Nor of Human... - Edited by Geffrey Maloney, CSFG Publishing

Visions Newsletter, June 2001

Reviewed by Erika Lacey

Good things come in small packages - and this anthology is indeed a good thing. Released earlier this year by the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, it has stories from its members with those who are not human within. The range goes from hard science fiction to fantasy in 14 short stories.

I would be hard pressed to name which is my favourite story within the anthology; just about all of them have something that lends themselves to being re-read.

Michael Barry's "The Trojan Rocks" is set in outer space, and follows a couple of space prospectors through their rather harrowing finding of 'other', though it profits them in the end.

One of the stories that has to be mentioned is Chris Andrews' "Wyvern's Blood". It's a curious mix of science fiction and fantasy - elves and wyverns side by side with space travel. Not friendly elves, either. There are more stories with this sort of thing to them; this makes the anthology interesting and difficult to pigeon-hole - not a weakness, but a strength.

Krystle & Mark Snitch's "Camp Yowie" is set in Australia, giving us the legend of the Yowie (which, to be honest, I'd not heard of prior to reading this story). Australia's own Bigfoot.

Les Petersen gave each story title a hint of what was to come with his illustrations, and in his story "Sasquatch Winter" we have yet another Yeti-like creature, again a mystery.

These are only four of the stories within - they all deserve mention, though should be read by oneself so as to get full enjoyment from it. One of the better small press publications to have been released in Australia in some time, I'm happy to have it amongst my collection.