"Seed of Destiny" by Daniel Hatch
"Afterburn" by Rajnar Vajra
"Mixed Signals" by Lori Ann White and Ken Wharton
"Background Noise" by Daniel M. Hoyt
"Cult of the I" by Kyle Kirkland
"The Ones Who Stay Home" by Larry Niven

Probability Zero
"Counterspy" by Richard Foss

This issue of Analog kicks off with the novella "Seed of Destiny" by Daniel Hatch, which is set on the same world of Chamal as his excellent earlier novella "Seed of Reason" (Analog, April 1999). This story picks up a number of years after the events in the previous story, and concentrates even more on the incredible genetic diversity of the Chamalian lifeforms, a complexity which gives rise to a wide range of intelligent species on the one world.

The human visitors are now looked upon as angels (not a good thing from the Chamalian point of view, as they are on very bad terms with their "God"), and not to be messed with. But one of the Chamalian races — the devious and power-mad Red Monkeys — dares the unthinkable, and kidnaps one of the "angels" to help rectify a quirk in their genetic makeup, one which prevents them from becoming rulers of their world. The fact that he's also one of the top human geneticists, and the only person who has managed to crack the almost insoluable mystery of the complex Chamalian genome, has potentially tragic and disastrous ramifications for the future. The scientist is given a simple choice — help the Red Monkeys solve their problem or die. The ending is a satisfying one, as the scientist comes up with a novel solution to his quandry.

"Seed of Destiny" is a complex and fascinating story, and a worthy sequel to "Seed of Reason", which was one of my favourite Analog stories of 1999. Daniel Hatch has created an intricate, elaborate world in these two novellas, a world peopled by a myriad of strange and colorful creatures, and interesting characters. I'm really looking forward to the next chapter in the history of this strange world, and I hope that Hatch expands his Chamalian sequence into one or more novels.

Rajnar Vajra's novelette "Afterburn" is a near-future story exploring the theme of medical science, specifically one in which a doctor has developed a "healing tank" which is to be used in the treatment of accident victims suffering from terrible burns. Ironically, the same doctor becomes the first test subject after he suffers horrible burns in an auto accident, and the story charts his recovery and regeneration during his immersion in the tank. The focus switches between two different viewpoints: the first-person perspective of the patient in the "tank" who believes he is living in the fantasy world of a "Doom" or "Quake"-style shoot-'em-up, and the third-person "real world" viewpoint of the various doctors treating him, one of whom has an interesting backstory of her own. The healing process forces the patient to decide what is really important to him by making him face up to his inner arrogance brought about by a lifetime of being pampered, wealthy, good looking, and intelligent. He now must confront the twin realities of his now freakish appearance and how to deal with it, and the importance of continuing with his work. This was certainly one of the best stories in this issue, and I'll be keeping an eye out for anything written by Rajnar Vajra in future.

"Mixed Signals" by Lori Ann White and Ken Wharton is a fascinating novelette which explores cutting edge physics, in particular speculations about the existence of gravity waves and other universes and dimensions. A research station in the desert is focused on trying to detect gravity waves. But its experiments are consistently plagued by a mysterious noise, which makes picking up other vibrations almost impossible. Detectors in other parts of the world can't find any trace of the same noise, so it's assumed to be a gremlin in the works. But things get even weirder when strange things start happening in the local area. Alarms won't stop ringing, and other nuclear research facilities have their own inexplicable problems. Nuclear waste "loses" much of its radiation, and nuclear reactors just stop working — things that just shouldn't be possible under natural laws. And sure enough, it isn't natural, as we find out that the "noise" is an attempt at communication using gravity waves by aliens from an adjoining universe, as gravitrons are the only thing that can pass between universes. Not only that, the aliens aren't trying to communicate with us, but are using us as a relay station to communicate with a more advanced race in the universe on the other side of ours, which they can't communicate with directly. A fascinating story, with an interesting premise, and some engaging character interaction. This one just shades it for me ahead of the Daniel Hatch novella as my favourite story of the month.

Daniel M. Hoyt's short story "Background Noise" is set in the relatively near future, where sophisticated AI holograms interact with humans in an increasingly realistic way, being used for advertising, and disguising robotic workers. A sad comics geek finds out that the attractive waitress at a local café, with whom he's been in love the past four years, is actually a very sophisticated robotic waiter, disguised by a hologram. He undergos a harrowing and revelatory experience with the local holograms which teaches him a lot about human nature and his own failings. Coming to understand the nature of holograms and the way people interact with them helps him come to terms with his own previously lacking relationships with real people. He'd always had better "relationships" with fictional female characters in comics than with real women. Realizing he needs to wise up and come back to the real world, the story has a happy ending when he gets a real girlfriend in place of his previous holographic love interest. An enjoyable short story, if not the strongest contender in this issue.

"Cult of the I" by Kyle Kirkland is an interesting short story, in which a Medical Investigator (a futuristic hybrid of Private Investigator and doctor — think Quincy MD in the 21st century) is hired by concerned parents to find their wayward daughter. The young lady in question has joined a dodgy cult, and has recently started acting out of character, doing daft things like starting work in an upmarket strip joint. She seems to be normal, acting of her own free will, but the Medical Investigator is convinced that the cult has the girl under some kind of subtle mind control. He persists with the investigation until he is proven right and "rescues" the girl. All in all, this is my favourite of the short stories, with some interesting commentary on the use of technology in mind control, and just how easy it is to control the minds of large sections of the population.

Larry Niven's "The Ones Who Stay Home" is another of his "Draco Tavern" short stories. It explores the ethical dilemma of terrorism, in the wake of a bomb attack on the tavern, which has caused a lot of damage and killed one of the alien customers. The conversation between the human bartender and some of the alien "regulars" on the ethics of terrorism is interesting, although some of the proposed solutions are a bit scary, mirroring the more extreme views about solutions held in the US in the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center. Who do you blame and who do you punish? The individual bombers? The organization that supports them? The country that supports them? Or, in the case of the aliens, the entire species of which the terrorists are a part? A relevant and frightening element in this story, as the aliens have right of pursuit and punishment of the culprits. This is an okay story which explores some interesting issues, but I felt it should have been longer and gone into those issues in much more depth.

The Probability Zero piece is "Counterspy" by Richard Foss. It didn't do much for me, I'm afraid, other than confirm what I've always known — that cats are from outer space. Short-shorts rarely appeal to me, as there just isn't enough meat on them. Occasionally I get a laugh at the punchline, but that's about it. The short-short is, in general, my least favourite form of shorter fiction, and my least favourite part of Analog.

Overall, this was an enjoyable, above-average issue of Analog, with several very good and a couple of fairly good stories. My preferences, as usual, go with the longer stories, as I prefer novellas and novelettes over short stories. "Seed of Destiny", "Mixed Signals", and "Afterburn" are, in my opinion, all very good stories, and these alone make this issue worth buying. But, as a bonus, we also get two pretty good short stories in "Cult of the I" and "Background Noise". Overall, I'd give the January 2003 Analog a definite thumbs-up, and say it's well worth the cover price.

Phil Friel lives in the city of Derry, in Northern Ireland. He's been reading SF for almost thirty-five years (his first SF novel was The Time Machine when he was eight years old), and his tastes range the spectrum from space opera to the hardest of hard SF. He's always looking to expand those tastes, and reckons that the SF magazines are the perfect place to do just that. He likes both novels and short fiction, but prefers the shorter forms.