Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Vol. 134, Nos. 1 & 2, January/February 2014

by Trevor Quachri (Editor), Karl Schroeder (Contributor), Michael Turton (Contributor)

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January/February 2014, Volume CXXXIV No. 1&2
Double Issue
Trevor Quachri, editor
Cover art by David A. Hardy

Serial
"Lockstep", part II of IV, by Karl Schroeder

Novellas
"Music to Me" by Richard A. Lovett

Novelettes
"The Tansy Tree" by Rob Chilson
"Determined Spirits" by Grey Rollins

Short Stories
"Misunderstandings" by Carl Frederick
"Wine, Women, and Stars" by Thoraiya Dyer
"This Is As I Wish to Be Restored" by Christie Yant
"The Problem with Reproducible Bugs" by Marie DesJardin
"Just like Grandma Used to Make" by Brenta Blevins
"Racing Prejudice" by John Frye III
"Technological Plateau" by Michael Turton
"This Quiet Dust" by Karl Bunker

Poetry
"Nothing to Fear" by Kate Gladstone
"Product Recalls" by Mary Turzillo

Science Fact
"Lighting up the Brain: The Use of Electromagnetic Radiation to Stimulate Neurons" by Kyle Kirkland

Departments
Editorial: "Checklists" by Trevor Quachri
The Alternate View: "On Investing Heretical Gizmos" by Jeffery D. Koolstra
2013 Index

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2013

About the author

Trevor Quachri (b. 1976) has been the sixth editor of Analog Science Fiction & Fact magazine since September 2012.

Previously, he was “a Broadway stagehand, collected data for museums, and executive produced a science fiction pilot for a basic cable channel.”

Quachri started as an editorial assistant in 1999 at Asimov's Science Fiction and Analog. Former editor of Analog, Ben Bova, was an early influence.

Reviews

[Shawn]

An ok issue. There was one story I couldn't even finish though. What saved it was the inclusion of the lockstep serial.

[Alyn Lunt]

Was a great issue I really enjoyed reading Lockstep.

[Jeppe Larsen]

The highlight in this issue is “Music to Me” by Richard A. Lovett. It is in a series of stories with recurring characters, but I think this stands quite well on its own. In a future where spaceships have an AI, after a long journey to the outer parts of the solar system the ship AI Brittney has become more self aware than is usual for these AIs. Going back to Earth it must adapt to "survive" so it can keep its memories and unique personality. It gets sort of refurbished into a personal AI for a human host. They start to work together for common and individual goals. There are so many AI stories in the recent magazines that I become tired of them quickly, but this story tells me that better and more interesting AI stories were written several years ago. Lovett creates the right balance between a relatable and interesting AI character that is not too much of a human. Very much recommended.

The other stories were a bit hit and miss but a few are worth mentioning.

Christie Yant’s “This Is as I Wish to be Restored” has an interesting on the idea of freezing people in hope that their diseases will be easily cured in the future. In this case it doesn't happen and a company that has several people in cold storage for this reason must throw in the towel for a lot of the frozen patients. A worker there gets very emotional about a specific patient.

“Racing Prejudice,” by John Frye III is a short story about sports in a future where cybernetically modifications are allowed in athletes. The story is basically the thought process of a racer through its what I assume is something like a 400 meter sprint run. Very unique story.

“The Problem with Reproducible Bugs,” by Marie DesJardin is a bit silly but fun story about a thing that all programmers know. How to reproduce a bug. Vince is trying to transfer a human mind into a machine, but something keeps going wrong and he ends up in the hospital and cant remember the last couple of days. An amusing ending to this story.

[Mark Catalfano]

I liked "Wine, Women, and Stars" by Thoraiya Dyer

[Daniel]

This was a poor and disappointing issue overall. I came close to giving a mere single star until recalling that the first story, Richard A. Lovett's novella "Music to Me" was great: an effective mixture of hard science and good writing that features a captivating protagonist who is an artificial intelligence. Other than that "This Quiet Dust" by Karl Bunker was the only other story that impressed me, this one through an interesting speculation on the possibilities of life. The science fact portion by Kyle Kirkland on neuron stimulation was very fascinating as well.

Carl Frederick's "Mousunderstanding" is finely written, but far too silly of an idea. The remainder of the short stories were neither bad nor memorable.

The two novelettes, however, stood out as poor. Chilson's "The Tansy Tree" was one of the most annoying things I have ever read, eh? heh. hah! yo yo yo. Sadly, I usually like Chilson's stories and I'm sure this had some merits, but I couldn't move past the distracting argot. "Determined Spirits" has some of the worst, wooden dialogue I have read in anything outside something penned in elementary school. The story starts out as a somewhat familiar disaster tale and then degrades swiftly into cartoonish political commentary.

Finally, the second part of Schroeder's novel (which if I wanted to read I would go seek out as a novel): The story started out last issue with an interesting conceptual universe, but as with the other Schroeder stories I've read, inventive hard SF concepts alone aren't enough to keep the story engaging and full to stretch my interest through portions that will now drag along for another two issues.

[Andrew]

Loving the Lockstep

[Deb Wilson]

Okay installment but the only story that really stood out was Music of Me. The rest mostly felt flat and didn't draw me in as intended.