BookList - Candace Smith
Gathered together in a quality collection, these 14 sf stories culled from "Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine" feature mostly young protagonists and lightly technical situations. Most of the tales deal with themes that will intrigue teens--interactive technology, robots, life on other worlds, and magic. "Home Front" predicts a bleak future, while "To Hell with the Stars" seems hopeful. In "Exorcycle," one of the best stories, a Shakespearean ghost makes a very convincing actor; in another very good tale, "Traveling West," an orphaned pioneer girl is rescued by a wolfwoman. The book offers a nice cross section of settings, reliable authors, and kid-oriented themes, all of which combine to make it a solid purchase for sf collections.