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Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2015
CONTENTS
Novella
"The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred" by Greg Egan
Novelettes
"Empty" by Robert Reed
"Of Apricots and Dying" by Amanda Forrest
Short Stories
"We Jump Down Into the Dark" by M. Bennardo
"Riding the Waves of Leviathan" by Garrett Ashley
"Bidding War" by Rich Larson
"Come-From-Aways" by Julian Mortimer Smith
Poetry
"Slicing Time" by Bruce Boston
"Shatter" by Jane Yolen
"Circumstantial Evidence of Time Slippage" by Robert Frazier
Departments
"Editorial: The Year in Novellas" by Sheila Williams
"Reflections: Non-Asimovian Robots" by Robert Silverberg
"On Books" by Peter Heck
"SF Conventional Calendar" by Erwin S. Strauss
Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2015, Vol. 39, No. 12 (Whole No. 479)
Sheila Williams, editor
Cover art by Victor Habbick
Novella
"The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred" by Greg Egan
Novelettes
"Empty" by Robert Reed
"Of Apricots and Dying" by Amanda Forrest
Short Stories
"We Jump Down Into the Dark" by M. Bennardo
"Riding the Waves of Leviathan" by Garrett Ashley
"Bidding War" by Rich Larson
"Come-From-Aways" by Julian Mortimer Smith
Poetry
"Slicing Time" by Bruce Boston
"Shatter" by Jane Yolen
"Circumstantial Evidence of Time Slippage" by Robert Frazier
Departments
"Editorial: The Year in Novellas" by Sheila Williams
"Reflections: Non-Asimovian Robots" by Robert Silverberg
"On Books" by Peter Heck
"SF Conventional Calendar" by Erwin S. Strauss
Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2015, Vol. 39, No. 12 (Whole No. 479)
Sheila Williams, editor
Cover art by Victor Habbick
- GenresScience Fiction
116 pages, Perfectbound
First published October 16, 2015
15 people want to read
About the author
Sheila Williams
277 books66 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Sheila Williams is the editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. She is also the recipient of the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Editor, Short Form.
Sheila grew up in a family of five in western Massachusetts. Her mother had a master's degree in microbiology. Ms. Williams’ interest in science fiction came from her father who read Edgar Rice Burroughs books to her as a child. Later Ms. Williams received a bachelor's degree from Elmira College in Elmira, New York, although she studied at the London School of Economics during her junior year. She received her Master's from Washington University in St. Louis. She is married to David Bruce and has two daughters.
She became interested in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (as it was then titled) while studying philosophy at Washington University. In 1982 she was hired at the magazine, and worked with Isaac Asimov for ten years. While working there, she co-founded the Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing (at one time called the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy writing). In 2004, with the retirement of Gardner Dozois, she became the editor of the magazine.
Along with Gardner Dozois she also edited the "Isaac Asimov's" anthology series. She also co-edited A Woman's Liberation: A Choice of Futures by and About Women (2001) with Connie Willis. Most recently she has edited a retrospective anthology of fiction published by Asimov's: Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: 30th Anniversary Anthology. Booklist called the book "A gem, and a credit to editor Williams."
She has been nominated for 4 Hugo Awards as editor of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.
See also Sheila Williams's entry in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
Sheila Williams is the editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. She is also the recipient of the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Editor, Short Form.
Sheila grew up in a family of five in western Massachusetts. Her mother had a master's degree in microbiology. Ms. Williams’ interest in science fiction came from her father who read Edgar Rice Burroughs books to her as a child. Later Ms. Williams received a bachelor's degree from Elmira College in Elmira, New York, although she studied at the London School of Economics during her junior year. She received her Master's from Washington University in St. Louis. She is married to David Bruce and has two daughters.
She became interested in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (as it was then titled) while studying philosophy at Washington University. In 1982 she was hired at the magazine, and worked with Isaac Asimov for ten years. While working there, she co-founded the Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing (at one time called the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy writing). In 2004, with the retirement of Gardner Dozois, she became the editor of the magazine.
Along with Gardner Dozois she also edited the "Isaac Asimov's" anthology series. She also co-edited A Woman's Liberation: A Choice of Futures by and About Women (2001) with Connie Willis. Most recently she has edited a retrospective anthology of fiction published by Asimov's: Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: 30th Anniversary Anthology. Booklist called the book "A gem, and a credit to editor Williams."
She has been nominated for 4 Hugo Awards as editor of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.
See also Sheila Williams's entry in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 3, 2016
Asimov's Science Fiction December 2015
3 - Stars
Shorts:
We Jump Down Into The Dark by M. Bennardo
2 – Stars
I wanted to give this a higher rating but the MC is both a space based search and rescue guy as well as the guy who helped design and construct Eden, the space station where his ex-girlfriend is and that is spinning out of alignment and breaking up.
Other than that glaring absurdity, it's not a bad story it just doesn't really have any motivating factors for reading it. The MC is woken from a drunken stupor by his friend and told about the situation, but we know nothing about his friend. We don't get to know Anders, the MC, or even Jessica, the ex.
It's not that it's badly written, it's just boring.
Riding The Waves of Leviathan by Garrett Ashley
3 – Stars
The waves are actually created by a gigantic sea creature so I guess this counts as sci-fi now. The story centers around two friends. The older brother of one was killed riding the waves and the buddy want's to borrow the dead guy's board and surf the waves himself.
There's a bit about how his dad isn't really around because he's always working in the mines and growing up in a place that's dying and opportunities for young men are limited to working in the mine like their fathers is really what drives the story forward and is ultimately the motivation for the kid who wants to surf the waves. It's also the motivation for reading the story which is well written and would get a higher rating if it were actually science fiction instead of fantasy.
Bidding War by Rich Larson
1 – Stars
Boring story of a guy so caught up with his ex breaking up with him that he begins online bidding to acquire crap that she's into.
Come From Aways by Julian Mortimer Smith
4 – Stars
Another story about a small town with limited opportunities only mix in actual science fiction. The Come-from-Aways are tourists that visit the town because of strange items that wash up on the beach. The MC finds out his girlfriend is pregnant after he finds out he's been accepted to college.
He takes his neighbors boat out onto the sea, heading for a nearby Island where he used to ferry tourists in the summer months. As he ponders his future a fog rolls in, the same 'unnatural' fog that rolls in all the time and though he couldn't see the stars in space, he could see stars in the water around him.
Pretty soon he's out way to far and decides to fire the flare gun, but he shoots into the water instead of the foggy sky and a space ship appears beneath him. He's found on the beach the following day and claims a piece of the saucer ship and realizes that the little town is either a dump for aliens.
Novelettes
Empty by Robert Reed
1 – Stars
In a word; boring. In another word; uninspiring and I couldn't waste my time reading it.
Of Dying and Apricots by Amanda Forrest
5 – Stars
Far and away one of the best stories I've read in Asimov in a while. Sadly, other than a few references to mechs and a DNA barrier there isn't much science fiction. Still, it's good enough to give it a full five stars.
The story is about Asma, a young girl in Pakistan who's father owns an apricot farm. A very large and powerful corporation has built a plant in the border area of Kashmir to mine an important ore. Because of the importance of this ore the local governments have waged war against the corporation.
Asma's brother is very headstrong and is in favor of joining the fight against the corporation. At the same time, her sister is preparing for her arranged marriage and there is this dynamic between the brother and sisters while Asma herself is taller, smaller, and a bit more awkward than her sister and unlikely to fetch a suitor.
I won't go further because of spoilers and this story is certainly one worth reading to get to the beating heart of it.
Novella
The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred by Greg Egan
5 – Stars
Another great entry. Years earlier when Vesta was colonized, all agreed that their decedents would share equally in the any profits made. The Sivadier family brought more to the effort and their offspring would be paid more and this was agreed to by the original settlers. Generations later, a campaign was started by, let's face it, envious, people to label the ancestors of the current generation of Sivadier's as cunning thieves who stole from the others and were now demanding that the “freeloaders” pay them a tax.
Because they are such a minority the tax passes and a bit of a peaceful rebellion breaks out. A Sivadier is beaten to death in public and then the rebellion turns nasty leading to persecution and the only thing to do is escape Vesta by riding the large pieces of basalt that are being sent to Ceres, a neutral outpost.
A ship visiting Vesta decides to carry eight-hundred “wanted” criminals off the asteroid, heading for Ceres. When Vesta sends a warship they are left with a choice of handing over the eight-hundred or risk the lives of the four-thousand riders of basalt, the courses of which have been slightly altered by Vesta.
3 - Stars
Shorts:
We Jump Down Into The Dark by M. Bennardo
2 – Stars
I wanted to give this a higher rating but the MC is both a space based search and rescue guy as well as the guy who helped design and construct Eden, the space station where his ex-girlfriend is and that is spinning out of alignment and breaking up.
Other than that glaring absurdity, it's not a bad story it just doesn't really have any motivating factors for reading it. The MC is woken from a drunken stupor by his friend and told about the situation, but we know nothing about his friend. We don't get to know Anders, the MC, or even Jessica, the ex.
It's not that it's badly written, it's just boring.
Riding The Waves of Leviathan by Garrett Ashley
3 – Stars
The waves are actually created by a gigantic sea creature so I guess this counts as sci-fi now. The story centers around two friends. The older brother of one was killed riding the waves and the buddy want's to borrow the dead guy's board and surf the waves himself.
There's a bit about how his dad isn't really around because he's always working in the mines and growing up in a place that's dying and opportunities for young men are limited to working in the mine like their fathers is really what drives the story forward and is ultimately the motivation for the kid who wants to surf the waves. It's also the motivation for reading the story which is well written and would get a higher rating if it were actually science fiction instead of fantasy.
Bidding War by Rich Larson
1 – Stars
Boring story of a guy so caught up with his ex breaking up with him that he begins online bidding to acquire crap that she's into.
Come From Aways by Julian Mortimer Smith
4 – Stars
Another story about a small town with limited opportunities only mix in actual science fiction. The Come-from-Aways are tourists that visit the town because of strange items that wash up on the beach. The MC finds out his girlfriend is pregnant after he finds out he's been accepted to college.
He takes his neighbors boat out onto the sea, heading for a nearby Island where he used to ferry tourists in the summer months. As he ponders his future a fog rolls in, the same 'unnatural' fog that rolls in all the time and though he couldn't see the stars in space, he could see stars in the water around him.
Pretty soon he's out way to far and decides to fire the flare gun, but he shoots into the water instead of the foggy sky and a space ship appears beneath him. He's found on the beach the following day and claims a piece of the saucer ship and realizes that the little town is either a dump for aliens.
Novelettes
Empty by Robert Reed
1 – Stars
In a word; boring. In another word; uninspiring and I couldn't waste my time reading it.
Of Dying and Apricots by Amanda Forrest
5 – Stars
Far and away one of the best stories I've read in Asimov in a while. Sadly, other than a few references to mechs and a DNA barrier there isn't much science fiction. Still, it's good enough to give it a full five stars.
The story is about Asma, a young girl in Pakistan who's father owns an apricot farm. A very large and powerful corporation has built a plant in the border area of Kashmir to mine an important ore. Because of the importance of this ore the local governments have waged war against the corporation.
Asma's brother is very headstrong and is in favor of joining the fight against the corporation. At the same time, her sister is preparing for her arranged marriage and there is this dynamic between the brother and sisters while Asma herself is taller, smaller, and a bit more awkward than her sister and unlikely to fetch a suitor.
I won't go further because of spoilers and this story is certainly one worth reading to get to the beating heart of it.
Novella
The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred by Greg Egan
5 – Stars
Another great entry. Years earlier when Vesta was colonized, all agreed that their decedents would share equally in the any profits made. The Sivadier family brought more to the effort and their offspring would be paid more and this was agreed to by the original settlers. Generations later, a campaign was started by, let's face it, envious, people to label the ancestors of the current generation of Sivadier's as cunning thieves who stole from the others and were now demanding that the “freeloaders” pay them a tax.
Because they are such a minority the tax passes and a bit of a peaceful rebellion breaks out. A Sivadier is beaten to death in public and then the rebellion turns nasty leading to persecution and the only thing to do is escape Vesta by riding the large pieces of basalt that are being sent to Ceres, a neutral outpost.
A ship visiting Vesta decides to carry eight-hundred “wanted” criminals off the asteroid, heading for Ceres. When Vesta sends a warship they are left with a choice of handing over the eight-hundred or risk the lives of the four-thousand riders of basalt, the courses of which have been slightly altered by Vesta.
February 27, 2016
Some really great stuff here, and some other things that really missed the mark for me. In order of how much I enjoyed them, we have:
5 stars
"The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred" by Greg Egan
- This was fantastic, and is one that definitely gets a Hugo nomination from me. A hard question in ethics - do you save the eight hundred, or do you save the four thousand? Especially if you have imperfect information (or worse, don't necessarily trust the information you have). And a very engrossing depiction of a society that is allowed to turn on a subset of its members, relegating them to the status of unpersons.
"We Jump Down Into The Dark" by M. Bennardo
- Not quite as good, but still a 5-star story. This one reminded me of the basic plot premise of Silent Running. A mishap in space results in the gorillas needing to be saved from their orbiting habitat.
3 stars
"Empty" by Robert Reed
- Robert Reed always offers top quality fiction. This one is a bit harder to follow than his usual, so might not be for everybody. But it's worth the effort to stick with this one and try to make sense of it.
"Of Apricots and Dying" by Amanda Forrest
- I don't really think this was bona fide science fiction, but it was very well written and quite captivating. I enjoyed it for what it is... an interesting drama involving a family from another culture.
2 stars
"Bidding War" by Rich Larson
- This is really not science fiction. And essentially about using eBay for cyber-stalking. It may be amusing once, but on a deeper scale it's disappointing to deal with a character who is apparently completely and hopelessly pathetic.
"Come-From-Aways" by Julian Mortimer Smith
- Not a bad story, but I didn't find it either compelling or unique enough to pique my interest.
1 star
"Riding the Waves of Leviathan" by Garrett Ashley
- This was dreadfully annoying to read. The main character essentially pines for a lost friend to the extent that he begins to court death himself in an effort to get his father to take notice. A complete waste of a story from my point of view.
5 stars
"The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred" by Greg Egan
- This was fantastic, and is one that definitely gets a Hugo nomination from me. A hard question in ethics - do you save the eight hundred, or do you save the four thousand? Especially if you have imperfect information (or worse, don't necessarily trust the information you have). And a very engrossing depiction of a society that is allowed to turn on a subset of its members, relegating them to the status of unpersons.
"We Jump Down Into The Dark" by M. Bennardo
- Not quite as good, but still a 5-star story. This one reminded me of the basic plot premise of Silent Running. A mishap in space results in the gorillas needing to be saved from their orbiting habitat.
3 stars
"Empty" by Robert Reed
- Robert Reed always offers top quality fiction. This one is a bit harder to follow than his usual, so might not be for everybody. But it's worth the effort to stick with this one and try to make sense of it.
"Of Apricots and Dying" by Amanda Forrest
- I don't really think this was bona fide science fiction, but it was very well written and quite captivating. I enjoyed it for what it is... an interesting drama involving a family from another culture.
2 stars
"Bidding War" by Rich Larson
- This is really not science fiction. And essentially about using eBay for cyber-stalking. It may be amusing once, but on a deeper scale it's disappointing to deal with a character who is apparently completely and hopelessly pathetic.
"Come-From-Aways" by Julian Mortimer Smith
- Not a bad story, but I didn't find it either compelling or unique enough to pique my interest.
1 star
"Riding the Waves of Leviathan" by Garrett Ashley
- This was dreadfully annoying to read. The main character essentially pines for a lost friend to the extent that he begins to court death himself in an effort to get his father to take notice. A complete waste of a story from my point of view.
November 16, 2015
An uneven issue for me, with one really great story but two that I skipped/didn't finish.
We Jump Down Into The Dark by M. Bennardo
This story about a jungle on a space station had a great evocation of place, but its plot and characterization were lackluster. What, exactly, was the conflict in this piece? And what did I know about any of the characters?
Empty by Robert Reed
Told from the perspective of an incorporeal machine species called Data, Empty was superb. After a terrible war between machines and humans (that the machines, of course, won), the machines mount an expedition into the stars, to create a sanctuary that might survive future such wars. Not only was Empty a good read, it was also thought-provoking in its exploration of the mystery of the Fermi Paradox.
Also amazingly well-written. I genuinely felt I was getting a glimpse into the mind of a sentient AI. It is NOT easy to depict the exoticism of an alien mindset while also keeping it human enough to be relatable. Robert Reed succeeded superbly.
Riding The Waves of Leviathan by Garrett Ashley
Stopped reading fairly early on in this one. The clinical way the narrator described the death of his best friend didn't bode well for this character-centric piece.
Bidding War by Rich Larson
This piece, more or less about a man pining after an ex-girlfriend, had a great voice to it. Outside of that and an appreciably dark ending, I wasn't hugely impressed. I mean, I have a tumblr. 99% of the original work on there involves people pining over unrequited love, and so I'm pretty much over that. The greater sin for me, though, is that the spec-fic details are incidental. This exact same plot could have been told without them. Unless I missed something. Which is entirely possible.
Of Apricots and Dying by Amanda Forrest
This is a family drama set in Pakistan told from the perspective of the ugly sister. I really went back and forth on this one.
First off, I just plain don't like family dramas - and that is the beginning and end of this story.
Second off, it fails my 'is the spec fic element integral?' test. In my experience, the best science fiction marries the speculative elements with the plot in a way that improves both. Just as with the previous story though, Apricots could easily have been written as a purely contemporary piece. Yes there are robots and scroll screens and life-extension treatments, but they are just stand-ins for modern tech.
Third off, this story has a rather deceptive hook that made me think the story was going to be about something much different than it was. I dislike the bait-n-switch structure that goes: HEY HERE'S A DRAMATIC OPENING. Now lemme give you a whole bunch of exposition and other scenes that have little to do with the hook.
With all that said, I liked the story anyway! It was authentic and human and true.
Come-From-Aways by Julian Mortimer Smith
A rather brief story about a quaint New England town. What makes this town special is the fact that alien artifacts seem to wash up on the shores. I enjoyed it, though the primary action of the story was a bit understated for my tastes.
We Jump Down Into The Dark by M. Bennardo
This story about a jungle on a space station had a great evocation of place, but its plot and characterization were lackluster. What, exactly, was the conflict in this piece? And what did I know about any of the characters?
Empty by Robert Reed
Told from the perspective of an incorporeal machine species called Data, Empty was superb. After a terrible war between machines and humans (that the machines, of course, won), the machines mount an expedition into the stars, to create a sanctuary that might survive future such wars. Not only was Empty a good read, it was also thought-provoking in its exploration of the mystery of the Fermi Paradox.
Also amazingly well-written. I genuinely felt I was getting a glimpse into the mind of a sentient AI. It is NOT easy to depict the exoticism of an alien mindset while also keeping it human enough to be relatable. Robert Reed succeeded superbly.
Riding The Waves of Leviathan by Garrett Ashley
Stopped reading fairly early on in this one. The clinical way the narrator described the death of his best friend didn't bode well for this character-centric piece.
Bidding War by Rich Larson
This piece, more or less about a man pining after an ex-girlfriend, had a great voice to it. Outside of that and an appreciably dark ending, I wasn't hugely impressed. I mean, I have a tumblr. 99% of the original work on there involves people pining over unrequited love, and so I'm pretty much over that. The greater sin for me, though, is that the spec-fic details are incidental. This exact same plot could have been told without them. Unless I missed something. Which is entirely possible.
Of Apricots and Dying by Amanda Forrest
This is a family drama set in Pakistan told from the perspective of the ugly sister. I really went back and forth on this one.
First off, I just plain don't like family dramas - and that is the beginning and end of this story.
Second off, it fails my 'is the spec fic element integral?' test. In my experience, the best science fiction marries the speculative elements with the plot in a way that improves both. Just as with the previous story though, Apricots could easily have been written as a purely contemporary piece. Yes there are robots and scroll screens and life-extension treatments, but they are just stand-ins for modern tech.
Third off, this story has a rather deceptive hook that made me think the story was going to be about something much different than it was. I dislike the bait-n-switch structure that goes: HEY HERE'S A DRAMATIC OPENING. Now lemme give you a whole bunch of exposition and other scenes that have little to do with the hook.
With all that said, I liked the story anyway! It was authentic and human and true.
Come-From-Aways by Julian Mortimer Smith
A rather brief story about a quaint New England town. What makes this town special is the fact that alien artifacts seem to wash up on the shores. I enjoyed it, though the primary action of the story was a bit understated for my tastes.
May 3, 2016
A better than average issue, especially compared to the previous issue that was SF-lite with great stories by Amanda Forrest and Greg Egan.
- "We Jump Down Into The Dark" by M. Bennardo: a story about a rescue attempt on a crippled space station that houses a biosphere, mixed in with commentary about whether it was worthwhile trying to save habitats by putting them in space.
- "Empty" by Robert Reed: in a future where humanity is only represented by their robotic descendents, a group of machines attempt a journey into deep space to build a new colony. But are the machines really trying to set up a new way of living or just going through the same cycle of destruction they are trying to leave behind?
- "Riding the Waves of Leviathan" by Garrett Ashley: a leviathan harries a coastal town and kills a boy. His best friend contemplates the best way to ease the pain of losing him that may involve him challenging the leviathan.
- "Bidding War" by Rich Larson: a tale of a future where one person determines his worth by what he gets and how much he has to bid to get it. When a competitor outbids him for an apparent knick-knack, he gets into action to get it before it is dispatched. But the ending will make him rethink just what is important in the world.
- "Of Apricots and Dying" by Amanda Forrest: a fascinating story about a girl living with her rural family in a future Pakistan still beset with troubles. Growing up, she is not as loved as her older sister by her mother though loved by her father and aunt and with a good relationship with her hot-headed brother. As time passes, border troubles brew and as she considers her future, she starts learning things about her family's past that throws new fascinating twists on the family situation. A character and a story that surely deserves to be expanded into a novel or more.
- "Come-From-Aways" by Julian Mortimer Smith: a boy contemplates running away from his troubles in a small town that receives alien ships and junk on foggy nights. But on this foggy night, he encounters a piece of space junk that may make him rethink his decisions.
- "The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred" by Greg Egan: for Egan, this is a rather 'lightweight' story in terms of Hard SF but it still packs an emotional punch. On an asteroid, discrimination has built up towards a segment of society. As the discrimination becomes harsher, some decide to escape by riding a cargo train of ice packs destined for another asteroid. But that may become a death-trap as the administrator of the other asteroid has to make a choice between sacrificing them and other escapees on another ship.
- "We Jump Down Into The Dark" by M. Bennardo: a story about a rescue attempt on a crippled space station that houses a biosphere, mixed in with commentary about whether it was worthwhile trying to save habitats by putting them in space.
- "Empty" by Robert Reed: in a future where humanity is only represented by their robotic descendents, a group of machines attempt a journey into deep space to build a new colony. But are the machines really trying to set up a new way of living or just going through the same cycle of destruction they are trying to leave behind?
- "Riding the Waves of Leviathan" by Garrett Ashley: a leviathan harries a coastal town and kills a boy. His best friend contemplates the best way to ease the pain of losing him that may involve him challenging the leviathan.
- "Bidding War" by Rich Larson: a tale of a future where one person determines his worth by what he gets and how much he has to bid to get it. When a competitor outbids him for an apparent knick-knack, he gets into action to get it before it is dispatched. But the ending will make him rethink just what is important in the world.
- "Of Apricots and Dying" by Amanda Forrest: a fascinating story about a girl living with her rural family in a future Pakistan still beset with troubles. Growing up, she is not as loved as her older sister by her mother though loved by her father and aunt and with a good relationship with her hot-headed brother. As time passes, border troubles brew and as she considers her future, she starts learning things about her family's past that throws new fascinating twists on the family situation. A character and a story that surely deserves to be expanded into a novel or more.
- "Come-From-Aways" by Julian Mortimer Smith: a boy contemplates running away from his troubles in a small town that receives alien ships and junk on foggy nights. But on this foggy night, he encounters a piece of space junk that may make him rethink his decisions.
- "The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred" by Greg Egan: for Egan, this is a rather 'lightweight' story in terms of Hard SF but it still packs an emotional punch. On an asteroid, discrimination has built up towards a segment of society. As the discrimination becomes harsher, some decide to escape by riding a cargo train of ice packs destined for another asteroid. But that may become a death-trap as the administrator of the other asteroid has to make a choice between sacrificing them and other escapees on another ship.
November 3, 2015
Starke Ausgabe mit guter Ausbeute. Mein klarer Favorit ist die Geschichte "Empty" von Robert Reed, die die gewollte Rest-Vernichtung der Menschheit aus Sicht einer KI beschreibt und thematisiert, warum Leben im Universum trotz seiner Seltenheit sich gegen sich selbst richtet. Eloquente und souveräne Erzählerstimme, ein Genuss.
Das gilt auch für die Highspeed-Prosa in meinem weiteren Favoriten "Bidding War" von dem mir bisher nicht bekannten Rich Larson, der eigentlich wirklich nur von einem Bieterkrieg um eine alte Azteken-Flöte erzählt, der Stil kickt einen aber ordentlich.
Die andernorts viel gelobte neue Novelle von Greg Egan war mir leider mal wieder zu trocken.
Das gilt auch für die Highspeed-Prosa in meinem weiteren Favoriten "Bidding War" von dem mir bisher nicht bekannten Rich Larson, der eigentlich wirklich nur von einem Bieterkrieg um eine alte Azteken-Flöte erzählt, der Stil kickt einen aber ordentlich.
Die andernorts viel gelobte neue Novelle von Greg Egan war mir leider mal wieder zu trocken.
September 6, 2017
Mixed bag that gets a bump to 4 stars on the strength of Greg Evan's novella "The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred", a powerfully written story about justice and simultaneously philosophy.
March 5, 2016
This issue contains 4 short stories, 4 poems, a novella and 2 novelettes as well as the usual variety of essays, articles and book reviews. I'm primarily going to comment only on things that I thought were above average and/or quite good in some way. As it happens this was a pretty strong issue and I liked it quite a bit primarily on the strength of two longer excellent stories and the fact that we had science fiction stories here, not a bunch of little emo things and middle school dramas. There is still some uneven storytelling here which interferes with good ideas, and another family drama/emo thing using a science fiction element to hang a story on, as well as a story that seems more fantasy than anything, and a story I disliked ...
Included fiction is:
Novella
"The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred" by Greg Egan
Novelettes
"Empty" by Robert Reed
"Of Apricots and Dying" by Amanda Forrest
Short Stories
"We Jump Down Into The Dark" by M. Bennardo
"Riding the Waves of Leviathan" by Garrett Ashley
"Bidding War" by Rich Larson
"Come-from-Always" by Julian Mortimer Smith
Poetry
"Slicing Time" by Bruce Boston
"Shatter" by Jane Yolen
"Circumstantial Evidence of Time Slippage" by Robert Frazier
"Magic in the Air" by Flip Wiltgren
Robert Reed's "Empty" is a long challenging story to read and understand, and I read parts of it two and three times trying to wrap my head around it, which is at least partly why this novelette felt more like a novella. I realized afterwards that what I was doing was what the primary character was doing with some data to analyze - going over it again and again, examining it frontwards backwards and from the middle, in order to understand what it was. The author gives us some info at the end which would affect ones reading if given at the beginning, so I think this was an intentional story element. It is a story set in the age of machine intelligence and really a hard, challenging piece of science fiction.
My favorite story in this and other recent issues of Asimov's is Greg Egan's novella, "The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred" which is set in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA's DAWN mission from a few years ago gave us discoveries about two proto-planets there, Ceres and Vesta, and Egan has woven us a fascinating tale of the future of exploration, colonization and mining there. We get contrasting societies and moral considerations against what amounts to a sort of civil war and discrimination and hate against certain colonists.
Included fiction is:
Novella
"The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred" by Greg Egan
Novelettes
"Empty" by Robert Reed
"Of Apricots and Dying" by Amanda Forrest
Short Stories
"We Jump Down Into The Dark" by M. Bennardo
"Riding the Waves of Leviathan" by Garrett Ashley
"Bidding War" by Rich Larson
"Come-from-Always" by Julian Mortimer Smith
Poetry
"Slicing Time" by Bruce Boston
"Shatter" by Jane Yolen
"Circumstantial Evidence of Time Slippage" by Robert Frazier
"Magic in the Air" by Flip Wiltgren
Robert Reed's "Empty" is a long challenging story to read and understand, and I read parts of it two and three times trying to wrap my head around it, which is at least partly why this novelette felt more like a novella. I realized afterwards that what I was doing was what the primary character was doing with some data to analyze - going over it again and again, examining it frontwards backwards and from the middle, in order to understand what it was. The author gives us some info at the end which would affect ones reading if given at the beginning, so I think this was an intentional story element. It is a story set in the age of machine intelligence and really a hard, challenging piece of science fiction.
My favorite story in this and other recent issues of Asimov's is Greg Egan's novella, "The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred" which is set in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA's DAWN mission from a few years ago gave us discoveries about two proto-planets there, Ceres and Vesta, and Egan has woven us a fascinating tale of the future of exploration, colonization and mining there. We get contrasting societies and moral considerations against what amounts to a sort of civil war and discrimination and hate against certain colonists.
February 4, 2016
I thought this was a very interesting issue, if not the most exciting. Many of the stories felt like they had a similar theme in that they were centered around the lives of people living in speculative fiction universes, but the main storylines were focused on the lives of the characters rather than specifically tied to whatever made the respective worlds fantastical.
The title story, "The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred", had me very well hooked on it, telling a great tale of a believably political near-future around an solar system-wide community of colonies, much like in the great legacies of Greg Bear's Moving Mars, and the TV series Babylon 5.
The one story that I REALLY loved and wished had gone on longer was "Bidding War" which was written in much the same "real" way that Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy was written, with relatable internal thought processes, as well as near-future and current technologies made even more prominent in every-day life than there are at present.
The title story, "The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred", had me very well hooked on it, telling a great tale of a believably political near-future around an solar system-wide community of colonies, much like in the great legacies of Greg Bear's Moving Mars, and the TV series Babylon 5.
The one story that I REALLY loved and wished had gone on longer was "Bidding War" which was written in much the same "real" way that Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy was written, with relatable internal thought processes, as well as near-future and current technologies made even more prominent in every-day life than there are at present.
January 20, 2016
Interesting how many of the stories focused on young protagonists coming of age. My favorite of those was "Riding the Waves of Leviathan" by Garrett Ashley, a great, understated story with excellent portrayal of characters in a short space. "Empty" by Robert Reed was fascinating and mind-bending, and "Bidding War" was a tight, humorous little piece.
October 30, 2015
2 stand outs - Come from aways, hopeful small town coming of age story.
Bidding War - Great dialogue
Bidding War - Great dialogue
April 29, 2016
I only read the Egan novella.
October 29, 2015
Possible Hugo candidates:
- Robert Reed "Empty" novelette
- Rich Larson "Bidding War" short story
- Robert Reed "Empty" novelette
- Rich Larson "Bidding War" short story
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