Analog, September/October 2021
“Kepler’s Laws, Part I” by Jay Werkheiser (serial, not reviewed)
“The Book Keepers” by J.T. Sharrah
“Extrasolar Redundancy in the Nova Tortuga Model of Preservation for Dermchochelys coriacea” by Bianca Sayan
“Quieter Songs Inland” by Marissa Lingen
“Last Dance at the Gunrunners’ Ball” by Joel Richards
“When Ada Is” by Holly Schofield
“Timing” by Robert Scherrer
“Room to Live” by Marie Vibbert
“The Soul is Ten Thousand Parts” by Chelsea Obodoechina
“To Feed the Animals” by John J. Vester
“The Hunger” by Marco Frassetto
“The Silence Before I Sleep” by Adam-Troy Castro
Reviewed by Mike Bickerdike
This issue of Analog contains the start of a serial (not reviewed), 1 novella, 2 novelettes, 7 short stories and a piece of flash fiction.
“The Book Keepers” by J.T. Sharrah is an enjoyable time travel novelette. Three men travel back to Alexandria in late Ptolemaic Egypt to record a copy of all the scrolls in the ancient library before the majority were lost in the fire that famously destroyed them. One of the pleasures of reading time travel stories that describe real places in the past is the education one gets by stealth from the background the author provides. This novelette is no exception, and I came away from reading it knowing more about ancient Egypt just before it fell to Roman rule than I had going in. Sharrah brings the past to life quite well, with clear and engaging prose and these are the story’s strengths. However, while the setting and the idea of a heist (of sorts) from the Library of Alexandria are inventive, the concerns and complexities of time travel presented here are themes we’ve seen a good deal before.
“Extrasolar Redundancy in the Nova Tortuga Model of Preservation for Dermchochelys coriacea” by Bianca Sayan tells the story of a student in the far future whose undergraduate project is to provide an off-world artificial habitat to preserve sea turtles. Skipping over the apparent unlikelihood of an undergraduate travelling between the stars to carry out thesis work, the story is unfortunately let down by jargon, handwaving science and a constant use of invented pronouns for every character (hir, sih, xit, etc.). The made-up pronouns are unnecessary in this instance and trip up the flow of the prose, which is already dense and rather uninviting. As speculative fiction, the plot also lacks dramatic tension, failing to engage the reader in the protagonist’s mission. A miss for me.
“Quieter Songs Inland” by Marissa Lingen is a quiet little story, and perfectly readable, but it’s a slight mystery why it’s in Analog. A young archivist is worried about the potential for a coming storm in New Orleans, and so she encourages her jazz-loving father to move with her out of the city. As a short story it’s fine—albeit a touch dry—but with no speculative elements, and nothing more to the plot, this would perhaps be better placed in a non-genre publication.
“Last Dance at the Gunrunners’ Ball” by Joel Richards tells the tale of a ship-mind, ‘Imago’, who attends a glitzy ball as a virtual avatar. Representing a federation of ship-minds who are rebelling against the starships’ owners (viewed as slavers by the minds), Imago is looking to acquire ordnance at the ball for use in future militant actions. The theme of artificial minds seeking emancipation isn’t explored in a particularly novel way here, and unfortunately there’s little in the story to engage the reader’s interest or sympathies.
“When Ada Is” by Holly Schofield is so short it is essentially flash fiction. Set on a small mining scout, somewhere in the asteroid belt, a young woman—who’s possibly autistic or has Asperger’s syndrome—has a chip implant which helps her relate to her co-pilot, a moody young man. A lot of flash fiction struggles to have much impact, often failing to deliver something memorable or engaging in just one or two pages, but this was really rather effective. It manages to cram several ideas into a short space, has some depth, and is well-written.
“Timing” by Robert Scherrer is labelled here as flash fiction. The story, mainly set in the stone age, considers how genius is only of recognised value if its insights have a functional effect. It doesn’t convey any particularly new ideas unfortunately and lacked the impact needed from flash fiction, making it a little underwhelming.
“Room to Live” by Marie Vibbert continues the author’s recent spate of quality short SF work seen in this magazine and others. A young woman is stuck in a dead-end call centre job and sharing a tiny apartment with an untidy slob of a roommate. At the call centre, responses to queries are aided by sophisticated call-bots but the underlying bureaucracy is still essentially designed to be unhelpful. The plot explores a way of looking at the call centre work and her apartment woes in a way that helps turn things around. The idea is inventive, the main character is well developed, and the story is highly immersive. This is gentle and low-key, but superior SF, and is recommended.
“The Soul is Ten Thousand Parts” by Chelsea Obodoechina tells the story of an android prototype who is finally awoken from its instruction chamber and lent out to a wealthy businessman to further test its understanding of human interactions and emotions. The story is successful, and well told. Exploring how people fool themselves into living in a certain way, the android cannot fool itself similarly, and sees through the artifice of human social follies.
“To Feed the Animals” by John J. Vester is set on a recently colonised desert planet. Comprising still tideless seas and flat sandy deserts, without any plant or land animal life, and with no apparent variation in the weather, the planet sounds utterly uninviting. The main character loves the place, in contrast to his moody teenage son, who was the first child born on the planet. The story centres around a ‘stone skimming’ festival and picnic set on the beach, which is held each year to maintain morale. A problem with the story is that life on the world sounds such a dreadful bore, with no nature or weather to add variety and colour, it’s hard to conceive that the colonists wouldn’t all despise the place and go crazy. One’s sympathy lies more with the moody son, who seems neither as unusual as his parents seem to think, nor off-base in his lack of appreciation for the place. Overall, the story didn’t really convince.
“The Hunger” by Marco Frassetto takes a new approach to an old trope: the invasion of our solar system by an alien swarm. An octogenarian engineer is called up to a Lagrange-point space station to investigate what seems to be sabotage of the external shell by small autonomous harvesting machines from deep space. And are they machines, or a life-form? The placing of a much older woman as the key character is a nice touch, and the story is reasonably involving and well-paced. It is not faultless, however. It seems like clichéd storytelling to state that politicians don’t understand the science and the threat that’s explained to them—it’s perfectly simple and the reader understands—is the author saying all politicians are stupid?
“The Silence Before I Sleep” by Adam-Troy Castro is an exciting and inventive SF novella. A ‘consultant’ assassin is hired by an extraordinarily rich woman to undertake an unusual job. Living in one of two palaces that represent the entire dwellings of a distant garden world, the rich client has surrounded herself with sycophants and beauty but leads of life of misery. The second palace, a grim castle on the other side of the world, is home to her erstwhile lover. The task before the assassin is to enter this castle and carry out a difficult job of retribution for her client. The idea of uber-rich individuals living in almost total isolation on an otherwise empty planet is an engaging concept, reminiscent of the kind of scenario one associates with the late Jack Vance. Castro explores the way great wealth can destroy the soul and does a good job maintaining pace and interest. There is a plot point midway through that I found incredulous, however: the assassin—motivated simply by her large fee—learns she has a greater than 85% chance of death if she proceeds with a particular course of action, but she goes ahead with it anyway! This peculiar plot fault aside, however, it was an entertaining and thought-provoking read and should be enjoyed by most readers.
More of Mike Bickerdike’s reviews and thoughts on science-fiction can be found at https://starfarersf.nicepage.io/