Life During Wartime by Lucius Shepard
reviewed by Charlene Brusso
The military gear of the near-future setting hasn't moved too far from the basics. Assault weapons cable into backpack
processors which project range data onto helmet-mounted screens. Army-issue amphetamines have been replaced by fast-acting combat
drugs like "samurai" that can make any soldier feel like Superman. The twist is the existence of Psicorps, a project born of New
Age philosophy and more than a little Cold War paranoia. Psicorps' job is to identify and exploit potential psychic ability in
Army recruits.
Two Trains Running by Lucius Shepard
reviewed by David Soyka
The author literally "bums around" in this collection of his award winning
work. This volume is a bit different in that it includes a non-fiction piece, "The FTRA Story," a shorter version of which was
originally written for Spin magazine, that inspired the characters and settings of the two short
stories, "Over Yonder" and "Jailbait."
A Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli and Louisiana Breakdown by Lucius Shepard
reviewed by David Soyka
Southern Gothic is the neighbourhood haunted by Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty and William Faulkner. The style features supernatural -- or
seemingly supernatural -- grotesquerie, often in a backwoods or swamp setting, rooted in a cultural folklore steaming with themes of enslavement,
racial tension, repression, rebellion, religious belief, family conflicts, and clan loyalty in which God or fate influence, if not outright
determines, moral choices.
Louisiana Breakdown by Lucius Shepard
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
Summer's here and the time is right. The author summons up a potent mix of music, magic,
and the hot, humid air of the Louisiana delta. It's a tale of tradition and betrayal, hope and abandonment, told by an writer who
can make you feel the thickness in the air that the characters breathe. Jungles and tropical climes have long played a part in his
fiction as places where reality can break down, exposing hidden mysteries and magic.
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Green Eyes by Lucius Shepard
reviewed by Martin Lewis
This is a book that has no respect for genre. Throughout its course, the novel spans the whole of
the nebulous speculative fiction genre, taking on the appearance of science fiction, fantasy and horror all in
turn. Perhaps the best way to describe it is as American Gothic. Or even as a love story.
Colonel Rutherford's Colt by Lucius Shepard
reviewed by Steven H Silver
Intertwining two stories about the titular weapon, the weapon
belonged to Bob Champion, a white supremacist martyr whose widow is trying to sell the gun to anyone except her
former lover, Raymond Borchard. In the other, the gun belongs to Colonel Hawes Rutherford, a tyrannical
American living in Cuba who uses the weapon to kill his wife's lover.
Both stories focus on Jimmy Guy, a gun dealer who specializes in weapons with an historical provenance. While
attending a gun show in Issaquah, Washington, Loretta Snow approaches him and asks him to sell a Colt on
commission. Her only condition is that it not be sold to Borchard.
Beast of the Heartland by Lucius Shepard
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
There are few SF writers, actually there are few
writers of any kind, whose words are worth reading for the sheer beauty of
the prose. Lucius Shepard belongs near the top of that list, yet his prose
style always serves the needs of the particular piece.
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