There isn't much to like about this issue of Asimov's. The positive part is the second installment of Allen M. Steele's new Coyote story. And the negative: everything else. All Seated on the Ground is a farcical Christmas special that is neither funny nor terribly Christmassy. The Lonesome Planet Travelers' Advisory is a comical short that isn't funny. Strangers on a Bus isn't science fiction and doesn't qualify as fantasy either, so I presume it is included because Jack Skillingstead has written for Asimov's before and therefore the editors like him. The Rules is an idea-driven story, but the idea is dull and the execution is pedestrian. do(this) isn't even a story--just a single well-worn idea padded with filler.

• Serial: Galaxy Blues: The Pride of Cucamonga (Part 2 of 4), by Allen M. Steele - Jules Truffaut, an illegal immigrant on the planet Coyote, accepts a job offer from Morgan Goldstein to participate in the first interstellar trading mission.
• Novella: All Seated on the Ground, by Connie Willis - A laugh-out-loud funny Christmas farce wherein aliens land on Earth and refuse to communicate--they just stand there with disgusted expressions on their faces. They only react occasionally by acting out certain phrases from Christmas carols; our heroes must discover the common denominator between the phrases that elicit a reaction and those that don't.
• The Lonesome Planet Travelers. Advisory, by Tim McDaniel - A silly, Hitchhiker's Guide-esque entry about planet Earth. Please don't kill too many cows. Anal probing is OK in moderation, ha ha.
• Strangers on a Bus, by Jack Skillingstead - A battered woman escapes and gets on a bus to anywhere, where she meets a man who makes up stories in his head about the people he meets--and the stories become reality. It's not even science fiction.
• The Rules, by Nancy Kress - An eccentric bazillionaire hijacks every single TV channel in order to broadcast a public service announcement about the dangers of global warming.
• do(this), by Stephen Graham Jones - Programmer accidentally creates a self-aware computer program, but mistakenly powers it off before he realizes what he's done.