Fiction River: Pulse Pounders

A wide range of styles powers this anthology of 14 genre-bending stories, all of which, according to series editor Dean Wesley Smith, “start with a bang, have a lot of bangs in the middle, and then end with an even bigger bang.” Several of the selections qualify as science fiction, including Anderson and Peter J. Wacks’s “Change of Mind,” a battle of wits between a serial killer and a preserved mind on an ice planet that builds to a nifty ending. A previously unpublished story by SF master Frank Herbert follows three robbers trying to escape from their pursuers and one other. Pulp fiction lives on in Patrick O’Sullivan’s over-the-top “A Man of His Times,” a delightful WWII romp in which a reporter faces various clichéd dangers. Dayle A. Dermatis’s dark “The Scent of Amber and Vanilla,” about a woman trying to protect her child from her psycho partner, is a nail-biter. Although not all the entries meet Smith’s bold description, fans of the unconventional will be well satisfied. (Jan.)