Double issues allows for more than one long story - and this one is not an exception. No exceptional stories in this issue although "Melodies of the Heart" by Michael F. Flynn, "Creation Myths of the Recently Extinct" by Frederik Pohl and "Excerpts from the Discussion of the Controlled Vibration Theory of Communication Among the Un-Kin" by Sarah Zettel and Laura Woody are pretty readable and quite different from each other. On the other hand, the two worst stories ("The Tetrahedron" by Charles L. Harness and "The Lab Assistant" by Erin Leonard) have a lot in common: same author ("Erin Leonard" is a joint pseudonym of Charles L. Harness and Shiloh Erin Cullen), agenda ahead of the story and in the case of The Tetrahedron, one of the worst presentations of a historical period and person that I had read in years.

The non-fiction parts of this issue were actually much better than the fiction:
- Stanley Schmidt's Editorial talks about the US space program and its dissolving in these days. Reading it 22 years later, it is a nice piece of history (and the letter section contains some notes about it as well)
- "The Real Physics of Time Travel" by Ian Stewart is looking at one of the usual tropes of SF from the science side - and is it turns out, it is possible - except not by us (no tools for the experiment) or in our universe (not without finding more energy sources somewhere). It is a very technical article and the physics is pretty involved. It may need an update these days but the basics still apply. And mentioning SF works where they did something properly (or not) was pretty amusing.
- "The Force of the Tide" by John G. Cramer (as part of "The Alternate View" column) discusses what causes tides - both on Earth and in general. The format used (an interview with himself) works for the topic and even if I knew the science facts, it was an interesting read.
- The review section looked at 9 books - I've heard of 2 of them and I am not interested in the others. Which may explain why I had not heard of them I guess.
- A biolog of Doug Larson and the obituary of Chad Oliver were informative
- Two additional pieces that are too short to be stories but are nevertheless fiction:
- "Top Ten Phrases Heard Immediately Before "The Big Bang"" by Paula Robinson is funny and "From the Travel Diary and Sketchbook of Braxton Montague Shew III (Groundsliding Bellywalker)" was hilarious (a one page letter from one alien to his mother about another alien with interesting ways to read)

Reviews of all the short fiction individually:
Melodies of the Heart by Michael F. Flynn
Creation Myths of the Recently Extinct by Frederik Pohl
Excerpts from the Discussion of the Controlled Vibration Theory of Communication Among the Un-Kin by Sarah Zettel and Laura Woody
The Tetrahedron by Charles L. Harness
The Lab Assistant by Erin Leonard
Under the Wings of Owls by Hayford Peirce
Virtual Proof by Doug Larsen ( )