Analog Science Fiction and Fact, April 2014
Reviewed date: 2016 Dec 21
112 pages
112 pages
- Serial (4 of 4): "Lockstep" 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: "A Fierce, Calming Presence" by Jordan Jeffers - A Federation ecologist arrives on Ceres to help deal with the local alien avians that are threatening the mining operations; he discovers that the miners intend to kill him, blame it on wild avians, and use that as an excuse to extermine that avians.
- Short story: "Pollution" by Don Webb - Billy wants to be Japanese, but he can never be Japanese because he's a foreigner, and eventually he becomes a zombie. What?
- Short story: "The Oracle of Boca Raton" by Eric Baylis - An old hand talks to a new recruit about the job: talk to re-animated souls of dead science fiction writers, and extract useful ideas.
- Short story: "Wind Reaper" by John Hakes - An energy-starved world grabs power wherever it can, even from the wind of a hurricane.
- Short story: "It's Not ‘The Lady or the Tiger?’, It's ‘Which Tiger?’" by Ian Randal Stroch - A down-on-his-luck entrepreneur spends an evening in a bar, where he meets a time traveler who tells him his next big idea will make billions--but he'll die just as the company gets off the ground.
- Short story: "Whaliens" by Lavie Tidhar - Space whales show up at the White House and demand to speak with the Prophet Moroni, or they will destroy the Earth. (The president's suggestion they speak to Orson Scott Card is met with blank stares.) Upon learning Moroni is unavailable and Joseph Smith is dead, the whaliens settle for a Jewish rabbi who helps them convert, then suggests that to become authentic Jews, they must wander 40 years in space to experience suffering. Hurrah, Earth is saved--for at least 40 years. (Also, the cats totally are in charge on Earth.)
- Short-short: "First Contact: Moms Rule" by Diane Turnshek - First contact with aliens, an exchange of gifts, and the five second rule.
- Science Fact: “Alien Dimensions: The Universe Next Door“ by Edward M. Lerner - Quantum mechanics and string theory mean, in theory, that the universe has as many as 11 dimensions—most of which are tightly wrapped and can’t be observed. Or it’s possible that our universe is a special case in a larger, n-dimensional universe. Either way, there could be ways to slip through into other realms.