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Path of Fate Path of Fate by Diana Pharaoh Francis
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
Reisil spent her life being passed from one family to another, an orphan and burden being shared by all the village. Now a grown woman, she is a skilled Tark, or healer, living in a tiny house in the very town she grew up in. As part of the agreement, she's working for them for six months, a sort of trial period, after which if they decide they want her, she can stay. And it looks like she's staying. In short, she finally has everything she has ever wanted, something many of us have and take for granted -- a home and a dependable career. So it is no wonder that, when an ahalad-kaaslane goshawk flies towards her,

Path of Fate Path of Fate by Diana Pharaoh Francis
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
In the land of Kodu Riik, Reisil is a tark, a healer. Her training newly completed, she has returned to the town where she grew up, hoping she'll be accepted as its official tark. Orphaned in babyhood, passed from foster family to foster family, she has never really known what it's like to have a true home. Being a tark offers her the thing for which she has always longed: a place in the world, a chance to belong.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary by Jane Frank
reviewed by Steven H Silver
Look at the cover of the book you've been reading. Chances are you'll see an illustration that evokes the novel within the cover. There is also a good chance that if you look on the back cover or the title page, you won't be able to find the name of the artist who created the work of art which may have caused you to pick up the book in the first place.

Bad Memory Bad Memory by Duane Franklet
reviewed by Leon Olszewski
It reads like a network administrator's nightmare. Someone is on the network, seemingly unstoppable. All the control tactics are ineffective and each retaliation grows in severity. Leon found the author captured the sense of paranoia that someone, somewhere, is out to get you, your network, and your computers.

Daughter of Troy Daughter of Troy by Sarah B. Franklin
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Lisa's view is that Franklin's version of this era is an entertaining one. The writing flows smoothly and maintains the reader's interest. Colourful, legendary figures, seen in the daily details of the lives, make for high adventure and down-to-earth survival fare.

The Magister's Mask The Magister's Mask by Deby Fredericks
reviewed by Donna McMahon
In the city of Chalsett, it is traditional that an apprentice who has finished her training shall be assigned the very next case that requires a magister. But Shenza Waik, humble daughter of an illiterate fisherman, feels far from ready when that case turns out to be the horrifying murder of the First Lord of Chalsett by magical fire.

Weak and Wounded Weak and Wounded by Brian James Freeman
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
Brian James Freeman is a brilliant writer whose horror stories do not rely upon vampires, zombies or werewolves, as the present collection (a slim book reprinting five of his previously published stories) clearly demonstrates. In these stories he portrays one of the true horrors afflicting human existence, namely the pain,the hurt and the emptiness created by the loss of loved ones. He describes that horror with skill, insight and finesse, leaving behind a deep sense of sorrow and anger for the atrocities of life.

Imposter Imposter by Valerie Freireich
reviewed by Mark Shainblum
This novel has many things going for it: sympathetic characters, a rich and credible future civilization, and a genuine sense of wonder absent from much current SF. More, the background and settings of this intriguing novel are almost as interesting as the foreground characters.

Bonds of Blood, Bonds of Steel Bonds of Blood, Bonds of Steel by Rebecca L. Frencl
reviewed by Steven H Silver
As a first novel, the book is good, although it does suffer from the author's seeming inability to plot. The story is told as a series of vignettes, which are without an end goal. Although this is the way real life works, it tends to work less well within the confines of literature.

Frequency #2 Frequency #2
reviewed by Rich Horton
This a CD audio anthology presenting "The Apple Golem" by Bruce Holland Rogers, read by William Foss; "Housecalls" by Jerry Oltion, read by Alistair Logan; "Christmas at the Cushingura Cafe" by Stephen Dedman, read by Tadao Tomomatsu; "Abbat01r" by Cory Doctorow, read by Alyxx Ian; "Chance in Hell" by John Rosenman, read by Martin Dunn; and "Rate of Change" by Bud Sparhawk, read by David LaFontaine.

Frequency #1 Frequency #1
reviewed by Steven H Silver
This is a new short fiction-on-CD publication. Highlights include oral versions of Ray Vukcevich's humorous story, "Problem Solved," Kurt Roth's epistolary story, "Rift," John Serna's "User Error," Stan Schmidt's alien-on-conquest story, "Panic" and Stephen Dedman's "Honest Ghosts" which is set at a New Orleans science fiction convention.

This Alien Shore This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman
reviewed by Charlene Brusso
Centuries ago, when Earth first sent humans to the stars, something about the Hausman stardrive caused bizarre mutations to those aboard the ships. Just as Earth's colonies were getting started, Earth panicked, abandoning their own people -- mutants known as "Hausman Variants" -- on foreign worlds. Today the only safe way to cross deep space is by outpilot, for only they have the peculiar mutation allowing them to navigate the dangerous folds in spacetime. But now a fierce brainware computer virus is wreaking havoc throughout known space, killing the starship outpilots.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Dujonian's Horde Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Captain's Table: Dujonian's Horde by Michael Jan Friedman
reviewed by Alexander von Thorn
Rumours of an ancient treasure of powerful technology, a crew of brigands sailing the infinite dark, a missing Starfleet officer, a lost civilization in a pocket universe with a complex political conflict... There is only one man to call for this assignment: Jean-Luc Picard.

Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men: Planet X Star Trek: The Next Generation / X-Men: Planet X by Michael Jan Friedman
reviewed by Mark Shainblum
Heroes meeting heroes across legends is a process as old as mythmaking. (The Morte d'Arthur and the entire myth of the Round Table can be viewed in one sense as a giant medieval team-up.) But this book demonstrates why no one should own the basic archetypes and myths which define a culture.

Star Trek: Federation Travel Guide Star Trek: Federation Travel Guide by Michael Jan Friedman
reviewed by Lela Olszewski
Lela plays tourist with this trip planner featuring such exotic places as the Klingon homeworld, Cardassia Prime, and Vulcan, Shiralea VI and Bajor.

The Essential Guide to Werewolf Literature The Essential Guide to Werewolf Literature by Brian J. Frost
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
Werewolves garner much less attention than do vampires. Partly this may be because our image of werewolves is that they are bestial and violent, whereas vampires -- while perhaps evil -- can be suave and sensuous. Well, now, with the publication of this book, you can assuage your lycanthropophilic obsessions, and with its 73 page bibliography of werewolf-related materials, build quite a to-read list.

Lord Tophet Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
In this sequel to Shadowbridge, we return to his world of giant bridges spanning endless swaths of ocean. We return to the story of Leodora, a young orphan following in her father's footsteps and earning her fame as greatest living shadow puppeteer and storyteller since her father, Bardsham. We even return to the exact moment where the previous novel ends, with Leodora taken to Edgeworld, the realm of the gods.

Lord Tophet Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost
reviewed by Tammy Moore
Lord Tophet, the second and final Shadowbridge novel follows Leodora, diguised as the secretive, talented shadow-puppeteer Jax along with her manager Soter and her gifted, other-worldly musician Diverus. But enemies draw ever closer as the wandering troupe finds itself on Colemaigne, where the cruel Lord Tophet blighted the Span. Only Soter knows the true story of all that happened but, even as he struggles to protect his ward, he cannot bring himself to tell the truth about what happened all those years ago.

Halfway to the Grave Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
an audiobook review by Julie Moncton
Catherine Crawfield is on a mission. Ever since learning that she was conceived when her human mother was brutally raped by a vampire, she has made it her vocation to eliminate vampires from the world – one silver stake at a time. The score is in Cat's favor when she meets the vampire Bones, a bounty hunter who chases down other vampires for a living. With a common goal of killing vampires, Cat enters into an uneasy alliance with Bones.

The January Dancer The January Dancer by Michael Flynn
reviewed by Rich Horton
It is, first and foremost, an entertaining Science Fiction novel of the old sort -- nearly a Space Opera, with mysterious aliens (including legendary "prehumans"), desperate planets, people searching for a way back to Old Earth, an enigmatic object, travel through warp space that makes sense and the nature of which matters, and plenty of color.

Shadowbridge Shadowbridge by Gregory Frost
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
The world of Shadowbridge is a world unlike any other. It's a world built on an ocean, where vast bridges connect far-flung spiraling towers, and tiny islands underneath the spans are the only land most people ever see. But more than that, Shadowbridge is a world of dreams, of sea dragons and fox-faced tricksters, of capricious gods visiting their gifts upon unsuspecting mortals. And most of all, Shadowbridge is a world of stories.

Shadowbridge Shadowbridge by Gregory Frost
reviewed by Dustin Kenall
This is something different. It is not quite fantasy and not quite science fiction. Not quite a quest epic and not quite a character study. But it is, for the most part, a good read. There are pleasures to be found in its pages that comprise the story of Leodora, a shadow puppeteer, and Diverus, a god-touched musician, and their performances across the interlinking, innumerous bridge-cities that stretch across the fathomless oceans of Shadowbridge.

Attack of the Jazz Giants and Other Stories Attack of the Jazz Giants and Other Stories by Gregory Frost
reviewed by Matthew Cheney
It is a rare writer who is well served by a large retrospective collection of their short fiction, and, unfortunately, Gregory Frost is not one of them. He is a good writer, a skilled writer, a writer responsible for a couple of stories that are, in fact, better than average. A collection of 150 pages or so would have shone his strengths well.

Attack of the Jazz Giants and Other Stories Attack of the Jazz Giants and Other Stories by Gregory Frost
reviewed by David Hebblethwaite
If you've not heard of Gregory Frost before, the epigraph from Andrei Sinayavsky gives an idea of what to expect: "Realism is a literary technique no longer adequate for the purpose of representing reality." Quite so. This idea is most effectively embodied here in "Collecting Dust," the story of a family being literally ground down by modern life.

One Foot in the Grave One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
an audiobook review by Julie Moncton
Four years have passed since the events of Halfway to the Grave and Cat is now leading a crack team of recruits who track down and eliminate vampires. The team is a first-class vampire killing machine whose physical skills are finely honed with a brutal training regimen and a touch of vampire blood infusions to give them an extra bit of supernatural boost.

Good Faeries / Bad Faeries Good Faeries / Bad Faeries by Brian Froud
reviewed by Jonathan Fesmire
Filled with paintings and sketches, this book draws you into Faeryland as effectively as a well told tale. Each creature, long and graceful or squat and stocky, has a distinct personality. Froud's greatest talent is making his images seem vibrant and alive.

A Midsummer Night's Faery Tale A Midsummer Night's Faery Tale by Wendy Froud and Terri Windling
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Remember the delicate creatures of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth? Those almost human beings, somewhat like us, but infinitely more fragile and winsome? Well, after too long a wait, those faeries, pixies, trolls, sylphs, and all the other magical citizens of the magical world, are back in a new faery tale.

Talebones #28 / Full Unit Hookup #5 Talebones #28 and Full Unit Hookup #5
reviewed by Matthew Cheney
The greatest joy of reading small press magazines is discovering odd and/or beautiful and/or enchanting and/or marvelously uncategorizable writing, the kind of writing that makes you catch your breath, that sends shivers through your spine and timbres. In the twenty-eighth Talebones, this joy is at its height with Sandra McDonald's fine story "Bluebeard by the Sea"; the fifth issue of Full Unit Hookup brings shivering bits of "ah ha!" with the breadth of the poetry presented and, especially, with "Hurricane Sandrine", a thoughtful and enigmatic tale by Daniel Braum.

Full Unit Hookup, Spring 2003 Full Unit Hookup, Spring 2003
reviewed by Rich Horton
The opening story, "Waiting for Jenny Rex", by Melissa Yuan-Innes, is very fine work. The story is told by a reporter who falls in love with the title character, a dead anorexic girl returned from the grave with a mission to inform about her disease. Yuan-Innes deftly negotiates the creepy aspects, the affecting aspects, and the funny aspects of her tale, as complications result when other dead return with other diseases to battle.

Full Unit Hookup, #1 Full Unit Hookup, #1
reviewed by Rich Horton
Here is another in the recent near flood of small press slipstream 'zines. It offers six relatively short stories, and a number of poems, as well as two essays. It fits very readily in the same general category as Electric Velocipede, which Rich reviewed here recently, or the by now venerable Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, which he has called the "gold standard" of the SF/slipstream 'zines.

The Holler The Holler by Marge Fulton
reviewed by Kit O'Connell
The Holler is a slim volume of 20 very short stories drawn from author Marge Fulton's life in rural Hazard, Kentucky. Its subtitle, "tales of horror from Appalachia" is, perhaps, a bit of a misnomer. Very few of the stories in here would be described as horror in any conventional sense.

The Sci-Fi Channel Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction The Sci-Fi Channel Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction by Roger Fulton and John Gregory Betancourt
reviewed by Steve Lazarowitz
As a long time fan of television SF, Steve couldn't wait to get his hands on this book. But when it finally arrived, it was somewhat different than he had envisioned. Steve had not realized just how many SF series had graced the screen throughout the years.

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