Maxima Library

Leslie What’s stories have appeared in Asimov’s, Hysteria, F&SF, Lilith Fiction Quarterly, and other magazines, journals, and anthologies. She tells us, “Whatworld can be viewed at: http://www.sff.net/people/leslie.what.”

Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s 1998 publications will include the last two novels in her Fey series—Fey 4: The Resistance and Fey 5: Victory—as well as her mainstream hardcover, Hitler’s Angel. She and her husband, Dean Wesley Smith, will also publish a novel, Captain’s Table, in this summer’s Star Trek crossover series. Her latest story for us is a heartbreaking tale about the many different kinds of loss.

If VR swallows the future, restaurants, bars, our friends, and even our souls may become imperfect copies of the past. As the bricks and mortar of civilization crumble like dying embers whose ghosts are wrought upon the floor, it will be left to the artist—seeking some form of originality—to cry out… NEVERMORE.

The author of our vibrant cover story has recently published a new novel, American Woman (Forge), and a collection of short stories, The Moon Maid and Other Fantastic Adventures. Several of the tales in this collection were first published in Asimov’s—including: “Gypsy Trade” (November 1992), “The Other Magpie” (April 1993), and “Werewolves of Luna” (December 1994).

In his latest story of star crashes, space pirates, bug-eyed monsters, sword fights, scantily clad hunks and hologram femmes fatales, Mr. Garcia has truly pcovided us with another fantastic and rewarding adventure.

Although he never met Avram Davidson in person, Michael Swanwick has always been a great admirer of his work. When the estate asked him to complete one of Avram’s unfinished stories, he was happy to do so. “Davidson was one of the great prose stylists of science fiction, and it was no easy task emulating him. As I wrote, I could feel Avram’s ghost standing grumpily at my shoulder, making disapproving noises whenever I got it wrong. He had left clues throughout the text, however, pointing the way to the story’s resolution, and I am confident not only that ‘Vergil Magus: King Without Country’ ends the way he intended, but that I have correctly identified and solved each and every clue he planted. Except one. I never did figure out the onions.” Grania Davis, Avram Davidson’s former wife and literary executor, recently finished one of Mr. Davidson’s novellas—The Boss in the Wall (Tachyon Press, May 1998).

Kage Baker tells us that “it is a matter of recorded fact that Robert Louis Stevenson did go off alone into the mountains above Monterey in 1879, where he fell ill and lay delirious for three days under an oak tree, before being found by hunters. Most literary scholars agree that he only blossomed as a writer of real promise after his recovery and return to England.” Whether he encountered someone like Joseph while he lay ill, has not been recorded, but “having been born in Hollywood, I can vouch that there really are immortal creatures working for the movie studios.”