Once upon a time, in a land Down Under, from the depths of the Clan cave, Clan Destine Press issued a challenge to Australian and Kiwi authors to write cliff-hanging, Australian-flavoured, action-packed adventure stories for two protagonists; stories of the What If, What Now, And Then... kind.

This was a catnip call, an irresistible lure, a kid-in-a-candy-store kind of a challenge: what writer wouldn't want to take a crack at that?

To make it that little bit more intriguing, the editors decreed the stories could be contemporary, historical, realistic, far-out, spec-fic, horror, SF, or urban fantasy; and, in a spirit of mischief, that at least one of the two protagonists must be human. You'd think that would cover all bases.

But writers are a contrary bunch: they pushed these very broad boundaries even further. The result is not one, but two volumes of kick-arse, action-packed stories: And Then... The Great Big Book of Adventure Tales.

This is Volume 2: a fascinating collection of genre-bending adventure stories garnered from a mix of sf, fantasy and crime writers, happily encroaching upon each other's territories, and then some.