LAST YEAR, Laird Barron creeped out a lot of readers with his acclaimed story about one man's search for the photos in "The Imago Sequence." Next month he follows it up with another engrossing exploration of the darker side of the universe, "Hallucigenia."

The rest of the issue isn't definite yet, but if the stars are in alignment, we'll have two stories next month about humans dealing with the animal kingdom, compliments of C. S. Friedman and Albert Cowdrey.

We can assure you that we'll have more great stories for you in the next few issues, including Peter S. Beagle's "El Regalo," John Morressy's latest Kedrigern caper, "Pop Squad" by Paolo Bacigalupi, and a new fantasy by Ysabeau S. Wilce. Subscribe now (before rates increase) and make sure you won't miss an issue.