Omni Best Science Fiction Three

The 11 stories in this solid collection offer a variety of voices and perspectives, from idea-fiction to silly fun. Only one has been previously published. Bruce McAllister takes a look into the beyond with an equipment technician who services sophisticated systems that pick up messages from Limbo; he succumbs to the lure of the siren song of a ``just-dead'' woman. Living in a society that sexually exploits hermaphrodites while despising them as ``non-humans,'' Ian McDonald's hero/ine resorts to a desperate act to save a dying sibling who cannot obtain routine medical care. Scott Baker describes a computer programmer who becomes a bit too absorbed in his task of developing a virtual-reality interactive game for a secret group worshiping the Egyptian goddess Hathor. Pat Cadigan takes a walk on the weird side in her humorous account of what Jimmy-Ray Carver's pals have to do to get him back on track after great sex with an alien leaves him ``carrying on like a sackful of weasels.'' In Pat Murphy's tale, wisps of old stories of yetis on Earth lead a Martian cartographer into an adventure that reveals one of the red planet's most elusive secrets. (June)