Arena by Karen Hancock
reviewed by Suzanne Krein
Callie Hayes reluctantly joins her friend Meg in a psychology experiment described as providing "evaluation of
and instruction in the decision-making process." The receptionist assures her that the experiment, an obstacle
course, will be completed in a few hours. Too late, Callie discovers that she cannot back out from the experiment.
Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
reviewed by Katherine Petersen
Clara Gardner is one-quarter angel which, among other things, makes her faster and
smarter than her peers although she tries to hide this, so she can live as normal a life as possible. Being an
angel-blood also means she has an individual purpose for her life but discovering the details isn't easy. She
gets bits and pieces from a vision of a boy, a truck and a raging forest fire that lead her family to move from
the Bay Area to Jackson, Wyoming.
Black Light by Elizabeth Hand
reviewed by David Soyka
This book demands the Velvet Underground rumbling in the background.
This is the soundtrack (and we're talking the first 2 albums when John Cale was still
in the band) that provides the novel's amphetamine pulse -- it's based in part upon the zeitgeist of the Velvet's
old haunt, Warhol's Factory.
Doomsday Can Wait by Lori Handeland
reviewed by Katherine Petersen
Second of The Phoenix Chronicles, continues the adventures of
Elizabeth Phoenix, a psychic who used to work as a cop until her abilities got in the way of her job and
freaked out her colleagues. Here, she gets a glimpse of
her true enemy during a run-in with a naye'i, a Navajo spirit whose top priority is Liz's execution. The naye'i also
happens to be mother to Sawyer, the mystical skinwalker who gave Liz more insight into her abilities.
Eternity: Our Next Billion Years by Michael Hanlon
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
Call it the anti-apocalypse book. Here, the author cuts across the grain
of popular future disaster and end-of-the-world scenarios and argues that what the universe will be like and what
might be going on billions of years from now is worth thinking about. Because we could very well be there.
Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover
reviewed by Katherine Petersen
Jayné gets a life-changing surprise when she flies to Denver to
settle her murdered Uncle Eric's estate. The good news is she has inherited a lot of money and property all
over the world, but the bad news is she finds herself embroiled in a battle with the Invisible College. What
you might ask is the Invisible College besides the group that killed Jayné's uncle?
Caesar's Antlers by Brooks Hansen
reviewed by Neil Walsh
Neil found this novel to be an engaging tale, full of
selfless giving and sacrifice in the spirit of the season.
And the story ends in the dark hours of Christmas morning.
The Rainbow Connection by Ian Harac
reviewed by John Enzinas
The book tells the story of an FBI agent who is responsible for inter-dimensional copyright. When the wrap-up
a fairly standard bust results in a dead munchkin, Agent Matt Anders is pulled into a conspiracy that affects
his whole department and takes him through Oz all the way to Dorothy's Kansas.
Close To My Heart: Genesis by W.A. Harbinson
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
At its heart is the question of who builds flying saucers and where they come from. The characters
and plot, while hugely entertaining and well written, are subservient to this central enigma. The author's approach was
to tell the story from three sides, with the viewpoint shifting between Epstein and Stanford, an old scientist and his
young sidekick who are eager to solve the mystery, Richard Watson, a student who is abducted and subject mind control
experimentation, and Aldridge, an American traitor whose icy genius almost won WW II for Nazi Germany.
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Music For Another World edited by Mark Harding
reviewed by Seamus Sweeney
"All art aspires to the condition of music." Walter Pater's famous axiom is directly invoked in one of the stories
in this anthology of speculative fiction linked by the theme of music, and is one of the first quotes that
springs to mind when considering the artistic challenge of capturing music in words.
Another well-known quote about music and writing is one by Frank Zappa.
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
At the beginning of the novel, most of the world has done exactly that, gone
away. The reasons for that happening, and how some of the world was saved by the Jorgmund Pipe seem to have something
to do with a band of adventurers calling themselves the Haulage & Hazmat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company of
Exmore County, who, as the story opens, are being called upon to save the world. Again.
The Storm of Heaven by Thomas Harlan
reviewed by William Thompson
Some thought lost by the end of Shadow of Ararat or Gate of Fire miraculously reemerge, whereas others will find in
this volume that "God has fixed the length of [their] life." Maxian reaches a shocking
conclusion (if somewhat glibly recognized), Alexander is loose with an army in Magna Gothica, former enemies
put aside their differences, and Thyatis has survived, though without any memory of past events. Former
comrades now find themselves locked in deadly combat and, as before, little appears entirely as it seems.
The Necronomicon Files by Daniel Harms and John Wisdom Gonce, III
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Was there ever an ancient Necronomicon? Hard to imagine that a book that important would just
vanish. Would someone have gathered it up with the wrapping paper and
accidentally trashed it? Would it get mixed in with the daily papers and
end up as recycling? It's not really the kind of thing someone would misplace with their keys.
Twisted Rhymes, Volume 1 by Bob Harper
an audio review by Lisa DuMond
The selections are lavishly produced and presented, with an emphasis on pure entertainment. This is the
equivalent of gathering your sleeping bags into a tight circle and trying to scare the pants off each other with horror
stories. Even better if you were camping in an appropriately "Blair Witch"y forest. No need to shine a flashlight under
your chin with these sound effects and creepy music to put a fright into you.
Nightmare by Steven Harper
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
Kendi Weaver and his family are captured by slavers. One by one, he sees the people he's loved all his life taken from him and sent to
other worlds. The only thing that will eventually save him is his discovery of a
power inside of him, one that allows him to travel in a dreamlike world and communicate with others of his kind. This power makes him
much more valuable, and he is bought, and freed by the Children of Irfan. He journeys with them to Bellerophon where a serial killer is stalking the
Silent in their Dream state, and killing them, something that no one ought to be able to do.
Dreamer by Steven Harper
reviewed by Donna McMahon
Sejal is an angry young man who has just made a very old discovery. He can
earn 2 kesh in 3 hours busking on the street corner, or he can earn
70 kesh in 20 minutes selling his ass. It's too much temptation for a
troubled teenager on the planet Rust, where an invasion by the Empire of
Human Unity twenty years before wrecked the world and turned the
inhabitants into a permanently impoverished underclass.
Wolf's Bane by Tara K. Harper
reviewed by Stephen M. Davis
This novel won't have Stephen combing the fantasy section of his local used book store.
There are moments when the writer's talent shows through
but those moments are rare.
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
What is the deepest fear? Is it to be alone? Is it to be isolated in a crowd? Or is it to be persecuted
without ever learning the reason why? What if this were your existence?
Could you survive and how would you know if you had? These are questions at the the heart of this novel.
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