Author James Alan Gardner has produced a number of excellent novels, including his first, Expendable which we reviewed when we interviewed him back in 1997. Here is his first collection of short stories, and they're just as good as anything he's written in longer form. He's even done a brilliant preface in which he sets up each story all at once rather than doing it one at a time, a trick I may well steal. In this collection you will discover some interesting facts too. Liverwurst may not actually be "peanut butter made from bologna" but it's a clever thought. I even found it reassuring ("Kent State Descending The Gravity Well") that though the author once penned a thesis on Black Holes, he'd forgotten the math...remembering only how hard it was to type all those equations. Thoughtful, wonderful stuff, and highly recommended. (EL)

(Source: Eos)