Asimov’s, November/December 2023
“The Ghosts of Mars” by Dominica Phetteplace
“Embot’s Lament” by James Patrick Kelly
“Berb by Berb” by Ray Nayler
“The Open Road Leads to the Used Car Lot” by John Alfred Taylor
“Neptune Acres” by Robert R. Chase
“Meet-Your-Hero” by Prashanth Srivatsa
“Death of the Hind” by Kevin J. Anderson & Rick Wilber
“The Four Last Things” by Christopher Rowe
“The Disgrace of the Commodore” by Marguerite Sheffer
“In the Days After…” by Frank Ward
“Blade and Bone” by Paul McAuley
Reviewed by László Szegedi
Even though Asimov’s is one of my favorite SF magazines, and I had even translated some stories from it, some elements of their design always puzzled me. I can’t just idly walk by the fact that the issue contains references to dead pages like their not updated podcast portal, 2-3 lines long URLs instead of shortened ones, and too long, almost one page introductions of the authors at the beginning of the stories. I’m still waiting for an editorial restructure and renewal of these small but annoying details.
“The Ghosts of Mars” by Dominica Phetteplace
This story “is about a teenager attempting to survive in an inhospitable Martian environment.” The headline sums up the story perfectly, thus the text feels like a rather dry science description in the style of The Martian by Andy Weir, than an enjoyable SF one. We get factual sentences about robots and everyday life in the future Martian colony, but the plot itself didn’t really gain my attention. Sure, the premise is slightly different than in The Martian, the heroine doesn’t really play by the book, Emotional chat messages are exchanged with her relatives but the vibe is pretty much the same.
The narration changes a bit by the end to a poetic voice which doesn’t really suit the first part of the text. While the story ends well, I still felt like this novella form didn’t suit it: it should have either been a shorter story with fewer anecdotal episodes, or a novelette with much more detailed story lines.
“Embot’s Lament” by James Patrick Kelly
Kelly fans including myself got probably used to his jovial, light tone and will miss it in this grim story about a woman trying to escape from her abusive boyfriend, with a little help from the future. You’ll see exactly who is helping her and how. Nonetheless, it is a well written story but quite short unfortunately. I flipped through this issue to see whether it continues somewhere but sadly, not.
It’s worth mentioning this story is turned into a podcast episode on the Asimov’s Spotify channel. It is recorded and published with great quality; however, I’ve found the narrator’s voice too volatile and jovial in this otherwise dark story line. Due to his personal reading style, the listening time is way more than half an hour, which is quite longer than it took me to read the story.
“Berb by Berb” by Ray Nayler
“Berb” is a noun I had to look up and found in the urban dictionary as “A skinny person who tries hard to become overweight.” The author uses it as a term for alien beings who resurrect on Earth after a human scientific examination has gone haywire. The way they collect material and how they communicate with humans is interesting, but the plot doesn’t evolve further; it remains at the base premise of the scientist looking at his creatures spreading in the world.
“The Open Road Leads to the Used Car Lot” by John Alfred Taylor
I really liked the title of this story; it could easily be used for the title of a pop song. The plot of the story is quite linear, boy meets girl in a Futurama fair, then they meet again years later. The vibe of the text has a retro feeling like old SF magazines. But I didn’t feel the stakes for the characters to be high enough to make it an exciting short story. The reader has to go through time traveling and parallel multiverse ideas, but we don’t get too much from the characters’ souls and affection towards each other.
“Neptune Acres” by Robert R. Chase
Rich tech guy invites guests for a party which is such a cliché I had to stash the story for a while. He shows them some surprises, one of which creates a conflict between technology and nature. The technological ideas like automatic cars give a nice vibe but neither the plot nor the resolution are interesting, I couldn’t connect to any of the characters. Thus, this story wasn’t memorable for me at all.
“Meet-Your-Hero” by Prashanth Srivatsa
The story brings the readers into a world where lottery winners have the prize of spending time with a celebrity. The idea of a winning ticket getting a lucky one out of the slum is not new, neither in popular pop culture, nor in SF. Even the other elements of this world—the overcrowded cities, the evil usurers—are painfully familiar.
No surprise, our hero really has the chance to meet his hero (pun intended). But his life doesn’t change, and the emotional level of the story remains the same, I didn’t feel like I gained anything after reading it.
“Death of the Hind” by Kevin J. Anderson & Rick Wilber
This is a very slow paced space opera story with a peaceful mood all along. Basically, it introduces us to life on a generation space ship with many interesting technical and philosophical details. Compared to other stories in the genre, Bruce, the AI character has no interesting personality, which felt like a loss to me.
Some danger appears around the first third of the story, but it doesn’t seem very serious. I wasn’t frightened or even excited reading it. Furthermore, instead of having a living protagonist, the spaceship itself seems to be the main hero of this story, which didn’t help connecting to any of the characters. Unfortunately, it was a tiresome read, without memorable points.
“The Four Last Things” by Christopher Rowe
An interesting, unique world on another planet, but the premise of the story is the same old thing, a spaceship arrives at a new world. The author used traditional, linear storytelling, the plot is nothing we haven’t read in classic SF stories.
The narrative is monotonous and a bit hard to read. Alas, the twists felt childish, without real conflicts between the characters.
“The Disgrace of the Commodore” by Marguerite Sheffer
The story of a haunted ship told by the late, now ghost commodore. It was interesting to see how she watched the fate of her ship, and how others remembered her. An interesting elegy of the passing of time, perfect for flash fiction.
“In the Days After…” by Frank Ward
State officials visit an elderly couple who are dealing with the consequences of the event called The Ambrosia Phenomenon, that halted aging for a brief period. As it turns out, not just the couple but the official is also affected.
The story delves into the societal implications, discrimination, and isolation of such people. The text feels like an essay highlighting the cyclical nature of life and the ongoing impact of such an event, just like in the TV show Highlander, so none of these contemplations surprised me. A short drama with a small number of characters, but not thought-provoking or interesting enough to include it in further conversations.
“Blade and Bone” by Paul McAuley
True to its title, this story is military based adventure SF, with the usual clichés of the genre: retired veteran, hazardous terrain, Martian wilderness and so on. We get to know a young man pursued as “agent”, seeking a blade which turns out to be a central piece of the plot. I don’t want to spoil the plot twists, but the writing is elegant, emotional, and the story is action packed, so I really enjoyed reading this one, felt it to be the most entertaining in the whole Nov/Dec. Asimov’s issue. I can easily see it turned into a short SF movie, something like Netflix does with the Love, Death & Robots series.
László is an SF enthusiast living in middle Europe, also writing songs in the attic.