Analog Science Fiction & Fact, January/February 2023

Astounding/Analog

by Trevor Quachri (Editor), Alec Nevala-Lee (Contributor), Rajan Khanna (Contributor)

Vol. XCIII, No. 1 & 2.

Novella
- The Elephant Maker Alec Nevala-Lee

Novelettes
- The Bends, Rajan Khanna
- Edie, James Dick
- The Battle of Wanakena, Meghan Hyland
- Hothouse Orchids, Harry Lang

Short Stories
- Cornflower, Victoria Navarra
- The Area Under the Curve, Matt Mchugh
- Direct Message, Tom Pike
- A Real Snow Day, M. bennardo
- Party on, James Van Pelt
- Ceres 7, Lorraine Alden
- Misplaced, Shane Tourtellotte
- The Echo of a Will, Marie Vibbert
- Gardens of Titan, Erik M. johnson

Flash Fiction
- Mom, Bruce Mcallister
- Octo-drabbles, Mary Soon Lee
- Lem, Daniel Peterson

Science Fact
- Life, but Not Quite as We Know It?, Christina DE LA Rocha

Probability Zero
- Christmas at Albert’s, Mark W. tiedemann

Poetry
- I Dreamt an Alien Was in Love with My Ex-girlfriend, Don Raymond
- Iodine, Drew Pisarra

Reader’s Department
- Guest Editorial: the Great Brain Cover-up, Howard V. hendrix
- in Times to Come
- The Alternate View, John G. cramer
- The Reference Library, Sean Cw Korsgaard
- Brass Tacks
- 2022 Index
- Analytical Laboratory Ballot
- Upcoming Events, Anthony Lewis

【 PREVIOUS ISSUE ← January/February 2023 → NEXT ISSUE 】

212 pages, digest magazine

First published January 1, 2023

About the author

Trevor Quachri (b. 1976) has been the sixth editor of Analog Science Fiction & Fact magazine since September 2012.

Previously, he was “a Broadway stagehand, collected data for museums, and executive produced a science fiction pilot for a basic cable channel.”

Quachri started as an editorial assistant in 1999 at Asimov's Science Fiction and Analog. Former editor of Analog, Ben Bova, was an early influence.

Reviews

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a January/February 2023 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, a mixed bunch of hard SF works. Nothing spectacular but several; solid stories.

The Great Brain Cover-Up [Editorial (Analog)] essay by Howard V. Hendrix the curious fact that As a result of the experimental work of Eagleman and Sejnowski concerning the flash-lag phenomenon, we know that what we might call the “absolute” or “true” present moment is always ahead of our contingent perception of that present moment by roughly 80 milliseconds, the average length of time it takes the brain to process sensory information and generate conscious awareness of it. so actually our imagination gives us info where a ball is, not our senses. 4*
The Elephant Maker novella by Alec Nevala-Lee the author is most known for his non-fic, like Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, this is his SF set in the near future India. The medical start-up that tries to ‘normalize’ life of children with Kanner’s syndrome (what is more often popularly referred to as autism) by installing a ‘pacemaker for the brain’ that should discourage/encourage specific brain activity. The trials initially were a success, but in about three months after the installation, several patients regressed back. To that add Indian nationalists, who don’t want foreigners ‘experimenting with our kids’ and try to stop trials, finally succeeding. Meanwhile, there is a killer elephant in the northern province and the team decides to pacify him with their device. A lot of interesting facts about elephants in musk, edutainment at its best. 3.5*
Life, But Not Quite as We Know It? [Science Fact (Analog)] essay by Christina De La Rocha what if ‘pre-life’ oceans are actually life? 3*
The Bends novelette by Rajan Khanna the narrator is an AI companion to a man Dolf. Dolf likes exploring wilderness, including oceans, but he is not particularly caring about life there, especially of ‘common’ species. The AI has two goals – to help/assist its master and to protect the environment, and what if the latter outweighs? 3*
Mom short story by Bruce McAllister flash-fic about kids caring for their mom, just that all of them aren’t human and the mom cannot adjust to their new world. 2*
Cornflower short story by Victoria Navarra there is a space station orbiting Saturn and the narrator is Reza Saintsbury, aged 16, whose first job is in hydroponics. He detests the assignment, which a machine can do, sees it as the worst job: Ideally, a new person would plant and rotate and harvest and marvel at the wonders of plant biology and growth each day. The aeroponic system was constructed to be so easy that even a child could plant and harvest, finding happiness and fulfillment in growing new things. And that was the trouble. The aeroponic system was boring. No one wanted to plant the seeds, rotate the chambers, or harvest the crops.. However, a slightly older girl comes – she was assigned there a year before, but her attitude is completely different. He falls in love with her and her views. 3.5*
Octo-Drabbles short story by Mary Soon Lee flash-fic about the poetry of octopuses, who envy aliens with even more manipulators. 2*
The Area Under the Curve short story by Matt McHugh the married couple receives awful news: “The results are in. I’m afraid your child is normal.” For this is a space station that selects only the best for a generation ship to escape environmentally devastated Earth. Will the parents, who are “both in the 95th percentile of the Braun-Susuki Exceptionality Index” and worked hard to get there, abandon the kid (to be sent back to Earth) or leave with him? 3.5*
Direct Message short story by Tom Pike a new Twitter account @ibocaanembasy appeared from nowhere one day, claiming to represent aliens. The narrator followed them for fun, for no one expects the first contact on X. However, when they polled readers “LEAST FAVORITE REGION. YOU WANT DESTROYED BY HEAT RAY” with the narrator’s Appalachia winning he starts worrying. A humorous piece. 3.5*
A Real Snow Day short story by M. Bennardo a couple in a room, behind which the Blizzard of 1948 is perfectly reconstructed, for in reality the things aren’t well… 3*
EDIE novelette by James Dick after 7-year journey to Jovian ice moon Europe NASA lands Europa Deep Ice Explorer (EDIE). Hard SF story with a signal going too long (45 minutes) and possible new life. 4*
Party On short story by James Van Pelt a man jumps from party to party with help of a device, until he is stopped and we find out why he jumped. 2*
I Dreamt an Alien Was in Love with My Ex-Girlfriend poem by Don Raymond 2*
Ceres 7 short story by Lorraine Alden a colony ship escaping an Earth has a problem: several of their cold sleep chambers are malfunctioning, while there isn’t enough food. Ruth is the youngest of the eight women crew and she and one other ordered to stay while others go to hibernation. Is it their loss? 3*
Pulsars Ride Neutrino Rockets essay by John G. Cramer it is possible that a pulsar can be continuously accelerated along its spin axis by superfluid vortexes in the interior of a neutron star, they should analogously produce weak-interaction cyclotron radiation , radiating neutrino plus anti-neutrino pairs that carry off energy and angular momentum. 3*
LEM short story by Daniel Peterson end of universe weird flash-fic. 2*
Christmas at Albert's [Probability Zero] short story by Mark W. Tiedemann physics fan story, when on Christmas eve in a pocket universe we met people mentioned by name only: Albert, Neils and Erwin, with the latter not opening his present… 3*
The Battle of Wanakena novelette by Meghan Hyland a story told as a fairytale about a conflict of a farmer, whose pony Rocks was confiscated by armed men, who want to start a new empire. There are glimpses of high-tech culture like ‘Now, Rupert’s ghost was a decent man, for a ghost, and even though he couldn’t physically touch any thing in the world, he had a hundred eagle eyes up there in space with him, and he had a little place inside the heads of all the other gods where he could whisper, ever so softly, to get their attention. So he told Miss Luna that his space eyes saw Rocks tied to a shed, and he told her how many people he saw in Taylor’s field, and he told her to hang on, because he was going to send another god to help.’ The story of men and gods hasn’t worked for me. 2*
Misplaced short story by Shane Tourtellotte Survey boat KLG-14 crewed by Rany Gupta and Minal Dhar, finds a rockymetallic asteroid in the Kuiper belt, where only ice asteroids can be. They ask Earth, but are dismissed as phonies. However, someone else is interested in the discovery. 3*.
Iodine poem by Drew Pisarra “Like me, you came to this planet to heal” 2.5*
The Echo of a Will short story by Marie Vibbert Zeke comes to his home, which is in disarray and speaks with Chad’s bot. It turns out that Chad is Zeke’s husband and he is in coma, so speaking with his bot is not the way to emulate old happy days, but help to decide what to do with the body in a coma. 3*
Gardens of Titan short story by Erik M. Johnson a man working on Titan lost his wife in an accident. He blames himself, doesn’t keep up with the scheduled work. He finally gets to piloting a vehicle over methane ice lake with a partner, when the ice crashes and they now have to save themselves. 3*
Hothouse Orchids novelette by Harry Lang a noir-style mystery set on Mars: a tortured and acid burned body is found and a local cop and his Earth partner are on the case. A nice ‘real’ view on what humans on Mars will be like: Mars’ puny gravity did not promote growth above and beyond hereditary parameters. It only promoted brittle bones, weak heart action, and pathetic muscle tone. The world of the war-god took the healthy genetic material of a robust, fully formed humanity capable of beating the universe into submission and spun it into glass-and-egg-shell caricatures that could never stand up on Earth or breathe the thin, dusty air of their native world. A solid story, a good mix of SF and detective. 4*
The Reference Library (Analog, January-February 2023) [The Reference Library] essay by Sean C. W. Korsgaard the author of reviews recently joined the editorial staff at Baen Books, and while no books of the published is on the list, it covers two alt-histories set in the 1970s, a cyberpunk, a (future, when it was published) Nebula nominee. An interesting selection, quite different from Tor-dominated SFF. 4*

[Infosifter · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Marta E C R · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were far fewer excellent stories than I’m used to in this issue. I rate each story/poem/article and only a few got “loved” ratings; way more than ever before got “?” ratings. So it goes. Not every issue can please everyone. Looking forward to March/April. I still find Analog a great source of science fiction/fact writing.

[John Loyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

8 • The Elephant Maker • 48 pages by Alec Nevala-Lee
Good. Divakar and Rana are leading the trials of a medical implant. There are factions trying to shut down the trials. They are shut down, but by happenstance there's an elephant where this device is useful. The problem is that elephant won't prove what they want. It's on to an elephant hunt where they have to get there before a different hunting party and poachers.

62 • The Bends • 14 pages by Rajan Khanna
Good. Dorf gets a AI diving assistant for Christmas. He names it Sydney, and he quickly uses the AIDA to maximize his time underwater and to find the life that most interests him. Told from Syd’s perspective.

76 • Cornflower • 6 pages by Victoria Navarra
Good+. Reza is assigned to the farm for his first job. It’s mind numbing. He hopes to get something better in year two. He’s surprised when Amalia visits. She had this job prior to him. She changes his view on the importance of the farm.

82 • The Area Under the Curve • 8 pages by Matt McHugh
OK/Good. The Chuls have been accepted to go on a colony ship. Unfortunately their son doesn’t make the cut. He’s to be sent to Earth. They can stay, leave the child with his grandparents, both go, or one go and one stay.

90 • Direct Message • 6 pages by Tom Pike
Good. Tom follows a weird twitter account. When the account takes a poll, and ends up planning on using a heat ray on Appalachia, where he lives, it becomes more serious.

96 • A Real Snow Day • 4 pages by M. Bennardo
OK. Lyria and Kenton enjoy the comfort of being inside while the snow builds up outside. As the story progresses there’s a feeling something virtual may be involved.

100 • EDIE • 14 pages by James Dick
Good/Very Good. Wendy is a lead scientist on the team sending a probe to Europa. They’re ecstatic when the probe lands and ready to drill into the ice looking for potential life. Almost as astounding as the discoveries in space is the way her precocious daughter is thrilled, investigative and comes up with theories of her own. As if she were a colleague rather than a teenager.

114 • Party On • 6 pages by James Van Pelt
Good/OK. Tribley moves from party to party. A last hurrah.

120 • Ceres 7 • 6 pages by Lorraine Alden
Good. Eight women are on a colony ship. We follow Ruth through her routine. Then we learn there may be a problem. Shortages, equipment failures, resupply ship doesn't make it.

134 • The Battle of Wanakena • 16 pages by Meghan Hyland
Fair/poor. Cinderbear is going to market to sell potatoes. Taylor steals her pony. She's mad and wants to get it back. When she and her friends get to Taylor's place he's got an army. This story confused me. There's some stuff that eats metal, but hasn't spread to this area yet. Where did it come from? Aliens? Genetic engineering gone wrong? Sounds like the planet is doomed. It's not just the science that confused me, but the motivations of the characters. The only understandable thing was that Cinderbear wanted to get her horse back. Why get involved in some battle?

150 • Misplaced • 8 pages by Shane Tourtellotte
OK/Good. Surveyors in the Kuiper belt find an anomalous metal rich asteroid. Before mining it they report the discovery. Earth claims it’s a hoax. Don’t waste our time.

158 • The Echo of a Will • 4 pages by Marie Vibbert
Good. Zeke misses the real Chad who is in a coma. The Chadbot at the house continuing its daily routine.

162 • Gardens of Titan • 11 pages by Erik M. Johnson
Good/OK. Bryce is depressed and taking time off because his wife died. He finally agrees to return to work. Shortly thereafter a quake happens during a mission and there is danger.

173 • Hothouse Orchids • 21 pages by Harry Lang
Very Good+. A body is discovered in D-ville. One of the eight settlements on Mars. Who's the victim? There are no missing persons and the body mutilated obscuring the identity. Hector Kovack is working his first murder investigation, starting by going to the local seedy bar. Twists that start from changing this isolated murder into a conspiracy, but not ending there.

[Daniel Farrelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the stories I read, I enjoyed 7, and didn't enjoy 7.

The Elephant Maker By Alec Nevala-Lee - Its just an action movie in the form of a novella. I would have preferred more “badass murderous elephant on the run from the evil humans" , and less "the good doctor but he works at elon musk's mind control company". Not thrilled about the whole plot being centered around giving elephants lobotomies. Also not thrilled about how many elephants die in this story, and the intricate detail in which their deaths are described.

Also, there’s a dress up scene where the POV puts on a life jacket first, and then a wetsuit? How do you put a wetsuit over top of a life jacket? Then later a guy escapes capture by playing a video of an elephant on his laptop, which tricks everyone into thinking they're under attack from a real elephant. What?

The first twenty pages are a fair bit of setup, which pivots into a high-stakes race to find a mad elephant, before a hunter can claim them first. Oh, and there's an infamous poacher on the loose. It sounds like the inciting incident to an action movie starring Dwane Johnson, but by the end I was having real trouble understanding what was going on. There's so many sudden action scenes that are also resolved equally suddenly, and the POV shifts really frequently. There are certainly bits that either should have been cut for time, or expanded onto a proper novel. Tbh I was pretty disappointed.

Cornflower by Victoria Navarra - pretty good, though very sappy. Aboard a space station in the far future, a himbo learns to appreciate farming. I like science fiction about biology, cause there's so few, but this one was very predictable and formulaic. After the 2/3rds mark, they just skip over the rest of the story and give a cliff notes recap of the rest of POV'S life, which all could have been cut. Ending earlier with him setting out with his new perspective would, in my opinion, be more powerful than telling us that his wife was named Mary and he had three daughters and he brought them cakes and he liked watering trees and all his classmates came to visit and blah blah blah.

Mom, by Bruce McAllister. Flash fiction. About 20 seconds in the life of some aliens and their dumb mum. It's a metaphor for immigrant families but there's a whole bunch of random space jargon that makes it annoying to read. Very eh.

The Area Under The Curve, by Matt McHugh - Parents aboard a future space program find out their kid is not especially gifted and therefore must be sent back to earth. I really liked it. At the start it was pretty clunky - there was a lot of characters explaining things that other characters definitely already know, for the sake of the reader. I think it would have worked better as a characters internal reflection, as it would have been more natural and could have allowed for more characterisation. But it got better as it went along.

Direct message, by Tom Pike - Aliens make contact over Twitter. Fun and silly, I really liked it. Got pretty dumb towards the end but just don't think about it.

A Real Snow Day, by M. Bennardo - wouldn't it be fucked up if humans lived in little space pods but they had hologram tech and it was so lifelike that you could delude yourself into thinking you weren't in space? Wouldn't that be so fucked?
I don't know. It's an OK story. The whole thing centers around the twist. The author did a good job making it somewhat predictable (which sounds like a backhanded compliment lol), but it was disappointing that it ultimately came down to "yeah she's crazy". Would have preferred the idea be expanded slightly and made more robust. There are also a lot of metaphors, many of which are kind of obtuse.

Party On, by James Van Pelt - a guy dimension hops to various parties. It was fine. Took a long time to explain what was going on, and in the meantime I didn't find the descriptions of parties very interesting. The whole big twist is that he needs a cancer treatment and is scared, and likes parties? But if you can hop dimensions why don't you look for one with better chemotherapy if that's your concern? Idk, didn't really do much for me.

Ceres 7, by Lorraine Alden - a bunch of astronauts flee earth after the end of the world, and set off for their new colony. It was good. I thought it was really well written, and integrated the world building really organically. I liked the ending, I thought it was good, though KINDA doesn't make sense. Sacrifices a bit of sense for a "omg wtf" moment. But still really good.

Octo-drabbles, by Mary Soon Lee - Flash fiction. Cute. Idk man it was like 64 words long, if I try to describe it the review will be longer than the story itself.

LEM, by Daniel Peterson - Flash fiction of a space probe talking to the narrator. Eh, I didn't really get it.

Misplaced, by Shane Tourtellotte - some astronauts find a new asteroid and wonder about selling it. Wow what an exciting premise. Yeah, I didn't like it. The writing and dialogue seemed very stilted, and there were lots of big words and jargon that made it hard to follow.

Echo of a will, by Marie Vibbert - a guy talks with his house AI as he debates turning off life support for his husband. I liked it, but I feel like it could have used a beta reader. Some points were confusing. Characters were referenced without context, leaving you wondering how they related to the main character. Is this person a friend, an ex, or a sister? There was a short but entirely pointless flashback in the middle of the story. And the cat had a dumb name. With such a small word count, don't give it a quirky name like Diamond, just call it mittens or something, so I don't have to work out who's he talking about. But on the whole, good. I liked it.

Christmas at Albert's, by Mark W. Tiedemann - the probability zero story. Fanfic of a bunch of famous physicists having a Christmas party. It's just a silly little thing not meant to be taken seriously, but eh not for me. None of the characters talked like actual humans.

[Jeppe Larsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

No really standouts this issue. I usually like Alec Nevala-Lee but had to stop halfway with the cover novella. The characters were not very convincing.

I have longer reviews of two stories:

"The Area Under the Curve" by Matt McHugh. The setup for this is an Earth that has become increasingly unlivable so humanity has planned a big generation ship, but only a limited number of people can go.

The story follows a couple who has managed to get a seat on the generation ship through hard work and excelling in basically every imaginable test. It is clear that only the top 0.001% have a chance. They want only the absolute “best” on this ship. I am making quotes around the “best” part because one of the key points of the story, is whether intelligence is the only and proper way of determining who are worthy of making the foundation for the survival of the human race. The problem arises when their child is deemed not excellent enough to get a seat on the ship. He is just an average child. The father thinks they should send him back to Earth to his grandparents, so they can retain their place on the generation ship. The mother has a different opinion.

I found this to be a story with plenty of potential for some exploration into personal morales and what is for the greater good. I frequently see stories like this in Analog that really aims for tackling complex and interesting humanistic issues. The downside is that often the result is rather superficial. The story jumps straight at the problem at hand and doesn’t waste any time, but it comes with a lack in character development. We are just told how they think and feel, without having a good grasp of who these characters are, their motivations or why they act like they do. Which is a shame, because the actual premise is interesting, but without any sort of character depth it isn’t as engaging as it could be.

"Direct Message" by Tom Pike. A single tweet on Twitter can have massive impacts in the real world. This amusing little story begins with a poll on Twitter asking which region should be destroyed by a heat ray, with Appalachia “winning” by a large margin.

The story is told by a man who has been engaging with this specific Twitter account for a while. He discovers that it is not just a joke account, but actual aliens who really have a death ray capable of killing everything in that region with 25 million people. But maybe he can talk them into a different deal.

As might have been guessed, this is a somewhat quirky story written in a humorous light style, while still keeping it serious enough not to be completely silly. We only see the aliens through correspondence through Twitter – still, I found them to be rather convincing even though the whole scenario is a bit far-fetched.

More reviews at https://shortsfreviews.com/

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

In India a group of researchers have made a breakthrough in the treatment of a neurological condition. Using implants they can regulate a hormone through the olfactory nerve. However, when the subjects start to regress after three months, they are stumped until a chance correlation hints at a solution. But political interference has pulled funding for human trials and in a desperate bid for a reprieve they tackle a rogue elephant, which has killed 20 people, as a proving case. The SF aspects of the tale are window dressing for “The Elephant Maker”, a fabulous tale of poachers, political intrigue and corruption in the wilds of India by Alec Nevala-Lee. When a probe named “EDIE” lands on Europa it may have stirred some sort of life into action in James Dick’s tale, while Victoria Navarra takes us a bit further out to an orbiting habitat around Saturn where a mundane first job in the farm section becomes much much more to Reza in “Cornflower”. Dolf has a diving AI buddy installed which he calls Sydney, but he soon learns that even the strictest of software commandments may be open to interpretation in “The Bends” by Rajan Khanna. “Ceres 7” by Lorraine Alden is one of the pick tales from this issue, being able to subvert my expectations and affect me at the same time, as a generation ship leaves a dying Earth. Read it. Meghan Hyland gives us another Earth devastated, this time by some sort of nanite that reduces metal to goo, as humans and robots contend for a strategic plan to rebuild in “The Battle Of Wanakena”. Closing the issue is the exciting police prodedural “Hothouse Orchids” by Harry Lang, where a group of disaffected rebels are killing people and replacing them with avatars. Pretty good issue really.

[Stephanie Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rounding up to 2.5
This was a letdown. I was looking forward to this anthology, but most of the stories weren't engaging enough for me. Some of them are just okay, and others made me want to DNF the whole thing. However, there were also stories that I REALLY enjoyed. "The Area Under the Curve" by Matt McHugh, "Direct Message" by Tom Pike, and "Ceres 7" by Lorraine Alden were my favs and I would gladly read those three stories again. It's just too bad the rest of the stories didn't hook me the way those three did.

[Mark Catalfano · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked "Hothouse Orchids" by Harry Lang

[Michael Goodine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly good issue of Analog. I counted a handful of good stories and only one really bad one. That makes it worth picking up, I suppose. Some favorites this month include:

-"The Bends" by Rajan Khanna. The story is about an AI diving assistant which has to make some tough decisions when it notices that the human it is working for isn't an upstanding member of the diving community. I imagine readers of Analog will get a ton of stories about AI in 2023. This is the first.

-"The Area Under the Curve" by Matt McHugh. This one is also about tough decisions. Here, parents are left in a bind when their kid is deemed to lack the intellectual requirements to accompany them on a mission to colonize another planet.

-"Direct Message" by Tom Pike. It's a gimmick story, but I enjoyed it a lot anyway. Weird communications come through Twitter. Are they from aliens? It's Analog, so probably.

-"Hothouse Orchids" by Harry Lang. A solid murder mystery.