Bio: My name is Dan Mendelson. I am 32 years old and have been an avid reader since my High School years. For the most part I enjoy Science fiction/Fantasy. However I also enjoy Mystery, Espionage, and the Classics. Two of my favorite Novels are by the same author; ?The Three Musketeers? and ?The Count of Monte Cristo? by Alexander Dumas. As a salesperson for technical equipment reading has really helped me to escape and cope with the stress.

Genetic engineering breathes all new life to the idea of the ultimate society. But what character traits are needed for this all knowing, all powerful, and ultra productive super human? In ?Beggars in Spain? Mr. Roger Camden believes the super Trait to be sleep, or rather the lack of the need to sleep. So it is with all his riches Mr. Camden will stop at nothing to have his future daughter embedded with this sleepless characteristic. Nancy Kress allows for immediate comparison of the sleepless child to a normal child when Mrs. Elizabeth Camden gives birth to twins. Leisha Camden (sleepless child) and Alice Camden (normal child) grow up together but in separate worlds. As this story begins you might think of how great it would be to not have to sleep, but as Leisha matures we see another side to the story. After reading ?Beggars in Spain? I wonder if genetic engineering is an invitation for ultimate success or for ultimate disaster?

The Kilimanjaro Elephant stands heads and shoulders above any other creatures in the land. So it is fitting that Mike Resnick has written a novel ?Ivory? which stands head and shoulders above other novels. I would not have thought it possible to spin such a colorful story from a simple pair of Ivory Tusks. However these are no ordinary Tusks, these are the Tusks of perhaps the mightiest of creatures that has ever been. In this gripping adventure Mike Resnick takes the reader through the adventures of these Tusks spanning not just hundreds or thousands of years, but rather eons. The Tusks journeys have seen many owners and many different lands, from Earth to far reaching systems of planets. Through all their adventures perhaps their rightful owner will finally find the Tusks and their destiny will come to an end.

At a time when humankind can travel the stars and visit other Planets, we still have not overcome our feelings of superiority. Gundersen learns that even if other alien races look and live differently than us, it does not mean we are in anyway superior. Gundersen's reaction to his and mans earlier ignorance and treatment of these alien beings brings him back to this land for a serious journey of knowledge and an experience that literally changes him. Robert Silverberg takes us through a journey that seems so bizarre I have to question whether he himself isn?t of an alien race.