Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Volume 124, Issue 10, October 2004

by Stanley Schmidt (Editor), Rajnar Vajra

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, October 2004
Editor: Stanley Schmidt
Cover: Bob Eggleton

Contains the following Fiction and Essays:
The Vanishing Repairman [Editorial] essay by Stanley Schmidt
Layna's Mirror novella by Rajnar Vajra
We Are Legend: The Social Consequences of the Aids Crisis essay by Laura M. Kelley Midnight on Tabula novelette by Catherine H. Shaffer The Slow Train shortstory by Don Sakers Whispers poem by Carol Johnson Fyfe Left-Handed Materials-Super-Resolution Optics? essay by John G. Cramer In Times to Come essay by uncredited Warning! Warning! shortfiction by Guy Stewart An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl (Part 3 of 4) serial by Mary A. Turzillo The Reference Library essay by Tom Easton Brass Tacks essay by Stanley Schmidt Upcoming Events essay by Anthony Lewis

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

About the author

Stanley Schmidt is an American science fiction author. Between 1978 and 2012 he served as editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine.

Reviews

[John Loyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

10 • Layna's Mirror • 34 pages by Rajnar Vajra
VG/Good. Layna sees a couple of mountaineers struggling and instructs Lord Marq to save them. He sends his yetis out there, brings them inside the mountain where they can heal up. They ask "What about our companions?" Marq tells the yetis to use [the dangerous] those-who-sniff, but not Gurn, to help search. Unfortunately they get careless, one of the beasts makes a noise that wakes Gurn. Now there is a frightful monster loose. All this time Mark and Weiss are trying to make sense of these people that saved them. Are they aliens or mythical beings or what?

54 • Midnight on Tabula • 18 pages by Catherine H. Shaffer
Good/VG. Colonists on Tabula Rasa went in with the ideal of ignoring race and removing that type of hate. Unfortunately not everyone can let go of their prejudices.

72 • The Slow Train • 10 pages by Don Sakers
Good/OK. Uncle George isn’t really uncle, but rather great-great-grandfather. He’s been on the slow train, jumping ahead in twenty year bounds to the outside world. Presented with a sense of some sort of immortality. But no, you only live a week or so on the train while you're going twenty years into the future. Good maybe for compound interest or to see your descendants or if you really enjoy the company of the few dozen others on the train.

88 • Warning! Warning! • 2 pages by Guy Stewart
OK+. Probability Zero. Astronauts on an extra-solar mission are glad to be leaving the ubiquitous warning messages behind.

90 • An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl • 42 pages by
Good. More space opera in part 3 of 4. The girls are taken aboard a Facer starship along with hoards of other colonists, some true believers and others more or less hostages like Nanoannie and Kapera. Now the Facers are bargaining with the Smythes for their revival from cryosleep technology, which they claim has only gotten up to forty-eight percent with test animals, humans need more oxygen to the brain, it’s not ready. That doesn’t deter them, they are preparing to launch sooner rather than later. [and our heroes are on board.]