A meditation on how religious language tries to limn the liminal, conceive the inconceivable, speak the unspeakable, and say the unsayable. In Effing the Ineffable, Wesley J. Wildman confronts the human obsession with ultimate reality and our desire to conceive and speak of this reality through religious language, despite the seeming impossibility of doing so. Each chapter is a meditative essay on an aspect of life that, for most people, is fraught with special spiritual significance: dreaming, suffering, creating, slipping, balancing, eclipsing, loneliness, intensity, and bliss. These moments can inspire religious questioning and commitment, and, in extreme situations, drive us in search of ways to express what matters most to us. Drawing upon American pragmatist, Anglo-American analytic, and Continental traditions of philosophical theology, Wildman shows how, through direct description, religious symbolism, and phenomenological experience, the language games of religion become a means to attempt, and, in some sense, to accomplish this task. “This is a fine example of Wildman’s way of doing philosophy of religion. It demonstrates the importance, if not necessity, of religious philosophers working comparatively and also the benefits of multidisciplinary inquiry.” — Stephen Dawson, Lynchburg College

This collection of the best of 1985 features a novelette by Orson Scott Card, author of the winning novel Ender's Game, Robert Silverberg's "Sailing to Byzantium," George R.R. Martin's "Portraits of His Children," Nancy Kress's "Out of All Them Bright Stars"; and notable contenders, including fiction by Joe Haldeman, Howard Waldrop, and James P. Blaylock. A special feature in this volume is a statement by Arthur C. Clarke, the seventh winner of the Grand Master Nebula Award, and a story, "The Steam-Powered Word Processor," that shows Clarke at his playful best. This volume also features three splendid pieces of original nonfiction. Two award-winning science fiction poems round out this stellar collection. ISBN 0-15-164928-6: $19.95.

Although the exploration of space has long preoccupied authors and filmmakers, the development of an actual space program, discoveries about the true nature of space, and critical reconsiderations of America's frontier experiences have challenged and complicated conventional portrayals of humans in space. This volume reexamines the themes of space and the frontier in science fiction in light of recent scientific and literary developments. From this new perspective, we discern previously unnoticed commentaries from older authors, while newer writers either remain within a reassuring but obsolete tradition, venture into unexplored new realities, or abandon space to focus on other frontiers. The intriguing contributions to this volume include a previously unpublished interview with Arthur C. Clarke, the world's greatest living author of science fiction; examinations of space opera by veteran author Jack Williamson and scholar David Pringle; surveys of space in science fiction film, and writer and producer Michael Cassutt's account of his efforts to launch a film based on a Clifford D. Simak novel; and speculations about future developments from noted writers Gregory Benford, Jack Dann, James Gunn, and Howard V. Hendrix.