Choice of Evil by Andrew Vachss
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
This -- like all of Vachss' novels -- is an exhausting
experience. It also induces absolute commitment, unbreakable control of your
attention, and investment of emotions. All of Vachss' work has an almost
hypnotic quality that will push you on when the scenes seem too horrifying to bear.
A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects by Catherynne M. Valente
reviewed by Amal El-Mohtar
In Antoine Galland's Arabian Nights, there's a story called "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp." In the story, Aladdin orders his
Djinn to build a palace for the Sultan. He specifies, however, that he wants there to be one flaw in the whole,
one window-frame of gems that is incomplete, in order to allow the Sultan
the honour of finishing it. The Djinn complies. Then, when the Sultan's being
led through it, his eyes light on the incomplete window, and he's
relieved to have found the flaw, the one tiny thing that can give his soul a break from the otherwise overwhelming awe.
That's what reading this collection is like.
The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
In the Night Garden is the first volume of a duology -- entitled The Orphan's Tales -- in the tradition of The Arabian
Nights, composed of a complex pattern of intertwining fairy tales featuring kings, princes and princesses, beast maidens,
witches and wizards, tavern keepers, saints, assassins, living stars and so on.
The narrator is an outcast little girl, living in the garden of a sultan's
palace, whose eyelids are magically tattooed with stories written in very fine characters.
In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
This book is the first in a two part collection of stories, narrated Arabian Nights style by a semi-wild
13 year-old girl who lives a lonely existence in sprawling gardens surrounding a sultan's palace. The other children are frightened
of her, due to the marks that make her different to them. This, not unattractive disfigurement, was also what led to her being
banished from the palace itself. In truth, the strange markings are the result of someone magically tattooing her eyelids and
the flesh around her eyes when she was an infant.
The Labyrinth by Catherynne M. Valente
reviewed by Matthew Cheney
This is the sort of book a reader will either hug to the heart or throw across the room.
Even if someone finds the book itself pretentious and nonsensical, they are likely to praise
at least some of the writer's skill with language, while even someone who adores the cascading imagery and narrative
hallucinations is likely to recognize that the book has thin parts, that the entire endeavor is ethereal rather than
material, more a matter of artifice than art. Line by line and page by page, it contains more beauty than all but a very few books published
this year.
The Fabulous Women of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell by Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell, and Anthony & David Palumbo
reviewed by Steven H Silver
One of the stereotypical images found in fantasy art is of the woman wearing a chain-mail bikini. Often found on the four-color
covers of pulp magazines, these damsels, frequently in distress, would be shown chained and awaiting rescue at the arms of some
iron-thewed Conan clone. While they may be the foremost artists when it comes to depicting women in
chain-mail bikinis since Frank Frazetta, their damsels are in anything but distress.
The Babylon 5: Crusade Episode Guide by Sandy Van Densen and Loriann DeGiacomo
reviewed by David Maddox
The character line-up was impressive. No-nonsense Captain Matthew Gideon at the helm, telepath John Matheson by his side,
stalwart Dr. Sarah Chambers in the medical bay, despicably likable Max Eilerson, good-hearted thief Dureena Nafeel and the
mysterious and enigmatic Technomage Galen crewed the Excalibur. Unfortunately, it was not to be. The series ended after a
mere 13 episode run on TNT.
Fourth Planet from the Sun edited by Gordon Van Gelder
reviewed by Steven H Silver
Mars orbits the sun at an average distance of 227.9 million kilometers with a period of about 22½ earth months. Its bright
red, potentially menacing glow early on linked the name of the planet to the gods of blood and war in numerous
civilizations. With the publication in 1898 of H.G. Wells's novel, The War of the Worlds, Mars became
inextricably linked in the public imagination with aliens and invasion.
In Lands That Never Were edited by Gordon Van Gelder
reviewed by Steven H Silver
If you look at the stories published over the last several years in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,
you'll notice that many of the fantasy stories are modern or urban fantasies. It is surprising, therefore, that for his second
thematic anthology, the editor has selected sword and sorcery as the theme. However, the assortment of
stories which appears here demonstrates that the magazine actually does print stories of swords and sorcery.
The Ring of Five Dragons by Eric Van Lustbader
reviewed by Wayne MacLaurin
This is the first of an epic fantasy series titled The Pearl.
It centres on the conflict between a technologically advanced, space-faring
race, the V'ornn, and the Kundalan, a spiritual race, subject to the latest
V'ornn colonization. We are introduced to the main characters and the book
quickly tears itself into a frenzy of sub-plots and twisted misdirection as
the curtains sweep open, revealing a vast expanse of story.
The World of Null-A by A.E. Van Vogt
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
By the year 2650, the people of earth have moved away from Aristotelian logic, training themselves through years of study and
discipline to become Null-A. Everyone knows the people who manage to work their way through the levels of the yearly Game will
get a better job, a better life. They may even go off-planet to the utopia-like Venus if they are lucky and pass all the
tests. Gilbert Gosseyn is one of these who gather to take the test to see what life he will lead. Until he finds out that the
life he's been living is not his own. Soon he finds himself not only on a quest to discover who he really is, but to foil the
plans of an alien race bent on intergalactic conquest.
The Empire of Isher by A.E. Van Vogt
reviewed by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
The National Rifle Association should give out a copy of this book with every new
membership. Seriously. They're fools if they don't. Jayme has never come across anything that more closely
resembles a NRA-envisioned utopia than this. Before you roll your eyes and scoff at the absurdity of it,
consider the backdrop of the Isher universe. Even the Weapon Shops' credo could be adopted by the gun lobby today
without much fuss: The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.
The War Against the Rull by A.E. van Vogt
reviewed by A.L. Sirois
This collection is comprised of several linked novelettes published between 1940 and
1950 plus a "new" story. Typical of most SF of the day (and even today), the first chapter opens strong.
Jamieson is trapped with a ferocious alien beast, an ezwal, on an antigravity barge that is
slowly descending to the surface of a savage world controlled by the insectlike Rull, who
have wrecked the ship in which Jamieson has been taking the ezwal to Earth.
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The New Weird edited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
These days it seems that barely a week goes by without
another anthology that has an agenda, that is meant to work as propaganda. We are being assailed with collections that are
designed to convince us that something old has been revitalised (the new hard SF, the new space
opera) or that something new has been discovered (the slipstream anthology, the interstitial anthology, the post-cyberpunk anthology).
If we enjoy good stories in these books, it is secondary to being convinced that this totally fresh way of looking at the
genre is valid, is going to take over literature.
The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases edited by Dr. Jeff VanderMeer & Dr. Mark Roberts
reviewed by William Thompson
This volume is both a spoof and a serio-comic collection of fiction
parodying the non-fiction of an earlier era. The fact that the type of literature it mimics was itself at times fraudulent or the
product of a highly susceptible imagination only further inflates the parody. Presented as a reference written by other esteemed
medical authorities in the field, complete with anatomical illustration, advertisements and newspaper articles, Dr. VanderMeer and
his colleagues have great fun mocking similar literature and pamphlets of the nineteenth century, while at the same time satirizing
a tradition of scholarly journals, encyclopedias and medical literature that persists to this day.
Leviathan Three edited by Jeff VanderMeer & Forrest Aguirre
reviewed by William Thompson
This book lends a crowning touch to this series, comprising the best and largest
collection of stories yet gathered. Including work by Michael Moorcock, James Sallis,
Jeffrey Ford, Zoran Zivkovic, and Brian Stableford, to list perhaps only the more notable or readily recognized
contributors, this anthology is immediately underscored by the consistently high level of writing
present throughout, an acknowledgement both of the various authors' talents, as well as the exacting aesthetic standards
applied by the editors in their selections. And while not every offering is likely to appeal universally to each and
every taste, it is hard to conceive of any reader not finding at least several that make their experience of this
anthology both memorable and a pleasure; not a single story insubstantial or unworthy of notice.
Dr. Tim: Book One by Christopher Varian
reviewed by Chris Przybyszewski
It starts with: "Dr. Tim is a brilliant Medical Doctor [sic] whose
scientific breakthroughs will change the world -- if he can stay alive. With discoveries worth billions stored in his head, villains
everywhere have one goal: Get Dr. Tim!"
So the point of the book is to follow Dr. Tim through his journey (the first book of his adventures, at least), away from jealous
colleagues, from those nefarious beings who would pilfer the good doctor's rich secrets, and even the occasional alien who would wish Timmy harm.
Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days by Brian K. Vaughan
reviewed by Adam Volk
The superhero is one of those rare cultural icons that seems to have transcended time and place to become a familiar staple
of pop culture and modern mythology. And yet despite the numerous appearance of spandex-clad crusaders in comic books,
television and film, the superhero has often been criticized as a superficial and one dimensional construct devoid of
any substance or depth. Fortunately, thanks to the continued evolution of the comic book medium over the past two
decades, the superhero has now become a vibrant, multi-layered and intriguing new creation.
Intersect: A Love Story by Harold Torger Vedeler
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
Intersect is a game that calls to our emotions, to our souls, where young women compete in the computer matrices, throwing
impossible numbers and calculations, weaving impossible creations of love and heart breaking beauty all the while trying to undo
what the other has made. Men can't compete, women are not nearly as talented as their daughters,
and so all those who can't compete sit in their Virtual Reality chairs and bask in the power of the performance, of the game.
The Begum's Millions by Jules Verne
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 was a small war (the last of the French army had surrendered by February 1871), but it had
a big effect. It led to the unification of Germany, and it scared the other European powers into an arms race and a system
of alliances that would lead directly to the First World War. In Britain a succession of stories
prophesied German invasion, and were instrumental in the invention of the scientific
romance (via H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds) and the spy novel (via Childers's The Riddle of the
Sands). And, in France, it led their most successful novelist to create this peculiar dystopia.
Blade Dancer by S.L. Viehl
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
Jory was one of the best Shockball players in the Terran league. Determined to beat the odds despite the extensive damage to her knee,
she kept playing, knowing that it would give her and her mother much needed security. Following a phone call, she races home
only to find her mother dead of a common human sickness. Her mother was an alien, a Joren who was kidnapped and raped along with
others of her kind. Aliens, especially Joren, are hated on Earth, and Jory knows that, when they discover that she's half alien, they'll
desecrate the body and deport her. She's right.
Endurance by S.L. Viehl
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
In this third installment, Cherijo is put in charge of the ship's medical unit.
It's a tough job, made even tougher by the hatred of her fellow slaves and the
callous brutality of her captors, at least one of whom has conceived a psychotic hatred for her. Things don't get any easier
on Catopsa, where a mysterious alien freedom fighter, a sadistic Hsktskt medical researcher, and some very peculiar alien lifeforms
are added to the mix.
Stardoc by S.L. Viehl
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil is fed up with her life on Earth and with her cold, domineering father. So she takes the
first off-planet medical job she can find: a post in the Trauma FreeClinic on Kevarzangia Two, a world colonized by 200 different
alien species, where human beings are definitely in the minority. She has never treated an alien in her life, but she's a talented
doctor, and figures she'll wing it. Arriving on K-2, Cherijo finds that her scant knowledge of alien
medicine is only the beginning of her problems...
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