F&SF June-July 2009 Reviewed
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Published by Spirogale Inc
May 14, 2009
F&SF's June / July 2009 issue has the usual review of books by Charles de Lint, and films by Kathy Maio, while the long-lost curiosity is selected by Graham Andrews. But as always it's the fiction that counts, and one story an overlaps interestingly with the latest Asimov's.
Robert Reed
F&SF stalwart Robert Reed leads off with 'Firehorn,' one of his more accessible pieces, about how supposedly superior machine minds might choose the path of irrationality - an interesting and perhaps original slant on the Singularity, a favourite SF-nal topic. Fifty years or so in the future an old man and his ex-wife recount how as bored adolescents they invented the Firehorn, a mythical monster, with unexpected results -- recommended.
Recent Nebula-winner John Kessel returns to the magazine that carried his award-winning 'Pride and Prometheus,' with the much darker 'The Motorman’s Coat,' in which an impoverished Prague shop-owner of the future invests his last savings in an antique coat in the hope of attracting a rich buyer.
John Varley
The first of the issue's two classic reprints is John Varley's 1975 novelette 'Retrograde Summer,' set on Mercury in a future when mysterious aliens have invaded, quarantining Earth and scattering humanity across the Solar System. Teenager Timothy is visited by his cousin from Luna, and in the course of a trip to one of Mercury's main tourist attractions they come to understand each other better. It's too slight compared to his best.
Terry Bisson's 'Corona Centurion™ FAQ' is as short and deft as Bisson's fans have come to expect. Recommended.
Albert E. Cowdrey
From the shortest to the longest story, 'Paradiso Lost' by Albert E. Cowdrey is a companion to his Nebula-nominated 'The Tribes of Bela.' Sadly, this time Robert Kohn's reminiscences of his early days as a starship trooper don't live up to the earlier story. While 'Paradiso' boasts Cowdrey's trademark wry asides in spades, structurally it's a series of episodes joined loosely together; first the reader is treated to (too-much) back-history on the cult that settled the planet, then the voyage to the colony world with an on-board saboteur, the search of the settlers, then the disaster scenario and finally the interplanetary battle. It might work better as a novel, but as a novella, it's too disjointed.
Much improved on his debut is Wayne Wightman's 'Adaptogenia,' a topical tale of insect predation that begins laugh-out-loud funny, but finishes winter-bleak. Wightman's pov jump at the end may be necessary, but only because of his set-up, and sadly is jolting enough to make it only Recommended, rather than Highly so.
From a story that darkens, to one that doesn't; 'Sooner or Later or Never Never' by Gary Jennings is barely spec-fic at all, but it's so funny that most will forgive the lack of Fantasy or SF. A hapless missionary volunteers to venture to the Australian Outback to convert the heathen Aborigines to the ways of the Southern Primitive Protestant College. Its slapstick funny political incorrectness is only part of the humor. Highly Recommended.
Carolyn Ives Gilman's ' Economancer' is another topical near-future story. This time a junior banker is dispatched to a remote island nation, but is unfortunately mistaken for a consultant with whom he shares a name, at which point he learns about the stark truth about what really drives the world of finance.
Mike O’Driscoll
Mike O’Driscoll's novelette 'The Spaceman' --like Michael Cassutt's 'The Last Apostle'-- features an alternate Apollo Space Program. However, O'Driscoll uses the romance of the stranded astronaut to highlight how children's minds gradually close with increased interaction with the 'real' world - even children as young as twelve. As is often the case, O'Driscoll's story of first love and childhood betrayal is set on the South Welsh coast. Outstanding.
A very satisfactory way to end a very satisfactory issue.
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