Spider-Man 2 by Peter David
reviewed by Charlene Brusso
It has been two years since Peter Parker first donned the Spider-Man costume. Two years of fighting to protect the innocent and capture the guilty, while maintaining the guise of a normal human being -- one who doesn't dare reveal his secret identity, even if it means lying to his professors, his bosses, his best friend, and the two people he cares about most in the world: sweet old Aunt May, and dynamic, gorgeous Mary Jane (MJ) Watson, the woman he loves but can never have, for fear of making her a target for every bad guy who hates Spider-Man.

Knight Life by Peter David
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
The author began his novel-writing career with this book, originally published in 1987, a humorous tale that turned Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court on its head by positing an Arthur transported forward into our time. It became something of a cult classic over the years, much in demand by his fans. Now it's been re-published in a beautiful hardcover edition, revised, updated and expanded (by 20,000 words) by the author.

Star Trek: New Frontier: Fire on High by Peter David
reviewed by Alexander von Thorn
A new Star Trek novel by Peter David is always a good bet, and this one meets the standard for strong writing that he has shown in past efforts.

Footprints of Thunder by James F. David
reviewed by Leon Olszewski
Strange objects falling from the sky, disappearances over the Bermuda Triangle, people spontaneously bursting into flame. Current science has no explanation. But what if these events all tied together, and a single cohesive theory could explain the phenomena? James F. David postulates such a theory, and shows what happens...

Adventures in Unhistory by Avram Davidson
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Avram Davidson's heyday probably stretched from the late 50s to perhaps the early 70s. By the time of his death in 1993, however, his star had slipped from the SF firmament. He was a writer's writer, indeed right to the end other authors would extol his work, but for the last twenty years or more of his writing life he made little substantial impact on the reading public. Since his death, however, Tor have made sterling efforts to bring his work back to public attention.

Kiss It Away by Carol Anne Davis
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Blazing a path of devastation through the lives of everyone in this book is the steroid-powered Nick. A textbook example of antisocial personality disorder at his best, the ex-con is a bomb that continues to go off time and again as his consumption of anabolic steroids escalates out of control. When Ben has the misfortune to cross paths with Nick it sets off a series of tragedies that have the police in overdrive. To Ben's horror, he finds that the focus of their investigation is himself.

Noise Abatement by Carol Anne Davis
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Oozing, slimy, mutant monsters don't scare Lisa anymore. It's the human monsters among us that keep her constantly wary. These hidden killers are the actual horror that lashes out every day -- and the author knows it. No wonder hers is among the most terrifying fiction in existence; it could just as easily be true. And that ought to scare the hell out of anyone.

Safe As Houses by Carol Anne Davis
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Not every person who falls victim to a serial criminal makes a fatal mistake. But if you're still parking next to vans in dark parking lots, or getting just a little bit closer to give that stranger directions, you haven't been paying attention. Crack the cover of this book and you'll never make that mistake again. You'll also never feel completely secure again, because this book is frightening in a way that Silence Of The Lambs could never be.

Honour Among Punks by Guy Davis and Gary Reed
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
The Victorian Age hasn't really died, but the punk and gothic movement are in full swing, creating a subculture that clashes against the Victorian world they all live in, and Baker Street is in the centre of it. Medical student Susan Predergrast has taken an apartment with a pair of punker girls. It is soon apparent that she's really a less daffy Dr. Watson, playing to her new roommate and employer Sharon Ford's less acerbic Holmes. She is an ex-cop with an irreverent attitude that helped get her kicked off the police force.

Resurrection by Arwen Elys Dayton
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Easing into this world may be a bit unsettling at first. There are flashbacks, flashforwards, several flashsideways, and, Lisa thinks, a flashdiagonal. But persevere; once you find your way it's well worth the momentary confusion. This tale of planets, civilizations, and alternate histories offers some theories you probably never considered. It's a look into past, present, and future that seems strangely... probable.

Blue Bamboo by Osamu Dazai
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
This collection of delightful short fantasies by a major Japanese author of the post-war era are certainly not what one would expect of modern Western post-Tolkienian fantasy, but neither are they the traditional Japanese tales of ghosts and spirits one finds retold in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan. While several are inspired by older Japanese, Chinese and even European folktales, the author retouches these tales, adding and substracting his own elements, to present his own commentaries on life and human interaction.

Dead Like Me
a TV series review by Lisa DuMond
You can undoubtedly tell from the title of this new TV series that it has a lot to do with death. What you might not know yet is that it has much more to do with life, and what we do with ours, than it has to do with dead bodies, cemeteries, etc. Even with a brilliant cast playing some of the most memorable characters in years, the star of the show is humanity and how we deal with death -- from both sides of the grave.

Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary by Pamela Dean
reviewed by Margo MacDonald
A brooding foreshadowing of doom, deep and compelling relationships between the characters, and their near irrational rationalizing away of all the weirdness popping up around them -- all this kept Margo reading long after the plot had failed to hold her interest.

Steeldriver by Don DeBrandt
reviewed by Jean-Louis Trudel
The author glories in assembling a gallery of vivid characters. He spices up the action with some fine instances of tall tales including his aliens' ability to incorporate bones and tools within their own bodies. The stories DeBrandt draws from that are worth the price of the book alone.

Dinosaurs in Fantastic Fiction by Allen A. Debus
reviewed by Steven H Silver
Dinosaurs have fascinated the public imagination since they were first identified in the nineteenth century. In this thematic survey, the writer traces that fascination from its earliest days to the present. In effect, he has written eight essays, each of which can stand alone, but when taken together form a chronological overview of his topic, starting with a focus on Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth and continuing on to Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park.

Dragon Precinct by Keith R.A. DeCandido
reviewed by Michael M Jones
Welcome to Cliff's End. It's the sort of city where sooner or later, everyone passes through and everything happens, and someone has to clean up the resulting mess. When legendary hero and adventurer Gan Brightblade is murdered in a seedy tavern, it's up to Castle Guards Danthres Tresyllione and Torin ban Wyvald to investigate. All evidence points to magic, but who could kill one of the world's greatest heroes, and why?

The Art of Arrow Cutting by Stephen Dedman
reviewed by Steven H Silver
Contributing Editor Steven H Silver thinks this novel is fast-moving with likable heroes.

Slave Ring by Tim Dedopulos
reviewed by Steve Lazarowitz
Theo, the protagonist of the story is a vampire. This is not particularly unusual, as any Anne Rice fan can tell you. However, this particular vampire is a black man, who was once a slave in America's deep south. Moreover, Theo is an Archon, a vampire that enforces Vampire laws. Think of him as a one man SWAT team.

Time On My Hands by Peter Delacorte
reviewed by David Soyka
Here, the author lets us see what might happen if we ever had a chance to go back and do it differently -- and the moral is that no matter how many second chances we might get, the likelihood is that we'd continue to screw things up.

The Fall of the Towers by Samuel R. Delany
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
What made this book different when it first appeared? The characters, so much more ambiguous and unpredictable, following science fantasy traditions in one place and totally overturning them elsewhere. A plot with false leads, unexpected twists, quirky characters with unusual qualities, keeping the reader not entirely sure of himself and not always sufficiently informed to know quite where things are headed, without being so confused as to abandon the story.

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
reviewed by David Soyka
In the moonlit woods, a man with ugly hands who claims to be 27 years old but looks 16, encounters (well, more than just encounters, copulates with) a woman distinguished by a scratch down her lower leg. She leads him to the discovery of a chain of prisms that he wraps around himself. The man does not remember his name or much of his past. Upon his arrival in Bellona, a city in which the rules of modern American life have been discarded, he receives a sort of welcoming gift, a wrist band from which seven blades protrude, called an orchid. There is no need of money. A sort of hippie communal lifestyle prevails, for those who wish to partake of it.

Nova by Samuel R. Delany
reviewed by David Soyka
If contemporary readers might wonder what the big deal is, it is only because they've grown accustomed to trails that were being newly blazed by this book. On its face, it would seem to be a traditional Space Opera, pitting a good guy against the forces of evil in an intergalactic setting. But if Space Opera is your thing, you might find yourself a bit puzzled. Discussions about "fitting in," about the nature of storytelling, about art, about, of all things, the Tarot. There is more discourse than battle here.