“A Plea for Help” by Kevin Maclean
“Father Figure” by Byron Merritt
“Space and Time Books” by Melissa Yuan-Innes
“Your Mother Likes Monkeys” by Lee Battersby
“Medium Rare” by Carl Frederick
“Blossoming Under Sable Skies” by Ralan Conley
“The Sincerest Form of Flattery” by Kate Elham
“The Desolator” by Simon Haynes
“The Kaladashi Covenant” by Geoffrey Maloney
“The Stars Like Candles” by Dirk Flinthart
“Blindsided by Venus in the House of Mars” by Nancy Jane Moore
Issue 6 of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine opens with Kevin Maclean’s humorous tale of robotics and bureaucracy gone awry in “A Plea for Help.” Taking the form of a short letter to Andromeda Spaceways Customer Service, the letter is reminiscent of the humor of Douglas Adams in Arthur Dent’s legendary confrontations with the Nutrimat Machine or just about any other product for the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. This piece is an enjoyable (if brief) introduction to the magazine.
In “Father Figure,” Byron Merritt has written a golden age style story of a young boy and his robot, careful to include a large amount of technobabble to provide a futuristic feel. Thomas, a thirteen year old, comes across as refreshingly naïve, although his (and his mother’s) inability to see the obvious does grate by the end of the story. Merritt seems to have been reluctant to include any sign of menace which weakens the story and adds to a nostalgic feel.
Melissa Yuan-Innes examines the life of a bookstore in “Space and Time Books.” As independent bookstore after independent bookstore fails, this story is about the titular bookstore taking its continued existence into its own hands. Aside from the identity of the protagonist, the story is a straightforward three wishes story. The ultimate outcome is known with the enjoyment and surprise coming from the various solutions attempted by the store before striking the winning combination.
Lee Battersby provides a one-sided conversation as a sort of Foghorn Leghorn-meets-Bob Newhart in “Your Mother Likes Monkeys.” A proto-human tribal leader is trying to explain different aspects of the world to a child who is clearly not up to the cranial capacity the leader would like. The brief story is amusing and allows the reader the luxury of imagining the inane comments made by the younger creature.
“Medium Rare” is a deal with the Devil story by Carl Frederick. Frederick chronicles the visits to the devil by an unhappy medium, Madam Corba, and provides her with an advisor, a thinly disguised Bill Gates. The story is written in a light-hearted manner, and Frederick handles the descriptive passages well, but his dialogue seems simplistic and unrealistic.
“Blossoming Under Sable Skies” is a generation ship tale by Ralan Conley. What sets this story about other generation ship tales apart, such as Robert A. Heinlein’s “Universe” or Jonathan Lethem’s more recent “The Shape We’re In” is that Conley’s characters are non-humans who know they are on some sort of ark. Although Conley introduces an old ship’s computer as a sort of deus ex machina, none of the computer’s suggestions pan out and it is Toby, a young troublemaker, who eventually comes to the ark’s rescue.
“The Sincerest Form of Flattery” is a depiction of a contest to produce an artificial intelligence that will pass a Turing Test. Kate Elham’s story is brief, but at the same time predictable. If her depiction of computer programmer Dudley Mire had been more detailed, his reaction to the outcome of the contest would have been more of a surprise and strengthened this short tale.
Simon Haynes appears to be channeling a role-playing game in “The Desolator,” although he imbues his story of wizards, halflings and clerics with a sense of fun, not taking itself too seriously. The Halfling, Runt, and his companions are attempting to save a village which is finding the half-eaten remains of animals dropped on their streets from a nearby dragon. Haynes has clearly read high fantasy novels as well as played the games and knows enough of the tropes and clichés to successfully satirize them.
“The Kaladashi Covenant” is a story of political intrigue by Geoffrey Maloney. Set in a future in which the Terran solar system hosts the Kaladasha race, it is unclear throughout the story if the relationship is truly symbiotic, as represented by the diplomats, or a patron-client relationship, as the xenophobes on Earth fear.
“The Stars Like Candles” is an evocative tale of the majesty of infinite space by Dirk Flinthart. This story of a seeming first contact plays with all the clichés of the genre, but manages to end with a twist which is all too uncommon. Flinthart’s twist also serves to explain the presence of the clichés in a way that makes the reader rethink the story.
Nancy Jane Moore’s characters in “Blindsided by Venus in the House of Mars” seem to fall in love more for the exigencies of the plot than through any particular chemistry between the characters. Told from the point of view of Lia Bukanan, a spacer with secrets, we see her meet Jace Demaine in a bar fight and the two quickly become companions, despite the circumstances of their meeting. Much of the story and background, not all of it necessary for enjoyment of the story, is provided in the form of the two characters talking and the action scenes seem forced. Unfortunately, nothing in the story seems to progress naturally, instead being forced by Moore to provide the outcome she desires.