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Reviews:
Alphabet Rescue by Audrey Wood
The Avenger of Love by Jack Skillingstead
Blaze by Stephen King
The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman
The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas M. Disch
The Eighth Day of the Week by Marek Hlasko
The Elephants of Style by Bill Walsh
Emiko Superstar by Mariko Tamaki
Father Malachy's Miracle by Bruce Marshall
Free to Be... You and Me by Marlo Thomas
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Harold's Fairy Tale by Crockett Johnson
Hunger by Elise Blackwell
Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz
Look at Me by Anita Brookner
Lost by Gregory Maguire
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Randy Udall
Poor Poor Ophelia by Carolyn Weston
Recovering Charles by Jason F. Wright
The Ride by Tom Brandner
Shadow-Below by Robert Reed
The Sneakiest Pirates by Dalton James
Sorcerers of Majipoor by Robert Silverberg
The Spiral Briar by Sean McMullen
The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist
Through Endangered Eyes by Rachel Allen Dillon
Timepiece by Richard Paul Evans
The Tribes of Bela by Albert E. Cowdrey
The Valley of the Giants by Peter B. Kyne
"A Wild and Wicked Youth" by Ellen Kushner
Without Sin by J. Thomas
Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth

Ulysses:
Episode 10: The Wandering Rocks: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Episode 11: Sirens: Our Man in Havana
Episode 12: The Cyclops: Pick-a-Little Episode 13: Nausicaä: Petting in the Park
Episode 14: Oxen in the Sun: The Critic in the Cabernet


Miscellaneous:
Susan Vreeland

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FSFThe Tribes of Bela: 05/03/09

Albert E. Cowdrey seems to specialize in long short stories. For the most part the ones of his I've read have been centered in and around New Orleans. The two exceptions being "Poison Victory" and "Seafarer's Blood." I can now add "Tribes of Bela" to this list.

"Tribes of Bela" was the cover story for the August 2004 issue and it's set on another world four light years away named Bela. There is a small mining operation of 1,200 people and in the last couple years a few people have been found murdered. Colonel Robert Kohn has come to investigate.

The short story is told in the recorded logs to be used later as testimony of those being deposed. Colonel Kohn, a doctor and one other are the principle narrators. Each provides information to chronicle the investigation, what it turned up and ultimately how the mining operation had to be abandoned.

"The Tribes of Bela" reminds me of a number of other excellent science fiction stories: Gateway by Frederik Pohl, The Left-hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin, The World is Round by Tony Rothman and any number of Hal Clement novels. Then mix in the investigation and it's like the TV show Criminal Minds in a science fiction setting.

Read my other reviews of Cowdrey's FSF short stories:

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