I admit it. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with Astounding Frontiers kicking off three different serials in the first issue. But now that I have the second issue in hand, I’ll tell you. The first thing I did was go check up on Haroun and Zira in Ben Wheeler’s “In the Seraglio of the Shiek of Mars.”

And let me tell you… with the entry of the insanely evil Prince Ahmed Al-Shah into the action, my new thing to complain about is that I only got one chapter this time instead of two…!

If you missed this one, it’s basically One Thousand and One Nights set on the sort of Mars you would read about in the really old school issues of Planet Stories. And man is it good!

Meanwhile… if I’d wanted to find out what happens to Prisma Maydoon and KRS-88, it looks like I’ll have to wait. The latest installment of Nick Cole and Jason Anspach’s “Not Star Wars; But Yeah This Is Star Wars” story has switched contexts to The Indelible VI and her swaggering captain. In addition to carbon scoring and smuggler’s holds, it’s got a holographic navigator that’s just like the Indian character from Short Circuit. (Okay, that movie came out a long time ago, but trust me… this guy’s funny.)

I would be having even more fun right now if I had read John C. Wright’s Somewhither last year: because I would be getting his sequel Nowhither one chapter at a time while I check out the latest shorts from guys like Brian Neimeier and Karl Gallagher!

If you haven’t gotten in on Astounding Frontiers already, you still have a chance to get in on the ground floor. And if Asimov’s Science Fiction has left you cold since about 1980 or so… then you’ll be especially glad to have this on the virtial magazine rack. Check it out!