“Audubon in Atlantis” by Harry Turtledove

“A Christmas in Amber” by Scott William Carter 

“Hotel Security” by Carl Frederick

“The Slow Ones” by Larry Niven

“Do Neanderthals Know?” by Robert J. Howe

Harry Turtledove’s “Audubon in Atlantis” is reminiscent of his earlier Hugo Award-winning “Down in the Bottomlands” in that it is a story told about a land which doesn’t exist in our world. However, while the lands of the previous story were utterly different than those in our own world, Atlantis appears to exist side by side with a slightly altered version of the world we know.

Into this strange world, John James Audubon arrives with his friend, Ed Harris, intent on going into the interior of Atlantis, finding and sketching rare and unknown species, foremost among them the legendary Atlantean honkers, large moa-like birds. Rather than the mystery adventure of “Down in the Bottomlands,” “Audubon in Atlantis” is written as a quest, with scientific knowledge as the sought-after grail. To this quest, Turtledove brings one of his own interests, bird-watching, as he describes the various birds (and other animals) Audubon and Harris encounter in their trans-Atlantean journey. As their trek continues, Audubon raises several questions about the Atlantean flora and fauna which remain unanswered, whetting the reader’s appetite for more details. One of the interesting features of the story is that although Audubon is concerned that the honkers are near extinction, “Audubon in Atlantis” is not necessarily a tale of conservationism. Even as Audubon laments the destruction of Atlantis’ native animal life through the introduction of men and European animals, he has little compunction about killing those same animals in the interest of science.

Turtledove’s writing is leisurely, providing a tour of Atlantis’ countryside as well as the animals which live there. While Turtledove does an excellent job of bringing his Atlantis to life in this story, the pace of the tale doesn’t immediately grab the reader, and at times, “Audubon in Atlantis” doesn’t really seem to be moving toward its ultimate conclusion. However, as an exercise in world building, it is an intriguing, although brief, glimpse into this lost world.

Scott William Carter provides the Christmas story for this issue of Analog with “A Christmas in Amber.” However, the tale, which is about a man saying goodbye to his granddaughter as she boards a generation ship to escape an asteroid strike on North America, has little, if anything to do with Christmas. Carter discusses the characters’ relationship, as well as the weakness of the man’s relationship with his son and daughter-in-law, but all of it can be shown better.

“Hotel Security” by Carl Frederick is reminiscent of the scene in The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in which Arthur Dent has an argument with the Nutrimat machine and the Heart of Gold’s ventilation system. Although there is humor in Frederick’s story, it isn’t his focus. Frederick tells the story of Roger Royce, a security expert who has checked into a state of the art hotel on the eve of presenting a speech on hotel security. On a whim, he uses a mock ident card to check in. Frederick describes the luxury of the AI systems in the room and Royce’s enjoyment of them until the hotel’s security catches up to him. The only real issue with the story is that once Royce is no longer enjoying the hospitality of the hotel, through his own actions, he turns into a very unsympathetic character. Realistic, perhaps, but it makes it difficult to care about his travails.

Larry Niven describes the building of the Draco Tavern in “The Slow Ones.” The titular creatures were, according to Schumann, the second creatures to land at the tavern. The piece, short as it is, makes a point that alien races, and by extension, other human cultures, cannot all be seen through a single lens, even for the most basic aspects of life.

Just as Turtledove’s “Audubon in Atlantis” deals with the extinction of species, so too, does Robert J. Howe address the issue in “Do Neanderthals Know?”

Howe’s story is a fairly typical Analog laboratory story. Sam and Joyce, a married couple working for Ihinger-Ibex labs are pulled into unofficial research by their friend, Pinky Sills. While Pinky and Joy are enraptured by Pinky’s line of research into an hallucinogenic form of cabbage, Sam has no desire to take part. Nevertheless, Sam is drawn into their world when their boss, Phil Nguyen, takes an interest in Pinky’s extracurricular activities. At times, it seems as if Sam is the only person who doesn’t understand the potential of Pinky’s cabbage, despite Joy and Pinky telling him what it is capable of. The story works well and it moves toward its conclusion in a manner which is not telegraphed, but seems inevitable in retrospect.

The December issue of Analog also contains the second installment of Karl Shroeder’s “Sun of Suns,” a serial which should be complete in the February issue of the magazine.