Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Vol. 134, No. 6, June 2014

by Trevor Quachri (Editor), Michael Flynn (Contributor), J.T. Sharrah (Contributor)

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, June 2014, Volume CXXXIV No. 6
Trevor Quachri, editor
Cover art by Dominic Harman

Novelettes
"The Journeyman: In the Stonehouse" by Michael F. Flynn
"The Homecoming" by J. T. Sharrah

Short Stories
"Field of Gravity" by Jay Werkheiser
"The Region of Jennifer" by Tony Ballantyne
"Survivors" by Ron Collins
"A Star to Steer By" by Jennifer R. Povey
"Forgiveness" by Bud Sparhawk

Poetry
"Giant Steps" by G. O. Clark

Science Fact
"Alternate Possibilities: the Paranormal" by Edward M. Lerner

Departments
"Guest Editorial: Popcorn Science" by David Bartell
"Probability Zero: " The Last Time My Computer Went Down" by Kate Gladstone
The Alternate View: " Past Master of Electromagnetism" by Jeffrey D. Kooidtra


Publisher: Dell Magazines
111 pages

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

111 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 28, 2014

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

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good issue of Analog after some disappointing months. The nonfiction this issue includes an informative feature by Edward Lerner on the paranormal that overviews the history of the subject as explored seriously both in science fiction and in reality, and provides some ideas on how our current understanding of physical reality, particularly on the quantum level, could conceivably allow for certain paranormal phenomena in theory. Though as Lerner points out, there is little evidence to back the thought exercises of what may be possible. Again Lerner's ability to communicate to a general audience contrasts with Kooistra's column, which might as well be written in Sanskrit for all I'm ever to glean from it.

The fiction in the issue includes the notable "Field of Gravity" a nice, rare look at sports in a speculative fashion. Great conflict set up and the resolution is well done. Both "The Homecoming" and "Forgiveness" tackle issues of psychology, memory, guilt, and the traumas of conflict, each in a deft manner, particularly by Sparhawk. "A Star to Steer By" feautres a general plot of sentient ships that seem increasingly prevalent, but manages to stay fresh with strong characterization here. "The Journeyman: In the Stonehouse" has the feel of fantasy more than science fiction, which I didn't mind, and though there isn't anything particularly deep about the story or exceptional in its execution, it is an entertaining read that stands well on its own (I haven't read the previous entry (entries?).

The only disappointment (not terrible, just ho hum) for the fiction was "The Region of Jennifer", whose themes I saw also come up in a story in Lightspeed's "Women Destroy SF" issue this month, where it was handled more powerfully and subtly.

[Trish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note: The rating/review is only for the Hugo nominated story The Journeyman: In the Stone House

I have to say, I wasn't impressed. You come in in the middle of the story (there's a previous novella about the same characters), which doesn't help in trying to connect with the characters or understand how the world. And to be honest, I got successively annoyed every time the only female character of note was called "the princesss" rather than by her actual name (which is mentioned maybe twice), whereas the male characters are more often named than not.

I assume this is in the nominations list because of the Sad/Rabid Puppy bloc vote. It certainly isn't on originality or merit, IMO.

[Timo Pietilä · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty average issue with some good and some not so good stories.


Field of Gravity • shortstory by Jay Werkheiser
A sports story about a future version of American "foot"ball with an added twist of gravity manipulation. It seems that someone is able to manipulate gravity fields in a new manner and is using it to hurt other players. A lot of boring descriptions of gameplay. Not my cup of tea. **½
The Journeyman: In the Stone House • [Journeyman] • novelette by Michael F. Flynn
Continues an earlier story. Two men have combat training, have some fights and engage in light batter. Very much an excerpt from a longer story. Not really science fiction -there seems to be some relics of a space faring civilization around, but they have little real meaning for the plot. ***-
The Region of Jennifer • shortstory by Tony Ballantyne
A beautiful girl has been reared for her entire life for an important marriage. A genetic mutant who used to know her comes to rescue her just before the marriage. But he might not grasp the whole situation and how well reared she really is for that position. A very good and well written story. ****-
Survivors • shortstory by Ron Collins
An alien who has survived an ancient disaster and has masqueraded as a human for thousands of years finds an another survivor. But she runs away. Why? Not bad, not a new idea but with a nice twist and nice writing. ***½
Forgiveness • shortstory by Bud Sparhawk
There are veterans of a cruel war who have been pardoned and made to forget what crimes against humanity they have done. One man who might be a veteran has arrived at a small town. The sheriff of the town has a lot of prejudices against him, especially as his former girlfriend seems to take an interest to the new man. A pretty nice story with not entirely unexpected ending. ***½
A Star to Steer By • shortstory by Jennifer R. Povey
A story of a sentient ship, who has lost her human crew. She/it retrofitted to a new ship without any change of recuperating, as humans are losing the war. While on a test run she must face a severe choice. Well written, very short story. ***+
The Homecoming • novelette by J. T. Sharrah
An alien warcrimal wants to be buried by the traditional means of his people. (Being eaten by a carnivorous plant) and there is a lot of different sorts of plotting. A lot of backstory, a lot of characters, a lot of pretty stupid lecturing and explaining (the end is presented by one character explaining in detail what happened and why.) Not very good story. **

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Field of Gravity" by Jay Werkheiser - Se se é apreciador do imaginar de desportos futuros,vertente pouco explorada por autores de FC mais amantes dos prazeres intelectuais do que corporais, este é um conto interessante. Se não, tem o seu quê de interesse com a descrição de uma modalidade futura de futebol americano onde os campos contam com geradores de gravidade e modificar a força de gravidade faz parte das estratégias de jogo. Se se gostar de futebol americano percebe-se a dinâmica do conto, se não fica-se a apanhar bonés na maior parte dos parágrafos.

"Probability Zero: " The Last Time My Computer Went Down" by Kate Gladstone - A especulação de FC a divertir-se com ironia, desta vez às voltas com essa coisa complicada que é o computador e incertezas quânticas.

"The Journeyman: In the Stonehouse" de Michael F. Flynn intriga por uma intricada construção de mundo ficcional que se faz notar com maior incidência na torção que o autor faz à linguagem que coloca na boca dos personagens. Estamos num mundo bárbaro, onde clãs de culturas primitivas lutam entre si em disputas territoriais limitadas, mal se apercebendo do mundo mais vasto que o rodeia. Acima deste nível está um universo mais vasto, interestelar, povoado por astronautas cujas naves destroçadas lançam os aventureiros deste conto numa aventura em busca dos povos que habitam para lá da atmosfera.

"The Region of Jennifer" de Tony Ballantyne torna-se interessante pela ambiência que o autor consegue criar no curto conto. Tem laivos de steampunk e elegância belle-époque com futurismo onde a tecnologia muda radicalmente a humanidade para que esta sobreviva em planetas terraformados. O núcleo do conto é uma reflexão sobre servidão e submissão a interesses económicos, aqui simbolizados por uma insidiosa espécie alienígena que ao longo de gerações torna as populações que ocupa em escravos voluntários.

"Survivors" de Ron Collins sublinha que o mercado literário norte-americano vai mais além do que a FC. Se se tirar a este conto os elementos de FC ficamos com uma história banal de amor trágica. Se não os retirarmos ficamos com o mesmo. Seres imortais, únicos sobreviventes de uma civilização consumida por uma estrela que explodiu, vão saltitando de corpos-hóspede na terra enquanto jogam um jogo de aproximações. Soa familiar, não soa? Um conto tão banal que se esquece mal se vira a página.

"A Star to Steer By" de Jennifer Povey é um conto curto mas poderoso de FC militarista que se centra nas percepções de uma inteligência artificial capaz de sentir emoções. Mente artificial que controla uma nave de combate, sacrifica-se para salvar a humanidade. Posto assim não parece nada de especial, mas a prosa envolvente e eficaz da autora confere ao conto uma boa dimensão literária.

"Forgiveness" de Bud Sparhawk dá-nos um mundo onde veteranos de uma violenta guerra futura sofrem de amnésia medicamente induzida. Apesar de não se recordarem das atrocidades que cometeram, são indivíduos consumidos por demónios internos, caçados por vingadores que, eles próprios, são ex-combatentes em busca de redenção. A história analisa o triângulo trágico entre um veterano, uma empregada de bar e o sheriff de uma cidade, com segredos de surpreendente revelação. Mas o que é interessante neste conto é tentar procurar no texto indícios da tal guerra que despoletou o futuro desta história.

"The Homecoming" de J.T. Sharrah encerra, e nada mal, a Analog deste mês. Em essência a história é um mistério policial passado num mundo alienígena, vivido por um jornalista terrestre. Este vai-se embrenhando nos estranhos costumes e nas intrigantes sociedades de um planeta criado como uma zona balkanizada onde as diferentes nações têm os seus curiosos costumes e histórias em comum, entre as quais a de atrocidades cometidas em guerras passadas. Se a narrativa está bem montada e entretém, o que confere distinção ao conto é a liberdade linguística do escritor, cheia de trocadilhos e duplos sentidos que dão cor e textura ao texto.

[Joe Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two short stories and one essay stood out to me, in this issue.

Field of Gravity by Jay Werkheiser— This is a tale of one possible future for American football. Hundreds of gravity generators are embedded in each field, allowing coaches to dial the gravity up or down for specific plays. Coaches can use their energy budget to offset the gravity changes of the opposing coach, adding an additional level of strategy to the game. It was a clever concept and I enjoyed the execution.

The Region of Jennifer by Tony Ballantyne— Genetically modified humans are on the path to becoming slaves of a very patient alien race. And pretty much no one seems to care. It’s a morality tale of what happens when disinterested people sit back and try their best to ignore what might inconvenience them.

“I can see your friend down there. He cares.” “That’s good. It sort of relieves me of the responsibility. I can sit back and do what I want and hope that other people sort out the mess we’re in.”

Alternate Abilities: The Paranormal by Edward M. Lerner—The real highlight, for me, was Lerner’s non-fiction essay on the paranormal. It was an interesting look at what various experiments have—and haven’t—proven. And he raised the question of whether the paranormal can ever truly be proven.

In another test, a CIA agent gave the coordinates of his private cabin in the woods. The test subject came back with a description with similarities to a nearby NSA facility. Was this experiment a success (the subject was drawn to a facility of claimed psychic significance to the CIA) or a failure (the viewed scene was not at the specified coordinates)? In the same experiment, the subject reported reading words and phrases out of file cabinets. Some of the vocabulary matched out-of-date NSA code words. Was this a success (real code words detected from a distance)? Or did those words popping up somehow reflect that those code words had been in effect when Targ, the interviewer in the room with the subject, had worked for the NSA?

And he finishes the essay out with a survey of what we know about quantum physics and how quantum physics may make some forms of ESP possible.

Read this review on my blog.

[Benn Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a strong, solid issue with only a couple of clunkers. For instance, "The Region of Jennifer" wasn't all that great and is probably the weakest tale in the magazine. And while "The Journeyman: In the Stone House" was actually quite humorous, it is otherwise not really something that stands out much.

"Field of Gravity", "The Homecoming", "Survivors" and "A Star to Steer By" are the issue's highlights. Good, strong fascinating tales.

There was one oddity this month: Two of the essays (well, one essay and the book review section) both mention the original STAR TREK episode, "The Ultimate Computer". Fascinating.

[Joanne G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Journeyman: In the Stone House" by Michael F. Flynn

Teodorq flees across the plains eluding a sentence of death. He and his companion, Sammi, are captured by an opposing faction and pressed into military service. In their travels, they had encountered a shuttle with a recorded message seeking assistance in locating "starman towns." With their new military assignments, Teodorq and Sammi plan to continue the search along the way.

Just as the story begins, it ends. I liked the characters and would have liked to have seen their story come to completion.

[Norman Cook · Rating 2 out of 5]

2015 Hugo Novelette Nominee: "The Journeyman: In the Stone House" by Michael F. Flynn. 17 pages.

As the second chapter of a book, starting without a clear introduction and ending without a resolution, this had the seeds of something possibly interesting, but I couldn't get past the horrible dialog. The protagonist talked like TV's Tonto, and continually used "babe" to address a woman. I got the feeling that some of this was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but it didn't come across that way.

Likely not Flynn's fault, but it also needed better proofreading: "They watched a while longer in science."

This story is not up to Hugo Award standards.

[A.J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for the 2015 Hugos - story The Journeyman: In the Stone House

I feel like I just read chapter two in a much bigger book. The two main characters have appeared together in at least one story before this one (which I haven't read, but now think it might be interesting). Then the story ends without much resolution. Actually, the main conflict of this story is started and resolved, but much bigger things are started and not resolved. Those bigger plot points seemed much more interesting to me than this story's conflict. I'd like to read more of that story sometime.

[Lee Pfahler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Michael Flynn and the Bud Sparhawk stories. Both were quite good. The Flynn story was a bit hard to follow due to his attempt at giving the characters an unusual dialect as they are speaking, but I could still follow it alright.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read Journeyman in the Stone House. Like the other Hugo nominated short works I've read so far, this feels like the middle part of a story, and I don't really care to read the beginning or the red. Nice banter.