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11/16/09

Jesse Bullington and The Brutal Invasion of The Brothers Grossbart, by S.J. Chambers: Article.; I absolutely love monsters. After all that talk of everything else, I neglected to mention I also wanted to write a book with a lot of monsters. Not just human monsters. I wanted to deal with the question of what is more horrific: a person who is capable of anything, or something that is literally monstrous and out of the bowels of our collective imagination? Rather than just sticking to medieval bestiaries, I tried to incorporate the parallel between different mythologies of similar creatures.
A Brief Investigation of the Process of Decay, by Genevieve Valentine: Fiction.; There was a pause before "interested" that meant "acclimated," as if Mars was going to be just like the rez, except without oxygen.
Deluge, by Mike Allen: Poetry.; When he learned he could drink the stars, he vowed / that even one burning sphere could never be enough
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Filaria by Brent Hayward, reviewed by Matt Denault
Wednesday: The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, volume 3, edited by Jonathan Strahan, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy
Friday: Two Views: Moxyland by Lauren Beukes, reviewed by James Trimarco and Paul Raven

11/9/09

A History of the Death Ray, by Benjamin Wakefield: Article.; Phasers, lasers, masers, disruptors, blasters, pulse rifles, plasma cannons and concussion beams—call it what you will, the directed energy weapon has become a staple element of the science fiction and fantasy genre.
True Names, by Stephanie Burgis: Fiction.; When I let Sam sweet talk me into moving out here to the back of beyond to be his wife, it was all about the romance of the wild, the two of us standing at each other's sides against mountain lions and poisonous snakes, and me learning to be just as fierce against them as any man. Days like today somehow never got mentioned in any of his stories, back then.
f(love) = 0, by Monica M. Eiland: Poetry.; how could I have missed Newton's trick / to finding area where none used to exist?
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Magicians by Lev Grossman, reviewed by John Clute
Wednesday: Interfictions 2, edited by Delia Sherman and Christopher Barzak, reviewed by T. S. Miller
Friday: Green by Jay Lake, reviewed by Kyra Smith

11/2/09

A Memory of Robert Jordan, by Stefan Józefowicz: Article.; Robert Jordan has been recognized as one of the most famous fantasy writers of his time. He passed away on September 16, 2007, before he was able to finish his magnum opus. Nevertheless, the Wheel of Time still turns. October 27, 2009 marked the publication of The Gathering Storm, the first of three posthumous novels planned to conclude the series.
Nomadology, by Chris Nakashima-Brown: Fiction.; On-screen, stop-motion set pieces illustrated a science fiction fantasy of the destruction of the state apparatus and the abolition of private property mediated by alien invasion and natural disaster. The only sound in the room was the soft clicking of aluminum knitting needles, like a DIY Geiger counter monitoring our entropic half-lives.
Off the Pi Charts, by P M F Johnson: Poetry.; The gates of Faerie are eroding—
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Ark by Stephen Baxter, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro
Wednesday: The Drowning City by Amanda Downum, reviewed by Kari Sperring
Friday: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, reviewed by Hallie O'Donovan

10/26/09

Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut, by Cat Rambo: Fiction.; "If you're going to be our leader, you need to look like you haven't time-travelled here from the 20th century," Dr. Arcane grumbles to Ms. Liberty. "You may have been built with the blueprints from the Stepford wives, but you don't have to keep looking like one."
Surreal People, by Bruce Boston: Poetry.; The evolution of flora and fawning / would have learned nothing / from Darwin.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Black Mirror and Other Stories, edited by Franz Rottensteiner (trans. Mike Mitchell), reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: 1942 by Robert Conroy, reviewed by Douglas W. Texter
Friday: Orbus by Neal Asher, reviewed by Dan Hartland

10/19/09

Crying Wolf on Mars, by Brian Trent: Article.; Methane represents the best clue yet, and coupled with the mystery of the Dark Dune Spots, we have all the justifications needed to conduct a serious investigation. NASA is presently narrowing a list of landing-sites for its upcoming Mars Science Laboratory project. That list includes ancient riverbeds, dead seas, craters containing flood deposits, and clay-rich mountains. Should an upcoming mission prove life is there, then the Martian meteorites would likely move out of limbo. And in a strange irony, this would also confirm the notion that Martians brought life to Earth…in a way.
The Regime of Austerity, by Veronica Schanoes: Fiction.; Under the Regime of Austerity, Stella can no longer afford much color. What she gets she uses on her hair and her eyes, even though all the magazines say that's a waste. Hair falls out and eyes tear up, and eventually the color wears away and she's left with nothing until her next ration coupon.
Gepetto, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; By evening, he is nearly finished; / all that remains doing
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: House of Windows by John Langan and Slights by Kaaron Warren, reviewed by Richard Larson
Wednesday: Rampant by Diana Peterfreund, reviewed by Sara Polsky
Friday: Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction, edited by Mark Bould, Andrew M. Butler, Adam Roberts and Sherryl Vint, reviewed by Martin Lewis

10/12/09

Desert Island Movies, by James Schellenberg: Column.; The world of science fiction cinema is a rich and varied one. Fantasy . . . . not so much.
The Second Conquest of Earth, by L. J. Daly: Fiction.; The Kus left us our religions, to keep us docile. My mother's brand of snake-oil soothsaying passed the test, thanks to years on the best-seller lists. That this Kus hasn't killed me tells me he thinks I can read his future.
Thirteen Scifaiku for Blackbirds, by Joanne Merriam: Poetry.; It was autumn all year. / Blackbirds came and went.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Stranger by Max Frei, reviewed by William Mingin
Wednesday: Tile by Maryanne Rose Papke, reviewed by Michael H. Payne
Friday: Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction, edited by Mark Bould and China Mieville, reviewed by Michael Froggatt

10/5/09

Revisiting the Fantastic Classics: Of Boar Hunts, Seductions, and Medieval Underwear: Travels with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part 3, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; This is the third of four columns on magic in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” everybody's favorite raunchy, sexy, blood-soaked Middle English poem. The previous two columns discussed monsters, pentacles, and what it takes to shake up a Knight of the Round Table. This one gets into castles, hunting, chivalry, gender relations, and seduction—medieval style!
And Their Lips Rang with the Sun, by Amal El-Mohtar: Fiction.; Look at them! Are they not beautiful? Had cinnamon been ground and rubbed into their skin, they could not have been more brown, more fragrant, more beloved of the wine-bright sky.
The Sorrows of Rutherford, the Amazing Talking Dog, by Daniel Wright: Poetry.; We bow, you walk me off into the wings / and treat my question as rhetorical.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Grazing the Long Acre by Gwyneth Jones, reviewed by Andy Sawyer
Wednesday: Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay, reviewed by Joel Zartman
Friday: Blood of the Mantis by Adrian Tchaikovsky, reviewed by Peter Whitfield

9/28/09

Redneck on the East, Redskin on the West: An Interview with Caleb Fox, by Neal Szpatura: Article.; It is precisely by making the effort to walk in someone else's shoes, to enter someone else's mind and look out through her eyes, that human beings begin to truly understand each other. I believe that goodwill for all sentient beings is the right path for us all, and goodwill comes from understanding.
A Story About Plot, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; Grisham posed his idea of plot-driven fiction as a distinction from "literature", but he might be surprised to learn that his idea has precedents among the highest of brows: in what is generally considered the first work of literary criticism, The Poetics, Aristotle argued that plot (mythos) is superior to every other element of tragedy, which he considered the highest form of literary art. To Aristotle, action is most important, and the writer's arrangement of incidents leads to the most vital effects of tragedy.
A Safe Place To Be, by Carol Emshwiller: Fiction.; It started with a funny feeling in the bottoms of my feet. Something is going to happen. Perhaps an earthquake. That's what it feels like. But perhaps terrorists on the way. Whatever it is, something's coming.
To Theia, by Ann K. Schwader: Poetry.; That we are shattered creatures, / our sacred texts assure us, but not why
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Zadayi Red by Caleb Fox, reviewed by Karen Burnham
Wednesday: The Resistance, by Muse by Muse, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Friday: Darkborn by Alison Sinclair, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin

9/21/09

Serving Your Fellow Man: An Interview with Peadar O'Guilin, by Angela Handley: Article.; What I was really interested in were the necessities of survival and the hypocrisy of people who can sneer when they themselves live in more comfortable surroundings. As Robert Louis Stevenson once said: "Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own."
And This Also Has Been One of the Dark Places of the Earth, by Anna Feruglio Dal Dan: Fiction.; It is probably the sodium glow of the streetlamps I remember—who would have thought I would ever miss it.
Proof of Existence, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; The dreambike had eyes on its spokes
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Two Views: Dollhouse, season one, reviewed by Bernadette Lynn Bosky and Gianduja Kiss
Wednesday: The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw, reviewed by Keri Sperring
Friday: The Fire in the Stone by Nicholas Ruddick, reviewed by Dan Hartland

9/14/09

Where the Popular Kids are Sitting, by Karen Healey: Column.; "Is there a link," someone asked, "between science fiction and young adult works?" "Science fiction's what they used to call the YA section before there was a YA section," Westerfeld said, and effortlessly articulated the feeling I'd had for years.
The Yeast of Eire (Part 2 of 2), by Alaya Dawn Johnson: Fiction.; Each time he returned, he would bring me news of Amery's safety and some food. He seemed to know precisely what we most needed--cinnamon bark, preserved lemons, bulbs of dried garlic. I tried not to miss him. I tried not to think about Amery.
The Multiple Universe Poems, by Brenda Cooper: Poetry.; About the puppy we didn't choose
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The New Uncanny edited by Sarah Eyre and Ra Page, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Wednesday: District 9, reviewed by David J. Schwartz
Friday: The Lord of the Sands of Time by Issui Ogawa and All You Need is KILL by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, reviewed by Martin Lewis

9/7/09

A Dragon in the Time Machine: The Gross Anatomy of Horror, by Nicholas Seeley: Article.; And I do believe there is a narrative that underlies these tales—a story or cycle, rooted in biology or psychology that explains horror stories the way Joseph Campbell's monomyth explains religion and mythology.
The Yeast of Eire (Part 1 of 2), by Alaya Dawn Johnson: Fiction.; I recalled the taste of quinoa plucked fresh from the Eiran fields, its hidden coils unfurled, boiled and dressed with just a bit of lemon and cut radishes. Tart and sharp and rich like the smell of sun on a field after a rain. And I recalled, too, the face of the gilt-haired man with whom I'd shared that dish, the smell of him, and all I'd left behind in the Eiran earth.
Black Hole Hunter's Guide, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; You should think of this book as analogous/to a mushroom hunter's guide
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF edited by Mike Ashley, reviewed by Graham Sleight
Wednesday: The Gift of Joy by Ian Whates, reviewed by Anil Menon
Friday: One by Conrad Williams, reviewed by David McWilliam

8/31/09

Everything Dies, Baby, by Nadia Bulkin: Fiction.; When Beth handed him the phone he nearly dropped it, and after he dragged himself to the kitchen for privacy he could not seem to make his fingers work with the buttons. He kept muttering. He kept starting over.
Little Red Cap Grows Up, by Amy Cummins: Poetry.; Angina, chronic back pain, rotten molars
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Amberlight and Riversend by Sylvia Kelso, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Wednesday: Consorts of Heaven by Jaine Fenn, reviewed by Peter Whitfield
Friday: Wireless by Charles Stross, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy

8/24/09

Sagas, Screenplays, and Reasons to Read the News: An Interview with Terry Brooks, by Mark Newheiser: Article.; [Y]ou have to be open to the fact that your ideas today are not necessarily going to be your ideas tomorrow. And what seems like it's going to work today may not necessarily be what works tomorrow. You cannot get too dogmatic.
Desert Island Top 12, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Not long ago, a friend forwarded a rather nostalgia-inducing link to me: the Top 100 Sci-Fi Books list. . . . In the spirit of controversy-baiting list-makers everywhere, I present a list of books that I point to as examples of how to do something right.
Charms, by Shweta Narayan: Fiction.; It's too easy, the tide of war washing these feckless, smiling girls up, drowning Edith in the bile and brine of the past. And she's hardly old, not yet. Not yet. She shakes her head tiredly. Women's magic, she says, is like everything else. Not good enough for girls these days.
They pass a dwarf star around like a bottle of rum, by Sankar Roy: Poetry.; Copper shackles dazzle from their unzipped nebulas.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The New Space Opera 2, eds. Jonathan Strahan and Gardner Dozois, and Open Your Eyes by Paul Jessup, reviewed by Richard Larson
Wednesday: Tides From the New Worlds by Tobias S. Buckell, reviewed by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro
Friday: Nekropolis by Tim Waggoner, reviewed by Kyra Smith

8/17/09

Origin, by Ari Goelman: Fiction.; "I should never date other supers," I say, not for the first time. I put my hand on my stomach. Crap. I can barely keep a spider plant alive. There's no way I'm ready to be a mother.
MINSTREL'S LAST SONG, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; To the sea, to the sea / eurydice, eurydice...
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Ask and The Answer by Patrick Ness, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Wednesday: Jasmyn by Alex Bell, reviewed by Angela Slatter
Friday: Zoo by Otsuichi, reviewed by Karen Burnham

8/10/09

Wordcraft and War Fiction: An Interview with David Weber, by Kenneth Mark Hoover: Article.; I think of what I do as my craft, not as my "art." . . . The story I'm telling takes me where it has to go, and I go there willingly, doing the best work I can along the way.
Finisterre, by Maria Deira: Fiction.; Prima, she said to me, if you see a man with dilated pupils, a man who smells like mildew, a man with fingernails that are stained yellow and teeth that are uneven and broken, prima, if you see that man--run. Run! Because that man is a pinche werewolf.
Summer and Austin Have Left Their Apartment For a House, by Romie Stott: Poetry.; They don't use the term latent heat anymore.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Hungry Ghosts by Anne Berry and White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi, reviewed Dan Hartland
Wednesday: The Best of Michael Moorcock, edited by John Davey with Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, reviewed by Duncan Lawie
Friday: Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie, reviewed by Niall Harrison

8/3/09

Salt's Father, by Eric Gregory: Fiction.; For a moment there was only silence. The old man wondered if the servitor had died of hunger. Then it crawled out of shadow, its head swiveling left and right with a high, hurtful screech of metal on metal. Sensors and little pincers dangled out of its too-wide-open mouth.
The Chymical Marriage, by Sonya Taaffe: Poetry.; They belong dead, but we resurrect them
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: On Joanna Russ, edited by Farah Mendlesohn, reviewed by L. Timmel Duchamp
Wednesday: Torchwood: Children of Earth, reviewed by Roz Kaveney
Friday: The Laurentine Spy by Emily Gee, reviewed by Rosalind Casey

7/27/09

Saint Patrick, the Irish Druids, and the Conversion of Pagan Ireland to Christianity, by Bridgette Da Silva: Article.; The stories of the mythical saint can certainly tell us much about the context of the times in which they were invented, the seventh century AD, but what can they tell us about the truth behind the conversion of the Irish to Christianity?
Bespoke, by Genevieve Valentine: Fiction.; The floors were real dateverified oak, the velvet curtains shipped from Paris in a Chinese junk during the six weeks in '58 when one of the Vagabonder boys slept with a Wright brother and planes hadn't been invented.
Rattlebox III, by Mike Allen, Kendall Evans, & David C. Kopaska-Merkel: Poetry.; Skinner's daughter is or is not / within the box, a paradox. / Is she learning an algebraic maze?
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Impossible Stories II by Zoran Živković, reviewed by Anil Menon
Wednesday: Moon, reviewed by David J. Schwartz
Friday: Blood of Ambrose by James Enge, reviewed by William Mingin

7/20/09

Marvelous Toys: Cell Phones, Twitter, and Relationship-by-Text, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; The big news this week is that I'm getting a new phone. I'm excited, of course, because really I think about this first as a fancy new toy, one that will allow me to play games on the go—not just Tetris, but the more nebulous social “games” for which sites like Facebook and Twitter have opened the door. I am going to be texting like a Japanese 13-year-old with a two-hour round-trip commute, people.
The Ghost of Onions, by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff: Fiction.; It's cold outside, but her kitchen is warm and bright, and in its comfortable familiarity she can almost banish away the chill of melancholy, the knowledge deep inside her that there should be, there must be, something more to life.
Book of the Dead Woman, by Mary Alexandra Agner: Poetry.; I'd eat your inconsistencies / and read the songs of my entrails.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Traitor to the Crown by C. C. Finlay, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Wednesday: Spiral Hunt by Margaret Ronald, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin
Friday: Spook City: stories by Peter Atkins, Clive Barker and Ramsey Campbell, edited by Angus Mackenzie, reviewed by Andy Sawyer

7/13/09

Was There Ever a Dinosaur Civilization?, by Brian Trent: Article.; It must be accepted that our fossil collection represents a sliver of a fraction of the species that existed. It's like a great lottery game, whose ultimate prize is immortality on a museum shelf.
Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs, by Leonard Richardson: Fiction.; "Humans won't pay to watch dinosaurs ride motocross bikes forever," said Tark. "I'm gonna branch out. Target shooting. I'll be like those tough guys in the action movies."
Revolution Day, by Marcus Goodyear: Poetry.; Start the flight that ends with smash. / We'll all super-collide to find immensity,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham, reviewed by Gwyneth Jones
Wednesday: The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction, edited by Mark Bould, Andrew M. Butler, Adam Roberts and Sherryl Vint, reviewed by Nick Hubble
Friday: The Painting and the City by Robert Freeman Wexler, reviewed by Matt Denault

7/6/09

A Statistical Study of Locus Online's "Notable Books", by Valentin D. Ivanov: Article.; What is going on with the demography of the subgenres? Do we get more and more sequels every year, recycling the same old ideas?
On the Destruction of Copenhagen by the War-Machines of the Merfolk, by Peter M. Ball: Fiction.; The television stutters as we flick through the channels, colours bleeding together and rendering the devastation a fuzzy blue or green.
Dark Emblem, by Greg Beatty: Poetry.; From our fingers, what falls, / when we new faithful fall?
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J. R. R. Tolkien, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: The Very Best of Gene Wolfe, by David McWilliam
Friday: Two Tastes of Paprika: Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel (trans. Andrew Driver), and Satoshi Kon's anime, reviewed by Martin Lewis

6/29/09

When Lost Went SF, by James Schellenberg: Column.; The show stumbled, found its way, then went way hardcore on the science fiction. A wrap-up for season 5 and some speculation for the upcoming (and final) season.
River of Heaven, by Rachel Manija Brown: Fiction.; Fulfilling our mission would undoubtedly be the most important thing to happen on Earth that day, but Seiji seemed more interested in window-shopping.
In the Burned Places, by Ann K. Schwader: Poetry.; we wait in vain for the asteroid / its aeon come round at last.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Beyond Balram: Stories by Vandana Singh and Ian McDonald, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Wednesday: Legend of the Seeker, Season One, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin
Friday: God of Clocks by Alan Campbell, reviewed by Martin Lewis

6/22/09

The Adventures of Little Martin in Tomorrowland, by Matthew Davis: Article.; [I]n the mid-1970s, one of contemporary English literature's soon-to-be foremost personalities spent his apprenticeship as the SF reviewer at one of Britain's most respected Sunday broadsheets.
Another End of the Empire, by Tim Pratt: Fiction.; He sighed. "So I'm expected to send my Fell Rangers to the mountains, raze the village, leave no stone upon a stone, enslave the women, and kill all the younglings to stop this dire prophecy from coming to pass."
Spacekill, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; Radioactive natterjacks, leap-frogging / from black hole to black hole;
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Buyout by Alexander Irvine, reviewed by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro
Wednesday: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, reviewed by Hallie O'Donovan
Friday: Ages of Wonder, edited by Julie E. Czerneda and Rob St. Martin, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy

6/15/09

Captain Newbie!: A 3-D Pete Cartoon, by Mike Fisher: Article.; Hmm . . . I wonder what the first mission with Captain "No Starfleet Experience Whatsoever" Kirk would be like?
Bookshelf Worlds, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; I am a bookshelf voyeur; any time I go into a room with books, I spy and pry. A new room—whether a waiting room, an office, a basement used for storage—always contains excitement for me if it has books, because, until I have thoroughly pored over them, there is the potential for surprise, and the potential is often as electrifying as the reality.
Second-Hand Information, by Jennifer Linnaea: Fiction.; The next day I go to Pisha's house as usual, but his parent meets me at the door and looks at me extra long with her small, pink eyes. "I tell you first-hand that Pisha can't play today," she says. "He's gone in."
Paper Doll, by Elizabeth Lee: Poetry.; all our lives will resemble what we see in magazines
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Up, reviewed by David J. Schwartz
Wednesday: Genesis by Bernard Beckett, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont
Friday: Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, reviewed by Richard Larson

6/8/09

A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by HMS Ocelot, As Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, DPhil, MSc; or, A Lullaby (Part 2 of 2), by Helen Keeble: Fiction.; Listen. Listen. These are the stories of your lives I am telling you, the real stories, the way that things should be. This is not real, this stinking prison where you cannot live, this cannot be real, I am not watching you be born here, no--
Sweet Tooth, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; when he / heard the dentist's strict injunction / against sweets
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: This Is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams, reviewed by Paul Raven
Wednesday: Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Friday: Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding, reviewed by Michael Levy

6/1/09

Superheroes Used Symbolically in Novels, by Karen Burnham: Article.; Superheroes, being so over-the-top and recognizable, lend themselves brilliantly to satire, and satire is easy to turn towards any number of political targets.
A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by HMS Ocelot, As Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, D.Phil, MSc.; or, A Lullaby (Part 1 of 2), by Helen Keeble: Fiction.; By Divine providence, we captured the mermaid with neither loss of life nor injury to any seaman, nor any harm done to the specimen.
Spacers' Prison, by Marge Simon: Poetry.; We are his reminders, / a company of ghosts,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Hoshruba, Book One: The Land and the Tilism, by Muhammad Husain Jah, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi, reviewed by Anil Menon
Wednesday: Blood and Ice by Robert Masello, reviewed by Duncan Lawie
Friday: Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton, reviewed by Martin Lewis

5/25/09

"That Place of Dark": A Jaunt Through Speculative Fiction, by Daniel Peretti: Article.; The word "jaunt," as it is used today, has a fairly positive connotation. Yet jaunting—or teleportation, movement between two places without traveling through the intervening space—is not so clearly beneficial in speculative fiction.
If Wishes Were Horses, by Tiffani Angus-Bodie: Fiction.; Mam always warned me against trying to hide if the dark riders came.
Wind People, by Bruce Boston: Poetry.; There is no tying down the wind with rope or chain or tackle.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Irons in the Fire by Juliet E. McKenna, reviewed by Nic Clarke
Wednesday: Regenesis by C. J. Cherryh, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy
Friday: Knife by R.J. Anderson, reviewed by Hallie O'Donovan

5/18/09

The Best of 2008, by Iain Jackson: Column.; 2008 proved to be an interesting year. Fewer zombies, thank the deity of your choosing—or at least, I read fewer of them, so they didn't make it onto this list.
Baby in the Basket, by Cecil Castellucci: Fiction.; When she knew he had arrived again, she could feel her heart beat faster. She couldn't help it. She loved that little boy. She had become attached. Danielle grabbed the mail and ran up the stairs. Five flights. Breathless. She didn't stop running until she was sure he was really back.
She's in the ice, by David C. Kopaska-Merkel: Poetry.; Seemed like a good place / for the stolen mind
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Season Two, reviewed by David Hines
Wednesday: Star Trek, reviewed by Iain Clark
Friday: A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin, reviewed by Laura Blackwell

5/11/09

Let's Stop Conning Ourselves, by Patience Wieland: Article.; Are failures like JumpCon and FedConUSA a testament to science fiction fandom's limitations?
Beyond Bows and Eyelashes: Avatar Alternatives to Gender Rigidity, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; Ridiculous as it may seem, while I have had a copy of Mario Kart since I got my Wii this past October, it's really only in the last couple of months that I've become aware of just how much unlockable content the game contains.
The Rising Waters (Part 2 of 2), by Benjamin Crowell: Fiction.; "Was that the police?" asked Debbie about the invisible ghosts I'd been shouting at. "I don't like police. They hurt Alan Turing, and I can tell you're scared of them. I wish I could see them."
Conflict Carbon, by Ann K. Schwader: Poetry.; unutterably blue / as that sad legend's skies, the shattered hue / of starlight failing
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Battlestar Galactica: "Daybreak", reviewed by Roz Kaveney and Karen Meisner
Wednesday: A Thread of Truth by Nina Allan, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Friday: True Blood, season one, reviewed by Adam Roberts

5/4/09

The "You" Continuum: Narration and Narrative Agents in Video Games, by Mark Newheiser: Article.; [G]ames have a continuum between strongly defined characters tied strictly to a story conceived by the designers, and more free-form characters whom the players are free to create and fill in. The problem with video games is that a designer can't anticipate everything a player might possibly want to do[.]
When Lost Got Lost, by James Schellenberg: Column.; I never watched Lost in its first four seasons. In fact, since September 2004, when the popular show debuted, I did my best to avoid reading about it, since the show seemed to be one of those based around a "mystery" of some kind. I knew that it was about a plane crash on a remote island, but that was about it. I didn't have much motivation to watch it myself, but if I ever did watch it, I wanted the full experience.
The Rising Waters, by Benjamin Crowell: Fiction.; The official working hypothesis was that he was nonresponsive (don't say autistic) due to a mismatch (don't call it boredom) between processing power and input bandwidth.
Infinite Zero, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; Entering the computer
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: UFO in Her Eyes by Xiaolu Guo, reviewed by Richard Larson and Karen Burnham
Wednesday: Living with Ghosts by Kari Sperring, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin
Friday: The Accord by Keith Brooke, reviewed by Duncan Lawie

4/27/09

Imagining the Perfect Man: Science Fiction and The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, by Chris Kammerud: Article.; Franklin's Autobiography isn't characterized by such obvious strangeness as Gulliver's Travels, yet it also presents readers with an imaginative and alternative way of viewing both Franklin's and their own world.
Blasted Horrors, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; For a few years, I did not want to admit an attraction to horror stories. It's an odd thing to have done, since if any type of stories has consistently attracted me as a reader, they are horror stories, but nonetheless, when I started coming to terms with the fact that yes, my life as a reader had been and was going to continue to be the life of someone profoundly affected by and attracted to genre fiction, I didn't want to admit that the effect and the attraction included horror fiction.
Lily Glass, by Veronica Schanoes: Fiction.; The girl is gone from the castle and her stepmother wanders the corridors. Here is another way of saying the same thing: the girl wanders the corridors, but her stepdaughter is nowhere to be found.
Whiskers, by Jamieson Ridenhour: Poetry.; I was bearded with words.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The 2009 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist, reviewed by Edward James
Wednesday: Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Friday: Far North by Marcel Theroux, reviewed by Dan Hartland

4/20/09

Revisiting the Canon with Susannah! Wolves, Winter, and the Wild Men of the Woods: Travels with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part 2, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; Gawain made a pledge to the knight, formally, in the presence of everyone in Arthur's hall: in exchange for striking the Knight with his ax, he accepted the Knight's terms, which were to come find the Knight in one year's time and bare his own neck to the ax. Whether Gawain thought he would ever actually have to fulfill his half of the bargain is irrelevant; since the Knight, improbably, survived their first encounter, Gawain is now honor-bound to perform what he has promised to do.
As He Was, by Kit St. Germain: Fiction.; My Malcolm dollie, I kept in the best condition. I would kiss it and hug it. Sometimes I would put it in a bean can and I would tell it, "You are in invisible armor, my only love. Nothing gonna touch you." I know how crazy that sounds—but where are 'Phonse and Woody Pike and Jerry Rasmussen that signed up with Malcolm? Malcolm came home because of me.
Four Years Later, by Chris Szego: Poetry.; When I watch over the cradle, our daughter, so perfect, / I see the subtle traps ahead:
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente, reviewed by Matt Denault
Wednesday: Fathom by Cherie Priest, reviewed by Sara Polsky
Friday: Eclipse Two: New Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Jonathan Strahan, reviewed by James A. Trimarco

4/13/09

The Revelatory Power of Story: An Interview with Jeffrey Overstreet, by John Ottinger III: Article.; I suppose that the story has led me to think about the revelatory power of art--how beauty "speaks" to us in mysterious ways. But it has also caused me to think about the "monsters" in the real world[.]
Stargazing Through the Ages: The Telescope Turns 400, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; Some four hundred years ago, the news spread through Europe like wildfire: a strange device had been invented which made distant objects appear miraculously close. Sailors, scholars, soldiers and noblemen all eagerly sought out this high-tech wonder. The gossip reached a middle-aged math professor at the University of Padua, who immediately began trying to reverse-engineer the gadget.
The Man Who Lost the Sea, by Theodore Sturgeon: Fiction.; The sick man is buried in the cold sand with only his head and his left arm showing. He is dressed in a pressure suit and looks like a man from Mars. He can hear the pounding of surf and the soft swift pulse of his pumps.
A Spartan Boy, by Ellie Biswell: Poetry.; My grandfather fought at Thermopylae. / I say don't expect a second Lycurgus.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters by John Langan, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Wednesday: Subterfuge, edited by Ian Whates, reviewed by Tanya Brown
Friday: Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky, reviewed by Peter Whitfield

4/6/09

Éowyn under Siege: Female Warriors During the Middle Ages, by Stefan Ingstrand: Article.; Going to war was the most masculine activity imaginable, and men who failed in battle were thought effeminate, so women who entered the fray broke the predominant pattern in a grand way.
Bouncing High into the Stupidsphere (Part Two), by Iain Jackson: Column.; Last time, I covered some recent entries in network television and comics that managed to get just about everything important wrong. Shows and stories that managed to elevate the stupid to a plot point that the show couldn't live without; eliminate the people acting brainlessly, and the story either collapses or comes to a dead end, because actually behaving reasonably undercuts the narrative engine. This time, I cover one last show that's gotten just about everything wrong this season [. . .]
Husbandry, by Eugene Fischer: Fiction.; Next is a family with a nine-year-old boy and a dead parakeet. They aren't just dropping off the carcass for deactivation and disposal, they've come to have Gerry, a professional, explain death to their son. Gerry talks to their son about what happens to the bodies of animals when they die, and points out to him the things that make it clear that his bird is dead: the uncoordinated motion, the abandonment of normal behaviors, the lack of interest in water.
Birdbrain, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; Some traits are too deep to excavate / or remold, / like the impulse to take wing, to jump / into the sky
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Powers: Secret Histories, compiled and edited by John Berlyne, reviewed by Graham Sleight
Wednesday: Marcher by Chris Beckett, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Friday: The Sound of Building Coffins by Louis Maistros, reviewed by Paul Kincaid

3/30/09

SF's Founding Father Turns 200, by S. J. Chambers: Article.; Nothing better illustrates Poe's speculative versatility than how widespread and diverse his influence was. To each writer, Poe stood for different ideas[.]
The Thrifty Gamer, or Guildmates are More Valuable than Gold, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; I've recently gotten back into City of Heroes with a vengeance, after about a 6-month hiatus caused mainly by the novelty of my Wii. They had another Double Experience Weekend a couple of weeks ago, and it served its intended purpose quite well, motivating me to jump back in and ultimately quashing some vague ruminations I'd been having on the possibility of canceling my account.
Turning the Apples, by Tina Connolly: Fiction.; "This ain't a negotiation, boyo," says Jonny. "They're fresh and Hawk's in a lather, he needs what you do." Then Jonny is gone and Szo is sick to his knees because he's just remembered that fresh means awake and screaming.
The last time, we trust, by David C. Kopaska-Merkel: Poetry.; The last time, / we went with something exoskeletal, / something with fewer organ systems / something colonial.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction by Istvan Csicser-Ronay Jr., reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: The Good Homor Man by Andrew Fox, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont
Friday: In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield, reviewed by Kari Sperring

3/23/09

Phil and Jack, by Matthew Cheney: Column.
The Spider in You, by Sean E. Markey: Fiction.; We kept our god under the sink, in an old aquarium, so it wouldn't spill its web all over the house.
Theodote, by Michael Meyerhofer: Poetry.; all across our American highways, / the slick tableaux of truck stops / speak to the same want
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Flora's Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) by Ysabeau S Wilce
Wednesday: Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
Friday: Gullstruck Island by Frances Hardinge

3/16/09

Art and the Artist: An Interview With Clive Barker, by Lucy A. Snyder: Article.; I'm fed up with the world being divided up into the good guys and the bad guys. It just doesn't work for me. It's not a question of black hats and white hats; that's the movies.
Eras of Le Guin, by James Schellenberg: Column.
Nira and I, by Shweta Narayan: Fiction.; Nira and I are six when her eldest brother loses his way in the mist. Three days later his bones get home. An extra finger sprouts from the left hand, and the skull has no eye sockets. But his clothes dangle from the shoulder blades, and dry knuckles scratch at the door for two days before the King's men come.
Gills, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; Haeckel would be pleased—although / in his scheme there never was any such / things as mermaids.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Mind Over Ship by David Marusek, reviewed by Paul Raven
Wednesday: Rosa and the Veil of Gold by Kim Wilkins, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin
Friday: The Judging Eye by R. Scott Bakker, reviewed by Peter Whitfield

3/9/09

Playing Fair: A Look at Competition in Gaming, by Mark Newheiser: Article.; A game is broken or unbalanced if it becomes clear that spamming a particular move, taking over a particular location, or employing a particular tactic makes everything else in the game irrelevant.
Diana Comet (part 2 of 2), by Sandra McDonald: Fiction.; Diana had held jewels and diamond crowns; she wasn't impressed by an oval of copper and scrap inscribed with a seal and three-digit number. Things men held dear never ceased to amaze her. Dutifully she said, "It's quite lovely."
The Killer's Suicide Note, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; as if darkness, / growing thicker every moment, / were filling him.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Two Views: Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts, reviewed by Michael Froggatt and Abigail Nussbaum
Wednesday: The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry, reviewed by Karen Meisner
Friday: The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas, reviewed by Nic Clarke

3/2/09

Diana Comet (part 1 of 2), by Sandra McDonald: Fiction.; Miss Harvegstraem tilted her head. "Let me guess. A handsome visitor, both well spoken and highly educated. Scion of some wealthy family. He came to you in the cover of darkness, promising sweetness and fidelity, stealing your hard-protected virtue."
The Would-Be Gods of Sonofusion, by Bruce Boston: Poetry.; Embrace the stubborn dream / of perpetual energy.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Company by KJ Parker, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Wednesday: The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks, adapted by Paul Cornell for Radio 4, reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn
Friday: Journey into Space by Toby Litt, reviewed by Martin Lewis

2/23/09

Revisiting the Victorian Techno-thriller, by Nader Elhefnawy: Article.; [W]hat these [1980s techno-thriller] novels really represented was a resurgence of a genre long thought dead, namely the "future war" story as it was known prior to the outbreak of World War I.
Sometimes We Arrive Home, by K. Bird Lincoln: Fiction.; This alien air feels familiar, like something from her own pores.
I Christen Thee, My Higgs Boson, by Michael Meyerhofer: Poetry.; starlings migrating over Wal-Mart / calligraphy of the inexplicable
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Gears of War: Aspho Fields by Karen Traviss, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy
Wednesday: Poe, edited by Ellen Datlow, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont
Friday: Dragon in Chains by Daniel Fox, reviewed by Kari Sperring

2/16/09

Creating Dark Matter: An Interview with Sheree Renée Thomas, by Jenn Brissett: Article.; I woke up at three o'clock in the morning and it just hit me. Bam! I'm gonna do black science fiction!
The First Time We Met, by Maria Deira: Fiction.; I glanced down at my arm. The gash, which had been raw and red just a few seconds earlier, was gone. The only trace of the wound was a thin white scar that curved along the muscle. "You're welcome," she said.
Porlock, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; Fish now swim through the / libraries of Atlantis
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Walls of the Universe by Paul Melko, reviewed by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro
Wednesday: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, reviewed by Sara Polsky
Friday: The Dragon's Nine Sons and Three Unbroken by Chris Roberson, reviewed by Duncan Lawie

2/9/09

Obedience, by Brenna Yovanoff: Fiction.; She checked the cuffs of her jacket, tucked them deep into the tops of her gloves. Outside, pale hands seemed to float, palms flat against the windows. They were laughing, a storm of high-pitched giggles.
Raised by Wolves, by David C. Kopaska-Merkel: Poetry.; Our biochemical keys fit fossil locks
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow, reviewed by Michael Froggatt
Wednesday: Subtle Edens, edited by Allen Ashley, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Friday: Night Work by Thomas Glavinic, reviewed by Alan DeNiro

2/2/09

Petting the Singularity: An Interview with Mark von Schlegell, by Claire L. Evans: Article.; Presumably, off Earth, one-third gravity will be the norm so we'll be able actually to hold enormous books rather easily. These extreme books of the future will be extreme-length narratives constituting alternate realities and economies of their own.
This Must Be the Place, by Elliott Bangs: Fiction.; It's probably simplest to say that I first met Loren Wells in a club in San Francisco. We'll set aside for the moment that it wasn't the first time he'd met me.
Where Relativity Ends, by Elissa Malcohn: Poetry.; Time warped, in those days / when we took days for granted. / When calendars meant something.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, reviewed by Richard Larson
Wednesday: City at the End of Time by Greg Bear, reviewed by Tony Keen
Friday: The Night Children by Kit Reed, reviewed by Michael Levy

1/26/09

Apocalypse How?, by Nicholas Seeley: Article.; We see ourselves as at the end of history, and a few of us even write books about it. But we're not; we're right in the middle of it. And cataclysm doesn't happen overnight.
The Shangri-La Affair (part 2 of 2), by Lavie Tidhar: Fiction.; "Many wish to purchase peace," the Clockwork Boss said. "And too many would like to keep it."
pittsburgh o, by Martin Hazelbower: Poetry.; pittsburgh, o spidered—like / mars!—with canals, running / carb'nated milks of the moon—
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Spirit: or, The Princess of Bois Dormant by Gwyneth Jones, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Wednesday: Just After Sunset by Stephen King, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Friday: Long Walks, Last Flights and other Strange Journeys by Ken Scholes, reviewed by Niall Harrison

1/19/09

Lost Chance: Greek and Chinese Philosophy's Unrealized Romance, by Brian Trent: Article.; Over the course of two centuries, intellectual luminaries simultaneously emerged in Greece and China. . . . What would have happened had the two met?
The Shangri-La Affair (part 1 of 2), by Lavie Tidhar: Fiction.; It came spilling over Asia like grains of rice measured into a pan. Digital systems were corrupted. Tailor-made viruses swept through urban populations, spread out to villages, sometimes merely killing, sometimes transforming people into ... into other things.
A Guide to the Air-Dependent, by Kaolin Imago Fire: Poetry.; Focus on the effort wasted / that makes you stronger.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Watermind by M.M. Buckner, reviewed by L. Timmel Duchamp
Wednesday: Going Under by Justina Robson, reviewed by Kari Sperring
Friday: The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia A. McKillip, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin

1/12/09

Elven Lays and Powerchords: Chaos, Revelry, and Community in Tolkien-themed Heavy Metal, by Stephanie Green: Article.; Why is it that thousands of metal fans worldwide see Tolkien's works as synonymous with the ideology of heavy metal, when Tolkien would have abhorred the music and its fans?
Greetings from Kampala, by Angela Ambroz: Fiction.; It was dangerous on such an epic level of dangerous that Ghada was awestruck by the captain's lethal levels of stupidity. If you went down the wrong Drop, the space-time anomalies could rip you apart.
The Time Traveler Takes His N^th Lover at a Point of Departure, by Bruce Boston and Marge Simon: Poetry.; Centuries have come and gone / in the flash of a passing station
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Best of Lucius Shepard, by Victoria Hoyle
Wednesday: The Spirit, reviewed by William Mingin
Friday: The Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook, reviewed by Martin Lewis

1/5/09

Finale and Follow-Up, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Avatar: The Last Airbender wrapped up its third and final season earlier this year. Haven't seen it? You're missing the smartest fantasy on TV.
Sisters of the Blessed Diving Order of Saint Peter and Saint Andrew, by A.C. Wise: Fiction.; Lucy came to the Blessed Diving Order of Saint Peter and Saint Andrew in the usual way: her parents abandoned her as a babe in a little woven basket on the shore. Her first lullaby was the hush of waves rolling smoothed stone over stone and stringing tangled seaweed around her cradle.
Ascending, by Mike Allen: Poetry.; The escalator, rolling ever down, / has reached an end at last and here you lie
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: 2008 In Review, by Our Reviewers
Wednesday: Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Friday: METAtropolis edited by John Scalzi, reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn

12/22/08

Can Life Compete?, by Keith Pike: Article.; If WoW [World of Warcraft] is the beginning, what will the middle look like?
Where is My Favorite Martian Hiding?, by Omar Vega: Article.; There was a time not long ago when the solar system was full of life. . . . Does it sound strange?
Engines of Survival, by Larissa Kelly: Fiction.; It's always the little things in the future that are the hardest to adjust to.
The Invisible Woman Runs for President, by Karen A. Romanko: Poetry.; A woman president is nothing new, / but an invisible woman president—that's change
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Other Worlds, Better Lives: A Howard Waldrop Reader—Selected Long Fiction 1989-2003, reviewed by Graham Sleight
Wednesday: Voices From Fairyland: The Fantastical Poems of Mary Coleridge, Charlotte Mew, and Sylvia Townsend Warner, edited and wth poems by Theodora Goss, reviewed by Karen J. Weyant
Friday: Queen of K'n-Yan by Asamatsu Ken, translated by Kathleen Taiji, reviewed by Kari Sperring

12/15/08

Speaking About Pancakes, by Sergey Gerasimov: Article.; Do we live in the aftermath of Chernobyl, or in the before-math of something bigger?
How to Hold Your Breath, by Meredith Schwartz: Fiction.; In eighth grade, two of the guys started whispering "smells like fish" to each other whenever I came near them.
Gourmand in Remission, by Ed Gavin: Poetry.; mindful of its bluer than blue bouquet
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Half a Crown by Jo Walton, reviewed by John Clute
Wednesday: Liberation by Brian Francis Slattery, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Friday: The Last Book by Zoran Živković, reviewed by Matt Denault

12/8/08

The Same Old Story, by Naomi Bloch: Fiction.; Sarah was trying to come up with something friendly, but not empty, to say to her husband. Since the conversation in the lab they had kept their dialogue to a few safe, neutral subjects.
Bardo Crossing, by Suzette Haden Elgin: Poetry.; Leave her alone. / She is a poor small huddled thing,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Wednesday: Winterstrike by Liz Williams, reviewed by David McWilliam
Friday: Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost, reviewed by Michael Levy

12/1/08

Confession of a Red Mage, by Paul Jessup: Article.; After playing Chrono Trigger, I went to the library, where they had one computer (one!) that was hooked up to the then newly found Internet. I browsed GeoCities pages, looking for other fans of this game and others, and found instead a community of programmers[.]
Beyond the Beep: Techniques and Styles of Video Game Music, by Mark Newheiser: Article.; [G]ame music is not written to accompany the spectacle of some scene being passively observed, but to accompany an activity. In this regard it shares some features with dance/exercise music.
The Same Old Story, by Naomi Bloch: Fiction.; Sarah smiled at her. "Well, she certainly shares her mother's intelligence and charm. And those incredible violet eyes--it's hard not to fall in love with those." Nicole nodded, a bit bored. "That's how Jake ordered her, obviously."
Teacher's Pet, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; Various stratagems for outwitting / the beast have been tried
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Song of Time by Ian R Macleod, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: Dead Set, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Friday: The Engine's Child by Holly Phillips, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin

11/24/08

Gort Power!: A 3-D Pete Cartoon, by Mike Fisher: Article.; Michael Rennie seems well cast as the strange alien Klaatu. Maybe that's because his head is as big as a window-mounted air conditioner . . .
Bouncing High into the Stupidsphere (Part One), by Iain Jackson: Column.; And a lot of these stories tread the line between interesting execution of interesting concept and "No, really, perhaps you should take this concept back to the drawing board and think about it for a little while longer. Or find better writers. Something. Really."
Up In the Air, by Richard Larson: Fiction.; "This doesn't have to be awkward," he said as we stood in line, boarding passes in hand. I almost laughed, but instead I regarded him soberly, or as soberly as I could considering the martini, the tequila shots, and our spontaneous rendezvous in the airport's public restroom.
Beowulf Goes to the Deli, by Tarun Shanker: Poetry.; They arrived at Heorot deli, / there was not a deli more magnificent
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Very Bad Deaths and Very Hard Choices by Spider Robinson, reviewed by Greg Beatty
Wednesday: Twelve Collections and The Teashop by Zoran Živković, reviewed by Lara Buckerton
Friday: Fast Foward 2, edited by Lou Anders, reviewed by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

11/17/08

Autumn 2008 in the Key of Schubert, by Jeffrey Johnson: Article.; The glimpses of Schubert's day-to-day life prove a relationship between the ordinary and the miraculous.
Until Forgiveness Comes, by K. Tempest Bradford: Fiction.; Sadana Manu, under-cleric of Iset, gave the sign for mourners to station themselves near the main blast sites for their glimpses of loved ones long gone.
Exiling the Earth, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; First, we sent away the trees, / then the bubble of breath
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Button, Button by Richard Matheson, reviewed by William Mingin
Wednesday: The Angel Maker by Stefan Brijs, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Friday: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson, reviewed by Sara Polsky

11/10/08

What Killed the Robot Soldier?, by Ben Crispin: Article.; Did the Army receive their new machines on the radio-clogged battlefield, relieved that all of those worrying signal problems had been resolved . . . and then discover that they hadn't been?
Wii Fitness: Rocking the Hula Hoops (And the Weight Issues), by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; The release of the Wii Fit convinced me that I would actually use the Wii once I bought it, and having a ground floor apartment made it a morally defensible purchase.
Return (part 2 of 2), by Eric Vogt: Fiction.; Before Tima had left, he and Svena used a 0.7-Turing AI to build a reactive construct of him. That construct was all that Vishi had known of her father.
Dream People, by Bruce Boston: Poetry.; If dream people were the world / there would be no time / for reflection.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: A Field Guide to Surreal Botany, eds. Janet Chui and Jason Erik Lundberg, reviewed by Richard Larson
Wednesday: The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy
Friday: The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton, reviewed by Karen Burnham

11/3/08

Summer Movies 2008, by James Schellenberg: Column.; It's like I don't enjoy blockbusters any more — I feel lonely in my dislike of The Dark Knight, for example — but I keep going every summer. Why might that be?
Return (part 1 of 2), by Eric Vogt: Fiction.; He wasn't Rapid Combat, but a standard and very lethal fight package was part of his Mass Dynamics Overtraining. He was very, very aware that the hand holding her to the wall was in a position to crush her trachea with just a small twitch.
The Astronaut's Return, by Marge Simon: Poetry.; Too long I've been in exile, / I've paid enough for my misdeeds.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The ABC Family Network show The Middleman, reviewed by Rov Kaveney
Wednesday: Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key by Kage Baker, reviewed by Donna Royston
Friday: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, reviewed by Martin Lewis

10/27/08

The Fantasy of Talking Back: Susanna Clarke's Historical Present in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Elizabeth Hoiem: Article.; At the center of Susanna Clarke's historical novel are three characters, each a victim of Strange and Norrell's project to promote magic as rational and "English," and each corresponding to a social group historically marginalized in order to solidify Englishness as a cohesive category of identity[.]
Nine Sundays in a Row, by Kris Dikeman: Fiction.; I'm hunkered down in the tall grass, tail down, ears back. She leans back against the oak tree, wiggling her toes in the grass, big ugly boots beside her, moonlight throwing up shadows all around.
Heyiya, by Sonya Taaffe: Poetry.; Who would deal in straight lines with a god / of double faces?
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Blonde Roots by Bernadine Evaristo, reviewed by Gwyneth Jones
Wednesday: The Wiscon Chronicles, volume 2, edited by L. Timmel Duchamp and Eileen Gunn, reviewed by Hannah Storm-Martin
Friday: The Last Reef and other stories by Gareth L. Powell, reviewed by Gene Melzack

10/20/08

A Revisionist History of Earthsea, by William Alexander: Article.; It is not easy to bring a Foucauldian understanding of historical contingency to high fantasy. The genre resists. Le Guin manages anyway.
Revisiting the Canon With Susannah! Of Wonders and Mervayls: Travels with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; The description of the feasts goes on for a while. There is pretty much everything you could want from a medieval shindig here: a whole fortnight of feasting, complete with jousts, drums and caroling, trumpets, banners, and beautifully dressed lords and ladies engaging in flirting and love play.
Just After Midnight, by Christie Skipper Ritchotte: Fiction.; He thinks there's a reset button: that people can die and start back at level one. He thinks Laura will walk through the door any minute now.
Moonfish, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; Part trilobite, part lungfish, / it crawls about the basalt seas / of the Mare Tranquillitatis
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Wednesday: Filter House by Nisi Shawl, reviewed by Matthew Cheney
Friday: Steampunk, eds. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, and Extraordinary Engines, ed. Nick Gevers, reviewed by Duncan Lawie

10/13/08

Fang Fiction: An Interview with E. E. Knight, by Kelle Campbell: Article.; As for the fire breathing, I had a scary experience with a grease fire once . . . and it seemed to me that a dragon could probably put liquid fat into a big bladder and secrete a chemical that would light it up when exposed to oxygen.
The Lion and the Mouse, by Kaolin Imago Fire: Fiction.; It was a simple matter for Mouse to rip apart the thorny mess; and with that hindrance gone, even Lion's outdated meta-processes began to salve stressed joints and re-connect wounded couplings. Thanking Mouse profusely, Lion recalculated his entrance and A*'d his egress.
When the Vacuum Takes My Hand, by Holly Day: Poetry.; is it assault / to turn off the power
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: Two Views: Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory, reviewed by Amy O'Loughlin and Dan Hartland
Friday: Realms: the first year of Clarkesworld Magazine, edited by Nick Mamatas and Sean Wallace

10/6/08

Welcome to the Real World, by Iain Jackson: Column.; Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. That's the saying, right? So why is it that so many supervillains never quite seem to get around to doing time at all? And why is it that even when they do time, it winds up being strikingly short.
Swan Song, by Joanne Merriam: Fiction.; "High fever. Dehydration. Recurring dreams of swans," the doctor has noted in the description area.
Laurentia Burning, by David C. Kopaska-Merkel: Poetry.; a singing in the south / a quickening rumble / a great shimmy /
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Paper Cities, edited by Ekaterina Sedia, reviewed by L. Timmel Duchamp
Wednesday: Paper Cities: an anthology of urban fantasy, edited by Ekaterina Sedia, reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller
Friday: The Turing Test by Chris Beckett, reviewed by Colin Harvey

9/29/08

From iTunes to the Bookshelves: The First Wave of Podcast Novelists, by Shaun Farrell: Article.; [W]hile the podcast novel has attracted thousands of fans, it is unclear whether famed and celebrated podcasters can generate similar enthusiasm from the book-buying public, many of whom have never heard of podcasting. Several authors, however, are poised as forerunners who may well determine the long-term publication prospects of the fiction podcaster.
Virtual Difference, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; As a researcher who firmly believes that there are more similarities than differences between social interaction online and social interaction face-to-face, and whose own research in fact hinges on the assumption that classical social theory will be born out in virtual interaction, it's nice to see some confirmation.
Kimberley Ann Duray Is Not Afraid, by Leah Bobet: Fiction.; They bombed the clinic again at seven a.m. that Friday, between my shower and the hunt for a clean pair of socks.
Hill and Pail, by Mary Alexandra Agner: Poetry.; She drags his body down, away from town, / to bury with the others, flattened grass / running wrong way against my scalp. /
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan, reviewed by Graham Sleight
Wednesday: Unwelcome Bodies by Jennifer Pelland, reviewed by Tanya Brown
Friday: The Quiet War by Paul McAuley, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum

9/22/08

Who Killed Thomas M. Disch?, by Sam J. Miller: Article.; [A]fter reading his blog, revisiting his books, speaking with Tom's friends, and interviewing members of the SF literary community, I saw a total of five suspects emerge.
Adventure, Zombies, Tragic Love, and Chess, by James Schellenberg: Column.; The only thing I've said definitively so far is that I hate trying to make these kinds of definitions. So allow me to jump straight into the works at hand and see what I can make of this mess.
Cowboy Angel (part 2 of 2), by Samantha Cope: Fiction.; She stood, looked out the window, and she wanted to say, It'll be okay and, Trust me. And I love you. She couldn't, so there was silence.
Black Swan, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; this truest / of rarae aves still has, at least in game / theory, the potential for existence /
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod, reviewed by Nic Clarke
Wednesday: Superpowers by David J Schwartz, reviewed by Karen Burnham
Friday: The Luminous Depths by David Herter, reviewed by Finn Dempster

9/15/08

Founding Mothers: The Jeanne Gomoll Interview, by Adrian Simmons: Article.; SF and feminism are the perfect partners. . . . When I was reading science fiction in the late '70s, it offered tools for changing the world.
Learning to Write, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; There is something off about them, something twanging in my ears, the tone of an arrogant man trying to pass himself off as humble or simple. Perhaps I am in the wrong mood.
Cowboy Angel (part 1 of 2), by Samantha Cope: Fiction.; Roxanne shuffled the corners of her cards together on her thigh, focused herself through the pain in her head, and called him. Come over here, to me. Now.
Skywatching, by John Grey: Poetry.; It takes a stalwart soul to find the light these days, / to go beyond the city and its affectations of / brightness /
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Sideways in Crime edited by Lou Anders, reviewed by William Mingin
Wednesday: Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan, reviewed by R. J. Burgess
Friday: Year Million, edited by Damien Broderick, reviewed by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

9/8/08

Rimfall, Finger Pokes, and Angry Letters: Discworld's Fantastic Reaches, by Donna Royston: Article.; It is the peril—and the paradoxical lure—of the Rim that elevates Discworld from amusement to something strange and terrifying.
The Future Hunters, by Christopher J. Clarke: Fiction.; The ancient grey-walled fortress, built from the bones of the city, now housed the Library and the Academy. Kale entered under the bell tower and made her way across the hard red-earth enclosure, basket at her side, greeting several of her acolytes as they went to study.
Upon the death of my host and waiting for uplink: by Event Horizon, formerly of the Oracle Duality Liselle Marie Michaud / Event Horizon, by C.S. MacCath: Poetry.; It is cold. / No, not cold, but cooling / And still, except for bacteria / That favor flesh. /
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Anathem by Neal Stephenson, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Wednesday: Implied Spaces by Walter Jon William, reviewed by Dustin Kurtz
Friday: The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont

9/1/08

There Once Was a Fish, by Brandon Myers: Fiction.; "Do not touch them," her mother warned her, "they're very fragile."
Atlantis, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; All for / now is calm. No one / needs mention / the hubris of this Icarian /
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Wit's End/The Case of the Imaginary Detective by Karen Joy Fowler, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Wednesday: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Friday: Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen, reviewed by David McWilliam

8/25/08

Xenobiology At the Extremes: And You Think Your Neighbors Are Weird?, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; Over the past decade or so, spurred in part by the biological revolution and in part by our increasing confidence that earth-mass planets are potentially common, astrobiology has started to come of age.
The Secret Identity, by Richard Butner: Fiction.; We were studying for midterms when I found out about the ghost.
Maya Blue (at Chichen Itza), by Ann K. Schwader: Poetry.; Above us in the silence yet to come, / deep thunder speaks -- then lightning-axes fall
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Neuropath by Scott Bakker and Blindsight by Peter Watts, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy
Wednesday: The Roswell Poems by Rane Arroyo, reviewed by Karen J. Weyant
Friday: The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Ellen Datlow, reviewed by Richard Larson

8/18/08

Welcome to the Real World, by Iain Jackson: Column.; Of course, the advantage of having both invented and mobile geography is that you can demolish it without aggravating people quite so much. I mean, readers might get just the teensiest bit upset at a superhero fight that knocks the capital off the Chrysler Building, for example -- or they might think it's the coolest thing ever!
Sex with Ghosts, by Sarah Kanning: Fiction.; Sex. All those complications, all that messiness. It's like watching a group of enthusiasts really get into a hobby that you don't share.
Mondrian's War, by Mike Allen: Poetry.; When did he first discover this gift for equilibrium? / An urgent revelation in a haystack-mounded field?
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Speculative Japan, edited by Gene van Troyer and Grania Davis, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Wednesday: Everything is Sinister by David Llwellyn and The Heritage by Will Ashon, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Friday: Year's Bests edited by Jonathan Strahan, and David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, reviewed by Karen Burnham

8/11/08

From Console to Celluloid: Uwe Boll and the Art of Adapting Video Games for the Big Screen, by Nader Elhefnawy: Article.; [It is] very difficult to turn even great games into substantial films without ditching or overhauling the source material—something that Boll has never been interested in doing.
Glitz, Flash, and Fun, by James Schellenberg: Column.; A look at some of the recent videogame titles for the PC that are focused on creating spectacle. Some even have a decent storyline to go along with the eye candy.
The Emerald King, by J. Kenneth Sargeant: Fiction.; Everything is green today and I'm brave again.
The Vampire's Reflection, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; he wakes to the moon's glassy stare
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The X-Files: I Want to Believe, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Wednesday: Iron Angel by Alan Campbell, reviewed by Finn Dempster
Friday: Sputnik Caledonia by Andrew Crumey, reviewed by Michael Froggatt

8/4/08

Searching Under the Rug: Interfaces, Puzzles, and the Evolution of Adventure Games, by Mark Newheiser: Article.; What decades of evolution have done for the [adventure game] genre is refine the user interface. The genre's improvements are largely independent of the technology used and have gradually evolved in response to user feedback and designers' efforts to make the puzzles clear yet challenging.
Ordinary Zhang, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; A couple years ago, I picked up another copy of China Mountain Zhang at a used bookstore, but I didn't dare read it. Much of the science fiction I had loved as a teen had turned out, when read as an adult, to feel simplistic, clunky, shallow. I preferred my memories.
Down the Well, by Alaya Dawn Johnson: Fiction.; I saw her clearly, then: beautiful and terrible, ancient and radical, a goddess as much as any human can be. Killing a hexapedal carnivore with a hand-made spear, hiding for two days from a giant amphibious jellyfish desperate for food, surviving alone in the Well for five years before the computers on this side even registered the malfunction--those rumors had floated around the agency for decades. I'd found it impossible to believe that such a small, unassuming woman had done all they said she did.
Dystopian Dusk, by Bruce Boston: Poetry.; if they had slapped blinkers / on our eyes, narrowing our vision
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Collected Poems by Mervyn Peake, edited by R.W. Maslen, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: The Affinity Bridge by George Mann, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin
Friday: Escapement by Jay Lake, reviewed by Paul Kincaid

7/28/08

Revisiting the Canon with Susannah! Wyrms, Wyrd, and Tolkien: Beowulf, Part 3, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; Bleeding and cowed, Grendel runs back to the marches to die. Is that the end of the story? Well, of course not. The poem would be a rollicking good tale even if that were the end, but it wouldn't be an epic.
Called Out to Snow Crease Farm, by Constance Cooper: Fiction.; Margit worked the latch-bar of the gate, which was socketed in the bony pit of what must be an adzehorn skull. With its broad-bladed prongs removed--for tools perhaps?--and the flesh long gone, the skull looked bald and vulnerable, as homely as a cattle skull.
Von Neumann's Poem, by Aaron Benson: Poetry.; Do not read this verse
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Hello Summer, Goodbye and I Remember Pallahaxi by Michael G. Coney, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Wednesday: The Sharing Knife: Passage by Lois McMaster Bujold, reviewed by Greg Beatty
Friday: The Ninth Circle by Alex Bell, reviewed by Tanya Brown

7/21/08

Of Preachers and Storytellers: An Interview with Sheri S. Tepper, by Neal Szpatura: Article.; When the judges arrive to see how we've done, I don't think they'll rate us as "keepers." I believe there will be judges who will decide which races deserve to go on existing to accomplish whatever the universal task is. I also believe that all of us--the human race--have at most one shared human soul.
The Magician's House (part 2 of 2), by Meghan McCarron: Fiction.; "How much do you want to know about magic?" he said. He was nervous, watching me carefully like I might bolt.
A Posthuman, Blind and Appendage-less Stump of Flesh Experiences the Sensation of Reading Various Editions of "Gravity's Rainbow" in a Temperature Controlled Room with Cloroxed-White Walls., by Christopher Hellstrom: Poetry.; I could experience it as a Medieval text
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Two Views: The Margarets by Sheri S Tepper, reviewed by Nic Clarke and Sherryl Vint
Wednesday: Lost Boys by James Miller, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Friday: Martin Martin's on the Other Side by Mark Wernham, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont

7/14/08

The Magician's House (part 1 of 2), by Meghan McCarron: Fiction.; The magician was a tall, spindly man with surprisingly thick hands and dark, graying hair. He folded into the chair like a marionette. To meet me, he wore black stretch pants, a silk pajama shirt, a burgundy cardigan, and decaying black flip-flops. If I had seen him on the street, I would have laughed, but in the oven-room he looked right at home, whereas I felt self-conscious in my khaki shorts and pre-faded T-shirt. I had even blow-dried my hair. For the first time, instead of feeling invisible in my prepster clothes, I felt exposed.
Why She Canceled Her Online Dating Membership: A Martian Female Responds (a triolet), by Terrie Leigh Relf: Poetry.; You ask why I'll no longer date a human? /
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Flood by Stephen Baxter, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: The Princes of the Golden Cage by Nathalie Mallet, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin
Friday: Elric: The Stealer of Souls (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné: Volume 1) by Michael Moorcock, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy

7/7/08

Lingua Rpga & the Writer, by Steve Berman: Article.; I brought together a few other authors—friends of mine once deeply involved with gaming and now telling stories in their own, unique voices. Imagine them around the table: Holly Black, wielder of the coveted Andre Norton Award; Will Ludwigsen, a half-curmudgeon; Cecil Castellucci, the only person to become a bard by first edition rules; and Jim Hines, deservedly proud of his 18/00 career.
Marsh Gods, by Ann Leckie: Fiction.; "Gods with enough power to make unlikely things happen are free to make pronouncements about the future," the crane said. "If I happened to be wrong, I would have said something untrue, and that could be disastrous for me."
Misfortune Cookie, by Lark Beltran: Poetry.; No tears, just plots to keep the moving finger from writing their scary scripts. No doubt, rewriting,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Galactic Suburbia: Recovering Women's Science Fiction by Lisa Yaszek, reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller
Wednesday: Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Friday: Omega by Christopher Evans, reviewed by Paul Kincaid

6/30/08

Jimmy's Roadside Cafe, by Ramsey Shehadeh: Fiction.; After the world ended, Jimmy set up a roadside cafe in the median of I-95, just north of the Fallston exit.
V.D., by Ed Gavin: Poetry.; Kiss her, she tastes of broken glass / and promises, a cold gray ash / upon your tongue. But each adieu
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: An Experimental Life: books by and about Naomi Mitchison, reviewed by Nic Clarke
Wednesday: On Spoiling the Fourth Season of Battlestar Galactica, by Roz Kaveney
Friday: Shadow Gate by Kate Elliott, reviewed by Juliet E. McKenna

6/23/08

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse: An Interview with Editor John Joseph Adams, by Rob Darnell: Article.
Believing in the Unbelievable: A brief history of black holes, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; Black holes are the Tyrannosaurus Rex of astronomy: mysterious and dangerous, the end result of millions of years of evolution, perfect predators which hold our fascinated attention all out of proportion to their actual rarity.
My Greedy Plea For Help, by Ted Prodromou: Fiction.; "You're doing meta-wishes," he said, "and meta-wishes are trouble. Ever since people started reading Hofstadter, all of a sudden I've got to worry about punks like you erasing causality entirely."
Some Random Hero, by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff: Poetry.; Her life too short to waste / on other people's fantasies, / she went to find her own,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko, reviewed by Gwyneth Jones
Wednesday: The Philosopher's Apprentice by James Morrow, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Friday: Celebration, edited by Ian Whates, reviewed by Graham Sleight

6/16/08

In Lieu of a Thank You, by Gwynne Garfinkle: Fiction.; Unlike you, Ernest was ill-versed in the ways of love, hearts and flowers and everything designed to trap a woman. I was trapped by Ernest, of course, but there was something honest about the arrangement.
Dancing with Stones, by Elizabeth Barrette: Poetry.; All true things are known by stone, / whose wisdom is grown ponderous / with its rounding of the year's ring.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Torchwood, season two, reviewed by Tim Phipps
Wednesday: The Ex Files: The Lost Tales and the return of Babylon 5, reviewed by Iain Clark
Friday: Drinking the Blood of the Dead: The Nines, Southland Tales and Doomsday, reviewed by Martin Lewis

6/9/08

Ender's Decline, by James Schellenberg: Column.; There's just something about this particular tale: a young child growing up in difficult circumstances, taken away from family and sent into intense military training, and then facing ever more difficult obstacles in the pursuit of saving humanity.
Running, by Benjamin Crowell: Fiction.; "In this situation we give you a two-week emergency air stipend, but it's intentionally set so low that you can't really live on it. Frontier here, can't afford to support people who aren't contributing. You'll need to find some way to make up the gap."
CSI: TRANSYLVANIA, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; Please update your awareness
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Farah Mendlesohn's Rhetorics of Fantasy, reviewed by John Clute
Wednesday: Nicola Barker's Darkmans, reviewed by Alan DeNiro
Friday: Jaine Fenn's Principles of Angels, reviewed by Dan Hartland

6/2/08

boo., by Iain Jackson: Column.; So why is it that horror on film or in books or audio works, and horror in comics just kind of ... lays there?
On the Eyeball Floor, by Tina Connolly: Fiction.; People in Organs go home coated with grease and vinegar; people in Bones have lost fingers to the machines, and still nobody wants the job where a hundred half-live cyborgs line up in rows, twitching when your back is turned.
Family Poet, by Rolli: Poetry.; One night, he vanished
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Axiomatic and Dark Integers by Greg Egan, reviewed by Karen Burnham
Wednesday: Quarantine and Teranesia by Greg Egan, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Friday: Incandescence by Greg Egan, reviewed by Adam Roberts

5/26/08

The Rebirth of Grue, by Paul Jessup: Article.; With classic or retro gaming hitting a new peak, the superstars of the interactive fiction underground are gaining more and more exposure, and a boom is happening all across the board in popularity and experimentation.
Games to Life: An Interview with Lori, Corey, and Michael Cole of Transolar Games, by Joseph Howse: Article.; [T]he real changes and innovations will come from the indies and the college students who have a love of games and, now, the tools to make them. After all, when Corey and I started out, we made up the game theories as we went along. We started out as amateurs, but it didn't stop us from making great games. I believe that these newcomers will be the ones to pull the life support from the old, creatively dead companies and breathe new life into computer games.
The Antidote to Dystopia, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; Two stories of technology and society, one true and one speculative. For Alice Ramsay, technology became a liberation; for Forster's Vashti, technology created a prison.
No Love for the Middleman, by Tony Frazier: Fiction.; Three things could cause an explosion like that: a bomb, a high-velocity impact like a plane crash or a meteorite, or a super. With experience, you can pretty much tell which is which, just by the sound. This sounded like a super.
Transformation, by J. C. Runolfson: Poetry.; I am writing
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Roz Kaveney's Superheroes!, reviewed by Tony Keen
Wednesday: Robert VS Redick's The Red Wolf Conspiracy, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Friday: John Meaney's Dark Blood, reviewed by Duncan Lawie

5/19/08

Questioning the Gaming Culture, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; Women, who are less likely to have grown up gaming and in general more likely to be sensitive to sexism, are understandably often put off by the sexist tropes of the medium, and frustrated by veteran gamers blowing off any critique of the latest incarnation of those tropes.
Tell Her, by Rachel Kincaid: Fiction.; I remember what it said because it was weird, not because it was important. MORE IN HEAVEN & EARTH. I know it was August, because that was when Regina was moving out.
Paper People, by Bruce Buston: Poetry.; If the world / were paper people
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: John Kessel's The Baum Plan for Financial Independence, reviewed by Dustin Kurz
Wednesday: Iron Man, reviewed by Iain Clark
Friday: L. Timmel Duchamp's Blood in the Fruit, reviewed by Lesley A. Hall

5/12/08

Hanged Man's Gallery, by Malcolm McClinton: Art.; I have found a nice little niche for myself that satisfies my natural anti-authoritism, reclusiveness and my need for adulation all at once.
The Farmer Vanishes, by Marian Kensler: Article.; [M]any American children have unknowingly become acquainted with Ambrose Bierce's fiction well before the obligatory high school reading of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge."
Revisiting the Canon with Susannah! Formal Boasts, Magic Armor, and Watchers in the Water: Beowulf, Part 2, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; If your world-view was shaped by Tolkien, then it probably seems very natural to you that magic swords and talismans exist in the world. In Tolkien's world, and the worlds of his contemporaries and his imitators, such objects had usually been made by dwarves or elves, a Very Long Time ago; or by someone who used to be a dwarf or elf or angel before he turned bad – you know the drill.
The Refutation of Rosemont, by Barth Anderson: Fiction.; Though Jeremiah Rosemont used his authority and status several years ago to liberate me from my tenure at Liggett & LaSalle, and the burden of the salary that went with it, my life's work is still a search for living, modern myths that make sense of the world--but more, that make the world.
How Wizards Duel, by Jessica P. Wick: Poetry.; I know your fingers. / I know them in the salt-sea. / I know them, charcoal-smudged, / smelling of smoke.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Alastair Reynolds' House of Suns, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Wednesday: David Thomson's Suspects, reviewed by Graham Sleight
Friday: McCalmont J and Harrison N. Juan Antonio Bayona's El Orfanato: a psychiatric review

5/5/08

The Gadgey, by Alan Campbell: Fiction.; Besides, E.T. was plastic-looking, not like the proper aliens he'd seen on Sky when he was round at Gordie's. Not like this thing. This thing had a whole bunch of tentacles, like wee willies, hanging from its chin.
Thousand Flower Sun, by Jennifer Crow: Poetry.; We waited in the light / of our thousand-flower sun
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Wednesday: Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie, reviewed by Larry Nolen
Friday: The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford, reviewed by Michael Levy

4/28/08

Tribute to Dean Koontz: Forty Years as a Published Novelist, by Michael McCarty: Article.; Dean Koontz is a rarity in this business: someone who cares. He could have simply signed my books and sent me on my merry way, but instead he reached out, he made an effort . . . and he gave me a career.
Fear Nothing: Interview with Dean Koontz, by Michael McCarty: Article.; There is such a thing as "reckless caring," and by God there has to be in order for any civilization to arise and to be sustained.
Ender's Peak, by James Schellenberg: Column.; So it was with some trepidation that I started a project to listen to all eight audiobooks in the Ender's Game series.
Five Good Things About Meghan Sheedy (part 2 of 2), by A.M. Dellamonica: Fiction.; The dust bomb had been concealed under the steps of the infirmary, just on the edge of the playground. Dispersal had spread it like a ball of seeds from a dandelion, and now the infirmary was missing a perfect quarter-sphere of its structure.
Diaspora, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; The Word fractured then, like a crystalline / vase, and has been cracking and / splintering ever since.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The 2008 Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist—Part One, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Wednesday: The 2008 Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist—Part Two, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Friday: Jonathan Barnes's The Domino Men, reviewed by Lisa Goldstein

4/21/08

Zombie Kings Sing Songs of BRAAAAAAAINS!, by Iain Jackson: Column.; I have a theory. Now, it's coming completely out of the air, and no doubt displaying a fine ignorance of history, religion, psychology, sociology, and several other -ologies, but bear with me.
Five Good Things About Meghan Sheedy (part 1 of 2), by A.M. Dellamonica: Fiction.; It was a way of dealing, Dinah knew, and she tried to ignore Aidan as he threw an imaginary grenade and then made a sprinkling motion over Jesse, a finger-waving shorthand that used to mean falling snow.
Topquark, by Gene van Troyer: Poetry.; You are the top quark / in the particle stream blasting through your nerves
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Starry Rift edited by Jonathan Strahan, reviewed by Karen Burnham
Wednesday: Wildwood Dancing and Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin
Friday: Dark Space by Marianne de Pierres, reviewed by R. J. Burgess

4/14/08

Arwen's Morbid Sanctuary, by Paula Friedlander: Art.; Silhouette art has a long history in many cultures. From silhouette portraits popular in the 1700's to traditional cut paper art in China and Poland, it is a beautiful art form using the contrast of dark and light, shadows and illumination.
The Wizard in the Space Station: A Look Back at the Works of the Late Sir Arthur C. Clarke, by Nicholas Seeley: Article.; The idea of a wizard in a space station may seem strange or contradictory—even dangerous in its invocation of pure fantasy to describe one of the great pioneers of "hard" science fiction. But it is the role Clarke played most of his life: a mythologized figure of intellect and prescience, standing on the shadowy frontier of modern science.
The Hero, Pulped, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; One huge girder catapulted twenty blocks, pierced the roof of a subway tunnel and jackknifed the leading car of an eight-car train. Passengers were pulped. There had been sixty persons in that first car. There was nothing that could be called human in the wreckage.
Valiant on the Wing, by Chris Szego: Fiction.; "I'm terribly sorry," she said, in a thin and lilting voice, "but it seems. . . ." Then she fell, a leaf dropping, onto the polished wooden floor.
The Calendar of the Dead, by Jacqueline West: Poetry.; The uselessness of time / at the end / of breakfast, bedtime, dinner and sunrise.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Iain M Banks's Matter, reviewed by Gwyneth Jones
Wednesday: Victor Pelevin's The Sacred Book of the Werewolf, reviewed by Michael Froggatt
Friday: Jason Burdett's Bangkok Haunts, reviewed by Jason Erik Lundberg

4/7/08

Who's Afraid of Nanotech?, by Corie Ralston: Article.; If even a fraction of the imagined applications pan out, nanotech will have an immense impact in all areas of human life, from medicine to transportation to commerce to war.
About the Wii Hype, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; "What the hell," I thought. "It looks better than Guitar Hero. And what kind of video game columnist has never played a Wii?"
In Ashes, by Helen Keeble: Fiction.; My brother had frozen in place, his whole body canted forward like a hunting cat, and his eyes fixed on the smouldering embers in the fireplace just visible behind our father's folded form. It was the first fire he'd seen for years.
Monoculture, by David C. Kopaska-Merkel: Poetry.; swirling with faces I don't know they / mouth words contort
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Bone Key by Sarah Monette, reviewed by L. Timmel Duchamp
Wednesday: Last Dragon by J.M. McDermott, reviewed by Michael Levy
Friday: Worshipping Small Gods by Richard Parks, reviewed by Richard Larson

3/31/08

The Cyborgs Are Coming!, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; OK, I'll admit that cyborgs are perhaps not exactly traditional harbingers of spring, but for that matter, when was the last time you saw an actual rabbit delivering eggs?
Ki Do (The Way of the Trees), by Sarah Thomas: Fiction.; Our twin maples pass as much as fifteen minutes a day in chitchat, but they only speak to each other. I fear neither of them will ever be great artists unless one of them dies.
Our Father, the Colonel, Home on Earthleave, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; Our father (who art from heaven) / sleeps standing-up, in an anti- / gravity chamber, but Mother ...
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Michael Swanwick's The Dragons of Babel, reviewed by John Clute
Wednesday: Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn
Friday: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, reviewed by Iain Clark

3/24/08

Revisiting the Canon with Susannah! Blood, Gore, and Syncretic Metaphysics: Beowulf, Part 1, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; By the time you get to this point in the book, a few things have become glaringly clear to you. One is that every game of D&D you have ever played owes a gigantic debt to Beowulf. Another is that the only people who might possibly find this book boring are obviously people who don't like Tolkien, or video games, or fun.
Linkworlds (part 2 of 2), by Will McIntosh: Fiction.; "Tweel, I think I've spied an unrecorded world! Come take a look!"
This, a Kind of Prayer, by Kendall Evans: Poetry.; That my skeletal remains might commingle / With a dire wolf's bones
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Shock of the Old by David Edgerton, reviewed by Bruce Sterling
Wednesday: Rewired by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel, reviewed by Roz Kaveney
Friday: Ascendancies by Bruce Sterling, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy

3/17/08

Transformed Minds: Jamil Nasir Discusses War, Culture, and How Our Dreams Determine Our Reality, by Nicholas Seeley: Article.; A lot of what science fiction does is overthrow assumptions that we have about the world, and it's much easier to do that if you've already had that experience.
The Universe in a Pita: An Interview with Nir Yaniv, by Lavie Tidhar: Article.; Every SF writer, if he or she is not heartless, must have at least one story dealing with Zeppelins.
Final Issue, by James Schellenberg: Column.; The series covers the next five years of life on our planet: survival, sex, cloning, road trips, an Amazon cult, pirates, androids, monkeys, and much more. Will human civilization die out in one generation?
Linkworlds (part 1 of 2), by Will McIntosh: Fiction.; I didn't like the way all the marbles were piled on top of each other, because that's not how the worlds are. Worlds have lots of space between them, and they whiz around, and they bounce off the edges of the universe and whiz back toward the middle, or they bounce off other worlds, only worlds don't collide much any more because people steer them with their singing.
So Many Lullabies, by Mary Alexandra Agner: Poetry.; I'm not the type of man / who needs a son,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The 2008 William L. Crawford Award Shortlist, reviewed by Victoria Hoyle (part one)
Wednesday: The 2008 William L. Crawford Award Shortlist, reviewed by Victoria Hoyle (part two)
Friday: Ben Peek's Black Sheep, reviewed by Martin Lewis

3/10/08

Lost Pictures, Lost Visions, by Damir Radic: Art.; The first half of the 20th century was marked by radical ideas and the creation of the new technologies. The evidence of the time, photographs and posters, still carry the strength of this lost era.
Indie Boy Strikes? Again!, by Iain Jackson: Column.; Perfection makes for boring fiction. It's much more interesting to put a shiny high-tech outside in contrast to the rotten, damaged insides of the real society in question.
Kip, Running, by Genevieve Williams: Fiction.; Almost as one, the runners leap from the shelter roof. When the maglev leaves the station, they'll be on top of it, heading for the labyrinthine transfer station beneath the eye of the ancient, decaying Space Needle.
Werepenguin, by Joanne Merriam: Poetry.; Little things make her love him: / he says he'll call and does,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: A Sword From Red Ice by JV Jones, reviewed by Nic Clarke
Wednesday: Halting State by Charles Stross, reviewed by David V Barrett
Friday: Four Novels of the 1960s by Philip K Dick, reviewed by Adam Roberts

3/3/08

"Junior, you aren't shaping up too angelically": Queerness in Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, by Allyn Howey: Article.; The queerness of the text lies in the author's ability to recognize the social construction of sexuality, and effectively posit that it is the very existence of these constructs which "queers" non-normative practices.
An Ocean Going Back to the Skies, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; The fright causes some of the screaming, but it would be better if fewer people stuck stakes into their little bits of land and instead joined in the joy of a new cartography.
All Talk, by Will Ludwigsen: Fiction.; Colin rubs his temples with practiced drama. His eyelids drop and his breathing slows. He holds up his palm toward a young blonde tour guide.
For His First Tattoo, The Robot Considers Several Different Designs, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; In the end, the pulsing needle, with its / beam of light, scores / the metal deeply...
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Paolo Bacigalupi's Pump Six and Other Stories, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Wednesday: Vandana Singh's Of Love and Other Monsters, reviewed by Richard Larson
Friday: Stephen Baxter's Weaver, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont

2/25/08

Conversations in Deep Time: The Greg Bear Interview, by Michael Lohr: Article.; Science fiction writers since H. G. Wells have been read by politicians and world leaders, and invited to participate in discussions on the present and the future. That dialog is still going on—I've been invited to numerous government-sponsored seminars and analysis sessions, along with quite a few of my colleagues.
Holodecks, Robot Girlfriends, and the Virtual Vision Quest, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; Games, of course, are always constructed. They have rules. So does the universe; we call them physics, but in general the rules of games are better understood, and perhaps thus more satisfying.
Dead, by Haddayr Copley-Woods: Fiction.; She'd vaguely imagined that as soon as the gunshot rang out, the police, or at least security, would surround her. She hadn't made a plan beyond the shooting, so in the absence of one, she just kept walking home, where she waited for the police at the kitchen table, the gun in her lap.
Disciples of Paradox, by David Memmott: Poetry.; in a wheelchair spaceship
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Swiftly by Adam Roberts, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Wednesday: Rome Burning by Sophia McDougall, reviewed by Tony Keen
Friday: The Fade by Chris Wooding, reviewed by Colin Harvey

2/18/08

Still Seeking Signals: SETI Today, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; So how about finding some new civilizations? Are there any out there? Have our decades of listening made any progress - or are we perhaps truly alone after all?
Where We Live, by Daniel J. Pinney: Fiction.; He emerged first with a crate of unburned incense, a second time with a blasphemous but remarkable painted ceramic statuette of the Prophet, the third time with a round mirror, almost a meter across, perfect blown glass backed with silver inside a ring of something golden. My father flashed it to me in triumph, catching the sun, and then he tumbled backwards.
Poultry, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; there is / no apparition in the shroud
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Stephen King's Duma Key, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: Liz Williams's Precious Dragon and Bloodmind, reviewed by Donna Royston
Friday: Tobias Buckell's Ragamuffin, reviewed by Paul Kincaid

2/11/08

To Meet You, by Kathi Day: Art.; I don't think to myself "Ah, today is a cat day." when I wake up, but sometimes I think "Ah, today was a cat day." when I go to sleep. (It can be very frustrating to have a dragon day when you need to draw a cat.)
Well-stocked Larders: Food and Diet of Hobbits, by Stephanie Green: Article.; Tolkien's choice of foods reflect his concept of the ancient Middle-earth chronology. These descriptions can also provide insights into Tolkien's underlying theme of the Hobbits as nostalgic English yeomen.
We Love Deena, by Alice Sola Kim, illustration by Hellen Jo: Fiction.; I don't remember which attempt it was, how many people I had been so far. But this time I was Pam, a girl who worked at the bookstore in Deena's neighborhood. Pam, whose hair was the same color as her skin, a monochromatic honey shade that would have been boring and dreary on other people but looked delicious on Pam. I was reasonably sure that if Deena didn't love me anymore, she would love Pam.
The Gambler, by Sonya Taaffe: Poetry.; a comet glitters / like gunpowder,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Debatable Space by Philip Palmer, reviewed by Paul Raven
Wednesday: Kethaniby Eric Brown, reviewed by Michael Levy
Friday: The SFWA European Hall of Fame, edited by James Morrow and Kathryn Morrow, reviewed by Martin Lewis

2/4/08

My Year of McCaffrey, by James Schellenberg: Column.; The melodrama and constant friction between characters was also a source of near-hapless fascination, while I loved having volume after volume to read, following the florid storylines and science fiction developments with great avidity.
Tokyo Rising, by Lynne Hawkinson: Fiction.; The fifth time hurt him. That was when the giant secret government robots went berserk and bombed the schools during the national examinations. Kai lost his young daughter, and he had not yet found a way to replace her
I'll Keep a Green Lantern Burning, by Lee Battersby: Poetry.; Batts has been living out of the back seat / Since Missus Batman threw him into the street
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Cloverfield reviewed by Roz Kaveney
Wednesday: Daniel Abraham's The Long Price: Shadow and Betrayal, reviewed by Siobhan Carroll
Friday: Dislocations, edited by Ian Whates, reviewed by Duncan Lawie

1/28/08

2007 In Review, Or, Fun Stuff What I Have Read Last Year, by Iain Jackson: Column.; Do I remember the book in question? Fondly, or as though it were a four-color root canal? Edifying or not, did I like reading it?
Looking for Friendship, Maybe More, by Corie Ralston: Fiction.; Fellow Station residents: The D'ohrahd are here to subjugate the human race! High-Earth Station is only their first conquest!! Earth will be next!! Stop them now!!! Join us at the protest at the D'ohrahd Welcoming tonight!!!!
Zeitghosts, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; Later, give or take a millennium, / in the food court next / to Chronautica, we share lunch,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Bad Blood by Rhiannon Lassiter, reviewed by Nic Clarke
Wednesday: Mindscape by Andrea Hairston, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy
Friday: Dangerous Offspring by Steph Swainston, reviewed by David Soyka

1/21/08

Of Muses and Ghosts, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; The last conversation I had with my father was about a movie.
How to Hide Your Heart, by Deborah Coates: Fiction.; People call him. People he doesn't know. People who don't want anything to do with him or the things he hunts. They leave him messages—skeptical, frightened, defiant, crazy. They don't believe in what they've seen, can't imagine that it exists. They call anyway.
A Creation Myth, by Holly Dworken Cooley: Poetry.; So Rock created stone in his own image
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Ink by Hal Duncan and In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne M Valente, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Wednesday: Christopher Barzak's One for Sorrow, reviewed by Richard Larson
Friday: T.A. Pratt's Blood Engines, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin

1/14/08

By Full Moon's Light, by Karl Nordman: Art.; From a curious lad to full time professional, art has been the driving force throughout my entire existwnce.
Games on Facebook: Playing "With" Your Friends, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; That guy from my department, on the other hand, apparently forged right ahead and sank to inhuman depths of cannibalism
The End of Tin, by Bill Kte'pi: Fiction.; When Nick Chopper was a boy and not yet tin, they used to say every mirror was haunted. It's why the wights wouldn't look in them; it's why if you broke one there was hell to pay by seven sundowns, and if you didn't pay hell would come to collect.
Dsonoqua on Lewis, The Outer Hebrides, by Neile Graham: Poetry.; She's a cranky tourist here. Exposed / with no forest to back herself into.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Mike Ashley's Gateways to Forever, reviewed by William Mingin
Wednesday: Gary Gibson's Stealing Light, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Friday: Karen Miller's The Awakened Mage, reviewed by R.J. Burgess

1/7/08

Lucy in the Sky With Nanodiamonds, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; Tiny nanodiamonds inside meteorites appear to be true "star bits," born in the edges of dying stars long, long before our solar system ever formed.
Still Living, by J. J. Irwin: Fiction.; The murals are butterflies of time, pinned to the wall in a semblance of life. When Carlo died they became silent for a time, watchful, but in the month since they have gone back to each other, back to love and joy and the sunshine coming down on them in thick, buttery strokes. They're paintings; they don't have space for prolonged sorrow.
Moonomania, by F.J. Bergmann: Poetry.; If we had more moons, / months would fracture into innumerable shards
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: 2007 In Review, by our reviewers
Wednesday: The Red Men by Matthew de Abaitua, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Friday: Till Human Voices Wake Us by Mark Budz, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum

12/17/07

R³, by Dennis Danvers: Fiction.; Everybody's watching the same scenes: the fiery crash, the swelling tributaries of desperate people filling the huge parking lot, the surrounding neighborhoods and beyond, a sea of people as far as you can see, more and more all the time, looking to the sky, for what? For relief, for hope, for something impossible to believe in. For us.
Beanstalk, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; from afar it must look like / God's finger, / the one He used when He / stirred forth the world's flora / from the first mud.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Night and Day: the place of Equinox in Samuel R. Delany's Oeuvre
Tuesday: Aye, and Gomorrah, and other stories, reviewed by Graham Sleight
Wednesday: About Writing, reviewed by L. Timmel Duchamp
Thursday: Dark Reflections, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Strange Horizons Podcast: Interview with Maggie Hogarth, by Susan Marie Groppi: Editorial.; Strange Horizons editor Susan Marie Groppi talks with artist and writer Maggie Hogarth about distributed publishing models, the Amazon Kindle, and the author-audience relationship.

12/10/07

Digital Mythology, by Paul Squire: Art.; Whether I am creating images, music or web designs I find the journey to be one of inner illumination.
R³, by Dennis Danvers: Fiction.; Donner's a mess--grazing on the wrong shrooms again. She's let a little spider make a web in her antlers and won't let me touch it. "At least it's real," she says. "It is what it is. What are we? Freaks. Genetic meatloaf. Reindeer who can sing and dance."
Given to the Frost, by Ann K. Schwader: Poetry.; Given to the frost our fragile cities / bright with banners, dance, & brilliant song / offered up in sunlight.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Jim Crace's The Pesthouse and Sarah Hall's The Carhullan Army, reviewed by Victoria Hoyle
Wednesday: Matt Ruff's Bad Monkeys, reviewed by Michael Levy
Friday: Joe Haldeman's The Accidental Time Machine, reviewed by Karen Burnham

12/3/07

The You Train, by N.K. Jemisin: Fiction.; I don't like being in there when it's that empty, sometimes it's not safe, but you know, a cab would've cost thirty dollars and I don't get paid 'til next week. But finally someone comes in, this woman, and she looks at me like I'm crazy and tells me the B doesn't run at night.
Flights of Fancy, by Ed Gavin: Poetry.; She expects fireworks upon arrival, / a spectacle put on just for her
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: KJ Parker's Engineer Trilogy, reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn
Wednesday: Dan Simmons' The Terror, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Friday: Cherie Priest's Not Flesh Nor Feathers, reviewed by JC Runolfson

11/26/07

Revisiting the Canon with Susannah: Fairies, Aliens, and Nature Magic, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; My favorite Shakespeare comedy is As You Like It, because I have a weakness for the "transvestite comedies," in which girls dress up as boys and go out to seek their fortunes. Unfortunately, with the exception of a minor goddess descending to deliver a few rhymed couplets and celebrate a marriage, As You Like It features no actual magic. A Midsummer Night's Dream, though, is full of magic.
Airport Shoes, by Ursula Pflug: Fiction.; Airports are about coming and going; they are never about being anywhere, except perhaps the bar. I paid out a lot more cash to bartenders and ticket agents than I ever did on rent that summer.
Beyond the Clouds of Paradise, by Bruce Boston: Poetry.; We see the chosen revelers / in their endless cosmic dance.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Battlestar Galactica: Razor, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Wednesday: Ekaterina Sedia's The Secret History of Moscow, reviewed by Nic Clarke
Friday: Richard K. Morgan's Thirteen/Black Man, reviewed by Sherryl Vint

11/19/07

Giving Up, by James Schellenberg: Column.; If you found the perfect work of art, wouldn't you want to find the sequel or season 2 and enjoy the heck out of it? And what if that follow-up was not up to the same level of quality ... would you give up?
Goat Eschatologies, by Margaret Ronald: Fiction.; The sign over the refrigerator had been knocked off-center. Pre-Apocalypse Sale on Cheese, it read in Gert's angular handwriting—a joke to start with, less and less funny every day. By now Gert was almost too ashamed to take it down.
She Needed To Get Out, by Ashley M. Nissler: Poetry.; She'd smudged my fresh-scrubbed wall. "Why so yellow?" / I asked. You never can tell with Charlotte.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Beowulf, reviewed by Roz Kaveney
Wednesday: Minsoo Kang's Of Tales and Enigmas, reviewed by Justin Howe
Friday: Tony Ballantyne's Divergence, reviewed by Duncan Lawie

11/12/07

Offerings of Otherness, by Susan Fraser: Art.; As well as being interested in the interactions between humans and the world around them, I am fascinated by both geometrical and free-form shapes, and colors and textures too.
Frankenstein's Microbe, by John Pettigrew: Article.; Natural selection is the process by which differences between similar organisms cause the organisms to have different degrees of success at living. One bacterial cell might be better at acquiring nutrients than another. When nutrients are limited, these variants would infer an advantage and hence increased possibility to survive and produce offspring.
Indie Boy Strikes!, by Iain Jackson: Column.; More than superhero comics: a look at a few favorite indie titles.
Ghosts and Simulations, by Ruthanna Emrys: Fiction.; "Don't call them dead in front of visitors, unless they say it first. Also, you keep an eye on the clients. They talk to each other. There's a monitor you can look at, I'll show you later. But they're stubborn. They don't change their minds much, so they get into loops sometimes."
The Night Boat, by Sonya Taaffe: Poetry.; Over the damp-blackened slates, the harbor / lights douse and sizzle in the sloping rain,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Laird Barron's The Imago Sequence, reviewed by William Mingin
Wednesday: The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, reviewed by Michael Levy
Friday: Jon Courtenay Grimwood's 9 Tail Fox, reviewed by Alex Saltman

11/5/07

The Discerning Reader of Fantastic Literature's Guide to Literary Journals, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; I'm astounded at the quality and creativity in so many different magazines that don't get marketed to what seems to me a natural audience--readers who like their fiction to be at least a little bit odd, a little bit out of the ordinary.
Bears, by Leah Bobet: Fiction.; Ninety-eight percent of all fictional deaths are directly attributable to being eaten by bears.
Golem Americanus, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; Strung up on our armatures of wood, it is we / who feign life every time the wind blows.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: David Marusek's Getting to Know You, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: Susan Palwick's Shelter, reviewed by Richard Larson
Friday: Stephen Baxter's Navigator, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont

10/29/07

Am I Not a Nerd? (If You Prick Me, Do I Not Leak?), by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; What do I do for fun? I ride my bike! And play video games. But note that I ride my bike! I am not one of those lazy gamers!
Teinds, by Sonya Taaffe: Fiction.; In your basement studio, you drew blackout curtains against the afternoon and lit a branch of white candles in the sink, and under their rags of light I watched your face change from all the angles I could find. I could not make it change enough.
Post-Material Lotophagi, by Gene van Troyer: Poetry.; It's there on every page that links / into the junction of that throbbing dot. You are here.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Stephen King's Lisey's Story, reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn
Tuesday: Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword, reviewed by Nic Clarke
Wednesday: Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora, reviewed by Victoria Hoyle
Thursday: Catherynne M. Valente's In the Night Garden, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Friday: Gene Wolfe's Soldier of Sidon, reviewed by Tony Keen
Strange Horizons Podcast: Interview with Tim Pratt, by Susan Marie Groppi: Editorial.; Strange Horizons editor Susan Marie Groppi interviews Tim Pratt, who talks about books, babies, and what his fourteen-year-old self would have thought of his life today.

10/22/07

Conspiracies, Discoveries, and (Lack of) Coverups: A Cold War Science Tale, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; Oh boy, I thought to myself, a Roswell true believer. Here we go again.
One Paper Airplane Graffito Love Note, by Will McIntosh: Fiction.; I've heard a hundred legends accounting for the origin of the graffito confessions that have swept Chester, and met a dozen people who take credit for pioneering it. But all of them are wrong. I know who started it, and why.
The Native Finds Her in the Wreckage, by Marge Simon: Poetry.; but he breaks her fingers anyway, / stretches the bones to imitate his own,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Joanna Russ's The Country You Have Never Seen, reviewed by Sarah Monette
Tuesday: The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin
Wednesday: Peter F Hamilton's The Dreaming Void, reviewed by Karen Burnham
Thursday: Legends of the Fall: Television's newest SF shows, reviewed by K. Tempest Bradford

10/15/07

Making Payments, by Jason Stoddard: Fiction.; I imagined some young Comparative Value Analyst factoring that into her stellar rating for the Young Couples' Complex. But they didn't tell you they charged you anyway, even if you didn't drink the damn stuff. And they didn't tell you about the upsells.
Watching the Watchman, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; the rosettes open, blink, and take light.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Two Views: Bryan Francis Slattery's Spaceman Blues, reviewed by Martin Lewis and Rose Fox
Wednesday: The Ultimates and The Ultimates 2, reviewed by Tony Keen
Friday: Ursula K. Le Guin's Powers, reviewed by Lisa Goldstein

10/8/07

Regis Moulun's Ways, by Regis Moulun: Art.; If the eclecticism of my illustrations is surprising, it is because my search for an aesthetic ideal helps to enrich and diversify my style. When I take my brushes to the fabric, I use vitality and depth to underline the paradoxes of the human drama.
Reading All Night, by James Schellenberg: Column.; At the time, I never questioned why I might be reading so many books. Books were awesome! That was about the sum of it.
The Master, by Lavie Tidhar: Fiction.; He was no longer fashionable, and had not, in fact, written or published a book for several years. The children, too, were now almost alien to him: they were a generation he had not anticipated.
Why We Left, by Ann K. Schwader: Poetry.; The breath of chaos / Howled there like a solar wind / Too strong to ride, too wild to trust:
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Adam Roberts' Land of the Headless and Splinter, reviewed by Victoria Hoyle
Wednesday: Gary Alan Wassner's The Revenge of the Elves, reviewed by Brian Malone
Friday: Robin McKinley's Dragonhaven, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin

10/1/07

Medieval Mindsets: Narrative Theory and The Mists of Avalon, by Bridgette Da Silva: Article.; By giving the women characters a voice in her narrative, she humanizes them. In doing so, [Marion Zimmer Bradley] offers a counterstory to the oppressive Woman as Temptress master narrative.
Fixing Superman, by Iain Jackson: Column.; In fact, I'm not really talking about the Big Blue Boy Scout at all, really; I'm talking about superhero comics generally.
Catherine and the Satyr, by Theodora Goss: Fiction.; "Jack Byron is a devil," Grandmother Gight had told her, "and your life with him will be a hell. Are you ready to live in hell, my girl, for a red coat and the finest legs in Bath?"
Children of Breath, by Mary Alexandra Agner: Poetry.; There are no children of my blood / because I have failed under the eye / of history to make a family
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Trust Me, I'm A Fabulator: Three Books reviewed by Dan Hartland
Wednesday: Two Views: Kelley Armstrong's No Humans Involved, reviewed by Genevieve Williams and Colin Harvey
Friday: Harry Turtledove's In At The Death, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy

9/24/07

Lost Dolls and Lost Dreams, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; Herr Doktor Kafka offers Lizaveta the comfort of a story, saying that Belinda met a little boy who asked her to travel around the world with him, and so she has gone off to do so, but has promised to send postcards chronicling her adventures.
Minghun: Unlikely Patron Saints, No. 5, by Amy Sisson: Fiction.; "Beloved daughter, you died very young and did not experience the unity of marriage. Yang Xingwu and his wife have recently lost a son. They have asked for betrothal so your souls might meet."
The Wandering, by Rane Arroyo: Poetry.; We've been pushed into this lush / nothingness in the sky. Yes, I wore / a cloud as a crown while herded / onto my ship.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Anna Kavan's Ice and Guilty, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Wednesday: Paul McAuley's Cowboy Angels, reviewed by Michael J. Levy
Friday: Karen Miller's The Innocent Mage, reviewed by R. J. Burgess

9/17/07

Electric Sonnets: Celebrating the Old-School Point-and-Click, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; It's not just that I want to replay the games of my childhood, although the improved graphics and the addition of voices to storylines that I could almost recite do give me a little thrill—replaying my childhood in technicolor.
How the Little Rabbi Grew, by Eliot Fintushel: Fiction.; Rabbi Shlomo Beser was born with a caul, a shiny membrane that covered his head. It came to his maiden Aunt Dora that the child must have mystical capabilities, and she was right. At the age of two, Rabbi Shlomo recited all of the holy names of God as listed in the Book of Brilliance. He also recited several names that had never been written down.
The Wolf From the Door, by Sandra J. Lindow: Poetry.; Regular maintenance/takes longer now/and the nightly ritual/washings and lockings/consume me.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: It Happened Otherwise? Three Alternate Histories, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Wednesday: Stardust, reviewed by David J. Schwartz
Friday: Lois McMaster Bujold's The Sharing Knife: Legacy, reviewed by Donna Royston

9/10/07

Fantasy from Argentina, by Fernando Molinari: Art.; Fernando Molinari was born in Argentina on November 19, 1963. His entire life has been dedicated to illustration. Painting has become a way of exploring and expressing himself in several ways.
Revisiting the Canon with Susannah: Armored Ghosts Walk at Midnight!!!, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; But I never felt comfortable acknowledging to the rest of my class that my greatest thrill had come, while reading a passage a passage from Beowulf about how a great dragon ravaged the land, I suddenly said (and I think I actually said it aloud) "Oh my God! It's Smaug!"
In Stone, by Helen Keeble: Fiction.; It had been the only way to talk, after her voice had stopped. He'd carved his words into the rock, and her replies had come welling back, the stone weeping thin script of pure metals.
Antivenom, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; Six long months of fever and vomit/later, he believes himself ready
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Ben Bova's Titan, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: Justina Robson's Selling Out, reviewed by David Soyka
Friday: Kage Baker's The Sons of Heaven, reviewed by Lisa Goldstein
Strange Horizons Podcast: Interview with Mary Robinette Kowal, by Susan Marie Groppi: Editorial.; A new episode of the Strange Horizons podcast, featuring an interview with Mary Robinette Kowal.

9/3/07

Settings for Space Opera, Part III: Strange Neighbors, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; Every neighborhood has a few oddballs, right?
All Kinds of Reasons, by Katherine Maclaine: Fiction.; Tony skimmed the cursor over the image's direction arrows and made the baby spin. "Twelve months after birth. EEC Syndrome and sirenomelia, mostly. A couple of personality disorders too, according to the prediction software, but I think that's my fault."
Wereman, by Robert Frazier: Poetry.; a pup slipped backward toward the valley below / the gray didn't hesitate to leap in and push her free
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Best American Fantasy, reviewed by Gwyneth Jones
Wednesday: Polyphony 6, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Friday: Mike Carey's The Devil You Know and Vicious Circle, reviewed by Laura Blackwell

8/27/07

Summer Movies 2007, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Big budget spectacles? Yes. Movies worth watching again? Maybe. James surveys the science fiction and fantasy movies of summer 2007.
Practicing My Sad Face, by Marc Schultz: Fiction.; My recall is getting better as the doctors fine-tune my hippocampus. Now I can remember that Joyce is my girlfriend without looking her up in pMemory. I still don't recognize her face or voice, but those are separate problems.
Attracting the Attention of a Cat Who Disdains to Acknowledge Your Existence, by Susannah Mandel: Poetry.; I see I fill you with contempt./I cannot prove your feeling wrong.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: William Gibson's Spook Country, reviewed by Graham Sleight
Wednesday: Simon R. Green's The Man With the Golden Torc, reviewed by William Mingin
Friday: Steven Moffatt's Jekyll, reviewed by Colin Harvey
2007 Fund Drive: The Thrilling Conclusion!, by Susan Marie Groppi: Editorial.; Our fund drive was a success!

8/20/07

SF and Fantasy in the New Millennium: Women Publishing Short Fiction, by Susan U. Linville: Article.; To find out, I compiled a database of stories published in the Big Four from 1980 through 2001, identified gender for as many authors as I could, and examined trends.
SF and Fantasy in the New Millennium: An Update, by Susan U. Linville: Article.; As it has been five years since I collected data for the original article, I decided to reexamine the topic of women publishing short fiction by obtaining actual submission data.
Anyone for Blasphemy?, by Iain Jackson: Column.; If Superman stands there and proudly declares his devotion to one particular faith, a lot of readers might not be all that thrilled, and might stop reading—though if he proclaimed a belief in the Kryptonian gods, it probably wouldn't matter as much, since they're entirely fictional.
Little Ambushes, by Joanne Merriam: Fiction.; He twisted his fingers together as though emphasizing his alienness, every one of them looking like a slender thumb, and she thought his hands looked like a big, black spider wriggling at the end of its thread.
Bird Seed, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; The seeds immediately sprout acres of jays
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Paul G. Tremblay and Sean Wallace's Fantasy, reviewed by Nic Clarke
Wednesday: Scott Lynch's Red Seas Under Red Skies, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Friday: John Meaney's Bone Song, reviewed by Duncan Lawie

8/13/07

Twelve Adventures, by Kat Beyer: Art.; I come from a long line of artists, though I did not realize this until I noticed that an awful lot of the paintings, sculpture, and fiber art in my family's houses was made by my family.
Pol Pot's Fantasized Daughter, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; When I first encountered "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)", I read a few pages and stopped. The idea of a story about Pol Pot written in what felt like the diction of a fairy tale was too much for me.
The Girl From Another World, by Leah Bobet: Fiction.; She snuggles up next to me. "Let me destroy your dark lords," she says. "Let me restore your kingdom. Let me avenge your sorrows and then I can go home."
The Painting Speaks, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; My voice recognition units/enable me to eavesdrop on your critique
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Two Views: Transformers, reviewed by Tim Phipps and Tim Phipps
Wednesday: John Klima's Logorrhea, reviewed by L. Timmel Duchamp
Friday: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, reviewed by Catie Ash
Strange Horizons Podcast: Interview with Benjamin Rosenbaum, by Susan Marie Groppi: Editorial.; The Strange Horizons podcast is back and features an interview with author Benjamin Rosenbaum.

8/6/07

The Revolution Will Neither Be Televised Nor Built Into the Infrastructure of Virtual Worlds, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; So yeah, City of Heroes (and a lot of other games) could get a certain amount of mileage out of "Gay Gamers: We're not as bad as WoW" without doing very much at all.
Artifice and Intelligence, by Tim Pratt, illustration by Mack Sztaba: Fiction.; "I think I do not believe in ghosts. But if someone had asked me, three months ago, if I believed in spontaneously bootstrapping artificial intelligence, I would have said no to that as well. The world is an uncertain place."
The Quince Bedroom, by David C. Kopaska-Merkel: Poetry.; She touched her round organic limb
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Doctor Who: Series Three, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: Jack Dann's The Man Who Melted, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy
Friday: Eliot Fintushel's Breakfast with the Ones You Love, reviewed by Paul Kincaid

7/30/07

Settings for Space Opera, Part II: A Perplexing Plethora of Planets, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; The discovery of planets around other stars is now a routine occurrence.
Wake-Up Call, by Leslie Brown: Fiction.; Mom slept until I was ten, and then she woke three times that year.
Growing Days, by Tina Connolly: Poetry.; We only talk now on growing days
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Tuesday: Helen Oyeyemi's The Opposite House, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Wednesday: Jonathan Strahan's The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 1, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Thursday: David Anthony Durham's Acacia, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin

7/23/07

On SF and the Mainstream, or, Rapidly Changing Scenery, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; Crawling out from under my rock this year, I was eager to take a look at the current state of marketing to see if anything had changed.
Limits, by Donna Glee Williams: Fiction.; When little Cam let go of her hand and ran off to explore the world without her, she watched after him and waited. And Cam ran back to her with sparkling eyes, crying out "As far as the big rock! I went that far, Len!"
Transmutation, by Scott Pearson: Poetry.; Wanting to shed what bleeds
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Forrest Aguirre's Swans Over the Moon, reviewed by Colin Greenland
Tuesday: Jay Lake's Trial of Flowers and Mainspring, reviewed by Nic Clarke
Wednesday: Theodora Goss and Delia Sherman's Interfictions, reviewed by David Soyka
Thursday: Ellen Klages's Portable Childhoods, reviewed by Richard Larson

7/16/07

Lost Moments, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Sure, a fragmented experience might be annoying, but gaps might also be healthy—can all those Dr. Who episodes really be that good?
The Perfume Eater, by R. J. Astruc: Fiction.; I'm sure Johnny intends to bring the chair back upstairs at some point, but as the body-builder girlfriend spent the night, he hasn't had a chance yet. He'd have a hard time getting it away from the deev, anyway. Deev don't like being told by mere mortals to stand up and move.
Wings, by Andrea Blythe: Poetry.; peeling from his flesh, reaching up, tips pointed skyward.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Name of the Wind and The Children of Hurin, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Tuesday: Lionel Shriver's The Post-Birthday World, reviewed by Victoria Hoyle
Wednesday: Ted Chiang's The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate, reviewed by Bill Mingin
Thursday: Brian Aldiss's HARM, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy

7/9/07

From the South, by Zach McCain: Art.; Zach McCain is an internationally published artist whose work ranges from illustrations for books, magazines, and graphic novels, to artwork for trading cards, t-shirts, and CDs.
Lexx at Ten, by Nader Elhefnawy: Article.; All facetiousness about just who the show was intended for aside, the simple fact was that he "liked some science fiction a lot and hated most" of the rest. In particular, he'd more than had his fill of "do-gooders trying to save the universe in highly derivative plots."
The Captain Is the Last to Leave, by Caroline Lockwood Nelson: Fiction.; "Jessie hated having her picture taken," the girl tells him. He would like to tell her what a young girl she is for all of this, too young for ripped-out throats and missing women. He would like to squeeze her hand, but he stays on his side of the booth and watches the waves and the gray sky and he waits for her to quiet.
Animal Pharm, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; Dr. Moreau, with his uplifted / beasts, might be considered / the father of this line of research
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Elizabeth Hand's Generation Loss, reviewed by Matthew Cheney
Tuesday: Ysabeau S. Wilce's Flora Segunda, reviewed by David V. Barrett
Wednesday: Frances Hardinge's Verdigris Deep, reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn
Thursday: Scarlett Thomas's The End of Mr Y, reviewed by Dan Hartland

7/2/07

Brazos, by Jerome Stueart, illustration by Lydia C. Burris: Fiction.; We yapped for fifteen minutes about dry West Texas weather, like we were neighbors, except he had a gleam in his eye. I knew I would lose something.
Dark & Light, by David Lunde: Poetry.; Dark / is the natural state of things
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Solitudes, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Tuesday: Love & Sleep, reviewed by Graham Sleight
Wednesday: Dæmonomania, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Thursday: Endless Things, reviewed by John Clute

6/25/07

All Those Books, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; I could somehow find a few hundred boxes, put the books in them, load the boxes into a big truck, and drive the truck to my new home, where I would then pile the books up to the ceiling in each little room.
The Leaving Sweater, by Ruth Nestvold: Fiction.; Growing up in remote Rolynka, Alaska, in the middle of the last century, Victoria Askew never really learned the trick of how to leave.
Freebasing the Moon, by Mike Allen: Poetry.; Silver glitters in his cratered eyes
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Richard Labonté and Lawrence Schimel's The Future is Queer, reviewed by Rose Fox
Tuesday: Alastair Reynolds's The Prefect, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Wednesday: Nalo Hopkinson's The New Moon's Arms, reviewed by J.C.Runolfson
Thursday: Mike Resnick's Alien Crimes, reviewed by Karen Burnham

6/18/07

Interview: Bruce Boston, by JoSelle Vanderhooft: Article.; "Mainstream poetry draws upon our consensual reality of the everyday world for its content and backdrop. Speculative poetry is drawn from the imagination, the world as it might be."
29 Union Leaders Can't Be Wrong, by Genevieve Valentine: Fiction.; He's not, though; no better and no worse. He looks like someone he would know. He touches his cheeks, runs his finger down the bridge of his new nose. When he cries Callahan stares at the cabinets until he's got hold of himself.
Gaia's Children, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; I am now half the monster I used / to be.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin
Tuesday: François Devenne's Three Dreams on Mount Meru, reviewed by Finn Dempster
Wednesday: Joe Abercrombie's Before They Are Hanged, reviewed by Siobhan Carroll
Thursday: Steven Brust's Dzur, reviewed by Genevieve Williams

6/11/07

Future Visions, by Peter Bartczak: Art.; I prefer an old world Renaissance look mixed in with a Norman Rockwell sensibility—it fits into my tweaked view of the universe— to make the strange normal and the normal strange, the small big and the big small.
Games vs. Toys, or the Value of the Hello Kitty Aesthetic, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; As someone who happily discarded her toaster prior to her latest cross-country move with the prospect of replacing it with the Hello Kitty version, and whose last bathroom had Hello Kitty wall borders, you can imagine how quickly I jumped on it.
Gift of Flight, by Nghi Vo: Fiction.; My mother's wedding dress was the skin of a swan, still blindingly white after more than a decade nestled in tissue paper. She would never let me try it on, no matter how hard I begged, or how my young arms ached to stretch into strong beating wings.
What Relativity Tells Us, by Jeff Jeppesen: Poetry.; There is no such thing as distance—
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: 28 Weeks Later, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Tuesday: Eric Brown's Helix, reviewed by R.J. Burgess
Wednesday: Catherine Jinks's Evil Genius, reviewed by Duncan Lawie
Thursday: Kelley Eskridge's Dangerous Space, reviewed by Ilana Teitlebaum

6/4/07

Dispatches from Planet France: Châteaux, Part II - The Architecture of Ghosts, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; Sometimes, looking down an empty stairwell or wiping chalk dust off a board as the light settled through the pointed windows, it seemed to me that I was sharing my space with some kind of heavy presence, compounded out of history, time, ideas, ghosts.
Private Detective Molly, by A. B. Goelman, illustration by Egypt Urnash: Fiction.; That's when I see my new boss. Four feet of trouble. Brunette variety. Tear tracks cutting through the dirt on her face, wearing jeans that were already old when Molly Dolls were nothing more than molded plastic and fantasy homes.
The Amateur Astronomer in Me, by Timothy Green: Poetry.; It's no wonder he spends / so much time alone
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Ken MacLeod's The Execution Channel, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Tuesday: Lucius Shepard's Softspoken, reviewed by Richard Larson
Wednesday: The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, reviewed by J. C. Runolfson
Thursday: Andrew Butcher's The Time of the Reaper, reviewed by Siobhan Carroll

5/28/07

Interview: Eugie Foster, by Lynne Jamneck: Article.; It was always the monsters and magic which drew me, stuff that fires the imagination and leaves you wandering around in a cloud of "what if" and "ooo" for the rest of the day.
Indie Videogames: Artform in the Making?, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Ambitious people are busy attempting to make videogames into an artform. Will indie videogames bring this about? And does the term "indie" even make sense?
Ex Machina, by Margaret Ronald: Fiction.; "'And One said, I will choose among you certain of your folk, that they may know the lightning's path, and the mysteries of light, and the knowledge to heal that which was made and not born. For learning fails, and inscriptions weather away, and records molder, but the blood carries on.'"
Wish-stone at Dunnottar, by Neile Graham: Poetry.; Twice I have assailed these walls.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Margo Lanagan's Red Spikes, reviewed by Colin Greenland
Tuesday: David Devereux's Hunter's Moon, reviewed by Richard Larson
Wednesday: Paul McAuley's Players, reviewed by Karen Burnham
Thursday: Extended Play: the Elastic Book of Music, reviewed by Paul Raven

5/21/07

X-Ray Vision: Not Just for Superman Anymore?, by Corie Ralston: Article.; Superman's x-ray vision is not very realistic in the way it is presented in the movie and the comics, yet it's not very far from what is actually possible with x-rays.
Brownman (part 2 of 2), by C. Scavella Burrell: Fiction.; There was nothing to breathe in that room but steam and smells. Suddenly I didn't want to be there, didn't know why I did whatever anyone told me.
The Cook and the Scullery Maid, by Mikal Trimm: Poetry.; Such a mess the Master makes with his plate—
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Two Views: Guy Gavriel Kay's Ysabel, reviewed by Graham Sleight and Victoria Hoyle
Tuesday: Jed Mercurio's Ascent, reviewed by Michael Froggatt
Wednesday: Stephen Hunt's The Court of the Air, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Thursday: Tom Holt's Barking, reviewed by Lisa Goldstein

5/14/07

Myths, Legends and Faerie Folk, by Michael "Warble" Finucane: Art.; With a blend of geometric abstraction and an arcane medieval style application, Warble creates a fusion of innovative and original art for the 21st century.
Brownman (part 1 of 2), by C. Scavella Burrell: Fiction.; "I've seen them," said Uncle. He'd had plenty of chance, delivering flower arrangements and stone slabs and people. "Wanting to follow. They can't, don't worry. The dead stay by their homes. They won't bother you in yours."
If Cold Is a War, by Ann K. Schwader: Poetry.; If cold is a war, it was forced upon us
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Mistakes and all: Defending Battlestar Galactica, by Jeremy Adam Smith
Tuesday: China Miéville's Un Lun Dun, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Wednesday: Spider-Man 3, reviewed by Iain Clark
Thursday: Mary Rosenblum's Horizons, reviewed by Duncan Lawie

5/7/07

How to Write a Paragraph, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; Vonnegut approached paragraphs the way good poets approach line and stanza breaks, and in that sense he was the Robert Creeley of prose, someone whose writing at its best seems perfect in its rhythm and shape
The Hide, by Liz Williams, illustration by Liz Clarke: Fiction.; The birds were white as they flew over the marsh, across the reedbeds and the frosted meres, but as they drew level with the hide their shade changed, from white to black. I saw their crimson eyes, sparks in the cloudy dark, as they disappeared into the storm.
The Bell Ringer's Wife, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; So maybe he's not the most handsome man
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Tricia Sullivan's Double Vision and Sound Mind, reviewed by L. Timmel Duchamp
Tuesday: Mat Coward's So Far, So Near, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont
Wednesday: Jeffrey Thomas's Deadstock, reviewed by Finn Dempster
Thursday: Kage Baker's Rude Mechanicals, reviewed by Sherryl Vint

4/30/07

Return of the Son of Tetris, or Good Games Never Die, They Just Get Shiny New 3D Backgrounds and a Soundtrack by Freezepop¹, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.
Fella Down A Hole: Unlikely Patron Saints, No. 2, by Amy Sisson: Fiction.; The words mock me, 'cause every kid grows up in Pedy knows you don't walk around looking at the sky instead of the ground. That's the surest way to get yourself killed, out here where shafts mark the landscape like so many tunnels down to hell.
Flyboy, by Lucy A. Snyder: Poetry.; With a chemistry book in my hand, I could fly.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Ian McDonald's Brasyl, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Tuesday: One of these books is not like the others: three tomes about SF TV, reviewed by Tim Phipps
Wednesday: Minister Faust's From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain, reviewed by Karen Burnham

4/23/07

Offworlding Without Leaving Earth: Going on Location with Starship Troopers, by Brenta Blevins: Article.; Standing at an overlook, I stared at the canyon floor 180 feet below and was able to picture exactly where they'd filmed the first bug battle. I had to admire the Hollywood magic of making a relatively small area do such a wonderful job of suggesting, not just one, but two planetary ecospheres.
Ferryman's Reprieve, by Kate Bachus: Fiction.; "I killed a woman was dear to my heart. I knew it was a mistake when I done it."
Porch Lights, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; Milky traffic lights click on and off,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Rudyard Kipling's The Mark of the Beast and Other Fantastical Tales, reviewed by Bill Mingin
Tuesday: Sunshine, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: Richard Morgan's Black Man/Thirteen, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Thursday: Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, reviewed by Lisa Goldstein

4/16/07

From the Formative Years, by James Schellenberg: Column.; It's been enlightening and surprising, in almost equal measures, to revisit the books that formed my reading habits in my childhood.
How the Mermaid Lost Her Song, by Mark Teppo: Fiction.; "Fascinating," he murmured, staring into the squid's blank gaze. "Protector or devourer? I wonder." The squid shifted color again, draining to opaque white as if to give nothing away to the detective's question.
Armageddon: At the Clinic, by Marge Simon: Poetry.; Stella checks the food supplies.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist, reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn
Tuesday: The Solaris Book of New SF and Fast Forward 1, reviewed by David Soyka
Wednesday: CJ Cherryh's Deliverer, reviewed by Siobhan Carroll
Thursday: Robert Reed's Flavours of My Genius, reviewed by Colin Harvey

4/9/07

In Moebius's Shadow, by Nate Simpson: Art.; I've always felt slightly guilty about getting paid to do this sort of art—how could something so fun be worth actual money? Come to think of it, I need to remember to check the classifieds for professional tiramisu-tasting positions.
Dispatches from Planet France: Châteaux, Part I, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; There's a romantic glow about them—they tend to look like exquisite fairy-tale castles from the outside, and on the inside they are full of rooms and corridors and entire huge wings, high ceilings and places that you could lose your way in.
Painted, by Becca De La Rosa: Fiction.; Loretta waged war against the museum curators. They never saw her coming. She was the speck of dust tightrope-walking through the air, the rain left standing in pools by the entrance on rainy days.
Rehydration, by Tina Connolly: Poetry.; The ship is hot; it backfires / in the last row of corn, and there is popcorn in the night / which isn't supposed to happen
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Farah Mendlesohn's Glorifying Terrorism, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Tuesday: The Last Mimzy, reviewed by Bill Mingin
Wednesday: Primeval: The First Season, reviewed by Iain Clark

4/2/07

David Icke, the Reptilian Infiltration, and the Limits of Science Fiction, by James Trimarco: Article.; [Icke] literally urges his readers to check out works of science fiction in order to help them visualize reptilian infiltration.
Settings for Space Opera, Part I: Welcome to the Neighborhood, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; Whether you're looking to start an interstellar colony, found a galactic empire, or merely find a great location for your next tale of adventure in outer space, it pays to know what the neighborhood is like.
What the Thunder Said, by Lavie Tidhar, illustration by Robert E. Hobbs, Jr.: Fiction.; Certainty made his voice heavy, his Other whispering all the while in his ear, a warning Mr. Nine fought in vain to ignore. "It was no inyanga who did this to your friend. The boy's soul was taken by the storm."
The Whole Atom, by Lee Ballentine: Poetry.; grief wakes the nucleus / of the whole atom
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Jon Armstrong's Grey, reviewed by Richard Larson
Tuesday: Mike Allen's Mythic 2, reviewed by Donna Royston
Wednesday: Matthew Hughes' Majestrum, reviewed by Siobhan Carroll
Thursday: Shortlist Overview: the 2007 Philip K. Dick Award, reviewed by Nicholas Whyte

3/26/07

And the Mome Raths Outgrabe, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; Thus, we know that women were not invisible to Bradbury when he wrote the introduction, only wives who wrote stories with their husbands.
Harvest, by Joanne Merriam: Fiction.; Soldiers surround the area and shout at the humans to please step out of the line of fire. A tank raises its turret and somebody is shouting something about surrendering and then the aliens just aren't there anymore.
An Atypical Reaction to the Death of the Sun and the Moon, by Mikal Trimm: Poetry.; a sliver of sunlight threatening the sky / so I don't have much time before / I lose the animal inside
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Two Views: Cormac McCarthy's The Road, reviewed by Victoria Hoyle and Paul Kincaid
Tuesday: Tim Pratt's Hart & Boot & Other Stories, reviewed by Karen Burnham
Wednesday: Alastair Reynolds' Galactic North and Zima Blue, reviewed by Duncan Lawie
Thursday: Alisa Libby's The Blood Confession, reviewed by Hannah Strom-Martin

3/19/07

The Doctor Who Novels of Ian Marter, by Nicholas Whyte: Article.; In this article, I examine the Doctor Who books of Ian Marter, who wrote more novelizations of broadcast stories than anyone except Terrance Dicks and, uniquely, came to the process not as a writer but as an actor.
The Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, by Paula R. Stiles: Fiction.; "We're talking about respectable people, here, not honest or kind or honorable ones. They'll do whatever it takes to keep looking respectable."
This is the House, by Jaime Lee Moyer: Poetry.; This is the way Jack's eyes gleam / in a house where no one can see. / This is the way he shivers.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: M. Rickert's Map of Dreams, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Tuesday: Arkady & Boris Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont
Wednesday: Sean Wright's Jaarfindor Remade and Love under Jaarfindor Spires, reviewed by Colin Harvey

3/12/07

Innovari, by Luca Oleastri: Art.; In the last decade my creativity has leaned towards computer graphics and 3D illustrations in particular—with which I wanted to create professional artworks for books and magazines.
My Avatar, My Not-Self: Narrative Worlds Within Video Games, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; She embodies many of what you might call my personal aesthetic bullet-proof kinks: she is bright, she is pink, she is relatively small, and she has seriously aggressive hair.
The Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, by Paula R. Stiles: Fiction.; "I found her in a disposal on Zero Level. I don't know if she's got kin or not, but if she does, I figure they'll be pretty worried about her. And if not, she'll need looking after."
Muse, by Sonya Taaffe: Poetry.; With ink I feathered you, at your fingertips sketched
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Jan Morris's Hav, reviewed by Matthew Cheney
Tuesday: Cherie Priest's Dreadful Skin, reviewed by J.C. Runolfson
Wednesday: Carlos Fuentes's The Eagle's Throne, reviewed by R.J. Burgess
Thursday: Rob Grant's Fat, reviewed by Siobhan Carroll

3/5/07

Raindogs and Dustpuppets, by Chris Gauthier, illustration by Marge Simon: Fiction.; They had neither surface nor substance—they were little more than dog-shaped holes in the rain—but they behaved just like dogs.
We Will Not Go To Memphis, Then, by Jeff Jeppesen: Poetry.; We camp not far from the empty highway but no cars drive by.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Tuesday: Mary Gentle's Ilario, reviewed by Nic Clarke
Wednesday: Contact, for the Nintendo DS, reviewed by Erin Hoffman

2/26/07

Board Game Renaissance, by James Schellenberg: Column.; If you thought the future was virtual reality, there's a strong subculture that's going in the opposite direction: board games.
Horatius and Clodia, by Charlie Anders: Fiction.; "If you're a foreign currency, you can't come in," I said. "I'm not set up to do forex yet."
Be True, by Mary Alexandra Agner: Poetry.; Your devotion to mathematics and the three laws / of robotics prohibit romance and biology.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Bruce Holland Rogers's The Keyhole Opera, reviewed by Graham Sleight
Tuesday: Stephen Baxter's Conqueror, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont
Wednesday: Roger Levy's Icarus, reviewed by Pete Young
Thursday: Jonathan Barnes's The Somnambulist, reviewed by David Soyka

2/19/07

Megastructures, by Paul Lucas: Article.; However, if a civilization were to convert all of the material in the system to the job of supporting life, by creating the vast habitable surface area of, say, a ringworld or Dyson sphere, the problem could be circumvented.
Cloudy With a Chance of Star Formation, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; The densest parts of the interstellar medium remain far emptier than the best vacuums yet created in Earthly laboratories, and the gigantic scales over which the interstellar medium extends boggle the mind.
Foam on the Water, by Cat Rambo: Fiction.; I found my reaction to her unsettling. I've worked hard at eliminating reactions to women. Too much potential trouble. Too much potential scandal. Here in Thailand it wouldn't matter, perhaps. Back home it would.
Casting Her Lot, by Deborah P. Kolodji: Poetry.; Stranded from the outer galaxy, / she signs over her last ranch credits ...
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Tuesday: Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Wednesday: Ian Whates's Time Pieces, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Thursday: Bruce Boston's Shades Fantastic and Masque of Dreams, reviewed by JoSelle Vanderhooft

2/12/07

Dreams to Reality, by Ione Citrin: Art.; Her contemporary paintings and sculptures range from abstract to realistic to impressionistic - all visionary interpretations from her imaginative soul.
Dead. Nude. Girls., by Lori Selke: Fiction.; Her nipples are blue, too. He wants to touch them, take them in his mouth, to see if they, too, are cold. To see if he can warm them. But he isn't allowed to move his hands.
Jumping into the System, by David C. Kopaska-Merkel: Poetry.; We're fomenting revolutions on alien planets,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The James Tiptree Award Anthology 3: Subversive Stories about Sex and Gender, edited by Karen Joy Fowler, Pat Murphy, Debbie Notkin, and Jeffrey D. Smith, reviewed by Victoria Hoyle
Tuesday: Charles Stross's The Jennifer Morgue, reviewed by Mark Teppo

2/5/07

Tradition, by Joey Comeau: Fiction.; There are some words that connect with that secret part of you, and it feels as though you're opening up in slow motion like a flower on TV when you say them all by yourself. Last night, after I heard my mother say "atheist", I felt a bit of that strangeness. But standing in front of my mirror, I felt nothing.
Now We Must Speak in the Shadows of Silence, by Kendall Evans: Poetry.; the intermittent chant / of lunar eclipses
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Arthur C Clarke Award: A Critical Anthology, reviewed by Claire Brialey
Tuesday: Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts: The Grapple, reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy
Wednesday: David Langford's The End of Harry Potter, reviewed by Karen Burnham
Thursday: Rudy Rucker's Mathematicians in Love, reviewed by Yoon Ha Lee

1/29/07

Interview: Steve Berman, by Eugie Foster: Article.; "I'd say that more of my experiences make their way into my stories than elements of my personality. Not that I live such an exciting lifestyle, trust me, but tiny things do add an air of verisimilitude. Like when I stumbled onto a gay club in Mongolia while I was pretending to be straight."
The (Anti)Social "Casual" Gamer, or the Game Is Not the Thing, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; It seems to me that the main way in which games differ is this: are they played alone, or with others either physically or virtually co-present?
Three Days and Nights in Lord Darkdrake's Hall, by Leah Bobet: Fiction.; "No," he said softly. "I know who you are. The lieutenant's girl. The only woman Stoneburn's ever allowed in his Company. They'll come. And they'll die."
Crash, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; he managed to evade conscription
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men, reviewed by William Mingin
Tuesday: Peter S. Beagle's The Line Between, reviewed by Justin Howe
Wednesday: Elizabeth Moon's The Serrano Legacy, reviewed by Duncan Lawie
Thursday: Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson's Variable Star, reviewed by Nicholas Whyte

1/22/07

Dispatches from Planet France: A Cheese Map of France, Part III, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; No matter how many times I look at it, it keeps reversing my expectations. It does not show bordering countries, it does not show river networks, and, strangest to my mind, it does not even show cities. Paris is not on the cheese map. I am not sure I have ever before seen a map of France that did not show Paris. Have you?
Somewhere in Central Queensland, by Grace Dugan: Fiction.; They were the ones sheltering the dissidents who fled from the cities, and accepting the refugees who still continued to come from the north, when the government would have left them to starve.
The War on Terror, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; insecurity was our only security
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: A Thousand Words About Heroes, by Roz Kaveney
Tuesday: David Herter's On The Overgrown Path, reviewed by Finn Dempster
Wednesday: Jack McDevitt's Odyssey, reviewed by Karen Burnham
Thursday: Guillermo del Toro's El Laberinto del Fauno (a.k.a. Pan's Labyrinth), reviewed by David J. Schwartz

1/15/07

Some Breakthroughs Please!, by James Schellenberg: Column.; All that said, I guess I'm like those nerds who read the cautionary tale of Neuromancer and decided that the dystopia described by that book was a good idea.
Godtouched, by Sara Genge: Fiction.; She knows so many things she shouldn't. It's the hum, the godtouch that has told her all of this. Sometimes she knows if someone is alive or dead, sometimes she can tell if the clans will raid their dirty village. Most of the time she doesn't understand what she hears.
The Observatory, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; Now the observatory stores firewood
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Two Views: Doctor Who, "The Runaway Bride", reviewed by Nicholas Whyte and Tony Keen
Tuesday: George R. R. Martin's Dreamsongs, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Wednesday: L. Timmel Duchamp's Talking Back: Epistolary Fantasies, reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller
Thursday: Sound and Fury: The Sputtering Candle of Battlestar Galactica, by Dan Hartland

1/8/07

Beauties and Creatures, by Yifat Shaik: Art.; Drawn to fantasy (and fairies especially) since an early age, her art is inspired by the works of Brian Froud and Alan Lee, as well as by comic books and manga.
Lurking in the Dark, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; If we must anthropomorphize our neighborhood icy bodies (and I'm not recommending that we do), far better to celebrate lucky Pluto, a family man (with three bouncing baby moons, two newly discovered in the last year), and a home in a very popular part of town.
Before Paphos, by Loretta Casteen: Fiction.; It starts again. The baby begins to cough and choke.
Dead Light, by Ann K. Schwader: Poetry.; As it happened, the star she wished on burned
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: John Clute's The Darkening Garden, reviewed by Sarah Monette
Tuesday: H.G. Wells's Star Begotten, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Wednesday: Gwyneth Jones's Rainbow Bridge, reviewed by Sherryl Vint
Thursday: Torchwood: "Captain Jack Harkness" and "End of Days", reviewed by Iain Clark

1/1/07

Flight of the Useful Books, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; Some people who know me might assume the sorts of books I would find engrossing for a plane ride would be things like the complete works of Proust, or at least Faulkner.
Locked Doors, by Stephanie Burgis: Fiction.; You can never let anyone suspect, his mother told him. That was the first rule she taught him, and the last, before she left him here alone with It.
Noplace Like Home, by Elizabeth Barrette: Poetry.; And the strange moon hanging overhead / Is every shade from palest chrysoprase / Through emerald to almost black
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: 2006 In Review, by Our Reviewers
Tuesday: Stephen Baxter's Resplendent, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Wednesday: Robert Charles Wilson's Julian, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Thursday: Allen Ashley's Urban Fantastic, reviewed by Jeremy Adam Smith

12/18/06

"Do No Harm to Me or Mine": The Haunted History of Christmas Eve, by Marian Kensler: Article.; The attempts to Christianize Yule and Saturnalia were not entirely effective. Instead of becoming gradually transformed into wholly Christian holidays, as Gregory the Great had hoped, many of the old traditions continued unabated, particularly in more remote regions.
Heroic Measures, by Matthew Johnson: Fiction.; Pale as he was, it was hard to believe he would never rise from this bed. Even in the darkest times, she had never really feared for him; he had always been strong, so strong.
A Compass for the Mutant Rain Forest, by Bruce Boston and Robert Frazier: Poetry.; Travelers who venture this trek witness / these mutations and are soon transfixed.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's Salon Fantastique, reviewed by Nic Clarke
Tuesday: Paul Auster's Travels in the Scriptorium, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Wednesday: Alexander C. Irvine's Pictures From An Expedition, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Thursday: Don't Stop: A West Wing retrospective by Graham Sleight

12/11/06

The Art of Darkness, by Bob Hobbs: Art.; Bob Hobbs was born and raised up and down the east coast, the eldest of five in a Navy family. His talent in art was noticed early on while he was still in the second grade and continued through to his graduation from high school.
Interview: M. Rickert, by John Joseph Adams: Article.; "I started to distinguish between the feeling I had when I was writing someone else's truth, and when I was writing my own. I began to trust that feeling, though it is still very odd to me that my writing voice can be quite dark."
Love Among the Talus, by Elizabeth Bear: Fiction.; Nilufer raised her eyes to his. It was not what women did to men, but she was a princess, and he was only a bandit. "I want to be a Witch," she said. "A Witch and not a Queen. I wish to be not loved, but wise. Tell your bandit lord, if he can give me that, I might accept his gift."
The Robot-Emperor's Concubine, by Elizabeth Barrette: Poetry.; Some nights, after he leaves, / She sits on the windowsill / Staring into the night,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Pete Crowther's Forbidden Planets, reviewed by Mark Rich
Tuesday: Ray Bradbury's Farewell Summer, reviewed by David Soyka
Wednesday: Joon-ho Bong's The Host, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont
Thursday: John Meaney's To Hold Infinity, reviewed by Colin Harvey

12/4/06

cityCityCITY: Jack Kerouac's Science Fiction, by Stuart Cormie: Article.; Ultimately, cityCityCITY serves to emphasize Kerouac's oft-expressed view of his own society as a rampant machine, driven by a military-industrial complex, in which people exist merely to power the machine in return for the consumption of its output.
Dispatches from Planet France: A Cheese Map of France, Part II, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; It was not until that evening, when I took the Gouda out of the refrigerator to prepare the evening meal, that I noticed that the butcher paper wrapped around it was printed with an image, green on white. I opened it out and studied it. It was a map of France.
Isolde, Shea, and the Donkey Brea, by Ursula Pflug, illustration by Timothy Lantz: Fiction.; If I went on without Shea, the donkey and I would have more to eat. But I didn't think I could. If I told Shea what I'd done maybe she wouldn't judge me. Maybe she'd stay instead.
Bluebeard's Third Wife, by Helena Bell: Poetry.; I am the answer in Trivial Pursuit, / the first interesting prime,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: M. John Harrison's Nova Swing, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Tuesday: Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire, reviewed by Siobhan Carroll
Wednesday: Paul Haines's Doorways for the Dispossessed, reviewed by R.J. Burgess

11/27/06

Reading Fantasy Again, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Back when I was a kid, I read mostly fantasy. Then either I got jaded or the genre ran out of interesting things to say. Now it seems like fantasy is back!
Magnificent Pigs, by Cat Rambo: Fiction.; When I first took her to the hospital, they diagnosed it as Crohn's disease. Six months later, after I'd learned the vocabulary of aminosalicylates and corticosteroids and immunomodulators, they switched to a simpler word: cancer.
Kitchen Carcharodon, by Robert Borski: Poetry.; . . . it waits to strike down / the unwary, / the unsuspecting innocent
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Prestige: the film and the screenplay, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Tuesday: Catherynne M. Valente's The Grass-Cutting Sword and In The Night Garden, reviewed by Donna Royston
Wednesday: Joe Lansdale's Mad Dog Summer, reviewed by Duncan Lawie
Thursday: Tamara Siler Jones's Valley of the Soul, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont

11/20/06

Interview: Julie Phillips, by Matthew Cheney: Article.; The periods that got more emphasis were the ones for which I had more material. It worked backward from the way you might expect: if I had really interesting or revealing letters or journal entries for a particular period, then I wrote a chapter around them.
Smoke & Mirrors, by Amanda Downum: Fiction.; Brother Ezra, Madame Aurora, Luna and Sol the acrobats—familiar names, and a few she didn't know. She wondered if Jack still had the parrots and that cantankerous monkey. The show was here until the end of the month . . .
Iphigenia in Shaker Heights, by Mary A. Turzillo: Poetry.; Daddy kisses me, hands me onto the skiff, / going home to explain it all to Mom, he says.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu, reviewed by Victoria Hoyle
Tuesday: David A. Sutton's Clinically Dead, reviewed by Kelly Christopher Shaw
Wednesday: Judy Allen's Unexplained, reviewed by Matt Cardin
Thursday: Gary Fry's The Impelled, reviewed by Colin Harvey

11/13/06

Doppelgangers of the Mind's Eye, by Christina Cartwright: Art.; I originally became interested in web design, which is what I went to school for, but after taking some art classes I found a new passion.
Building a Better Beanstalk, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; Imagine being able to fly a hundred times more space missions for the same budget we have today, or being able to easily build orbiting structures that dwarf the International Space Station.
Body, Remember, by E. Catherine Tobler: Fiction.; I will not walk into the ocean today. It is more plea than pledge; I silently repeat the words and pray they become truth.
Sleeping Beauty, by Mary Alexandra Agner: Poetry.; Poor planning lets fate devour the happy story here-and-now.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Karen Traviss's Matriarch, reviewed by Sherryl Vint
Tuesday: Jim Younger's High John the Conqueror, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont
Wednesday: Philip Jose Farmer's Pearls From Peoria, reviewed by Danny Adams
Thursday: Keith Donohue's The Stolen Child, reviewed by R.J. Burgess

11/6/06

The Absence of Animals, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; While watching an episode of the new Battlestar Galactica, a television show I've recently become addicted to, my mind wandered to an idle thought: Where, I wondered, are the animals?
Pockmarked Cement, by Kaolin Fire, illustration by Thomas Dodd: Fiction.; Dharma Shankar, Ph.D., is in his field, juggling ears of corn while the locusts approach.
Sympathy, by Lucy A. Snyder: Poetry.; Sympathy evolved peripherally
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Julie Phillips' James Tiptree, Jr: The Double Life of Alice Sheldon, reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn
Tuesday: The James Tiptree Award Anthology 1, reviewed by Victoria Hoyle
Wednesday: The James Tiptree Award Anthology 2, reviewed by Victoria Hoyle
Thursday: James Tiptree, Jr's Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, reviewed by Adam Roberts

10/30/06

Taming the Beast—or Not: Night Journeys with Weyland and Hannibal, by Margaret L. Carter: Article.; Lecter, on the other hand, is one of the human monsters against whom the vampire [Weyland] is judged. In playing Beauty to Lecter's Beast, Clarice becomes complicit in his crimes.
Dispatches from Planet France: A Cheese Map, Part I, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; The Carrefour occupies the entire western end of the mall, with groceries sold on the ground floor and household goods upstairs, and huge inclined moving walkways that carry shoppers between the floors with their carts. To cover ground more efficiently, store assistants zip around on Rollerblades.
Dead Man's Holiday, by Nicholas Seeley: Fiction.; Coming back from the dead is like black nail polish or rubber bracelets: it's not so cool when everyone's doing it.
Blood Moon Sestina, by Jennifer Hudock: Poetry.; What crushes underfoot like old bones?
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Justine Larbalestier's Daughters of Earth, reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller
Tuesday: Max Brooks's World War Z (audio book), reviewed by Siobhan Carrol
Wednesday: Jericho, reviewed by Alasdair Stuart
Thursday: Ursula K. Le Guin's Voices, reviewed by Lisa Goldstein

10/23/06

Real Girls Don't: The invisible minority of female video game players, by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman: Column.; The cultural message is sometimes wrapped in hand-wringing and good intentions, but the underlying assumption beneath "Why don't girls play video games?" is still "Girls don't play video games."
High Windows, by Lavie Tidhar: Fiction.; The collar closed around my neck as the Ibn Al-Farid began its gentle acceleration towards the Jupiter system.
Moon Mirror, by Duane & Cathy Ackerson: Poetry.; she can't take her eyes off herself.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Jo Walton's Farthing, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Tuesday: Carolyn Ives Gilman's Candle in a Bottle, reviewed by Colin Harvey

10/16/06

Interview: Chuck Palahniuk, by Jeff Sartain: Article.; "A horror novel, as a social convention, is allowed to end in a dark way and to go to much darker places. It's sort of like labeling it right from the get go: 'This is not going to end well.'"
Winnowing the Herd, by Carrie Vaughn: Fiction.; I hoped my sigh wasn't too audible. For lack of anything that might have bled before being cooked, the only things that smelled edible were my co-workers.
Beach Climbing, by Elizabeth Barrette: Poetry.; Gills becoming lungs
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Charles Stross's Glasshouse, reviewed by L. Timmel Duchamp
Tuesday: Horton, Hartwell, Cramer, Strahan, Datlow, Link & Grant: The Year's Best Fantasy, reviewed by Nic Clarke
Wednesday: Kage Baker's The Machine's Child, reviewed by Lisa Goldstein

10/9/06

Future Ancestors, by Raul Cruz: Art.; Raul's artwork, inspired by Aztec and Mayan art, mixes traditional elements with science fiction and fantastic themes.
Everyone's Dilemma, by James Schellenberg: Column.; What should we have for dinner? That's the question that opens Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma... and the answer has become surprisingly complicated.
Spinning Out (part 2 of 2), by Jamie Barras, illustration by Carole Hall: Fiction.; In ages past, on other earths, Pateelhogol's people, the Telorim, had controlled a great empire built on fabulous devices like the weather wheels. But they had warred amongst themselves. Their empire had fallen.
Telling, by M. Frost: Poetry.; soldiers of your enemy wait / stroking the flanks of their guns.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: La Science Des Rêves (a.k.a The Science of Sleep), reviewed by David J. Schwartz
Tuesday: Alan Campbell's Scar Night and Jay Amory's The Fledgling of Az Gabrielson, reviewed by Finn Dempster
Wednesday: Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword, reviewed by Yoon Ha Lee

10/2/06

Secondary in Character, but First in Our Hearts, by Adrian Simmons: Article.; The fact is, most of us are not "main character" material.
The Crimson Desert, by Marshall Perrin: Column.; The first footprints on Mars will come no earlier than 2025, or more likely 2035. By that time, though, will there be many Martian mysteries left?
Spinning Out (part 1 of 2), by Jamie Barras, illustration by Carole Hall: Fiction.; As night fell, Cap'n Macintyre gathered the crew on the quarterdeck for a council of war. "Well, lads," he said, "what's it to be: keep running or turn and fight?"
Full Fathom Five, by Leah Bobet: Poetry.; Full fathom five you sing the change / into something rich and strange
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Glen Hirshberg's American Morons, reviewed by William Mingin
Tuesday: Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith, reviewed by Juliana Froggatt
Wednesday: Simon Haynes's Hal Spacejock series, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Thursday: Laurell K. Hamilton's Strange Candy, reviewed by Elizabeth Barrette

9/25/06

The Solitary Quest: The Hero's Search for Identity in Roger Zelazny's Amber, by Lyn Gardner: Article.; [T]he momentum and unity of the series arise not from Corwin's shifting outward goals—grand gestures that progress from escaping a sanitarium to claiming a throne and repairing the Pattern that is the basis for all reality—but from the continuity of Corwin's metaphoric quest for identity.
The Length of the Sentence, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; I am a lover of long sentences, of sentences that wind their way through various clauses and complements...
Mayfly, by Heather Lindsley: Fiction.; I'm talking about flexing my infant fingers with the memory of arthritis in my grandmother's hands. I'm talking about reading before teething. I'm talking about taking my first clumsy steps toward an electric bill I already know is due next Thursday.
Spiral Scream, by Ann K. Schwader: Poetry.; Was this what you heard, Edvard Munch, / in that moment / when vision shrieked like a mad sunflower
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: David Moles and Susan Marie Groppi's Twenty Epics, reviewed by Rose Fox
Tuesday: Frank Schatzing's The Swarm, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont
Wednesday: Mark Chadbourn's Jack of Ravens, reviewed by Donna Royston
Thursday: Lisa Tuttle's The Silver Bough, reviewed by Genevieve Williams

9/18/06

John Clute: Yakfests of the Empyrean, by Matthew Davis: Article.; The idea that the world can be read as a Story makes the act of criticism redemptive; it can return usto the wellspring of innocent and powerful creativity....
Sounding, by Elizabeth Bear: Fiction.; Pen keeps her own counsel about who the worthy one is. She works nights at Nantucket Cottage Hospital. That gives them another little boost. Just enough, maybe, to stay afloat. So far.
A Rebel's Pale Eyes . . ., by Robert Frazier: Poetry.; Seem to haunt this icy REM fugue of mine / The pixilated arcs of a black box imagery
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Clifford D. Taylor's Skinks: A Pet Store Odyssey, reviewed by Tim Phipps
Tuesday: John Scalzi's Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades, reviewed by Justin Howe
Wednesday: Edward J. McFadden III and E. Sedia's Jigsaw Nation, reviewed by Mark Teppo
Thursday: Theodora Goss's In the Forest of Forgetting, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum

9/11/06

A Magpie's Hoard, by Maral Agnerian: Art.; I simply find the human form beautiful, especially the female, and I love lush textures, rich colours, and fine details, so I try to impart all those things into everything I create.
Reading the Rhysling: 1981, by Greg Beatty: Article.; 1981 saw two poems awarded the Rhysling, poems at the opposite end of the speculative poetry spectrum, or better, at opposite ends of several speculative poetry spectrums: length, accessibility, and most notably attitude and relation to the genre.
Fairest, by Brian Attebery: Fiction.; It was the cloth itself that darkened, from milk white to a shade like the foam below the millpond. Her Highness straightened up and brushed her hair back, and in the mirror Abel saw the brightness that had passed from the cloth, now lighting and lightening her face.
Helen Says . . ., by Chris Szego: Poetry.; . . . much is passed on, you see. Oh, not the / surface—the face is due to my mother's mother
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Dozois, Horton, Strahan, Hartwell & Cramer: The Year's Best SF, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Tuesday: Lucy Sussex's Absolute Uncertainty, reviewed by James Trimarco
Wednesday: Lucius Shepard's Life During Wartime, reviewed by R.J. Burgess
Thursday: John Burdett's Bangkok Tattoo, reviewed by Jason Erik Lundberg

9/4/06

Fusion Future, by Paul Lucas: Article.; Researchers have been promising the "fusion breakthrough" for over half a century now. The reality of fusion power may not be as rosy as some would like to paint.
The House Beyond Your Sky, by Benjamin Rosenbaum, illustration by Vladimir Vitkovsky: Fiction.; Among the ontotropes, transverse to the space we know, Matthias is making something new.
The Last Alchemist, by Bruce Boston: Poetry.; when even the quarks / Charm and Strange rise / to a balanced breakfast,
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Polyphony 5, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Tuesday: Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Wednesday: ParaSpheres, reviewed by Darja Malcolm-Clarke
Thursday: The Vintage Book of Amnesia, reviewed by Graham Sleight

8/28/06

Interview: Mark Budz, by Tristan Davenport: Article.; Today everything is symbolic, and this symbolic world is the real world. This pseudoself is the real self.
Bureaucrats in Space, by James Schellenberg: Column.; The future and a present filled with dark magic meet in the theme of the bureaucrat, courtesy of Swanwick and Stross.
The Town on Blighted Sea (part 2 of 2), by A. M. Dellamonica: Fiction.; "They tossed away a million of their fry." Bitterness clawed her lungs; it was always a mistake, discussing this with kids. The words coughed out in spurts, like blood.
After the Last Spaceship, by Deborah P. Kolodji: Poetry.; A dying world's value / borne in a shoulder sack
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Mark Budz's Idolon, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Tuesday: Tamar Yellin's Kafka in Bronteland and Other Stories, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Wednesday: Etgar Keret's The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God and Other Stories, reviewed by R. J. Burgess
Thursday: Superman Returns, reviewed by Mahesh Raj Mohan

8/21/06

The Town on Blighted Sea (part 1 of 2), by A. M. Dellamonica: Fiction.; She took in everything at once. The blood, the corpses—one human and female, one squid and male—the smell of puke and, most important, the lack of an immediate threat.
Elementary Students Explore the Universe, by Helena Bell: Poetry.; these kids will in one week / discover the unifying theory of physics.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Marvel's Civil War, issues 1-3, reviewed by Jeremy Adam Smith
Tuesday: Amanda Hemingway's The Sword of Straw, reviewed by Rose Fox
Wednesday: Nini Kiriki Hoffman's Catalyst, reviewed by Duncan Lawie
Thursday: M. Night Shyamalan's The Lady in the Water, reviewed by William Mingin

8/14/06

Gallery, by Chris O'Connell: Art.; His professional work has come to include graphics development, photomanipulation, web design, and even video game development, with clientele in fields ranging from academia to small press literature to independent film.
Interview: Naomi Novik, by Rose Fox: Article.; I wanted Europe to be fairly recognizable, partly to take advantage of the fact that that's kind of the most familiar setting to my readers—Regency and Napoleonic Era England is something that a lot of readers have a lot of familiarity with from literature....
Loving Words, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; Some you love for superficial reasons, for their shape and color, for the texture of their pages and the scent of their history.
Flotsam, by Amanda Downum: Fiction.; Rebecca smiles back, but her stomach's sour again. Hundreds of red-haired girls in Ireland, no doubt, hundreds of children who think they see faeries. She drags deep on the cigarette, trying to settle her stomach. No reason to think it's her girl, her faerie.
To Her Mother, by Leah Bobet: Poetry.; I didn't want to let you down
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Naomi Novik's Throne of Jade and Black Powder War, reviewed by Rose Fox
Tuesday: Andreas Eschbach's The Carpet Makers, reviewed by Finn Dempster
Wednesday: Joe Abercrombie'sThe Blade Itself, reviewed by Siobhan Carroll
Thursday: Kage Baker's Mendoza in Hollywood, reviewed by Sherryl Vint

8/7/06

Draco Campestris, by Sarah Monette, illustration by Mack Sztaba: Fiction.; They were once a prized exhibit, but after the great taxonomic scandal under the previous Director, they became an embarrassment rather than a glory, banished to a cavernous hall in the sublevels of the Museum.
Home at Last, by David C. Kopaska-Merkel: Poetry.; remembering when / they kept her / in the sea
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Doctor Who and the Nostalgia Factor: "School Reunion," reviewed by Iain Clark
Tuesday: Happy Times and Places: "Love and Monsters," reviewed by Tim Phipps
Wednesday: Six comments on "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday," by Abigail Nussbaum
Thursday: The Big Picture Show: Who S2, reviewed by Graham Sleight

7/31/06

That Fairy-Tale Feel: A Folkloric Approach to Meredith Ann Pierce's The Darkangel, by Marie Brennan: Article.; The Darkangel evokes more than one genre, including the gothic and (in certain places) science fiction, so what quality are we pointing to when we say it echoes the feel of a fairy tale?
The Women of Our Occupation, by Kameron Hurley: Fiction.; They were from a far shore none of us had ever seen or heard of, and every night my father cursed them as he turned on the radio. He kept it set to the resistance channel. No one wanted the women here.
Giving Back the Moon, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; I left all the other moons in place.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Alan DeNiro's Skinny-Dipping in the Lake of the Dead, reviewed by Adam Roberts
Tuesday: Chris Roberson's Paragea, reviewed by Mark Teppo
Wednesday: Paul Levinson's The Plot to Save Socrates, reviewed by Colin Harvey

7/24/06

Interview: Lyda Morehouse, by Lynne Jamneck: Article.; [...] SF writers and readers have a certain amount of luxury to get angry about their genre. All we have to do is point to our amazing subversive history and say, "You know, that book/short story was groundbreaking. Where's our next big mind-expanding/consciousness-raising work?"
Dispatches from Planet France: The Ontology of a Rock Star, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; Except that Johnny Hallyday is a rock star in France, and, somehow, that turns out to make all the difference.
Minty Bags a Squidboy, by Michael Hulme: Fiction.; On quiet nights, they say, you can hear the wood creak and groan under the weight of all the many, many squid people. The squid people sing their songs to the sea, songs in slow, mournful, painful bellows. The sea doesn't want them, and the city doesn't want them either.
Trepanation, by Lucy A. Snyder: Poetry.; Headcutting is old as woodcutting
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, reviewed by Jasmine Johnston
Tuesday: Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, reviewed by R. J. Burgess
Wednesday: Lois McMaster Bujold's The Sharing Knife: Beguilement, reviewed by Greg Beatty
Thursday: Flatland, Flatterland, Spaceland: an education in three books, by Lori Ann White

7/17/06

Cartoons: Nostalgia and Nowadays, by James Schellenberg: Column.; If you want an instant blast of nostalgia, just think back to cartoons from childhood. And: any good cartoons out there now?
Silent Blade, by Leah Cypess: Fiction.; Danis woke up in the middle of the night and lay with her heart pounding, trying to convince herself she had only imagined the sound that had woken her. She had waited for that sound for five years, prepared for it day after day, dreamed of it night after night.
Field Notes, by Bette Lynch Husted: Poetry.; They have imagined something they call time.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Adam Roberts's Palgrave History of Science Fiction, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Tuesday: Justina Robson's Keeping It Real, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Wednesday: Stephen Baxter's Emperor, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont
Thursday: Half-Life 2: Episode One for PC, reviewed by Erin Hoffman

7/10/06

Green Glass Table, by Nathan and Noah Rice: Art.; Here in our studies of symbols, stories and tragedies, we excavate a personal web of embedded connections.
The Reader and the Map, by Johan Jönsson: Article.; How is a fantasy book with a map regarded, and what impression does the map give before the story has had a chance to tell us what it wants to say?
The Welsh Squadron (part 2 of 2), by Margaret Ronald, illustration by Ian Simmons: Fiction.; "Tournaments. Tournaments and idiots searching for Christ relics and fighting on horseback. No blood. Nothing about watching your own men die. Relics don't change that. Nothing changes that."
Mirror Man, by Cathy & Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; Deciding on a mirror as the perfect camouflage, / he drinks the liquid coating destined for one.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Brian Stableford's Streaking, reviewed by John Clute
Tuesday: Zoran Živković's Impossible Stories, reviewed by Nicholas Whyte
Wednesday: John Burdett's Bangkok 8, reviewed by Jason Erik Lundberg
Thursday: Stephen King's The Colorado Kid, reviewed by Bill Mingin

7/3/06

The Welsh Squadron (part 1 of 2), by Margaret Ronald, illustration by Ian Simmons: Fiction.; "Hitler's sent them to London. We should expect to scramble in a half-hour at most." He paused, then added, "There's a lot of them."
The Bather, by Joanne Merriam: Poetry.; but beautiful as the daze of nature's chlorophyll dynamos
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Nintendo Recent Release Roundup: Fresh Faces on Old Favorites in the Palm of Your Hand, reviewed by Erin Hoffman
Tuesday: Steve Cockayne's The Good People, reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn
Wednesday: Jon Courtenay Grimwood's End of the World Blues, reviewed by David Soyka
Thursday: Mythic, edited by Mike Allen, reviewed by Donna Royston

6/26/06

Interview: Selina Rosen, by Kenneth Mark Hoover: Article.; "We publish real complete stories...you won't find a bunch of atmospheric crap wrapped in a layer of angst that leaves you asking what the hell happened when you close one of our books."
Waiting on Alexandre Dumas, by William Davis: Fiction.; At the hostess stand, Jan was smiling and flapping her hand like a spastic penguin. Before her was a huge black-and-white black man. I mean, he was black, racially, but he seemed to be colorless, like an old black-and-white movie.
lis pendens, by Mike Allen: Poetry.; I filed suit for your soul today.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora, reviewed by C.M. Morrison
Tuesday: Robert Freeman Wexler's Circus of the Grand Design, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Wednesday: Kim Wilkins's Giants of the Frost, reviewed by Siobhan Carroll
Thursday: Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward's Writing The Other: A Practical Approach, reviewed by Genevieve Williams

6/19/06

Great Ideas, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; "How," someone will ask me, "can such a large topic be contained in such a small book?" Thankfully, I can read the quote on the cover to my interlocutor.
My Termen, by Eliot Fintushel: Fiction.; Has not one experienced this with radio whine when one moves about the room, and the static shall sing? So my Termen already had observed in 1919 at Yoffee Institute, when he is inventing said instrument. This is one's theremin, what my Termen called ethervox or termenvox, voice of Termen.
Distant People Gravitate To Distant Worlds, by John Grey: Poetry.; the first footprint on strange worlds, / and sometimes the last.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Elizabeth Bear's Worldwired Trilogy, reviewed by Claire Brialey
Tuesday: Elizabeth Bear's Blood & Iron, reviewed by Steve Berman
Wednesday: Ian Watson's The Butterflies of Memory, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Thursday: Jon George's Zootsuit Black, reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn

6/12/06

Gallery, by Douglas A. Sirois: Art.; Doug Sirois was born and raised in Massachusetts and learned to draw at an early age. As he got older he began reading and drawing his own comic books in the styles of his favorite artists.
Reading the Rhysling: 1980, by Greg Beatty: Article.; Once presented, the image seems so logical that it poses its own rhetorical question: why can't there be particles of darkness?
Dogtown, by Amanda Downum: Fiction.; She looked stretched tight too—something had her nervous, and it wasn't the killer across the table. Dark eyes flickered toward the window, and the night beyond.
A Feel for the Heavens, by Robert Frazier: Poetry.; often they have picked clean his ego and left him / hiking along the barren shores of physics
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Best. Franchise. EVAR: The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont
Tuesday: Ian McDonald's River of Gods, reviewed by Mark Teppo
Wednesday: Charles Burns's Black Hole, reviewed by Justin Howe
Thursday: Geoff Ryman's The King's Last Song, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum

6/5/06

Coals in my Toes and Other Fears, by Scott Warner: Article.; It's a fact that sometimes firewalkers are burned. I'd read accounts. The real question is this: if their bare flesh comes in contact with red hot coals, why aren't they burned more often?
Fourteen Experiments in Postal Delivery, by John Schoffstall, illustration by Michael Ryan: Fiction.; I realize that these are traditional gestures of male romantic affection, and express a desire for forgiveness. They are not nearly enough. You are trying to melt the glacier of my anger with the Bic lighter of your contrition.
Abductee: Two Sonnets, by Ann K. Schwader: Poetry.; It started with her coffee—
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: One Million A.D., edited by Gardner Dozois, reviewed by Matthew Cheney
Tuesday: Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Wednesday: Fredric Jameson's Archaeologies of the Future, reviewed by John Garrison
Thursday: X-Men: The Last Stand, reviewed by Iain Clark

5/29/06

No Superheroes Allowed, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Is there really such a thing as a comic book or graphic novel that a) has no superheroes and b) is science fiction? There's more than you might think.
Textual Variants, by Rosamund Hodge: Fiction.; She couldn't even tell him the truth about why she felt weak. Because then she would have to tell him who the Warders really were, and who she was, and why she had spent the last three years fleeing across worlds and hunting for shards of the Crystal.
In All Probability, by K J Kirby: Poetry.; We always knew / we weren't the only world, not even / here in our own little system
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Ian R. MacLeod's The Summer Isles, reviewed by Graham Sleight
Tuesday: The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy, reviewed by Rose Fox
Wednesday: Daniel Abraham's A Shadow In Summer, reviewed by David Soyka
Thursday: Farah Mendlesohn's Diana Wynne Jones: Children's Literature and the Fantastic Tradition, reviewed by Lesley A. Hall

5/22/06

Fortune's Food, by Kit St. Germain: Fiction.; "It's not just cards, Father. She reads your coffee grounds, your food. She sees things in the linguini. Right on your plate. She told me my gold chain was between the mattress and the headboard. In my linguini! Is that right?"
Virgo H121, by Deborah P Kolodji: Poetry.; A gas cloud spins its wheels / unable to form the stars / of sister galaxies
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Two Views: Barth Anderson's The Patron Saint of Plagues, reviewed by Mark Teppo and Paul Kincaid
Tuesday: Simon Brown's Troy, reviewed by Ben Peek
Wednesday: Adam Roberts's Gradisil, reviewed by Finn Dempster
Thursday: Bruce Sterling's Visionary in Residence, reviewed by James A. Trimarco

5/15/06

Interview: James Patrick Kelly, by Victoria McManus: Article.; I started recording stories on cassette tape and giving them away as presents way back in the mid 'eighties. I am a big fan of spoken word fiction and do the greater part of my pleasure "reading" by listening to books from Audible.com.
Dispatches from Planet France: Me and the Giants (Part 2 of 2), by Susannah Mandel: Column.; For this reason I spent two and a half hours on a train, with a change at Brussels, for the pleasure of watching Goliath and his wife Madame Goliath parade through rainy Belgian streets under a looming sky.
Cinderella Suicide, by Samantha Henderson: Fiction.; Cinderella Suicide had the Whoremaster backed against the greasy-smooth wall of the Tarot, blade beneath his chins. She had that grinning-skull look that meant she didn't give a damn anymore.
The Glass Blower, by Karen A. Romanko: Poetry.; Inside the crystal sphere / in an identical wooden chamber / sits a glass blower, / completing a pretty vase
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Simon Ings's The Weight of Numbers, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Tuesday: Holly Phillips's The Burning Girl, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Wednesday: Carol Emshwiller's I Live With You, reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller
Thursday: Tobias Buckell's Crystal Rain, reviewed by Donna Royston

5/8/06

A Conversation With a Puppeteer, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; As we sat drinking our coffee in the warm night, I inquired as to how long D. had been with the puppet company and if it was his ambition to become a master puppeteer.
We Are Never Where We Are, by Gavin J. Grant: Fiction.; In '36 in Spain, on the losing side, we realized we couldn't give more than we had. We'd almost given everything: you were in a field hospital with a bullet in your thigh and we were arguing over how deeply we should be involved. We'd already lived so long and I thought we should be more than just footpads serving time.
Fallen, by Sheree Renée Thomas: Poetry.; The night a comet / with its silver tail / tucked between its legs / fell through darkness
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Shadow of the Colossus, for Playstation 2, reviewed by Erin Hoffman
Tuesday: Philip Reeve's A Darkling Plain, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Wednesday: The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana, reviewed by Tim Phipps
Thursday: Ken Macleod's The Highway Men, reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn

5/1/06

Interview: Barth Anderson, by Darin C. Bradley: Article.; "I'm not big into binary morality -- good versus evil, etc. -- but it's hard not to look at that viral dance and see a classic face off, a sort of reverse Lord of the Rings with a lone, unliving microbe sneaking its evil way past the immune system in order to sabotage the good, pristine body."
The Water-Poet and the Four Seasons, by David J. Schwartz, illustration by Ann-Cathrine Loo: Fiction.; Spring stands at the Water-Poet's door in a top hat and tails. He asks the Water-Poet to write him a fog sestina, a dozen sudden downpours, and forty-three cool showers for tomorrow.
Taking Back the Moon, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; Real estate agents \ may notice a gap in the night sky.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Allen Steele's Coyote Trilogy, reviewed by Justin Howe
Tuesday: Alexandre Aja's The Hills Have Eyes, reviewed by Jonathan McCalmont
Wednesday: Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu's Zahrah the Windseeker, reviewed by Genevieve Williams
Thursday: Liz Williams's Darkland, reviewed by Colin Harvey

4/24/06

Scare Tactics: Effectively Freaky Moments in Sci-Fi , by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic: Column.; Then there was that one night when the individual pieces of the metal frame to my canopy bed (stored in the very roomy, person-sized space under my bed) clanged together and sent me screeching down the hall in my Strawberry Shortcake nightgown.
Love Goes Begging (part 2 of 2), by Bennet H. Marks: Fiction.; Following the usual friendly preliminaries, I began to render service unto his urgently upright staff. Let me not suggest that this is an onerous task.
After Reading Stephen Hawking's Essays On a Nutshell-Shaped Universe, by Apryl Fox: Poetry.; Humankind, so small, they are tiny.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: L. Timmel Duchamp's The Red Rose Rages (Bleeding), reviewed by Lesley A. Hall
Tuesday: Ian R. Macleod's Past Magic, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Wednesday: Frances Hardinge's Fly by Night, reviewed by Donna Royston
Thursday: Conrad Williams's London Revenant, reviewed by Kelly Christopher Shaw

4/17/06

The Complete Miyazaki, Part 3, by James Schellenberg: Column.; I started this series last year, but I ran into an unexpected roadblock for this third installment.
Love Goes Begging (part 1 of 2), by Bennet H. Marks: Fiction.; "Cupid! What a delightful surprise!" His wings had shrunk to quantum fluctuations, and his teeth were yellowed and cracked, like Scrabble tiles in some ancient runic language—Lemurian, or Old Norse.
Marble People, by Bruce Boston: Poetry.; If marble people were / the world
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys, reviewed by Jasmine Johnston
Tuesday: Tony Ballantyne's Capacity, reviewed by Finn Dempster
Wednesday: James Morrow's The Last Witchfinder, reviewed by Farah Mendlesohn
Thursday: Kage Baker's The Children of the Company, reviewed by Colin Harvey

4/10/06

Visual Essays, by Ingrid Sundberg: Art.; Ingrid Sundberg grew up in Maine on the small island of Mount Desert. Surrounded by the ocean and forest, she began her appreciation of the connections between nature, spirituality, and art.
Interview: Douglas Lain, by Mahesh Raj Mohan: Article.; "My point of view is that humanity or American society has gotten off-track. We're coming upon a very destructive spiral. And I'm writing about reacting to that."
Every Angel Is Terrifying, by Nia Stephens: Fiction.; Sometime before he came to New York Reece flew through a windshield and landed on a knife of glass. We had all seen the scar during Reece's brief turn as a model in Life Drawing, compared it to the abdominal scars of Warhol and Basquiat. There were two other long, wide scars on either side of his spine. We almost envied him; as scars go, his were admirably aesthetic, and we believed that suffering was good for a young artist.
Stormland, by Elizabeth Barrette: Poetry.; I grew up / in a house made of clouds
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Write 'Em Until We Can't: Battlestar Galactica Lays Down Its Burdens, by Dan Hartland
Tuesday: Mark von Schlegel's Venusia, reviewed by Justin Howe
Wednesday: Jeffrey Ford's The Empire of Ice Cream, reviewed by Rose Fox
Thursday: Parietal Games: Critical Writings by and on M. John Harrison, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
2005 Reader's Choice Awards, by Susan Marie Groppi: Editorial.; Congratulations to all of the winners!

4/3/06

Reading the Rhysling: 1979, by Greg Beatty: Article.; Bishop's dance with Andrew Marvell and Stephen Hawking displays speculative poetry's bravura ambition.
Dispatches from Planet France: Me and the Giants (Part 1 of 2), by Susannah Mandel: Column.; You've come to live in a universe where giants in the wall are so familiar that nobody takes notice anymore.
The Los Angeles Women's Auxiliary Superhero League, by Elana Frink, illustration by Dylan Meconis: Fiction.; But no one sees Camille. She can't explain it, and she doesn't know why she's so sure that they don't see her, but there it is. She's invisible.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Silver Screen, reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller
Tuesday: Mappa Mundi, reviewed by Nicholas Whyte
Wednesday: Natural History, reviewed by Tony Keen
Thursday: Living Next-Door to the God of Love, reviewed by Tanya Brown

3/27/06

Interview: Karen Traviss, by Cheryl Morgan: Article.; "I often say that I have a duty to tell the truth in fiction. Fiction is a very good way of getting under people's radar, which is why it's a spindoc favorite."
Do Matchmakers Dream of Estrogen Sheep?, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; Depending on my mood I think the description of a person dominated by testosterone fits me pretty well, too, although I know I only think that because, being made of estrogen, I'm flexible and imaginative.
Wayfaring Girls, by E. L. Chen: Fiction.; Phil rolled his eyes. "I know exactly where we're going. East of the sun and west of the moon, right?"
Parchment People, by Bruce Boston: Poetry.; like the texts of old, / each of us would be a book
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Karl Schroeder's Lady of Mazes, reviewed by Ursula Pflug
Tuesday: V for Vendetta, reviewed by Iain Clark
Wednesday: Jay Lake's Rocket Science, reviewed by Rose Fox
Thursday: Kevin Brockmeier's The Brief History of the Dead, reviewed by Paul Kincaid

3/20/06

Colonizing The Moon, by Paul Lucas: Article.; However, not everyone is confident the ice will be able to be harvested as a useful resource. The temperature in the perpetual dark of those craters is hundreds of degrees below zero, making the ice steel-hard and razor-sharp.
The Flying Woman, by Meghan McCarron: Fiction.; The flying woman didn't fly above the clouds. "It's cold up there," she'd say, "and there's not enough air." She skimmed the roofs and treetops. Her legs dangled behind her, and she wore her wheelchair strapped to her back.
Spot in Space, by G. O. Clark: Poetry.; See Spot / gazing out the porthole / of his space capsule, looking / down at Dick and Jane
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts, reviewed by Graham Sleight
Tuesday: Jeff Vandermeer's Shriek: An Afterword, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Wednesday: Sharyn November's Firebirds Rising, reviewed by C.M. Morrison
Thursday: Amber Benson and Christopher Golden's Ghosts of Albion: Accursed, reviewed by Nicholas Whyte

3/13/06

Gallery, by Limor Golan Nesher: Art.; My artistic vision is to create out of spirituality, knowing, and seeing. While I turn my imagination loose, I wander between Earth and other worlds.
An Ingenious Use of Scientific Patter: The Great War and the Science Fiction of H.G. Wells, by David M. Higgins: Article.; H. G. Wells himself, in many ways one of the founding fathers of modern science fiction, serves as a perfect model by which to view the effects of the war on the genre as a whole.
The Measure of a Woman: Discussing the Chicks of Star Trek: The Next Generation, by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic: Column.; She's whiny, wimpy, sniffly, and, to top it all off, she's Wesley's mother. Is that not damning enough for you?
Towers, by Leah Bobet: Fiction.; She had felt strong enough to ramble the hills herself, to take up his sword, to defend and protect and be a guardian by his side. What had waiting been to that?
Stella Rosetta, by Yoon Ha Lee: Poetry.; No poem survives its own / translation.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Polder: A Festschrift for John Clute and Judith Clute, edited by Farah Mendlesohn, reviewed by Niall Harrison
Tuesday: Two Views: The Complete Calvin & Hobbes, reviewed by Juliana Froggatt and Mattia Valente
Wednesday: Y: The Last Man, reviewed by Jed Hartman
Thursday: Knowing Where To Look: The 2005 BSFA "Best Artwork" Award shortlist, by Pete Young

3/6/06

Sequels, Remakes, Adaptations, by James Schellenberg: Column.; One strategy in the face of overwhelming choice is to pick the familiar. So how do the different types of familiar stack up? With a bonus taxonomy.
The Purple Hippopotamus Wading Pool, by Joanne Merriam: Fiction.; Sherrie looked at him critically: dark hair, thin, tall, wedding band, nice suit. It was three o'clock in the afternoon on a Wednesday, and this was his fourth beer. Angela was sitting at his table, looking affordable.
Ajax Redux, by Bruce Boston and Marge Simon: Poetry.; I live in a land of ice / and mirth and explicit premise. / I'm starving, but I don't hunger / for your glittering glory.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Octavia E. Butler's Fledgling, reviewed by Rob Gates
Tuesday: David Marusek's Counting Heads, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Wednesday: Brian Aldiss's Cultural Breaks, reviewed by Mark Rich
Thursday: Bernard Cornwell's The Pale Horseman and Douglas Clegg's Mordred, Bastard Son, reviewed by Christopher M. Cevasco

2/27/06

Faery Cats: The Cutest Killers, by Lucy A. Snyder, artwork by D. E. Christman: Article.; Salinas says that, because of their invisibility, faery cats were left out of bestiaries and were often mistaken for other entities such as banshees, poltergeists, and boggarts.
Historians and Degenerates, by Joey Comeau: Fiction.; Who lives off the grid, anyway? Revolutionaries and criminals and historians.
Cherries for Buttons, by Joanne Merriam: Poetry.; I woke for a woman all tooth and whispered want. Like the oven she was / warm when met and cold when done.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon, reviewed by Rose Fox
Tuesday: Eric Brown's The Extraordinary Voyage of Jules Verne, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Wednesday: Richard Paul Russo's The Rosetta Codex, reviewed by Finn Dempster
Thursday: Lydia Millet's Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, reviewed by Ben Peek

2/20/06

Dispatches from Planet France: My Personal North, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; Last year, I kept overhearing my students in making jokes involving the number 62. I spent a long time puzzling over the possible meaning of this (pot joke? teen film? some French interpretation of a Kama Sutra position?) before it was explained to me that it was actually a post code.
Ignis Fatuus, by Eliani Torres: Fiction.; Catherine closed her eyes and stretched, throwing her head back and crossing her wrists high above her head. She reminded him again of a barely tamed feline, a leashed snow tiger, the old breeds of grimalkin.
Sweets, by Mary Alexandra Agner: Poetry.; must we smile, must we thank her / even though she never gives us sweets?
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Doug Lain's Last Week's Apocalypse, reviewed by Matthew Cheney
Tuesday: Maurice Dantec's Babylon Babies, reviewed by James A. Trimarco
Wednesday: George Zebrowski's Macrolife: A Mobile Utopia, reviewed by Justin Howe
Thursday: Electroplankton, for Nintendo DS, reviewed by Erin Hoffman

2/13/06

Gallery, by Gil Formosa: Art.; Smoothly morphing his skill and experience, artist Gil Formosa shape-shifts from animation to comics, cartoon to realistic, illustration to art direction.
Reading the Rhysling: Introduction, by Greg Beatty: Article.; [T]here is one area that has heretofore been neglected, and that is a systematic reading of the poems which science fiction poets have designated as superior.
Reading the Rhysling: 1978, by Greg Beatty: Article.; Rhysling's vision stands as a metaphor for all science fiction poetry, and perhaps for all science fiction: we write in verse what we cannot see with our eyes.
My Window Is Your Mirror, My Mirror Is Your Wall, My Wall Is Your Window, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; I am at this particular moment working from the assumption that you understand the majority of what I am writing here. I am, then, assuming that most of these sentences are accessible. To do that, I have to make some assumptions about my audience.
The Desires of Houses, by Haddayr Copley-Woods: Fiction.; The cord over the washing machine, the braided one, is waiting joyously for the teeth.
Summoning, by Tim Jones: Poetry.; the lighting of a candle / and the speaking of a name
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Jeanette Winterson's Weight and Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Tuesday: Jeffrey Ford's The Cosmology of the Wider World, reviewed by Tony Keen
Wednesday: Catherynne M. Valente's Oracles: A Pilgrimage, reviewed by J.C. Runolfson
Thursday: Catherynne M. Valente's Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams, reviewed by Niall Harrison

2/6/06

Michael's Spyglass: An Interview with Mike Coney, by C. June Wolf: Article.; "I think that [writing] has taught me always to be completely honest with the reader and never allow myself to take the easy way out for the sake of glib plot device."
Wrack, by Amanda Downum, illustration by Matt Hughes: Fiction.; It took a second to recognize the low sound she made as laughter. "I need the sea." Her voice was rough, sibilant; the sound made Jess shiver.
A Story for Winter, by David C. Kopaska-Merkel: Poetry.; The snow is deeper now and we cannot / get out
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Janine Cross's Touched by Venom, reviewed by Liz Henry
Tuesday: Life on Mars, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Wednesday: The Alchemy of Stars: Rhysling Award Winners Showcase, reviewed by Elizabeth Barrette
Thursday: Martin Sketchley's The Affinity Trap, reviewed by Mahesh Raj Mohan

1/30/06

Cooking Without a Replicator, by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic: Column.; I think I was hoping for something along the lines of a necessary addition of roasted chicory, raw meat drippings, or even refined mud to make it truly Klingon.
Portrait of Ari, by Mary Robinette Kowal: Fiction.; Ari looked up from the mat she was cutting. "So the secret to getting you to dance is sleep deprivation?"
At the Dump, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; chanted portions of the 1957 / Chevy Owner's Manual / to summon a virgin.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Scalpels and Surgical Masks: A Review of the Aurealis Awards Short Fiction Finalists, by Ben Peek
Tuesday: Terry Bisson's Numbers Don't Lie, reviewed by Nicholas Whyte
Wednesday: Jon Courtenay Grimwood's 9Tail Fox, reviewed by Mark Teppo
Thursday: Steph Swainston's No Present Like Time, reviewed by Donna Royston

1/23/06

Regeneration: The Return of Doctor Who, by Alasdair Stuart: Article.; Why is the series a success now when it was viewed as a failure sixteen years ago?
Small Press Roundup, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Looking for some of the best short stories and new material in the field? Try these small presses.
Estrangement, by Kit St. Germain: Fiction.; Her eyes widened in comprehension. "Ohhh. Gotcha. That would be Hamish or Vera. The parentals. They are always into things. They don't always know what they're into. What's the song do? Does it make sure that someone guards their daughter in case ravening Americans get her?"
The Journey to Kailash, by Mike Allen: Poetry.; I tell him I know a doctor / who can do something about that nose.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Lou Anders's Futureshocks, reviewed by Mahesh Raj Mohan
Tuesday: M.P. Shiel's The House of Sounds, reviewed by Greg Beatty
Wednesday: Scott Mackay's Tides, reviewed by Justin Howe
Thursday: Dale Bailey's The Resurrection Man's Legacy, reviewed by Colin Harvey

1/16/06

Interview: Lydia Millet, by Matthew Cheney: Article.; "I do think more Americans should read and educate themselves, to say nothing of engage in politics, and I do believe that if they don't take a more trenchant interest soon we're all doomed; but sadly, fiction is not going to save us from doom."
Listening, by Christina Socorro Yovovich: Column.; You haven't seen awkward until you've seen me washing dishes with a bookstand teetering on the edge of the sink, or folding laundry with a paperback held open by my toes.
The Machine, by Joey Comeau: Fiction.; A scientist (me) and a priest (David) walk into a bar, ten years before either of us are born, looking for a miracle.
The Dream Factory: Two Tours, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; the dream completer software / massages the story line / and develops alternate dreamlines.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Christopher Priest: The Interaction, reviewed by John Clute
Tuesday: Two Views: Doctor Who, "The Christmas Invasion", reviewed by Graham Sleight and Tim Phipps
Wednesday: Vera Nazarian's The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Thursday: Tim Pratt's The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, reviewed by Kelly Christopher Shaw

1/9/06

Gallery, by Patrick McEvoy: Art.; My biggest single influence is probably Jim Steranko—as a comics artist of course, but mostly as a cover illustrator. Luckily, or maybe not, I don't seem to have ended up with a style that looks too much like any of my favorite artists.
Dispatches from Planet France: Curiosities and Wonders, by Susannah Mandel: Column.; And, not least, there was that morbid, embarrassed adolescent curiosity: What do the French really think of Americans? Do they like us? Do they think we're cool? Immature? Were they even following what went on with that freedom fries debacle? How do we look, from all the way over there?
The Girl with the Heart of Stone, by Leah Bobet: Fiction.; "I am going to seek the Beast in the wilderness," she told him. "I am going to win my own heart back, by force, by wit, or by sacrifice."
SETI Hits Pay Dirt, by David C. Kopaska-Merkel: Poetry.; We have come, gods be spoken / between packing and material (?)
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Insert Your Lost Pun Here: Is ABC's Ratings Phenomenon Losing Its Way? by Abigail Nussbaum
Tuesday: Paul McAuley's Little Machines, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Wednesday: Aeon Flux, reviewed by Neil Anderson
Thursday: Karen L. Newman's Eeku, reviewed by Donna Royston

1/2/06

Surfing Hell at Mach Twenty-Five: The Science and Speculation of Atmospheric Reentry, by Paul Lucas: Article.; Getting into orbit can seem relatively straight-forward compared to screaming through burning layers of atmosphere at over two dozen times the speed of sound just to return home.
The Art of Entertainment, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; I've worked as a writer, director, and actor in plays for most of my life, and so three things can make me suffer while watching a show: the writing, directing, and acting.
Water, Fire, and Faith, by S. Evans: Fiction.; It's dark as ashes where she swims, her way lit only by the bioluminescent patches on her tail, fingers, and toes.
Swans Take Flight at My Father's Grave, by Scott Hughes: Poetry.; Put down this poem, / see it now: the black hole / stretching like a mouth
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: 2005 In Review, by Our Reviewers
Tuesday: Fiona Avery's The Crown Rose, reviewed by Genevieve Williams
Wednesday: Gardner Dozois's Galileo's Children, reviewed by Tim Gebhart
Thursday: Of Mice and Gender: The best-laid plans of Battlestar Galactica, by Dan Hartland

12/19/05

The Turtle Can't Help Us: The Lovecraft Legacy in Stephen King's It, by Margaret L. Carter: Article.; Although King, in It, overlays Lovecraft's cosmology with a dualistic world-view, he permits no outside force to rescue his heroes; but neither does he, like Lovecraft, attribute their escape to blind chance.
The Taste of Chicory at High Tide, by Lisa Mantchev: Fiction.; When a blues-singin' hoodoo-slingin' mistress calls, a man's got to reply.
Tales of the Chinese Zodiac: Goat, by Jenn Reese: Fiction.; It came as a surprise to no one except Yuhan himself that, in the Year of the Goat, he fell in love with one.
Chess People, by Bruce Boston: Poetry.; Some women would be queens, / both swift and extreme / in their influence.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Gary Westfahl's Science Fiction Quotations, reviewed by Jeremy Adam Smith
Tuesday: Terry Pratchett's Thud!, reviewed by Juliana Froggatt
Wednesday: Liz Williams's The Snake Agent, reviewed by David Soyka
Thursday: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, reviewed by Neil Anderson

12/12/05

Gallery, by Matthew Laznicka: Art.; Matthew feels that his style captures a depth not only of his persona, but portrays eras that have always captured his soul.
Interview: Nicola Griffith, by Lynne Jamneck: Article.; I lived in Hull . . . surrounded by people who in that time and place were considered the dregs of society: bikers, drug dealers, prostitutes, dykes, the terminally unemployed and unemployable. I starved and begged and did all the other things that one does to survive, and after a few years managed to drag myself free and onto my current super-respectable path.
Bone Women, by Eliot Fintushel: Fiction.; So fucking vulnerable and frank she was, the bitch, the innocent, it aroused in me, like a piano string, willy-nilly, humming back to the tuning fork its A-440, an answering emotion. Which I duly quashed. Don't they know, goddammit, that they're supposed to suck it up and amble on? It's a man's world, haven't they heard? I don't like feeling.
Where Elevator Music Comes From, by Thomas D. Reynolds: Poetry.; how resilient, yet how vulnerable, they have evolved
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume 1, reviewed by Ian McHugh
Tuesday: Rosaleen Love's The Travelling Tide, reviewed by Lesley A. Hall
Wednesday: Michael Cunningham's Specimen Days, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Thursday: Two Views: Ken Macleod's Learning the World, reviewed by Niall Harrison and Dan Hartland

12/5/05

Interview: L. E. Modesitt, by Cheryl Morgan: Article.; "From what I've seen in politics there are only two things that change the way things are. One is power . . . and the other is blood."
Untwitched: Games for the Rest of Us, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Are there any videogames for smart grown-ups? Anything for people without twitchy trigger fingers?
Intelligent Design, by Ellen Klages, illustration by Turner Davis: Fiction.; Nanadeus rolled out a sheet of clay while she waited for God to come in out of the void. Now that there was fire, there was much to be done. Systems and cycles and chains of being to set in place. And the oceans, which had turned out to be a little tricky.
Daughters, by Suzanne Burns: Poetry.; As murder chimed with the clockworks / you confessed to thumbing fashions
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Maureen F. McHugh's Mothers and Other Monsters, reviewed by Abigail Nussbaum
Tuesday: Michael Blumlein's The Healer, reviewed by Lori Ann White
Wednesday: Anne Sheldon's The Adventures of the Faithful Counselor, reviewed by Donna Royston
Thursday: Jeffrey Allen Tucker's A Sense of Wonder: Samuel R. Delany, Race, Identity and Difference, reviewed by Greg Beatty

11/28/05

Interview: Greg Pak, by Gwenda Bond: Article.; "The script has to work for the finished film to work—it's incredibly difficult to correct major structural story flaws on set."
Tall Jorinda, by Marly Youmans: Fiction.; "My beauty," he said, "you've got hair enough to stuff a mattress, you've got eyes like saucers, eyelashes like wheel spokes, brows like cane thickets. If you tripped, you'd cause earthquakes in California, tidal waves in Japan. Catamounts and grizzlies, Indian tigers and giant pandas should be your pets."
The Bones of the Tale, by Neile Graham: Poetry.; I read her bones like oracles
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Greg Pak's Robot Stories and More Screenplays, reviewed by Gwenda Bond
Tuesday: Graham Joyce's The Limits of Enchantment, reviewed by Lynda E. Rucker
Wednesday: L. Timmel Duchamp's Alanya to Alanya, reviewed by Matthew L. Moffett
Thursday: Alexander C. Irvine's The Narrows, reviewed by Kelly Christopher Shaw

11/21/05

Arctic Fabulous: Speculative Fiction and the Imaginary Arctic, by Siobhan Carroll: Article.; Even today, you can find conspiracy theorists who believe that the Arctic harbors alien spacecraft, for example, or that an international military alliance has covered up the existence of a tropical island at the South Pole.
In Borderlands Between the Clans, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; The worlds of popular fiction and literary fiction often look with jealousy and annoyance at each other.
Bearing Witness (part 2 of 2), by Marguerite Reed: Fiction.; "You show me a cosmonaut who doesn't have nightmares, you're showing me someone with no imagination. We all have 'em, we just don't talk about it."
Tales of the Chinese Zodiac: Horse, by Jenn Reese: Fiction.; The little mare shook her head like a child shaking off sleep, and pranced on his palm with her painted hooves.
Symbiosis, by K. J. Kirby: Poetry.; The cold hard hearts of gods / despise / the lickspittle loyalty of dogs
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Naomi Mitchison's Travel Light, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Tuesday: Orson Welles's Dracula, reviewed by J.M. Comeau
Wednesday: Francesca Lia Block's The Rose and the Best, reviewed by J.C. Runolfson
Thursday: Robert Charles Wilson's Spin, reviewed by Mark Teppo

11/14/05

Gallery, by Stephanie Rodriguez: Art.; Stephanie Rodriguez is an award-winning illustrator. Creating art is her passion in life!
Interview: Jane Yolen, by Mike Allen: Article.; "I don't sit around defining my poetic leanings. But I have read a lot of folklore, which redefines the way I see the world...[o]r underlines it anyway."
Table for Two at Sisko's: Eating Deep Space Nine, by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic: Column.; I'm sorry, but if an embryonic Clint Howard is going to kit himself out in sparkly go-go boots and pants and start reclining on silky pillows, when he offers me a drink, it sure as HELL better be chock-full of mind-erasing alcohol!
Bearing Witness (part 1 of 2), by Marguerite Reed: Fiction.; The biohazard bag floated by her knee. She pushed the pipettes in and zipped it shut. "Twenty more to go, and I don't have to run an experiment to tell you they'll turn out nonviable."
Tiger Lily Madness, by Cat Rambo: Poetry.; Tiger lilies for me, their petals dusted with black pollen / Like a moth's shadow
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Tricia Sullivan's Double Vision, reviewed by Claire Brialey
Tuesday: Jonathan Strahan's Best Short Novels: 2005, reviewed by Colin Harvey
Wednesday: Mirrormask, reviewed by Alex Saltman
Thursday: Night Watch, reviewed by Liz Batty

11/7/05

Scared Shitless: How to Rate the Creep-Out Factor in the Horror Film Genre, by Dr. Deems D. Morrione and Robert K. Morrione: Article.; ... [W]e would argue that the key to understanding Creep-Out factors lies in unknowability. The less you understand something, the greater potential it has to frighten you.
Science Fiction and Sex Ed, by Christina Socorro Yovovich: Column.; Smuggling the book out of my bag. Passing it, with a couple of dog-eared pages, to a friend. Seeing her read, then pass it along to someone else.
Adventures in Dog-Walking in Downtown Philadelphia, by John Schoffstall, illustration by Ingrid Sundberg: Fiction.; "Mom, I think there's a DVD player in your fish tank."
from FRANK, by CAConrad: Poetry.; after Mother / died her red / dress continued / baking pies
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Two Views: Geoff Ryman's Air, reviewed by Geneva Melzack and Iain Emsley
Tuesday: Encounters: An Anthology of Australian Speculative Fiction, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Wednesday: Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction, reviewed by Martin Lewis
Thursday: Doom, reviewed by Neil Anderson

10/31/05

Barfing Your Guts Out: Horror Films and the Gross-Out Scale, by Dr. Deems D. Morrione and Robert K. Morrione: Article.; If a Horror film fails to gross you out or scare you because you aren't seduced by its presentation, why watch it?
Star Wars Video Games: Better Than the Movies?, by James Schellenberg: Column.; The movie is never better than the book; further down the foodchain, the video game is never better than the movie. Right? But consider the case of Star Wars.
The Moon Is Always Full, by Charles Coleman Finlay: Fiction.; "You remember what Ralph used to say?" Martin asked. "We'd go outside and look at the moon, when it was just a half moon, and I'd ask him 'Is that moon half full or half empty?'"
When you left your body lying around, by Keyan Bowes: Poetry.; The face in the mirror was more familiar than my own
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, reviewed by Graham Sleight
Tuesday: Charles Coleman Finlay's The Prodigal Troll, reviewed by Genevieve Williams
Wednesday: Richard Bowes's From The Files of the Time Rangers, reviewed by Mark Rich
Thursday: Fantasy Magazine #1, reviewed by Pam McNew

10/24/05

So, Your Utopia Needs a Language..., by Tristan Davenport: Article.; Modern linguists agree that the notion of one language being more efficient or more expressive than another is pretty much hokum.
The Featherless Chicken, by Patrick Scott Vickers: Fiction.; It's hard enough to pluck a chicken when the feathers are on the outside, but the other way around is simply impossible. Harriet's chicken is a Total Failure.
John Travolta Stars in My Flick, by Earl J. Wilcox: Poetry.; I ask him: / Why are we drinking out of paper cups, anyway? I need / to know.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: China Miéville's Looking for Jake, reviewed by Kelly Christopher Shaw
Tuesday: W. Warren Wagar's H. G. Wells: Traversing Time, reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Wednesday: Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, reviewed by Lori Ann White
Thursday: The American Astronaut, reviewed by Justin Howe

10/17/05

Interview: Holly Phillips, by David Lynton: Article.; "The big presses are too conservative; the small presses are increasingly taking up the slack and publishing the more innovative or daring material, not to mention the new writers."
Fantastic Reality, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; A genre that must make room for Kafka and Beckett and Dostoevsky is perhaps no longer a genre but merely a definition of writing successfully.
Rapunzel Dreams of Knives, by Beth Adele Long: Fiction.; "Do you want to go? His country is truly beautiful. Though it's awfully cold and the men are said to be unusually brutish."
Tales of the Chinese Zodiac: Snake, by Jenn Reese: Fiction.; It continued like this for almost two months. Jin-Hua opened the pouch to feed the snake, and it hissed a vile curse involving her, her loved ones, and immense torture and discomfort.
The Greening, by Joanne Merriam: Poetry.; we know the sound / and see their footsteps' deep blue shadows and their occasional bodies
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Two Views: Serenity, reviewed by Mahesh Raj Mohan and Niall Harrison
Tuesday: Zoran Zivkovic's Hidden Camera, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Wednesday: Jonathan Cowie and Tony Chester's Essential SF: A Concise Guide, reviewed by James Palmer
Thursday: A Tale of Two Sisters, reviewed by Lynda E. Rucker

10/10/05

Beaming Into a Television Near You: The Fall 2005 Sci-Fi Lineup, by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic: Column.; There seems to be a steaming molten mass of monster and science fiction shows this fall. For a long time, it was really confusing. I mean, they all sounded very much alike.
They Fight Crime!, by Leah Bobet: Fiction.; Jack and Terri spend their nights off in the back of a '75 Caddy, fighting crime.
Also Sprach Fred, by Gary Lehmann: Poetry.; my brother-in-law posed as Fred Nietzsche on a trans-Atlantic flight
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Holly Phillips's In the Palace of Repose, reviewed by Yoon Ha Lee
Tuesday: Enki Bilal's The Nikopol Trilogy, reviewed by Mark Teppo
Wednesday: The 4400, reviewed by Selila Honig
Thursday: Lois McMaster Bujold's The Hallowed Hunt, reviewed by Greg Beatty

10/3/05

We Must Love One Another or Die: A Critique of Star Wars, by Athena Andreadis: Article.; Just as the boys in Star Wars are given the false choice between glory or love, the girls are given the thankless task of being feisty but unthreatening, without any guarantee of clemency for good behavior.
Failing to Teach The Hobbit, by Christina Socorro Yovovich: Column.; Instead, what I'm remembering are lessons I botched, and units which failed before they started, because I didn't have the slightest idea what I was trying to teach.
Pip and the Fairies, by Theodora Goss, illustration by Susan Moore: Fiction.; This is the sort of thing people like: the implication that, despite their minivans and microwaves, if they found the door in the wall, they too could enter fairyland.
The Strip Search, by Mike Allen: Poetry.; I thought I'd tossed all my hope away, / but when I stepped through the Gate, it still pinged.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Scott Westerfield's Peeps, reviewed by John Joseph Adams
Tuesday: Howl's Moving Castle, reviewed by Laura Blackwell
Wednesday: Chris Roberson's Here, There & Everywhere, reviewed by Mahesh Raj Mohan
Thursday: The Lost Generation: Threshold, Surface, and Invasion, reviewed by Mattia Valente

9/26/05

Interview: Judith Berman, by Victoria McManus: Article.; "Evoking the sense of wonder is also important in both SF and fantasy. But they part company in where you find it."
Why I Hate Zombies, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Well, for one, they're the living dead. And secondly, they show up in way too many computer games.
Severance Pay, by M. K. Hobson: Fiction.; I didn't apply for the job. You don't see "Angel of Death" in the want ads.
Summoning Stones, by Jennifer Crow: Poetry.; I call the pebbles / broken by ice, / smoothed by water and time.
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Judith Berman's Bear Daughter, reviewed by Jane Acheson
Tuesday: Battlestar Galactica, season two: the opening quartet, reviewed by Dan Hartland
Wednesday: Paul Park's A Princess of Roumania, reviewed by Kat Jong
Thursday: Lego Star Wars, reviewed by Tim Phipps

9/19/05

Equations and Inequalities, by Debbie Notkin: Column.; Even in its more twisted versions, the cold equation always results in the death of one person or group to save the lives or honor of another person or group
Exception (part 2 of 2), by Jason Stoddard: Fiction.; But Arcadia couldn't be destroyed. It ran on its own set of self-replicating nanoscale processors that blew on the wind until they found a place with sun and silicon and set about reproducing.
Tales of the Chinese Zodiac: Dragon, by Jenn Reese: Fiction.; In the Year of the Dragon, Kwong found a glittering scale by the well and brought it home to his wife, for it reminded him of the sea.
Some Houseguests Can't Be Helped, by Peg Duthie: Poetry.; Aunt Marybelle being Unitarian, see, / and thus already well-versed / in unnatural ways with peanut butter
Reviews for the week of: Review.; Monday: Doctor Who 2005: a feature-length review by Graham Sleight
Tuesday: Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners reviewed by Geneva Melzack
Wednesday: Byron de Prorok's Dead Men Do Tell Tales reviewed by Justin Howe
Thursday: Kate Wilhelm's Storyteller reviewed by Greg Beatty
The Big Picture, by Susan Marie Groppi: Editorial.; Movies, comic books, anime, video games, music, television shows, poetry—if it's out there and it's got some speculative content, we want to be reviewing it here at Strange Horizons.

9/12/05

Provocateurs of Sense, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; But the wonder of Seligman's book is that he is able to think about the two writers together, to discover their commonalities without ignoring their differences, to celebrate their achievements without blinding himself to their faults.
Exception (part 1 of 2), by Jason Stoddard: Fiction.; Something had reached through her memories, sending tendrils of thought from deep in her past to her present. As if another mind had tried to force itself into hers.
Son of an Astronaut, by John Grey: Poetry.; Now, everything gathers dust

9/5/05

The Ten Stupidest Utopias!, by Jeremy Adam Smith: Article.; We dream our fears as well as hopes, reflecting all the agonies and contradictions of the waking world; in dreams, demons rise from our darkest places.
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread, and ... UFOs?, by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic: Column.; Honestly, I didn't think Sci-Fi imagery was becoming such a "thing" with wine makers until I was browsing through a San Diego Trader Joe's and stumbled upon a bottle of Red Flyer table wine from Soledad, California.
Crow's Changeling, by Sarah Prineas: Fiction.; "I've come for the child," he said.
Swan Fetish, by Erin Donahoe: Poetry.; He slips out at night, / when his swan-wife is sleeping / and takes her cloak of feathers with him.

8/29/05

Where Does Science Fiction Come From?, by Guy Hasson: Article.; When was the last time you felt something so completely? When was the last time you knew that something about you changed the universe?
Family Tradition, by Frank Byrns: Fiction.; An amateur, like I said, but still ... he's keeping up with me.
Return Engagements, by Greg Beatty: Poetry.; When the whirring saucers came, / back in the 1950s, they came / for our women,

8/22/05

When Civilizations Collapse, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Could it happen to us? And are there any good story ideas on the topic?
The Strange Desserts of Professor Natalie Doom, by Kat Beyer, illustration by Kat Beyer: Fiction.; When I was little, I had the run of the lab. Sometimes I got into trouble.
Waiting for the Daemon, by Pamela Steele: Poetry.; Outside, hard frost has fallen / from the mouth of the moon

8/15/05

Interview: Kim Stanley Robinson, by Lynne Jamneck: Article.; "So it seems to me a kind of race between progress and catastrophe; and that being the case, why not write about progress winning out?"
On Spoiling the Plot, by Debbie Notkin: Column.; I can understand wanting to see Romeo and Juliet for the first time without already knowing that Romeo stabs himself because he believes that Juliet is dead, when in fact she has taken a medicine that allows her to feign death so they can run away together.
Tales of the Chinese Zodiac: Rabbit, by Jenn Reese: Fiction.; In the Year of the Rabbit, Peisun decided to paint her heart's desire on a stack of thin, tea-stained rice paper.
Red Sky, by Celia Marsh: Fiction.; She knew all the risks involved. She just thought that it would be worth giving up everything for even one trip. To be up there, looking up, falling down, nothing but distance all around.
Natalie, by Heidi Garnett: Poetry.; She'll always be a seamstress now, / sewn into a simple black dress,

8/8/05

Violet Miranda, by Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson: Art.; Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, page 24 of 24. A serialized graphic novel.
The Ten Sexiest Dystopias!, by Jeremy Adam Smith: Article.; Hell has always doubled as a heavy metal heaven of leather daddies and biker babes, where the bars are open all night and there's an ashtray at every table.
Truth In Labelling, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; Is this pursuit of truth the result of anxiety over our inability to live inside another person's mind?
The Fall of Changes, by Becca De La Rosa: Fiction.; My name is Lantern and I sell days.
Cabazon, by Samantha Henderson: Poetry.; Lucy's big ape eyes brimmed, / And he leaned close to hear her whisper: / I know what's it's like, Mr. Man; I have lost one too.

8/1/05

Violet Miranda, by Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson: Art.; Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, page 23 of 24. A serialized graphic novel.
A View from Outside: A Genre Conversation with Yoshio Kobayashi and Christopher Barzak, by K. Bird Lincoln: Article.; "In twenty to thirty years science fiction bookshelves will be gone. It will only be mystery, horror, and literature. Here in Japan, I am afraid the bookshelves themselves will be gone."
Toys, TV, and Trek: A Space Seedling's Journey, by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic: Column.; My collection of Barbie dolls, Barbie cars, Barbie clothes and Barbie shoes was rivaled only by my collection of Star Wars action figures, Star Wars spaceships, Star Wars posters, Star Wars records, and the Star Wars Ewok Village from Endor.
Cloud Dragon Skies, by N. K. Jemisin, illustration by Frank Wu: Fiction.; Even so, we kept our guard up. Who knew what new diseases they might have developed, up in the sky and surrounded by strangeness? Infected blankets. Germs as spears and arrows. Accept no gifts from them, the griots had warned, but of course people are greedy.
The Great Gnome Escape, by Duane Ackerson: Poetry.; guarded indifferently / by deer, ducks, and flamingoes,

7/25/05

Violet Miranda, by Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson: Art.; Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, page 22 of 24. A serialized graphic novel.
The Dangerous Duckling: Images of Beauty and Illusion in The Perilous Gard, by Yoon Ha Lee: Article.; [Kate] is no longer plied with illusions; she is given the tools to create her own .... [B]y the time Randal encounters Kate on All Hallows' Eve, he mistakes her for a fairy woman.
Roswell, New Mexico, by Christina Socorro Yovovich: Column.; I caught up on my three hours of messages, then sent a note to my online writing group: "In Roswell. Being abducted by aliens. Please help!"
Niels Bohr and the Sleeping Dane (part 2 of 2), by Jonathon Sullivan: Fiction.; My gaze kept wandering past the gorgeous mass of the castle, across the gray waters of the Sound, to the swelling of land on the other side. Sweden. Neutral Sweden.
Settler's Song, by Joanne Merriam: Poetry.; the way plumigan flock to the mowthorn at suggestions of snow.

7/18/05

Violet Miranda, by Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson: Art.; Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, page 21 of 24. A serialized graphic novel.
Vanity, DIY, the Multicorp, and You, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Avoiding publishing scams. And, it was loads of hard work: two do-it-yourself publishing success stories.
Tales of the Chinese Zodiac: Tiger, by Jenn Reese: Fiction.; When she was five, Suyee wished for a sister, and in the Year of the Tiger, her wish was granted. The baby was born healthy save for one thing: it wouldn't open its eyes.
Niels Bohr and the Sleeping Dane (part 1 of 2), by Jonathon Sullivan: Fiction.; The man who sat across from us was also a Jew, but he would not go to the camps with us.
Making Robot Poets Great, by Greg Beatty: Poetry.; They remembered perfection

7/11/05

Violet Miranda, by Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson: Art.; Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, page 20 of 24. A serialized graphic novel.
Interview: Bruce Bethke, by Lynne Jamneck: Article.; Mostly I read history ... the wonderful thing about history is that it's always far more absurd and entertaining than anything a reasonable person can imagine.
What's Going On Out There?, by Debbie Notkin: Column.; One thing in the air this year has been building for some time: an awareness of just how many groups, organizations, and initiatives out in the (somewhat) wider world are of interest to the WisCon, feminist, progressive science fiction community
Torn, by Daniel Kaysen: Fiction.; "Well, how happy could I be? My wife died. I was a widower. I'm not even thirty. Excuse me for not dancing with joy. And excuse me for not being ecstatic at a hint of the afterlife. Life should be like a computer file. At the end, it gets deleted."
Halos, by Tobias Seamon: Poetry.; halos once emanated above every human head

7/4/05

Violet Miranda, by Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson: Art.; Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, page 19 of 24. A serialized graphic novel.
The Collector, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; The cards depicted bizarre creatures such as Mushy Marsha and Wormy Shermy.
The Historian, by Joey Comeau, illustration by Becky Cloonan: Fiction.; The press last night had asked about the newest story, "The Secret Identity of The Cook". She'd explained that it was going to be published in a weekly news magazine, by the end of the week at the latest. The magazine would have first publication rights to all her histories, the stories behind the villains. Before this, she had given the stories out to everyone in the press, photocopied at her own expense. Now she was getting paid for her work.
Sturgeon Crosses Over, by Marge Simon: Poetry.; Light is calling

6/27/05

Violet Miranda, by Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson: Art.; Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, page 18 of 24. A serialized graphic novel.
The Western Genre Fled Across the Desert, and Stephen King Followed, by David M. Higgins: Article.; Yet in the middle of this sinking void, there is one thing that continues to hold meaning, to remain hard, and stable, and real: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
Pursued by a Bear, by Hannah Wolf Bowen: Fiction.; He was there, later, when they took the last bear from the wild. He followed her until she fell, tranquilizer dart bright against her shaggy coat.
Curse of the Void's Husband, by Bruce Boston: Poetry.; Beyond the lattice / a vacuum that devours / all it surveys with / aimless abandon.

6/20/05

Violet Miranda, by Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson: Art.; Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, page 17 of 24. A serialized graphic novel.
Your Corporate Network And The Forces Of Darkness, by Lucy A. Snyder, artwork by D. E. Christman: Article.; "Undead workers are kind of a gray area as far as the feds are concerned. And you bet your boots the unions are fighting it."
First Contact, by Christina Socorro Yovovich: Column.; I have the luxury of the whole summer off this year. My days are not filling up with other human beings.
Tales of the Chinese Zodiac: Ox, by Jenn Reese: Fiction.; In the Year of the Ox, Ting-An decided to plow his fields and sow them with animals instead of plants.
Happily Ever Awhile, by Ruth Nestvold: Fiction.; It wasn't that she hadn't forgiven him; she could hardly do otherwise, as much as she loved him, and it wasn't in her nature to be vengeful. She had forgiven her stepsisters, after all, when they stood there in front of her with bloody feet, their toes cut off to steal her prince from her.
On Any Given Midnight, by Ann K. Schwader: Poetry.; These stars will never shine so bright / as they do now. Our future lies / darker & lonelier every night.

6/13/05

Violet Miranda, by Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson: Art.; Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, page 16 of 24. A serialized graphic novel.
Hunters in the Great Dark, Part 2: The Weapons of Deep-Space Warfare, by Paul Lucas: Article.; Any physical object entering this field would become instantly charged, allowing an open circuit to form with the ship's capacitors. From an observer's perspective, it would look very much as if a bolt of lightning lanced outward from the ship to incinerate the incoming threat.
The Complete Miyazaki, Part 2, by James Schellenberg: Column.; Miyazaki's middle period has one world-renowned masterpiece, My Neighbor Totoro, and two other fine films.
The Disappearance of James H___, by Hal Duncan: Fiction.; In his white breeches and shirt open to the waist but still tucked in, he looks like some prince kidnapped by pirates to serve as cabin boy.
First Contact, by Joanne Merriam: Poetry.; Try sign language, semaphore, a series of notes. / Feel how the walls freeze and can't breathe.

6/6/05

Violet Miranda, by Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson: Art.; Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, page 15 of 24. A serialized graphic novel.
Hunters in the Great Dark, Part 1: A Hard-Science Look at Deep-Space Warfare, by Paul Lucas: Article.; Shooting a target a million miles distant would require targeting accuracy on the par of a sharpshooter hitting a flea from orbit.
Make It New!, by Matthew Cheney: Column.; It would be a shame for 2005 to be known as the Year of No Movements.
A Field Guide to Ugly Places, by Patrick Samphire, illustration by Liz Clarke: Fiction.; Scarcely twenty feet in front of him, a dozen kingfishers skimmed low over the chemical-streaked water in the culvert. He'd never seen even one kingfisher before; now there were a full dozen. If his heart hadn't been broken, Jamie reckoned he might have been amazed.
Picasso's Rapture, by Mike Allen: Poetry.; handsome, sullen, clad in / diamonds of rose and black, / wearing Harlequin's peaked hat, / the nature of his magic / as yet unsculpted.

5/30/05

Violet Miranda, by Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson: Art.; Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, page 14 of 24. A serialized graphic novel.
She Called Me Baby, by Vylar Kaftan: Fiction.; "The exact wording was 'I wish for my daughter to be cloned from my DNA, so that I may give her a secure future in every cell of her body.' Your mother was giving you a gift—badly, perhaps, but she meant well. Now, will you go see her as she's dying?"
Rattlebox, by David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Mike Allen: Poetry.; heat shimmer veils Heisenberg / details—the expected can never happen here, / but sometimes it just might.
A Short Note About Poets, by Susan Marie Groppi: Editorial.; The Science Fiction Poetry Association recently announced the nominees for the 2005 Rhysling Awards...

5/23/05

Violet Miranda, by Emily Pohl-Weary and Willow Dawson: Art.; Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate, page 13 of 24. A serialized graphic novel.
The Old Switcheroo: A Study in Neil Gaiman's Use of Character Reversal, by Jason Erik Lundberg: Article.; Gaiman takes this a step further by saying we can't really even know ourselves until we walk