Analog Science Fiction December 2004

One of the less good issues.
• 8 • Baby on Board • novella by Kenneth Brady
Man hijacks SUVs and drives cross-country with them, to show AIs in those cars what that kind of cars are really meant to do. He is also running a kind of net site for gaming - meant mainly for car AI:s. Quite strange and illogical story. I can’t think any reason why someone would equip cars with self-conscious AI, or would want their cars to speak - as seems to be a norm in this world.. I had to give up at about half way. Writing was not too good, plot stank, I found myself really hating the car stealing, holier than you, extremely unlikeable main character, who is supposed to be a conservationist, but likes SUVs. *+

• 48 • Fruitcake Genome • shortstory by Carl Fredrick
A SETI scientist finds signal from space that seem artificial. He tries to convince his superior that transposing the signal to sound might be useful. It sounds like music - but so does fruit fly genome he uses as comparison when testing method used for sound transposition. ***½
• 56 • The Bambi Project • shortstory by Grey Rollins
Bambis - or at least gene modified deer - strike back. Fun little story. Hunters get what they ask for. ****
• 61 • The Test • [Probability Zero] • shortfiction by Kevin Levites
Aliens take Randi^H^H^H^H^H Mystical Michael challenge. OK, not one of the best prob zero stories. ***
• 68 • Savant Songs • shortstory by Brenda Cooper
AI and its’ owner trying to contact other dimension. A bit confusing, not engaging. **
• 78 • Small Moments in Time • shortstory by John G. Hemry
A timetravel story. A time traveller collecting seed samples from 1918 finds an another time traveller, who seems to be spreading Spanish Influenza. Pretty good, well told story, not too fresh, but well worth reading. ***½
• 90 • A Plague of Ruins • novelette by Joe Schembrie
A group is studying a planet where civilization was destroyed for unknown reason a few millennia ago. Suddenly their technology starts to fail. Too bad there are a lot of extremely ferocious cat-like animals who just love to have nice snack every once a while. Good story, could have been even a bit longer, ends fairly easily, after all. ****-
• 110 • What Wise Men Seek • novelette by Mike Moscoe
Missionaries are trying to make contact to very strange aliens, whose customs are poorly understood, and who take any insult with bloody seriousness. As such I am heavily biased against missionary work, but this is after all fairly good story. Even a bit longer one could have been possible. ***½