David A. Hardy’s spectacular cover for our September issue heralds “Some Distant Shore,” Dave Creek’s tale of a cataclysm even more spectacular than any art can truly convey: the collision of two solar systems. Granted, that’s an event that unfolds over quite a long time scale, but its crucial moments make for an intensely dramatic story—especially when they attract an audience of representatives from several quite alien species and cultures, all as intent on studying (and exploiting) each other as the astronomical show unfolding before them.
We also have “Vertex,” the climactic story of C. Sanford Lowe and G. David Nordley’s “Black Hole Project” series, in which everything comes together (or does it?), and stories by E. Mark Mitchell, Uncle River, Richard A. Lovett, and Howard V. Hendrix.
Finally, Edward M. Lerner’s fact article, “Beyond This Point Be RFIDs,” is unusual in that most of its science-fictional content is already upon us—but its implications extend far into the future, as will heated controversy over what those implications can and should be.
