Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Next up: Analog SF for September/October, and also Sharpe's Battle.
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Analog was very good. I'll give a proper commentary when I have a moment.
OK, here it is:
An excellent set of stories, bar two or three.
"Heaven's Covenant" by Bud Sparhawk was one of the two and the longest, a tale of expansion through the universe using hibernation technology, with deliberately vague discrimination.
"My Fifth and Most Exotic Voyage" by Edward M. Lerner was brilliant - time travel and Lemuel Gulliver.
"i know my own & my own know me" by Tracy Canfield was also a wonderful tale of uplifted creatures -- including a cat.
"The Old Man" by Rich Larson was the other I wasn't impressed by. A tale of rebellion and terrorism across generations, with ambiguity as to justification.
"Orphans" by Craig DeLancey was a tale of interstellar travel, and an explanation of the Fermi Paradox.
"The Sword of Damocles" by Norman Spinrad was an excellent alternative explanation for the Fermi Paradox, although I think the reason given for a lack of communication was very poor.
"Ghostmail" by Eric Del Carlo was an OK Mil-SFish short story.
"The First Trebuchet on Mars" by Marie Vibbert did just what the title said. Excellent.
"Climbing Olympus" by Simon Kewin was another story whose title says is all (or nearly). Not as fun, and a bit predictable.
"Emergency Protocol" by Lettie Prell was a good short short.
"A Tinker's Damnation" by Jerry Oltion was a very good look at problems of technological dependence.
"The Absence" by Robert R. Chase was a rather disappointing 'ghost' story.
"Arp! Arp!" by Christina De La Rocha was a good marine technology story.
"The Mathematician" by Tom Jolly was an excellent alien viewpoint/no humans story.
"Coyote Moon" by James Van Pelt was an OK story of economic inequality.
"Abductive Reasoning" by Christopher L. Bennett was an amusing look at a Ufologist's real close encounter.
"Invaders" by Stanley Schmidt was an OK eclipse viewing story.
"Victor Frankenstein's Bar and Grill and Twenty-Four-Hour Roadside Emporium by Michael F. Flynn Probability Zero story didn't quite live up to the promise of the title.