I think this was a better than usual issue, not really strong, but it is competent and the opening story is good as are several other ones. Besides the usual columns and several poems we have three novelettes and five short stories. The story fiction content is:

The Discovered Country • novelette by Ian R. MacLeod
What We Ourselves Are Not • shortstory by Leah Cypess
The Unparallel'd Death-Defying Feats of Astoundio, Escape Artist Extraordinaire • novelette by Ian Creasey
As Yet Untitled • shortstory by James Sallis
A Stranger from a Foreign Ship • shortstory by Tom Purdom
That Universe We Both Dreamed Of • shortstory by Jay O'Connell
What Changes You, What Takes You Away • shortstory by Dominica Phetteplace
A Hole in the Ether • novelette by Benjamin Crowell

Brief comments:

“The Discovered Country” by Ian R MacLeod is about life after life, for those rich enough to pay for it. Pretty good story.

Leah Cypess had an interesting idea for “What We Ourselves Are Not” but I didn't really like how it played out. What it does do is raise some interesting questions about culture and technology.

The story with the very long title, “The Unparallel’d Death-Defying Feats of Astoundio, Escape Artist Extraordinaire” by Ian Creasey, was entertaining but a relatively minor piece. Astoundio is an escape artist in a future of immortals and his latest attempt will be to escape from a black hole.

James Sallis' very short and slightly humorous piece “As Yet Untitled” is a bit confusing to me. On the surface an actor (stage actor? film? both? anything? actor even?) who has been doing "Iain Shore" science fiction works has been told he now does westerns. So we follow him for a few minutes in his new western. That is it, in total. OK?

“A Stranger From a Foreign Ship” is a man with a talent in Tom Purdom's intriguing noirish story. Gerdom travels from port to port and takes jobs to extract information from "targets." He has a unique ability in that he can switch minds with people and he does this for a few minutes to rifle through a person's memories to find whatever information his client wants. On the current job he tails a young woman named Arly and is supposed to get credit card and account data and passwords from her memory. He has a bit if difficulty when he does this with her, hitting a wall of fear. Interestingly, the victim switches into the mind of their pursuer Gerdom as he invades the target mind. I liked how this one played out. Pretty well done.

“The Universe We Both Dreamed Of" by Jay O’Connell is an enjoyable short story. Aliens come to Earth and don't attack, subdue, take over or other nasty stuff. They come to talk to people. As the story says ... "It had been five years, maybe thirty million interviews, and nothing much seemed to have changed."

Now it was Joel's turn to have a visitation from an alien. He calls the visitor Zena and the interview is a test. I liked the story. It was probably my favorite.

“What Changes You, What Takes You Away” by Dominica Phetteplace is a riff on Flowers for Algernon. Although the story itself says it is more Rats of NIMH than Algernon.

"A Hole in the Ether” is by Benjamin Crowell. The story is dedicated to Ray Bradbury. That's a clue. The story is a little bit of a modern take on Fahrenheit 451. It is about a future where it seems a police state enforces perpetual copyright such that one can't seem to own a single book - esp. digitally. Mind altering or Death penalty enforcement. Not a happy world to live in. So this is a cautionary tale. A little bit extreme, a little scary and I thought it was very good.
3 plus stars for the issue ( )

A couple of strong outings from Leah Cypess and Tom Purdon. Jay O'Connel and James Sallis provided entertaining pieces. But I couldn't get into the hole in the ether or the title piece leaving this issue a strong three and a half stars. ( )

A couple of strong outings from Leah Cypess and Tom Purdon. Jay O'Connel and James Sallis provided entertaining pieces. But I couldn't get into the hole in the ether or the title piece leaving this issue a strong three and a half stars. ( )