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tpietila's review
3.0
A lot of space is taken by the classic story (Weyr Search by Anne McCaffrey) which I read not long ago, and by a serial (which I hope to read later). The quality of the stories was pretty average, or even below average, and there were some very stupid details in many of the stories. Is the editing of Analog going downhill?
Moral Biology • novella by Neal Asher
An expedition goes to a planet that is protected by orbital platforms. It is unclear if those platforms are supposed to protect the planet or to stop something from escaping. The expedition is led by AI, and a member of the away team is AI with an android body. Their ship is shot down; they land and study strange creatures that show clear indications of biological engineering, and seem very dangerous. A pretty clumsy and slow-moving story, with vast, vast amounts of exposition and a fair amount of "as you know Bob"-dialogue. The team takes totally stupid risks, and I don’t think that the end of the story (or anything really) worked. **-
A Breath of Air • novelette by Tom Jolly
A group of people has “homestead” rights to an area on Mars. The people who lived in that place had died in an accident. There seems to be a lot of bad luck and strange accidents - perhaps the less-than-friendly-looking neighbors are trying to drive them away? After a bigger accident, which practically destroys both farms, things look bad. Nothing unusual or new, but a smoothly written and entertaining story. ****-
Candida Eve • short story by Dominica Phetteplace
All but one of the members of a Mars expedition have died of a disease that has spread like a pandemic on Earth soon after their launch. She buries the dead members (wtf, why intentionally bring bacteria and even the deadly pandemic virus from Earth to Mars?) and starts to do whatever research she can do alone. The story has a nice feel, it is more relevant now than when it was being written, but there are a few too irritating stupidities in it. If you send self-learning robots on a vital space mission, wouldn’t it make sense to teach them the most basic functions before the mission leaves, so that they wouldn’t have to learn how to hold a screwdriver as the first thing on the mission? But, on the other hand, apparently no testing at all had been done about how drones work, otherwise their malfunction would have been easily prevented by ANY testing. ***½
A Compass in the Dark • short story by Phoebe Barton
A woman has moved to the far side of the moon and returns to bury her father, who believes that souls need a magnetic field to escape. The writing was nice, but the story was too short. And at the beginning, I was very baffled when it was mentioned that the Earth and the Sun are seen as sickles on the sky. I was trying to think about a place where that could happen, but wasn’t able to. I still can't think how that would be possible. ***-
It Was a Tradition When You Turned 16 • short story by Eric Cline
A treatise of electric cars, the disguise of a father giving his daughter a driving lesson while she thinks the whole thing is unnecessary and quaint. Not actually a real story. ***+
Calm Face of the Storm • novelette by Ramona Louise Wheeler
Bret is nearing the end of his adolescence and flies alone. He gets caught up in a storm and is blown away to strange lands. He meets an intriguing female of the other tribe, which was thought to be mystical, and she goes into winter hibernation, as is the way of her people. He flies farther, and finds strange but dangerous creatures. When he eventually returns home, he is not believed. A pretty standard coming-of-age story, but the setting was really strange. At first, I thought it took place on a colony planet, but then it was obvious that the planet was the home planet of flying creatures, who apparently have a spaceport and satellite location system, but don’t really know much of the geography, peoples, and animals of their own world...WTF is going on? Is there a rational explanation for this all, or is the author just lazy? ***
Moral Biology • novella by Neal Asher
An expedition goes to a planet that is protected by orbital platforms. It is unclear if those platforms are supposed to protect the planet or to stop something from escaping. The expedition is led by AI, and a member of the away team is AI with an android body. Their ship is shot down; they land and study strange creatures that show clear indications of biological engineering, and seem very dangerous. A pretty clumsy and slow-moving story, with vast, vast amounts of exposition and a fair amount of "as you know Bob"-dialogue. The team takes totally stupid risks, and I don’t think that the end of the story (or anything really) worked. **-
A Breath of Air • novelette by Tom Jolly
A group of people has “homestead” rights to an area on Mars. The people who lived in that place had died in an accident. There seems to be a lot of bad luck and strange accidents - perhaps the less-than-friendly-looking neighbors are trying to drive them away? After a bigger accident, which practically destroys both farms, things look bad. Nothing unusual or new, but a smoothly written and entertaining story. ****-
Candida Eve • short story by Dominica Phetteplace
All but one of the members of a Mars expedition have died of a disease that has spread like a pandemic on Earth soon after their launch. She buries the dead members (wtf, why intentionally bring bacteria and even the deadly pandemic virus from Earth to Mars?) and starts to do whatever research she can do alone. The story has a nice feel, it is more relevant now than when it was being written, but there are a few too irritating stupidities in it. If you send self-learning robots on a vital space mission, wouldn’t it make sense to teach them the most basic functions before the mission leaves, so that they wouldn’t have to learn how to hold a screwdriver as the first thing on the mission? But, on the other hand, apparently no testing at all had been done about how drones work, otherwise their malfunction would have been easily prevented by ANY testing. ***½
A Compass in the Dark • short story by Phoebe Barton
A woman has moved to the far side of the moon and returns to bury her father, who believes that souls need a magnetic field to escape. The writing was nice, but the story was too short. And at the beginning, I was very baffled when it was mentioned that the Earth and the Sun are seen as sickles on the sky. I was trying to think about a place where that could happen, but wasn’t able to. I still can't think how that would be possible. ***-
It Was a Tradition When You Turned 16 • short story by Eric Cline
A treatise of electric cars, the disguise of a father giving his daughter a driving lesson while she thinks the whole thing is unnecessary and quaint. Not actually a real story. ***+
Calm Face of the Storm • novelette by Ramona Louise Wheeler
Bret is nearing the end of his adolescence and flies alone. He gets caught up in a storm and is blown away to strange lands. He meets an intriguing female of the other tribe, which was thought to be mystical, and she goes into winter hibernation, as is the way of her people. He flies farther, and finds strange but dangerous creatures. When he eventually returns home, he is not believed. A pretty standard coming-of-age story, but the setting was really strange. At first, I thought it took place on a colony planet, but then it was obvious that the planet was the home planet of flying creatures, who apparently have a spaceport and satellite location system, but don’t really know much of the geography, peoples, and animals of their own world...WTF is going on? Is there a rational explanation for this all, or is the author just lazy? ***
oleksandr's review
3.0
This is the review of May-June 2020 issue of Analog. There was nothing strikingly awesome, but quite a few solid works.
Fiction and Essays in the issue:
Here There Be Women [Editorial (Analog)] essay by Emily Hockaday A short intro to the 90th anniversary selected story, this time by a woman, plus a few musings about women in SF over time.
Weyr Search [Dragonriders of Pern short fiction] -1967 novella by Anne McCaffrey it may sound strange, but this is my first taste of [a:Anne McCaffrey|26|Anne McCaffrey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1599324585p2/26.jpg] works – I have heard of Pern, but never have tried any of the books. This is a fine ‘SF masquerading as fantasy’ story, with a woman hair to the hold, who managed to escape, when their hold was attacked, grew up and managed a revenge when Dragonriders visited the hold. A good quality 60s SF, which sounds a bit old today. 3*
Miles to Go Before We Rest poem by G. O. Clark I am quite weak in poetry and I don’t get this one.
Moral Biology [Polity Universe] novella by Neal Asher a planet with an orbital attack/defense grid, which goal seems not to defend from outside, but to hold what is inside from escaping. A team of a human, golem and AI, with a platoon of solders is sent to investigate. It was hard for me to follow all characters but the final reveal is quite interesting. 3*
Space Dust: How an Asteroid Altered Life on Earth...Millions of Years Before the Dinosaurs [Science Fact (Analog)] essay by Richard A. Lovett there was a mutual disintegration of two non-iron asteroids (one about 150 km in diameter), so even now 1/3 of all asteroids that fall are from that calamity. 3*
A Breath of Air novelette by Tom Jolly colonists on Mars make it habitable one greenhouse at a time. Someone tries to kill them, why? A nice exploration/terraforming/mystery story. 3*
The New Planet poem by Sarah Gallien a short piece supposedly about a joint project of terraforming together with aliens (?)
Candida Eve short story by Dominica Phetteplace a mission on Mars dies on flight, all but one woman. The pandemics havocs the Earth, so no way back for the survivor in near future. 2*
Is the Universe a Hypersphere? [The Alternate View] essay by John G. Cramer another piece re the discrepancy in the Hubble constant (as discussed last issue). 2*
To Persist, However Changed short story by Aimee Ogden a short piece that describes something similar to a living thinking planet, too short IMHO. 1*
Net Loss short story by James Sallis a criminal got snitched by smart TV, another flash fiction. 2*
A Compass in the Dark short story by Phoebe Barton a girl on a Moon colony, her father makes compasses for spirits of the dead to travel safe. She rebels against his views. 2*
In Times to Come (Analog, May-June 2020) [In Times to Come (Analog)] essay by uncredited what the next issue will bring.
It Was a Tradition When You Turned 16 short story by Eric Cline a nice story – a father tries to teach his teenage daughter to manually drive in age when all cars are driven by AI. 4*
Calm Face of the Storm novelette by Ramona Louise Wheeler some kind of flying narrator (a bat variant?) gets behind ‘known land’ to find that some tales are true. 3*
The House of Styx (part 2 of 3) [Venus Ascendant 1] serial by Derek Künsken? a continuation of the story. The family prepares to go dark and live in tunnels on Venus, but they lack expertise, so invite other people. So far a very nice read. 4*
The Reference Library (Analog, May-June 2020) [The Reference Library] essay by Don Sakers some new SF
Fiction and Essays in the issue:
Here There Be Women [Editorial (Analog)] essay by Emily Hockaday A short intro to the 90th anniversary selected story, this time by a woman, plus a few musings about women in SF over time.
Weyr Search [Dragonriders of Pern short fiction] -1967 novella by Anne McCaffrey it may sound strange, but this is my first taste of [a:Anne McCaffrey|26|Anne McCaffrey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1599324585p2/26.jpg] works – I have heard of Pern, but never have tried any of the books. This is a fine ‘SF masquerading as fantasy’ story, with a woman hair to the hold, who managed to escape, when their hold was attacked, grew up and managed a revenge when Dragonriders visited the hold. A good quality 60s SF, which sounds a bit old today. 3*
Miles to Go Before We Rest poem by G. O. Clark I am quite weak in poetry and I don’t get this one.
Moral Biology [Polity Universe] novella by Neal Asher a planet with an orbital attack/defense grid, which goal seems not to defend from outside, but to hold what is inside from escaping. A team of a human, golem and AI, with a platoon of solders is sent to investigate. It was hard for me to follow all characters but the final reveal is quite interesting. 3*
Space Dust: How an Asteroid Altered Life on Earth...Millions of Years Before the Dinosaurs [Science Fact (Analog)] essay by Richard A. Lovett there was a mutual disintegration of two non-iron asteroids (one about 150 km in diameter), so even now 1/3 of all asteroids that fall are from that calamity. 3*
A Breath of Air novelette by Tom Jolly colonists on Mars make it habitable one greenhouse at a time. Someone tries to kill them, why? A nice exploration/terraforming/mystery story. 3*
The New Planet poem by Sarah Gallien a short piece supposedly about a joint project of terraforming together with aliens (?)
Candida Eve short story by Dominica Phetteplace a mission on Mars dies on flight, all but one woman. The pandemics havocs the Earth, so no way back for the survivor in near future. 2*
Is the Universe a Hypersphere? [The Alternate View] essay by John G. Cramer another piece re the discrepancy in the Hubble constant (as discussed last issue). 2*
To Persist, However Changed short story by Aimee Ogden a short piece that describes something similar to a living thinking planet, too short IMHO. 1*
Net Loss short story by James Sallis a criminal got snitched by smart TV, another flash fiction. 2*
A Compass in the Dark short story by Phoebe Barton a girl on a Moon colony, her father makes compasses for spirits of the dead to travel safe. She rebels against his views. 2*
In Times to Come (Analog, May-June 2020) [In Times to Come (Analog)] essay by uncredited what the next issue will bring.
It Was a Tradition When You Turned 16 short story by Eric Cline a nice story – a father tries to teach his teenage daughter to manually drive in age when all cars are driven by AI. 4*
Calm Face of the Storm novelette by Ramona Louise Wheeler some kind of flying narrator (a bat variant?) gets behind ‘known land’ to find that some tales are true. 3*
The House of Styx (part 2 of 3) [Venus Ascendant 1] serial by Derek Künsken? a continuation of the story. The family prepares to go dark and live in tunnels on Venus, but they lack expertise, so invite other people. So far a very nice read. 4*
The Reference Library (Analog, May-June 2020) [The Reference Library] essay by Don Sakers some new SF
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