A nice big double issue, a fistful of reading. A novella, 4 novelettes, and 5 short stories along with a bunch of poems and several columns. Kind of a cool cover for Neal Asher's novella "The Other Gun".

The Other Gun • novella by Neal Asher
Through Your Eyes • shortstory by Linda Nagata
Writing in the Margins • novelette by Joel Richards
Gray Wings • shortstory by Karl Bunker
Julian of Earth • novelette by Colin P. Davies
The Wall • shortstory by Naomi Kritzer
Spider God and the Periodic Table • novelette by Alan Wall
Distant Like Stars • shortstory by Leah Cypess
The Oracle • shortstory by Ken Liu
Warlord • novelette by Tom Purdom

I like Neal Asher's stories. They are fun space opera. “The Other Gun” is set in his Polity universe and a little knowledge of that setting adds to the story I think, but not necessary since Asher slips in clues or explanations of all you need to know. This story has bits of action interspersed with a lot of description of stuff in this future universe. The story is nominally about searching for pieces of an ancient weapon called a farcaster, but the fun in the story is the characters and the quest which yields an unexpected but satisfying ending. Readers who enjoy this story will likely enjoy Asher's other work and vice-versa.

Linda Nagata's “Through Your Eyes” may click with readers who just cannot wait for their own google glass. This story seems all about showing off possible near future tech, but gets serious with issues about individual freedoms and rights and the War Machine. I didn't really like it much however.

I think my problem with “Writing in the Margins” by Joel Richards is that I couldn't buy the premise that some new process in the near future lets us tap into the memories of past lives and in fact pull them out onto a video recorder. Just too outlandish. As a result I couldn't go with the rather long and otherwise interesting story that played out.

I had a problem with the next story, “Gray Wings” by Karl Bunker, as well. I don't find it believable that people (in the nearish future at least) are going to be able to be bioengineered into growing wings so they can fly off on races across continents. And do overnight nano repairs that heal skin piercing leg breaks. That said, efforts are made to make it believable and this managed to be a rather touching short story that interested me.

I enjoyed “Julian of Earth” by Colin P. Davies. A man on a colonial planet gives tours and tells the legend of Julian. When a documentary crew comes to record this story and see the sites, hidden truths come to light. I thought the characters in this were well done for a novelette and I enjoyed it.

Naomi Kritzer's "The Wall" was a short and enjoyable time travel story. Maggie is at college and gets repeated visits from her much older future self "Meg" encouraging her to travel to Berlin because the Berlin Wall is going to come down. Little life suggestions are tossed in here and there as well. Eventually Maggie goes despite not being able to afford it and we find out why she needed to go in this nice little tale.

I liked “Spider God and the Periodic Table” by Alan Wall until the end, and it was an end that went on forever. A scientific murder mystery with a dusting of X-Files. Two scientists designing and patenting deadly weapons die mysteriously. The story played along fairly well but the end was unexpectedly strange and for me an incomprehensible gobbledygook letdown. Turned this into the weakest story.

“Distant like the Stars" by Leah Cypress was a mildly interesting short story about doors that can transport you instantly somewhere else. As a young child Leah opens a door in her house that leads to Jerusalem for example. She is one of a gifted few who can open these doors.

Another odd premise in Ken Liu's “The Oracle.” Some people get to see a minute of their lives in the future. People who see a criminal event are pre-judged. People react in many different ways to their glimpse of a defining moment. I liked this story.

Tom Purdom’s “Warlord” is a follow-up to two earlier stories that I haven't read. It felt a lot like jumping in to the middle of a novel. Otherwise it was a modestly entertaining military space opera piece about an unusual alliance in war. I liked it. ( )