Asimov's Science Fiction, May-June 2021

The Metric • novelette by David Moles

A story set in a distant future, when most of humanity lives in the last remaining city, which has apparently existed for eons. The last spaceship, which was designed with extremely high technology and built from practically indestructible materials, arrives when it is breaking down from wear and age. It brings news of a universe that is dying from old age. Could something be done, and should something be done? The beginning and end were fairly good, but the middle part was overlong, and hard to get into. ***½

Among the Marithei • short story by Mary Anne Mohanraj

A young man has lived most of his life among aliens. He was born in a war-torn world, was drafted as a child soldier and almost became a suicide bomber. After being rescued by 'spiritual' aliens, he can’t stand the sight of other humans. Slowly he adjusts, gets married, and has a child. He takes part in an alien spiritual event (as usual) and sees something… an excellent and moving story. I was left wondering about the impact of humanity, though. In the first part of the story humans felt like a minor race, at the end of the story it seemed they occupied the larger part of the galaxy. ****-

Reclaiming the Stars • [The Stars] • novelette by James E. Gunn [as by James Gunn]

The fourth and final part of a series. Didn’t read it, as I haven’t read the previous parts.    

Ready Gas and Pills • short story by Dominica Phetteplace

An inspector is visiting a small town. The local pharmacy has a machine that "prints" medications, and the inspector suspects that it has been illegally tampered with. Nothing is only black and white, though. A pretty good story. But it is funny that not even in science fiction the USA has sensible and functioning health care.  ***½

Año Nuevo • novelette by Ray Nayler

Apparently, alien "plants" have appeared on a certain shore. They seem to be based on some kind of colonies which are based on sugar, with different handedness and RNA-like molecules. And then the plants disappear without leaving any trace. A nice story that seems like a prelude for the real story. ***+

The Chartreuse Sky • short story by Alexander Bachilo and and K. A. Teryno

The future Moscow is practically all virtual - everyone sees it differently through personalized virtual reality. A young boy is missing, and his mother is a Luddite who doesn’t use implanted devices so he can’t be instantly tracked. The background and the worldbuilding were very interesting and fascinating, but the overall plot felt almost tucked in. A pretty good story in spite of that. ***½

Super Sprouts • novelette by Ian Creasey

Belongs to a series featuring a couple where the wife is a very skilled DNA engineer and the husband is very good at marketing her inventions. This time they try to develop greens children would eat. That is more difficult than it seems, and they are thinking about a more personal project: a child. Not everything can be left to chance for someone who is a very skilled genetic manipulator. Nice and easy-to-read story, but it was slightly overlong. Not much seems to happen after all. ***½

My Heart is At Capacity • short story by T. J. Berry

An android deeply loves his master and uses all his time to find things that would make her happier. He learns from experience and trains his behavior to seem more natural and appealing for humans and with other androids, too. But whatever he does, his mistress seems unhappy. It is a pretty good story about a very human-like android who still worked within his parameters. ****-

Tin Man • novelette by Brad Aiken and Rick Wilber

A baseball pitcher is in an accident where his throwing hand is practically destroyed. He gets an experimental bionic hand, which is better than the old one. He is soon banned from playing, but that doesn’t matter much: everything collapses and there is fighting, militias, and violence. He spends some time in Canada and returns to the US when things slightly calm down, and plays small-scale baseball. A simple “calm” story about the life of a man. The bionic arm is almost incidental. It is pretty good for a sports story. ****-

Phosphor’s Circle Short story by Annika Barranti Klein

A guide at a zoo becomes convinced that all animals are simulated holograms. A short and fairly amusing story which leaves thing slightly open. ***

Flattering the Flame • novelette by Robert Reed

Humans are approaching an area of space where a very old race is very militaristic and fights ritualistic battles so often and with such ferocity that they rarely need to fight actual battles. Humans are traveling in a gas giant-sized spaceship which they just found from somewhere with some sort of immortal crew (?) (The story apparently belongs to a series I am not familiar with at all, and the lack of back story and general pulpiness of it all made it hard to get into at first). Even a militaristic race isn’t able to resist temptations offered by superior technology. OK story, but the lack of background possibly spoiled it partly for me. ***

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. ***+

Asimov's Science Fiction, February 2014

An average or below average issue. Stories aim for literary quality but many fail as entertainment.

Schools of Clay • (2014) • novelette by Derek Künsken
Metallic, apparently artificial insectoid life forms live on asteroids mining volatiles and metals. They more or less follow the life cycle of insect colonies with periodic swarming where queens find new homes and workers are left behind to die. Radioactive isotopes turn ordinary worker more self-aware and smart. The workers are ruthlessly exploited and the start to plan a mutiny…A pretty good story. A lot happens and writing is fairly dense it took some time to understand the backstory. ***½
The Long Happy Death of Oxford Brown • (2014) • novelette by Jason K. Chapman
A man has died. His brain and consciousness has been uploaded to a digital afterlife. All he wants is to find is wife who died a few years earlier. But apparently she doesn’t want to be easily found. A pretty nice afterlife story. But why the main character always is never interested in the “operation manual” of the afterlife in this type of stories? I personally would take time to peruse it well. ***
Ball and Chain • (2014) • shortstory by Maggie Shen King
The new laws in China allow (or force) polyamorous relationships as there are too few women. The courting of a new husband to a group marriage may be kind of hard. An okay and readably short story. ***
The Transdimensional Horsemaster Rabbis of Mpumalanga Province • (2014) • shortstory by Sarah Pinsker
A widow of photographer visits a tribe of very strange people. Apparently descendants of very early Jews, who apparently ably to translocate in time and/or space. A nicely written story, probably could be classified mainly as some sort of metaphorical magical realism. The writing is good, but the story leaves more questions than it answers and feels like just a fragment. ***+
Last Day at the Ice Man Café • (2014) • shortstory by M. Bennardo
A frozen man from a stone is working on a café and has trouble adjusting to life. A stupid story on many levels. Stupid premise, extremely stupid “science”, stupid characters. **
Steppin' Razor • (2014) • novelette by Maurice Broaddus
A steampunk story involving airships, a cloned Haile Selassie, Rastafarian religion and Jamaica. I know little about last two, and not much more about the first. I had to google to find out that Haile Selassie really was/is a kind messiah for the Rastafarians, and really visited Jamaica in the sixties. As I knew nothing about the real background it hard to get into the story with imaginary background built on the real one and understand it. I found this hard to finish. **

Asimov's Science Fiction, January 2014

A nice issue, at least average.


Memorials • [Universe of Xuya] • novelette by Aliette de Bodard
A young woman sells recorded memories of ancestors to criminals who apparently strip them pieces and peddle them to entertainment industry. The background is somewhat sketchy, but apparently I am growing into this writer - this is a pretty good story. ***½
Primes • novelette by Ron Collins
Some strange events seem to happen around prime numbers and there is a strange murder or suicide. People are carrying neural interfaces. It is possible to influence people though them, but is it possible force them to commit acts they don’t want to do? An ok story which goes more for narrative style than coherent plot. ***-
Extracted Journal Notes for an Ethnography of Bnebene Nomad Culture • shortstory by Ian McHugh
A study report which is written by an anthropologist who is doing a field study of some aliens with really complicated genders. An odd story which I didn't completely get. First the aliens seemed to be aboriginals, but then they seemed to possess highly evolved technology. ***
The Carl Paradox • shortstory by Steve Rasnic Tem
A man gets a visitor: He himself drops from a future with a time machine invented by a friend. He has some advice. But wait, there is another version of himself from another future. Short, silly and surprisingly good. ***½
Static • shortstory by William Jablonsky
A strange space phenomenon arrives to earth. A young family with stressed out mother, an infant son and father are waiting if the world will end. There is lot of electronic disturbances and apparently they get short phone and text messages from past and future. A tight story which doesn't explain much, but works pretty well nevertheless. ***+
The Common Good • novelette by Nancy Kress
Aliens destroyed (or rather neatly vaporized all human constructions with everyone who happened to be around) all population centers of earth a few decades ago. A young man who has lived all his life in a forest with survivor style parents. The world has slowly being recovering, but the boy has lived very secluded life. After a serious quarrel with his parents, he runs away and eventually finds himself in a dome the aliens have created. There he first starts to learn the basic principles of science and later intuitive strategic thinking. A very good story. I wouldn’t be surprised to find this from nomination shortlists next year. But this is just the beginning of the real story. ****

Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2013

A pretty decent and readable issue.

Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters • novelette by Henry Lien
A naive Chinese girl is at a ”boarding school”, which emphasis training on skates. Everything on school premises is covered by “pearl” which makes it possible to skate everywhere. The girls train for some sort of martial art/sport academy which accepts only the best. The protagonist is the best skater of bunch and knows it very well. Will she grow during the story? A slightly surprising answer: no, she doesn’t. A very well written story on very unusual surroundings. ****-
Dignity • shortstory by Jay O'Connell
A daughter of an extremely affluent man wants to keep her find: a shabby child. The father opposes as it would be too much trouble to get her conditioned to be a faithful servant. An okay, somewhat short story. ***+
The Fitter • shortstory by Timons Esaias
An alien gets work in a ladies' undergarment story and becomes the best salesman ever. The beginning was pretty good, but the story decayed by the end. ***-
Vox ex Machina • novelette by William Preston
A flight attendant finds a head from an airplane. For some strange reason he takes it with her. It turns out to be a head of an android which is modeled on a late science fiction author. The head is able to speak almost sensibly. She asks different sorts of questions and the head gives Delphic answers. The writing is once more nice, but I didn’t really understand the actions of the protagonist. Why would she steal such an object from the plane? Why would she take so seriously head's fairly pointless discussion? Why would I care? ***
Grainers • shortstory by R. Neube
The story is told from two points of view. One is a slightly alcoholic officer of a patrol ship, another is a swindler of a "grain ship" which is filled by refugees from earth who have lived on the ship for years. Both are tricking the other, both know for a degree that they are tricking and being tricked. A pretty nice story, but the background was slightly sketchy as I am not familiar with other stories with the same background - at least I assume there are other stories in the same series. ***+
Bloom • shortstory by Gregory Norman Bossert
A small group of people is trapped by a strange alien plant/animal/creature which consumes its victims instantly. They can’t escape, but they can discuss their situation. Good writing, but I didn’t really get into the story. ***
Frog Watch • shortstory by Nancy Kress
A recently bereaved young woman is spending her grieving time nearby a swamp counting frogs. There seems to be more and healthier frogs around than could be expected. She meets her neighbor who seems more than slightly strange. The writing was pretty nice and the story was pretty enjoyable, but it slightly too much just a fragment. ***½
Entangled • novelette by Ian R. MacLeod
A woman has some sort of neural enhancement which allows her to influence other people’s mind. She has a brain trauma, and she isn't able to join a sort of group mind everyone else is part of. She has some traumatic past which eventually must face. An ok story with perhaps too complicated setup for its length.***

Asimov's Science Fiction, September 2013

A fair issue, at least average.

The Discovered Country • novelette by Ian R. MacLeod
The first love of a late super famous actress has been asked to join her in some sort of digital afterlife which usually is possible only for extremely rich. When alive he strictly opposed that kind of "heaven", but apparently he changed his mind. A well written, but perhaps slightly overlong story, where I didn't understand the motivations of some ( many) actions. ***½
What We Ourselves Are Not • shortstory by Leah Cypess
Chip which offer memories and facts significant to the culture of the wearer have become common. They must be implanted at late teens. A boy is facing a choice: will he get a chip or not. Another well written story, but I felt very uneasy about the world where people were placing so much weight at their own cultural heritage - it seems so related to unthinking patriotism which I consider to be one of the most evil things there are. ***+
The Unparallel'd Death-Defying Feats of Astoundio, Escape Artist Extraordinaire • novelette by Ian Creasey
An escape artist performs his most daring escape: he escapes from the inside of the black hole. A surprisingly good and complex story considering the fairly simple starting premise. The ending was perhaps the weakest point. ***½
As Yet Untitled • shortstory by James Sallis
A short short about a day in life of a character in a Wild West novel. The execution reminds me slightly of the novels by Jasper Fforde. **
A Stranger from a Foreign Ship • shortstory by Tom Purdom
A man who is able swap minds with anyone in close proximity encounters some criminals. A nice story which felt like a random chapter from a novel. Very readable and I would like to read other stories which involve the same character. ***
That Universe We Both Dreamed Of • shortstory by Jay O'Connell
The aliens have arrived. And they interview apparently randomly preselected people during a weekend. The interview is announced a few days beforehand. Most interviewed people won’t describe the interview very closely. One of thousand interviewed people disappears. One man interviewer is a nice looking very human looking female. The discussions were interesting and the story was fairly good, but somehow there was something missing, I am not sure what. ***+
A Hole in the Ether • novelette by Benjamin Crowell
A future where all intellectual property laws are controlled extremely strictly and copyright has extended to cover almost everything which is newer than Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Everything, including home security systems, monitor and report all copyright infringements. The major corporations have hoarded classics and won’t allow any copies to released in any way as they are afraid that prior publicity might harm possible TV or cinema adaptations. One of the main characters happens to inherit a decades old cell phone which includes a library of about eleven million books. Getting caught with such collection would extremely, extremely bad. An ok story, but the laws were a little too strict to be believable, especially when the writing was very straight without even a slightest eye wink of parody. ***+

Asimov's Science Fiction, August 201

Ok issue, average or above average. There was one major flaw, though. My copy, which was read from Zinio, was full of all sorts of typographical mistakes. There were extra space in the wo rds, there extra space before comma , there were letters crammed together. Someone forgot proofreading? Or some sort of problem in preparing the electronic copy?


The Ex-Corporal • shortstory by Leah Thomas
Father switches to another personality from an alternate reality during epileptic seizures. First he has even enjoyed “travels between dimensions” but then a very obnoxious personality seems to take over. This story could be classified as horror rather than science fiction or fantasy. Writing is pretty good, but perhaps the story was slightly too short. ***
Stone to Stone, Blood to Blood • novelette by Gwendolyn Clare
A half brother of the ruling regent get a body guard as present when he turns nine. The ruling family has a special gene which allows them to somehow tune with some rare mineral deposits on the planet or something. The bodyguard carries an implanted implementation or brainwashed orders which forces him to guard the prince at any cost. Their relation has turned to a deep friendship. The prince is facing a “brainwashing” himself. Well written, good story, but perhaps too short for the fairly complex background – or are there other stories in the same series? ***+
Arlington • novelette by Jack Skillingstead
A sixteen years old boy, who is lying his first long solo flight in a small airplane in 1981 lands on a remote little used airfield after being lost for a sort time in a strange cloud. The airfield seems to have surprisingly many planes from many eras. Parallel to these events the same person as a grown man with a strange untreatable disease is considering a life changing decision. A well written, very god story which feels like an episode of Twilight Zone, in a good way. ****-
Lost Wax • novelette by Gregory Norman Bossert
A story about some sort of "scientific golems" made from yeast orsomething. A pretty confusing and hard to follow story. I didn't get it. **
The Application of Hope • [Diving Universe] • novella by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Apparently a start for a new series. A fleet of human spaceships has traveled centuries is space encountering other cultures, trading, fighting and exploring. The ships use a "foldspace" for fTL travel. Sometimes ships disappear to foldspace and are never found again. The father of the main protagonist disappeared when she was a child. She becomes a foldspace expert who could for first time search thing from the fold space and later one of the most accomplished captains of the fleet. Another ship disappears, and its' captain was her close fried and lover. Fairly little happens in the story, mainly it is exposition. The exposition is done pretty well however, it didn't felt like massive infodump crammed to the brain of the reader. Not bad, bad long for actual plot. I might very well buy the book where this story is a few first chapters. ***+

Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2013

About average issue of Asimov’s.

Haplotype 1402 • shortstory by Ted Kosmatka
A post-apocalyptic story about US where a widespread and drug resistant strain of tuberculosis has killed most of the population. An advance scout of a small and ruthless partly, who travels on countryside has a bad encounter with a surviving farmer on his farm. That eventually leads to some grave consequences. A very well written story, where the background was perhaps too sketchy. ***½
The Art of Homecoming • novelette by Carrie Vaughn
A member of diplomatic corps is taking a vacation to meet her family on a farm after a failed mission. She reconnects with her family members, milks goats, eats real food and discusses things with her family. A simple story, good writing, but somehow there was practically no real plot at all. ***-
Blair's War • shortstory by Ian Watson
An alternate history story, where British forces take part to the Spanish civil war. Pretty short story which felt too long as everything is loaded at the last line reveal - which wasn't really surprising or astounding. **½
Yubba Vines • novelette by Rudy Rucker and Paul Di Filippo
A carriage which offers extremely tasty (and apparently mildly narcotic) foods appears in the town in surprising locations.
Something funny going on, as some people who have visited the diner seems to disappear. The beginning of the story was pretty good, but there were some pretty easily drawn conclusions and the ending went in a too surreal direction. **½
What is a Warrior Without His Wounds? • novelette by Gray Rinehart
An officer of Russian military is waiting for a honorable discharge after he has lost his leg and arm in a battle. Instead of a release, he gets ordered back to the very prestigious military academy he graduated from some years ago. The academy has produced some very capable and precocious cadets. There is reason for that...not very surprising story, but it is well told and written. ***+
Today's Friends • shortstory by David J. Schwartz
Aliens have appeared everywhere. Mostly they just observe, but they have a strange fascination on music. If they hear any music or even musical sounds - even bird song - they enter the mind of a person (or animal) who is responsible for the sound and force them to repeat it several times. And usually they rip the brain more or less to shreds at the same time. The protagonist of the story makes a mistake by humming at a public place. He is deeply scarred and changed after an alien fingers his brain. A well-written story - perhaps slightly too short. ***+
At Palomar • novelette by Rick Wilber
Apparently several forces battle for the control of several alternative worlds. A former baseball player is supposed to kill a certain person on a world, where part of the US is ruled by Germany and another part by Japan. The new optic lens which is being transported to the Palomar observatory has an important role. Extremely similar background as in the story by Kristine Kathryn Rush a few issues ago. This was lot less good, though. The back plot was a little confusing - there apparently has been a former part and the story was slightly too talky. ***-

Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2013

Some good, some less good stories. A pretty average issue.

The Fountain • novelette by G. David Nordley
A far future story where an alien emissary from a race with a hive mind comes to meet the immortal empress of the Earth with a request. A pretty good story with intriguing characters. ***½
Skylight • novelette by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
An orphan has been trained as an assassin by a guild which specializes in the assassinations of criminals, former dictators and others who deserve death. She fails her last test when she doesn't make what she was supposed to do in a VR simulation. An excellent "origin" story. I look forward to other possible stories in this series. ****-
Hypervigilant • shortstory by Eric Del Carlo
A series of terror attacks with neurochemical toxins have produced “amokers”, people who tend to go berserk at public places and kill as many people they can. However, the same toxins have produced empaths who are able to feel if someone is going to start a rampage. They are stationed at public places. One day one empath who sits in a waiting room of a hospital feels a woman with a mind full of fury entering. But then the fury disappears – did he make an error? A pretty good story with an interesting background. ***½
A Love Song Concerning His Vineyard • shortstory by Megan Arkenberg
A story about wine, dysfunctional family and Mars. A story which is going more for a mood than plot. Very short and somewhat sketchy. **½
Precious Mental • [The Great Ship Universe] • novella by Robert Reed
Apparently a part of a series. A far future story. There are immortal and powerful races in the galaxy and some people are apparently also immortal. All races share a similar basis for immortality: a bioceramic practically indestructible brain module. Some people are trying to repair a very old and very efficient space ship engine. I didn't get into this story at all – probably because I am not familiar with the other parts of the series. Everything felt very confusing and disjointed. **½

Asimov's Science Fiction, April-May 2013

A large double issue with a varied bunch of stories – some pretty good, some which are so closely connected with other stories in the same series that they were hard to read as individual stories, and some not so good stories.


The Other Gun by Neal Asher
A far future story which belongs to longer series I am not familiar with. The story was pretty complex with super powerful and super intelligent aliens fighting against themselves with humans as soldiers in the fight. Some more or less human, some with bodies (and appetites) of tyrannosaur rex. A lot happens in the story, but as the background wasn’t familiar to me, the story felt somewhat confusing. ***
Through Your Eyes by Linda Nagata
A young man gets the latest communications implants. He has implanted smartphone like device and contact lenses which are able to record what he sees in real time. He gets involved with an anti-war demonstration which is ruthlessly crushed and people who part to it are imprisoned and interviewed very harshly. And he is recording everything…Somewhat too short a story which reminded me of “Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow. The writing was better, though. ****-
Writing in the Margins by Joel Richards
Apparently it has been proven that reincarnation is a fact. And it is sometimes possible to recover some of the memories of the past lives with special techniques. And apparently has made a HUGE impact to everything. People are commonly committing suicides “to get a fresh start”, death penalty has been abolished as a "too easy punishment” and so on. Really? Why would anyone care about reincarnation without the real preservation of self? But that background is hardly even used in the story, which consists mainly of extremely boring discussion about personal relationships and other things. The story tries to be literary but ends up being overwritten and unmemorable. **
Gray Wings by Karl Bunker
A woman who has modified to have wings is taking part in a flying competition over Africa. She falls down and breaks a few bones. She has nanomodifications and is able to heal in a few hours. She meets a family and a young man who takes care of her overnight. A very well told story with extremely well described characters. The only fault is that the story is so short, more just a scene rather than a complete tale. ****
Julian of Earth by Colin P. Davies
A man who lives on the outback of an alien planet has been living on a story how he was kidnapped as a child by a lone soldier still fighting a war which had ended years ago. A film crew arrives and wants to film a documentary of the lone fighter and hires him as their guide. There are slight problems, however. A fairly run of the mill story, writing was nice but there was nothing really new. ***
The Wall by Naomi Kritzer
A young woman is visited by an older woman who claims to be her future self. The old woman urges her younger counterpart to buy a flight ticket to Berlin as the wall will be falling down soon. The young woman is more than a little skeptical and suspects that her overbearing mother would never tolerate such trip anyway. A very good story, where the believable personal growth of the young woman surprises even her older counterpart. ****-
Distant Like the Stars by Leah Cypess
A method of instantaneous transportation has been discovered. One man really hates it, because in a world with gates you can’t go to an unfamiliar place, or can’t be anywhere really away. Apparently, a life time is enough to see on the worthwhile new sights of several planets, and with instantaneous nontraceable travel it is impossible to just to run away and never be found. The basic neurosis of the main character was hard to believe and irritatingly stupid, but the story was pretty readable in spite of that. ***+
Spider God and the Periodic Table by Alan Wall
A scientist is found as dead in front of his computer. His brain stem is crystallized. By a remarkable leap of reasoning investigators draw a conclusion that neutrinos have started to interact with matter inside victim’s brain. There is no background at all how or why they thought of THAT, or how such implausible mechanism even occurred to someone. Then the story has a vast amount of metaphysical discussion and the theories. I thought that the story was almost unreadable, extremely disjointed and very dull. **-
The Oracle by Ken Liu
People may use a device which sometimes gives them a glimpse of their future. The sight is usually from a significant event, and it is invariably always true, it will happen no matter what. A man used the device as a teenager and saw himself being executed as a murderer. Apparently as an idiot he told everyone about that and as a consequence has lived all his life in a special housing meant for outcasts, like former prisoners, child molesters and so on. One day a young woman seeks his company. The woman has had her own true glimpse of the future. A very good story – the logic isn’t the strong point (why would anyone ever want to use such device?) but mood and writing are excellent. ****-
Warlord by Tom Purdom
This story appears to be a serial in disguise. The beginning has a very short synopsis of what has happened before, but the story seems to directly continue from an earlier part (which I haven’t read). It happens in a planet with two intelligent species which have been hostile against each other, and a group of humans has apparently supported one faction which has been enslaved by the other. I didn’t get into a story at all, as the characters weren’t familiar and the short synopsis was too sketchy to really understand (or care) what was going on. I didn’t finish this one.

Asimov's Science Fiction, March 2013

A pretty good issue.

Uncertainty • novelette by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
A some sort of organization which is situated "outside of time" tries to mold history. The first try had caused unforeseen consequences and they are working to restore the history, but it seems to be harder that thought. An extremely good and well written story, the only nitpick is that the story feels like a segment from a larger story. ****-
Brother Swine • shortstory by Garrett Ashley
The reincarnation is apparently true and the dead return as animals and sometimes animals return as humans. A village is in the middle of famine, and a recently died family member returns as a big, fat, swine. Excellent writing, more of a fantasy than a sf story, but a good read. ****
Needlework • shortstory by Lavie Tidhar
A man is learning to cook so that he can work on a space ship. If he is elected, he must spend most of the time apart from his family. Nice writing, but a very fragmentary story without much real plot. **½
Monday's Monk • novelette by Jason Sanford
Nanomachines have produced a practical immortality, but a guerrilla movement kills people who have nanos by chopping them to pieces and burning them (alive) to ash. A Buddhist monk is allowed to perform the last rites for people being burned. One day his childhood friend and secret love is brought to the funeral piles – beheaded, but still conscious by the power of the nanos. But it turns out that the nanos are much more resilient than had been thought...the plausibility of the story isn't its strong points, but otherwise an excellent and moving story. ****
Pitching Old Mars • shortstory by Michael Cassutt
Musing about how to place a story in Mars - maybe use past as a backdrop. A short "story" without any plot, characters or point. **
Feral Moon • novella by Alexander Jablokov
A description of an attack to Phobos. Phobos has been THE vacation spot of the solar system, but now it is a battle field of a strange battle which mostly tries to ignore civilians living on the moon. A former commander has been released from prison to lead some of the forces. Little was explained about the background or even why the war had started. It wasn’t even very clear who were the “good guys” and details of the fight were extremely unclear. If I don’t know what is going on and why, why should I care of the characters and what they are doing? The main character was apparently meant to be sympathetic and even human, but I couldn’t feel much emotion towards him. An overlong and confusing story. **-

Asimov's Science Fiction, February 2013

An excellent novella. Otherwise many of the stories in this issue were more just "episodes" instead of complete stories with a beginning, a middle and an end.

And Then Some by Matthew Hughes
A some kind of bounty hunter comes to retrieve an apparent criminal charged with some sort of swindle. The man he is trying to find has a lot of influence and the bounty hunter finds himself imprisoned and in forced labor. As he is a GOOD bounty hunter, he doesn't take a lot of time to escape. Later he finds himself supervising the works of the same man he tried to catch. Then the story goes metaphysical, stupid and irritating. The first part of the story was very good, the latter half was stupid and seemed to be even worse writing - it almost felt like something by a different author. **½
Outbound From Put-In-Bay by M. Bennardo
A new ice age has started on the late 19th century. Northern part of US has split to independent countries, drought (I wonder why there is drought, I would imagine that lowering temperatures would rather increase the rainfall) has almost dried out the Great Lakes. Canada has somehow managed to keep a resemblance of civilization up. Desperate groups of people smuggle crude oil from Canada to south. The story consists of episodes in the life of such smuggler. There is little coherent plot running through the episodes and the background is too sketchy for the story to work well in so short a form. ***
Best of All Possible Worlds by John Chu
A man has as a friend an apparent alien who can project musical music to his mind - and apparently at times move in physically (or mentally) to a reality of a musical while protecting the protagonist from something. Far too short a story with an extremely scanty background. ***-
The Golden Age of Story by Robert Reed
A medication which increases intelligence by 20 iq points has been discovered. It has a side effects though - a few people commit suicide, but more start to span extremely elaborate lies. A very well written story which could have been longer. ***½
The Weight of the Sunrise by Vylar Kaftan
The Inca Empire never fell. They beat the invaders, learnt to cope with smallpox with severe guaranteeing measures and prospered. A convoy from northern America arrives and offers the secret of vaccination against the smallpox - with a cost: a vast amount of gold. Gold is a sacred metal of the Incas and is usually used only for sacramental purposes. The story is told as memorials of a former peasant who has become minor nobility by surviving a flare up of pox. His grandfather was European and he can speak English. He gets drafted as a translator for the negotiations.
An extremely good story and I would like to see more stories happening in the same world. This was easily the best story in the issue. ****+
The New Guys Always Work Overtime by David Erik Nelson
People of past are used as minimum wage labor to produce products which are “Made in America by Americans”. However, not all past works come from America. Another story where background was fairly sketchy. ***-

Asimov's Science Fiction, January 2013

Not one of the best issues of Asimov's.


They Shall Salt the Earth With Seeds of Glass by Alaya Dawn Johnson
Aliens with an unknown agenda has invaded earth. The make attacks at will for reasons remaining humans don't usually know. For some reason they are very interested in pregnant women and promise good care for everyone who is pregnant. But no one who seeks their care comes back. A young woman is pregnant. She and her sister seeks out a doctor who could perform an abortion. They get caught, and an alien drone starts to take them to a health faculty - and seems to think it is doing them a favor. There is too little backstory for the story really work. Now it is just a pretty blatant allegory for the US invasion/influence of third world countries. ***+
Over There by Will McIntosh
An apparently innocuous experiment causes the world to divide into two separate continuums. The people in those are able to perceive both realties which is very confusing them and most start eventually be very anxious. The story is told as two s narratives describing simultaneous events on both time-lines. I wonder how the story was supposed to be read. There were hardly any natural divides or chapter breaks which would have made it easier to switch reading between two different simultaneous stories involving the same characters. The ending was also fairly weak in my opinion. ***-
Legend of Troop 13 by Kit Reed
A story of a lost group of girls who live or might not live in a forest. Very "artsy" story which I didn't get or really understood. **
Hotel by Suzanne Palmer
A story happens in a hotel on Mars, which for historical reasons is on neutral territory which doesn’t belong to any nation. There are some unusual visitors there, most of them are using the name "Smith" to remain anonymous. And there are a few secret plots going on.. a noirish story where science fictions elements aren't really important for the plot in spite of a few aliens in important roles. Some condensing probably would have made the story better. **½
The Family Rocket by James Van Pelt
A man is coming back to his childhood home with his fiancée. His family has always been space nuts. And his father bought a used space rocket when he was young and refurbished it for an imaginary trip to Mars. A sweet story with a nice mood. ***
Mithridates, He Died Old by Nancy Kress
An experimental and risky treatment for severe brain trauma causes unforeseen effects. A sort of rerun of “A Christmas Carol” by Dickens. Very good, emotional story. One drawback is that the author apparently hasn’t got a clue how scientific studies are really done. ***½

Asimov's Science Fiction, Decmber 2012

A pretty nice issue with mostly good stories.

The Caramel Forest by Chris Beckett
A planet with new colonists is inhabited by alien "goblins" which are able to project at least feelings to the minds of humans. Most of the feelings are negative: anxiety, uncertainty and other negative feelings, but one child experiences them as positive. The goblins seem to be interested in her, and eventually they seem to be able to influence her. A pretty good story, but the ending was too open for my taste. ***+
The Waves by Ken Liu
A generation ship which is travelling to another star receives a transmission from earth: the secret for immortality has been discovered and it is so simple that even the colonists on the ship are able to achieve it. But the life on the ship was planned to depend on new generations replacing the old ones. A sort of decision is reached. Eventually, the ship arrives to the planet it was supposed to, but the mankind has already arrived there by new, better and faster ships, and they are getting near to the singularity.
The story has far too many ideas for a novellette and is pretty fragmented as a result.***
The Wizard of West 34th Street by Mike Resnick
Just like an episode from the Twilight Zone TV series. A man befriends with a bit tattered and shaggy man who seems to be able to see everything which happens to other people and what kind of choices they should make. Is that a blessing or a curse? ***+
The Pipes of Pan by Robert Reed
A taxonomist starts to propose a new taxonomical name for Homo sapiens, as so many aren't so sapient. That causes great controversy and there are even several attempts against his life. Eventually, he becomes a kind of guru for peace and cooperation, but when situation turns bad there might be some hard choices to be made. A pretty good story, another one where a longer form might have worked better. ***
The Black Feminist’s Guide to Science Fiction Film Editing by Sandra McDonald
Movies are being re-edited to remove chauvinistic male dominated influences to give women the starring roles. A film which has never been publicly shown which has been written by Leight Brackett has been found in the remains of old time movie producer. His demented widow will let someone to edit it and make it presentable for public showing. A woman whose has been successful on several re-edits and a male who has made edited "feminist" movies (for example Handmaids Tale) to NOT to be o feminist compete for the rights. A pretty good story, well written. ***½
Sudden, Broken, and Unexpected by Steven Popkes
Ex-girlfriend hires an embittered musician (who was an one hit wonder years ago with a song he himself didn't really appreciate) to enhance songs performed by "teeny-popper", who is in reality a sophisticated computer software programmed to give most engaging performances possible. Would any of them have possibilities to grow as persons or in case of the singer who is "just" software to grow to a person? An extremely good story, which might well find itself from the award shortlists next year. The only nitpicks are far too many song names mentioned at the end part of the story and somewhat too convenient and easy ending. ****

Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 2011

A large double-issue with a lot to read. A fairly average issue. Writing in most of the stories is very good,

Stealth • novella by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“Diving in the wreck” -story. This time the story isn't about driving in a concrete ship wreck, but rather about the consequences of strange technology which has been retrieved from ancient spaceships. Military has a lot of interest for a cloaking device. Unfortunately, it seems to be extremely dangerous and people studying it tend to disappear without leaving any trace. Sometimes whole laboratories or even space stations where the experiments have been done have vanished. A woman who may have a better grasp of the tech than anyone else has been responsible for themain lab studying the cloaking tech. The story starts when the lab is being evacuated as apparently something has gone very much wrong. Then the story is told on several time levels, some covering past of the scientist, while the events after the accident are also being followed. A very good story, some parts were somewhat heavy with discussion, but very enjoyable nevertheless, however it is not among the best stories by one of my favorite authors. ****-
The Cult of Whale Worship • shortstory by Dominica Phetteplace
A first story of a new author. A scientist who studies toxoplasma wants to stop whale hunting by designing a new strain of toxoplasma which would apparently affect somehow human though patterns concerning whales. It isn’t explicitly stated what the influence would be. Would people start to like whales? Or would they be indifferent towards them? Both alternatives might have some serious consequences. Writing was ok, especially for a first timer. ***-
This Petty Pace • shortstory by Jason K. Chapman
A man gets some advice from the future. Everything doesn’t go very well, but his life is pretty good anyway. He still gets a few messages which are garbled to some degree (or are not told to the reader). He starts to suspect that his line of research and/or his decedents will eventully cause something really bad. Pretty well written story, but there some less clear things in the ending especially the reason why the man did what he did. (Sent a letter for his descendent). ***
The Outside Event • novelette by Kit Reed
An author takes part on a strange author retreat. A group of authors live very isolated life, and they are eliminated one at a time. It is supposed to be some sort of reality show at the same time (but I wonder where the cameras are - they are not mentioned, and the protagonist even learns the “reality show” angle on the second day). There is a strange and agonizing atmosphere all the time. And there is a threat of “the outside event” which might have effect to the outcome of the competition. The writing is distinctive, perhaps too much so. I am not sure got the story, especially the ending was to a certain extent unclear. **½
The Pastry Chef, the Nanotechnologist, the Aerobics Instructor, and the Plumber • shortstory by Eugene Mirabelli
A woman starts to hear Italian from the water running through the kitchen faucet. Her live-in partner - a nanotech researcher - doesn’t hear it. She asks a linguistic to listen if the sounds really are Italian. And soon the toilet starts to speak in Turkish. The story revolves around unbelievable relationships and even more unbelievable unexplained strange happenings. Overall the content and style were something I usually hate. It that was pretty much true for this story, also. ***-
Free Dog • shortstory by Jack Skillingstead
After a divorce man got his dog, but the ex-wife spreads the template of the dog on the Internet. It gets popular for a while and people have copies of the dog as nano-swarmns. He isn’t too thrilled about that. He finds a new love, the real dog gets older and the story just fizzles out. Writing is good, but there isn’t real ending. ***
My Husband Steinn • novelette by Eleanor Arnason
A story about a woman who lives on a secluded area in Iceland. He meets some trolls, and eventually befriends one. Fairly nice story, but there was a very superfluous story inside a story which had nothing to do with the main tale and could easily have removed. ***+
To Live and Die in Gibbontown • shortstory by Derek Künsken
There apparently are only monkeys on earth, most countries have a majority of one monkey species. Euthanasia of the old monkeys is commonplace and encouraged. One monkey establishes an euthanasia service which offers its’ as assassinations. One old bonobo granny hires him to assassinate her so well that she doesn’t even notice it. A pretty unusual and interesting story. ***+
A Hundred Hundred Daisies • shortstory by Nancy Kress
Climate has changed and parts of the US are dried out. Former farmers live meager life on their already foreclosed farms. A water pipe from the great Lakes is running through area. Some people are starting to fight against it. A very good story, but it is far too short. Might very well be a first chapter of a novel, now it ends far too soon. ****
The Man Who Bridged the Mist • novella by Kij Johnson
Areas of “mist” separate different parts of the world. Mist is at least partly toxic and it is something between liquid and gas. It is possible cross on special boats, but that is often very hazardous. There are also strange and dangerous things living inside the mist. An engineer comes to build a bridge over a strait filled with mist, which will be the longest bridge ever to cross an area of mist. The story tells mainly about of the life man building the bridge, about his work and love and how he changed during the years. A rather long story, which is at places more than a little longwinded. Few actual events happen during the story. The setting was pretty interesting, but we didn’t learn anything about what the mist is or about any other details of the world. There was no reason at all why the story couldn’t have been told as a straight drama and the fantasy aspects are extremely superfluous. If you want to tell that story, why set the story in a fantasyland? Writing as such was excellent, though. ***-

Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2010

Fairly average issue, a slight disappointment considering the authors involved. Read as an e-book during lunch hours and waiting for different appointments. That might have hurt a few stories, as some of them were fairly fragmentary and not too easy to follow.

The Other Graces • shortstory by Alice Sola Kim
A Korean girl is struggling with everyday life. Sat tests, finding the real and good collage, everyday racism and family life. She starts to hear voices which promise to help her on the Sat tests. Not much is explained, maybe too little is explained.  Writing is pretty good, though. ***½
Haggle Chips • novelette by Tom Purdom
A trader gets kidnapped and used as a pawn in a power struggle. He is treated very well, and even finds a companion, but as time goes on he really wants to get out. The kidnappers are pretty sympathetic and have a worthwhile agenda, and he has some qualms escaping. Pretty good and entertaining story. ***½
Eddie's Ants • shortstory by D. T. Mitenko
How to kill an intelligent ant colony who has stolen your girlfriend? Nice, light story. ***+
The Jaguar House, in Shadow • novelette by Aliette de Bodard
An alternative history where America is ruled by Indians. There is apparently some sort of competition. A hard story to follow up, especially when you are reading it from an Iphone during several lunch hours. I didn't really get it, but the fault is probably mostly in me. **
Amelia Pillar's Etiquette for the Space Traveler • shortstory by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Just what the title says. Fun little piece about to be a space tourist of interstellar cruise ship. A lighthearted nice piece. ***-
A History of Terraforming • novella by Robert Reed
Segments from a life of one man, who is closely involved in terraforming, its early failures and later successes. Short episodes, showing different sides of things. A bit too fragmented, not among my favorite Reed stories. A longer form might have been better? ***-

Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2010

Fairly good issue. Some very good stories, some were a bit less good.


The Emperor of Mars • novelette by Allen M. Steele
A bride of a man who works in a Mars colony dies in a car accident on earth. He soon starts to believe that he is the emperor of Mars and all classic sf about mars is true. Excellent and entertaining story. ****+
Petopia • shortstory by Benjamin Crowell
An advanced robotoy winds up in a developing country. A teenage girl who is trying to take care of her family finds it. The toy has some advanced AI-properties. Well told, a good story. ****
Monkey Do • shortstory by Kit Reed
A failing author gets a monkey as he is writing a novel involving a monkey. The turns out to be fairly ”high maintainance”. To get something to do for the monkey, the writer gets him a computer software package which is supposed to make writing books extremely easy. What happens is easy to predict. Pretty good, nothing surprising. ***´+
The Peacock Cloak • shortstory by Chris Beckett
A some sort of virtual reality world is visited by its creators. They act like (and for all practical purposes ARE) gods. Some of them have different methods concerning their “minions”. I didn’t quite get into the story and didn’t find it very interesting as I found it hard to care about the characters. **
Voyage to the Moon • shortstory by Peter Friend
A some sort of insect scientist are exploring their world, and is traveling to their moon with some sort of pod-ship. Fairly nice, but it might have been better than it is now if it had been possible to figure out what their world actually was – at least I was not able to do it. ***½
Dreadnought Neptune • shortstory by Anna Tambour
I didn't get this one. I tried to start it several times, but honestly I didn't get it and wasn't able to read or understand it. Stylish writing apparently, but... The fault is probably on me, but the writing really seemed fairly strange. *
Earth III • novella by Stephen Baxter
I am not familiar with the earlier parts of the story. That didn't hurt much, however. Humans have lived in a small planet tidal locked with its small sun. There is a Trojan War style campaign to recover an escaped princess, and that leads to an escape to the far side of the world. Nice enough story, but there is nothing really remarkable in it to make it extraordinary. ***½

Asimov's Science Fiction, March 2010

Fairly nice issue. Read as a e-book version from my Iphone during lunch hours.

Helping Them Take the Old Man Down • novelette by William Preston
A former member of a team which was fighting against "bad guys" is drafted to find their former leader, "the old man" very little is told of him, but it seems that he is a kind of superhuman who doesn't get old. As such well written and nice story, but I wonder if there is some background I missed -earlier stories or something – as the background as such felt a bit too open, or not too defined. What was the team? Why was it fighting against crime? How? ***½
Centaurs • shortstory by Benjamin Crowell
Two teenagers living on asteroid belt have an adventure together. Well written, but otherwise fairly simply story with a strong YA-feel, could be from fifties if it hadn't had a few fairly innocent sexual scenes. ***+
Ticket Inspector Gliden Becomes the First Martyr of the Glorious Human Uprising • shortstory by Derek Zumsteg
Aliens trying to travel on Berlin's subway without paying, and one zealous ticket inspector who wants to prevent that. Dry humor, but felt like a piece of some larger work. ***-
The Speed of Dreams • shortstory by Will Ludwigsen
8th grade student writes a science fair paper about the speed of time in the dreams. She is able to estimate time by measuring the length of the dreams her dog has. The story is well written,but goes somewhere I wasn't expecting, and somewhere I am not sure I was comfortable with.
Blind Cat Dance • novelette by Alexander Jablokov
Relationship troubles in the backdrop of future where animals are genemodified to not notice anything human. The main protagonist is looking after the animals, and is tending the ecosystem. There some parts in the story which are pretty interesting, but I didn't really care for the relationships which were the main part of the story. Probably it is just me. Those parts which didn't deal with that were nice. ***-
The Tower • novelette by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
A group of historians is traveling back in time to history of London. Unfortunately one of their group has fallen ill, and they must take a last minute replacement. As usual everything doesn't go according to the plans. Pretty similar in presentation than those time travel books by Connie Willis. Just so much better than anything by Willis. Most of her characters are more or less bumbling idiots, these characters in this story felt alive, smart and believable. A story I really enjoyed. ****

Asimov's Science Fiction December 2009

Another fine issue with some very good stories.

A Lovely Little Christmas Fire • shortstory by Jeff Carlson
Gene-modified super-termites with highly unlikely biochemistry eat all plant matter in seconds, have escaped to a city, and are destroying house and office buildings. Teams are fighting against them, but the termites seem to spread just too fast - like someone would be spreading them on purpose. Fairly standard story - nothing really bad but nothing especially good either. ***+
As Women Fight • shortstory by Sara Genge
The gender is determinated by fights occurring by set intervals. The winner can choose which body he/she wants to inhabit. Practically always the winner chooses the female body. The gender roles are very sharply defined – the female who takes care of the children seems to have most authority in the family, while the male provides the food. Pretty well told story, but there are a few problems. One would imagine that the ability to transfer personalities between bodies would lead to less clearly defined gender roles. Also, it doesn't seem plausible that those in female bodies seem usually have the upper hand in the fights. ***½
Animus Rights • shortstory by John Shirley
Two aliens inhabit human bodies as and fight as a sort of a game through centuries. Pretty old fashionable story with nothing really surprising. Could well be from the Galaxy magazines from 50s I have been reading. **1\2
Leaving the Station • shortstory by Jim Aikin
A young woman, who was able to see ghosts as a child, inherits an antique store from her uncle. As she doesn't happen to have a job at a moment, she moves in and starts to manage the store. Soon she starts to see ghosts again...Very good story, well written. The ending is a bit sad in a way. ****
Angie's Errand • shortstory by Nick Wolven
After war which has devastated everything a young girl tries to cope with pressures of raising her younger siblings. She feels unprotected as they live in a house which is separated from the main village without any adult males living with her. Well written but not much happens. The girl makes at least one just too stupid choice - but that is a choice some 16 year old girl makes somewhere every day. ***+
A Large Bucket, and Accidental Godlike Mastery of Spacetime • novelette by Benjamin Crowell
The ambassador of human race is is traveling between stars with ambassadors of several different species's. They are traveling at relativistic speeds, so time is passing very fast in outside universe. The human finds herself as a kind of leader for some of the races traveling on the ship. Will it be possible that the humanity will graduate to “Galactic Civilization”? Another very good story, well written, fascinating, would like to read more of the main character. ****-
The Bride of Frankenstein • shortstory by Mike Resnick
A diary of Dr. Frankenstein's wife. The main story is fairly same as Shelley's version, but the events happen in undefined time, somewhere between 1920-1930. And the ending is far more positive that in the original version. Well written, very good story. Not as sacharine as Resnick's stories tend to be. Woudn't be surprised if this will be found in ballots. ****+
Some Like It Hot • novelette by Brian Stableford
A man and woman have known each others since being small children. Their (single) parents both worked for EU, and later they also ”inherit” jobs working for EU. They meet usually once a year for their common birthday. The story tells mainly about their different approaches to the solving and adapting to the climate change. As such the content of the story is pretty good, but problem is that the story is ALL exposition. Discussions between the characters is mainly exposition, and that is juxtaposed by pure exposition between their meetings. Everything is told, practically nothing is shown. The story felt like an overlong draft for an interesting novel. ***½

Asimov's Science Fiction October-November 2009

Fairly good issue, nowhere as excellent as the September issue, but pretty good.

Blood Dauber • novelette by Michael Poore and Ted Kosmatka
A poor zookeeper is working on a poor zoo. He has a lot of personal troubles with his wife, and a chronic shortage of money. He finds a strange looking insect which he doesn't recognize, and puts it in a terrarium and has more than a few surprises while watching it grow and reproduce. He also befriends a strange man who is working on community service for the zoo. Well written story, fairly low in science fiction and main emphasis is on "normal" drama. ***1/2
Where the Time Goes • shortstory by Heather Lindsley
A team travels in time and captures people's surplus time to sell it to highest bidder. Naturally something seems to go wrong. Very disjointed and fragmentary story. Probably meant as humorous but doesn't work for me, at least. **1/2
Wife-Stealing Time • novelette by R. Garcia y Robertson
Adventures in Barsoom. Heroic action, beautiful women, furious beasts. The story seems to be a wish fulfillment fantasy. I wasn't entirely sure if the story was Burroughs fanfic or if it happens in some future terraformed planet which is named after Mars novels. Well - the difference between those is very slight anyway. Not something for my taste. **
Flowers of Asphodel • novelette by Damien Broderick
Far future story, a bit confusing, as at least I didn't completely grasp the background. A man is woken from hibernation before he is supposed to, as his wife is trying to destroying the universe - or something. Writing is ok, but somehow I got feeling that there should be more back-story than it was given in the flashbacks. ***-
Erosion • shortstory by Ian Creasey
A man who has been enhanced before leaving earth and will be traveling to a new colony world has one last weekend on earth and travels to coast to see the sea for one last time. Well written, moving and bittersweet story. Extreme stupidity of the main protagonist in one act is irritation, though. ***½
Flotsam • novelette by Elissa Malcohn
A woman finds as a child a "sea baby" - apparently something which has inspired tales of mermaids. That affects her in many ways. Overlong and very preachy about pollution, a far amount of condensing of a bit over-literary writing would have made the storytelling easier to follow and more enjoyable. **1/2
Before My Last Breath • shortstory by Robert Reed
A cemetery of aliens is found on a coal mine. There are thousands of them, those who are buried deeper are physically healthier and have much more technologically advanced things with them. It appears that they are from a colony or ship wreck and slowly died out during thousands of years. Told by several viewpoints - the last being one of the later aliens before they all died out. Very well written and good story. There seems to be something lacking however, the story goes for the mood, not so much for the plot. There are some small plot-holes: if the aliens have so different biochemistry that they don't decompose well, they shouldn't have been able to eat anything from earth. And if their dying out took 60000 years they'd should have evolved to withstand earth's atmosphere and climate a bit better. ****-
The Ghost Hunter's Beautiful Daughter • novelette by Christopher Barzak
A father and a daughter hunt ghosts. The daughter can see them and make them visible for her father, who then captures them into a photograph. The first ghost they captured was the girls' mother. Unknown to the father the captured ghosts are still "living" inside the photos. Well told and fascinating story. A bit too pure fantasy to be exactly for my taste, but something I enjoyed reading. Ending is perhaps a bit too open. ****-
Deadly Sins • shortstory by Nancy Kress
An assistant has apparently killed an important scientist in cold blood. But why? Well written story, but a bit too short, might well be a first chapter of a longer story. ****-
The Sea of Dreams • novella by William Barton
A man who has made himself rich by using technology from an alien spaceship he found, stumbles to another alien spaceship. When he investigates it with a beautiful "avatar" of female biological AI, they are transported to another time and space. So begins an adventure involving lilliputian, flying saucers, ray guns, alternative worlds and so on. The beginning is very good, but ending is a bit too pulpy. A few ideas less might have made better story - not that this is a bad one as such. ***1/2