The Road To Mars by Eric Idle
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Muscroft and Ashby want to hit the big time. Carlton wants to beat the subject of humour into the ground like a tent
stake. Between the three of them, the entertainment industry will be lucky if it survives undamaged.
Crossing paths with this bizarre trio is something everyone in the galaxy should avoid at all costs.
Ancient Symbology in Fantasy Literature by William Indick
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
Intended for both academic readers and laymen, the author has produced a small book about big ideas. Specifically,
the archetypal symbols which are the basis of fantasy fiction, from the fairy tales of the Middle Ages to the million-selling
genre of the present day. Traditional myths are used for guidance and as a starting point, from which the
author offers insight based on his psychological interpretation of the figures and themes addressed.
Potential readers who are now thinking that this is a stuffy, highbrow work, may like to reserve judgement.
Infinity Plus Singles
reviewed by Trent Walters
Keith Brooke's Infinity Plus -- its first incarnation being a repository of free online fiction from nearly
every major writer in the field -- has been releasing ebook singles, which he compares to the 45 rpm music singles
of yesteryear. Give it a try, he says, and you might decide to buy the album -- a larger collection or novel
by the same. Great idea, that -- one worth exploring with stories by
John Grant, Anna Tambour, Iain Rowan, Kit Reed, Lisa Tuttle and others.
Skins of Dead Men by Dean Ing
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
Neither a high-tech SF book nor a horror novel, this is a high-paced
thriller with interesting and believable characters, and, refreshingly,
intelligent heroes who do not have to blow away all the nasty characters
with big guns, or blow up everything à la James Bond.
Batman: Inferno by Alex Irvine
an audiobook review by Gil T. Wilson
As the story opens, Gotham City is burning and the police are still unsure about the intentions
of the Caped Crusader, Batman. Batman doesn't worry too much about public opinion, focusing on his
goal to keep Gotham City safe. As for the burning city, Batman is doing everything he can to find out
who is starting all of the fires and what he can do to stop the firebug. Batman soon discovers that
the up-and-coming villain goes by the moniker of Enfer, the French word for Hell.
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A Scattering of Jades by Alexander C. Irvine
reviewed by Rich Horton
Firmly in Tim Powers territory, this is a fantasy cum secret history dealing with obscure
gods and magic impinging on the life of an ordinary man. The man ends up injured; he
must make a desperate journey, trusting implausible forces, to save a loved one. In this case, the gods are mostly Aztec
gods, particularly Tlaloc, with a leavening of Lenni Lenape gods. And the "secret history" is of the United States,
dealing with Aaron Burr's mad ambitions and their aftermath, and more directly with the most horrible blot on U.S. history: slavery.
A Shadow On The Glass by Ian Irvine
reviewed by William Thompson
Perhaps the author's greatest accomplishment in this debut is in the evolving creation of his
world. Neither a mere image of medieval Europe, a borrowing from the realm of faerie, nor an
obvious mirroring of some third world culture meant to delight the Western reader in its imitation of
the exotic, in many respects the author has developed a world largely his own, in which humans are the
oldest race, along with remnants left of three alien and uninvited cultures, the Charon, the Aachan
and the Faellem. The events of the present and the future of all are rapidly becoming shaped by
a murder that took place far in the past.
...is this a cat?
reviewed by Steven H Silver
The premise of this one-off chapbook appears to
be that the editor has asked several friends to answer that question with regard to a photograph of his cat,
Portnoy. Some of the authors replied with short stories about Portnoy, while others sent drawings, non-fiction,
or even a crossword puzzle.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
reviewed by Trent Walters
Trent was quite ecstatic to hear that Kazuo Ishiguro had decided to try his hand at the genre. His early novels have fascinatingly
complex views of character -- books that require rereading. Much is made of Ishiguro's use of memory. Some consider Ishiguro's
common motif of playing with memory to result in unreliable narrators. Certainly, this consideration is always crucial when
probing memory.
Dadaoism (An Anthology) edited by Justin Isis and Quentin S. Crisp
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
According to one of the editors, the term "dadaoism" is a portmanteau of "dadaism" and "daoism." Fine
enough, but we're not any wiser. Having now read the anthology, which includes a total of twenty-six contributions (short
stories, novellas, poems) Mario's own feeling is that "dadaoism" is another synonym for "weirdness."
The book features a bunch of weird material and what really matters to most is whether it's valuable stuff or not.
Weird fiction, per se, is neither good nor bad.
Gundam Seed: Mobile Suit Gundam by Masatsugu Iwase
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
Kira Yamamoto has lives a peaceful existence on the satellite Heliopolis, which belongs to the neutral nation of Aube. The war between
Earth and the Zaft has been raging a long time, and this supposedly neutral nation has been developing mobile suits. Imagine huge,
humanoid-like robot tanks controlled by a single driver. This will remove Zaft's edge in the war, since only they so far have the
suits. But the Zaft have found out and they're launching a strike.
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