Very good issue with nice stories, no real stinkers.
Duel For a Dracowolf • novelette by Wolf Read
A pair of youngsters try to stop the hunt of half mysterious rare beast, dracowolf. But are they interfering with the customs of local natives? Ok story, but a bit too much sightseeing compared to real content, some condensing might have been nice. ***
Kissing Cousins • shortstory by Jerry Oltion
Continues the series about "ghost"astronauts (made incorporeal by a freak accident ) They land on an archipelago planet and find naked, gorgeous and very friendly race of humans. Nice place to visit, but not much other content aside of wish fulfillment fantasy. ***-
Waltzing My Tilde • shortstory by F. Alexander Brejcha
Alien visitors are offended by a stray remark on web. The author probably hadn't much used the internet before writing this story, as the error described is pretty stupid. Who would type long webaddresses by hand to get to discussions instead of using hyperlinks or bookmarks? **
Wrench and Claw • novella by S. D. Howe
There is a lot of room in earth's past for civilizations which might have disappeared without any trace. What if dinosaurs would have had an advanced culture? The story is split between a dig for dinosaur bones, and a moon base encountering probable end of the world – at least the world which is inhabited by intelligent lizards. Good story, exiting and well written. ****
The Dream of Nations • shortstory by Wil McCarthy
A future where every house is an independent state using very efficient recycling technology. Unfortunately the technology isn't perfect and slowly more uncommon elements are running out. For some reason (probably mainly for plot reasons :-) ) any digging is strictly forbidden so replenishing stores is very hard. And all prepared elements pellets are horribly expensive. (pretty unlogical, because with recycling with that sophistication demand should be fairly low, and supposedly no-one has much “hard” currency. So supply and demand should drive the prices very down very soon). Pretty fine story anyway aside those mentioned stupidities. ****-
Aggravated Vehicular Genocide • novelette by Christopher L. Bennett
A human colony ship using ramjet technology destroys an alien ship by accident, killing thousands. There must be justice, and the aliens put the humans on trial. Very nice and readable story. ****+
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