Nice issue; tremendously rewarding. As an editor I especially like how Sheila Williams nailed the whole sense of stories sometimes forming a loose, accidental theme - I know that feeling well. Since it was a double issue, I'm not going to mention all the stories; just the highlights.

A novella, "Inclination" by William Shunn, kicked off the issue in a big way: great characterization, good plotting and conflict, setting and a well-thought out future all conspired to make this a memorable read.

I'm not into comic books (unless my collection of "What the!" comics counts), but "The Final Flight of the Blue Bee" made me feel like I might have missed something. It had that whole twisted superhero feeling down pat - the shifting loyalties, the melodrama, the twists and oddly satisfying outside-of-the-box ending. And you could just see a sequel in the works...

Since I just finished Kurzweil's THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR, "Datacide" hit me at a time when I was considering the future effects of strong AI. Well done, Steve Bain. We should be nervous about this, and your cautionary tale was entertaining and thought provoking.

"Except the Music" was lyrical and very deep. Kristine Kathryn Rusch never fails to touch me, and she's done it again with this tale of a classical musician's internal struggle with life, death and inspiration. She nails why creative people can be less than half alive with a powerful metaphor. Haunting.

Robert Silverberg, that consummate gentleman I've come to respect at cons, does for me what few writers can - he consistently slays me with the beauty of his prose while NOT throwing me out of the story. "Manned by an invisible crew, (his spaceship) has swiftly made its tumble through windows and wormholes, sliding down the slippery planes, through the thin places of the cosmos, descending by sly side-passages and tricksy topological evasions across the vast reaches of the dusty intergalactic darkness. Onward if goes, across the light-years (or around them whenever possible) skimming through nebulas aglow with clotted red masses of hydrogen gas..." *sigh* Clotted. And he gets aways with using adverbs, 'has', near run-on sentences and more because of his mastery of the craft. The words are his willing vassals, carrying the story forward in an elegant sedan chair. "Hanoz Prime Goes to Old Earth" is that rare beast, a far-future story with wit and panache that takes us to incomprehensible places and somehow lets us identify with the characters.

I admire Greg Van Eekhout's story, "The Osteomancer's Son," in the way that women with one kind of beauty admire those with another kind. I could never write this tale of magic and bones - its foreign rhythms and the rules of the magical universe are something that would never occur to me. But the feelings of love and the carry-through of traditions and skills, and the price one pays to follow in a parent's footsteps - those all resonated with me in a big way.

When the economy falls apart and reforms due to shock rejuvenation technology, how will the little people fare? R. Neube explores this by focusing on the survival skills of some fascinating oldsters in the dark and wonderful "Not Worth a Cent."

And, finally, I cannot tell you how much I appreciated that the circularity in Paul Melko's "The Walls of the Universe" looped back to his bio. That bit of subtlety was the icing on an already satisfying cake.