The six stories that represent Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine's March and April 2003 issues exhibit an unusual diversity of almost familiar worlds.

From the start, with John Morressy's "The Resurrections of Fortunato," we are transported into the mind of an alternative Edgar Allan Poe in a highly evocative new take on The Cask of Amontillado.

In "Decanting Oblivion," Lawrence C. Connolly takes us on a ride into a barely futuristic, but totally harrowing, downtown Pittsburgh with messenger extraordinaire, Nix. There's no question that this one will keep you up all night.

Aaron A. Reed's "Shutdown/Retrovival" explores the ever-shifting worlds of virtuality and the social consequences of interactive gaming in a fast-paced imagistic tour-de-force.

"Hunger: A Confession" by Dale Bailey is a haunted house story in the tradition of campfire spookings - but creepier than any you've heard before (especially as narrated by Harlan Ellison).

Part romance and part myth, Gary Shockley's "The Lightning Bug Wars" is a long slow raft trip down a river of nightmares, where the catfish is lurking and time has no meaning.

And finally, in "Seeing is Believing," Paul Di Filippo applies science to bank robbery in a tongue-in-cheek caper story that will at once amuse and intrigue.