Tan (Sex in the System
) presents the top stories from Circlet's Best Fantastic Erotica contest in an anthology that runs the gamut from sensual SF to surreal fantasy. Arinn Dembo's “Monsoon,” the deserving prize winner, tells the tale of Benton, a photographer and womanizer traveling in India, whose encounter with a mysterious seductress results in an eerie surprise. Other highlights include Carolyn and Steve Vakesh's wry “Capture, Courting and Copulation: Contemporary Human Mating Rituals and the Etiology of Human Aggression,” a scholarly lecture by and for dragons; Connie Wilkins's “The Bridge,” about a British veteran's curious encounter with the Green Man; and Catherine Lundoff's hilarious “Twilight,” in which half-vampire co-ed Mariel tries to dodge annoying yet seductive vampire hunter Christopher Van Helsing. (May)
