Here is Satan is a Mathematician, a collection of poems, dating from as far back as 1980, but mostly from the 1990's, which cover a wide range of subjects, science-fictional, fantastical, horrific, and scientific. Keith Allen Daniels is an interesting poet, and at the high end of his range is very fine.

The book is subtitled "Poems of the Weird, Surreal, and Fantastic", which is pretty much what we get. In a previous draft of this review I dithered about trying to define "SF poetry", or "Fantastic poetry". To some extent I was interested in disproving the existence of such a beast: after all, poetry is about sound and emotion (and ideas), and at least the first two seem not to be definable in genre terms. But then, some poems really are about ideas, and ideas, famously, are the stuff of much science fiction. And some emotions are perhaps best evoked by images from SF or the fantastic. A trivial conclusion, I'm afraid. I will say, though, that it seems to me that I read poetry of all sorts for the same reasons: sound and emotion, while I read science fiction, at times, for explicitly different (neither superior or inferior) reasons than I read mainstream fiction. Enough, though. What of the poems at hand?

One of my favorites is "The Poetasters' Cafe", which takes a harsh look at the contemporary "coffeehouse" fashion for poetry readings and overly confessional writing. It's a fine poem, but it's not SF, unless the use of vocabulary such as "coelecanth" and "phagocyte" is sufficient to so mark a poem. On the other hand, "Sciomancy Nights", another fine effort, uses an explicitly fantastical device, raising the spirits of the dead to speak to them, to consider, in a slightly humorous manner, four historical figures (Bierce, Archimedes, Aldous Huxley, Lincoln). Another angle Daniels uses is pure science: "The Discourse of the Stones" imagines "deep time" through the history of rock. Not SF poetry, perhaps, but "geology poetry".

On the whole these are interesting poems. Occasionally Daniels seems to believe that an exotic use of vocabulary is sufficient to make a sequence of words poetry; on other occasions, the poems seem not much but doggerel. But that is to complain about the lesser works of what is, after, quite a long collection by poetry standards. The best poems here are very good. For example, "Leap to Infinity" is a lovely double haiku: "A doe's leg, fractured/ in mid-leap and torn in half/ hangs from the barbed wire. On the ground beneath/ her body has fallen far/ behind her spirit." Or the fine extended metaphor in "Lithic": "in caverns of the forebrain/ suffering forms grottos/ of fanciful dripstone ...". Or from "The Poetasters' Café": "There the poets are mired in self/ like insects in pitcher plants/ of their own device."

Anyone interested in contemporary poetry would do well to check out this book. And if you are also interested in SF and fantasy, attuned to the vocabulary and images of science and "the weird, surreal, and fantastic", you'll be even more likely to be attracted by Keith Allen Daniels' favored image sets.

As Keith Allen Daniels says in his introduction "most of these sonnets have a past life" but this reviewer found them all fresh and new and worth more than one visit. These three poets are clearly masters of this poetic form--which lends itself well to the diverse themes of horror and dark fantasy as envisioned by the individual authors.

But it is the distinctive storytelling of Ann K. Schwader that truly shines in "Pages from a Paperback Imagination". Her technique of overlaying contemporary heroes (Avalon, Avalon, Do You Read?) with the stuff of myth and legend is unique. The 14 lines of "Dead Girls Don't Cry" are filled with an in-depth characterization this reviewer usually only finds in novels -- and her monsters (Poraymos/The Devouring) are too real to ever be forgotten.

Powerful poetry here. Highly recommended.

Patricia Cornwall's same depressing formula is getting very boring. Dr Scarpetti will once again not be allowed a shred of happiness. Her only long term relationship is with her equally long suffering niece. If you've read one, you've basically read them all.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on the latest Scarpetta novel. I have read all of the Scarpetta books, and I have to say this was a bit disappointing. I enjoyed the technical aspects of the story, and found that interesting. The characters however, have not grown much over the years. Kay is still insecure about her status with Benton and seems stingy with the emotional follow-through in that relationship. Lucy is still the lonely genius with an attitude. Speaking of Lucy, why is it still such an issue that she is gay? Wasn't that covered in the last few books? Marino is still the cynical cop, looking for love when we all know it's Kay he truly wants. I would like to see these characters move forward a little. The plot was fine. Overall, this was not my favorite, but being a Cornwell fan....I had to finish it. Hopefully the next book in the series gets back to Cornwell's earlier work - which was much more interesting and left me intrigued.

I love Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series! Every book is so interesting. This book is as terrific as the rest, however, I was just as shattered as Kay, Lucy and Marino regarding the final victim of Carrie Grethen (or it is her final victim after all???). I was so angry and hurt! A testimony to the affect and quality of these novels on this reader, and, I'm trying to say this without giving anything away, is that I cried unabashedly for the last three chapters and then, was unable to even start the next book. I may have to wait a few months to take on Black Notice without, again, sobbing through the book. I am easily sucked into the worlds presented in books, but rarely are my reactions this intense.
One thing, though... Hey Patricia Cornwell! Is Kay Scarpetta EVER going to be happy???

Arthur C. Clarke is most well-known for writing 2001: A Space Odyssey; Lord Dunsany for his fantastic The King of Elfland's Daughter and serving as a primary influence for H.P. Lovecraft. For such gifted writers, this correspondance is remarkably dull - mostly an eager, young, as-yet-unpublished Clarke fawning to his hero, who seems grateful for the attention. This collection is well-meaning but almost completely meritless.

Fenbug needs to get hir facts straight. Arthur C. Clarke was already a published author when he began to correspond with Lord Dunsany in 1944, and by 1956 -- the last year of their correspondence -- Clarke had published some of his best classic fiction, most notably Childhood's End (1953).

If engaging in reasoned dialogue on topics as fascinating as space exploration and imaginative literature is "fawning," then so be it.

This book is a valuable resource for literary scholars, fans of Clarke and/or Dunsany, and anyone with an interest in the early years of the Space Age. Keith Allen Daniels is to be commended for his editorial and publishing acumen, and for his understanding of the importance of these letters.

This is not a book that will teach you very much about programming or about the Macintosh. It talks about some low-level Mac architecture (without much detail or authority), the history of the Macintosh, but mostly it presents bunch of almost unrelated programming examples in C, Pascal, and assembly. These examples range from sorting to celestial mechanics. But they are only code examples, with no authoritative discussion at all. Some of the examples are interesting for their numerical analysis value, but teach nothing about Macintosh programming or basic mathematical concepts. Many of the best examples were not even written by the author. I can't highly recommend this book.