First up, congratulations on the artwork on this quarter's issue - for once the artwork is actually *art*! But what of the fiction.....?

The Super Man and the Bugout. Cory Doctorow.

Rather than being Clark Kent, the visitor from Krypton takes the identity of Hershie Abromowicz, and his domicile is Toronto.

A difficult mother, problems with the rent, a change of administration, and aliens all conspire to make the more mundane aspects of this superhero's life difficult. Enjoyable in it's own way, but none too subtle!

Father's Dragon. James Van Pelt.

An impressive piece of writing. The memory of his own father is plaguing Thomas as he struggles to communicate with this own behaviourally challenged son and his ... difficult... wife. Should he take the route his father took, escaping that which the future holds? Or stay and tough it out? Quietly effective, and the inner daemons are given the priority, the external means of flight just a minor role.

Rings Like the Blast of Light. Vivian Zenari.

A diary entry sequence - not a form of writing which I particularly enjoy. But in this case it works.

On Station Thetis, on a Saturnian moon, a young woman is pregnant with the offspring of a decidely offworld character. As the extended gestation reaches its conclusion, the child born has a startling feature - both mother and child see the world through each other's eyes, and the mother's perception is changed.

Last One. Holly Phillips.

Scary horror story in which a stalker (female for a change) seeks out her prey, aided and abetted by a shape-shifting hob. The woman is tiring of the chase, but those she seeks are possessed by daemons, and for her there can be no 'last one'.

Waking the Dead. Robert H. Beer.

Xenophobia: in one of many battles between humans and Chitters, the human medics (a M*A*S*H team) are combing the battlefield to see if any of their comrades are still alive in the statis fields which are trigged after major injury. One bubble hosts a Chitter, who manages to convey his opposition to the war.

Morris Carpentier has the task of looking after the prisoner, and he struggles to come to terms with the alienness of the prisoner. Finally a lack of cultural awareness proves fatal.

Flushed with Success. Janine Cross.

Inter-species cultural difficulties arise in this entertaining story. Dr Brock is one of a small team of scientists trying to communicate with the Sorenos. Difficulties arise frequently due to cultural differences, but the big problem rearing its head is that the main Soreno contact has, due to the status of being said contact, risen to such an esteemed position that he is now deemed worthy of mating. This signal honour is somewhat tempered, to human eyes, by the fact that after mating he will be consumed by the females he has serviced.

Paramount Cenmo is hugely upset at the human opposition to his attaining the pinnacle of achievement.

Snow White Dreams. Elizabeth Matson.

For me, the weakest story in the issue. Matson re-visits and reworks the Snow White story with a bit of Alice in Wonderland. The question for me - why?

The Valeherd. Lena DeTar.

A nicely understated, truly alien feel to this story. After his father's death, a young valeherd has to tend the strange, strange genmod 'cow' giving birth in their field. The nature of the symbiotic link between the genmod human and dairy beast is a strange one, and the story succeeded in taking me briefly to a very, very alien world, albeit for only 20 minutes or so!

Green Time. Steve Mohn.

A time travelling story, with visitors from the future travelling back in time to try and leave a message for their future selves to show that time travel is possible.

One of the travellers, pitched naked into the past, has to find his colleagues. But there are wheels within wheels - not time travel paradoxical wheels, but those in the human mind.

Conclusion.

A very good issue - certainly the most enjoyable of the three issues I have read this year. My only quibble remains the number of stories of a very similar, short, length. I would like to see one of the authors above given the chance to extend their skills at longer length.