Product Description
Science Fiction Magazine 144 pages, illustrated, digest size. ... Read more

Product Description
CONTENTS: ~ ~~ ~ SERIAL: The Quantum Rose (Conclusion) [Catherine Asaro]; NOVELLA: The Astronaut From Wyoming [Adam-Troy Castro & Jerry Oltion]; NOVELETTES: Emperor Penquins [Joseph Manzione]; As Time Goes By [Amy Bechtel]; Live Bait [Shane Tourtellotte]; E-Mage [Rajnar Vajra]; SHORT STORIES: Tempora Mutantur [H. G. Stratmann]; Out of Warranty [Gordon Gross]; GCEA [Laurence M. Janifer]; ARTICLES: Beamriders [G. David Nordley]; So You Want to Write a Law Story? [Joseph H. Delany]; Political Correction [Stanley Schmidt]; What We Don't Understand [John G. Cramer]; Biolog: Catherine Asaro [Jay Kay Klein] ... Read more

Product Description
CONTENTS: ~ ~~ ~ SERIAL: Shootout at the Nokai Corral (Part 3 of 4) [Rajnar Vajra]; NOVELLA: Walk in Silence [Catherine Asaro]; SHORT STORIES: A Deadly Medley of Smedley [F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre]; Emma [Kyle Kirkland]; Coming of Age [Mary Soon Lee]; ARTICLES: Isaac Was Right: N Equals One [Ben Bova]; Still Guessing, After All These Years [Stanley Schmidt]; Recent and Worthy [Jeffrey D. Kooistra] ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Civil War as it wasn't, deliciously so
The Civil War is the bloodiest conflict to ever rage over American soil, and was waged in a time that invokes a certain sad romance. Perhaps that is why it still burns to brightly in our minds, and stirs so many emotions.

Those emotions are pulled into strands and woven into a beautiful tapestry of the supernatural in this volume masterfully edited by Martin Greenberg. Though not all stories take place during the Civil War, some involve recreations, all capture the essence of the conflict, the pride, pain, and hope that made it so tragic. A complete list of the stories is:

*** Martial by Nancy Springer, *** A Place to Stand by kWilliam H. Keith, Jr., *** Hex'em John by James H. Cobb, *** Gettysburg Dreams by Brendan Du Bois, *** Images by Josepha Sherman, *** Ghosts of Honor by Denise Little, *** Boot Hill by Asaro and Resnick, ***The Three Cigars by Robert Sheckley, *** The General's Bane by Mike and Shiela Gilbert, *** The Federal Spy and Mix Julia by Karen Haber, ***Stew by Donald J. Bingle, *** Loose Upon the Earth a Daemon by Tim Waggoner, *** Surviving the Elephant by Lisa Silverthorne, *** The Pluck of O' Reilly by Gary Alan Ruse, *** Across Hickman's Bridge to Home by R. Davis, *** News From the Long Mountain by Braunbeck and Snyder, ***The Last Full Measure by Davis Bischoff and *** Burial Detail by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

This is a solid anthology, a haunting combination of horror and fantasy mixed with history. If you're looking for something well written but unusual, you could do far worse than this anthology.

Highly recommended.

At best, mediocre. At worst, pure drivel
CIVIL WAR FANTASTIC is a medley of 18 short tales of the supernatural or alternative history, told by various authors in the context of the War Between the States. However, the book might just as well be a collection of (rejected) scripts for the old TV series "Twilight Zone" and/or "Outer Limits".

A small minority of the stories are marginally inventive, or at least barely entertaining. In the "be careful what you wish for" category, a Confederate soldier of the 15th Alabama meets his aged future self immediately prior to the assault on Little Round Top at Gettysburg, and, at the persuasion of the latter, fires a shot that alters history. In a bit of blarney, a Southerner of Irish heritage in the Vicksburg trenches calls upon the leprechauns of the Old Country to help win the battle.And, during Lee's last retreat to Petersburg, a wounded Rebel soldier is aided by his descendent fighting in the Vietnam debacle.

While I admit that all of the fables are at least a little silly, most, unfortunately, are pure drivel and/or totally pointless. "Martial" is probably the worst: the first person account of a hapless nag mired in Gettysburg's present-day tourist attraction, who encounters the proud spirit of a Union cavalry remount. Then, there's the small boy saved by General Lee before the Gettysburg battle, when the latter will not accept a demon's help as it would require the ritual blood sacrifice of the former. Even President Lincoln becomes part of a farce as, unable to come up with words suitable for the Gettysburg Address, he is inspired by the ghosts of two of that field's combatants. Oh, and let's not forget the totally ludicrous "The Three Cigars", wherein the American Civil War is nothing more than a staged entertainment event, produced and directed by the future's First Rumanian Science Fiction Commando for the benefit of its national TV audience. (Huh?!)

If you're a serious student of the Blue-Gray conflict, don't bother with this piece of trash - not even if you're overrun by an attack of whimsy. However, if you're a moron in search of some serious mental stimulation ... buy it.

Better that your average short story collection.
The first story, told from a horse's point of view, wasn't all that great, and started me wondering about the rest of the book. Good thing I didn't give early. The William Keith story about the Alabama man who changes theoutcome of the Battle of Gettysburg, and in turn the war, based upon ameeting with himself from the future was execellent. And _Hex'em John_would make an awesome Twilight Zone episode.

I really appreciate thefact that all of the stories were written this year, probably for thisbook, and not a repacking of older stories that I have already read inother collections. Mr. Greenberg keep 'em comin'! ... Read more

Product Description
Hand-picked by Bram Stoker Award-winning editor Al Sarrantonio to revolutionize and galvanize the field of speculative fiction, Redshift signals the dawning of a new era in visionary writing...

Featuring ALL-NEW stories by:

Catherine Asaro
Neal Barrett, Jr.
Stephen Baxter
Gregory Benford
P.D. Cacek
Jack Dawn
Paul Di Filippo
Thomas M. Disch
Elizabeth Hand
Joe Haldeman
Nina Kiriki HoffmanNINA KIRIKI HOFFMAN
James Patrick Kelly
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ardath Mayhar
Barry N. Mazberg and Kathe Koja
Michael Moorcock
David Morrell
Larry Niven
Joyce Carol Oates
Kit Reed
Rudy Rucker and John Shirley
Al Sarrantonio
Peter Schneider
Dan Simmons
Michael Marshall Smith
Harry Turtledove
Robert E. Vardeman
Catherine Wells
Laura Whitton
Gene Wolfe
Amazon.com Review
In the decades since Michael Moorcock's magazine New Worldsand Harlan Ellison's anthology Dangerous Visions shattered taboos and transformed science fiction, editors have yearned to do likewise. But science fiction and Western society have changed greatly since the 1960s, and though new taboos have been born, there aren't many left. They can still be shattered, but any taboo-challenging fiction that appearsin the same year as the movie Freddy Got Fingered hasa tough job, and Redshift: Extreme Visions of SpeculativeFiction is hardly as extreme as promised. For example, nonwhite and homosexual characters are rare; the status quo goes largely unchallenged; and a few of the 30 stories are young-adult in tone and subject, with the others having little that would disturb new-millennium youth, a generation accustomed to wearing bondage/fetish gear to the dance clubs. The rare examples of taboo breaking include a black character with a disturbingly thick accent and a posthuman race that commits mass murder for policy; but the anthology's potentially most challenging story gets there as a result of publication after September 11, 2001: Harry Turtledove's well-written but traditional modern fantasy "Black Tulip" is sympathetic to Afghanis.

Ignore the subtitle. Redshift is a very good anthology of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with some stories, like Gregory Benford's "Anomalies" and Joyce Carol Oates's "Commencement," that will become classics of speculative fiction. --Cynthia Ward ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Not Extreme...
Redshift, a collection of science fiction, edited by Al Sarrantonio, is described as the best collection of new science fiction in recent memory. It contains forty short stories by various science-fiction writers. Sarrantonio describes this book as an anthology of speculative fiction stories. His goal was to collect and expand on works of science fiction. He received submissions from new writers as well as established science fiction writers. This collection contains three novellas, five novelettes, and twenty-two short stories.

Their are many stories in this collection, some of them are gems while others seem to lack a plot. Overall I found many of the stories interesting and entertaining. The first story, on K2 with Kanakaredes, a short story by Dan Simmons, really grabbed my attention. It is a story about climbing Everest sometime in the future. The twist to this story is that the three mountain climbers are accompanied by a spider-like alien who is a representative of his visiting species. Immediately following the story, Ursula Le Guin shares her story The Building. After the first story I was expecting more but found the plot to the short story lacking. The next few stories also seem to lack much of a plot. I did find some of the ideas interesting and unique, but there wasn't enough "meat" for me to continue finishing reading the book.

I was a little disappointed by this book. I love reading science fiction, but felt that the book could have been edited differently with higher-quality stories. I did not feel that this book lived up to its tagline of "the best collection", or that these authors "had shaped the evolution of science fiction". On the contrary, I would suggest reading classic science-fiction rather than spend time on this compendium.

Recycled rejects?
There are a few good stories here, but I strongly suspect that when Saratonio began pestering the authors for "cutting edge" material for this anthology that many of them sent in the first thing they could find in their reject piles.

7 good stories out of 30
I really liked Baxter's "In the Un-Black", Moorcock's "A Slow Saturday Night at the Surrealist Sporting Club" and Wells's "'Bassador", and liked the stories by Whitton, Kelly, Rucker+Shirley and Niven. But 7 stories out of 30 is not a good yield.

No "Redshift" here
While I am a big fan of several of the authors included in this anthology, this book was a disappointment. "Redshift: Extreme Visions of Speculative Fiction"? I'm afraid not. This is not hard sci-fi, or even good fiction. With stories like "what if MarilynMonroe and James Dean dated, and nothing out-of-the-ordinary happened?" or "A girl who turns people into bugs", the tales in this anthology consistently fail to satisfy. All in all, I have to say that Sarrantonio did a very poor job of selecting stories, and then gave the book a title that sets completely inappropriate expectations.

Hit and miss, but mostly a hit
A good collection of 'speculative' fiction. Mainly sci-fi, but some just 'what if' type scenarios. The one about James Dean and Marilyn Monroe was just boring, and there was one less than a page long that seemed rather pointless. Overall though, good to try out some stories like this that you might not come across in mainstream science fiction. I definitely recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description
A Mystery and Science Fiction featuring 6 exclusive novellas. These stories have never been published anywhere else. ... Read more

Product Description
Now, Sarrantonio presents another daring, all-new anthology showcasing some of the genre's biggest names and best newcomers. Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy sets the standard for fantasy in the twenty-first century. Fantasy as literature. Fantasy that reinvigorates and expands the field's horizons. Fantasy that takes the reader into the next millennium of human imagination... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Mostly boring
I've been reading Science Fiction and Fantasy for over 40 years and this anthology reinforces my opinion of anthologies by third-party editors rather than by their authors. Of the stories in this book, Flights, only two of the stories really caught my attention and I ended up completely skipping most of the rest, despite their so-called critical acclaim. Basically, this book is a collection of what the editor liked and woe to the reader who doesn't like the same things. At least with an author's collection, you can relate the stories to what the author himself writes and enjoys; and if you happen to like the author's own works, it's more likely you'll enjoy the same stories the author did.

To me, this book doesn't deserve the ratings everyone else has given it. While a few of the authors featured are authors I like, these seemed to be works that simply couldn't work anywhere else. If I had read this book before reading these author's other books, I would probably have never read those authors' other works. In other words, don't use this book as a touchstone representing the other titles by these authors; those other works may be better or worse than these stories.

contemporary fantasy
I always like collections of stories, because besides the authors you already know (the stories you try to collect), you always can find one or two knew pearls, new authors to discover

Flights soars on the wings of fantasy's finest
I initially bought this book out of my love for Neil Gaiman and his fiction.I wanted to read a rather elusive short story of his, which I wasn't disappointed by.To further add to my pleasure was how engaging the other tales were.All were imaginative, unique, and - at times - impossible to put down.

The only reason I didn't give this a perfect 5 out of 5 was because, as with any anthology, the stories can be hit or miss.While most of the authors and their respective styles compliment the collection, there are a few that just didn't grip me like the others.Keep in mind, this is more of a personal tastes issue than a comment against the authors, so I won't name names.I'll just finish by saying if you like fantasy anthologies, this is a wonderful addition.

original and refreshing
I didn't quite know what to expect from such a tile, what they meant by extreme. It's mostly unusual ways to approach fantasy, intended for an audience that matured from dragons and elves and expects a little bit more. I found many of the stories refreshingly original, twisted, and mind-bending. Among my favorites was a new take on Rapunzel told by an unlikely character, a sweet and sad story of a fallen angel, an interesting visit to Hell, and last but not least, a lion a bit too friendly to a certain witch. I also found some useful information, like how to tell when there's a demon around, by an unusual separation of cold and hot air. Good to know. An entertaining collection on the whole and that will most likely make me search for more books from some of the authors.

Quality Reading, Wonderful Book full of surprises....
Just received this this week,(good way to start the new year) and I'm impressed with this book but I'm not surprised with
anything that Al Sarrantonio put his hands to. What a cast of
characters that deliver these stories. I'm just finishing up
the great American East Texas storyteller Joe R. Lansdale and
his new story, "Bill, the little steam shovel" and its nothing
like I've read by Joe before but its so good, so like Joe Lansdale in its detail, humor and vision. This anthologyhas
so many great stories and what a list of who's who... Orson Scott Card, Joyce
Carol Oats, Neal Barrett jr., Charles De Lint,P.D. Cacek,
Robert Silverberg, Nina Hoffman, Neil Gaiman, David Morrell,
Ray Feist as well as the above master story teller Joe Lansdale
this is a great way to spend extra time around the holidays!
Pick your favorites! ... Read more