Sheila Williams (1) (1956–)

2 novellas, 3 novelettes and 6 stories open the year for Asimov's (plus 4 poems and the usual complement of non-fiction articles).

"Snowflake" by Nick Wolven (novella) takes awhile to make you realize that it is actually a science fiction story. The narrator is Sam, the best friend of a singer, Coco, and the story Sam tells is the story of Coco - an almost washed out star who is trying to keep her career afloat, through addiction and new technology if needed. It is this new technology and throwaway references to other things which make that a SF story but at the heart of it is really a story of choices and deciding if pain is worth being removed from one's life. It's a chilling tale (and one that is way too believable).

"Goldie" by Sean Monaghan (novella) takes us to another living world where Earth scientists are trying to observe but not intrude. But can you do that for decades and not get attached? I loved the description of the biosphere of the world and I liked how the author handled the feelings of everyone - from curiosity to love (and everything in between).

"River of Stars, Bridge of Shadows" by A. A. Attanasio (novelette) takes a place on a ship traveling between the stars. Something went horribly wrong and the ship is slowly slipping towards its destruction. Deri, a young human, still in a bio-form unlike a lot of humanity and still really young in a world where people live a very long time, is on their first trip among the stars and now needs to deal with a talking snake (an artificial valet that presents as a snake for some reason), an ancient human, an entity who can see the future and a ship which may not make it (and in a time where noone really dies completely - with ultimate death). The background of the story is fascinating and the story itself works but something in its language just did not work for me - I don't mind authors getting inventive with their language but it felt a bit too much here.

"October's Feast" by Michèle Laframboise (novelette) is a story of survival. A ship goes across the stars looking for a new planet for its passengers. But they need to make sure they can survive there even if they lose everything they brought, even if Earth vegetation cannot work in that place. Thus the surveys - send a team of 2 people to find 3 local things that are edible and can provide nutrition. The story is one of those surveys - together with dealing with stories of old surveys, the history of what happened before, personal relationships and just being able to survive. It is a well done story, without really shining.

"Fasterpiece" by Ian Creasey (novelette) takes us to the future where a new technology allows people to enter fast time - a speeding of their internal clock so they can finish long tasks in very short actual time - while they actually live through the whole time. And of course it is the old arts and crafts that get their revival from that - a portrait that needs weeks to be done now feels like an hour or 3 for the model (while the artist can have the weeks they need to work on it); a carving that can take months can be produced in days (or hours) in the real world. Of course these new technologies did not come without a price - Birmingham got destroyed by nano-bots at some point and even if we do not hear about others, that was not the only disaster. And yet, humanity embraces technology and that includes artists such as Barnaby. But when everyone can take as long as they need and produce a huge amount of work for the real work, how do you get ahead? By making a masterpiece of course - and that's where Barnaby goes - which turns out to be a bit more complicated than one expects. Who would think that the love for plums and raspberries may end up the salvation from oblivion? It is a nice tale even if it feels like the "you live 10 years in hours" repercussions felt a little under-explored.

"Welcome Home" by Jendayi Brooks-Flemister (short story) is a cautionary tale about accepting things that are too good to be true. Theresa is on the verge of homelessness and losing her daughter because of it when she finds a place to live, costing a lot less than she would ever hoped for, in one of the modern complexes which have AI to control the home and to assist you. But when does assistance turn into dominance? I really liked the pacing in this story.

"The Roots of Our Memories" by Joel Armstrong (short story) takes us to a future where people don't just get buried - it had been discovered that the root system of hemlock can sustain thoughts and serve as a neuro-bridge so people get planted when they die - in cemeteries shadowed by the hemlocks whose root systems connect the death to computers so people can almost talk to the death. But the hemlocks are still biological entities and as such a disease can harm them and thus kill the death. And as usual, funding is hard. It is a nice story but I am not sure that it went anywhere - it resolved one character's problem but it feels unfinished. Or maybe I just wish that it had been a bit less about that one person and more about the world.

"Unmasking Black Bart" by Joel Richards (short story) takes the pandemic and runs with it. COVID-19 is in everyone's rear-view mirror. The only thing that survived were the masks - now used by everyone for all kinds of purposes - usually holo-mask that make you look like someone else - a younger version of yourself, someone famous (and dead - the only restriction - you cannot have a mask that makes you look as someone else who is still alive) or anything in between. So when Noah's high school reunion rolls in, it is not unexpected that they decide that the first night, as an ice-breaker, they will wear masks of themselves as they were at graduation. Meanwhile, someone robs a bank. The two stories connect in weird ways - and even at the end, you are not sure if you really know what happened. A nice light-hearted story of a future that may just happen.

"The Beast of Tara" by Michael Swanwick (short story) is a time traveling story on steroids - just when you think you know what s really happening and things get turned around again by yet another time traveler. It explores the usual problem of "can we change the past if we can go back" but puts a nice spin on it. Enjoyable read.

"Long-Term Emergencies" by Tom Purdom (short story) gets us to space in a far future where humans are being humans and there are still people who would get themselves in the middle of minor disagreements just so they can make a bigger fracas out of it. And just as is the case in our times, there is no real way to deal with these people rationally. It is depressing to think that we may be able to progress and live across the stars and still not lose that part of humanity. Depressing but not surprising or unexpected.

"The Boyfriend Trap" by Stephanie Feldman (short story) is a weird story which can be read either as a parallel worlds one or as something more on the fantasy side. A woman and her boyfriend go on a trip to a mountain hut so they can discuss their plans - she wants to move to Denver for a job (with him in tow), he wants for them to stay in Philadelphia. The whole thing gets into a bit of a weird stage when he seems to change abruptly. I really did not care about this story - the ending was good but...

The four poems were readable with "Robot Valentine" by Peter Tacy being my favorite (the rest are "Word Soup" by Anatoly Belilovsky, "Speech Lesson" by Robert Frazier and "Messaging the Dead" by Betsy Aoki.

Robert Silverberg talks about copyright and how it developed historically in his Reflections (under the title "Fifty Million Monkey Selfies"), James Patrick Kelly talks about bots and robots in science fiction in his and in the real world in his "On the Net" column (worth reading for the references to sites and mentioned books as usual), Sheila Williams uses her editorial to talk about last year's stories (because it is time for the Thirty-Sixth Annual Readers’ Award Ballot of course) and Peter Heck's reviews land a lot of books on my TBR pile. The reviews books:
"Rabbits" by Terry Miles (based on the podcast by the same name which had been on my "To listen" pile for awhile)
"Holdout" by Jeffrey Kluger
"Version Zero" by David Yoon
"The Minders" by John Marrs
"The Rain Heron" by Robert Arnott
"Hooting Grange" by Jeffrey E. Barlough
"The Saints of Salvation" by Peter F. Hamilton
"The Future Is Yours" by Dan Frey
"The Unfinished Land" by Greg Bear
"Hollow" by B. Catling
"Living Forever & Other Terrible Ideas" by Emily C. Skaftun
"The Last Robot and Other Science Fiction Poems" by Jane Yolen

A good start of the year for the magazine even if I am not sure that there was any story that really stood out.… (mais)