Steven Baxter has been a powerhouse of sprawling, innovative science fiction adventure recently, and we’re proud to feature another of his epic tales, this time set in the same universe as last July’s “Earth II,” in which interstellar settlers from our world’s future colonize new planets with decidedly mixed results. You don’t have to be familiar with the previous story to appreciate his latest novella, “Earth III,” in which a hot-headed and desperate young couple on the run from their world’s belligerent conqueror authorities join a questing savant on a dangerous adventure to the cold, lightless side of their planet in search of what will be considered blasphemy on their world: Earth III’s extraterrestrial origins!

ALSO IN JUNE

Allen M. Steele returns with his latest, a tale of the colonization and exploitation of the Red Planet and the often unexpected psychological rammifications experienced by the colonists there in “The Emperor of Mars”; Chris Beckett pens a story that may remind you of the colorful and offbeat work of Tanith Lee or Michael Moorcock in “The Peacock Cloak,”—the omnipotent wearer of the titular cloak encounters the denizens of his perverse private world struggling by any means necessary to remake his creation into something more peaceful and appealing for themselves; Benjamin Crowell takes us to troubled Africa for his affecting story of a child’s toy cleverly tampered with for criminal effect in “Petopia”; Kit Reed brings to mind the old infinite monkey theorem in her latest, “Monkey Do,” in which an ill-tempered simian proves to be the last thing a struggling writer should rely upon to jump-start his career; Peter Friend describes an ill-fated “Voyage to the Moon,” where unsuspecting insectoid aliens find t----hat their world may have celestial boundaries imposed by a mysterious higher authority; and Anna Tambour’s Bradbury-esque Asimov’s debut finds an expectant father and son hopefully awaiting a boarding call for “Dreadnought Neptune”

Robert Silverberg’s Reflections battles Old Scratch in “Satan, Get Thee Hence!”; in “On the Net” James Patrick Kelly continues to consider “The Price of Free: Part Two”; Peter Heck contributes “On Books”; plus an array of poetry you’re sure to enjoy. Look for our June issue on sale at your newsstand on April 6, 2010. Or you can subscribe to Asimov’s—in classy and elegant paper format or those new-fangled downloadable varieties, by visiting us online at www.asimovs.com. We’re also available on Amazon.com’s Kindle!

New stories by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Carol Emshwiller, Robert Reed, Tom Purdom, Neal Barrett, Jr., Alan Wall, R. Neube, Ian Creasey, Don D’Ammassa, Nick Wolven, Aliette de Bodard, and many others!