Status Updates From Facets

Side Effects *½ | Relentlessly cynical and barely sfnal crossed-lives story about pharmaceuticals and slightly bent doctors. Whoop de do.

Flatline ***1/2 | Post-singularity cyberpunk goodness, with a slight ding for second person narration and a threadbare plot. Cool scenes and characters though, and a style that really reminded me of Shadowrun specifically.

"No Spot of Ground" ★★★ | Alternate history where Edgar Allan Poe doesn't die in Baltimore, but instead survives and joins the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The inescapable conclusion is that if this is what would have happened, we might all be better off for Poe's dying.

Video Star **½ | A competently written, but not particularly surprising, cyberpunk heist story.

"Surfacing" ★★★½ | A reclusive alcoholic scientist with violent tendencies investigates mysterious deep-sea creatures on a distant planet. Williams might have introduced a few too many plot hooks for the size of the story, but the core ideas were quite good and the setting (with the glaring exception of the "Kyklopes" aliens) seemed well-realized.