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A change in the dating system so that the cover date is more in tune with when each issue appears, means that TTA #36 Autumn 2003 is followed by #37 Spring 2004. Spring? As I write this review hailstones are spattering the window, only three days before Good Friday!

Jay Caselberg. Iridescence.

A city has shaken itself free from the Earth, floating serenely above the clouds, through a collective effort of will by the population. Having freed themselves from the shackles of an Earthbound existence, all is well up to a point - that point being the one when people decide to take 'The Long Walk'. These walks are long, and as the city has finite boundaries, the walks end up in a vertically downwards direction.

When an acquaintance of Justin Kutsenda and his partner Janessa takes the walk, it spurs each of them to re-evaluate things. Justin explores the now unused subways, in a memorable sequence when he finds the underneath of the city, pipes and other services dangling like roots from a plant plucked from its pot. More suprisingly are the unbelievable number of large butterflies underneath the city. What can they mean?

Janessa has been comforting the partner of the friend who has taken The Long Walk, and in due course they decide to follow suit, leaving Justin devastated. However, as he stares out of the window a blue butterfly appears to be seeking him ou.

Caselberg effectively paints a picture of angst-ridden people so very alone in a big city, rootless and faithless and without direction.

Joe Hill. You Will Hear the Locust Sing.

A misleadingly lyrical title fo a gruesome horror story. Francis Kay, good for nothing white trash, has been having some very icky dreams of late, and is quite happy when they come true. For most of us, waking up as a huge cockroach which shoots acid out of its sphincter would not be our idea of fun (you will note that I have refrained from making any crude scatalogical jokes involving vindaloos and Guinness), but for Francis this is truly the stuff of dreams. His pop and stepmom are totally unimpressed, and when pop takes a pop at him with a shotgun Francis despatches him with gusto, gobbling up the remains for dinner.

Francis then heads over to school to wreak his mandibled revenge on his erstwhile schoolmates.

Karen D. Fishler. Mission Memory.

Fishler posits a relatively standard SF trope - troopers raised from children to fight, with hypno-therapy to help them recover from the obscene acts of violence that the chemical stimulants they use enable them to commit.

Jonathan is one of a close-knit crew, but he is having doubts. Their paternalistic C-in-C, 'Doc', has his eye on him, but despite the surveillance and close observation, fails to spot the extent to which Jonathan is rebelling. A chance meeting with one of the population which the soldiers are repressing causes Jonathan to make the final move, killing his colleague-sibs and Doc, and going native.

Not quite as subtle as Fishler's 'Miko' from the previous issue.

Gavin J. Grant. Rhythms and Complications.

A small rural pub is the setting for a short post-holocaust piece in which the small but varied assortment of survivors each react to their predicament in their own way.

Tim Pratt. Terrible Ones.

West Coast weirdness. Zara, a wannabe actress who makes her way at the moment through a bit of BDSM with paying customers, finds that her chance at a part is not made easy by the actions of a customer who can't separate his fantasies from reality, and, more bizzarely, a Greek Chorus, somewhat at a loss in making their predictions of doom in the 21stC Berkeley.

The savvy hero(ine), Zara, and the assorted group of weirdos make the story an entertaining one.

Tim Lees. Relics.

A young man looks back on his summer - an idyllic summer in (presumably) a Mediterranean island, spent making love to a beautiful local girls who has a knack for finding the flotsam from a crashed alien starship. Whilst such artefacts can fetch a little money, the big prize was the starship, and he looks back on the chance he spurned to see if that was a treasure which could have been in his grasp.

It's always a good sign when a story finishes with you wanting more, and this is a case in point - having the young man return, equipped to carry out a salvage could be a good story.

Conclusion.

A good issue, with the opening and closing stories being the pick for me