• Reflections • essay by Robert Silverberg
• The Playroom • poem by Wendy Rathbone
• The Narcissus Plague • short story by Lisa Goldstein (Nominated for Nebula 1996)
• The Doll House • poem by Wendy Rathbone
• The Scream • novelette by Brian Stableford
• Out of the Quiet Years • novelette by G. David Nordley
• Future Past: An Exercise in Horror • poem by Bruce Boston
• Mrs. Lincoln's China • short story by M. Shayne Bell
• The Clown Doll • poem by Wendy Rathbone
• The Man in the Dinosaur Coat • novelette by John Alfred Taylor
• On Wanderer's Day • poem by William John Watkins
• Windrider • short story by Jack McDevitt
• Drink • short story by Mark W. Tiedemann
• The Lovers • (a Hwarhath story) • novelette by Eleanor Arnason
• On Books • essay by Paul Di Filippo

Eight stories in this issue, four novelettes and four short stories. Plus poems, illustrations, and essays. Mostly weak or uninteresting stories with some good to excellent ones.

This issue was the first to carry Robert Silverberg's Reflections column in Asimov's and it continues to this day. Thirty years on top of the sixteen or so years preceding in which it had been published in various forms in Galileo and Amazing Stories. A very long run and the columns are invariably very good.

Highlights for me:

The Narcissus Plague was not a bad story but I forgot details from it within a day. You can read it online, however. http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/narc.htm

At the beginning of March I read a short story by Brian Stableford, who had just died, and I thought it dreadful. His novelette here, "The Scream" was much better and I did not see the twist at the end coming. A twist on the Frankenstein story. Glad I read it. There is an in depth analysis of the story, completely spoilery but interesting, here: https://marzaat.com/2023/06/17/biotech-revolution-the-scream/

This was near the start of G. David Nordley's short story writing career. He's highly regarded but I didn't have an opinion of what to expect when I read this other than his good reputation. I've read a couple of his stories before. Nordley is a hard science fiction writer, and the story caught my interest very quickly. "Out of the Quiet Years" is an exciting rescue set around Jupiter with some surprising twists. I am looking forward to finding more stories by Nordley.

After this, the stories lost my interest and varied from mainstream fiction to scifi to fantasy and somewhat didactic and pretentious at that.

The book essay by Di Filippo was very good. ( )