Your name. Maureen McHugh's name. Same cover. Did ya see that coming back in '99 at Viable Paradise?

Nope; I thought I’d be lucky to end up on the same shelf.

"The Third Party" kicked ass. Wacky politics and intellectual history. Captivating characters. Interesting moral ambiguity -- initially I totally had Cicero in the right, then I began to wonder a little. B1tchin' gondola setting.

The cop was such a supercop, I kept expecting him to be the representative of yet a third secret force -- whether more extraplanetaries, or a cabal that had kept alive the lost tech, or whatever. Did you intend that misdirection?

I ain’t sayin’ nothin’. :)

Lovely cover. I look forward to reading the story. Yay!

I foolishly let my subscription lapse when I moved, so I wandered down to Kepler's the other day to pick up a copy; they still have the August issue out. :(

I'll try again in a week or two.

Man, and I thought Kepler's was cool.

David;

I found this goody over at the new IROSF:

"The Third Party" by David Moles

My first thought on reading this story was, "I want the novel."

I don't know if there's a novel surrounding this or not, but it feels like, say, Chapter 7. There's quite a universe of characters here, and they all seem to have history with each other and with the worlds they are acting in. There are social, political, economic, and historical forces at work, and one senses that the author knows where all this is coming from, and where it's going.

Moles certainly doesn't fall into the trap of over-explaining the universe he has imagined, but he did leave this reader somewhat adrift attempting to piece together a context that is larger than the story.

As for the story: Cicero and a host of fellow missionaries all named for figures from ancient rome (is this time travel? alternate history? or just a game they are playing?) are on the run. They believe they are fighting for the soul of a new planet, working against their enemies, the Dealers. Turns out there are multiple forces at work (thus the eponymous "Third Party") and it looks like either Cicero himself, or else his love for the brilliant Leah must be doomed."

Ben;

You said:

The cop was such a supercop, I kept expecting him to be the representative of yet a third secret force -- whether more extraplanetaries, or a cabal that had kept alive the lost tech, or whatever.

I had those same suspicions myself, which I suppose just goes to show that David picked the right title :)

Hey, thanks for the link.

^No problem. They're talking about "The Third Party" (one brief comment so far) in the forum area as well -- seems like a fair amount of interest in seeing a novel with these characters.