Asimovs SF April-May 2009 Reviewed
The 400th Issue of the Most Award-laden Sci-Fi Magazine in History
Mar 5, 2009
The April-May Asimov's is the magazine's 400th issue, and editor Sheila Williams has written an appropriate editorial and assembled a fine cast of contributors to mark the occasion, although the issue conveys an epidemic of series, with at least four of the stories fitting into larger fictional tapestries.
Brian Stableford's The Great Armada opens the magazine with the latest in a series that began in 2006, and like many a conclusion, will be less than entirely satisfactory to those who missed earlier episodes. Nonetheless, it's crammed full of Stableford's visionary view of SF as far transcending its genre origins, and is still worth reading.
Robert Reed
Robert Reed's 'True Fame' depicts a near(-ish) future in which privacy is almost impossible, in which everyone is a celebrity of sorts, and celebrity-spotting a constant pastime. As is often the case, Reed's story takes off in unexpected directions. Recommended.
Kate Wilhelm's 'An Ordinary Day with Jason' takes --as do many of Wilhelm's stories-- domesticity and moves gently into wonder. When Jason is born, his mother learns that he's inherited his father's ability to create an imaginary staircase. From there the story progresses inexorably to its entirely satisfactory conclusion. Wilhelm is perhaps the SF field's greatest talent at keeping one foot in the everyday world, and even a minor story from her is something to be treasured. Highly recommended.
Chris Beckett's 'Atomic Truth' links 'Rat Island' with 'Picadilly Circus.' There is a lovely pre-echo of the next link in the story chain, 'The Perimeter,' which also appeared in Asimovs, when a white stag intrudes onto one 'reality' from another. Beckett's series is fascinating in that he covers a multitude of sociological topics under the guise of series. Highly recommnded.
Michael Swanwick
A regular returns, but this time Michael Swanwick's 'The Armies of Elfland' is a collaboration with Eileen Gunn. The modern world is invaded and human civilization quickly reduced to savagery, until a group of children held captive for the Faerie Queen's brutal amusement plan a counter-strike. It's cruel and brutal, and glitters as brightly as the Elves themselves.
Jack Skillingstead's 'Human Day' boasts perhaps the most unreliable narrator in SF, a character who shares many traits with Richard from Beckett's 'Atomic Truth.' And as with Beckett, the long shadow of Philip K. Dick and his perennial question of 'what is real?' falls across the story.
Damien Broderick
Damien Broderick's 'This Wind Blowing, and This Tide' features another unusual future in which a standard trope of spec-fic is embedded. Last time it was zombies, this time the Australian author's tale of a crashed spaceship retro-fits a psychic among its salvage crew . Although it reads like the first of a series, the emotional arc is beautifully drawn. Recommended.
'Cowgirls in Space' by Deborah Coates is an SF-nal story equivalent of a miniature, focusing on the events of the eponymous girls in rural Nebraska, whose story replicates microscopically the plot of Ursula K. Le Guin's classic The Lathe of Heaven, in that the finders of a strange device must be careful what they wish for.
Nancy Kress
'Exegesis' by Nancy Kress is a short piece in which future scholars deconstruct the closing line of Gone with the Wind, with amusing results.
APRIL/MAY Issue on Sale April 7, 2009
Concluding, 'The Spires of Denon' by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is around 30,000 words long, but feels unfinished, as if Rusch plans a sequel. Sadly it doesn't have the same emotional satisfaction that Broderick delivers. While firmly delineating her characters, Rusch is less clear about their various factions, perhaps partly due to narrative demands. Once the story is fully underway, the reader is pulled along as one would expect. As well the narrative drive, the other positive is the setting; Denon is literally luminescent in its depiction, and despite the reviewer's reservations is sure to feature heavily in year's best discussions.
 |
