"Time Sharing" by Leland Neville
"The Lion and the Lamb" by William R. Eakin
"Containment Syndrome" by Thomas Seay
"Shifting Gears" by Jean Rabe
"Come Back to Tell You All" by Tom Piccirilli
"The Play and the Thing" by Sarah A. Hoyt

The leadoff story in this issue, "Time Sharing" by Leland Neville, is a time travel murder mystery that opens with a quote from Bertrand Russell on the nature of physical events. As the story unfolds, we see a homicide detective conduct the first interview with a video-producer suspected of both illegal time-travel and the murder of a young girl. The suspect is on the backside of his fifteen minutes of fame, so the story is as much about the perversions of celebrity as it is about the murder and time travel. The narrative develops a healthy bit of tension between the detective and the suspect, and Neville gives us a decent enough glimpse of a future in which time travel has been outlawed and has thereby become a sort of playground for the wealthy, but the tension is periodically broken by the insertion of a series of second-person narratives which I was never able to integrate with the main storyline. Unfortunately, the Russell quote had also lead me to expect something more than the story offered.

Anyone who has done enough time in the academic world to have witnessed the coupling of young female graduate students with, shall we say, more mature scholars will get a kick out of William R. Eakin's "The Lion and the Lamb." Professor Kendrick Lamb (who isn't the lamb) and his paramour Chako (who isn't exactly a lamb either) are off on a revolutionary romp with Chako's unstable brother, Garreth, riding shotgun. Political philosophy, marital fidelity, intellectual integrity, academic freedom and governmental restraint collide in Lamb's memories as the three move closer to their shared destiny and betrayal. This is the second strongest piece in this issue.

According to the editorial introduction, Thomas Seay was a fifteen-year-old Georgia Tech student when he sold "Containment Syndrome" to Fantastic Stories, his first professional sale. Seay is to be commended for both achievements. The story was inspired by the notion that death row isn't harsh enough punishment to satisfy the family members of the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing. "Containment" is the newer, harsher version of death row – one that attempts to introduce an element of randomness of time of death, to parallel what befalls most murder victims. An inmate waiting his turn to die tells his story in a series of journal entries. As a result the story is on rails to some extent – we know where this train is heading. Personally I would have left off the Afterword, which tries to explain why anyone would get a look at the journal entries, but the story is a good first effort by a young writer.

"Shifting Gears" by Jean Rabe suffers from a shifting point of view that took me out of both the parallel story lines. First we have a small group of Marines who have been sent into hostile alien territory to rescue a group of miners. Meanwhile, we have an eccentric old robot repairman with a secret he apparently shares with the robots in his shop. The narrative moves back and forth between the two scenarios, keeping either from being very suspenseful and ultimately tying up neither. This story would've worked much better for me if Rabe had told the story of the robot repairman in the depth it deserved and skipped the combat scenes altogether.

Tom Piccirilli's "Come Back to Tell You All" grabbed me by the throat, horrified me, refused to let go, and then haunted me for a long time after I read it. Much of the old Hell and Damnation gang is here, and they are all just as terrifying as your worst Revelations-inspired nightmares. Read this one, but not before you try to sleep. A real stunner.

"The Play and the Thing," by Sarah A. Hoyt is a poignant examination of identity and change. As his family has done for hundreds of years, Narrator Cas runs the Swann-of-Avon, one of the last hotels in Stratford, on a nearly deserted Earth. A visit from an alien seeking a feel of Shakespeare's essence throws Cas into doubt about his conviction to keep the family business alive no matter what. Hoyt does a lovely job of showing us the depth of Cas's love for Stratford, tradition, family and so on. My only complaint is that Cas feels too familiar, too contemporary for a character hundreds of years into our future. His ultimate decision seems a bit arbitrary as well, given the depth of feeling Hoyt has imbued Cas with throughout the story. Stratford-in-decay is nicely painted here, though, and the story is a pleasant enough read.

Deborah Layne lives near Portland, Oregon with her husband and son. She is a graduate scholarship advisor at a small liberal arts college. Having earned degrees in History and Philosophy of Science, and Law, she is now grateful to be able to spend her spare time reading and writing fiction, the latter in the company of the Wordos of Eugene, Oregon.