Friday, April 23, 2021

Asimov's Science Fiction, March-April 2021


Glitch • novella by Alex Irvine

A man is killed in a terrorist attack. Luckily a resurrection technology is in use, and he wakes up in a new body. There seems to be something wrong, though. The last thing he remembers should have happened a few months ago, when his thought patterns were recorded for the last time, but he seems to have recollections of the attack itself. It turns out there has been a glitch and memories of someone else have also been implanted. And it turns out that the memories are those of the terrorist, a racist white supremacist, who planted the bomb. And it wants to take control. A pretty good story, especially the first third. After that, the plot seems to decay somewhat. And the law which states that anyone having any part of memories or personality of a suspected terrorist is sentenced as a terrorist felt contrived and thought up just to prevent the most sensible approach: seeking help from the officials. Also, the unofficial tech seemed to be decades beyond the official technology, and everything that was needed to advance the plot seemed possible. Nice writing and, as such, pretty good novella. ****-      

Somebody's Child • novelette by Felicity Shoulders

A story of an alternate reality, where even in the seventies it was possible to remove embryos and implant them in volunteer women. Apparently, abortion is illegal. A young woman, who herself was an “abandoned” fetus is raising a child she gave birth to from an abandoned embryo. The possible grandparents of the child are requesting testing and they would take over the raising of the child (the woman who gave birth and raised the child apparently would be totally ok with that?). It turns out the child isn’t who she was supposed to be - is there something wrong with the system? The writing was very good, but a lot of the story doesn’t make any sense. The technology for storing and implanting the embryos is far too advanced with apparently no effects on anything else. Also, attitudes seem strange at many levels? Why the hatred against the mothers who raise implanted children? Why is there even a need for them, wouldn't there be enough childless couples? And there doesn’t seem to be widespread religious nuttiness everywhere, which would explain no abortions allowed laws. ***½

The Same Old Story • short story by Anya Ott

Creating food in the future where editing the food printer software to produce something as good as grandmother was able to print. But not everyone understands how Peking duck is really made. A short, fairly silly piece. ***

Mrs. Piper Between the Sea and the Sky • short story by Kali Wallace

Advanced aliens have come to Earth to “help” humanity during the second world war. They claim to be benevolent, but they punish “extreme crimes” by dissolving people and there are rumors of something strange happening in the oceans which is killing all sea life. Spreading those rumors is a capital offense. Propaganda about benevolence of the aliens is present everywhere. Anyone questioning things even slightly disappears. Germany and Russia are in ruins as Hitler and Stalin didn’t instantly give up. A young woman is on a mission for the underground. A pretty good story, but is just a snip of an interesting story. ***½

Grandma +5°C • short story by James Patrick Kelly

In a post climate change world a young woman and her male friend survive. The last boomer who has stayed healthy with expensive treatments is still behaving like a boomer. Not bad, a bit too short.  ***+

RE: Bubble 475 • short story by A. T. Greenblatt

Bubble universes have been discovered and there have being studied. When time moves differently in different universes, how it corresponds might be interesting, especially when the universes start to collapse. A fairly interesting story told by letters. Nothing really special, but not bad. 

Flowers Like Needles • short story by Derek Künsken

Some sort of alien creatures who take sustenance from microwave radiation battle for honor. When one has a mission he is bound to fulfill or he loses his honor and another is honor-bound to prevent it, some disagreements and battles are inevitable. But could there be common ground? Knights/samurais on an alien world. Not bad, but pretty human aliens.. ***

Mary Mary • novelette by Rudy Rucker

A mind of an elderly woman with a terminal disease is transferred to the digital domain. There are a lot of problems and it takes some adjusting. Somehow I didn’t get into this story at all, it felt very rambling, and I didn’t really care for the characters.  **½

Sentient Being Blues • short story by Christopher Mark Rose

A Russian robot produces the best blues the world has ever heard, and a producer manages to persuade it to start touring. The robots and androids are starting to have some rights, but are still below humans. A very good, and even moving, story which was well written.****

Dream Atlas • short story by Michael Swanwick 

A woman studies dreams and is able to have lucid dreams anytime. She takes notes of her dreams, but one time she notices that she can’t change the dream she is having. And then she encounters an older version of herself. ***½

Light Up the Clouds • novella by Greg Egan

People are living in a gas giant’s atmosphere on floating vegetation. One of them is using a glider to go up in the atmosphere and sees stars that move a strange way. There are stories of “cousins” that left the planet eons ago. Have they returned? Anyway, what the possible spaceships are doing might be dangerous - how to contact the lights? And there is a long, very detailed explanation of an engineering project using slings. An Analog story on Asimov’s, and not even one of the better ones? The ending was slightly surprising but delightfully cynical. ***+


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