Her Pilgrim Soul: And Other Stories

These eight well-wrought speculative tales of sci-fi and the uncanny--ranging from the poignant to the whimsical--first appeared in anthologies or in such journals as the Magazine of Science Fantasy and Science Fiction ; three have also been televised on The Twilight Zone. In the title story, Kevin's marriage to Carol founders while he is obsessed by his work in the Media Lab. His computer calls up a lovely column of stars and violet light in which a baby appears; it grows into a woman, Nola, her aim to recall Kev to the real world. ``Sea Change'' retells the myth of the Sirens: Leucosia now sings in a cabaret in the Greek isles, where she consoles a male vocalist whose hearing has been shattered by a terrorist bomb. In ``Steel'' Ken is an editor at Life , a strong gentle alien who zooms through air and sea to intervene bodily in the Mideast crisis. The double time frame of ``Healer''--the present and an Aztec past--is joined by a miraculous jade stone, stolen by drifter Jackie and used by him to change his life twice over. The power of these imaginative tales lies in Brennert's evocation of stunning visual effects and his skillful renderings of interactions between detailed technologies and human emotions. (Dec.)