ISAAC ASIMOV'S ADVENTURES OF SCIENCE FICTION

Judging by these twelve recent contributions (nine stories, three brief features), Asimov's SF Adventure Magazine is mostly aimed at the less lively reaches of a ninth-grade mentality. This anthology includes such competent juveniles as Jack C. Haldeman II's ""Longshot"" (extraterrestrial racing yarn), Roger Zelazny's ""The Last Defender of Camelot"" (Launcelot standing off a resurrected Merlin), Poul Anderson's ""Captive of the Centaurianess"" (neo-Nazi swine getting their comeuppance from a race of Amazons coyly called ""ladies""), and Frederick Longbeard's ""The Jaren"" (gallant warrior-brotherhood confronting beastly human invaders). Keith Minnion's ""Ghosts"" (about a rescue-mission pilot in touch with certain post-mortem energies) and Barry B. Longyear's ""The Magician's Apprentice"" (just what it sounds like) are about equally tame but marginally crisper in effect. Altogether an insipid collection.