Analog, March/April 2020
“Noise Level” by Raymond F. Jones (reprint, not reviewed)
“The House of Styx, Part I” by Derek Künsken (serial, not reviewed)
“Camphor” by Mark W. Tiedemann
“Expecting to Fly” by Edd Vick and Manny Frishberg
“Midstrathe Exploding” by Andy Dudak
“A Stone’s Throw from You” by Jenn Reese
“Dix Dayton, Jet Jockey” by Liz A. Vogel
“Cooling Chaos” by Gregory Benford
“Respite” by Catherine Wells
“Curious Algorithms” by Hayden Trenholm
“War Lily” by Beth Dawkins
“On the Causes and Consequences of Cat Ladies” by Richard A. Lovett
“Zeroth Contact” by Joshua Cole
“The Halting Problem” by Em Liu
“The Smartest Damn Machine on Earth” by Bo Balder
“Lemonade Stand” by Brenda Kalt
“Rover” by A.T. Sayre
“One Hundred” by Sean Monaghan
“One Basket” by C.C. Finlay
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
The publication formerly known as Astounding celebrates ninety years on the newsstand with a generous serving of fiction, old and new.
The title of “Camphor” by Mark W. Tiedemann is the name of a colony world that lost contact with the rest of humanity many centuries ago, and only recently regained it. A representative of the galactic civilization lives on the planet for a few years. A colleague arrives to investigate the unexplained presence of animals from another world, genetically altered to exist on Camphor. What the pair discover unveils secrets about the colony world’s origin and culture, and determines how the representative will spend the rest of his days.
The speculative biology of this story is unusual and intriguing, if not always entirely clear. The fact that the colonists always wear long sleeves is a vital clue, but it’s hard to believe that the representative never found out the reason behind this peculiarity.
In “Expecting to Fly” by Edd Vick and Manny Frishberg, the only survivor after a starship crashes on an alien world is a very young child. The inhabitants of the world raise her as one of their own. The aliens grow wings when they become adults, enabling them to fly if they survive their first attempts to soar. When a human starship arrives to bring the child, now a young woman, back to her own kind, she struggles to reconcile her two heritages, and discovers her purpose in life.
The author creates a complex and believable alien culture. The way in which the protagonist finds a way to bring two very different species together is inspiring.
“Midstrathe Exploding” by Andy Dudak involves a very strange disaster. A time-altering weapon causes a city to explode with extreme slowness; so much so that the process will take more than a millennium. A young pickpocket leads a tourist to a border area where the destruction is occurring at glacial speed, leading to an unexpected action on her part. He also visits his mother, who is a member of a cult of people who place their bodies inside this border zone, where they experience two different rates of time flow.
The concept is a fascinating one, and the author develops it in interesting ways. The plot is episodic, with the main character’s visit to his mother something of an anticlimax after what happens to the tourist.
“A Stone’s Throw from You” by Jenn Reese is a brief tale of a scientist, working to cleanse the ocean of pollutants, and her sister, who alters her body to become a sea-dwelling being. Their final encounter is a tragic one. The story is more effective as a character study than a fully developed narrative.
The title of “Dix Dayton, Jet Jockey” by Liz A. Vogel hints at the fact that it is an old-fashioned space adventure. The narrator, a solo pilot in the asteroid belt, discovers pirates about to hijack an automated freighter carrying vital goods to a station on Triton. Without weapons, the pilot figures out a way to defeat the armed criminals and save the critical cargo. Written in an informal, slangy style, this yarn will appeal to readers nostalgic for the days of pulp magazines.
“Cooling Chaos” by Gregory Benford follows the development of an aerosol that reflects light and heat. It begins in a modest way as a product to protect firefighters, later cools cities and reduces the risk of wildfires, and eventually reverses global warming. Although the plot features a dramatic encounter with those who oppose the technology, the story reads like a lightly fictionalized essay on the possibility of such technology. (The issue also features a nonfiction article on the subject by the same author, which is somewhat redundant.)
In “Respite” by Catherine Wells, a space traveler arrives on a colony world that faces the deaths of its inhabitants in a short time. He is able to carry eleven survivors with him, but the time needed to reach safety will prevent him from returning to rescue more before they perish. The visitor has the benefit of life-extension technology for himself, leading to an act of sacrifice on his part in order to save as many colonists as possible.
A quietly melancholy mood makes a potentially melodramatic plot a powerful one. The author’s gift for creating fully realized characters adds to the story’s emotional impact.
The main character in “Curious Algorithms” by Hayden Trenholm is an artificial intelligence, in the form of a vehicle carrying refugees to a detention center. A man with electronic implants in his body reprograms the AI, causing it to face decisions it never considered before.
The story takes place in a world divided by a wall that separates opposing forces, although the truth turns out to be more complex. The AI’s crisis of conscience is more convincing than the setting, or the actions of the human characters.
The title of “War Lily” by Beth Dawkins refers to a device that produces a simulation of one killed in battle. It only operates four times, activated by the survivors now and then over many years. The simulation narrates, meeting the dead soldier’s wife, young son, dying mother, and the same son when he is an adult. The final encounter offers the simulation an important choice to make. This very short tale serves as an effective allegory for the need to remember those we have lost, while continuing our lives without them.
Despite a title that sounds whimsical, “On the Causes and Consequences of Cat Ladies” by Richard A. Lovett is a dark tale of the unexpected consequences of an invention. The main character is the widow of a man who developed a nutritional substance that improves brain function. Its only approved use in the United States is as an additive to specialty cat food. Her own cat, who does not eat the stuff, dies after an attack by unseen creatures that slash its body multiple times. One by one, stray cats show up at her house, leading to a gruesome ending.
Although the author may have intended a touch of black comedy, overall this is a typical horror story, likely to appeal to readers of such. The plot depends on the assumption that cats with increased intelligence would also be more aggressive, which is questionable at best.
In “Zeroth Contact” by Joshua Cole, astronomers discover gigantic objects, obviously of alien origin, consuming asteroids. All attempts at communication fail to produce results. One of the objects nears Earth, causing worldwide panic. The reason for its approach gives the story an ironic ending.
This tale reminds me of Arthur C. Clarke’s classic novel Rendezvous With Rama, with its theme of alien objects in the solar system that take no notice of Earth’s inhabitants. The new story adds little to the original, and is much simpler.
“The Halting Problem” by Em Liu features a bartender in an airport bar who used to be a computer programmer. He is now unable to look at electronic screens without having a panic attack. The story compares his syndrome to the inability of a computer program to determine in advance if it will wind up in an infinite loop. There is little else to this short piece, which has no real plot.
The title of “The Smartest Damn Machine on Earth” by Bo Balder refers to a computer formerly used for facial recognition by a security agency. Now, after an unspecified apocalyptic disaster, it serves as a sort of oracle for the survivors. A conversation with a little girl gives it hope for humanity’s recovery. In a short space, the author brings both machine and child to life, and demonstrates the resilience of human beings.
In “Lemonade Stand” by Brenda Kalt, a woman starts a small salvage company in the asteroid belt, in a gesture of independence from her father, who runs a much larger one. When disaster strikes a two-man habitat, killing one and leaving the other with a limited supply of water, she must choose between helping the survivor, thus losing her cargo, or allowing her father to rescue the man, giving him a chance to claim valuable salvage. She comes up with a solution that avoids both consequences.
This is mostly a technical problem-solving story, of a kind familiar to readers of the magazine. The fact that the survivor once made unwelcome sexual advances to the woman adds a disturbing touch to an otherwise pleasant tale.
The only character in “Rover” by A.T. Sayre is an artificial intelligence in the form of a vehicle wandering over the surface of Mars. It lost all contact with people years ago, and now travels at random, gathering data and repairing its aging body by cannibalizing other probes it encounters. It finds an abandoned human station, learns why it has not heard from Earth, and discovers a way to ease its burdensome journey across the red planet.
The author succeeds in making a machine into a character with which the reader can sympathize. With many long paragraphs, and no dialogue, the story requires some effort to read, and may be longer than necessary.
In “One Hundred” by Sean Monaghan, a small colony on Mars is all that remains of humanity after an asteroid strikes Earth. The main characters are adolescents, with little or no memory of the home planet. With the subtle help of the colony’s leader, they come up with their own secret projects, officially forbidden, which may help the colony survive and grow.
The story’s clear, simple style, and the age of the protagonists, make it best suited for young adult readers. The author raises the issue that the colony may be too small to rebuild the human race on its own, and then dismisses the problem in an unconvincing way.
We return to the asteroid belt in “One Basket” by C.C. Finlay. A teenage girl follows her grandmother outside the asteroid in which they live. The woman raises genetically engineered animals that can live on the surface of the asteroid. Their function is to produce eggs that are actually nothing but water, to add to the asteroid’s limited supply. When an accident injures the woman, her granddaughter faces the challenge of bringing her safely inside, without losing the precious eggs.
The author’s picture of life inside and outside an asteroid is vivid and convincing. The notion that the small amount of water found in the eggs is worth the effort and danger of obtaining it is less believable.
Victoria Silverwolf wonders what the one hundredth anniversary of the magazine will bring, and hopes to be around to review it.