Asimov's Science Fiction: January 2007
Asimov's Science Fiction: January 2007
This issue was an impulse buy. When I went to Barnes & Noble to pick up the December 2006 issue, I saw the January 2007 issue first. Inspecting it, I discovered a story by Nancy Kress and Charles Stross, so I figured, why not? Definitely glad I picked it up.
"Safeguard"
by Nancy Kress
My God, what an amazing story. Simply amazing. Everything from the children, to their world, to the political situation, to Taney…everything in this story is pitch-perfect, and it ends on just the right note. The story packs such a wallop because the premise is simply so easy to imagine. Current world issues are fueling this future, and that too strikes just the right chord. I’m very grateful to see the moral result, rather than the religious one. Amazing story. This alone is worth the price of the issue.
"Poison"
by Bruce McAllister
Wow, this was wonderful. Heartfelt, sad, charming…a boy, his cat, a witch and her lizards. I saw half of the story coming, but not the other half, which is magical and wonderful. I didn’t see the very end either, because I thought it would relate back to the boys, but what I got was much better. Heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. The fairy tale quality, the boy reasoning out witch’s behavior, all created a wonderful gentle rhythm to this tale. And one thing more I appreciate, McAllister translates all the Italian that isn’t obvious, and he does it in such a way you don’t realize that’s what he’s doing. Excellent. Most excellent.
"Café Culture"
by Jack Dann
Yet another chilling vision of the future, this one involving terrorism and religion. Yet in this future, it seems as though suicide bombings aren’t confined to one faith, but all, and while there isn’t a state of fear in this world, there’s the sense that everyone’s not just a victim or a target, but also a potential martyr. Chilling, especially the different points of view, but yet, realistic. One can only pray the world doesn’t come to this.
"The Hikikomori's Cartoon Kimono"
by A. R. Morlan
There is simply so much to absorb in this story. Much of it I savor: the Japanese culture, the symbolism behind the kimono's, the tattoos, Masa's own road to resolution. The very end, at the restaurant, was perfect. However, the twist itself confuses me a bit, and I don't understand why Harumi and Ignazio need Masa to essentially do their dirty work for them. Ulger was clearly a problem, but I guess I didn't understand his interactions with Harumi and Ignazio well enough to get why THEY couldn't take care of him. Instead, Masa's tricked into doing so. So I'll be puzzling over that aspect for a while, and the only reason it doesn't anger me is because clearly, Masa grows as a character, finds some peace within himself, which totally makes the story worthwhile. And the tatoos he gives Ulger...wow. To let a man walk into his own death like that...it was a fitting end, but a surprising one.
This is a story I feel I'll need to read again to fully comprehend. That's okay, because on one level, there's a lot to savor. Still, there's also a lot of detail that felt excessive during my read, even though most likely, the detail was needed for those of us (like me) who simply aren't familiar with Japanese culture.
"Battlefield Games"
by R. Neube
A perplexing story. For starters, I loved the concept of the bored missile wanting to play chess with the enemy. Truly, lots of fun. And because I play chess, I understood the terminology and the moves made with no problem. Still, translating that symbol to the larger picture of the narrator's job in the trenches, the narrator's attack on the missile, the missile's "gift" to the narrator...the end leaves me a little confused, and while I recognize both fighters were considered expendable by their superiors, I don't understand how the missile's actions extended the narrator's life. More important, I don't understand why. Forget the fact that the repairs alone will extend the missile's life, because there was a certain trust broken: you don't kill me, and I won't kill you. I wanted to see a kind of camaraderie develop between man and machine, enemy and enemy, but I was never satisfied in that regard. Oh well. At least I "got" the chess. Though, the constant mention without answer to the whole familiar-voice-of-the-missile bothered me. I wanted to know why the voice was so familiar, and why it was important. Psychological warfare isn't enough of an answer.
"Gunfight at the Sugarloaf Pet Food & Taxidermy"
by Jeff Carlson
Cute: Taxidermic animals turned robotic to fool hunters into shooting off-season, therefore getting them fined lots of money. Oh, that's a fun premise. The promise of romance between the Julie and Highsong, even better. But this story was put together in a very puzzling way. The romance became more of a frame with no real promise, expectation, or substance, and the story itself (Julie follows man who uses Uzzi to kill taxidermic deer and discovers said man is involved in some kind of drug ring that involves local police and the whole thing backfires on her) feels random, without much cause-and-effect. I don't care about the drug ring, nor do I care about the clichéd twist of the law being in on it as well. How Julie saves herself is fun in a comedic sort of way, but this story bored me really fast, and left me wholly unsatisfied.
"Trunk and Disorderly"
by Charles Stross
Until this piece, I hadn't yet read anything by Stross, even though I have his Acclerando waiting for me on my bookshelf. So I wasn't really sure what to expect from this piece, and I'll be honest, I couldn't give it the proper amount of focus. Or maybe the story caused my lack of focus? In a nutshell, this is a heavily-detailed, random, whimsical world that seems to be full of humor (some of which I got, as I'm in love with the idea of a dwarf-mammoth), but while I was able to follow the main story, I couldn't figure out the cause and effect of it all to save my life. However, readers who enjoy this sort of dead-drop into randomosity may very well enjoy this tale, and I think there's much to enjoy...I just couldn't get into it. I think the holidays have officially fried my brain.
I have to admit, while the latter three stories didn't do anything for me, I've never been so taken by an issue of a magazine. The first three stories KNOCKED my socks off, and the fourth was incredibly delicious, even though it didn't completely click logically in my mind. So I liked 4/7 pieces, but those four are worth far more than the price of the issue. Kress, McAllister, Dann, and Morlan OWN this issue, and it'd be a crime to miss out on their tales.