HANDSHAKE #47, A4, 2pp, free for SAE from J.F. Haines, 5 Cross Farm, Station Road, Padgate, Warrington WA2 0QG. Market information and news of SF-poetry-related events, plus poetry from K.V. Bailey, Steve Sneyd, Douglas Forward, Giovanni Malito, Andrei Gheorghe, Sean Russell Friend, John Light, and Brian Maycock.
HORROR GARAGE #4, A4, 68pp, $6.66 (2/$10) from Under the Volcano Inc., P.O. Box 53, Nesconset, NY 11767, USA (e-mail: horrorgarage@aol.com; http://www.darkecho.com/horrorgarage). A high quality horror magazine that manages to combine top-rate writers with a fascination for psychotronic B-movie excess. This issue's fiction comes from Lorelei Shannon, Gerard Houarner, C.A. Gardner, Bruce Holland Rogers, and John Shirley, plus an interview with Boston hardcore band Converge.
LEGEND #4, A4, 60pp p/b, £4 (4/£15; USA 4/$30; r.o.w. 4/£22) from Trevor Denyer, 7 Mountview, Church Lane West, Aldershot, Hampshire GU11 3LN (e-mail: tdenyer@ntlworld.com; http://www.roadworksweb.free-online.co.uk). A magazine of fiction, non-fiction, graphic stories, interviews and illustrations which will appeal to anyone who has an interest in Arthurian Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy, Alternate History, Alternate Worlds, Myth and Magic. This issue brings fiction by Sarah Singleton, Mark McLaughlin, John Grillo, David Gullen, Pamela Constantine, Martin Owton & Miriam Robertson, Mark Howard Jones, Hugh Cook, Lyn McConchie, Simon Bestwick, and P.K. Graves.
NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION #159, A4, 24pp, $3:50 (12/$32; Canada 12/$37; r.o.w. 12/$45) from Dragon Press, P.O. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY 10570, USA (e-mail: info@nyrsf.com; http://www.nyrsf.com). Essays, reviews and topical comment for the SF field from a thirteen-time Hugo award nominee. This issue features Russell Blackford on Arthur C. Clarke's Vision, Michael Bishop remembers early Dozois, G.T. Munoz on a Mexican classic of SF, Ariel Hameon on Rucker's Transcendence, Philip E. Smith on Ken MacLeod's dope-smoking saurians, and Donald M. Hassler on Stephen Baxter's spatial manifold.
PAPERBACK PARADE #56, A5, 116pp, $8 (5/$35, overseas surface 5/$55) from Gryphon Publications, P.O. Box 209, Brooklyn, NY 11228-0209, USA (http://www.gryphonbooks.com). Aimed at paperback readers and collectors world-wide, Paperback Parade is packed with features, articles, bibliographies and interviews. This issue carries an interview with pulp mystery writer Henry Slesar, plus Slesar paperback checklist, an appreciation of the Hank Janson gangster series, how travelling carnivals have featured in the pulps, and collecting the Boardman Pocket Readers.
SCAVENGER'S NEWSLETTER #214, A5, 24pp, $2:50 (12/$24; Canada 12/$23; r.o.w. 12/$29) from Janet Fox, 833 Main, Osage City, KS 66523-1241, USA (e-mail: foxscav1@hotmail.com; http://www.argentmoon.net/scavengers/index.htm). Monthly newsletter for SF/F/H/mystery writers and artists with an interest in the small press. Market news, letters and reviews from the USA, UK and elsewhere, plus fiction by Lyn McConchie.
SPECTRUM SF #7, 196pp B-format paperback, £3:99 (UK, Europe air and worldwide surface 4/£14; worldwide air 4/£17) from Spectrum Publishing, 53 Waverley Park, Kirkintilloch, Glasgow, G66 2BL (e-mail: pf@spectrumsf.co.uk; http://www.spectrumsf.co.uk). New science fiction from Charles Stross, Eric Brown, Mary Soon Lee, Josh Lacey, and David Redd.
CHANGE OF HEART by Jack Allen, ISBN 0-9703053-0-3, 313pp p/b, $14 (hardcover: ISBN 0-7388-6729-2, $25) from Burping Frog Publishing, 6654 Harding, Taylor, MI 48180, USA (e-mail: jallen@burpingfrog.com; http://www.burpingfrog.com). Jack Allen's debut novel is a fast-moving spy thriller about Josh McGowan, a Navy Intelligence operative who lives by his own selfless code of honour. His mission is to rescue the reluctant and beautiful Valeria Konstantinova, a former KGB agent being used by both sides as the Communist old guard plot to overthrow Russia's new demoncratic readership. As you'd expect from this type of book, plot takes precedence over character to a certain extent, but it's a well-paced book that keeps the pages turning right to the final shoot-out in the basement of the Kremlin itself, and setting up the next books in this energetic new series.
IN THE FIELD OF THE BLACKBIRD by David Stone, ISBN 0-903610-27-2, A5, 36pp, £4:50 (£6 outside UK) from G. England, 20 Werneth Avenue, Gee Cross, Hyde, Cheshire SK14 5NL (e-mail: nhi@clara.net; http://www.nhi.clara.net/stone.htm). New collection of work by a Chicago-born poet who has previously appeared in such journals as The Berkeley Poetry Review, Paris/Atlantic, Third Lung Review and Zine Zone.
