Some weak stories in this issue.

The history of Poly-V - Jon Ingold

A team of young wizz kids develop a new drug that seems to sharpen and expand memory, and are confident enough to test it on themselves. It makes them rich but has other effects, which they cannot see but which are obvious to the reader.

Dance of the Kawkawroons - Mercurio D. Rivera

Two people land on a alien planet, which is peppered with strange derelict towers, having made discoveries using a drug called 'Inspiration'. They attempt to communicate with a strange flying creature, a Kawkawroon, and the 'dialogue' is seen differently by each. Hidden motives become clear and bad things are done but all ends well, as towers appear on Earth. Extremely cliched in style and story ideas.

Chimbwi - Jim Hawkins

Jason, who has a PhD in physics, flees a collapsing, fratricidal, Europe, with other refugees by boat south across the Mediterranean, to Africa and final sanctuary in Zambia. Advances in physics there have created practical fusion energy, the basis for a scientific renaissance. So far so good - then it all goes downhill. To be accepted in a supposedly advanced, rational, culture involves Jason undergoing a series of trials, a la Tarzan of the Apes, finishing by confronting chimbwi, the hyena. Jason as Tarzan is totally unbelieveable.

Flying in the face of God - Nina Allan

A love story (of a very complex nature) interwined with a desire to explore the unknown (the 'face of God'). Set in what appears to be a run-down near future Britain, Anita is in love with Rachel, who had been modified by a 'Kushnev drain' device to be a astronaut. Anita's mother, also a astronaut, whom she never knew, died in a take-off explosion, and she finds letters detailing her mother's love for a mysterious woman.

Johnny's new job - Chris Beckett

A satirical tale of what happens when a social worker fails to prevent a child in his care being murdered by a parent. What happens is mob justice, combined with a surprise for one of the mob.

The glare and the glow - Steve Rasnic Tem

Reads like a writing exercise rather than a story. A man who uses quotations all the time in his speech, because he lives in an old house with bad wiring that burns out light bulbs, buys a wierd new type of 'bulb' that glows eerily... ( )