations with admirable disdain for the artificial boundaries that disfigure literature. To use one of the great clichés, there is something for everyone. More accurately, there are multiple stories to suit multiple tastes.

Watching the Future
a column by Derek Johnson
Fans and critics cite the 50s as the Golden Age of cinematic science fiction. Granted, the period saw so many groundbreaking movies that most cinema historians accept the period's classic status as a given -- mention of some of the decade's classic movies must include Forbidden Planet (1956), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), This Island Earth (1955), Them! (1954), The Thing (From Another World) (1951), among others. Derek began wondering whether we should consider the 80s a second Golden Age, rather than, as some might term it, a Silver Age.

New Arrivals
compiled by Neil Walsh
New and forthcoming titles from Terry Brooks, Joe R. Lansdale, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Cherie Priest, Adam Roberts, Brandon Sanderson, and many more.

Babylon 5.1
TV reviews by Rick Norwood
Rick gives us a list of those SF TV shows that have caught his attention recently. They include Doctor Who, followed by Torchwood. He also gives us a list of what SF is on TV in September.

Nexus Graphica
a column by Rick Klaw and Mark London Williams
So here we have the rebooting of the DC universe, but Mark London Williams thinks we're going to tack against the grain of the comics press and not talk about that, or the new issue Justice League. Too much. He did not line up for the midnight madness events, though one wonders why, if the comics are available digitally, one would line up at all? Well, getting out has its own rewards, he supposes.

Veteran by Gavin Smith
reviewed by Katherine Petersen
Jakob Douglas fought alien enemies he didn't understand for years before being dishonorably discharged for his part in a mutiny. But now his former CO has called him back into service. A thrilling, action-packed sci-fi debut, the book that takes place 300 years in the future. The war with the aliens has lasted 60 years and an end is nowhere in sight. But now one of Them has turned up in Jakob's hometown of Dundee, and he's the closest hope of destroying it.

A Zombie's History of the United States by Dr. Worm Miller
reviewed by David Maddox
Zombies continue their relentless, foot dragging, moaning assault on popular culture. And the concept of the "mash-up" has allowed many to meld two completely unrelated genres to create something entirely new and sometimes amazing. This book falls into the written word category and takes the simple premise of retelling early US history, but revealing through hidden files that the early untamed Americas were rife with the undead.

Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
reviewed by Christopher DeFilippis
Fractured and weakened by civil war between House Hoegbotton & Sons and Frankwrithe & Lewden, Ambergris became an easy target for the mysterious gray caps, its mushroom-like underground denizens, who rose and conquered the city, subjugating it to martial law. Fungus now blights Ambergris like a cancer, the air thick with spores. Formerly human Partials patrol the streets, quasi-fungal enforcers who keep the populace in line while the gray caps build two mysterious towers. But rumors of a resistance persist.

The City & The City by China Miéville
reviewed by Rich Horton
Beszel and Ul Qoma are two cities that occupy the same geographical space. They are intricately interwoven, such that some areas are "total" -- all one city or the other -- but some are "crosshatched," so that one building might be in Beszel and its neighbor in Ul Qoma. The residents have been trained to "see" and "unsee" their surroundings. Tyador Borlú is an Inspector for Beszel's Extreme Crime Squad. His new case is the murder of a young woman who turns out to be an American graduate student in archaeology with an interest in the theory, generally regarded as crackpot, that there is a third, invisible, city occupying the same area as Beszel and Ul Qoma.