This is a holiday themed issue and I think the last issue edited by Gardner Dozois, who had a very long reign as editor of the magazine before Sheila Williams took over. So it is an end of the era issue, and a fairly decent one with several noteworthy authors, a bit above average I'd say. I won't try to review each individual story (there are ten of them plus half a dozen poems), just cover a few highlights and interesting things.

Robert Silverberg's monthly column discusses trying to get a postage stamp for Isaac Asimov and James Patrick Kelly has a lengthy one on whether ebooks will survive (this before Nooks and Kindles). Peter Keck's book review column covers a half dozen books of the day, most notably an enthusiastic review of Jasper Fforde's "The Eyre Affair".

The fiction kicks off with a zany Christmas story, "The Christmas Tree" by Peter Friend. I do mean zany - Christmas trees in this story are carnivorous hunters, as well as most plants it seems. These strange tree creatures on rare occasions bear fruit, and so the story begins with: '"Grandma, I found a ripe Christmas tree!" I shouted as I burst into the Elderhouse.' This is really not your normal Christmas tale. A fun bit of fluff.

I found Paul Melko's "Strength Alone", one of the lengthier stories, rather touching. Our main character "Strom" is part of a pod in future earth where people are raised together and combine their various strengths. Decisions are made by consensus of the pod members. Strom's strength is, well, strength, and he has a lot of doubts about his value to his pod, feeling inadequate and poor in decision making compared to others. While on a training mission with his pod (and other pods) a disaster occurs and Strom is forced to think and act alone, while rescuing several survivors from another pod, and to become a leader among survivors. I really liked this a lot.

Other stories in the issue include "The Star Called Wormwood" by Elizabeth Counihan, a touching story of the last man on earth, and "Home of the Brave" by Allen M. Steele which is an OK segment from his "Coyote series. "Being With Jimmy" by Aaron Schutz was a sad touching short story told from the first person perspective of the narrator of a telepathic empath sort of person, who is isolated with several others away from society. They have to deal with and care for each other, which isn't easy at all.

I read a lot of Edgar Rice Burroughs in my youth and am really looking forward to the movie "John Carter" coming in 2012, so I suppose it would be hard for me to dislike Mike Resnick's "A Princess of Earth". It would seem that John Carter has become stranded on earth and longs to return to his princess, Dejah Thoris. Carter appears in the backyard of a widower who is lonely and dejected, having lost his own princess, his wife Lisa. I did enjoy this one.
It is not a Barsoomian tale of adventure, but rather a reflective tale of love, loss and hope.

"Red Hands, Black Hands" by Chris Roberson is a fairly well written story,an alternative history tale set on a red planet called "Huo Hsing" (presumably Mars in our timeline). China, in this tale, is the dominant power on earth, and apparently the solar system. It is a story about the power of ideas, and ideals, and the suppression of them. Pretty good story with a disappointing ending.

Neal Asher's "Strood" is a tale about omnipotent alien's revolutionizing human medical care. I just found it strange and oddly predictable and didn't care for it much, but it isn't a bad story. The last two stories were "Echoing" by James Van Pelt and "Reunion" by Keith Ferrell. Both stories were interesting and I was really surprised how "Reunion" played out.

Overall this has to be considered a fairly good issue with no clunkers. ( )