Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 2015

by Trevor Quachri (Editor), Rajnar Vajra (Contributor), Bud Sparhawk (Contributor)

CONTENT

Novella
"Zen Angel" by Rajnar Vajra

Novelettes
"Slider" by Bud Sparhawk

Short Stories
"Cetacean Dreams" by Robert R. Chase
"Arnheim's World" by Therese Arkenberg
"No Gain" by Aubry Kae Andersen
"Sentience Signified" by J.L. Forrest

Poems
"Mathematics" by John Ciminello

Departments
Science Fact: "Challenges of Manned Interstellar Travel: An Overview" by Nick Kanas
Probability Zero: "Double Exposure" by Don SakersThe Specifications of Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Guest Editorial: "Not Just Semantics" by Juliette Wade
Alternate View: "The Specifications of Extraterrestrial Intelligence" by John G. Cramer

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 2015, Volume CXXXV No. 5
Trevor Quachri, editor
Cover art by Donato Giancola

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

113 pages, ebook

First published March 13, 2015

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 3 out of 5]

The stories in this issue that sit toward space opera and alien contact were the most successful. Vajra's "Zen Angel" is a successful novella at the level of entertainment, particularly in terms of simple story or plot. It fails to do much in the way of characterization though without the length that a novel would give. There is nothing particularly new to the human-alien contact here, but it is at least a fun, well-composed plot. "Cetacean Dreams" features using dolphins to explore the oceans of Europa for life. This twist is new to me at least, and it made for a good story, beyond a more straight-forward 'search-for-life' as in "Sentience Signified". Both were good though. "Anheim's World" deals with sort of the reverse of alien-human contact: altering a planet to enact isolation rather than new discovery, an interesting contrast to the themes of the other stories here.

[Benn Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of low-key, engaging and thought provoking stories. Most of the tales this issue, particularly "Slider" and "No Gain", tended to be more down-to-earth than is normal for Science Fiction, much less "Analog". It made for a nice change of pace. Although, it does seem to me we've already had, in the last year or two, an article about the feasibility and possible means of intergalactic travel, haven't we?

[John Oswalt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than average issue. I was almost ready to give up on Quachri, but maybe there is hope yet.

[Timo Pietilä · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty average or perhaps even below average issue. The writing was mostly ok, but the plots were mostly below par.

Zen Angel • novella by Rajnar Vajra
An apparently immortal man is picked up by federal agents and transported to a secret base in a moderately near future. (agents don't recognize some pretty ordinary linguistic metaphors as they are so old fashioned- don't anyone read any older books or watch any movies older than a few decades anymore if common idioms are forgotten so soon?) It turns out that the aliens need him. They have found an artifact which is apparently older than the Big Bang and they need members of several different species to open it. But there are hostile forces working against that goal. And the alien's safety procedures seem to be horribly bad in spite of their high technology level. In the end, they are able to open the artifact which is colder than the background radiation of the universe? And no one seems to wonder about that (including the author). A straight adventure story which might be a start of a new series, but the story was somewhat disjointed. ***+
Slider • novelette by Bud Sparhawk
A sports story. About baseball. The premise as such couldn’t be much less interesting. A young man is succeeding in baseball – and the major leagues are showing some interest. But he should consent to a procedure which would prolong his active career with possible long term side effects. His father is a washed up player who never really got his chance at really important games, and is really pushing his son forward. A pretty predictable story. The writing was fairly good, but this really wasn’t science fiction at all. The premise of the treatment is the only part which can be considered as sf, but that wasn’t very important for the plot itself. ***
Sentience Signified • shortstory by J. L. Forrest
Human explorers have come to a new planet and they discover sentient life. Not much happens in this story, but it is pretty well written with some nice thoughts and technologies. But it feels like just a fragment of a larger story and as such not satisfying enough. ***
Arnheim's World • shortstory by Therese Arkenberg
A group of friends live on a private planet freshly terraformed. Colonists from a failed colony arrive and want to move in. The owner of the planet isn’t too happy about that. The writing ok, but pretty simple story, reminds me about a couple other fairly similar ones. ***-
No Gain • shortstory by Aubry Kae Andersen
Another sports story. A gymnast seems to be unbeatable. She came from nowhere, and trains merciless and seems to be able to tolerate vast amounts of pain. She has some small accidents, but those don't seem to be slowing her. She gets some plasma infusions and just goes on (that’s doping by the way, even though the author seems to assume it isn't). Is she doing something forbidden? Not very good story, which was pretty implausible. The pain tolerance would not be enough – if the body parts won’t take the damage they won’t. ***-
Cetacean Dreams • shortstory by Robert R. Chase
An expedition on Europa tries to find a strange animal which is much greater than the ecosystem supposedly could support. They have trained dolphins to assist in that task. But one dolphin attacks the creature apparently unprovoked. Why? A fairly average story and fairly implausible, also. ***-

[Donald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science fiction writing very often feels stilted to me. Most of what shows up in Analog leans this way. I must admit to not always reading the entirety of each story and there were a few like that in this collection.

[John Loyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

8 • Zen Angel • 30 pages by Rajnar Vajra
VG/Excellent. A fantastic start with the way Len was introduced and the first few action sequences. The finish of the story, the Vine needed five other sentient races to help unlock secrets stored in a plinth, tapered down but was still very good.

48 • Slider • 10 pages by Bud Sparhawk
Good/VG. There was some talk of SF in this story, long lasting youth, but it was really about a father trying to live out his dreams through his son.

58 • Cetacean Dreams • 11 pages by Robert R. Chase
Good. Jason and four dolphins go to Euorpa to explore. One of the dolphins behaves out of character and Jason searches for an explanation.

69 • Arnheim's World • 7 pages by Therese Arkenberg
Good. Arnheim has terraformed a world and is showing it to his two friends mentioning how he wants to keep the world unspoiled.

82 • No Gain • 8 pages by Aubry Kae Andersen
Good. Maggie is an ex-gymnast helping to train Sabina. We learn that Maggie was a gold medalist until she overdid it and now has chronic back pain. Sabina seemingly has no pain.

90 • Sentience Signified • 12 pages by J. L. Forrest
Very Good/Good. A ship brought a scientific party to Joon. Their consciousnesses were stored and bodies rebuilt 200 years later when they reached their destination. Bilit is a biologist studying the life on Joon. He encounters a species that has made a rather ornate spear and boats. Very nice first contact type story.

[Karl Forlev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yay! a baseball story!
Booo! It's and anti-baseball story. Stuff it, Sparhawk.