"Osama Phone Home", David Marusek

SS F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction) December 2007 - science fiction
Angry that the U.S. Government did not capture Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora, a group of friends form a secret organization to help bring bin Laden to justice. They are deadly serious in their mission. Their Project Phone Home involves a truth serum drug dubbed True Confessions, genetically modified ragweed, voiceprint recognition traps, and cheap prepaid cell phones.

This is a suspenseful present-day story involving spooky but not impossible sounding technologies. It was originally published earlier in 2007 in MIT's Technology Review magazine.

"Hot Water", Richard Parks

SS RoF (Realms of Fantasy) December 2007 - fantasy
Lord Yamada is taken to a small Buddhist temple in the mountains to dry out after a bout of hard drinking. An angry, female, so-called demon is messing with temple's hot spring water. Young monk Hoshi fears he knows why this is happening.

Not memorably profound, but a pleasant little tale.

"The White Isle", Von Carr

SS RoF (Realms of Fantasy) December 2007 – fairy tale
<<- Realms of Fantasy December 2007 interior illustration by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law for "The White Isle"
A witchgirl lives alone on an island in a white tower. She has a shoebox of fingernails to sink ships with. When a second shipwrecked man washes up her island’s shore, she helps him and saves his life. The man, a son of a rich merchant, signals a passing ship and convinces the captain to take him and the witchgirl, whom he loves, to the mainland.

This is a story of why you might not want to bring home exotic people from faraway places. The witchgirl is interestingly not human. The purposely unexplained magic makes this a fairy tale.

"Don't Ask", M. Rickert

SS F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction) December 2007 – fantasy
The lost boys were stolen from their everyday modern lives. After they are found, they are not only older but different. Don't ask, but they've been running with the wolves.

A poignant short story about mothers trying to undue what happened to their boys, hoping to find the boys they lost.

"Still Point", Graham Edwards

SS RoF (Realms of Fantasy) December 2007 – fantasy
A struggling private investigator; a behemoth in a labyrinth; a police captain existing outside time; an angelic chaperone; a creepy landlord; and The Still Point of the Turning World.

This story is overstuffed with odd details, along with some humor and some gore. The characters are rather flat. The plot was a bit too convoluted to truly work.