WEREWOLVES

Fifteen original stories featuring young werewolves--present, past, and future. Most of these shape-changers share a sort of tragic nobility, whether they wear their curse proudly (in Esther M. Friesner's "A Winter's Night," a Gypsy defies his Nazi pursuers) or in shame (young Adek despairingly joins the 13th-century Childrens' Crusade in Susan Schwartz's "Wolf's Flock"). Some run into the traditional persecution, but several meet acceptance, and even friendship: lycanthropism is portrayed as an affliction like alcoholism or Hansen's disease: more feared than dangerous. Readers looking for gore and grue are likely to be disappointed, but the great terror of the Change is repeatedly and effectively conveyed; one stoW (Anne E. Crompton's "Met by Moonlight") is definitely grotesque. The mood does lighten occasionally: in Elizabeth Scarborough's "Wolf from the Door," a college student named "Ms. Garou" demonstrates unusual qualifications for wildlife study, and the rock drummer in Sherwood Smith's "Monster Mash" has a real problem when a Battle of the Bands is scheduled for Hallowe'en. A strong, well-chosen collection.