Asimov’s, September/October 2020
“Maelstrom” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“A Sideways Slant of Light” by Leah Cypess
“The Ossuary’s Passenger” by Robert Reed
“When God Sits in Your Lap” by Ian Tregillis
“Shock of Birth” by Cadwell Turnbull
“The Eight-Thousanders” by Jason Sanford
“A Vengeful Revenant” by M. Bennardo
“Escaping Real Time” by R. Garcia Y Robertson
“Robyn in Her Shiny Blue Coffin” by Michael Libling
“Mangy White Dog” by Y.M. Pang
“Traveling On” by Gregory Frost
“The Conceptual Shark” by Rich Larson
“Flare Shack” by Gray Rinehart
Reviewed by Tara Grímravn
The new bi-monthly issue of Asimov’s features one novella, three novelettes, and nine short stories. There’s a decent mix of fantasy and SF in this issue, along with a hint of horror. I’m confident that every reader will find something to tickle their fancy here.
“Maelstrom” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
A century and a half ago, the space vessel Maria Segunda launched on a mission to explore Nájar Crater located on Madreperla, one of the moons orbiting the planet Ius Prime. The reason for this excursion was well-known to the mother planet’s inhabitants—Madreperla was widely rumored to hide enormous wealth in the form of natural resources. From glass-boned sea creatures to vast supplies of every mineral one could imagine, anyone that could harvest those resources would certainly benefit greatly in a number of ways. Unfortunately, the Maria Segunda encountered a storm unlike those experienced by other ships and, when the crew finally got the vessel off the ground and into orbit, most sought refuge in the interior storage areas of the heavily damaged ship. Captain Nájar and First Officer Chandy, however, were on the bridge when it caved in. This jettisoned the unfortunate captain and first officer into the cold dark of open space. When rescue ships arrived fifteen hours later, the remaining crew and ship’s logs were retrieved. Now, one-hundred and fifty years later, the Gabriella has disappeared on a similar mission, and an investigator tries to piece together what happened.
I’m not entirely sure what to think of this novella. First of all, it’s not one story; it’s several sets of possible circumstances in which the crew could have found themselves. The first chapter outlines the bare bones of the Maria Segunda’s mission, spanning from what is known about Madreperla to the failed mission and subsequent rescue. After this, we get into several scenarios musing on what may have happened with the Gabriella. Ultimately, I had a hard time getting into it. The story reads more like a dry report than anything else, and I personally didn’t find it all that engaging.
“A Sideways Slant of Light” by Leah Cypess
Jen’s estranged mother is dying, and her brother has asked her to return home for her passing. She agrees, though without any intention of making peace with her psychologically abusive mother. Her relationship with her brother is equally strained, and the only solace she finds now in her childhood home is the ghost she remembered seeing when young. As events unfold it becomes clear that Jen has to come to terms with more than just the ghost.
Cypess’s story is haunting and bittersweet. I really felt for Jen. It’s not exactly what you would expect of a ghost story—and this is a ghost story of sorts. This is more along the lines of being haunted by the past, more than by any specter. I definitely recommend this one.
“The Ossuary’s Passenger” by Robert Reed
In the distant future, humans have left Earth to colonize the universe. They were wildly successful, having made every habitable planet home. Before leaving, however, they developed sentient animals to serve as funerary officials so that their remains could later be returned to Earth and interred according to their chosen custom. Hyena is one of these animals. When a sudden influx of millions of flash-frozen bodies begins arriving, he seeks out Beetle to help him complete his job of getting the bodies to the appropriate place. She agrees but wants the privilege of salvaging whatever she wants from the corpse-bearing ship. Little does Hyena know, it’s not exactly salvage she’s after.
This is certainly an imaginative one to be sure. The concept on which it’s built is intriguing. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get the point of this story. It starts out interesting and then sort of fizzles out, ending in what felt like a tangled mess of symbolism that’s never made clear. The idea behind the story, as stated in its introduction, was to examine what would happen “if all the citizens of a far-flung galactic empire decided to come home at once.” The story never gets around to answering that question in any meaningful way.
“When God Sits in Your Lap” by Ian Tregillis
Private Detective Bayliss is enjoying a drink at the bar when another patron draws attention to what he at first believes to be a meteor shower. Bayliss realizes that those things blazing colorful trails of light across the sky aren’t meteors—they’re satellites. Turning back to his drink, he soon finds himself being approached by Tom Darlington, who wants him to investigate his new stepfather. After getting access to the family mansion, Bayliss quickly realizes it might not the be stepfather that needs investigating.
Tregillis’s story is the first novelette. The way Bayliss narrates and the colorful turns of phrase he uses are great, like something out of the 1940s, even though this is set in the future. It goes a long way towards both setting the scene and the characterization in this sleuth story. Unfortunately, it’s also part of what makes this story a bit confusing. It wasn’t until halfway through that I realized that a few bits of what I thought was some form of street slang was referring to something else entirely. Other than that, this was a fantastic story. Well worth the read!
“Shock of Birth” by Cadwell Turnbull
Michael appears to be in a psychiatric ward. He believes that, somehow, he was forcibly transferred from his own life and body and thrust into that of another. Some of his ward-mates also claim to have experienced a rearrangement of the world, with one saying that Alaska was a state in his “timeline,” but the doctors say it doesn’t exist. Another claims that, in her “timeline,” Australia sank beneath the sea years ago. If he’s going to get out of the hospital, Michael must figure out what’s real and what’s not.
This tale is an interesting take on the Mandela Effect. It jumps about a fair bit but given the title, I’m fairly certain that’s on purpose. The ending was a bit unsatisfactory but, for the most part, it’s a decent enough story.
“The Eight-Thousanders” by Jason Sanford
It’s Keller’s first time climbing Mount Everest and it’s not going well. His expedition leader is his boss, Ronnie, who has made the climb several times before. When they encounter a man nearly frozen to death on the way up the slope, Ronnie wants to leave him to die. This doesn’t necessarily sit well with Keller. While he tries to decide what to do, a short woman with sharp teeth appears from nowhere and offers to stay with the dying man. On the way back down with the threat of storms looming in the sky overhead, Keller and his boss encounter the woman again as she drinks the dying man’s blood. She introduces herself as Ferri and tells them that they waited too long—they’ll soon be dead. The question, though, is whether it will be Everest that takes them or her.
I quite like Sanford’s twist on the vampire and grim reaper tropes, which is what this story boils down to—just not necessarily in the way one might expect. True, Ferri is a vampire and she’s certainly looking for her next meal, but she’s not the real monster nipping at Keller and Ronnie’s heels. In this story, that honor is reserved for something far greater and much more menacing—the raw fury of Nature itself. This is a really good story.
“A Vengeful Revenant” by M. Bennardo
Sometime last summer, our elderly narrator’s neighbor, Peter, passed away. He was buried beneath an oak tree just three hundred yards from the old man’s back porch. When winter came, a road crew showed up to build an access road through the marshland that separated Peter’s land from his. Though he tried to stop them, his efforts were to no avail. Knowing just how angry such an intrusion would have made Peter, the old man half expected him to rise from the grave, ready to wreak unholy havoc on the crew. Alas, no angry corpse ever clawed its way from the ground, and so the access road was built. Still, it wasn’t long before Peter made his dissatisfaction known in other ways.
Although meant to be something of a ghost story, Bennardo’s story doesn’t really fit that bill. While it’s kind of sweet the way the old man tends his friend’s grave, even with the odd occurrences it never really becomes a true ghost story. It just doesn’t have the atmosphere of one. It’s not creepy, spooky, or eerie, making it a bit of a bland read.
“Escaping Real Time” by R. Garcia Y Robertson
Cadet Commander Colbert has been assigned a transport mission to collect a wayward naval intern from Asgard Colony. He’s supposed to return her to Bifrost naval base. When the 17-year-old runaway is brought to him wearing an isolation helmet and an armored jacket, Colbert immediately complains to his superiors that this is overkill. His concerns are overruled, though, and he has no choice but to ride alone with the youth aboard a robotically controlled ship. Unfortunately, things don’t go quite as smoothly as he’d hoped. After a crash landing on Europa, he wakes to find himself in the hospital with a broken leg and his prisoner missing. Now, he’s got to find her.
The second novelette in this issue, Robertson’s story is an intriguing one, full of jumps through history via virtual reality. It certainly keeps the reader on their toes with an ending one doesn’t quite see coming.
“Robyn in Her Shiny Blue Coffin” by Michael Libling
Jerry recently lost his best-friend, Robyn, after a long battle with a strange illness. Today, he’s at her funeral wondering if she’ll make good on her promise—every time he visited her in the hospital, she swore to him that she would come back if she died. Throughout the funeral and the burial, he recounts how they had become friends and her skill with stage magic. After all is said and done, he’s left wondering if she’ll pull of the biggest misdirection act of all and return from the grave.
I’ll start by saying that Libling’s story is definitely worth a read. For me, however, the conclusion didn’t quite work for me. That said, it still achieved the effect the author had set up, so on that level it was successful.
“Mangy White Dog” by Y.M. Pang
Sunflower is a cat living with her human companion, Taihe. Together, they make a living performing acrobatic tricks in the city. A few years ago, a mangy white dog had started passing by them as they performed, scrounging any food he could to survive. One day, the dog confronts Taihe, looking up at him hopefully. A few days later, Sunflower learns the unsettling truth about Taihe and the mangy dog, and she’s not happy.
As an animal lover, this was a genuinely heart-wrenching story told through the eyes of a classically aloof feline. The moment the dog stepped up to Taihe, I had an idea what was coming, but I was really hoping the story was going to go in a different direction. It didn’t, but that doesn’t make it any less worth reading. I really do recommend this tale of unconditional love, loyalty, and betrayal. Be prepared, though—this one might make you cry.
“Traveling On” by Gregory Frost
Three days ago, the Rapture (or the Event, as most people are calling it, since people from every religion around the world have up and disappeared) came and went. Earl still has to go to his AA meeting, though, among other things. Life still has to go on, even if you have been left behind.
This story is something of a follow-up tale to Frost’s novelette “Lock Up Your Chickens and Daughters, H’ard and Andy are Come to Town.” It’s a sad story, a glimpse into what it might be like for those left to pick up the pieces after two thirds of the world’s population have gone inexplicably missing. A very poignant tale and very much worth reading.
“The Conceptual Shark” by Rich Larson
Adam has a rather unique problem—he’s being hunted by a shark. Not just any shark, mind, since he’s nowhere near the ocean and this one keeps appearing in his bathroom. This is a conceptual shark, something his therapist, Nora, thinks is a figment of his imagination. She wants him to confront the shark the next time he sees it, which comes sooner than he thinks. The next day, the floor of his tub drops out from beneath his feet, dropping him straight into the ocean. He manages to escape before the shark comes for him. Now, everywhere he sees water, he sees the shark. Unfortunately, all he can do is wait until his next appointment with Nora.
I quite enjoyed this quirky story by Larson. It’s such an off-beat idea, the notion of a “conceptual shark” hunting people the way this thing does. It’s as if Jaws could simply hunt by smelling out personality traits and poof itself into your bathtub at will. A terrifying thought, to be sure, but it makes for one hell of a story.
“Flare Shack” by Gray Rinehart
Stormie Pastorelli works on the lunar base as the Chief of Lunar Life Engineering. While making her rounds inspecting the base’s various Relocatable Emergency Shelters (RES), a solar flare alert arrives from Central Control. Stormie makes it safely to RES Six with two other co-workers, only to find the structure locked. After a few tense moments, the trio makes it inside, only to find a few unexpected surprises.
The last of the novelettes, Rinehart brings to the table a story that is certainly entertaining. What starts out as a rather tense tale of survival and rescue during a life-threatening emergency changes into something a little more lighthearted and amusing by the end. The characters are quite likable, and fans of Rinehart will recognize Stormie from some of his other work.