A pretty average issue. Somehow the stories felt very aged.
Company Secrets • novelette by Kyle Kirkland
Practically all companies have been downsizes to one person. For some unexplained reason there are strict restrictions on co-operation between companies. The protagonist is a company who acquires business data. It first seems that someone trying to get him, later a shady partnership between two companies tries to draft his services. A story with an oldfashionalble feel in it. Writing was ok, but plotting wasn’t too good and felt dated. There were several times the protagonist used countermeasures which were total surprise not only for the reader (unfair) but for the other characters, also (who really should have known workings and practices of their world.) ***-
Her World Exploded • shortstory by David L. Burkhead
A rich and beautiful woman finds that her private vacation planet explodes just when her private ship arrives there. She narrowly escapes with the help of her self-aware ship mind. She finds that the insurance company isn’t going to pay for damages, as it isn’t responsible for accidents with unknown causes. I had to check several times, that I really was reading something which published in 2005 and not in fifties. The plot is very old fashionable, full of long descriptions of technology and the plot line was also straight from fifties. The writing was slightly better than would have been typical in 1955. ***
Reinventing Carl Hobbs • shortstory by James C. Glass
A famous actress receives threatening letters. She has a good reason to be afraid for her life, but she has the best possible robotic lifeguard. The writing was OK, but the story felt overlong with a fairly stupid twist at the end. ***-
Standards of Success • shortstory by John G. Hemry
A short and stupid story about the first human expedition to Mars and it is run by NASA. Using same methods they have used for robotic missions – like using several hours to climb down the ladder. Short and stupid. **-
Letters of Transit • shortstory by Brian Plante
A member of the first interstellar expedition exchanges letters with his young bride via a wormhole communication device. His bride is slightly too young, only sixteen, but the relativistic time dilation should take care of the age difference before he gets back to the earth. The communication method leads to some interesting time effects, though. Short, but pretty nice story. ***+
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