Not normally someone who reads a lot of the Big 3 S.F. magazines, but the August issue last year had a story by Derek Zumsteg, a former co-worker at Expedia. I do tend to buy fiction written by people I know, so I got it in ebook format. However, it sat in my queue for a while. Now that I have the Nook, it’s more convenient to read some of my backlog.
Here’s my thoughts on the stories in the issue.
The Qualia Engine
by Damien Broderick- Really smart kids kept secret, except they don’t go to Professor Xavier’s school. Broderick combines a pretty standard trope with a more philosophical rambling about what thoughts and consciousness are. I don’t like this sort of thing when it’s a thought exercise rather than the basis for a plot. And there’s not really a whole lot of plot here.
Creatures of Well-Defined Habits
by Robert Reed- An interesting story. You read all the time about elderly folks who live simply but secretly have lots of money, and then they leave $1 million to a charity. Hogan in this story is sorta like that. He’s 400+ years old, one of the older humans around after genetic engineering allows people to live long lives, among other things like incorporate the D.N.A. of other animals to get their characteristics. Hogan secretly buys his local cafe so he has a place to retell his centuries worth of stories. Then he dies and an android takes his place, paid for with his estate and having his memories. The android exists just so it can retell Hogan’s stories in the cafe. Some people think it isn’t right, and do something about it. Thought this was a pretty neat take, even though I was confused as to why hate on the android, though at the end I got it.
Blue
by Derek Zumsteg- Two crew people stuck together on a spaceship expedition gone wrong. Science fiction stuff pretty standard. Personality story was okay.
The Consciousness Problem
by Mary Robinette Kowal- The first human clone, or at least the first one that has the memories of the original. In the tradition of scientists experimenting on themselves, the first clone is that of the scientist himself. The clone is just as smart, but as an experiment, he has to stay in the lab. Also, the scientist has issues with his wife, who’s recovering from a car accident and probably will be forever. You can sorta see where this is going. The clone doesn’t get to see the woman it loves. But it’s a scientist, so it knows it’s a bad idea. Really interesting story. Kowal takes a standard trope and fills it with really good characters instead of cookie-cutter ones. (Which is something like what she did in
First Flight
as well.) Might have to pick up her short story collection now, though I probably won’t go near her Jane Austen inspired Regency fantasy novel that just came out. Regency not my thing. Two Boys
by Steven Popkes- Neanderthals recreated from D.N.A. Really pretty good if you look past one weirdness. The neanderthals create for themselves a completely new culture. That’s kind of cool. But it doesn’t have a lot of reference to the existing homo sapiens culture. For instance, they create a whole new marriage and child-raising tradition out of whole cloth, where parenting roles are really different and partially communal. Particularly considering the first neanderthal in the story was raised as homo sapiens not knowing he was neanderthal for a while, it seems kind of odd that they’d successfully invent their culture that way. Regular girl satisfies her curiosity about neanderthals by going looky-looing for the house of the rumored new kid in school, a neanderthal.
Turbulence
by Kristine Kathryn Rusch- Some people always get stuck next to the talkative person. The protagonist gets stuck next to the talkative person who is nervous about the flight. And every time she gets nervous, something bad happens. Dude doesn’t believe her at first. More a story about worrying than about precognition.
California Burning
by Michael Blumlein- Larry’s father doesn’t want to be cremated. Dad’s dead, and the crematorium returns the bones (and the fee) to Larry because they just won’t burn. Then people show up asking Larry questions, wanting to see the remains. They kind of remind me of some of the characters in Kraken. They tell one version of who they are, then another. First the police, then the health department. It becomes increasingly apparent that Larry’s dad is far more than he seemed. I’m really not sure whether I like the story or not. It hooked me though, but that might be because of the characterization for the Larry’s dad’s weird colleagues.
Solid stories mostly, but nothing I’d nominate for awards. I think the fact that the cover image was originally intended for a Stephen King book cover and was repurposed for this issue speaks volumes about the contents.
Title: Asimov’s Science Fiction
Issue: August 2009 (#403)
Editor: Sheila Williams
Cover creator: John Jude Palencar
Publication date: June 2009
