Shadow of the Storm by Kurt R.A. Giambastiani
reviewed by Donna McMahon
It's 1889, and the U.S. is still a small nation crowded along the Atlantic coast. Spain controls California, and the Great Plains are the dominion of the Cheyenne -- fierce warriors who ride immense dinosaur-descended lizards. But the Americans have technology, industry, and a huge population of immigrants desperate for land. Under the leadership of Custer, they have pushed the Cheyenne and other tribes back to the banks of the Missouri River.

Spook Country by William Gibson
reviewed by David Soyka
At a time when so-called literary writers are employing science fiction tropes, one of the granddads of cyberpunk seemingly becomes mainstream, setting his last two novels in the present tense of post-9/11 America. Not exactly a sequel, but rather a companion piece to the widely regarded Pattern Recognition, this novel explores moral behavior within an impersonal society of global corporate and government interests saturated by advanced technology and mass media.

Idoru by William Gibson
reviewed by Rodger Turner
Let's suppose you're a rock & roll star, unbeset by scandal, uncomplicated by interacting with the general populace, unfettered by having staff catering to your every whim. You begin to get fascinated by the evolving cyber-technology and AI and, in particular, an idoru, one of the Japanese idol-singers that are personality-construct AI software rather than a human being. This was happening to Rez of the super-group Lo/Rez. Then the rumour surfaced on the net that he was going to marry Rei Toei, an idoru.

All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson
reviewed by Charlene Brusso
Data miner Colin Laney has gone into hiding from the corporations who paid him to hunt nodes, places where data points converge in the galactic expanse of random information. Thanks to the success of 5-SB, an experimental drug he received during tests carried out at the federal orphanage where he grew up, Laney is The Man Who Knows Too Much. 5-SB alters the brain, giving test subjects the ability to focus tightly, to find and follow patterns, to pull the pieces together. Unfortunately, 5-SB subjects eventually succumb to the stalker effect.

The Difference Engine by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
reviewed by Peter D. Tillman
This novel explores a world in which Britain is going through both the Industrial and Information Revolutions simultaneously. It combines Sterling's wildman inventiveness with Gibson's brooding, streetwise characters, both shoved back one and a half centuries into an obsessively-detailed and weirdly-transmogrified London of 1855.

Idoru by William Gibson
reviewed by Leon Olszewski
This novel is typical William Gibson. He is still able to take virtual reality, computer networks, nanotechnology, and pop star worship, temper them with human strengths and frailty, to evoke new images and unforeseen conclusions.

The Edge: Tales Of Suspense #6 edited by Greg F. Gifune
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
If talent will out (sometimes it does) some of these names will be popping up on best-of lists everywhere. Chilling, heinous, even sickening -- there's something here for every appetite. Just don't assume every bite will be a pleasure.

Galen by Allan Gilbreath
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
If you like your vampires of the suave, superhuman, seductive type, here is a book to add to your already overflowing library. Galen Mircalla, the undead sex machine of this novel, is one of the smoothest characters to come along in a while.

V2:B4, The Vampire Vignettes Prequel by G.L. Giles
reviewed by Jonathan Fesmire
Set in the early 90s, the novel covers, in great detail, a vampire attack at a Charleston carnival. A lot happens that night, and many characters contribute, so pay close attention. The narrative style -- a stream of consciousness, omniscient viewpoint -- must have been tricky to pull off, but it works well for this story. The narrator, Jameson, is a witch and stripper. As the author used to work as an exotic dancer, she is able to get right into Jameson's thoughts and world.

Hammerjack and Prodigal by Marc D. Giller
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
Earth is ruled by the super-corporations of the Collective, successor to the sovereign nations of the old world order, which collapsed more than a century earlier in a storm of terrorism and environmental crisis. The Collective also dominates the infosphere, known as the Axis, where semi-sentient security crawlers guard corporate cyber-citadels against the hackers called hammerjacks, who steal corporate secrets and sell them to the highest bidder. Outside the zones controlled by the Collective, the world is a dangerous, anarchic free-for-all of mobsters, drug dealers, flesh peddlers, and street cults, where anything, from sex slaves to illegal tech, can be had for a price.

Halfway Human by Carolyn Ives Gilman
reviewed by Donna McMahon
Val Endrada is a xenologist living on the advanced planet Capella. She is barely eking out a living in its information-based economy, so when she stumbles across an asexual human from the closed planet of Gammadis, she realizes she's struck a bonanza. No one has ever seen a Gammadian before. All the big corporations will want access to Tedla, to get data about its peculiar world where there are three sexes -- males, females and neuters (called "blands").

Bring It On by Laura Anne Gilman
reviewed by Michael M Jones
For lonejack mage/professional thief Wren Valere, and her partner Sergei, there's no such thing as a normal day. Even when Wren's not hot on the trail of missing artifacts, precious jewels, rare paintings, or unusual treasures, she's dealing with all manner of strange people. Heck, on a mostly-normal day, a demon very much resembling a four-foot tall polar bear wanders into her apartment and ransacks the refrigerator!

Staying Dead by Laura Anne Gilman
reviewed by Michael M Jones
In a world like our own, where magic works and supernatural beings walk the streets in secret, those who work magic lead a shadowy existence. Those with the Talent for manipulating magic either belong to the overly-restrictive Council or have gone rogue, operating as independents known as lonejacks. One of the very best is Genevieve Valere, better known as Wren. With her human partner Sergei, she operates a profitable and highly successful "retrieval" business, penetrating the best security in the world to steal back items for their rightful owners.

Lizard Dreaming of Birds by John Gist
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Everybody seems to be unable to break the grip Jubal Siner -- maybe-messiah, criminal, Svengali, and seriously disturbed individual -- holds over them, long after they have gone their supposedly separate ways. He is a frightening character, walking through the novel like a wildfire out of control, wreaking havoc and leaving damaged people in his wake. Whatever the fascination his friends feel for him, it is immediately obvious that everyone would have been better off never knowing him, or if that terrible tragedy had ended differently.

Crowheart by John Gist
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
How to classify this novel? Certainly, it is dark realism, but completely unlike any other book you will find in the genre. The horror is there, though subtle, and in a backdrop outside the normal, expected setting. Perhaps, it is opening an entire new genre; call it cowboy noir.

Delta Green by Adam Scott Glancy et al.
gaming module review by Henry Harding
The mission is a daunting one. Those who have gone before have provided 90s investigator characters with valuable new spells, skills, and weapons. Thanks to them we can now use Uzis and 9mm Glocks against the Fungi from Yuggoth and the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath.

Daughter of Exile by Isabel Glass
reviewed by Alisa McCune
Readers who enjoy fantasy with a hint of romance will enjoy this unusual first novel. It is a fun read with an interesting and unusual heroine. Lady Angarred Hashan, a fiery red-head, is a lady of the realm, but she has grown up far from court. Her father was banished from court by the King many years ago. Her mother died around the same time, leaving Angarred to the care of her bitter, power-obsessed father.

The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss
reviewed by Katharine Mills
This is the kind of book that lingers in memory; at once harsh and sweet, a poetic celebration of humanity's potential for destruction and creation.

The Company They Keep by Diana Pavlac Glyer
reviewed by Sherwood Smith
The level of scholarship in this book is the first thing that impresses. The author seems to have read everything by, and about, the Inklings. Not just that, she's up on the latest thinking about the process of writing and collaboration -- not just from a literary view, but from a psychological and sociological perspective. The authorities upon which she draws range from Harold Bloom's hothouse-fervid The Anxiety of Influence to Karen Burke LeFevre's Invention as a Social Act.

Outer Perimeter by Ken Goddard
reviewed by John Berlyne
Picking up where First Evidence left off, we find Cellars not exactly in the good books of his employers. Regulations and procedures have him under psychiatric review and the acting regional commander isn't on his side. He seems to be taking all this in stride, despite the fact there are at least 50 unsolved deaths or disappearances that he suspects may be linked to his previous encounters with some shadowy extra-terrestrials.

First Evidence by Ken Goddard
reviewed by Todd Richmond
What would you expect from a book that begins with a 3-page evidence list, a crime scene diagram and the personnel list from 3 law enforcement agencies? A suspenseful murder mystery with a detailed, complex plot? A tale of alien abduction and elaborate cover-ups? How about both?

Lord of Sunset by Parke Godwin
reviewed by Jean-Louis Trudel
History is rarely about losers, and it is always written by the winners. Which is why Duke William of Normandy, who won the battle of Hastings, has gotten more press than King Harold, who was beaten and killed on that battlefield. But Harold is truly Lord of Sunset, a memorable figure in an impossible situation, who deserved to be better remembered.