Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April 2013

“Among Friends” by Deborah J. Ross

Reviewed by Chuck Rothman

There’s probably no idea, no matter how tired, that can’t be revitalized. The February/March issue of F&SF starts out to show this with “Among Friends” which takes a concept that entered the sf genre in 1939, and comes up with a way to present it so that it becomes fresh and new. Deborah J. Ross‘s story is set in antebellum Delaware, where Thomas Covington, a Quaker, is visited by a slave catcher unlike any other: a mechanical man, made in Switzerland, designed to hunt runaway slaves. But the man — named “Adam” by Thomas — develops self-awareness and Thomas thinks he deserves the same rights as a man. This is Adam Link territory, but the setting and characterizations make up for the oft-used plot and a few twists and surprises make you forget you’ve seen parts of it before.

Sean F. Lynch tells the story of a boy and his father Kaleb, trapped in “The Cave.” The father stays behind while the boy goes on, and the result is a convoluted story that starts with an old stranger showing up in a small town who claims to be trapped there for twenty years, even though he claims he had been in town not twenty days ago. It’s a convoluted story that plays with time, though despite everything I found it pretty obvious where the story was going. The emotional impact is weakened by the structure of the story, which makes it tedious to read.

“Solidarity” is a bit of dystopian fiction, set in the Seastead, a group of ships that have been turned into a floating city, where anything goes. Beck is the daughter of an important official and has been kicked out and has been cut off by him. She tries to scramble around in a place where nothing is free in the name of freedom and stumbles upon a potential political plot. Beck is a great character and Naomi Kritzer portrays a chillingly realistic society (she had evidently used it in a previous story). This is primarily an adventure, but the well-thought-out setting makes it an excellent read.

Jack is an ambulance driver in Michael Reaves‘s “Code 666,” who finds himself in the hospital after a drunk driver totals his ambulance and discovers he has a more important mission to fill. The story focuses on Jack and the details of an EMT, which make the story move along until the resolution, which was an interesting take on life and death.

Andy is “The Assassin” in a story by F&SF regular Albert E. Cowdrey. He failed once when his target turned out to be a hologram and is going back to finish the job, on the behalf of Faith, an agent provocateur who led him to the assassination game in the first place. Andy is caught up in political forces he’s unable to understand, and his odyssey runs from idealist to prisoner and back. The story follows Andy’s life and how it intertwines with Faith as he makes it through a hellhole prison to a form of happiness. The story never stops being fascinating and the characters — even the ones who might be clichés — never stop being surprising.

Elizabeth Bourne and Mark Bourne contribute “What the Red Oaks Knew,” the story of Jimi Bone, who has a dead dragon in the trunk of his car and is on the run, meeting Pink at a carnival and getting together. The dragon has come by way of an attack on an oil rig and seems to be wanted for its power. I did find the story difficult to follow since the mystery seemed confusing.

Sadly, Steven Utley passed away in January 2013. His story, “The Boy Who Drank from Lovely Women,” is about a man who always looks out for himself and, as a result of his self-centered hopping from woman to woman, is cursed to be immortal as a way to regret his life. But he has no regrets and thus goes on. It’s a different take on immortality and a fine story overall.

We veer into hard SF with “The Long View,” set on the ship Vanguard as it starts a colony on the new world. Ezmara Ghali-Gordon is along, inventor of the technique of “tarried animation,” which slows down the metabolism of those on the trip. Ezmara is along, too, despite the fact that her DNA isn’t optimum for the treatment. And, of course, things go wrong. Van Aaron Hughes has written a powerful work of tragedy with an ending whose sadness stayed with me.

Having attended the original Chet Arthur‘s alma mater, I was delighted to see his name as a byline in the issue. “The Trouble with Heaven” is a light romp about life on Ambrosia — a gated community taken to its fullest extent: a satellite where the rich can live without dealing with mundane matters. Charles Adams-Morgan is an ambassador approaching retirement, whose life intersects with reporter Mike Segretti, up on the world to do a puff piece, guided to the world by Alice, a robot servant. The story may be a little too light — there are some nicely wacky characters that can bring a smile, but not a laugh.

“The Lost Faces” by Sean McMullan, like “Among Friends” in this issue, is set in a society that also keeps slaves — ancient Rome. Marcus is a slave catcher, with the ability to remember any face, and is hired to find the runaway slave Vishesti, from India far to the East. Vishesti is not a normal slave: she can provide her owner with weapons that Rome has never seen, but he cannot work them without her help. The story slowly morphs into a revenge tale, where just desserts are meted out with single-minded focus. This is an excellent story, though I’m confused about the “sting” of the last line: readers should have figured it out halfway through. But that’s a minor quibble; the story as a whole is a winner.