Geoff Ryman - Love sickness, Part Two

After avoiding a 'Snide', a state-spy, by assuming a virus personality, that of a Das Kapital-quoting citizen called Hazel, things start to go Marye's way. Rolfa flees her family, shaves off all her body hair to blend in, and moves in with Marye. The ending is weak as everything seems to end on a high note for no good reason. The 'system' just collapses.

Eric Brown - Krash-Bangg Joe and the Pineal-Zen Equation

Joe Gomez is a spacer hooked on the nada-continuum of space flight. Sita is a telepath, hooked on drugs and endentured to her sleazy detective boss Gassner.In a cyberpunkish milieux of body snatching/murder to extract memories for fun/profit, both plot their escape.

Garry Kilworth - Dop*elgan*er

A student at Edinburgh Uiversity researching doppelgangers notices a new connection between Poe, Washington Irving and James Hogg but is distracted by his ex, who seems strangely friendly. Then he sees her again and she is angry and denies talking to him...

Ken Wisman - The Philosophical Stone

An old man tells a story to his grandchildren that they have heard before, about how he and his friends in his youth searched for the Philosopher's Stone.

Brian Stableford - Layers of meaning

The sniff of a bad egg gives a curate a vision of the universal significance of the egg. Lots of puns ensue (e.g. the title). ( )