One of the best aspects of getting a story published in one of the bigger "name" magazines in the genre is the chance to read reviews of your story as they pop up here and there. I collect the reviews and run the best snippets from them on the excerpt pages for each story, here on my Web site.

I've gotten a good range of commentary to choose from for "Redemption, Drawing Near." And I'm happy to say that most of the comments have been positive.

In addition to the Tangent review, I've come across two more. The earlier one is from Rick Kleffel's Agony Column, in which he matches up the issue of Interzone with the latest New Yorker, with favorable results. A snippet about my story:

"As with the other stories in this issue of Interzone, 'Redemption, Drawing Near' effectively cast me into a science-fiction reading haze. Yes, I did notice a couple of words missing [not my fault], but the story was strong enough to flow past them. It didn't cover new ground, exactly, but it covered old ground gracefully. I felt like I was reading genuine, gosh-wow science-damn fiction and enjoying it."

And in the latest review, from SF Revu, my novel based on the Wannoshay gets a nice plug:

"A very assured story - in which a priest is able to unravel some complex mysteries surrounding the aliens which have arrived on Earth, and having had the truth revealed to him, as Moses, he has to spread the world. Interestingly, this works well as a singleton, although in fact it is, according to Jasper's website, an extracted story from his Wannoshay Cycle novel series."

(Hey, he was more or less accurate, though I did fix his typos.)

Editors and agents, I hope you're reading... (though I know you're probably too busy reading manuscripts to surf the Net for Mike Jasper reviews).

I'm interested by the fact that some reviewers thought I didn't cover new ground -- I wonder if that's due to the fact that I wasn't immersed in the SF genre as a kid. What seems new and interesting to me may seem tired and rehashed to lifelong SF readers. At least Sherwood Smith at Tangent thought my aliens were unique (I worry they're too human-like and not weird enough). And the novel really isn't about the aliens so much as the handful of humans who meet them and try to help them.

After this novel sees print (someday), no more aliens for a while. :) Later!