I have read this issue from my phone during lunch breaks . Fairly average quality.
Some Distant Shore • [Mike and Linna] • novella by Dave Creek
Mika and Linna, a pair of explorers have arrived to see the destruction of an entire solar system. Members of several alien races have also come to study planets which will be destroyed by a rogue star which happens to strays through the system. The face several crises which ultimately have very serious consequences. Fairly nice story, tad overlong.
Stranger Things • [Bill, Greg and the Couch] • novelette by E. Mark Mitchell
The barriers between different alternative realities break and several different versions of the same people start to appear. And everything escalates to a ridiculous degree. Pretty nice, more amusing than most of the “humorous” stories in this issue.
A Plutoid By Any Other Name . . . • shortstory by Richard A. Lovett
A short short story what might be caused when Pluto isn't called a “planet” anymore. Mildly amusing.
Palimpsest • shortstory by Howard V. Hendrix
The ultimate e-mail spam prevention method leads to some unforeseen side-effects. A story that acknowledges Clarke's Nine Billion Names of God. A very contrived way to explain the ultimate effect the plan has.
Ginger Ear and Elephant Hair • novelette by Uncle River
A story about the old bad times when scientists “Ginger Eared” elephants. Extremely, extremely preachy, practically unreadably preachy story about the dangers of western lifestyle and gene engineering with all the subtlety of hitting your head with a sledgehammer. And badly written, also.
Vertex • [The Black Hole Project] • novella by C. Sanford Lowe and G. David Nordley
The black hole project stories culminate. The project is nearing completion, and if everything goes well a micro black hole will be created. That should have numerous applications and might even enable faster than light space travel. However, not everyone wants that the project succeeds. And as apparently there are no security arrangements of any kind, some problems are to be expected. A lot of viewpoint characters. Pretty much similar standard as the other stories in this series.
No comments:
Post a Comment