Asimov's - March 2006

Novelettes

“The Gabble” – Neal Asher
My Grade: B
Summary: Two researchers studying the gabbleduck and other creatures on the gabbleduck’s world go into the wild to get closer to a dead creature. They have a relationship, end up in some danger, and learn a great deal about all the creatures of this world.
Comment: The information about the gabbleduck and other creatures was very interesting, and the two characters well-drawn and interesting. I found the switching back and forth between the two characters’s points of view distracting, and the story went into expository mode more often that I would have liked.

“Dark Eden” – Chris Beckett
My Grade: B-
Summary: Three space explorers continue a cancelled mission, and manage to drag a police ship along in their wake. The characters end up at a dark world which still manages to support life and have to make a decision about who stays and who tries to get back to Earth.
Comment: The story continually switches between the points of view of the two characters who end up staying (this must be “switching point of view” month at Asimov’s), and I’m not too sure how well that worked versus being distracting. The author tried to link the two points of view on each side of the switches, and I’m not too sure how well that worked versus being a gimmick. The end was rather uncertain, and I don’t think I agree with the decision of two people to stay behind on the planet and try to start a new “race of humans”.

“Dead Man Walking” – Paul J. McAuley
My Grade: B-
Summary: A prison guard on another world, with a past as a deadly extra-human para-military assassin, tries to find the person who is murdering prisoners (and who he suspects is another creature like himself). The guard fights with the killer and manages to win, but at the cost of his own life.
Comment: The main character was interesting in terms of his history (and thus the history of the killer), but I felt that there wasn’t a lot of depth in either character and that the story became more about the concept than about the examination of how a manufactured killer changes to become something more human.

“The Kewlest Thing of All” – David Ira Cleary
My Grade: B+
Summary: A teenage girl with technological implants works to convince a woman to get implants like her own, as they also strike up a friendship and travel through their advertising-soaked and technologically advanced Earth.
Comment: I felt that the world of the story was just intricate and amazing, but it also felt very plausible and realistic. I liked the character of the girl and her struggle to both “do her job” and find something in her world that could have more meaning. The story got a little tech-heavy at times, but the meta-human aspects of this future were very enjoyable yet also completely believable. For me, the best story of the issue.

Short Stories

“46 Directions, None of them North” – Deborah Coates
My Grade: B
Summary: A teenage girl tries to convince her divorced parents that she should be allowed to go to Fairbanks, Alaska because aliens will be landing there (as they have been telling her via email and her cell phone).
Comment: I thought this was a nice story from the point of view of an everyday teen that happens to be getting messages from aliens. It covered the difficulties of her life and of her interactions with her parents. I found it cute, though the teen herself didn’t go through any real character changes – it would have been interesting to see the story from the point of the view of the mom.

“Rwanda” – Robert Reed
My Grade: B
Summary: A father tells a boy the story of an alien invasion of earth involving the taking over of human bodies. The human reaction is intense and brutal, and the relationship of the father and boy changes as a result of the facts of the story.
Comment: I certainly thought this was an interesting take on alien invasion and the havoc it wreaks on Earth. I wasn’t too sure why the father told the boy this story or what was supposed to be the end result of the action. I’ve long liked Robert Reed’s stories, and the subject and style was something I liked, but the story itself left me uncertain as to any higher meaning associated with it.

“Companion To Owls” – Chris Robertson
My Grade: B –
Summary: A man who works in the heights of a giant cathedral that virtually covers a continent hires a necromancer to help remove spirits from parts of the cathedral roof. The roofman and the necromancer plan to also get a stone from the brain of a dragon, and one of the spirits affects the outcome of their effort.
Comment: The concept was truly intriguing, but the plotline felt very standard to me, including the resolution. The character of the roofman had some interesting aspects, but overall I didn’t think the story amounted up to much.

Poetry

“O the Angels and Demons” – Laurel Winter
My Grade: B
Summary: Impressions of the effect a bottle containing “magic” (myths?) has on a woman
Comment: I liked the style and imagery, and the effect on the woman was clear, but I wasn’t sure about any larger result that was supposed to have happened.

“Aliens Captured Me” – Leslie What
My Grade: B-
Summary: A man who has been kidnapped by aliens and experimented upon sits on his porch in an effort to save his wife from the same fate.
Comment: I certainly found it funny in a creepy sort of way (I won’t let the aliens do to you what they did to me, honey), but I found the poem a little jumbled in terms of what I was supposed to think about the narrator.

“Demon Armies of the Night” – William John Watkins
My Grade: C+
Summary: A spirit/demon in the war between good and evil reflects on the battle.
Comment: I’m not really too sure what was going on in this poem and felt that things were rather muddled, while also not advancing much beyond a stock “good and evil” theme.

F&SF - February 2006

F&SF – February 2006

Novellas

“Planet of Mystery” (Part 2) – Terry Bisson
My Grade: B- (second half); B- (overall)
Summary: The second half of the story from the January edition. The commander of the module that landed on Venus helps the Amazon queen escape from the advances of the Centaur king by finding a saucer, going to their lander, and then taking the saucer back towards Earth. On the way, they meet up with another Earth spaceship and decide to rescue the third member of their mission. They also stop an alien force that is apparently eating parts of the universe and is on its way to Earth, and the commander and a member of the crew sacrifice their lives in doing so. In the end, there is an epilogue with the commander and the robot that takes place in some sort of location.
Comment: As tight as the first half of the story was (arrive on Venus, find strange things, try to get away from Venus), I felt like the second half really wandered a lot and made a lot less sense (as you can tell from my summary above). I guess this was supposed to have the Golden Age feel to it, but I thought it got too muddled, thus my lower grade for the second half and the overall story.

Novelettes

“The Cathedral of Universal Biodiversity” – Gary W. Shockley
My Grade: B-
Summary: Theo, the head of a galactic church, uses space probes and mediation to help understand the possibilities of life in the universe. His church building is bought by a rich woman who takes over most of the building and uses it for her own hedonistic pleasures. As the story and their interaction progresses, we learn more about the priest’s past. Eventually, there is a resolution involving (apparently) both the woman’s lifestyle and Theo’s mission
Comment: I certainly found this an interesting world for a story, but I never found myself connecting with the characters especially Theo. I think that his self-denial makes him distant, and it doesn’t appear that he is evolving as a character until the very end and the meaning of that moment was unsure to me.

“The Long and the Short and the Tall” – John Morressy
My Grade: B-
Summary: A new story involving Kedrigern the wizard, wherein Kedrigern takes a contract from a dwarf king to find a magical belt. Kedrigern easily finds the belt and returns it to the king.
Comment: I think this is certainly a charming story, with an appealing main character and several enjoyable characters. My main problem with the story is that the task (finding the belt) felt much too easy to me. If the task wasn’t supposed to be a challenge, then what was the story about? I didn’t feel like I got an answer to that question.

“Thirteen O’Clock” – David Gerrold
My Grade: B
Summary: A gay biker with military experience is traveling through a town, and picks up a young frat boy. In the desert, he tells the frat boy a story about his life including the strange unearthly experiences (“blinks”) he has had in critical moments in his life that feel like he is being connected to humanity around the world.
Comment: The stream-of-consciousness writing style was difficult to get into at first, and this is definitely an adult story in terms of language and subject matter. But once I got into it, I found it an interesting story with an appealing narrator. The meaning of the “blinks” was uncertain and I felt that parts of the story were rough and unclear, but I still enjoyed reading it.

“Boon” – Madeline E. Robins
My Grade: B+
Summary: In an Earth inhabited by various magical creatures (elfs, dwarves, etc), a woman struggling to raise a child single handed while working at a diner gets a gift from some elves whose table she waited upon. When the woman taking care of her child gets ill, two gnomes in her apartment building volunteer as caretakers. The gnomes help the woman gets her life in order and also save her child from a threatening elf. The gnomes’ actions put them in trouble with the elven law, but the woman figures out how to gain their freedom and friendship.
Comment: While the ending can be seen a mile away, I felt this was a very nice story with its story of a woman who is trying to make the best of her life and her very human interactions with magical creates that live on Earth. The woman was a very complete and human character, with flaws and failings, and the different types of magical being distinct. About the only flaw I could find in the story is that the actions of the gnomes aren’t completely explained, but besides that I rather liked this story and felt it was the best in this issue.

Short Stories

“Farsifal (Prix Five)” – James L Cambas
My Grade: C+
Summary: A group of travelers in France stop for a fantastic meal at an out of the way restaurant and discuss the history and meaning of the Holy Grail.
Comment: The story is built around a hook (could the Holy Grail be in the restaurant) and while the hook was cute, the expository nature of the dialogue meant there was no real character growth or inner monologue. Overall, I didn’t feel there was much to this story beyond the history and the hook.

Asimov's - February 2006

Novelettes

“Under the Graying Sea” – Jonathan Sherwood
My Grade: B+
Summary: A woman who is part of a two on a test mission through “the bridge”, a wormhole linking our solar system to another part of the galaxy, discovers a calamitous situation on the other side of the bridge. She tries to find a way to solve the problems and save the bridge and the mission.
Comment: I found Tessa a very appealing point of view character, one who continues striving to solve all the problems she encounters. The story gets a little “techy” at times, but that’s understandable given the character. The ending was truly surprising, and I feel the story was a little marred by the need to add what was essentially an “epilogue”. Overall, I liked this story.

“Unbending Eye” – Jim Grimsley
My Grade: B-
Summary: The author narrates a story told to him by a man in a bar. The man was brought back to life by a research team and then put through experiments to determine why he was the only success in the project (including being repeatedly killed and revived). Before revived, the man has the experience of being in a dusty plain and watched by a glowing eye. Growing emotionally and physically numb, the man kills a couple researchers and escapes. The narrator helps him get overseas.
Comment: I think that the trouble with having a character whose senses are “numb” is that the story itself becomes numb and distant. Having the framing narrator helped a little, but I still felt untouched by the story, no matter how intriguing the concept was. Perhaps using a researcher as narrator would have helped?

“Teen Angel” – R. Garcia Y Robertson
My Grade: B+
Summary: This story is set in Garcia Y Robertson’s world of pirates and SuperCats. A woman who is the functional “concubine” of a pirate leader takes care of two kidnapped children during a space battle and escapes during the battle to a stronghold. There, she has to deal with the pirate leader and eventually escapes her captivity.
Comment: I thought this was one heck of an adventure, with an appealing main character even if she was very submissive at times (understandable given the situation). The world is certainly intriguing, and the story, while plot-driven, was still enjoyable.

Short Stories

“Change of Life” – Kat Meltzer
My Grade: B-
Summary: A middle-aged woman working in a dead-end job finds her self changing into a large, powerful cat (lion, tiger, etc), as are women around the country.
Comment: I thought it was a cute concept, and the story had some style to it, but I didn’t feel like it was any deeper than the concept and the style.

“Are You There” – Jack Skillingstead
My Grade: B-
Summary: A lonely detective, who conducts relationships via internet messaging, finds a device that preserves the mental thoughts of loved ones while investigating a series of killings. He starts a relationship with the “person” on the device, who turns out to be the mother of the killer.
Comment: I was interested by the world in which the story was set, and by the character of the detective, but the story didn’t seem too coherent to me – things happened in the story and I wasn’t quite sure what the justification was (beyond it was neat to happen). I guess perhaps I wanted more from the thoughts of the narrator, which is strange given that he is the point of view character and narrator.

“The Hastillian Weed” – Ian Creasey
My Grade: A-
Summary: A man leading a team working to remove traces of an alien weed from a forest finds himself working to deal with the team, the weed, and the alien who has joined this team (but also has ulterior motives).
Comment: I rather liked this story, and its “slice of life” description of a man struggling with his feeling and thoughts about the effects of the alien presence, but in a realistic context. To me, this was the best story in this issue.

“Kin” - Bruce McAllister
My Grade: B+
Summary: A boy tries to hire an alien to kill the man who can cause the boy’s mother’s pregnancy to be terminated. The alien takes care of the situation, without killing, and the boy and the alien form a bond that plays out in the future.
Comment: A nice and interesting story about one moment in a boy’s life that changes everything. The only part I didn’t understand was the final future “epilogue” where the alien ends up giving the boy a gift – I didn’t feel the alien’s motivations in that action were clear enough. But, besides that (which could have been handled by just removing the “epilogue”), I rather liked this story.

Poetry

“Alien Invasion” – Peter Payack
My Grade: B
Summary: A hook makes you think a certain way.
Comment: Cute hook, but that was it.

“Chaos Theory” – William John Watkins
My Grade: B-
Summary: A poem written on the death of a son about how little events can have big consequences.
Comment: It’s touching, especially the end, but I think carries on the “small things becoming big” theme too long. It also doesn’t explain why the son was undergoing surgery, which I think it important. In some sense, that’s none of the reader’s businesss – yet, it could have been important towards attitude towards the “small thing” (the surgeon’s apparent slip) which could have a big precursor, like a car crash, disease, routine surgery, etc.

“Top Five Hints That You May Be Falling Into a Flat-Screen Black Hole” – Robert Frazier
My Grade: B-
Summary: A discussion on the hyper-real events that occur to the writer (once he gets a big flat-screen TV?).
Comment: I wasn’t quite sure about this one – the events didn’t always sound like events related to watching television (the toothpaste tube, singing?) and seemed more like a random collection of descriptions (dreams) than specific events.

“It’s Not Easy Being Dead” – Bruce Boston
My Grade: B-
Summary: To the tune of “It’s Not Easy Being Green” (the Kermit the Frog song, which is acknowledged), a meditation on what things are like in the grave.
Comment: In summary, when you’re dead you’re dead and in the ground. The link with the Kermit song is the real hook, and after you’re through that link I didn’t feel there was much more to the poem (though the “you’ll be dead too” end was cute).

“Dear Schrodinger” – David Lunde
My Grade: B
Summary: A nerdy reply to Schrodinger’s comments on quantum mechanics, with a snappy comeback as an ending.
Comment: The poem is about the building up to the ending, which was a fun ending, but the middle felt muddled. I also wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be a comment on the classic thought experiment attributed to Schrodinger.

F & SF - January 2006

Novellas

“Planet of Mystery” – Terry Bisson
My Grade: B (first half)
Summary: An expedition to Venus crash lands on the planet and finds forests, water, centaurs, Amazons, and a sentient, communicative, witty robotic probe. One member of the expedition becomes “power-mad”, the other tries to figure out how to escape the planet while conversing with the third member still in orbit around Venus.
Comment: This story felt to me like an episode of a 60s/70s science fiction television show, which I think was very intentional. It was certainly interesting, and fun to read, and not much more than that – but it also didn’t pretend to be anything more than that.

Novelettes

“Less Than Nothing” – Robert Reed
My Grade: B
Summary: A young man, apparently a Native American, is banished from his village because he is haunted by the spirit of the man he killed. He ends up on a farm with a couple who have a stronger connection to him than he would think. They learn to understand the situation form a plan for the young man’s future.
Comment: I liked the world in which the story was set, and the strong sense of character. However, I wasn’t quite sure, in the end, what exactly the story was supposed to mean or signify so I wasn’t sure how much it was supposed to mean to me.

“The Boy in Zaquitos” – Bruce McAllister
My Grade: B-
Summary: A man who worked for the military as a human disease vector is haunted by his actions and relates the tale of how he saved a family from the destruction he brought to their country.
Comment: I thought this was a very interesting concept and a nice look at a man’s reaction to his very questionable actions, but I felt like the actual story itself lacked something, perhaps a more touching connection – things felt very distant to me. I also thought the framing mechanism of a speech to a class didn’t add anything and actually seemed unrealistic in terms of his being able to speak out his experience.

Short Stories

“Shadow Man” – Matthew Hughes
My Grade: C+
Summary: Damien, a young man with very dark thoughts catches a spirit that has been “haunting” him and makes an interesting discovery about the man and his own future.
Comment: Stylistically, this story was well done but the subject (serial killers) was rather creepy and I wasn’t really sure about the point of the story beyond being creepy.

“Horse-Year Women” – Michaela Roessner
My Grade: C+
Summary: A woman becomes acquainted with another woman who is a “horse-year” woman (born in the Chinese year of the horse). “Horse-Year Women” have certain personality characteristics which the narrator learns about, along with legends about “horse-year women”. The story has a tragic ending for the “horse-year woman”.
Comment: This story felt like a “paint by numbers” plotline containing a subgroup with a special characteristics and an outsider who experiences the subgroup, with what I felt was a stock ending.

“A Daze in the Life” – Tony Sarowitz
My Grade: B-
Summary: A man who rents “brain processing time” to the government gets a proposition from a man and a woman to allow them to spy on the data stream that passes through his head. He declines and reports them to the authorities, but also warns them so they can escape.
Comment: I found this an interesting concept for a story, but thought that the story itself was a little too easy – I never really got a sense of why the main character does the things he ends up doing.

“Journey to Gantica” – Matthew Corradi
My Grade: C
Summary: A young woman, Adelia, literally outgrows her village and sets off on a journey through magical lands. She ends up in the land of giants helping to repair pocket watches but eventually leaves to return home.
Comment: I thought this was a cute concept but that the story itself didn’t really have much to recommend it – I felt it was concept and some style but not much more.

Asimov's - January 2006

Novelettes

“In the Space of Nine Lives” – R. R. Angell
My Grade: B
Summary: A pilot on a generational ship goes through trials related to the journey and in his emotions as he deals with his role.
Comment: I thought this was a nice story, but also felt it went on too long – yet I liked the “character study” aspect of it.

“World Without End, Amen” – Allen M. Steele
My Grade: B-
Summary: A computer researcher who helped invent the artificial intelligence that now runs society tries to kill himself, isn’t able to do it, but eventually finds a solution to his dilemma.
Comment: I found the artificial intelligence interesting, especially its role in making the world “safe” for people, but the main character of the story didn’t do anything for me and I felt the ending was a bit too easy.

“Ghost Wars” – Stephen Baxter
My Grade: B-
Summary: A crew on a warship fighting aliens strikes an alliance with a faction of the aliens to assassinate a prominent alien leader and thus return the balance of power between humans and aliens.
Comment: To me, this felt like a stock story with characters that fit certain stereotypes, and the ending (with one character sacrificing for the success of the journey) was a little too easy.

Short Stories

“An Episode of Stardust” – Michael Swanick
My Grade: B-
Summary: A dwarf riding on a train frames a story from a “fey”. The “fey” is the prisoner of two police officers and tells his tale of the recovery of a mysterious bag.
Comment: This feels to me like a derivative of the world of Swanick’s Darger/Surplus stories (eg, “The Dog Said Bow-Wow”), but not as good as those stories. An entertaining world, but nothing more.

“World of No Return” – Carol Emshwiller
My Grade: A-
Summary: An alien stranded on Earth becomes a helper to an elderly woman.
Comment: I really liked this story, especially the slow measured pacing. The ending was somewhat difficult because I’d grown attached to the characters, but it felt true to the story and the characters themselves. In my opinion, the best story in the issue.

“The Last McDougal’s” – David D. Levine
My Grade: B-
Summary: An older man running a restaurant has a troubled relationship with his granddaughter.
Comment: The story plot felt forced to me, and the characters felt like general character archetypes (and not specific people).

“Storm Poet” – Kim Antineau
My Grade: B
Summary: A young man who is part of a magical family learns about the scope of his powers, during a drought that is striking the region.
Comment: This felt very dated to me, with the stock situations of magic people with connection to the earth who can cause events (in this case, bring rain). I did like the main character, and that saved the story for me.

Poetry

“Field Trip” – Sophie M. White
My Grade: B
Summary: Thoughts from a student during a field trip to the remnants of an observatory.
Comment: I enjoyed it but it felt incomplete to me.

“Tesla’s Pigeon” – James Gurley
My Grade: B-
Summary: Tesla comforts his beloved pigeon during an electrical storm.
Comment: This was a very intellectual poem, and in the end I think the intellectualism betrayed the poem and made it more about style than about substance.

“Compute This” – Kendall Evans & David C. Kopaska-Merkel
My Grade: C
Summary: Musing on computers becoming aware and changing their relationship to humans.
Comment: You could consider this poem a companion to the story “World Without End, Amen”, This felt like something written in a quick dash, and in my opinion didn’t have much depth to it.

Catching Up

I'll be catching up for a while, posting reviews of Asimov's/F&SF from the beginning of 2006 until now.