Asimovs SF Magazine (ISSN 1065 2698, 142pp) has all the usual columns and fiction in their August issue, plus a guest editorial paying tribute to the late Arthur C. Clarke from his sometime collaborator, Stephen Baxter, and an article on 'Thought Experiments' by Rudy Rucker.
'Lagos' by Matthew Johnson shows a trend amongst new American writers to show a greater interest in settings beyond the USA. It reprises a similar theme to Felicity Shoulders' 'Burgerdroid' in the June issue, in that the new poor are reduced to tele-presencing, the use of robots by mental remote control, but this time mixed in with a topical theme, that of Nigerian grifters.
Robert Reed
'Old Man Waiting' is typical Robert Reed, taking a familiar SF cliche (in this case the alien among us, studying us) and giving it a new twist. It's slight but pleasant, but is among the weaker stories in the issue.
By contrast J. Chris Rock's 'Lucy' is eschews the standard Asimov's plot arc, preferring instead to provide the reader with an oblique view of two nerdish scientists controlling a probe on Titan, while at the same time trying to understand their neighbours, who prove as alien as anything on the distant moon.
Ted Kosmatka appeared in the June issue of F&SF, and he re-appears with an even better story in 'Divining Light.' An alcoholic researcher close to burn out is hired to contribute Blue Sky Thinking to a high-powered institute, and starts to question the nature of reality. It's subtle, slow-burning and packed with well-rounded characters, and in the hands of a less talented writer could have turned into something Lovecraftian. It's to Kosmatka's credit that he keeps it so low-key, and therefore doubly effective. Kosmatka is clearly a writer to watch.
Jack Skillingstead
'What You Are About To See' by Jack Skillingstead shares with the previous story an alcoholic protagonist (is this US SF shorthand? Alcoholic = Damaged Character?) but once the reader passes this niggle, it's a fine story about a reality-shuffling alien, leavened with an ambiguously 'happy' ending.
Carole Emshwiller's 'Wilmer or Wesley' features one of Emshwiller's trademark 'people who live on the edges of society,' as the editorial describes. Wilmer -or is his name really Wesley?- maybe a deformed human, or a Sasquatch, or something else. What he is, is less important than how he is treated by our society; so Emshwiller holds up a mirror to us.
Neal Barrett, Jr
'Radio Station St. Jack' by Neal Barrett, Jr. is another of Barrett's trademark post-apocalypse stories, in which he describes in memorable detail a world ravaged by war with the Chinese in which a few stray souls huddle together in the remains of towns, taking comfort where they can. One of those souls is Father Mac, self-styled minister, easy-listening dj and would-be lover of Sister Mary Jo. There marginal existence is threatened by the arrival of a gang of psychotic raiders; the denouement is unexpected, sad and farcical. Highly recommended.
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