Cavalcade by Alison Sinclair
reviewed by Rich Horton
With a resolution that is quite original and very moving, the central mysteries of the story come to a head in a fair and interesting manner. There isn't any cheating with the plot and the book's theme is strong and satisfying, and deeply science-fictional. In some ways it reminds Rich of Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy.

A Conversation with Nalo Hopkinson
On naming types of technology:
"In part, I was interested in how we think of technology. So many of our stories about technology and our paradigms for it refer to Greek and Roman myth and language... It shapes not only the names for the technology we create, but the type of technology we create. I wondered what technologies a largely African diasporic culture might build, what stories its people might tell itself about technology."

Horror at Halloween edited by Jo Fletcher
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
If you live in one of the major urban centres of North America with their drugs, violence and crumbling infrastructure, you may have dreamed of moving yourself and your kids to a nice quiet small-town in New England, with tree-lined streets and Victorian homes with picket fences. But there are a few small towns in New England to be avoided: where flesh-and-blood muggers, whores, gang-bangers and crazed high school outsiders are the least of your worries. For example, the dangers of Innsmouth and Arkham, Massachusetts, are well-chronicled in the works of H.P. Lovecraft. But for five up-to-date case histories of strange occurrences in Oxrun Station, Connecticut, try this book.

Mission to Mars
a movie review by Rick Norwood
This is an entertaining science fiction film that strives to be scientifically accurate. The audience may not even notice that it takes radio messages many minutes to reach Earth (at the speed of light), that gravity in space is supplied by centrifugal force, and that the alien clock is counting down in binary. But Brian DePalma does not rub our noses in the science. He just gets it right.

Dream Sequence and Other Tales from Beyond by Steve Lazarowitz
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Interested in a fiction smorgasbord? Let's start out with something light -- "Alchemy 101." Then you can move on to some SF in the form of "The Fate of the Ambrose Colony" or some horror with "Life and Death in the EDMC." How about one of the fantasy selections? "The Challenge" is recommended. A hearty menu for any reader.

TaleBones, Fall 1999
reviewed by John O'Neill
The fiction in this magazine is always an unusual mix of SF and dark fantasy, and issue #17 is a fine example of how well the two blend together. Gene Stewart's "Up the Hill" is John's favourite story of the pack. And on top of the fine fiction are numerous interesting columns and reviews, as well as an interview with Vonda N. McIntyre.

Dr. Strangelove and Battlestar Galactica
DVD reviews by Rick Norwood
Want to get movie fans arguing? Mention your preference for the wide-screen or for the full-screen format. It has caused more words to be flung than almost anything else since Steven Seagal emerged as a movie star. Rick is a fan of wide-screen movies. Without it, he's likely to give the film a pass. But that changed when he watched DVD versions of Dr. Strangelove and Battlestar Galactica.

I Love You And There Is Nothing You Can Do About It by Gerard Daniel Houarner
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
The author's work can be among the most grisly in the horror genre. But, just because he doesn't shy away from the rough stuff, doesn't mean that's the only note he can play. This collection shows you a touch of that side and the incredible range of one of horror's most beguiling new voices.

New Magazines
compiled by John O'Neill
The SF Site's FictionHome page brings you the latest news and reviews of genre magazines and other short fiction. We look at brand new issues of Talebones, Interzone, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and many more.

A Conversation With Jack Williamson
An interview with Jayme Lynn Blaschke
On being remembered in 100 years:
"I'm not sure I'll be remembered at all. I pioneered some of the science fictional themes such as anti-matter. I invented the term 'terraforming,' which seems to have gotten into the language -- at least into the dictionary. I was the first person to use the term 'genetic engineering' so far as Webster's Collegiate Dictionary knows."

Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
a novel excerpt
   "Come Jour Ouvert morning, Tan-Tan was afraid to even self get out of bed. She had asked her mother the rules of the fight over and over till Ione got fed up and refused to repeat them any more. Tan-Tan knew the rules in her own head by now. As she opened her eyes she started to recite them like a mantra. Daddy would be all right..."

Etruscans by Morgan Llywelyn and Michael Scott
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
In the midst of magic, swordplay, and deities, one thing proves stronger, more enduring, than all the forces of good and evil. In a time of savagery and mortality, some fortunate citizens of ancient Italy from elite Etruscans to rustic Temeutians will come to recognize love to be the great leveller. Not even death and its denizens can extinguish love.

Babylon 5.1
TV reviews by Rick Norwood
Rick offers his opinion on the presence of Borg children in Star Trek: Voyager episode "Child's Play" by Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky and the swordplay of a computer-generated killer in The X-Files' "First Person Shooter" by William Gibson and Tom Maddox.

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
reviewed by Rich Horton
On a colony planet, men have established a society based on technological means of imitating the Hindu religion. It is possible to reincarnate the "mind" or "soul" to a new body, even an animal. But some of the earliest colonists have additional powers, which give them the status of gods. And a faction among them is using that means in political ways: punishing their enemies with reincarnation as animals, or with the "true death."

The War Against the Rull by A.E. van Vogt
reviewed by A.L. Sirois
This collection is comprised of several linked novelettes published between 1940 and 1950 plus a "new" story. Typical of most SF of the day (and even today), the first chapter opens strong. Jamieson is trapped with a ferocious alien beast, an ezwal, on an antigravity barge that is slowly descending to the surface of a savage world controlled by the insectlike Rull, who have wrecked the ship in which Jamieson has been taking the ezwal to Earth.

Profiles of the Future by Arthur C. Clarke
reviewed by Stephen M. Davis
Originally published in 1962, now revisited and revised by the author, this is an examination of where he believes that we are headed -- at least in a technological sense. To this end, we are provided with an entertaining chart at the back of the book suggesting that we may well have weather control by 2010 and immortality by the turn of the next century.

The Computers of Star Trek by Lois H. Gresh & Robert Weinberg
reviewed by Jonathan Fesmire
The authors explore Star Trek technology and explain what they see as more likely to be the future of human technological advancement. Although the various Star Trek series have always extrapolated future technology based on current models, even now the computers of Star Trek are essentially out of date.

Stardoc by S.L. Viehl
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil is fed up with her life on Earth and with her cold, domineering father. So she takes the first off-planet medical job she can find: a post in the Trauma FreeClinic on Kevarzangia Two, a world colonized by 200 different alien species, where human beings are definitely in the minority. She has never treated an alien in her life, but she's a talented doctor, and figures she'll wing it. Arriving on K-2, Cherijo finds that her scant knowledge of alien medicine is only the beginning of her problems...