Galaxy’s Edge
#59, November/December 2022
“What Would You Pay For A Second Chance?” by Chris Kulp
“Golden Apples of the Sun” by Gardner Dozois, Jack Dann & Michael Swanwick (reprint, not reviewed)
“Monuments of Flesh and Stone” by Mike Resnick (reprint, not reviewed)
“Sharnathium” by Wulf Moon
“Past Due” by Eric Fomley
“The Undone and the Divine” by Angela Slatter (reprint, not reviewed)
“Into the Frozen Wilds” by P.A. Cornell
Reviewed by Geoff Houghton
The November/December issue of Galaxy’s Edge includes four new works and three reprints that will not be reviewed.
The first story is: “What Would You Pay for a Second Chance?” by Chris Kulp. This reviewer expected a lot from this story since this previously unpublished author was selected by an eminent panel of SF stars (Lois McMaster Bujold, Sheree Renée Thomas, Nancy Kress, Bill Fawcett and Jody Lynn Nye) as the winner of the Second Mike Resnick Memorial Award for Short Fiction in 2022.
It is set initially on planet Earth and thence onward to nearby extrasolar worlds in an intensely capitalistic future that could be no more than a few centuries along our existing timeline, if we are direly unfortunate in our choices of leaders.
The central ethic of this future dystopia appears to be: “Pay your way, or die.” That stark choice faces our young protagonist when she is diagnosed with an aggressive cancer whose cure is entirely possible, but entirely outside of her financial reach. It is entirely consistent with the world that this author has created that the unfortunate young woman is faced with a stark choice between oblivion and selling herself into indentured servitude to the military as the uploaded intelligence that operates a robotic war machine. However, after that point the author’s apparent lack of any knowledge of matters military seriously damages a promising story as this expensive combat asset is utilised in the most unlikely and unmilitary fashion.
The second original offering, “Sharnathium,” by Wulf Moon is set in a future so remote and alien that it meets Arthur C. Clarke’s definition that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. The narrator is an Astralmancer, a self-made god who can draw on the astral energy generated by worlds full of avid human worshippers and the residual vigour and vitality of thousands of other powerful Astral beings consumed in his rise to power.
Our narrator is a paramount master of his kind but these Pattroks are not the only great power in his Universe. An equally potent but very different cooperative of matriarchal power launches a millennia-long grand conspiracy against him and he describes how he is enmeshed in a trap so subtle that, even when he is overthrown and trapped by his enemies, he cannot regret having accepted the delightful lure and fallen into their sweetly baited snare.
This is an intricate but gripping story that is well worth the effort required to follow its convolutions to its equally subtle end.
“Past Due” by Eric Fomley is a short SF story set in a near-future USA where consolation for bereavement can go beyond the point of death itself, if you have the resources to fund it.
This is a fascinating take on one potential future use of virtual reality and artificial intelligence technology that may not be more than a few decades removed from our current level of expertise. Although the author concentrates on the immediate first person tragedy that besets the protagonist, the story itself triggers the deeper issue that the fact that something is possible does not automatically mean that it is also wise.
The final story is “Into the Frozen Wilds” by P.A. Cornell. The Wilds referred to are the frozen snowfields around the workshops of Father Christmas. Time and human cynicism has eroded the belief that fuels the magic of Christmas and the enchantment is disappearing. Rudolf is already dead, many of the workshop elves have fled back to the Faery lands and the old man himself is fading. Three young workshop elves set out on a quixotic and possibly hopeless quest to save Christmas by seeking out an even greater source of magic that is independent of human belief.
Even the most cynical of readers may wish them well on their courageous quest in this gentle but bittersweet fantasy.
Geoff Houghton lives in a leafy village in rural England. He is a retired Healthcare Professional with a love of SF and a jackdaw-like appetite for gibbets of medical, scientific and historical knowledge.