Stories published October 1997
reviewed by Mark R. Kelly
"Quin's Shanghai Circus", Jeff VanderMeer (Interzone, Oct 97) An evocative short story of a future city in which a down-and-out artist appeals to a maker of exotic critters for help, or employment.
"Secrets", Ian Watson (Interzone Oct 97) The proprietors of a jigsaw puzzle shop are commissioned by an elderly Norwegian to photograph statues of naked men and women in a sculpture park in Oslo. For their troubles they experience bad dreams and learn more about the history of Nazis in Norway than they ever expected.
"Space Opera", by Michael Kandel -- available at Omni Online -- presents programs notes of a five act opera set in spaceports and DNA laboratories of the far future. The opera's plot is characteristically absurd, the notes pretentiously speculative. It's a hoot.
