The Fifth Di... #5 May 1996
5150 Fair Oaks Blvd. #101-152
Carmichael, CA 95608
Editor/Publisher James B. Baker

The Fifth Di... is a thin 28-page digest produced in the most basic desktop publishing form: The cover's title boxes have dotty gray screens behind them, and the cover is made of the same plain paper as the rest of the 'zine. But Baker promises that starting in January, The Fifth Di... is going to a "pulp" format.

As for the fiction: Baker leads the issue off himself with a poem, and ends it with a the first part of his story about a future where man has genetically altered and merged himself with animals called "Anthroform." The other stories in the issue are divided between quick one- to two-page vignettes and serials (and one regular-sized complete story). Michael Robbins' "Brief Encounter" is a snapshot story of a child lost in the snowy woods who cleverly enlists a wolf's aid in getting her rescued. L.E. Quillen's "Manna From Heaven" manages to throw just about every cliche into its two pages that there is in SF: it rips off Star Trek by talking of a Federation of Planets and a Prime Directive. Then it dumps "important" historical names on its characters and starships like "Engineer Tesla" and "Psychologist Skinner-Jung" and "Federation Starship Kitty Hawk." The story, about giving an alien civilization the means to grow wheat (and thus make their own bread) does not save the story from its indulgences.

This issue also includes an amusing tale of the foibles of catching alien dragons from Richard N. Dunbar, Sr. called "Gravitationally Speaking," and the conclusion of A.W. Andrew's "Final Irony," a story about future military unjustness, psychological conditioning and mind swapping.

There's potential in The Fifth Di..., but overall, the magazine still needs some development, which may be in the works with its scheduled reformatting this winter.

Copyright © 1996 by John Everson. All Rights Reserved.