This is NewCon Press's fifth volume of
original science fiction and fantasy stories, an admirable achievement
considering the prevailing ethos that anthologies don't sell. Even more
admirable is Whates's policy of combining big names with lesser known writers.
Pick of the crop here are "Underbrain" by Tony Ballantyne, a tale of
far future evolution on a colony world, its Wodehousian form belying its
macabre content; "The God Particle", by new writer Steve Longworth,
which interleaves God's visit to CERN with fascinating theories about quantum
physics; and Dave Hutchinson's "Multitude", a part of his ongoing
series about a post-catastrophe Britain in which psychopathic elves terrorise a
traumatised populace. The volume closes with Nick Wood's
"Thirstlands", set in a drought-stricken Africa, a beautifully
written study of a couple's tenuous relationship in a future where inter-brain
communication is commonplace.
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