Call Back Yesterday • novelette by Nancy Kress **
Youngsters in hospital see visions in mirrors. Inevital escape follows.
Usually I like Nancy Kress, not this time.

Surprise Party • shortstory by James Patrick Kelly
Old actress gets a visitor inside her mind. Goes to a party, meet people. Not much happens, meets dozens of people, Boring story, mainly list of names the protagonist meets, at least feels like it. *

Burgerdroid • shortstory by Felicity Shoulders
Burgerjoint staffed by robots - or humans pretending to be robots. Nice idea, but not much story. Ends strangely. **

The Auctioneer and the Antiquarian, or, 1962 • novelette by Forrest Aguirre
Alternative take on Cuban crisis, sick boy meets an alien or has hallucinations? **+

Beneath Sunlit Shallows • shortstory by Derek Künsken
"People" genemodified to live in bottom of ocean in planet with 2 g gravity have a lot of trouble coping. One of the better stories, fairly depressive, but fairly good. ***

Gabe's Globster • shortstory by Lawrence Person
Horror story. Globular mass on a beach tries to control minds and eat everything. Nice. ***

The Hob Carpet • novella by Ian R. MacLeod
Society based on [subhuman - or not]slaves - A Lot Of Slaves. Good story, not entirely "waterproof" (slaves should have _some_ value, it after all takes time and effort to rise them) but well told, good read, best of zine. ****- ( )

An average issue with only "The Hob Carpet" being of real interest.

"The Hob Carpet" - Ian R. MacLeod 4/5
An alternate timeline where thousands of years ago, the Neandertals or "Hobs" became the slaves of the homo sapiens migrating from Africa, and subsequently develop a society that depends almost entirely on physical labor from slaves instead of any kind of technology. One man starts to realize that that system might be inefficient and that the hobs might actually have some humanity in them. An interesting story, although I don't really believe that a society with a slave/owner ratio of 1000 to 1 or more could actually work.
"Surprise Party" - James Patrick Kelly 3/5
Neural beaming technology allows fans to live inside celebrities heads. A has-been celebrity wakes up one day with her first beamer in a long time. A fairly predictable story.
"Call Back Yesterday" - Nancy Kress 2/5
Teenagers escape from an institute where they have been placed because they seem to see visions from different times.
"The Auctioneer and the Antiquarian, or, 1962" - Forrest Aguirre 2/5
A seemingly mainstream story of 1960's nostalgia.
"Beneath Sunlit Shallows" - Derek Kunsken 3.5/5
Human colonists are genetically engineered to survive in the oceans of a high-gravity world that suffers numerous meteor impacts. Interesting take on the ethics of genetic engineering, but did not really work as a story. ( )