11.22.63 by Stephen King
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
The premise of this book is one that may have been on people's minds for a considerable while. If you could go back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, would you? As with anything to do with time travel, there is cause and effect, consequences of any actions done by one person, and this book is about just that. The 22nd of November 1963 is one of the most famous dates in modern history, and many have pondered what they did on that day.

Death's Rival by Faith Hunter
reviewed by Katherine Petersen
Fans of Jane Yellowrock are in for a true treat with the fifth book in this series about the tough vampire hunter. This story not only has a complex plot that fans have come to expect, but it also delves into Jane's past, giving insight into who she is and why she makes many of the choices she makes. The author also tackles more of Beast's character and her relationship to Jane.

Operation: Montauk by Bryan Young
reviewed by Christopher DeFilippis
After traveling in time on a mission to kill Hitler before the start of the war, World War II Army Corporal Jack Mallory wakes up with most of his unit dead or dying, facing down a hungry Velociraptor -- which he starts shooting in the face. After an instance of bloody mayhem, he meets up with other time travelers likewise stranded in prehistory, including 19th Century British inventor James Richmond, 20th Century scientist Veronica Keaton, and Captain Abigail Valentine and the surviving crew of the Chronos, the first faster-than-light vessel from some nebulous point in Earth's far future.

Exogene by T.C. McCarthy
an audiobook review by Dale Darlage
Exogene is a hell of a science fiction novel but to call it a sci-fi novel is to undersell it. It is a hell of a war novel, but to call it a war novel is also underselling it. It really is the story of a woman finding out what it is to love, to be loved and to know where one stands with God -- in short, to be human. But that seriously undersells this book and makes a violent tale of war, genetic mutation and out-of-control science sound like some piece of warm and fuzzy chick lit. It is certainly not that. So, what is it?

Kafkaesque edited by John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly
reviewed by Seamus Sweeney
"Kafkaesque" is a word used very often to describe bureaucratic snafus and paradoxes. Even people who have never read a word of Kafka use it to describe their encounter with the Department of Motor Vehicles, or airport security. So pervasive has "Kafkaesque" become that it has nearly lost its link with the works of Franz Kafka. When it comes to trying to summarise this wonderful anthology, there is something of a dilemma. It can be recommended unhesitatingly to anyone who has ever read any Kafka, but what about those for whom Kafkaesque is a noun they use but Kafka is not someone they've read?

Sky City: New Science Fiction Stories by Danish Authors edited by Carl-Eddy Skovgaard
reviewed by Steven H Silver
Every few years, international science fiction appears to be spotlighted by an American editor, whether it is the excellent SFWA European Hall of Fame edited by James and Kathryn Morrow in 2007 or Tales from Planet Earth edited by Frederik Pohl and Elizabeth Anne Hull twenty years earlier. Here we have Sky City, with stories selected by Carl-Eddy Skovgaard and published by Science Fiction Cirklen, an anthology of Danish Science Fiction originally published in 2007 and 2008 with new translations into English.

The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman
reviewed by Trent Walters
Sophie's mother is dropping her off at the Oak Cottage in Louisiana with her aunt and grandmother -- people Sophie doesn't particularly enjoy -- so that the mother is freed to pursue her accounting degree since the father has left the family. Sophie, on the cusp of becoming a woman, doesn't feel like she has any power over her life, and these women don't help. Behind the Oak Cottage is a maze constructed out of tall shrubs. It is there that Sophie is first haunted by the Creature who taunts Sophie when she gets lost in the maze.

Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore
reviewed by David Soyka
As with Christopher Moore's previous takes on Shakespeare, the New Testament, horror movies and the whole vampire shtick, the irreverent treatment, this time, with a topic associated with holy matters retains reverence of its subject. In this case, the French Impressionists and the idea that maybe Vincent Gogh didn't off himself in a suicidal depression, but was perhaps the victim of his muse, or possibly the entity victimizing his muse.

Watching the Future
a column by Derek Johnson
Growing up in Alief, a once-burgeoning suburb in southwest Houston, Derek's diversions from the mundane life came from books and movies. He checked out whatever adventure stories he could from the library, and when he could braved crowds at the multiplexes springing up like weeds. If he missed a movie in release, he had to hope it would play on television at some point… and that he was home to watch it, and could stay up past his imposed bedtime. My how things have changed these days.

New Arrivals
compiled by Neil Walsh
Wow, there's some exciting stuff this time, including the latest from Terry Pratchett, James Enge, Suzanne McLeod, Steven Erikson, Hannu Rajaniemi, and plenty more!

Babylon 5.1
TV reviews by Rick Norwood
How many fantasy, science fiction, or horror shows are there in the new Fall season? It depends on how you count. If you include animated shows and comedies, at least fifteen. If you only include live action shows with space travel, one. Television science fiction has largely come to mean a show set in the near future with one big idea not very well thought out: aliens land, aliens destroy civilization, aliens move in next door, there's a nuclear war, everybody gets a glimpse of the future, a parallel world is discovered.

Dredd 3D
a movie review by Rick Norwood
Americans have no idea who Judge Dredd is. They're staying away from this movie in droves. Which is just as well, since this Americanized version of Judge Dredd is a milksop compared to the version from the British weekly comic paper 2000 AD.

Nexus Graphica
a column by Rick Klaw and Mark London Williams
It's another all-in-one edition where we wax like columnists of old (Mark London Williams is thinking "Herb Caen," for all the old Bay Area mediaphiles, in honor of both the Giants and the A's winning their divisions this year) with an item-strewn comics column that mixes in reviews! It'll be a marvel, true believers!

Werewolves of Wisconsin and Other American Myths, Monsters and Ghosts by Andy Fish
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
When people think of the United States, they think of all the good bits: writers, artists, musicians, and places like Mount Rushmore, and landmarks like The Statue of Liberty, but in this graphic novel of tales, writer and artist, Andy Fish explores the darker side of its history with the ghosts and monsters hidden around every corner.

Noise by Darin Bradley
reviewed by Jason Erik Lundberg
The novel joins other notable society-wide apocalyptic fictions such as Stephen King's The Stand, José Saramago's Blindness, and Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower: apokalypsis in medias res. Rather than give us the aftermath of catastrophe, we are thrust face-first into its genesis and immediate consequences. The effect is like the collision with an undivertable freight train, as society as we know it very quickly degrades into cataclysmic collapse.