Another guy often accused of being a bit bent -- in the best sense -- is Paul Di Fillipo. His "Stealing Happy Hours" is reminiscent of a John Collier tale or a Twilight Zone episode in which the narrator discovers the unpleasant source of his marital happiness and the drastic steps he has to take to right matters. Another take on the pursuit of happiness is Chris Beckett's cleverly amusing Grail Story riff, "The Marriage of the Sky and Sea." Here the existential malaise of a famous planetary travel author, who finds little lasting satisfaction in the countless adventures he recounts to a home world characterized by complaisance and risk-aversion, finds unexpected relief in his visit to the watery realm of a fisher king and his tribespeople.

Going past mere ennui to larger questions of death and the meaning of existence, the narrator of Darrell Schweitzer's "The Fire Eggs" ponders the significance of objects that have appeared on earth that seem to provide solace to his dying relatives. This is one of those stories you have to work at to sort out what exactly it might be trying to say, only to find yourself changing your mind every time you think about it. Which, of course, is the whole point.

"Fly" by Susan Beetlestone makes a stab at describing what happens when human consciousness merges with machine, a longstanding theme of SF that is considerably less speculative than it used to be, but without adding anything new to that subject in any way that I could see.

The issue's lead story is "Cadre Siblings" by Stephen Baxter, who is described in the tag line as an "SF superstar," a refreshingly funny comment in contrast to the typical "heir of Arthur C. Clarke" line Baxter usually gets that makes him sound like an emerging talent rather than the prolific author of over a decade's body of work. I'm not ordinarily a fan of the hard SF Baxter's noted for -- the type of stuff that's intended to give you a science lesson as much as it is to tell you a story -- but I find his work very interesting and thought-provoking. Having said that, this particular story, a parable about how revenge is not necessarily the best defense against a relentless, scientifically implemented Holocaust, isn't really hard SF in the way I've just defined it.

If hard SF is really what you're looking for, then this issue may not be entirely suited to your taste. On the other hand, you'd be missing out some thought-provoking entertainment, not the least of which concerns how you treat your dog.