Asimov’s Science Fiction September 2008

So, I confess that I purchased this issue of Asimov’s because of one story, Derek Zumsteg’s Usurper. Mr. Zumsteg is a former colleague of mine from my Expedia days, though I can’t recall ever actually having met the guy in person. Nevertheless, we’ve been on an email thread or two together. I wonder if he offered this story to Expedia first. I know my employment contract required that I give the company the right of first refusal for all my copyrights if I authored the work during my employment. Anyhoo, since I am also a devoted fan of the Seattle Mariners, I also follow the USS Mariner fan site, also run by Mr. Zumsteg. His The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball has been on my wish list for a while. Looking over the list of books I’ve read, I realized I have never read anything by an author starting with the letter Z. It’s the only letter I haven’t got. I figured I would buy this issue of Asimov’s and see if his fiction is any good. But since it’s the second to last story in the issue, you’ll have to scroll down.

In the Age of the Quiet Sun, William Barton

I mostly liked this story. Mr. Zed is a space miner/pilot for Standard ARM, a company he once owned. At some time in the past he was convicted of something (I never quite caught what it was), but to be relieved of serving his sentence behind bars, he goes to work for his former company. Now he toils in virtual slavery mining, held together by anti-aging drugs that turn his skin leathery and shrink his genitalia and accompanied by another miner and a ship’s computer partially constructed from the mind of a woman who didn’t realize what checking organ donor on her driver’s license could lead to. And then they discover something that shouldn’t be out there, aliens. The story was slow to get moving unfortunately, and I had a hard time piecing together the facts but once it got going it all held together pretty well. I didn’t like the way the ending was written. The content was pretty good, but the last couple of pages jump to an epilogue-style here’s how everything turned out years later.

Soldier of the Singularity, Robert R. Chase

The singularity is that magical point when technology begins to advance faster than we can control it. In other words, computers start designing their own replacements without human direction because they can think faster than we can. Whether that means computer sentience, or we can upload ourselves into computers, or what have you. It could make our lives extremely leisurely, or it could be the dawn of Skynet. This story takes the latter approach, sort of. The reveal at the end didn’t impress me.

Horse Racing, Mary Rosenblum

Do you believe the Tri-Lateral Commission is running the U.S. and the world? Maybe this is how it all works. I liked the concept, even though it seems pretty unworkable. And although this is written from the perspective of one subject of manipulation, I wanted to be in the perspective of the younger subject. Paranoia is, I think, more interesting than ennui.

Cut Loose the Bonds of Flesh and Bone, Ian Creasey

This is kind of the ultimate in passive-aggressive behavior. Quite a few people will identify with the protagonist in this story. What if your nagging mother would never die?

Slug Hell, Steven Utley

This story of paleolithic (or whatever epoch is scientifically correct for the story) research reminds me a lot of another book, though I’m not quite sure which one. I’m thinking Michael Swanwick’s Bones of the Earth though that’s just a guess. (This is why I try to put synopes in my reviews, so I can look and hopefully remember.) Scientists are somehow able to get to a time on Earth before much complex life exists. The protagonist studies organisms that live in the salty brine pools of the time, thus slug hell. It’s a nice slice of life portrait, extolling some of the positive aspects of being present at a time with no life. Really good opportunity for the people who like solitude.

Midnight Blue, Will McIntosh

Half fantasy, half science fiction story about symbiotic entities that give people super-powers, though some are not so super. A couple of generations ago in Jeff’s grandfather’s time the smooth spheres that give the enhanced abilities were common. Now most have been found and they are collectors items, valuable commodities that only the rich absorb into themselves. Jeff acutely feels his family’s lower class status and desperately wants to save up to buy a sphere at a shop so he can be part of the in crowd at school. And then, when fishing in an urban creek (catch and release, no fish were harmed in the making of this story), he comes across a dark blue sphere in the recesses of a dark culvert. A sphere so rare that no one knows what ability it gives a person. Although the symbiosis/super-power thing was a little fanciful and non science fictiony, it gave the whole story a light-hearted feel that I quite enjoyed. Everything about the set-up fit together really well too. Everything from the economics to the fame to the high school dynamics. So far it’s my favorite story in the issue.

Usurpers, Derek Zumsteg

From a light-hearted high school tale to the dark side of high school and much less fanciful. Combine science fiction and sports doping and mix that into class politics in high school cross country running. Like Zumsteg, I ran cross country in my youth, though I stopped after 8th grade. The intro notes that he knows many other tricks of running these races. I missed them, but that’s possibly because I ran for a Christian middle school in a Christian school league, before we lost our scruples. In the story, King is a former top runner, displaced from the rankings after a group of white upper middle class kids (I kept thinking of the bad guy from the movie Better Off Dead), get a little genetic modification on a China trip. King is resentful, and puts all his effort and training into winning one particular race. Written in a curt, punchy style, often with the subject of the sentence implied (like this sentence). I think I would have gotten annoyed with that over a longer story, but it really worked in this one. The style enhanced the out-of-breath and resentful feel. Pretty good debut, I’d say.

The Ice War, Stephen Baxter

In an alternate England in 1720, the Martians came. Well, not Martians. But one can’t help but compare this story to H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. Lots and lots of similarities. One subtle difference, but to reveal it would spoil the story so I won’t. Featuring appearances by Hobbes, Swift, Defoe, and Sir Isaac Newton. The story was pretty enjoyable, more for good writing than for anything innovative in the speculative department.

Pretty good issue. Way better than the July issue of F&SF I read a couple of months ago. The only story that bored me was Robert Chase’s. Midnight Blue was my favorite.