L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol. 33

Given that the 14 new writers represented in this anthology are all winners of the contest L. Ron Hubbard founded in 1983, it’s not surprising that their contributions are of a consistently high quality. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but familiar themes are well handled. For example, both Dustin Steinacker’s “Envoy in the Ice” and C.L. Kagmi’s “The Drake Equation” imagine first contact with alien intelligences in a thoughtful way that’s reminiscent of Carl Sagan’s lengthier treatment in Contact. Stephen Lawson’s “Moonlight One” is the standout, setting up a seemingly impossible crime while economically conjuring up a plausible near-future: Gwen and Ehrly Kennedy are the first, and only, humans to live on the moon, but their experiment turns tragic when Gwen awakens to find that someone (hopefully someone other than her) has stabbed her husband to death. Fans of classic science fiction will find much to appreciate here. Agent: Claude Sandoz, Author Services. (Apr.)