The Art Of Chesley Bonestell by Ron Miller, Frederick C. Durant III - £35
Paper Tiger, London Ho, Grt Eastern Wharf, Parkgate Rd, London SW11 4NQ  website
1st in batch of genre art-bks in the Kat's klaws this ish, Ron & Fred's h/b trib 2 seminal wk of CB gets new range off 2 fine start! Here's paint Sol sys as was B4 Viking, Voyager, even Apollo. Glory of Jovian moons, chill of nuked NYC, hi-fly techno visions fr' Earth orbit 2 beyond galaxy. Treasure of SFnal images that helped 2 shape fave genre is excel but bit pricey. ROCKS

The Art Of Richard Powers by Jane Frank - £20
Paper Tiger (see above)
Big on biog & expo texts, this h/b focus on surreal abstract illos of wispy figs, bubble things in strong col'rs like frozen flames. Glad 2 C ain't hvy on symbolism, either. Skel forms, egg ships invoke primal sense of other. Incl list of where, when stuff pub'd.

The Bare Facts Video Guide by Craig Hosoda - £18.99
Titan Books Mail Order, Bowden Ho, 36 Northhamton Rd, Market Harborough, Leics LE16 9HE  email
New Y2K ed'tn of author pin sharp expose of movie celeb T&A. No fem'ist angle here as actor pgs of prev bk gone in favour of exp'd data files on starlets etc. No pix, 'course as that might be sexist - oi! But U do get xtra A-Z section of select titles, & 1000+ pg L p/b means loads of new info 2 please slo-mo junkies, pause control freaks & other hetero boy minds.

The Bible: The Devil's Book by Jos Rogiers - US$20
Cymophane, Box 192, S-11479 Stockholm, Sweden  website
Bible basher of dif'rnt stroke this p/b polemic is subt'ld " How the Doctrine of the Bible brings our world to ruins" so, take that, god. Author JR asks all those awkward Q? abt nazis v jews, yahweh, chosen few, crime kind etc, church ignores daily. "Was Jesus christian?" Dunno mate, bit B4 the Kat's time.

The Book Of The Dark by William Meikle - US$15
Great Unpublished  website
Scot vampire nov fr' print-on-demand pub, avail as p/b or download, helps demolish wall hit by many bud'g authors. This title no.172 so obv Grt Unpub already got online catalog, also claims authors not press get most of profit. Sounds like excel low risk deal, so worth your support.

Braquemard - £2.50 [D Allenby]
48 Clifton St, Hull HU2 9AP  website
No.8 is Y2K ish of David A's prose + poetry mag. Fic by DF Lewis. Poems fr' Tom Kretz, Derrick Buttress, Margot K Juby, Ben Wilensky, Dave HW Grub + verse pack by Douglas Houston. Usual no-mess autofire shotgun of themes

British Mythic - A4 sae + 50p stamp
Flat 1/1 115 Buccleuch St, Garnethil, Glasgow G3 6QN  email
Curio b&w collage xerox zine of cut 'n' paste prose. 5th ish, (Jan 2001) incl poem contrib by Steve Sneyd, but he's only name 2 conjure owt like interest when some texts overlap, other stuff in eye-strain block caps.

Challenging Destiny - Can$7.50 or o/s US$7 [Crystalline Sphere Publishing]
R.R. #6, St Marys, Ontario, N4X 1C8, Canada  website
Superb genre mag in slim p/b form, ed by Dave & Bob Switzer. Got #11 (Dec 2000) + #12 (Apr 2001) here, both have excel glos color art covers. Xmas ish has stories by likes of Hugh Cook, fine b&w illos by Dave Fode + i/v wi' Guy Gavriel Kay, retro spot on Judith Merril's bks. Latest incl more Hugh Cook fic, Nalo Hopkinson i/v'd, overview of SF abt Mars, lotsa other tales, art + usual grab of pithy genre quotes. ROCKS

Chaotic Order - £2 / US$4
15 Digby Cl, Doddington Park, Lincoln LN6 3PZ  email
Counter-cult zine by Bob Smith, latest ish incl Nick Zedd i/v, sex + old ultraviolence polemic, guide 2 outer fringe mag & bk pubs + media, music 2. Speaks amp'd mindset & cares not if U like or lump it.

Chiaroscuro by Tim White - £14.99
Paper Tiger (see above)
L p/b rpt of 1988 artbk has genre gallery of hi-glos cool technocrat gear incl magic realms, shiny starships, sleek robots, weird wonderlands, antigrav cultures, dark fantasy, fun visions. Many lifelike humans, alien beasts in bright 3D scenes. Zine Kat's keen on artist's monstrous Cthulhu mythos nightmares. 100+ illos, 145 pp. COOL

Cineaste - US$6
PO Box 2242, New York, NY 10009-8917, USA  website
Smart yankee movie mag wi' gen'rly hi-brow arty tone. Vol.26 #1 has Edward Yang, Danny Glover i/v'd, choice rev'ws of films, vids, bks + top story: symposium of film critics. #2 fields i/v's wi' Liv Ullmann, Spike (Bamboozled) Lee, Tonie Marshall, Volker Schlö ndorff + others. Pick of top new films, tapes, texts.

Cold Print - £2
2 Salmon Cottages, Tideford Rd, Landrake, Cornwall PL12 5DR  website
Here's latest ish of John Ratcliffe's neat genre mag. Classy fic by Rhys Hughes, Don Webb, AC Evans, Darrell Schweitzer (also i/v'd). David Toop i/v, rev'w pgs. Despite lowly prod values, this remains 1 of best UK SF/F fnzs on market! BOSS

Comic Book Culture: An Illustrated History by Ron Goulart - US$49.95
Collectors Press, PO Box 230986, Portland, OR 97281, USA  website
Basic'ly wondrous h/b tells story of comics' rise fr' strip funnies 2 gold + silver ages fuel'd by bandwagon craze, action/adv + supermen breakthru, WW2 heroism. Sinewy patriots, leggy gd girls, revisit Marvel & DC heyday, now-costly pulps, forgotten innovators, industry giants + more. Early fab yrs of mod/pop art in mak'g un-masked in wealth of hi-color repro'd covers, enriched by captions + creator brief biog notes.

Dossier by Stepan Chapman - US$13.95
Creative Arts, 833 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94710, USA  visit author's website
1st short fic coll fr' author of PKD awd-win 1st nov Troika. Here's nifty pack of weird SFnal stuff & rough magic tales wi' dizzy twists, cool wares, goofy shocks, deviant plots, strange rages. If U can find better quik fix fic, send details 2 the Kat, please! MONSTER

The Evil Dead Companion by Bill Warren - £14.99
Titan Books (see above)
Hil'rsly absurd, xtr'mly gory, riot'sly paced, mas'vly violent. It can only be Sam Raimi's infantile, infamous but fun genre phenom. Splat-comic movie made cult star Bruce Campbell, as zombie plagued antihero Ash, of classic lo-budget horror trilogy. Grt job of research here means this p/b's def'ntv guide 2 slapstick shockers. Imagine mix Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre + Craven's Hills have Eyes & U got bk of dead in woods source best eg pos of unwise blood on screen as cut price orig led 2 dark anim skel army spectacle. BW's text reveals bkgrd 2 films, careers + hype, incl lotsa rare behind scenes pix. BOSS

Fanzine Fanatique - sae/IRC
6 Vine St, Greaves, Lancaster, Lancs LA1 4UF  email
¼ly sml & indie pres NL list 4 x A4 worth of fnz stuff, incl contact info 4 many titles unseen by the Kat, so worth look if U R into scene.

Fantastic Literature - free
35 The Ramparts, Rayleigh, Essex SS6 8PY  website
Latest catalog fr' genre bk dealers Simon & Laraine Gosden has 20 x A5 pgs titles listed, offering brd range + bk finder on site.

Flesh & Blood - US$4
121 Joseph St, Bayville, NJ 08721, USA  email
Ish 7 "tales of dark fantasy & horror" mag hits right soft spot wi' grt stories by Gene-Michael Higney, DF Lewis, Jeff Vandermeer, others. Verse fr' John Picinich, Jamie Wasserman, Samuel Minier, Chad Hensley. F+B sure 1 of smart buys 4 every fan reader of chills & gore. COOL

Found Objects by Mary Males - £6
Word Hoard, Kirklees Media Centre, 7 Northumberland St, Huddersfield, W Yorks HD1 1RL  website
1 of pack 4 vari smart prose + poetry colls fr' Emily Penn of arts backed Spout pub's. Also rec'vd Going To The Island by Miriam Scott, Jewelled Tree by Louise Cole, Keep Walking by Robert Furze. Each title mixes range of theme & mood wi' enuf skill 2 evoke own unique feel, esp'ly in sense of place terms, while qual print pres std is quite superb.

Gibbering Madness - 60p / $1
PO Box 298, Sheffield, S10 5XT  website
Travel themed ish of 'evil Evan's per-zine. No lofty aim, it seems, just brisk mix of stories, articles, rev'ws, b&w illos but some of text way 2 tiny 4 the Kat's eyes. Still, at least its cheap.

Ground Zero by Fred Gambino - £20
Paper Tiger (see above)
Another slick prod h/b artbk, this 1 chiefly SFnal, offers cybermix of photo-real digi-map'd imagery has extr'odnry depth, sharp detail. If U liked vivid sci-fi TV style of Babylon 5 space visuals, Gambino's coll of starship dramas & freaky aliens will appeal. What makes this bk such value is intro texts by noted authors Elizabeth Moon, David Brin, Robert J. Sawyer + artists Jim Burns, Chris Moore. Tho' some robos look bit plasticy, many of vessels & planet/city-scapes R truly excel. BOSS

Hadrosaur Tales - US$5.95
PO Box 8468, Las Cruces, NM 88006-8468, USA
Vol.9 of David Summers' p/b size genre fic mag is bumper pack of gobsmack viz'nry poems & stories fr' Richard Reeve, Jennifer Crow, Daniel Brantley, Gary Every, Louise Webster, Steve Sneyd, Hugh Cook, Jim Dunlap, Keith Allen Daniels + many more. No frills (illos, biogs) pres means U can get on wi' gd solid read 150pp. BOSS

The Horizontal Split by Paul Pinn - £5
Time Bomb, PO Box 3061, S Croydon, Surrey CR2 7ZT  visit author's website
Self-pub'd novel by fast riser horror author tells of schizo mum in India on trail of lost baby, tho' obv there's lot more 2 it than just that. 2nd p/b bk rec'vd The Pariah - £6, also by Pinn, abt psychic in spy world has vague SFnal tone. Brave 2 C sml press hero put neck on line wi' risky stuff as H drifts thru bad time but still shame talent like Pinn gotta DIY 2 get into print now.

Handshake - sae/IRC
5 Cross Farm, Station Rd, Padgate, Warrington, Ches WA2 0QG
Lo-cost xerox NL aimed at UK SF poets. #44 + #45 rec'vd, wi' usual cut 'n' paste mix of news items & verse fr' likes of Elaine Day, Neil K Henderson, Giovanni Malito, Steve Sneyd.

Horror Of The 20th Century: An Illustrated History by Robert Weinberg - US$60 / Can£80
Collectors Press (see above)
Coffee table genre tome exams orig of mod H in Frankenstein, Poe, Stoker, MR James, Le Fanu, Hodgson, RL Stevenson, Leroux, etc whose tales fed Hollywood careers of Karloff, Chaney, Whale, Browning at al in creepy monster movies abt Dracula, Wolfman, Mummy. Plenty of posters, mag & bk covers. Ghoulish fun 2 note how cruel & lurid illos 4 H mags were back then. Scanty-clad babes in dire peril, stark terror, verge of death 2 level not allowed today. Of partic intrig R pre/post-war yrs of Bradbury, Wheatley, Lovecraft, Howard, Derleth, Jackson, Matheson, Weird Tales, EC Comics, Famous Monsters, Hammer, Hitchcock, anthols pub'd by Pan. King, Exorcist, Koontz, Barker, Romero, Harris, Brite, Campbell, Rice + up2date era of Stine, Elm St, 6th Sense, Blair Witch, TV's Buffy. Images form red glow fossil rec of boom 'n' bust, subtle fears & dreary sleaze. What'll B potent H visuals of new age? Weinberg's done fine job col'tng all these graphic delights. COOL

In Camera - unpriced
Kodak Ho, PO Box 66, Hemel Hempstead, Herts P1 1JU  website
Kodak corp trade mag, pub'd ¼ly. Jan 2001 ish looks at films Cast Away, The Cell, Red Planet. Apr ish spots Kitano's Brother, Traffic, 6-hr TV series Dune. Lotsa techno info, tests, event news.

Iota: Poetry Quarterly - £2.50 [D Holliday]
67 Hady Cres, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S41 0EB
2 ishs of Dave H's fine verse mag here. #53 has gd stuff fr' Ruth Smith, Mike Horwood, Vicky Stevens, Pat Earnshaw, Neil Fulwood, Kim Taplin, Jane Moreton, Colin Robinson + doz others. No.54 brings us fresh poems by Rupert M. Loydell, Ann Keith, Neil Glover, Andrew Mayne, Brian Daldorph, Derrick Buttress, David Pike & more. There aren't 2 many mags abt match regulo + hi-qual std of I(P)Q. BOSS

Jack Vance: Critical Appreciations And A Bibliography by A.E. Cunningham - £15
British Library Bookshop, 96 Euton Rd, London NW1 2DB  website
Peer opined rev's, crit asses'mt & fanboy cheers 4 hi'ly est'md genre author Vance fr' likes of Harlan Ellison, Tom Shippy, Gene Wolfe, Terry Dowling, David Langford, Dan Simmons, Paul Rhoads, David Mathew, Charles F. Miller + AEC - bibliog compiler. 232pp h/b. Useful ref sure, but also welcome read abt JV's life/wks.

The Josh Kirby Discworld Portfolio - £12.99
Paper Tiger (see above)
No fuss coll of 28 A4 paint'gs select many illos JK's done 4 Pratchett's comic F univ. U get pin-ups of Mephisto, Death, Eric & vari bright 'n' breezy action/adv scenes + curio items Diggers, Carpet People, etc. Kirby's full-on romps reveal color of magic appears 2B sandstone yellow!

Journeyman: The Art Of Chris Moore by Stephen Gallagher - £20
Paper Tiger (see above)
Here's another grt artbk that delivers genre dreamscapes & more wi' lots marvel pics in top class photo-real style. Text is long but very intrigo artist i'v. Images vary fr' excel chrome metal flash 2 richly toned skies in classic usage of light & shade. Partic gd wi' hard SFnal themes & Moore's def'ntly 1 of best wares men, as vast range of memorable SF/F bk jackets attest. ROCKS

Kimota - £2.50 [G Hurry]
52 Cadley Causeway, Preston, Lancs PR2 3RX  website
#14 of Graeme H's SF/F/H mag fields stories by Seán Russell Friend, Joel Lane, Peter Tennant, Catherine J Gardner, Hugh Cook (now ubiq as DFL used 2B), David Hudson + others. Article on prewar SF radio progs, now avail as MP3 downloads on Net. Usual select items rev'd, wraps another fine ish. Note: #15 price hike - £2.99 so take out sub now, still 4 ish for £9.

Legend - £3 / US$8 [T Denyer]
Immediate Direction, 7 Mountview, Church Lane West, Aldershot, Hants GU11 3LN  website
2nd ish of Trevor D's myth & magic F fic mag rides in wi' tales by Ceri Jordan, Paul Finch, Nicola Caines, Martin Owton +others. Genre verse by Lloyd Michael Lohr, AC Evans, Michelle Scalise. 9-pg com'strip by Barbara Tarn, 6-pg illo'd story by Mark McLaughglin & Marni Griffin. Smart prod title overall wi' clean design & deft touches aplenty but why penult int 4 pgs blank?

The Light At The End by John Skipp & Craig Spector - us$24.95
Stealth Press, 336 College Ave, Lancaster, PA 17603, USA  website
1 of 2 hi-qual rpt titles rec'vd fr' new US based Stealth, this richly themed serial killer chiller by famed splat-punk duo is smart prod h/b ed'tn, aimed at cult fic buyer. Busy schedule looks set thru Spr 2001 wi' 4 bks mnth in wide genre range (war, SF, western, vampire) incl Heinlein's Orphans Of The Sky, Yarbro's The Palace, Nebula anthols, plan 50 title by end yr. Worthy of global custom & support.

Light List 2001 - £2
The Light House, Photon Press, 37 The Meadows, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland TD15 1NY  email
17th yrly ish of grt value list mag abt sml & indie mags. Just paltry 2 quid is all U pay 4 world survey of nr 1500 titles. Offers plenty raw info on scene, so best suit tyro wrts on trail of elusive pub, print, mag keen on new mss. U can try lots of other alt data dumps, but may as well start here 1st. Contacts galore 4 genre fnz or poetry buffs. ROCKS

Painted Worlds by Jim Warren - £20
Paper Tiger
This coll of absurd & surreal art has ghastly chills & weird amusem'ts in neat usual neat h/b format. Horse spirits, witches use cauldron + blender, waterfall hair, sky stairway, surfer in bottle, heads in clouds, mermaid romance, dolphin fun. Much wit & imagino pres in super nature glory. Gd eg is Mobile Home - cottage on isle wi' legs.

The Players by Joseph Fullam - US$12
Sevenlong X Press, PO Box 602206, Staten Island, NY 10306, USA  website
Intrigo space opera nov abt star travel in 21st C. has ET-man prof on planet Juniper puzzle over visit 2 Earth.

The Magazine Writer's Handbook by Gordon Wells & Chris McCallum - £7.99
Writers' Bookshop, Remus Ho, Coltsfoot Dr, Woodston, Peterborough PE2 9JX  email
8th ed'tn of notable p/b abt freelance contribs 2 UK mags. U get gd A-Z guide 2 top markets + list of alt & indie titles. Also GLs on basic mss pres, wrt'g grps, 'how-to' type advice. Lists of compos, std ref bks, Net intro, index. Useful info pack 4 novice or amateur scribe in need of turn-pro hints. COOL

Maps Of The Ancient Sea Kings by Charles H. Hapgood - £12.99
Souvenir Press, 43 Great Russell St, London WC1B 3PD  email
Illo'd L p/b offers "evidence of advanced civilisation" in Ice Age. Fascin'tg stuff, prod of 7 yr research & close exam of oldest known charts.

Mirage by Boris Vallejo - £14.99
Paper Tiger (see above)
New XL ed'tn of popular erotic F art portfolio, orig pub'd 1982/3, incl intro text by Nigel Suckling + Boris V i/v'd. Prelim sketches lead 2 gallery of rich col'rd A4 plates of mermaid romance, butterfly babes, centaur lovers, bat &a,p; bird girls, superheroine, barbarian type, shower scene, demon chick + friend, lingerie close-up, etc. Abt 8 extra paint'gs.

Mooreeffoc - US$5
Phetal, PO Box 416, Laneboro, MN 55949, USA  email
Spr 2001 mag of fic in mythic trad, ed by Nicholas Ozment & GN Dybing. This 3rd ish of 'coffee-room' read incl tales by Kent Cowgill, Charlee Jacob, Thomas Canfield, others. Verse by John Picinich, Sam Keenan, Richard William Pearce, Melissa Pinol. Nonfic incl trib 2 Lin Carter's Sign of Unicorn, LOCcol, rev'ws. Art: Cathy Buburuz, Andrea Baldwin. Likeable but ltd brief maybe reason stories by both eds here. MUTANT

MorningStar by Peter Atkins - US$24.95
Stealth Press (see above)
2nd of h/b novs rec'vd is author's 1992 debut. Serial killer on loose in San Francisco, brisk pace + plenty dark chills make this likely no-sleep-til-done psych H read. ROCKS

Nasty Tales by David Huxley - £13.95 / US$19.95
Critical Vision, 40 Rossall Ave, Radcliffe, Manchester M26 1JD  website
Illo'd p/b histo of UK undergrd comix pub'd by Headpress, focus on "sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and violence" so U know stuff only exists 2 offend & cause moral panic. But scene not all jerk off trash, hard gore, sicko spoofs as Huxley finds plenty cases worthy anti-estab'mt rebels, dark alt humour, sharp art irony + politic porn in between early crude shocks, corny grue & later Viz boom. Intel read, grt research job, give full attn if U R into comix. ROCKS

Nearly People by Conrad Williams - £8 / US$14
PS Publishing, 1 Hamilton Ho, 4 Park Ave, Harrogate HG2 9BQ  website
Bizarre, poetic richly imaged & ultimo very weird back-away-slo H story in crisp chapbk form. Themes incl hunger, decay, secrecy & iconic quest chrctrs. If U want strange fic of way over far edge type, get this quik B4 ltd print runs out.

Neolithon by Steve Sneyd & John Light - £4.95
KT Publications, 16 Fane Cl, Stamford, Lincs PE9 1HG
Verse coll by pair of top Brit genre poets, abt long-stand stones & ancient cultures that left such legacy as puzzle 4 today. Lotsa rocky rings, castle ruins, pagan circle spec theory oft vivid U-R-here scene. Gd poems but dear print bklet. MUTANT
   Also avail from John Light, at Photon Press (see above)

Opossum Holler Tarot - sae/IRC
5094 N County Rd 750E, Orleans, IN 47452, USA
Larry Blazek's cut 'n' paste xerox'd verse & prose collage, 2 ishs rec'vd. 1 colls prev pub'd items by Blazek, other has poetry by Steve Sneyd.

Pavane For A Cyber-Princess by Bruce Boston - US$5 [B Totman]
Miniature Sun Press, PO Box 11002, Napa Valley, CA 94581, USA  email
Smart prod bklt has 1 long cool genre poem. Vampyre myth bride show + cold skin veneer strobelit slab lab themes. Smoky glow lurid, spicy matured notions.

Poets' Handbook by Kenneth C Steven - £7.99
Writers' Bookshop (see above)
Practical p/b guide opens wi' com'sense not hi-flown poetry defined, then launch off thematic pierhead 2 discus'on of rhyme, forms, heal'g power + nuts 'n' bolts - verbs, wordplay, sound, edits, notes, sparks. Helpful chapbk 4 poetry starter or wannabe pro.
   Contact author Ken Steven via email

The Poetry Life Alternative Guide To Getting Your Poetry Published by Adrian Bishop - £4.95
1 Blue Ball Corner, Water La, Winchester, Hants SO23 0ER  website
Plain & simple title loud 'n' clear but still wins DB ungainly logo-of-month jeer. At least stuff in 40 A5 pgs concise, solid, lively advice despite paradox of sales vs qual, oft noted re nature of UK/USA Lit artform. Make handy 8-pt plan 2 get pub'd bible so U won't go 2 far wrong.

Product - £2.95
Red Herring Arts & Media, PO Box 23071, Edinburgh EH1 3YN  email
Slick prod multi-cult ¼ly 1st anniv ish (#5, Win 2000/2001), nofic mag incl: i/v wi' Lynne (Morvern Callar) Ramsey, Lars Von Trier profiled, naked art show in Glasgow. Smart desgin & print, unpop mid-brow writ'g styles.

Psychedelic Decadence: Sex Drugs Low-Art In Sixties & Seventies Britain by Martin Jones - £12.99 / US$19.95
Critical Vision (see above)
Tawdry glam rock urban sleaze starts wi' Witchfinder General & The Sorcerers or Straw Dogs, 'Roxy Music', Performance, JG Ballard. Pick 1 or 2. Author cites Ingrid Pitt's tits, Confessions Of... Carry On... 'Mayfair', biker bks, Fawlty Towers, Emma Peel, Bowie, Hammer H (of course), '2000 AD' comics. Excel study of pervy cult in b&w illo'd p/b, gratuitous softcore lesbo art by Rick Rawling.

Psychotrope - £2.10 / US$5.50
Flat 6, 10 Ombersley Rd, Worcester WR3 7ET
9th & last ish of Mark Beech's bows out wi' more of same, ed's chosen mad love, psych H, & surreal fic. Here's dark weird tales by DF Lewis + Rhys Hughes, Allen Ashley, Hugh Cook, Dawn Andrews, Donna Taylor Burgess & others. Sad 2 C this 1 go. May not B best pres mag, but stories prose always worth read.

Roadworks: Tales From The Hard Road - £3 / US$8
Immediate Direction (see above)
Hor fic mag, ed by Trevor Denyer, fr' same stable as Legend. 11th ish weighs in 120 A5 & has fine stories by Nicholas Royle (x2, also i/v'd + bibliog), Michael Cobley, Hertzan Chimera, Peter Tennant, Jane Fell, Paul Pinn, Allen Ashley, Paul Finch & others. U also get soapboxer Mark McLaughlin. Combo of grt writ'g & smart pres makes this req'd read!

Shadows In The Attic: A Guide To British Supernatural Fiction 1820-1950 by Neil Wilson - £45
British Library Bookshop (see above)
Intel ref bk intro'd by Ramsey Campbell, takes while 2 define terms so U feel chart of early F/H genre nails facts. A-Z of vari authors host of minor figs among giants such as Blackwood, Christie, Dickens, Hodgson, Le Fanu, Machen, Priestley, Rohmer, Stoker, Wells, etc. Entries incl author notes + lists of colls, biogs, bibliog, crit study, short fic. Full titles index has both novels & shorts so U get plenty detail 4 easy info finder. Hefty 555 pp h/b.

Star*Line - US$3
1300 Kicker Rd, Tuscaloosa, AL 35404, USA  website
Bi-mthly genre verse mag, pub'd by SF poetry assoc. Jan/Feb '01 ish incl poems by Ian Watson, Roger Dutcher, Nancy Bennett, Scott E Green, Timons Esaias + others. May/Jun ed'tn has print pres redesign & new pro layout. Poems here by Marge Simon + Bruce Boston, Mark Rudolph, Denise Dumars, Steve Sneyd, Darrell Schweitzer & more. Also, U get long 4-pg prose-poem by James S Dorr, rev'ws of poetry bklets, LOCcol.

The Star-Seer's Aerial Voyage by William Dearden - £2.49 / US$5.50 [S Sneyd]
Hilltop Press, 4 Nowell Pl, Almondbury, Huddersfield, West Yorks HD5 8PB
Here's 2 SFnal poems, back-2-back in 20pp chapbk. U get rpt of 19th C poet Dearden's cosmic voyage as main item, wi' intro by ed/pub Steve Sneyd. Also 2nd space trip verse, Spin by RI Barycz (circa 70s). Neat illos by Alan Hunter. Worthy but dear.
   Also avail: #53, #54 of Sneyd's handwrit Data Dump SF poetry NL incl notes on new & recent mags, bks, fnz, etc - 70p / US$2 ea.

The Star Sytem: Hollywood's Production Of Popular Identities by Paul McDonald - £11.99
Wallflower Press, 16 Chalk Farm Rd, Camden Lock, London NW1 8AG  website
4th bk in Wallflower's Short Cuts series, of intro 2 film studies. This title exams world of stardom thru career plots of Pickford, Garland, Cagney, der Arnold & (why?) Julia Roberts. Intrigo 1st look at vast subject. Suit media/celebs buff.

Strange Attraction: Turns Of The Midnight Carnival Wheel ed. by Edward E Kramer - US$29.95
ShadowLands Press, PO Box 2366, Centreville VA 20122-2366, USA  website
Curio anthol this - of tales abt Ferris wheel design by pro artist Lisa Snellings, intro by Harlan Ellison. Fic by Neil Gaiman, John Shirley, Charles de Lint, Robert J Sawyer, Gene Wolfe, Edward Bryant, Ray Bradbury, Peter Crowther, Michael Bishop, SP Somtow, Caitlin R Kiernan, James S Dorr, even(!) Fred Olen Ray contrib 2 make this 1 of most orig bks of recent yrs wi' range of pro ↦ sm press talent in mix of story, verse, sculpto pix. Excel stuff in 450+ pp hvy-paper h/b. ROCKS

The Stranger by Ian Seed - £4
Moss & Flint, 12 Shepherd Walk, Kegworth, Derby DE74 2HS
Poetry coll, chapbk of select pieces 1974-2000. Some R prose, others std verse format sprawl over 55 x A5. Ecl'tc vari themes, urban angst, woodsy charm, sharp wordplay, dry wit.

Tale Of The Body Thief by Anne Rice - £12.99
Titan Books (see above)
Slick full color g/n, com'strip adapt'n of Rice's vampire Lestat novel by Faye Perozich, that kicks off in '90s Miami wi' antihero as blond yuppie. Evoc'tve dream seq, sun/moon bkgrd, grt spirit form twist. Colors fine but pencils R bit 2 static. Incl orig essay by Rice abt Lestat series. COOL

Tim Burton by Helmut Merschmann - £14.99
Titan Books (see above)
Film auteur biog, trans fr' German by Michael Kane, illo'd p/b. Shows how dir keen on weirdo misfits, arch jokers, nature/nuture conflict, cheesy gothic, music & nukes, highs + lows, fr' Beetlejuice oddity, Batman romp, classic Edward Scissorhands, creepy Sleepy Hollow. 190pp bk incl chpt on composer Danny Elfman. Hats off, heads 2!

Wondrous Strange: Tales Of The Uncanny by Robin Spriggs - US$13
Circle Myth Press, PO Box 431, Murrayville, GA 30564, USA  email
Spec fic coll, 25 stories told in 260pp p/b. Quirky mystery, weirdo types, fab events, spooky drama of vari length but all hi-qual genre Lit style. Steeped in lores of folk & movies, author mines gold fr' overlap fringes of com'place tropes.

A Word In Your Eye: An Introduction To The Graphic Poem by Steve Sneyd - £3.75 / US$8
Hilltop Press (see above)
Quik survey of verse in (nrly new) strip format. Sneyd finds today's bud scene (if not roots) in sml press & talks abt vari fairly orig eg. Notable illos (rpt here) by Kevin Cullen, Dallas Goffin, Derek Gray. 40pp A5 bklet offers intrigo view of obscure field. COOL

The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations by Tony Reeves - £16.99
Titan Books (see above)
Off beaten track combo, travel & cinema bk visits real urban/rural where many fave flicks were shot. Lotsa orig photo of rd, bldg, bay, ruin, bridge, motel, cafe, school, tower, church, station, prison, desert, hill, rooftop, valley, beach, cave, etc. Color pgs chart key sites in London, also Eng heritage, Tarantino's LA, Woody Allen's NY, places Star Wars & Star Trek, 007 used. 400+ pp p/b grt sights aid 4 hols, partic Calif or NYC.

Writers' Forum - £3
Writers International, PO Box 3229, Bournemouth BH1 1ZS  website
Bi-mthly glos mag, 3 rev ish rec'vd. Feb/Mar ish has i/vs wi' Peter Lovesey, Ruby Wax, Jerry Raine, prize-win short story by Faith Barnes, nonfic by photo-journo Joan Wakelin, also items abt farce 4 stage, lots advice cols on poetry, TV scripts. Apr/May ish incl Arthur C. Clarke, Joanne (Chocolat) Harris & Jean Saunders all i/v'd + handy Net sites guide 4 online tyros. Jun/Jul ed'tn gives U advice on crime scene, sitcoms, Lit scouts. Also win'rs of UK poetry compo, usual LOCcol & info tips. U don't have 2 B hack 2 benefit fr' this mag, it suits semi-pro, amateur both.

A Writer's Life by Eric Brown - £8 / US$14
PS Publishing (see above)
SF author turns dark F chills master in this Brit Lit nov'la, intro'd by Paul Di Filippo. Wry tale of troubled mystery/ghost story teller, this seems likely 2 suit those after Anglophile version of King's pen-man angst bks.