Compelling Science Fiction Issue 11

by Joe Stech, James Rowland, J.D. Moyer

This issue starts with James Rowland's "Top of Show", a metastory about the art of creating stories (5948 words). Our second story is "Targeted Behavior" by J.D. Moyer. In it, someone wants the homeless to leave San Francisco. A young girl has other ideas. (4600 words). The third story this issue, Adam R. Shannon's "Redaction," is a story about medics who use technology to deal (or not deal) with their own traumatic experiences (4953 words). Next we have "Cold Draft" by John Derderian. This is a short one about how a radical politically motivated law surprises a teenage boy (2900 words). Our fifth story is "Dreams of the Rocket Man" by C. Stuart Hardwick. This is a beautiful reprinted story about a child learning rocketry from an enthusiastic mentor (7600 words). Story number six, "Driving Force" by Tom Jolly, is the shortest of the lot. In the future, AIs may not only be tasked with driving (1300 words). Our final story is "Don't Play the Blues", by Bruce Golden. A musician wrestles with experiences from his military days (6040 words).

Kindle Edition

First published May 31, 2018

Reviews

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a little more miss than hit among the six original stories in the new Compelling, but one of the them stood apart for me.
Adam R. Shannon’s “Redaction” plops us into a future where people can edit out sections of their memory by “dropping markers”, and later choose whether to remove the recollections that fall between two markers. This comes in handy for Crackle Marigold, a paramedic who has to witness some pretty horrifying shit on a nightly basis and is happy to redact most of it so he can keep doing his job without burning out. Crackle’s partner Jesús is anti-redaction, and when he offers Crackle the shocking reason why he has no problem functioning with all his memories intact, Crackle must decide – knowing that Jesús has most likely revealed this information to him before and will do so again – if he should keep his memory of the conversation, even if it means holding onto another memory he’d rather let go of. It’s a provocative idea, well-executed, and with a fitting conclusion.
The issue’s lone reprint, C. Stuart Harwick’s “Dreams of the Rocket Man” from the September 2016 issue of Analog was just as good for me the second time around, and well worth the read if you missed its initial publication.

[Ryan Duryea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Wonderful Collection of Stories

Compelling Science Fiction never ceases to provide some of the most thought-provoking and, well, compelling sci-fi short stories! Thank you!

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly because of
“Redaction” by Adam R. Shannon, but also because
“Dreams of the Rocket Man” by C. Stuart Hardwick hit me emotionally.