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tpietila's review
3.0
The Metric • novelette by David Moles
A story set in a distant future, when most of humanity lives in the last remaining city, which has apparently existed for eons. The last spaceship, which was designed with extremely high technology and built from practically indestructible materials, arrives when it is breaking down from wear and age. It brings news of a universe that is dying from old age. Could something be done, and should something be done? The beginning and end were fairly good, but the middle part was overlong, and hard to get into. ***½
Among the Marithei • short story by Mary Anne Mohanraj
A young man has lived most of his life among aliens. He was born in a war-torn world, was drafted as a child soldier and almost became a suicide bomber. After being rescued by 'spiritual' aliens, he can’t stand the sight of other humans. Slowly he adjusts, gets married, and has a child. He takes part in an alien spiritual event (as usual) and sees something… an excellent and moving story. I was left wondering about the impact of humanity, though. In the first part of the story humans felt like a minor race, at the end of the story it seemed they occupied the larger part of the galaxy. ****-
Reclaiming the Stars • [The Stars] • novelette by James E. Gunn [as by James Gunn]
The fourth and final part of a series. Didn’t read it, as I haven’t read the previous parts.
Ready Gas and Pills • short story by Dominica Phetteplace
An inspector is visiting a small town. The local pharmacy has a machine that "prints" medications, and the inspector suspects that it has been illegally tampered with. Nothing is only black and white, though. A pretty good story. But it is funny that not even in science fiction the USA has sensible and functioning health care. ***½
Año Nuevo • novelette by Ray Nayler
Apparently, alien "plants" have appeared on a certain shore. They seem to be based on some kind of colonies which are based on sugar, with different handedness and RNA-like molecules. And then the plants disappear without leaving any trace. A nice story that seems like a prelude for the real story. ***+
The Chartreuse Sky • short story by Alexander Bachilo and and K. A. Teryno
The future Moscow is practically all virtual - everyone sees it differently through personalized virtual reality. A young boy is missing, and his mother is a Luddite who doesn’t use implanted devices so he can’t be instantly tracked. The background and the worldbuilding were very interesting and fascinating, but the overall plot felt almost tucked in. A pretty good story in spite of that. ***½
Super Sprouts • novelette by Ian Creasey
Belongs to a series featuring a couple where the wife is a very skilled DNA engineer and the husband is very good at marketing her inventions. This time they try to develop greens children would eat. That is more difficult than it seems, and they are thinking about a more personal project: a child. Not everything can be left to chance for someone who is a very skilled genetic manipulator. Nice and easy-to-read story, but it was slightly overlong. Not much seems to happen after all. ***½
My Heart is At Capacity • short story by T. J. Berry
An android deeply loves his master and uses all his time to find things that would make her happier. He learns from experience and trains his behavior to seem more natural and appealing for humans and with other androids, too. But whatever he does, his mistress seems unhappy. It is a pretty good story about a very human-like android who still worked within his parameters. ****-
Tin Man • novelette by Brad Aiken and Rick Wilber
A baseball pitcher is in an accident where his throwing hand is practically destroyed. He gets an experimental bionic hand, which is better than the old one. He is soon banned from playing, but that doesn’t matter much: everything collapses and there is fighting, militias, and violence. He spends some time in Canada and returns to the US when things slightly calm down, and plays small-scale baseball. A simple “calm” story about the life of a man. The bionic arm is almost incidental. It is pretty good for a sports story. ****-
Phosphor’s Circle Short story by Annika Barranti Klein
A guide at a zoo becomes convinced that all animals are simulated holograms. A short and fairly amusing story which leaves thing slightly open. ***
Flattering the Flame • novelette by Robert Reed
Humans are approaching an area of space where a very old race is very militaristic and fights ritualistic battles so often and with such ferocity that they rarely need to fight actual battles. Humans are traveling in a gas giant-sized spaceship which they just found from somewhere with some sort of immortal crew (?) (The story apparently belongs to a series I am not familiar with at all, and the lack of back story and general pulpiness of it all made it hard to get into at first). Even a militaristic race isn’t able to resist temptations offered by superior technology. OK story, but the lack of background possibly spoiled it partly for me. ***
A story set in a distant future, when most of humanity lives in the last remaining city, which has apparently existed for eons. The last spaceship, which was designed with extremely high technology and built from practically indestructible materials, arrives when it is breaking down from wear and age. It brings news of a universe that is dying from old age. Could something be done, and should something be done? The beginning and end were fairly good, but the middle part was overlong, and hard to get into. ***½
Among the Marithei • short story by Mary Anne Mohanraj
A young man has lived most of his life among aliens. He was born in a war-torn world, was drafted as a child soldier and almost became a suicide bomber. After being rescued by 'spiritual' aliens, he can’t stand the sight of other humans. Slowly he adjusts, gets married, and has a child. He takes part in an alien spiritual event (as usual) and sees something… an excellent and moving story. I was left wondering about the impact of humanity, though. In the first part of the story humans felt like a minor race, at the end of the story it seemed they occupied the larger part of the galaxy. ****-
Reclaiming the Stars • [The Stars] • novelette by James E. Gunn [as by James Gunn]
The fourth and final part of a series. Didn’t read it, as I haven’t read the previous parts.
Ready Gas and Pills • short story by Dominica Phetteplace
An inspector is visiting a small town. The local pharmacy has a machine that "prints" medications, and the inspector suspects that it has been illegally tampered with. Nothing is only black and white, though. A pretty good story. But it is funny that not even in science fiction the USA has sensible and functioning health care. ***½
Año Nuevo • novelette by Ray Nayler
Apparently, alien "plants" have appeared on a certain shore. They seem to be based on some kind of colonies which are based on sugar, with different handedness and RNA-like molecules. And then the plants disappear without leaving any trace. A nice story that seems like a prelude for the real story. ***+
The Chartreuse Sky • short story by Alexander Bachilo and and K. A. Teryno
The future Moscow is practically all virtual - everyone sees it differently through personalized virtual reality. A young boy is missing, and his mother is a Luddite who doesn’t use implanted devices so he can’t be instantly tracked. The background and the worldbuilding were very interesting and fascinating, but the overall plot felt almost tucked in. A pretty good story in spite of that. ***½
Super Sprouts • novelette by Ian Creasey
Belongs to a series featuring a couple where the wife is a very skilled DNA engineer and the husband is very good at marketing her inventions. This time they try to develop greens children would eat. That is more difficult than it seems, and they are thinking about a more personal project: a child. Not everything can be left to chance for someone who is a very skilled genetic manipulator. Nice and easy-to-read story, but it was slightly overlong. Not much seems to happen after all. ***½
My Heart is At Capacity • short story by T. J. Berry
An android deeply loves his master and uses all his time to find things that would make her happier. He learns from experience and trains his behavior to seem more natural and appealing for humans and with other androids, too. But whatever he does, his mistress seems unhappy. It is a pretty good story about a very human-like android who still worked within his parameters. ****-
Tin Man • novelette by Brad Aiken and Rick Wilber
A baseball pitcher is in an accident where his throwing hand is practically destroyed. He gets an experimental bionic hand, which is better than the old one. He is soon banned from playing, but that doesn’t matter much: everything collapses and there is fighting, militias, and violence. He spends some time in Canada and returns to the US when things slightly calm down, and plays small-scale baseball. A simple “calm” story about the life of a man. The bionic arm is almost incidental. It is pretty good for a sports story. ****-
Phosphor’s Circle Short story by Annika Barranti Klein
A guide at a zoo becomes convinced that all animals are simulated holograms. A short and fairly amusing story which leaves thing slightly open. ***
Flattering the Flame • novelette by Robert Reed
Humans are approaching an area of space where a very old race is very militaristic and fights ritualistic battles so often and with such ferocity that they rarely need to fight actual battles. Humans are traveling in a gas giant-sized spaceship which they just found from somewhere with some sort of immortal crew (?) (The story apparently belongs to a series I am not familiar with at all, and the lack of back story and general pulpiness of it all made it hard to get into at first). Even a militaristic race isn’t able to resist temptations offered by superior technology. OK story, but the lack of background possibly spoiled it partly for me. ***
oleksandr's review
4.0
This is the May-June 2021 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction, one of the two long established and still on the market SF professional magazines. In the past, works from it were regularly listed for all major SF awards, but recently it stepped down (or was crowded out) by modern internet publications. Both old and new have quite solid works and I really enjoyed the current issue.
The contents:
Transitions [Asimov's Editorials] essay by Sheila Williams presentation of new members of the team, including a new reviewer.
The First Encyclopedia [Reflections] essay by Robert Silverberg about the work of [a:Pliny the Elder|302386|Pliny the Elder|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1328607731p2/302386.jpg] – [b:Naturalis Historia, Vol. Iv Cb|3403934|Naturalis Historia, Vol. Iv Cb|Pliny the Elder|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|92844210], which is the earliest (western) attempt of an encyclopedia. This is also a great insight in what Romans saw as science. 3*
Digital Heroes [On the Net] essay by James Patrick Kelly three internet services for SFF fandom with checked info, namely SFF Awards, The Internet Speculative Fiction Database and SF Encyclopedia , which I also recommend. 3*
Religion and Science Fiction [Thought Experiments] essay by James E. Gunn an overview of links between SFF and religion, from stuff like Narnia, to retellings like [b:Lord of Light|13821|Lord of Light|Roger Zelazny|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330127327l/13821._SY75_.jpg|1011388], to a lot of shorter works. 4*
Jim Gunn and I Corresponded ... [Obituaries (Sheila Williams)] essay by Sheila Williams the sad news that the author of the previous piece has died.
The Metric novelette by David Moles far future Earth, with universe spread so far that there is no starlight in the sky. A ship with AI comes with info that some change of cosmic law contained by Earth disallows universe to reborn. Should the last people (together with AIs and other sentients) allow possible renewal by own certain demise? 3*
Among the Marithei short story by Mary Anne Mohanraj a man, with a severe war trauma as a child, now lives among peaceful aliens, who adopted him and tried to cure him. He is with his infant daughter in alien temple and sees a possible human suicide bomber. 3*
Reclaiming the Stars [The Stars] novelette by James E. Gunn a part of a series, this time two uploaded humans in robot bodies terraform Mars to make it habitable (Earth is one giant ocean). They have strange nightmares of failure, possibly imposed from outside, but by whom? 3*
Ready Gas and Pills short story by Dominica Phetteplace after epidemies there is I network of drugs producing machines on each gas station (and other public places). The protagonist is an inspector/investigator that checks that machines got high quality inputs and supply only written out drugs and disconnects them otherwise. She has to disconnect one at the start of the story and there are angry people left w/o drugs, including a girl working on that gas station who self-proscribed birth control pills because she is gay and should hide it in a small town and hoped that hormonals which ‘sedate’ her. The problem of possible harm vs immediate benefit. 3*
Año Nuevo novelette by Ray Nayler 30 years ago on beaches in California aliens appeared – giant semi-transparent globes. They don’t react to attempt of contact, just sit there, processing minerals. And then one day they disappear. Or do they? 4*
Super Sprouts novelette by Ian Creasey a part of a series about a genius geneticist and her market-oriented husband (who narrates). They are asked to make kids love greens. They also plan a kid for themselves and she tries to select ‘best genes’, while conservatives in power try to ban gene modifications. 5*
A Million Years poem by Tom Jolly what will remain from us as time passes. 3*
The Chartreuse Sky short story by Александр Бачило and К. А. Терина a translated work about future Moscow, where all are under control of beneficent but strict ‘iron nanny’ AI and most live in own generated realities, which are overimposed on the real city. A few deny such access and a schoolboy, whose parents deny it to themselves and him, has vanished. 3*
My Heart is At Capacity short story by T. J. Berry another of a now popular trope of androids/AIs created for emotional support of people – but if AI has feelings – are we allowed to hurt them? 3*
Inside Voice poem by Jackie Sherbow a narrator with a nephew in a planetarium, awed and diminished by our universe. 2*
Tin Man novelette by Brad Aiken and Rick Wilber a guy plays baseball in local club and flashback into his past – he was a promising thrower, but after getting a million dollar first contract he is in accident that severely damages his hand. A replacement with AI is inserted and he is back, better than ever, but banned as a modified player… 2.5*
Phosphor's Circle short story by Annika Barranti Klein a narrator works as a guide in a zoo, specialized in arctic animals. One of kids on her excursion notes that a white bear swims in circles, supposing it is a fake bear. Soon she notes that it is not the only glitch. 3*
Flattering the Flame [The Great Ship Universe] novelette by Robert Reed a great ship leaves the plane of our galaxy to visit a off-galaxy star cluster. There an extremely combative race is living and it plans to get the ship to themselves. But soft power is better than hard one. 3*
On Books (Asimov's, May-June 2021) [On Books] essay by Sheree Renée Thomas the new reviewer, presented at the start. The list is partially made of nominees for major SFF awards, which for me lessens its value, for I’d checked them anyway. 2.5*
The contents:
Transitions [Asimov's Editorials] essay by Sheila Williams presentation of new members of the team, including a new reviewer.
The First Encyclopedia [Reflections] essay by Robert Silverberg about the work of [a:Pliny the Elder|302386|Pliny the Elder|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1328607731p2/302386.jpg] – [b:Naturalis Historia, Vol. Iv Cb|3403934|Naturalis Historia, Vol. Iv Cb|Pliny the Elder|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|92844210], which is the earliest (western) attempt of an encyclopedia. This is also a great insight in what Romans saw as science. 3*
Digital Heroes [On the Net] essay by James Patrick Kelly three internet services for SFF fandom with checked info, namely SFF Awards, The Internet Speculative Fiction Database and SF Encyclopedia , which I also recommend. 3*
Religion and Science Fiction [Thought Experiments] essay by James E. Gunn an overview of links between SFF and religion, from stuff like Narnia, to retellings like [b:Lord of Light|13821|Lord of Light|Roger Zelazny|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330127327l/13821._SY75_.jpg|1011388], to a lot of shorter works. 4*
Jim Gunn and I Corresponded ... [Obituaries (Sheila Williams)] essay by Sheila Williams the sad news that the author of the previous piece has died.
The Metric novelette by David Moles far future Earth, with universe spread so far that there is no starlight in the sky. A ship with AI comes with info that some change of cosmic law contained by Earth disallows universe to reborn. Should the last people (together with AIs and other sentients) allow possible renewal by own certain demise? 3*
Among the Marithei short story by Mary Anne Mohanraj a man, with a severe war trauma as a child, now lives among peaceful aliens, who adopted him and tried to cure him. He is with his infant daughter in alien temple and sees a possible human suicide bomber. 3*
Reclaiming the Stars [The Stars] novelette by James E. Gunn a part of a series, this time two uploaded humans in robot bodies terraform Mars to make it habitable (Earth is one giant ocean). They have strange nightmares of failure, possibly imposed from outside, but by whom? 3*
Ready Gas and Pills short story by Dominica Phetteplace after epidemies there is I network of drugs producing machines on each gas station (and other public places). The protagonist is an inspector/investigator that checks that machines got high quality inputs and supply only written out drugs and disconnects them otherwise. She has to disconnect one at the start of the story and there are angry people left w/o drugs, including a girl working on that gas station who self-proscribed birth control pills because she is gay and should hide it in a small town and hoped that hormonals which ‘sedate’ her. The problem of possible harm vs immediate benefit. 3*
Año Nuevo novelette by Ray Nayler 30 years ago on beaches in California aliens appeared – giant semi-transparent globes. They don’t react to attempt of contact, just sit there, processing minerals. And then one day they disappear. Or do they? 4*
Super Sprouts novelette by Ian Creasey a part of a series about a genius geneticist and her market-oriented husband (who narrates). They are asked to make kids love greens. They also plan a kid for themselves and she tries to select ‘best genes’, while conservatives in power try to ban gene modifications. 5*
A Million Years poem by Tom Jolly what will remain from us as time passes. 3*
The Chartreuse Sky short story by Александр Бачило and К. А. Терина a translated work about future Moscow, where all are under control of beneficent but strict ‘iron nanny’ AI and most live in own generated realities, which are overimposed on the real city. A few deny such access and a schoolboy, whose parents deny it to themselves and him, has vanished. 3*
My Heart is At Capacity short story by T. J. Berry another of a now popular trope of androids/AIs created for emotional support of people – but if AI has feelings – are we allowed to hurt them? 3*
Inside Voice poem by Jackie Sherbow a narrator with a nephew in a planetarium, awed and diminished by our universe. 2*
Tin Man novelette by Brad Aiken and Rick Wilber a guy plays baseball in local club and flashback into his past – he was a promising thrower, but after getting a million dollar first contract he is in accident that severely damages his hand. A replacement with AI is inserted and he is back, better than ever, but banned as a modified player… 2.5*
Phosphor's Circle short story by Annika Barranti Klein a narrator works as a guide in a zoo, specialized in arctic animals. One of kids on her excursion notes that a white bear swims in circles, supposing it is a fake bear. Soon she notes that it is not the only glitch. 3*
Flattering the Flame [The Great Ship Universe] novelette by Robert Reed a great ship leaves the plane of our galaxy to visit a off-galaxy star cluster. There an extremely combative race is living and it plans to get the ship to themselves. But soft power is better than hard one. 3*
On Books (Asimov's, May-June 2021) [On Books] essay by Sheree Renée Thomas the new reviewer, presented at the start. The list is partially made of nominees for major SFF awards, which for me lessens its value, for I’d checked them anyway. 2.5*
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