Reviews and Comments

A fantastic book about a fantastic book and the journey that Bastian Balthazar Bux undertakes with (and in) it.

Probably more people are familiar with the movies, especially the first one, but that only covers the initial journey Bastian unknowingly undertakes as he follows the adventures of Atreyu (and Falkor, the Luckdragon) in Fantastica, while being lead to the Childlike Empress who needs a new name to live; a name that only a human can give.

Conscious of his looks, Bastian is hesitant to do what the Childlike Empress needs. She resorts to her last option: a visit to the Old Man of Wandering Mountain and a retelling of the Neverending Story (in computer terms, an infinite, recursive loop) that can only be broken by an outside force: her new name which Bastian declares to be Moon Child.

Now in Fantastica, Bastian is given Moon Child's amulet, AURYN, with the instructions, "DO WHAT YOU WISH". And so he does, wishing for adventures that his heart desires. But it is only later that he discovers that every wish removes a memory of his real life; and a terrible fate awaits those humans that lose all their memories without returning to their world.

As Bastian is reduced to his last few wishes, he finally realizes just what he really desires. And with the help of Atreyu, he finally discovers the gateway back to his world, and with it a way to make both our world and Fantastica better. The story ends with hints that there are other ways to get to Fantastica, but that, of course, is another story.

An interesting feature of the book is the way the telling of stories and people experiencing the stories intertwine. For example, Bastian tells a story about the history of a city to its inhabitants and that story becomes the real past of the city, complete with buildings and magical items that, until a moment ago, only existed in Bastian's imagination. It is an interesting way to keep the reader wondering whether Bastian's adventures existed in Bastian's mind only moments ago, or were foretold long ago in Fantastica, and only now being experienced by Bastian. This crops up continually in the second half of the book and adds more meaning to the phrase, 'Neverending Story.'

An above average issue, with interesting stories by Rachel Pollack, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Rich Larson and Wole Talabi.

• "Homecoming" by Rachel Pollack: an interesting fantasy story about a person who can travel into fantasy realms around the world. In this case, a woman asks him to find a missing part of her soul. Doubts arise as he performs his job, but it is only on returning the soul that he discovers he may have unleashed an ancient horror on the world, and it may be up to him to save it. But there is a twist to the ending: people who have read the earlier stories about this Traveller might anticipate it.

• "Vinegar and Cinnamon" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman: in this fun story, magic is a given, but training to control it is required. For one farming family, a dispute between a non-magical elder brother and his magical sister goes wrong when she casts a spell at him in anger, turning him into a rat. As he adjusts to a life as a rat, while waiting for a counter-spell, he starts to discover things about the world as seen by a rat; as well as getting new abilities.

• "One Way" by Rick Norwood: a rather old-fashioned SF story about a down-and-out professor with a revolutionary theory meeting a young, brilliant enthusiast. Together, they prove that the theory works and will have a major impact on the world. But a crisis occurs when the theory is push a bit further. I call the story old-fashioned because it could have been written and published during the 'Golden Age' of Science Fiction.

• "Dunnage for the Soul" by Robert Reed: an interesting, speculative story about a man in the future which, due to what may be called 'voodoo science', is considered soul-less. His, and other soul-less people anger at society for treating them differently builds up throughout the story, and he discovers a solution to the problem: a solution that he may apply to the person who started the whole situation.

• "There Used to Be Olive Trees" by Rich Larson: an interesting story set in a future when much of the land is devastated, AI 'gods' rule the skies and land and what remains of humanity eke out a living. One person, who controls a nano-based augment, leaves his town because his machine implant that allows him to connect to the town's machine isn't working, and he fears the people will rip it out of him. Outside, in the wild, he meets a wilder who takes his nano augment hostage in return for help to get an auto-doctor machine working. But as he tries to communicate with the machine, he will learn some secrets of the AI gods and their plans for humanity; and he does not plan to play along with them.

• "The Regression Test" by Wole Talabi: an interesting story about a woman bought in to test an AI that is supposed to be a replica of her famous dead mother. Her test method would reveal that something is not right; but can she hold on to it when she discovers that she is in a trap set up to make her pass the AI as her mother.

• "A Gathering on Gravity’s Shore" by Gregor Hartmann: on a terraformed world, one of the workers is invited to a celebratory party. But while there, he runs into a biologist who makes him rethink about his alliance to either the world or to the elite people who are ruling the place.

• "On the Problem of Replacement Children: Prevention, Coping, and Other Practical Strategies" by Debbie Urbanski: written in the style of a report with case studies, it looks at various people whose children have been replaced in the night by doppelgängers and the effects it has on the families who try to cope with unfamiliar children. The story's link to autism is obvious, but the effect it has on the characters is no different.

• "Alexandria" by Monica Byrne: a widow is determined to build her own version of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, as a way to immortalize her love (frowned upon by her neighbours) for her husband. Small passages from the far future would show the effects the lighthouse would have.

• "Wetherfell’s Reef Runics" by Marc Laidlaw: a quirky story about a book collector on a pacific island who ends up with a strange book written by a visitor to the island who had just drowned. The book documents various 'lines of power' around the world and mentions a final one under the water at the island. His investigations would lead to a strange conclusion that maybe something under the water has been awaken.

A pretty good issue. The stories range from good to excellent, apart from one story, and some will make you ponder more deeply about the stories after it ends.

• "Everyone Gets A Happy Ending" by Julie C. Day: an urban fantasy tale about the end of the world caused by, of all things, bunnies. Yet, even now, the protagonist cannot help but fall in love with them.

• "The Noise & The Silence" by Christien Gholson: a tale that didn't connect with me about a man living in a city with constant vocal noise who is seeking for Silence.

• "The Transmuted Child" by Michael Reid: a fascinating tale of a monk and a child who go to the world of aliens to ask them for help. The aliens' technology embedded in the child is slowly driving the child to perform murderous acts, and the monk hopes the aliens can help. But her attempts at making the aliens understand the problem seem to fail; unless she makes a sacrifice that they can absorb to gain understanding.

• "Weavers in the Cellar" by Mel Kassel: a fascinating short tale of about spiders weaving garments for ants. But this is no idyllic fantasy, for the spiders are slaves and yearn to be free; but are enslaved for the horrors they did in the past.

• "Freedom of Navigation" by Val Nolan: a tightly written military story about a pilot who is shot down on an enemy asteroid. But his biggest problem is his mentally connected drones who, due to a failed communication uplink, become convinced he is a traitor and proceed to hunt him down. His only hope lies with the enemy and the nature of the uploading process to his only remaining loyal drone.

• "The Rhyme of Grievance" by T.R. Napper: in a future where machines have thrown most of humanity out of jobs, comes the first real AI. One person is determined not to let the AI be considered human and plans to destroy it with the help of an anarchic group. While she and the group mostly succeed, the story reveals that the AI has very long term plans; and the future may not be kind to humanity.

A little girl loves to explore the world. But one day, she finds a little lost robot and befriends it. As they explore the world together, she shows the robot the wonders of the natural world. But the robot's loss is noticed, and hunter robots are out to get back the little robot, and nothing is going to stop them.

It would need all the mechanical skills of the girl to save her robot friend from the hunters and to teach them the meaning of friendship and looking after each other.

Another interesting comic or graphic novel by Ben Hatke.

An interesting general book about dinosaurs. It includes the latest research on dinosaurs to give a comprehensive and up-to-date view of them.

The book starts with a general overview of the dinosaur family, starting from their beginnings. It then covers the dinosaur family tree, showing where the various known dinosaurs sit in it.

The book then covers the anatomy of dinosaurs, showing how the various bones fit together. Depending on your current knowledge of dinosaur anatomy, you may learn some things. For me, it was that the posture of sauropods as usually depicted in various museums may not be anatomically correct. And, of course, the hands of the tyrannosaur and various theropods.

The book then goes into what the fossils, and other information taken from them, can tell us about how dinosaurs may have lived, their possible behaviours and about the surrounding environment at the time.

The book then looks at the one surviving branch of the dinosaurs: the birds. It also looks at the event that caused the extinction of the rest of the dinosaurs and how the world looked in its aftermath.

Depending on how much you already know about dinosaurs, you may or may not learn something new from this book. But it will help to let you know what is our current knowledge about dinosaurs and what remains to be discovered.

A humorous and interesting story involving the usual clueless main character who discovers that he has been given a massive inheritance from a deceased relative. Only here, the relative is an uncle who turns out to have been a villain (complete with evil volcanic lair) who now wants him to run his evil empire.

As the story develops, it turns out the empire he inherits is not quite so evil after all. It does work for various governments and agencies. But it then quietly reuses the technology developed for other purposes. For example, a laser technology used to make rain gets repurposed (and boosted) to take down satellites (yes, it does get used in the story).

The main story involves the character interacting with other villains in the world who, while not plotting to take over the world, do want to accumulate vast wealth. And the death of his uncle opens up an opportunity for them to take over his business; and possibly get rid of him too.

The writing is fun and fast moving, with witty dialogue and explanations for why his uncle's evil empire does what it does. Perhaps, in the end, he doesn't turn out to be the villain he is expected to be, and the world might end up becoming a better place, if he survives the takeover attempts.

During a race that requires the racers to circumnavigate Io, the satellite of Jupiter, one racer does the unthinkable and tries to help another racer. That would cause the racer to reevaluate just what is important to her as a human and the nature of what the race does to them: for the racers are all enhanced, or 'repaired', after racing accidents. At what point do the enhancements make a racer less than human?

The third book in the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series throws a new mystery at the girls Ada Byron Lovelace and Mary Shelley, as well as their sisters. Ada is recovering from the illness she got in the second book, and she selects an apparently mundane case to recover, a lost dog. Only this is a special dog as it belongs to Mary Anning, the celebrated palaeontologist.

But before the case gets started, Ada's grandmother unexpectedly returns, throwing the agency into turmoil, for the grandmother wants Ada to get well and will not let her out of bed. As the girls work out ways to get together without been seen, they discover the case is not what is seems, for Anning's dog has apparently been kidnapped and will only be returned if Anning will authenticate obviously fake fossils at the upcoming opening of the British Museum.

Compared to the previous two books, this book concentrates more on the tricks the girls have to get up to avoid been seen by Ada's grandmother and banned from the household. Little detective work is actually done, and the resolution of the story apparently depends on Ada trusting Anning to do what Ada expects her to do at the museum. An unresolved plot point in this book involves the battle of wills between Ada and her unseen adversary (the smartest girl in England) who appears to be involved with the kidnapping.

Hopefully, the next book (a preview of which is given here) will return to concentrate more on the girls doing detective work and less on avoiding the grandmother.

In a world with rising waters, one community has chosen to live on the River in homes made from left-over plastics and other materials in a world that has chosen not to make such material any more. But rumours of a 'better life' on land gets the better of one person. And now they have to decide what to do when they do make landfall one again.

A better than average issue. Richard Chwedyk's story about bioengineered dinosaurs takes some time to get started but is a cracker of a tale full of interesting dinosaurs with fleshed-out personalities. Other good tales are by Robert Grossbach, Matthew Hughes, Arundhati Hazra and Eleanor Arnason.

• "The Man Who Put the Bomp" by Richard Chwedyk: another romp with the author's bio-engineered saurs (small dinosaurs) that live peacefully in an isolated home. But their isolation comes to an end when one of their designers comes to visit them along with a visitor that may have other intentions. Add to this mix a side-story about a toy-car that can somehow move (modified by their enigmatic genius of a saur, Geraldine?) and it promises to be an explosive ending.

• "Driverless" by Robert Grossbach: an interesting 'if this goes on' look at what happens when the competition between various driverless car companies causes the companies to make the cars more competitive and aggressive about picking up passengers; perhaps too aggressive.

• "Ten Half-Pennies" by Matthew Hughes: a light fantasy tale about a boy who initially pays for the services of a minder (with ten half-pennies) who works for a money collector. The minder is fascinated by the boy and takes him in as an assistant. Time passes as they get to know one another and trust each other. That trust will be tested when the minder asks him to steal a valuable and then sends him away for his own good. Only later does the boy learn what happened and resolves to help the minder and repay his debt.

• "The Avenger" by Albert E. Cowdrey: a story about a clash between two people over money that turns serious when the ruffian of the two goes too far and causes the death of the other. The widower goes to an unusual man for revenge. Through a series of induced visions, the ruffian is harassed and finally forced to capitulate.

• "The Toymaker's Daughter" by Arundhati Hazra: an interesting tale about a young girl with a gift for bringing toys to life. But her gift is misused by businessmen, making her withdraw into herself. By the poignant end of the tale, she is recovering and learning that she has to hide what she can do.

• "A Green Silk Dress and a Wedding Death" by Cat Hellisen: a fishing town by a river is suddenly seeing mutated fish. The source turns out to be a river spirit who has been waiting for the gift of a bride from the town, who now has to decide whether to give up her life in the town.

• "Miss Cruz" by James Sallis: a tale of a down-and-out man who discovers he has a gift for making people do what he wants them to do. Now the question is whether he will use the gift wisely.

• "Daisy" by Eleanor Arnason: an entertaining tale of a private detective hired by a known mobster to look for his pet octopus, presumed kidnapped. But the clues don't add up. If you know that octopuses are highly intelligent, you'll probably can give a good guess as to what happened, but the story still have surprises in store for the reader.