Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
reviewed by Dan Shade
Ann Burden is alone and she is scared. She is also a remarkable woman in spite of her girlish years (not quite 16). The world as we know it has ended by nuclear disaster. We are, appropriately, given little to no details of the war, because that's not what this book is about. It is about the inner strength of women, and how it rises to the surface when faced with horrible adversity and circumstances.

The Gnomewrench in the Dwarfworks by Nick O'Donohoe
reviewed by Todd Richmond
The author adds a lot of extra details to this enjoyable story of World War II Americana, furnace manufacturing and mythical creatures in the hidden corners of our culture. He conveys the feelings of fear and uncertainty surrounding WWII as friends and families desperately wait to hear word from their loved ones.

The Book of Irish Weirdness edited by Cairtin O'Griost
reviewed by Margo MacDonald
Are the Irish truly weird? Or have the centuries of fine ghost tales simply taken their toll? Margo examines the evidence in this weightly collection of tales.

The Impossible Bird by Patrick O'Leary
reviewed by David Soyka
One problem with the notion of an afterlife is, what do you with all your spare time? Sure, it'd be great to have the leisure to read all you want, but this is eternity, after all. So after getting through entire opuses several times over, you might start to get bored. Then what do you do? Practice your putting? That's the conundrum the author confronts here. His answer provides disturbing reassurance that maybe there's a good reason for us to have limited shelf life.

Door Number Three by Patrick O'Leary
reviewed by Rodger Turner
All books use blurbs and teasers to sell them. Either they get another author to do one or someone at the publisher writes a teaser describing enough of the plot to hook a reader or they do both. It isn't often that the blurb is a perfect way to describe a novel. But, this book has one which fits it like a glove.

Other Voices, Other Doors by Patrick O'Leary
reviewed by Rich Horton
The author seems to be a novelist primarily, but while readers wait for his next novel, we are offered this fine collection, which brings together 8 short stories (5 of them new), several essays, and a number of poems, most of the latter having been published in "little" magazines -- all worth reading as they buzz with neat images and nice wordplay. A few are even better than that.

The Gift by Patrick O'Leary
reviewed by Rodger Turner
Here is a story within many stories told by The Teller to a ship's captain and his crew. With the usual interruptions to remind us of the audience, we read the simple tale of a woodcarver's son, Tim, and a new king, Simon, and how they come to conquer the evil magic loosed in this world by The Usher, a scarred man who sold his soul to become a powerful wizard.

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
This is the story of Myfanwy Thomas, an important administrative cog working in Her Majesties Supernatural Secret Service. The only traditional supernatural critter that plays any significant part in this tale is a single vampire, but there are plenty of others who are distinctly abnormal. Most common are those imbued with major or minor super-powers and able to pass as regular humans, and those who may appear to be human, until genetic and/or surgical adjustments activate to radically alter their bodies. As the story begins, Myfanwy Thomas is not herself, in fact she is someone else entirely.

Superman vs. Muhammad Ali by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams
reviewed by Susan Dunman
Two undisputed champions are forced to fight it out when alien invaders demand a title match between Earth's greatest fighters. The winner will face their own champion, a muscle-bound behemoth bio-engineered to pound others into the ground. And the stakes couldn't be higher for this fist-fest -- the fate of planet Earth rests on who is declared the final winner.

Green Lantern: Hero's Quest by Dennis O'Neil
an audiobook review by Ivy Reisner
In the back alley behind a smoke-filled bar, young art student and ne'er-do-well Kyle Rayner encounters a strange blue gentleman in a red nightshirt. The gentleman gives him an odd green ring, then disappears. Soon Kyle finds himself possessed of powers he doesn't understand. He is invited to join the Justice League, only the League, and the Watchtower, suddenly vanish.

The Lion of Cairo by Scott Oden
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
Aimed squarely at readers who love action combined with an historical setting, the novel uses the backdrop of mid-12th century Egypt during the Crusades. The ruling Caliph, Rashid al-Hasan, is losing his grip on power. Possible successors circle, attempting to murder their way to the top, watched by the scheming Grand Vizier. Amid the turmoil, the enemies of Egypt seek to take advantage, including Shirkuh, the strong arm of the Sultan of Damascus, and Crusader knights sent by the King of Jerusalem. The wild card is an old man.

Run Fast, Die Hard by Mel Odom
reviewed by Todd Richmond
This is a gentle introduction to the Shadowrun universe. Start with William Gibson's vision of cyberspace and feuding megacorporations, throw in the return of magic, convert a portion of the population into trolls, orcs, elves, vampires, and etc., mix together and voila: a frothy stew for adventure fans of every persuasion.

Klingon for the Galactic Traveler by Marc Okrand
reviewed by Alexander von Thorn
It may seem strange to think of etiquette in the context of Klingons, but the fact is they are a touchy race who one would not want to inadvertently offend. As Klingons become more commonplace, some people may be tempted to strike up a conversation with them. This book makes the point over and over that it's best to be cautious when speaking to them.

The Star Trek Encyclopedia by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda
reviewed by Wayne MacLaurin
This book demonstrates the complexity in maintaining the continuity of four TV series, eight movies and dozens of novels, not to mention comic books, trading cards and scads of merchandising -- all set in the Star Trek universe. For fans, it is an essential buy.

All the Rage This Year edited by Keith Olexa
reviewed by Kit O'Connell
One of the drawbacks of the average science fiction anthology is the mixture of good and bad stories. One story will entertain while the next will have you groaning at the approach of a predictable conclusion, or just struggling to contain your boredom as you skim ahead to the next story. As a reviewer, these stories are a bit more fun because you know you'll get to skewer them.

Vassal of El by Gloria Oliver
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
This novel is an entertaining and fast-paced tale of Torren, a loner mercenary with a past and of an innocent young maiden, Larana, who is far more than she knows. He rescues her as she is running from soldiers bent on her capture, and together they make their way north to where he seeks to offer his services as a mercenary. There he discovers her identity and returns her to the Winged people or Flyers for which, as Aen, she represents the living embodiment of their God. But not all is well upon the floating islands of the winged people.

Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane edited by Jonathan Oliver
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
This book is a short sometimes sweet anthology, including the works of fifteen authors variously celebrated -- some deservedly so -- and others living on the fumes. There is no single theme to the collection, or anything to connect the individual plots, but the overall tone is a dark one, and concerns the dangers to both the victims and the practitioners whenever the power of magic is abused.

Flowers of the Sea by Reggie Oliver
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
Playwright, actor and writer of strange and dark stories, Reggie Oliver has established himself as one of the finest contemporary authors of classy, enticing dark fiction. His latest collection confirms once again his extraordinary ability to create elegant prose, intriguing plots and insightful characterizations. His stories grip the reader right from the outset and develop in a smooth, engrossing way until the very last sentence.

Exotic Gothic 5, Volume 1 edited by Danel Olson
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
The successful series Exotic Gothic published in the beginning by Ash-Tree Press and then taken up by PS Publishing has now reached its fifth installment, continuing to provide dark short stories of modern gothic from every corner of the world. Volume five has been divided in two volumes, possibly because the response to editor Danel Olsen's call for new stories has been so overwhelming that it was too hard for him to exclude too many tales he deemed to be worthwhile.

The Fifth Man by John B. Olson and Randall Ingermanson
reviewed by Suzanne Krein
What would be the greatest danger facing astronauts living in tight quarters on the surface of Mars? Would they be more likely to face catastrophe because of an internal technical failure in their life-support systems or from an external threat, such as a Martian life form? Might the lives of the astronauts be endangered from an even more personal source -- themselves?

Oxygen by John B.Olson and Randall Ingermanson
reviewed by Suzanne Krein
Life can hold many kinds of crises. Physical crises can include natural disasters or serious illnesses. Emotional crises may be created by broken relationships or by personality conflicts. Crises of faith can arise when these other kinds of predicaments cause us to question or doubt our faith. This novel contains all of these types. As the title suggests, there is one basic emergency that we all fear: the lack of oxygen.

The Getaway Special by Jerry Oltion
reviewed by Steven H Silver
Alan Meisner is a civilian scientist on a shuttle mission with three astronauts. Although he is aboard to perform an experiment which has NASA approval, nobody knows that Meisner's real agenda is to demonstrate his hyperdrive. At the same time, he releases the technical details on the internet. To his surprise, the governments of the world try to suppress his discovery and he finds himself on the run with Judy Gallagher, the shuttle pilot he manages to convince to accompany him.

On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic #85
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
This is a magazine of fantasy and science fiction, yet it is broader than that. It is well designed, compact and, unlike most other mainstream magazines, it is small enough to carry in a bag. It is made up of three distinct elements -- poetry, fiction and non-fiction. A.E. Weber and Eryn Hiscock provide the poetry, "Dust to Dust," and "The Life Cycle of Clouds." The poetry is smooth and subtle, but hugely evocative.

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
reviewed by Rodger Turner
In an alternate Victorian world, Matt Cruse serves as a cabin boy on the luxury airship Aurora. He is on watch when a tattered hot air balloon crosses the ship's path. Matt succeeds in saving its severely injured passenger through nimble acrobatics but the balloonist dies soon thereafter. In the adventurer's notebook are a number of drawings of bizarre winged creatures, half bat, half panther. Do such creatures exist or are they the fevered imaginings of a dying scientist?

Centuries Ago and Very Fast by Rebecca Ore
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Slash (named for the "/" in such archetypal pairings as "Kirk/Spock") is one of the more curious of contemporary literary phenomena. It consists of writers taking pairs of characters from popular series (Kirk and Spock from Star Trek, Aubrey and Maturin from the Patrick O'Brian novels) and producing further non-canonical stories around the pair. These stories generally involve, or often centre upon, sexual encounters involving the pair.

Outlaw School by Rebecca Ore
reviewed by David Soyka
Jayne's problem as a child is that she doesn't fit in. For one thing, she's smarter than she's supposed to be for her social class. For another, Jayne's unhappy mother doesn't think her daughter fully appreciates her. While Jayne's step-father is sympathetic to her plight and tries to help in his own fumbling way, he is basically powerless. The author takes these archetypical female coming-of-age conditions and casts them in a near-future world in which drugs and technology are used to coerce conformity to social norms rooted in a 50s suburbia zeitgeist.

Outlaw School by Rebecca Ore
reviewed by Hank Luttrell
This novel will be compared to classic dystopian novels like Brave New World and 1984; it is effective in evoking a distressing and unpleasant vision of an all too possible future. For just this reason it is a bit hard to read at first; it isn't a lot of fun. After you get to know the author's main character, you'll have to keep reading to learn how her life turns out.

Arts Unknown: The Life and Art of Lee Brown Coye by Luis Ortiz
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
This book chronicles the life of Coye, and reproduces several hundred of his works. While Coye largely successfully supported himself (and his family) as an artist of some sort or other, from when he left high school until his death, the coincidence of his early efforts to get established with the onset of the Great Depression and later attempts to get out of advertising with the outbreak of WWII, meant he never got the big break.

Darkloom by Cary Osborne
reviewed by Thomas Myer
It's a great yarn, with an excellent set of core characters. Tom found himself wrapped up in the storyline and caring about what happened to the half-dozen or so characters that anchor the telling of the tale.