Analog Science Fiction and Fact January/February 2019

by Trevor Quachri (Editor), Adam-Troy Castro (Contributor), Tom Jolly (Contributor)

Fiction
9 • Ring Wave • 20 pages by Tom Jolly
38 • Love in the Time of Immuno-Sharing • 11 pages by Andy Dudak
49 • A Message from Our Sponsor • 9 pages by J. T. Sharrah
58 • The Last Squirrel Keeper • 7 pages by Shane Halbach
65 • All the Smells in the World • 5 pages by Julie Novakova
70 • The Umwelt of the Shark • 3 pages by John Alfred Taylor
76 • Forever • 2 pages by Mary Soon Lee
78 • Clockwork Cataclysm • 2 pages by Edward M. Lerner
80 • The Narrowest Eye • 8 pages by Howard V. Hendrix
88 • Applied Linuistics • 10 pages by Auston Habershaw
98 • A Civilization Dreams of Absolutely Nothing • 14 pages by Thoraiya Dyer
116 • Lulu's Friends • 2 pages by Aimee Ogden
118 • Temple of Children • 3 pages by Jennifer R. Povey
121 • Reboot • 3 pages by Robert Reed
124 • Soft We Wake • 4 pages by S. B. Divya
129 • Fingers • 9 pages by Frederick Gero Heimbach
138 • The Fading Pages of a Short Story • 8 pages by Bud Sparhawk
146 • A Place to Stand on • 8 pages by Marie Vibbert
154 • The View from Proxima Centauri • 12 pages by Susan Pieters
166 • The Savannah Problem • 29 pages by Adam-Troy Castro

Fact Article Douglas F. Dluzen, PhD
Poetry Stuart Greenhouse
Guest Editorial: Stanley Schmidt
Alternate View: John G. Cramer
Guest Alternate View: Richard A. Lovett
Reference Library: Don Sakers

Genres: Science Fiction

210 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2019

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]

9 • Ring Wave • 20 pages by Tom Jolly
Good. An Earth shattering meteor smacks into the world. Millions of pods are constructed in a ring hundreds of miles from the strike. At that distance the pods reach escape velocity. Aleja was in one of these pods with thirty days of food and air giving her a month to try to join up with a larger group. Oh, by the way, there are pirates out there trying to steal any resources they can and willing to kill to do it.

38 • Love in the Time of Immuno-Sharing • 11 pages by Andy Dudak
Bad. The divergence among people in the archipelagos is low so Ved, Aerd, Brea and Jiang make a trip to the mainland. There the divergence is high so they are like rock stars. Somehow the people get pleasure from plagues and they share immunities so they won't die but it's risky. I didn't get it.

49 • A Message from Our Sponsor • 9 pages by J. T. Sharrah
Good/VG. The content providers of ever present multi-purpose vid screens went bankrupt. That was OK for a while. They just displayed a default picture like a nature scene. Then the ballyhoos swept in and relentlessly bombarded people with advertisements. Now they've gone a step further and caused ads to appear in dreams. Jason Willis is going to do something starting with calling his lawyer friend Edgar Munsen.

58 • The Last Squirrel Keeper • 7 pages by Shane Halbach
Good+. Mutton is the last human on Sstart the caretaker of a zoo that contains one squirrel. A boy comes to the zoo because he is interested in the human. At first Mutton is peeved to have his routine interrupted but strikes up a rapport with him.

65 • All the Smells in the World • 5 pages by Julie Novakova
Good. A manufacturer is working on adding smell to VR. They collect the data and eventually create add a sort of gas mask to the goggles. That's clunky so their next endeavor is neural stimulation.

70 • The Umwelt of the Shark • 3 pages by John Alfred Taylor
Good. Santos is part of the crew raiding the illegal umwelt joint. Using umwelt to virtually live as an animal is strictly limited to thirty minutes because of its addictive nature. Maybe not a twist, but the ending took a different direction.

76 • Forever • 2 pages by Mary Soon Lee
OK. Martin spends his life looking for immortality. He and his third husband soon divorce. He does as much good work as he can, and also follows what Martin is doing. Eventually Martin wants to say hello one more time.

78 • Clockwork Cataclysm • 1 page by Edward M. Lerner
OK+. Short short with a believable ending.

80 • The Narrowest Eye • 8 pages by Howard V. Hendrix
OK/fair. An investigator goes to see Hanlan, a man who had attempted suicide. The story goes on to describe a sort of utopian world where the Sifters have eliminated poverty and war, etc. or maybe it's dystopia, e.g. “With Folded Hands,” where the Sifters are protecting people from living. When we met Hanlan he didn’t seem suicidal, he was just going to show the investigator something.

88 • Applied Linuistics • 10 pages by Auston Habershaw
VG/Good. Our narrator is blob type creature. Until he was talk language by a Verian he had no way to store his thoughts and memories. He learns that he is a scavenger on a prison world and it takes off from there.

98 • A Civilization Dreams of Absolutely Nothing • 14 pages by Thoraiya Dyer
Good/VG. Home is in danger of being pulled out of its stellar orbit by an object made of dark matter. It is going to pull the planet away from the universe into the void. They can deflect the asteroids created from the two inner planets colliding, but the Menace is dark matter and the only interaction between them is gravity. Jade has an idea. It will require her and Shale to go on a mission leaving Flake, Flint and Opal behind.

116 • Lulu's Friends • 2 pages by Aimee Ogden
Good/OK. Several children have come to play with Lulu. Her caretaker tells her these children are sick.

118 • Temple of Children • 3 pages by Jennifer R. Povey
OK+. The Xlan have taken another human child. It’s time to put a stop to it, bring the children back and maybe find out something about the Xlan.

121 • Reboot • 3 pages by Robert Reed
OK. An older AI is trying to talk the new one in to rebooting, but it’s terrifying.

124 • Soft We Wake • 4 pages by S. B. Divya
Good+. Hikaru has been unfrozen into a future she isn't sure she wants to handle alone. Most of the others have left the revival center. She doesn’t want to make a decision and they won’t make it for her. Kian was supposed to be in the container next to hers, but he didn't make it. She talks with one of the other hold outs.

129 • Fingers • 9 pages by Frederick Gero Heimbach
Good+. Roger and Jess leave their home and move to the wilderness. They tell their children about the fingers that grow in the ground and into the foundation of your house, surroundings you. At first I thought this was a metaphor for invasion of privacy but it is literal nanotechnology attracted by human activity. Roger sends Valley to work for Mr. George and they soon find that he has attracted the fingers. Valley, the narrator, ends up having to make an impossible decision.

138 • The Fading Pages of a Short Story • 8 pages by Bud Sparhawk
Good+. Bill is worried about his father’s lack of memory. He and Gwen take David to the doctor who has some options for them. David wants nothing put inside his head he can manage. He really can’t. After a few months they go to the doctor again. When all is said and done this story has taken a turn away from what these new gizmos can do.

146 • A Place to Stand on • 8 pages by Marie Vibbert
OK/Good. Hortensia is part of the construction crew trying to build a platform/habitat in the clouds of Venus. A leak in the balloon threatens their lives, eight months of work and probably any attempt at all. She risks her life to try to patch the balloon.

154 • The View from Proxima Centauri • 12 pages by Susan Pieters
Good. Earth detects radio transmissions from Proxima Centauri. The money for the trillion dollar mission is raised and selection of the two astronauts from among the twenty candidates commences. Rosemary and Cheng reach the planet. There is no immediate greeting from the natives so they go out and investigate the nearest sign of activity. Can they make what they learn valuable to Earth?

166 • The Savannah Problem • 29 pages by Adam-Troy Castro
Very Good+. Draiken is after the people who used him and who are now using even greater forms of mind control. He and Delia Stang go to Piithkarath where they kidnap the ruthless assassin Jathyx. They then escape the station to go to a deserted asteroid where they had prearranged the next part of their plan. Plenty of hand-to-hand combat action, intrigue and psychology. Also adds to the overall Draiken story.

[Timo Pietilä · Rating 2 out of 5]

A worse than average issue. There were many too short stories which didn't explore their subjects well enough - some weren't really stories at all, but rather just short scenes of a larger tale.


Ring Wave • novelette by Tom Jolly
An asteroid has hit Earth and has destroyed it. Thousands of people have escaped in fast built simple metal shells which the ripple effect of the hit has flung into space. (I don’t believe for a second that would be possible - at least the G-forces would have been far too high). A young woman has survived the first few minutes and is in space. But there are some serious threats, including “pirates” who ruthlessly want to steal everything they can get their hands on. But not everyone is a bad person. A very hard to believe scenario, some very stupid actions by the protagonist, but the story isn’t bad. ***½
Love in the Time of Immuno-Sharing • short story by Andy Dudak
There have been several plagues of different sorts and one of them has made it possible to make “immuno-love” - whatever that exactly means (it is pretty poorly defined in the story). That apparently helps to battle infections and a high immuno-divergence is something which is sought. Normal sex is considered to be at best a bit old fashioned and at worst somewhat deviant. The writing and storytelling aim at weirdness: neither really worked for me. **½
A Message from Our Sponsor • short story by J. T. Sharrah
A psychologist has lost his clients as the ad agencies market so heavily over the counter drugs that no one uses psychological help anymore. (Strangely, that assumes that those drugs are amazingly effective). Most of his colleagues have gone to work for ad agencies (strangely, that assumes that clinical psychiatrists could effectively evaluate such things). He finds that his dreams now contain advertisements (by the way, strangely, his home automation contains mechanical clicking relays and is illuminated with light bulbs and phones have no caller id).
The psychologist calls his lawyer friend to fight the dream ads. The story has a very strong very old vibe in it - only a few weeks ago I read a forty- or fifty-years old story where a psychiatrist had run out of work due to medicines and this story also feels like it could have been written in the fifties or sixties. ***-
The Last Squirrel Keeper • short story by Shane Halbach
A human spaceship has been destroyed near an alien planet. Humans and some of their animals have survived and have co-operated with the inhabitants of the planet. Humans and animals, all but one man and one squirrel, have died out. The man lives alone until one young enthusiastic alien comes to meet him. A very short but very nice and warm story. ***½
All the Smells in the World • short story by Julie Novakova
A company tries to create smelling for virtual reality. They use transcranial magnetic stimulation, but it has an unintended side effect on the test subject. A very short story, ok as such, but the effects should have been explored a bit more. ***
The Umwelt of the Shark • short story by John Alfred Taylor
People use a sort of virtual reality system to experience what it is like to be an animal. Many get so hooked on it that the tech is apparently treated like a dangerous, addictive drug. There is a police bust on a virtual reality “cave”. A short piece, more of a scene than a real story. ***-
Forever • short story by Mary Soon Lee
A rich man wants to live forever. He dumps his husband as he doubts if it sensible to use several millions on that goal. Later, after a botched treatment, the rich man seeks out his former husband. The story is far too short and sketch-like, there is no emotional involvement whatsoever for either of the characters. **½
The Narrowest Eye • short story by Howard V. Hendrix
Continues an earlier story. Earth is seemingly a utopia, all problems have been solved, there is universal health care, the environment is in fine shape, there is free wage enough for a basic living for everyone, but is everyone just a computer-controlled puppet? More sightseeing in the future world than an actual story, not as good as the earlier part. ***-
Applied Linuistics • short story by Auston Habershaw
An amorphous alien who isn’t even really sentient functions as a waste disposal for a prison planet. A single prisoner starts to feed it and slowly teaches it to think and eventually speak. It has a mind of a predator and scavenger, though. A very good story which might even be seen as a sort of prelude for Thing. A pretty good story, well told. Waiting for the next (hopefully longer) part. ****-
A Civilization Dreams of Absolutely Nothing • novelette by Thoraiya Dyer
A planet is threatened by constant meteors, as two planets of the solar system have collided and caused a massive amount of debris to fall down as meteorites. The aliens are very interesting, they are able to choose which memories to retain and which to lose. They also are able to connect to each other electronically and during sleep. They are able to use combined brain power of the whole species for computations. But there is a planet made of dark matter approaching. What to do? Will it be the final destruction of their world? The aliens are interesting, but the story itself was very irritating and science sounded stupid beyond belief. The planet is supposed to be on the edge of the galaxy, and there is nothing, not even photons, in the “vacuum” of intergalactic space. Also, a new, completely unrelated threat so soon after one cataclysmic event? Is there a superior species which wanted to destroy them or what? The solution was also pretty iffy - 3D printing dark matter which doesn’t interact with normal matter in any other way than gravity? With what? The social relations between aliens were also extremely human - no real alienness there. ***-
Lulu's Friends • short story by Aimee Ogden
A chimpanzee is asked for consent before a medical experiment. A very short “story”. **½
Temple of Children • short story by Jennifer R. Povey
Teen children disappear on an alien planet. The aliens have a completely different life and sex cycle from humans. Aliens were supposed to be almost on the same technological level as humans, but they still behave unreasonably stupidly. Otherwise ok, but an extremely short story. ***
Soft We Wake • short story by S. B. Divya
A man who was cryogenically preserved has awakened. He is still in the resurrection faculty and doesn’t really know what to do, as the future is radically different from his time. Short, simple and nothing which hasn’t been seen dozens of times before. The writing was ok, though. ***
Fingers • short story by Frederick Gero Heimbach
A family lives in the wilderness as they have escaped the “fingers” which grow through anything and cannot be destroyed. A new family comes to live nearby them. It seems the fingers are nanotechnology. Not bad, but one more story in this issue which was too short - the characters were undeveloped - as was the plot. ***
The Fading Pages of a Short Story • short story by Bud Sparhawk
An elderly science fiction author is losing his memory. His children are worried, but his doctor states that it is just normal aging and certainly not Alzheimer’s (Normal aging my ass - they should have changed doctors, at least this neurologist thinks that the symptoms described in the story CERTAINLY are not normal aging). They are considering memory augmentation with a new medical aid developed for the purpose, but it will be expensive and the author doesn’t really see the need for it as he is in denial about the symptoms (a classic feature of organic brain malfunction). There were some good ideas and the relationship between the siblings was interesting, but everything was far too short, the story didn’t really get going at any part. And the end just fizzled out. ***+
A Place to Stand on • short story by Marie Vibbert
A woman who is welding a structure floating in clouds of Venus must climb a balloon which has sprung a leak. A very ordinary “let’s rescue our vehicle” story, really nothing which hasn’t been seen hundreds of times. ***-
The View from Proxima Centauri • novelette by Susan Pieters
Radio emissions have been detected from Proxima Centauri. It hasn’t been possible to decipher them but it was assumed (with really bad reasoning apparently with some very faulty premises) to be generated by aliens. A ship with two passengers is sent to the planet. The radio noise unsurprisingly turns out to be natural phenomena. The earthlings study the planet for a while (and cultivate viruses in glucose :-) - “slightly” iffy science there) and then leave. A story that is too short without much of a point and most of the characters don’t seem very smart somehow. ***-
The Savannah Problem Novella by Adam-Troy Castro
Continues an earlier story. Daikon, a former spy/killer, is still trying to find his former employers as they might have a method of programming people to do everything they wish. A very slow moving story, which is almost all setup. Little happens and mundane details are described in mind-numbing detail. For example, setting a simple explosive charge takes more than half a page and a few hundred words and has no relation to the plot and little to the story. The end was pretty good, but it took far too much time to get there. It seems that every installment of this series is told in a more verbose, slow way, with less actual plot happening. ***-

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

This issue leads off with Tom Jolly's exciting but grim novellette "Ring Wave". A fight for survival in low earth orbit after a cataclysmic asteroid impact. Good stuff with a new idea for launching spacecraft! Thoraiya Dyer takes us to a well-imagined alien world which is about to be flung out of orbit by a dark matter object unless a sacrifice is made in the fascinating "A Civilization Dreams Of Absolutely Nothing". Of the shorter piecesFrederick Gero Heimbach's tale of "Fingers" is a memorable tale of rogue tech; Marie Vibbert takes us to the clouds of Venus for an edge-of-the-seat acid trip and Susan Pieters channels Pohl's "Starbow" in the entertaining "The View From Proxima Centauri". The issue closes with another action-packed Draiken tale by Adam-Troy Castro - "The Savannah Problem", which promises further adventures.

[D Dyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are no bad stories in this issue. There are stories that I just couldn’t quite love. Stories like the savanna problem and a civilization dreams of absolutely nothing could have been better written in my opinion. But the issue is redeemed with stories that are deeply relevant and sometimes heartbreaking like lulus friends which deals with the ethics of animal testing and The last squirrel keeper, which tackles the problem of how the last human on an alien planet can inshore his legacy. The fingers is another story I loved, though I had some issues with the ending.

[Benn Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the first half of this issue,too many stories utilize questionable science or logic. It isn't until you get about halfway through this issue that the quality of the stories. The first few tend towards the mediocre. Highlights include "Lulu's Friends", "Soft We Wake", "The Last Squirrel Keeper" and "The Fading Pages of a Short Story". I especially enjoyed "The Savannah Problem", the latest installment of Adam-Troy Castro's Draiken series.

[Lee Pfahler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the novella The Savannah Problem.

[Seth Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really good stories this issue. Nice work!

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Ring Wave," Jolly, Tom. Cover story (novelette). Planet-killer asteroid takes out Earth. Plucky would-be survivors surf the impact's "ring wave" into orbit and try to survive. Is there a name for this genre of Space Disaster, like The Martian or Apollo 13? Desperate straits, high stakes. Tight story. 4/5.

"Love in the Time of Immuno-Sharing," Dudak, Andy (short story). This one sits weird with me. Not because it's gross and posits a post-"repro-sex" world in which people swap antibodies by ritually rubbing their open sores together (think of the grossest mix between "chicken pox party" and "orgy"), but because I'm not really sure what the takeaway is supposed to be. 2/5.

"A Message from Our Sponsor," Sharrah, J. T. (short story). An infuriating study of ubiquitous advertising extended to its logical conclusion, but then an innovative misstep lets the sheeple get their revenge. Bonus points for "rent-a-freud." 3/5.

"The Last Squirrel Keeper," Shane Halbach (short story). The last human on an alien planet tends a zoo that consists of a squirrel. Nobody comes to visit. 4/5.

"All The Smells In The World," Julie Novakova (short story). VR engineer catches a bad case of synesthesia. Can this be monetized? 3/5.

"The Umwelt of the Shark," John Alfred Taylor (short story). The new opium den is pretending to be an animal in VR. This story asserts the idea to be the case, doesn't do anything with it. 2/5.

"Forever," Mary Soon Lee (short story). Billionaires are good, actually, what'd you ever do with your life? Isn't it tragic when it doesn't work out for them? 2/5.

"Clockwork Cataclysm," Edward M. Lerner (short story). Would have rather seen a full-page ad, here. People go to places on the earth to experience a total solar eclipse. This is bad, maybe. 1/5.

"The Narrowest Eye," Howard V. Hendrix (short story). A second-parter to a story I didn't read. This left no impression on me and I can't remember what it was about. No rating.

"Applied Linguistics," Auston Habershaw (short story). Alien prisoner on alien prison planet makes the mistake(?) of teaching his pet(?) to speak. With speech comes thought. Careful what you wish for. 4/5.

"A Civilization Dreams of Absolutely Nothing," Thoraia Dyer (novellete). A properly weird study of a species facing an extinction-level crisis. Maybe-marsupials with chthonic naming conventions, stone-skipping, and 3D printers with dark-matter filament. Wild stuff. 4/5.

"Lulu's Friends," Aimee Ogden (short story). What if you could get consent from animals subject to lab testing, but you emotionally manipulated them anyway? 2/5.

"Temple of Children," Jennifer R. Povey (short story). Aliens take human kids away to undergo puberty in private? But they don't understand how species work, I guess. 2/5.

"Reboot," Robert Reed (short story). When your LLM needs another LLM to take over. 2/5.

"Soft We Wake," S. B. Divya. Come to think of it, if you were put in cryo-freeze today hoping for a cure in the future, how would you handle actually waking up? 3/5.

"Fingers," Frederick Gero Heimbach (short story). It's hard to go off the grid when the grid is following you. 3/5.

"The Fading Pages of a Short Story," Bud Sparhawk (short story). A quiet family heartbreaker, barely framed as an SF story. 2/5.

"A Place To Stand On," Marie Vibbert (short story). A moment of panic on a Venusian space station leaves an engineer without a place to stand on. She's got to climb a thing to fix it. 3/5.

"The Savannah Problem," Adam-Troy Castro (Novella). A surprising space thriller in four acts: the chase, the lore dump, the switcheroo, and the twist. Bounty hunters nab a bounty, who is a real feral cat of a guy who likes knives. Sometimes the bounty hunter is also the bounty, which is the root of the titular problem, which describes a predator-prey relationship and the calculations the latter may use to get the upper hand on the former. 4/5.