Analog Science Fiction and Fact May 1999

Major part is this issue is taken by a serial, The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro. I haven't read it yet, but it is Nebula winner, so I probably will at least look if it is something I would like. (after reading some reviews from librarything: doesn't look like my cup of tea, but I will try anyway. If I will read it, I will review it in another post. ) Only three stories, none exceptional.

Smoking Gun • shortstory by Mark Rich
A professor is found in his room lying in a pool of blood with a gun beside him. Just a moment later he disappears. What happened? It is a pity that what really happened is something fairly stupid and hard to believe. And if the guy had
invented what he did, why in earth make it in form of a gun? Yeah, there is an explanation. But it is extremely bad and stupid one. **
The Vaults of Permian Love • novelette by Bill Johnson
An scientist experiments on herself and alters some of her DNA with surprising results. Fairly good story, but depends on several extremely unlikely coincidences. ***
Red Sky at Morning • novella by Ben Bova
Second story of second Mars expedition. Not much happens – a storm is rising, but that is noticed after about half of the pages have been used mainly for doing nothing special. Pretty boring story, I lost my interest after about 15 pages, but I read the whole thing, anyway. Would have better with some condensing. **

Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer

Soon to be a major TV-series! I must admit that was the reason I selected just this book from my TBR-pile.
The central idea is very interesting: Everyone on earth sees a short glimpse of what happens in future about twenty years later. After falldown of the event is sorted out (during the vision everyone passes out – tough luck for anyone driving a car, standing on the top of staircases, or on an airplane making a landing at that time.) the world naturally isn't the same anymore. First it isn't clear if the future is changeable or not, but soon it turns out that it is possible to make changes to the future which was seen in the visions.
The first third of the book is pretty good. The last part is a lot less so. Especially the chase which is supposed to be one of the culminating scenes, happening along the ring of Large Hadron Collider was pretty laughable and managed to very boring and anticlimactic. The supposed surprise murderer was obvious at least for me early on, and slight misdirection for the probable culprit didn't work at all. And the final ending which crossed to metaphysics was really, really bad. Writing wasn't best I have seen, and the characters seemed to be fairly stupid and not very realistic, especially as they were supposed to be Nobel-level scientists. Another irritant was the emphasis of Canada. When the events mainly happen in CERN, why all things Canadian must be so prevalent in the novel?
As conclusion: the idea of the book is excellent, but the execution was much less so.

Asimov's Science Fiction, September 2009

I haven't read any Asimov's SF magazines for a year. This was very pleasant surprise, story quality was very high. I read this issue as an ebook from Fictionwise.

Away from Here • shortstory by Lisa Goldstein
A young 15 years old girl is working at her parent's hotel. One day a very strange troupe of characters check into the hotel. They seem to be magicians or at least some kind of circus people. By accident she sees them doing some very fascinating things. Very well written story, but that type of magical realism is something I usually don't like. Strange thing happens with no "why" or "how". And the ending is extremely depressing and irritating if one thinks about it. ***1/2
Camera Obscured • shortstory by Ferrett Steinmetz
A young boy is trying to succeed in a world where everything is a competition with charts and positions found on the internet. He has tried several hobbies with only moderate success, achieving top ranking placements in order of few hundred thousands. He sets for himself a new goal - to be the world's best lover in male (hetero) category and starts by asking a girl for a date. With her he finds something beyond the rankings. Very good story, well written. Maybe a bit too short - I would like to hear more about this characters. ****-
Soulmates • novelette by Mike Resnick and Lezli Robyn
A nightwatchman who has recently lost her wife in car accident is slowly killing himself with alcohol. A repair robot tries to “repair” him, and not so surprisingly succeeds. Typical saccharine Resnick robot story. Very well written, but really irritating in it's overbearing sweetness. I wonder if this will be a Hugo-nominee - hopefully not, but Resnick stories of this style seem to have a lot of fans. ***1/2
In Their Garden • shortstory by Brenda Cooper
A teenage (?) girl is living in a closed community in post apocalyptic world. She would like to see the outside world. Ok, but feels more like the first chapter of a novel than a stand alone short story. ***+
The Day Before the Day Before • shortstory by Steve Rasnic Tem
Time travel story. The protagonist is a member of a "time team" which makes slight changes to the past. They themselves don't ever know the consequences of any change. Story is internal monologue of one such trip. Fairly well written, but a bit too little real story content. Concept is fascinating as such, but more background and more real events would have been nice. ***
Tear-Down • shortstory by Benjamin Crowell
Artificial intelligence house gets new owners. Both the owners and the house have some training to do. Nice, good story. ****-
Her Heart's Desire • shortstory by Jerry Oltion
A boy meets a girl. He breaks the girl's wishing bowl which was supposed to grant her hearts wish. Magical realism untypical for Oltion. This story could have been written by Resnick - in both good and in bad way. Well written, even a bit moving, but a bit saccharine and strange things happen for no reason or explanation. ***1/2
Broken Windchimes • novella by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
A male soprano (and if you know something about music you should know what that implicates) has been performing for years alien audience. The alien species in question values precision over anything, and even one missed note usually means the end of a career. Inevitable happens and the career of main protagonist is ended. He travels to nearby space station where there is a musical conservatory and discovers that there as much more to music than he ever thought. Another excellent story. ****

Analog Science Fiction and Fact May 1992

Only three stories in this issue, as the bulk of the space is taken by a serial, The Modular Man.

Adoption • novelette by J. Brian Clarke
A spaceship has fallen down while making the final approach to the humanity's first colony planet. It almost seems like it was shot down by some strange weapon. Three woman start to travel towards the colony to fetch some help. They encounter some strangely confidence arousing catlike birds.
Very good, interesting story. Nor entirely logical at all places (hard to understand why the alien species has devolved in that degree it has – there shouldn't be any evolutionary force driving it that direction). Anyway, very entertaining tale anyway. Would like to see more stories on the same background. ****
The Golden Life • shortstory by Pete D. Manison
A daughter brings her mother to an old people's home, which uses virtual reality entertainment to make its' residents life comfortable. At the same time social inequity has reached new heights, and a resistance is forming. Very simplistic story in its' solutions, irritating simplistic.**½
The Fundamental Right • novelette by Doug Larsen
The US president election is coming, and the nominees are even worse than usual (another has made himself and his wife to look like Kennedys, and the another is even loonier). The sitting president and his aides conspire to rig the election so that people's real opinions of matters count. The story tries to be a parody, but is a bit too unbelievable, and is a bit too simplistic. **½

When the Air Hits Your Brain by Frank T. Vertosick Jr. M.D.

Memoirs of a neurosurgeon in training. Some pretty interesting medical anecdotes and personal feelings about training and demands it causes. A lot of simplified medical background, probably good and interesting for a lay person, but a bit boring for someone with good medical knowledge. Some interesting insights about clinical practice in US, some surprising as example the bad relations between neurology and neurosurgery clinics. In my experience those relations are usually very good and close here in Finland, probably as there is no financial competition. Also, it is surprising that the neurosurgeon had his neurology training in England. It might be one birthplace of neurology, but certainly isn't considered as one of pinnacles of clinical neurology anymore, at least I have got such impression. Ok book, easily worth of one read.

Galaxy November 1954

Not too bad. Some very good stories, but also some fairly ridiculous ones when taken from a modern perspective.
How-2 • novelette by Clifford D. Simak
Everyone uses "do it yourself" kits for everything. A man who has ordered a "do it yourself" for a robotic dog kit gets by a mistake a robot kit. When he has finished assembling it, the robot starts make new robots. Parodic or ironic story which can't decide just what it is parodying. The aim drifts from hollowness of life to government byrocracy to courtroom drama. Story goes bit too much all over, and it might have been better if it had concentrated more on fewer things to make fun off.
The Nostalgia Gene • shortstory by Roy Hutchins
A man who feels he has born too late uses a time machine to get to the time he wants to live in. And he trusts his secret to his grandchild who has similar likes. Begins fairly well, but seems that that the author didn't really know how to end the story. ***
The Laxian Key • shortstory by Robert Sheckley
AAA interplanetary decontamination service gets its' hands on an device what makes something for free. Too bad that the stuff it makes turns out to be pretty much worthless and they can't turn off the machine. Nice humorous story, not too logical but isn't supposed to be. ***1/2
The Music Master of Babylon • novelette by Edgar Pangborn
One of last men in the earth has lived alone years or decades in an abandoned museum. Slow moving story mirroring the slow life of the lonely man. Well written, melancholy story. ****
Up for Renewal • shortstory by Lucius Daniel
Rejuvenation treatments which take twenty years out for appearance are commonplace. The bad part is that each treatment takes 5 years out of the lifetime, so redoing the treatments are increasingly risky. Really ridiculous premise, really ridiculous execution. **-
The Age of Kindness • shortstory by Arthur Sellings
Everyone in earth is beautiful and intelligent. Everyone except one man, who is a some kind of throwback of evolution. A trip to Venus is being planned, and the lonely “ape-man” wishes to take part on it. Pretty stupid story, not too well written. **-
Big Ancestor • novelette by F. L. Wallace
There are different species of man living on different planets. It is supposed that all those were colonized by some mythical species of man eons ago, and now an expedition consisting of different species is trying to find the origin planet. Some of the species of man are supposedly more advanced than the others, but with same intelligence level. There are some more than a bit racist, slightly disturbing, undertones in the story, and author's concept of evolution is fairly weird. Writing wasn't too good either, and story is pretty irritating (and not in good way). **+

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin

A human colony is using an alien planet for timber and is using local natives as slave labor. One day the natives decide to fight back. About 2000 humans against a few million natives, how will it end?

A thinly disguised allegory of the Vietnam war, fairly black and white, and very rooted in the attitudes and even customs of late sixties. Most of the characters are crude stereotypes. The book also has some totally ridiculous premises - transporting logs across light years as in the earth "wood is more valuable than gold" - it is hard to think about any application where wood would so irreplaceable. And if all trees in earth would have died, and no new trees could be grown, ecosphere would be irreplaceable destroyed anyway. The natives are supposed to have some kind dreaming ability, which is emphasized on the blurb of the book - but it isn't really used to any real purpose other than for some hippy nonsense about alpha waves. Also, one person uses ergots for his migraine, apparently medical treatments haven't advanced at all after sixties – or the author has severe lack of skill in extrapolation :-). As nutshell, well written book which so tied to its' time, that it feels pretty old fashionable.

Paratiisi, Liza Marklund

Detective story where a journalist finds out the secret behind an elusive ”Paradise” foundation while trying to find out the culprit for multiple homicide living through a personal crisis at the same time. Fast read, but not among Marklund's best books. Read in Finnish, so the more detailed review is in Finnish.

Annika Bengtzon kirja, eli Liza Marklundin jo parin aikaisemman kirjan tarinaa jatkava dekkari, joka kertoo rikosjournalistista. Tässä kirjassa hän tosin ei vielä ole saanut varsinaista vakanssiaan, vaan on hyllytettynä yövuorossa lähinnä oikolukijan työtä tehden. Sattumalta hän saa kuulla salaperäisestä ”paratiisi” säätiöstä, jonka tavoitteena on ”hävittää” vainottuja ihmisiä. Ja samaan aikaan lehtitilaa vie salaperäisesti murhattujen Jugoslavian alueelta olevien nuorukaisten ja kadonneen salakuljetetun savukelastin tapaus. Ja Annikalla on myös omat ongelmansa käsiteltävänä. Kirjassa on hiukan liian montakin rinnakkaista juonikuviota, joilla kyllä on yhtymäkohtia keskenään, mutta ne eivät ole kuitenkaan kovin kiinteitä. Tämä tekee kirjan hajanaisuutta, eikä Annikan ajoittain hiukan lapselliselta vaikuttava käytös asiaa auta. Juonen logiikassa on myös jonkin asteissa ongelmia paikoitellen, ja konnien toiminta välillä tuntuu palvelevan enemmän juonta, kuin heitä itseään. Helppo, nopea ja viihdyttävä luettava, mutta ei parhaita Marklundeja.