Analog Science Fiction and Fact, December 2013
Reviewed date: 2014 Apr 29
112 pages
112 pages
- Serial: Lockstep, part I of IV, by Karl Schroeder - Toby wakes up after a 14,000-year sleep to discover that the entire galaxy is operating in locksteps--a city sleeps for 360 (or 720, or 180) years while robots and machines gather scarce resources, wakes for a month, and then sleeps another 360 years.
- Novelette: The Chorus Line, by Daniel Hatch - A videographer uses a chronoscope to peak back in time to prove that his competitor's acclaimed video of prehistoric humans dancing is a forgery. He discovers that it's not exactly a forgery, but it's still a fake.
- Novelette: Ian, George, and George, by Paul Levinson - Orson Welles and H.G. Wells and time traveling and heart conditions. Blech.
- Short story: The Deer Girl Hitches a Ride, by Sarah Frost - A truck driver picks up a deer girl hitchhiker. She turns out to be a mutated creature that eats the zombie plague that has ravaged America.
- Short story: Fear Response, by Lesley L. Smith - A young alien proves to his fellows that fear--and the ability to learn how to handle it--are advantageous qualities.
- Short story: Oedipus at the Sperm Bank, by Joel Richards - Rich dude clones himself to ensure the continued success of his business empire--but his clones have their own ideas.
- Science Fact: Homesteading to the Stars: Colony vs. Crew, by Arlan Andrews, Sr. - When mounting an expedition to another star, are we sending colonists or crew members? It's a multi-generational undertaking, so Andrews suggests that the colony be given tasks to do along the way--like terraform a few asteroids that are along for the ride.
- Short-short: Abridge Too Far, by Carl Frederick - An e-reader with an abridge feature, a schoolboy avoiding his reading assignment, and lots of egregious puns.