Asimov's - February 2007

An interesting month for Asimov's. I thought several of the stories had very strong starts and intriguing plots and characters, but then took a major turn in style and/or plot turn right near the end of the story and didn't live up to their promise. I would put "Outgoing" by Alex Wilson, "The Chimera Transit" by Jack Skillingstead and "Close" by William Preston in this category.

My favorite story in this issue was "Recovering Apollo 8", a deep character study of a man driven by a love of space and respect for those who explored it. (It's my guess that the character was modeled on Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Enterprises.) The story had some alternate history aspects to it that I felt weren't really necessary except to allow for certain plot elements to occur, and a bit of a coincidence at the end (to resolve a final plot thread). Those were the only things that kept it from being a top-notch story for me.

I'd also give credit to "A Portrait of the Artist" by Charles Midwinter, an interesting look at an artist, his sometimes girlfriend, and an interesting turn of events in his life and his art. I don't think it knitted together as nicely as I would like - again, a few too-convenient events at the end - but I still enjoyed the style and (minimal) scope of the story.