Just a quick additional note. Has anyone else noted that some of the small presses are doing some particuarly terrific covers of late? I just saw the cover to Liz Williams new collection from Night Shade, which is just lovely. I also really liked Prime’s work on the cover for Robert Freeman Wexler’s book (see link in the post below), and thought that Small Beer did a great job on Sean Stewart’s Perfect Circle.

Two books with trains…
My reading, as you, oh faithful reader, already know, has been all over the place of late. As you can see from the sidebar on this page, I’m currently reading Circus of the Grand Design and Iron Council, both of which feature trains (to greater or lesser extents). The opening of the Wexler is very smooth, and reminds me a lot of “In Springdale Town”, which you all have already read. Good stuff.

Matt Cheney mentions that Ideomancer has new material from M. Rickert online at the moment. I’d not read much of Rickert’s work until last year, when she suddenly seemed to have a story in every second issue of F&SF, most of which were very good. It turns out she’s had exactly a dozen stories published, and I just read her 13th, “Cold Fires”, which is in the Oct/Nov issue of F&SF. It’s a wonderful, touching, funny and even poignant fantasy about pirates, paintings, and love. One of the year’s best. Actually, I’ve read about half of the Oct/Nov issue, and it seems particularly strong, with great stories from Rickert, Gene Wolfe, Dale Bailey, Mike Bishop and others. In fact, if we at Coode St could exhort you to one path of action for the day, it would be to subscribe to Gordon Van Gelder’s fine magazine.