Under a heart-rending female squeal, I pull back the curtain of the dressing room, without looking at the audience, I self-deeply enter the glittering twilight of the stage. A spotlight flashes, outlining its center with a bright white oval, while clouds of smoke are shooting out from different sides of the podium: pfff-f-f! The harsh …

The Forever War by Joe Halderman is another excellent example of hard science-fiction of the sort that, on the surface, makes them so difficult for the average reader to pick up and get into. Like Rendezvous with Rama, it provides often a clinical description of its world and how it functions to the point of …