Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2005

Reviewed date: 2005 Jul 18
143 pages
cover art

The cover story, Girls and Boys Come Out to Play, is a fantasy story dressed in some science fiction trappings. I didn't like it. However, RAW was good, and The Real Deal is an excellent story.

  • Novelette: RAW, by Daniel Grotta - Prototype digital camera snaps pictures of a parallel universe.
  • Novelette: Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play, by Michael Swanwick - Genetically modified humans manipulate emotions with pheromones.
  • The Children of Time, by Stephen Baxter - Mankind never makes it to the stars, and eventually the earth runs out of resources and man perishes.
  • Clipper's Last Ride, by Richard Mueller - Outpost on Mendoza Four is attacked by native skulks, and Clipper must ride for help on a native frog.
  • Killing Time, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Technology allows old people to spend their last days reliving the best years of their life.
  • Waking Chang-Er, by Samantha Ling - Ancient goddess awakens to help a girl dying of cancer.
  • The Real Deal, by Peter Friend - Members of the alien Picasso race take human servants along on their foraging expeditions, but it's unclear to the humans why they are needed or wanted, as the Picasso seem to be able to handle everything themselves.
  • The Compass, by Edd Vick - In space the best compass is an unborn baby, who--if kept alive in an artificial womb--will always rotate to face towards the Earth.


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