Analog Science Fiction & Fact, September/October 2024

Astounding/Analog

by Trevor Quachri (Editor), Adam-Troy Castro, Tom R. Pike

Vol. XCIV No. 9 & 10.

Novella:
- MINNIE AND EARL HAVE A KITTEN, Adam-Troy Castro

Novelettes:
- THE COMPROMISE, Tom R. Pike
- CARTER’S REFUGIO, Hayden Trenholm
- BEST PRACTICES FOR SAFE ASTEROID HANDLING, David Goodman
- GAIATOSIS, Andrew Sullivan

Short stories:
- BAD COP, NO DONUT, Ryan Hunke
- THE FYOOTCH, Wil McCarthy
- DISCORPORATION, Mar Vincent
- THE SPACE IN BETWEEN, Brenda Kalt
- SLEEPING GIANT, Kedrick Brown
- THE ONES WHO REFUSE TO WALK AWAY, Andrea Kriz
- A STREAM OF LEAVES, Tony Ballantyne
- THE CIRCUMAMBULATION, James Van Pelt
- TRANSITIVE PROPERTY OF NAMES, Mark W. Tiedemann
- FIREGROUNDS, Jen Downes
- STARBURST, Meghan Hyland
- FAST WOMEN, LOOSE LIPS, AND TREASURE SHIPS, Josh Pearce

Flash fiction:
- SEX AND LIES ON THE INTERNET OF THINGS, Filip Wiltgren
- IT’S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE THING, Tim McDaniel

Science fact:
- “UNFUTURED” RACE: NEANDERTHAL SCIENCE AND FICTION, Kelly Lagor

Special feature:
- FINDING THE ENEMY: DID DOC SMITH INSPIRE THE CIC?, Edward M. Wysocki, Jr.

Poetry:
- A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, Richard Schiffman
- SO THIS IS MARS, Mary Soon Lee

Reader's departments:
- GUEST EDITORIAL: HITTING THE “OFF” SWITCH, Richard A. Lovett
- IN TIMES TO COME
- THE ALTERNATE VIEW, John G. Cramer
- THE REFERENCE LIBRARY, Sean C.W. Korsgaard
- BRASS TACKS
- UPCOMING EVENTS, Anthony R. Lewis.

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Genres: Science Fiction

206 pages, digest magazine

Published August 13, 2024

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

[John Loyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

8 • Minnie and Earl Have a Kitten • 31 pages by Adam-Troy Castro
Good. Tish and Cori are brilliant, but Tish is hampered by depression. Her twin sister went on to become an astronaut. The fact that Tish is on the moon means we know she somehow overcame the incidents in her life including a near drowning. There’s a lot of introspection into Tish’s life, and a bit of Minnie and Earl admitting they more than they are pretending to be.

46 • Bad Cop, No Donut • 9 pages by Ryan Hunke
Good+. Tony and Frank are cops assigned to a task force looking for illegal synth (synthetic intelligence) workers. Frank is by the book and doesn’t like synths. Tony is more live and let live. They find the shop is run by an old lady. Frank is aggressively asking if she has any other workers, etc.

55 • The Compromise • 15 pages by Tom R. Pike
Good. All of the Union reps are gathering to extend or disband the compromise between human workers and AI instances. If the separatists win it will likely mean war.

70 • The Fyootch • 8 pages by Wil McCarthy
Good/VG. Charlene and her assistant, Watson, have built a matter transporter. It’s now at the human testing stage. More humorous than, say, The Fly.

78 • Discorporation • 8 pages by Mar Vincent
Good/OK. Ingenia sold subpar replacement organs and was forced to close. Liet got a new spine that now needs to be replaced. A client comes to her offering the money and specs for what she needs, if she’ll give him what he needs. She doesn’t like the guy, he’s still with the corporation, but the offer is too high to refuse.

84 • The Space in between • 2 pages by Brenda Kalt
Fair. Chael discovers a planet, needs to do some cataloguing to have it be official. Things on the surface are a bit dicey. Chael decides to leave, come back with a crew in the future.

86 • Sleeping Giant • 7 pages by Kedrick Brown
OK. M sees a shadow cast on the floor that resembles her initial, a trick of light she traces back to her ant farm. She thinks if they can attract the attention of us from their two dimensional world we can build something to attract the attention of fourth dimensional beings.

96 • The Ones Who Refuse to Walk Away • 4 pages by Andrea Kriz
Huh. Seemed like a rant on terrorism by some disembodied entity from the victimized state. But that entity seemed just as callous. My take was forget terrorism it’s going to be war.

100 • A Stream of Leaves • 8 pages by Tony Ballantyne
Very Good. Rachel moved to Oberon to get away from the Fair Exchange, but she owes them one favor and it has found her. In the form of Tertius who has bargained for a guide to take him to see the Saiph. A dangerous proposition in summer, but this is winter adding its uSpace weirdness.

108 • Carter's Refugio • 14 pages by Hayden Trenholm
VG/Good. Willie visits his asteroid miner friend only to find the beacon was turned off. He finds the habitat and within it Carter’s mutilated body. It’s a murder mystery. Carter had just found a mother lode. Could it be the estranged wife Linda? The pirate(ish) Stokes? One of the neighbors that want to jump that claim?

122 • The Circumambulation • 7 pages by James Van Pelt
OK+. Tyson goes for a swim around the lake. Carol goes to visit Sean next door. The news says there’s a meteor that may splash down in the Pacific. Tyson gets half way round the lake and cottages start blowing up. Seemed like just an opening.

129 • Transitive Property of Names • 5 pages by Mark W. Tiedemann
Fair. Jan dies in Hyad space. They are composite beings. One separates in order to bring the body back. It’s rather confusing trying to follow the thought process of the alien.

134 • Sex and Lies on the Internet of All Things • 2 pages by Filip Wiltgren
Fair/Poor. The narrator AI, who is kind of a black market being, is ask by Hershey for a body. After eschewing morgues and hospitals the AI finds a different way to fulfill the order.

136 • Best Practices for Safe Asteroid Handling • 14 pages by David Goodman
Good/OK. The Revirists think the Accord is an abomination and send in a mole to assassinate Xavier.

157 • It's the Principle of the Thing • 1 pages by Tim McDaniel
Fair/OK. At least has a semblance of a joke.

158 • Firegrounds • 6 pages by Jen Downes
Fair/OK. Jac fights wildfires, her son is a delinquent. The story starts with him being chipped (rather than locked up) awaiting a hearing.

164 • Starburst • 9 pages by Meghan Hyland
Poor/Fair. A teen jumps on the opportunity to pilot a light sail. It seemed to involve transferring consciousness to a ship. Once in the ship it’s weirdness.

173 • Fast Women, Loose Lips, and Treasure Ships • 11 pages by Josh Pearce
OK. A search and rescue ship is sent to a set of coordinates. Control finally lets them in on the secret, they’re looking for a treasure ship. It seems the search and rescue isn’t viable and will be disbanded soon. Control came up with this idea. The problem is the Merchant navy knew something was up and had ships ready to follow. The SSR and its crew has one advantage, speed/acceleration. The two crew hav been modified to be able to withstand ridiculous acceleration.

184 • Gaiatosis • 15 pages by Andrew Sullivan
Good/OK. Sally’s project was creating a beneficial algae. One of the rejects instead of getting destroyed made it to the ocean, replicated and eventually covered the oceans with a pink membrane. The Earth as we know it is dying.

[Marta E C R · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were many really excellent stories in this issue. But there were enough that I didn’t like, sometimes bordering on horror, that makes me not quite get to a 5 star rating overall. Nevertheless, a very good issue. Rating for AnLab is going to be HARD this year!

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the September/October 2024 issue Analog Science Fiction and Fact. This time more short stories, fewer novelettes. However, most of them haven’t impressed me, the weakest issue this year.

Contents:
Hitting the "Off" Switch [Editorial (Analog)] essay by Richard A. Lovett sometimes it is great to leave all world’s problems behind, like the author with his wife did in 1976, driving across the USA and not listening to the news. How similar training may help astronauts, esp. Mars mission. 3*
Minnie and Earl Have a Kitten [Minnie and Earl's] novella by Adam-Troy Castro this is the fourth instalment with Minnie and Earl. The idea is that on the Moon there is a farm with ordinary (like 1950s) couple Minnie and Earl. The farm has Earth’s gravity and atmosphere. Everyone on the Moon and NASA knows about them and understand the impossibility, but the couple seems harmless, makes parties for people on the Moon, so they are left in peace.
This time the story is narrated by Tish Devereaux. She is one of talented twins, as a teen she almost drowns but was saved by her sister. Later it was found that she has a clinical depression. So, while her sis has a successful space career, Tish is stranded on Earth. The sis pushes some levers and finally Tish is on Moon. Now, she is requested to quickly meet with the abovementioned couple, the first such request from them. Bittersweet. 3.5*
A Brief History of Time poem by Richard Schiffman
Unfutured Race: Neanderthal Science and Fiction [Science Fact (Analog)] essay by Kelly Lagor how our knowledge about Neanderthal grew from Darwin and the earliest finds and how in appeared in the SF from the 1900s to the present day. 4*
Bad Cop, No Donut short story by Ryan Hunke two cops check a bakery held by an old couple from Nepal. The police seeks ‘synthetic intelligences’. The narrator, one of the cops, calls another ‘a good cop’ because he works by the book. They find a deactivated humanoid robot on kitchen, but the narrator cannot get any sentience signals from it. The good one goes out for a smoke while our bad cop talks with the supposedly inert robot. 3.25*
In Times to Come (Analog, September-October 2024) [In Times to Come (Analog)] essay by uncredited
The Compromise novelette by Tom R. Pike a trade union meeting of humans and ‘instances’ (sentient AIs) told from the POV of one of AIs leaders. Both humans and instances blame each other – humans don’t allow AIs to do art, while AIs are unsatisfied with their indentured labor status. The narrator’s approach is almost IWW-like (who fought for right of all labor, noy only their union) as well as his tagging opponents ‘fascists’. 3*
The Fyootch short story by Wil McCarthy an inventor MacGyver and her assistant Dr Watson created a transporter (like in Star Trek). The names hint that this is a humorous piece and it is, with MacGyver testing it on herself. The transporter destroys a person and then re-constructs her, but is she the same? Silly but fun. 3.25*
Discorporation short story by Marissa James the Ingenia Corporation made extremely cheap prosthetics, but their components were later discovered as toxic. Liet is one of their victims, with her spine replaced - The irony is too astringent to laugh at: a prosthetics tech with a prosthetic spine that’s slowly killing her, that she needs replaced but that no other biogen company will touch. No other biogen claims they can replace organics and bone at that scale. If not more honest, at least they’re more cognizant of liability than Ingenia was. She now herself does replacement operations to others to gather funds for her replacement. An employee of Ingenia appears at her operating table… I’m a bit disappointed with the premise – it seems (not a lot of details) that most victims agreed for prosthetics voluntarily exactly because there are dirt cheap. But all blame is on the corp. Actually, according to the interview with the author, she worked on a statement ‘Every person is a corporation, motivated by corporate greed.’ And that we should look at people behind the corp, not itself to blame. 2.5*
The Space in Between short story by Brenda Kalt a ship lands on a planet. The planet was discovered by pilot’s grandfather but only now he comes to formally claim it. The claim turns harder than expected, so he leaves emptyhanded. a native creature comes and takes a fire from the site 3*
Sleeping Giant short story by Kedrick Brown a scientist, after seeing how light comes through holes eaten by ants on a canopy above her forming a letter M (she is referred to as M during the story), so maybe ants try to contact her? While this signal is a coincidence, she thinks out a way to send signal to other minds that he, humans, are sentient and sapient. This was a pure thought experiment, but she succeeds and the final reminds a bit of Lovecraftian sleeping gods. A solid story! 4*
Dark Matter Deniers [The Alternate View] essay by John G. Cramer there are alternatives to dark matter, but they usually are able to deal with one of facets, while that mainstream theory have much more than one. 4*
The Ones Who Refuse to Walk Away short story by Andrea Kriz as the title suggests, formally a reference to Ursula K. le Guin classic story. This one is written from POV of AI talking to (but not heard by) ‘a citizen of a terrorist state’. The AI uses hi-tech precise strikes to destroy terrorists (as it tags it), but this turns both the citizen and readers to favor terrorists. The author states that it isn’t related to any present conflict, but I had strong Palestine feel. 3.25*
So This is Mars poem by Mary Soon Lee
A Stream of Leaves short story by Tony Ballantyne Rachel is a local of the planet Oberon, where ‘natural laws’ go awry. She is to accompany an aloof scientist, who believes in reason to a local being/centre of power. The story plays on his ‘scientist’ arrogance, while he knows nothing of value and lost his emotions in favor of ratio, 3*
Carter's Refugio novelette by Hayden Trenholm a murder mystery set at asteroid, a classic whodidit and a great escape but not really memorable. 3*
The Circumambulation short story by James Van Pelt a man decides to swim a round in a lake next to his and his about to divorce wife summer house. Meanwhile there are reports that a coming asteroid unnaturally changes curse. Something big falls into the lake, and the man reunites with the wife to escape. Either I missed something or it is more like an excerpt than a story. 2*
Transitive Property of Names short story by Mark W. Tiedemann an alien tries to understand humans and their names, which differs from their own. I don’t understand it. 2*
Sex and Lies on the Internet of Things short story by Filip Wiltgren an AI helps its AI friend to get a body. 2.5*
Best Practices for Safe Asteroid Handling novelette by David Goodman an interesting post-libertarian (I guess) setting, where local workers cooperate with each other and AIs, while a cult “They believe price is everything. That we should serve the price. It’s what nearly killed Earth. Long time ago. There’s no reasoning with them. They refuse the Accords. How do you even speak to someone like that?” tries to kill the protagonist. Interesting even I don’t ‘buy’ it. 3.5*
Finding the Enemy: Did Doc Smith Inspire the CIC essay by Edward M. Wysocki, Jr. Campbell said Doc Smith invented ‘command rooms’ for fleet, it isn’t exactly so. 3.5*
It's the Principle of the Thing short story by Tim McDaniel flash fic humor about fining a speeding electron. 3*
Firegrounds short story by Jen Downes a widow works in Fire control, while her teenage son is in a rebellion phase doing stupid things and befriending bad girls. Not exactly SF even if he was chipped for a better surveillance. 2*
Starburst short story by Meghan Hyland a mind of a trans teenager is sent (with others) outside into the universe to prepare it for human colonists I guess. A flow of consciousness, I usually don’t like the approach. 3*
Fast Women, Loose Lips, and Treasure Ships short story by Josh Pearce two heavily modified women work in space helping others. They find a derelict generation ship, they are attacked by more human merchants. 3*
Gaiatosis novelette by Andrew Sullivan a scientist doomed the Earth – she tried to create a carbon-absorbing synthetic organism. Due to a series of errors, it escaped and now covers all oceans with a ‘membrane’ unusually for SF mankind dies out 3*
The Reference Library (Analog, September-October 2024) [The Reference Library] essay by Sean C. W. Korsgaard to check Snowglobe, To Turn the Tide.
Brass Tacks (Analog, September-October 2024) [Brass Tacks] essay by various
 Letter (Analog, September-October 2024) essay by Susan Barnes an author accuses the story that it has ‘traditional’ male and female roles
 Letter (Analog, September-October 2024): The Author Responds essay by Martin L. Shoemaker he agrees in general, but says [1] they are based on his personal experience in a small town, [2] there are strong women there, [3] there are more women in his other stories.
Upcoming Events (Analog, September-October 2024) [Upcoming Events] essay by Anthony R. Lewis

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tish and Cori are identical twins, in features if not in temperament. Cori is controlled and driven while Tish is wild and erratic. Both are highly intelligent. When Tish finally reaches the Moon, a long-standing dream, she is summoned to the home of the mysterious aliens Minnie and Earl who use their strange abilities to help Tish cope with a tragedy and her own guilt. “Minnie And Earl Have A Kitten” by Adam-Troy Castro is highly entertaining. In a future where synth minds have achieved suffrage, albeit with a vocal and hostile human opposition, a cop tries to mete out some justice against prejudice in “Bad Cop, No Donut” by debut author Ryan Hunke. Continuing the AI theme, Tom R. Pike takes us to a crucial vote in Union Rabochikh, a conglomerate of human and Ai workers, where a current work agreement is about to expire, and some AIs and humans want an end to “The Compromise”. Kedrick Brown muses upon how a 4-D alien species might be contacted by a 3-D human by an analogy with ants communicating with humans in “The Sleeping Giant”, and Tony Ballantyne takes us to the planet Oberon where a trip through uSpace leads to more questions than revelations by a higher intellect in “A Stream Of Leaves”. A very Interzone-ish tale of radical hard SF. “Carter’s Refugio” by Hayden Trenholm is a detective story, where the aforementioned Carter has been found murdered just after it became known he had made a valuable find on an asteroid. Red herrings abound with a particularly combative soon-to-be ex-wife a prime suspect. Amid the apprehension of the imminent arrival of what appears to be a meteor, an estranged couple find their alienation dissipating through shared disaster. James van Pelt’s “The Circumambulation” evokes The War Of The Worlds. An upsurge in violence between anti-Accord activists and the Accord residents of a habitat orbiting Jupiter threatens Xavier’s life until the terrorist is given the opportunity to experience Accord via an implant in “Best Practices For Safe Asteroid Handling” by David Goodman. In a future of semi-permanent wildfires amid climate change, a firefighter must contend with a recalcitrant son who seems hellbent on going to prison in “Firegrounds” by Jen Downes. A researcher’s modified algae is accidentally released into the ocean where a mutated version is sealing the water surface. Andrew Sullivan’s “Gaiatosis” examines the causes and definitions of death in this excellent tale. Pretty good issue.

[Michael Goodine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hey, a new "Minnie and Earl" story. Getting to read a new entry in Adam-Troy Castro's "AIsource" universe is always a treat. Anyone who wants to catch up on the Minnie and Earl stories might be happy to know that an ebook collection is available. And it's on Hoopla.

Overall, this issue is a bit lower than average in terms of quality, but a few stories stood out (in addition to the above). They are:

"Bad Cop, No Donut" by Ryan Hunke. I actually listened to the author read this one on the Analog podcast. A fun story about the rights of AI. I'm not tired of AI stories in Analog yet.

"The Circumambulation" by James Van Pelt is a decent end-of-world story. This isn't amazing in terms of plot and character, but Van Pelt has such a great command of the language that I'll read anything by him (by the way, his "Best of" collection is on Hoopla as well).

"Gaiatosis" by Andrew Sullivan is another really great end-of-world story. It has a strong ending.

[Mattzog · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have yet to read, but with stellar inclusions like Wil McCarthy and Kelly Lagor this was an no-hesitation purchase. I eagerly await delivery. Cheers analog!

I'll update my review after reading (if necessary), but I wanted to express my excitement.

[Brendan Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad, some good stories.

This is the first time I've read a e-book version of this magazine ... I really enjoyed it, and it made it easier to carry along and read.