That's Not My Name by Yvonne Navarro
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Do you want a taut thriller that keeps your heart pounding and your eyes cemented to the page until the very last sentence? Do you want an in-depth character study that places you inside the minds of characters, exploring their fears, hopes, doubts? So few novels have a bit of both. Fewer still are the ones that combine them into a perfect balance.

The Black Chalice by Marie Jakober
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
Karelian Brandeis, count of Lys, for all his associations with pagan magic, displays far more "Christian" goodness than most of his contemporaries. The murder, pillaging and rapine he has seen under the auspices of the great Christian Crusade have turned him into a man who would like nothing better than stop fighting, retire to his castle with a wife and live out his days surrounded by his children. His experiences have also led him to reconsider his blind belief in the Church's teachings to the point of heresy.

A Thief Among Statues by Donn Kushner
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Brian Newgate is a refugee of WWI, sent with scores of orphaned children from Britain to Canada. Judging by the families he is placed with, life alone on the streets is looking pretty good. When Brian finally goes on the run, he hides in the warmth of a church where he finds himself talking to two wooden statues hidden away behind boards. The statues tell him a tale of wonder and loss, and command him to complete a seemingly impossible assignment.

June Books
compiled by Neil Walsh
Recent arrivals here at the SF Site include new books from John Meaney, Chris Bunch, Rudy Rucker, Robert Sawyer, Stephen Lawhead, Brian Lumley, Dennis McKiernan, plus a collaboration between astronaut Buzz Aldrin and novelist John Barnes. We've also seen an array of reprinted fantasy and science fiction classics from the likes of Eric Frank Russell, Jack Vance, Robert Silverberg, E.R. Eddison, and Hal Clement.

A Conversation with Chris Bunch
On research of jewel-cutting:
"Did the usual book research, also spent some time with some master gemcutters, getting dumb questions answered. The biggest drawback of this is that they assumed I've got a LOT more money than I do, because they kept hauling out perfect-cut ten carat diamonds, and wonderful unset star sapphires and dangling them under my nose. Which makes me hope that everybody buys The Empire Stone. Twice."

Spectrum SF 2, April 2000
reviewed by Rich Horton
This issue features one long novella ("Destiny on Tartarus" by Eric Brown), the 2nd installment of Keith Roberts' new Kiteworld serial, Drek Yarman, and 5 short stories by Stephen Palmer, Jack Deighton, Eric Brown and Stephen Baxter, Keith Brooke and Barrington J. Bayley.

Preternatural Too: Gyre by Margaret Wander Bonanno
reviewed by Peter D. Tillman
Karen Rohmer Guerreri, a midlist SF writer, is having trouble selling a new book. But she soon finds herself snatched from her bed at the Days Inn, and dumped onto a straw pallet in Eleanor of Aquitane's Brittany -- the start of a long, strange trip through Julius Ceasar's Gaul, the fall of Berlin in 1945, and several alternate Nows. Peter found it reminded him of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and the best of Philip K. Dick.

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.

Born Bad by Barry Hoffman
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
This novel tells the harrowing story of a string of suicides on the UPENN campus and the sociopath who is the instigator of the deaths. It is more than just your standard psychological thriller or a voyeuristic peek into dark realism; the novel is as much about the safety nets and support offered by the university as it is about the mystery. But, according to UPENN officials, the subject matter covered in the novel is too "sensitive" to publicize. So they chose to ban it.

Time and the Gods by Lord Dunsany
reviewed by Rich Horton
The author is widely regarded as a seminal 20th-century writer of fantasy, the originator of many of the tropes we see in story after story, and a master stylist. However, he is not all that widely read any more. Well, this new collection would seem to be intended to reach all readers and to set Dunsany's record straight. The best stories in this book are excellent, written in lovely prose that is indeed ornate, but to good effect, often rounded off with an ironic barb, stuffed with lush images, and suffused with the odour of regret.

A Conversation With Kristine Kathryn Rusch
An interview with Jayme Lynn Blaschke
On working with writers as an editor:
"I think editors work much harder than writers ever give them credit for. I learned that there are writers that are fun to work with and there are writers that are incredibly difficult to work with, and there are writers I would never work with again. So applying that to myself as a writer means that I want to be one of those writers that is easy to work with and somebody you like to have around, simply because you get more work that way."

Babylon 5.1
TV reviews by Rick Norwood
Rick asks the question, Whatever Happened to Mr. Straczynski? The gentleman who gave us the Babylon 5 and the Crusade TV shows has moved on to Rising Star.

Forthcoming Books
compiled by Neil Walsh
Summer books still to look forward to: new novels from Steven Erikson, Judith Tarr, Eve Forward; short story collections from Jane Yolen, Richard Paul Russo; continuations of series from Sarah Isidore, Anne McCaffrey; and new anthologies from Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, Gardner Dozois, Sheree R. Thomas, and Ed Kramer.

Reckless Sleep by Roger Levy
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
The story is set in a near-future world devastated by global eco-terrorism, where tectonic collapse, uncontrolled volcanic eruptions, and release of radioactive waste have made life almost unlivable. In this doomed environment, people turn increasingly to drugs and Virtual Reality games for escape, while the governments of the world try desperately to find some way to save the human race.

Wasp by Eric Frank Russell
reviewed by Nick Gevers
This novel may be dated, preposterously archaic in its technological and social assumptions, and distinctly patronizing towards its aliens, but it redeems itself by being wryly amusing, well-paced, and quite instructive on the subject of guerrilla and psychological warfare. It is a superior example of the stylishly undemanding SF adventure tales of the 50s.

Vast by Linda Nagata
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
Set mostly aboard the spaceship Null Boundary, this novel is in essence one long chase scene. The ship and its crew and passengers are fleeing a courser of the Chenzeme. The Chenzeme have attacked and destroyed much of human space, both with ships and a biological weapon known as the cult virus.