Analog Science Fiction & Fact, July/August 2023

Astounding/Analog

by Trevor Quachri (Editor)

Vol. XCIII, No. 7 & 8.

Contents:
4 • Just Another Earth That Fell to Man? • [Editorial (Analog)] • essay by Howard V. Hendrix
8 • The Analytical Laboratory (Analog, July-August 2023) • [The Analytical Laboratory] • essay by uncredited
10 • The Jangler • novelette by Wil McCarthy
26 • Urras, Anarres, and Marsmoon • [Science Fact (Analog)] • essay by Kevin Walsh
32 • The World in a Ramen Cup • short story by Jayde Holmes
39 • Didicosm • novelette by Greg Egan
55 • In Times to Come (Analog, July-August 2023) • [In Times to Come (Analog)] • essay by uncredited
56 • Nebulous Negotiation • short story by James Dick and Jen Frankel
64 • Playtime • short story by A. T. Sayre
69 • First Words • short story by Michael Randle
72 • The Queen of Copies Meets Her Match • short story by Carrie Vaughn
74 • A Synthetic's Field Notes on Speed Dating and Birds • short story by Ryan Hunkle
78 • The Carina Nebula • short story by Kelsey Hutton
87 • Dandelion Seeds Swirling Over a Manhole • poem by Kenton Yee
88 • Blowout • short story by Wole Talabi
98 • Recruit • novelette by Stephen L. Burns
120 • Everybody Needs a Conditions Box • short story by David Ebenbach
128 • Here at the Freezing End • short story by Benjamin C. Kinney
132 • Fermi's Silence • short story by Jay Werkheiser
136 • Ejected Black Holes and 3-Body Physics • [The Alternate View] • essay by John G. Cramer
139 • Ode to Mulgrew • poem by Jacob Strautmann
140 • Gin and Rummy • short story by Eneasz Brodski
142 • From Our Bones a Garden Grows • short story by Will Gwaun
144 • Skin Job • short story by Gregor Hartmann
150 • The Martian Miracle • short story by J. W. Benford
160 • To Fight the Colossus • novella by Adam-Troy Castro
200 • The Reference Library (Analog, July-August 2023) • [The Reference Library] • essay by Rosemary Claire Smith
207 • Brass Tacks (Analog, July-August 2023) • [Brass Tacks] • essay by various
208 • Upcoming Events (Analog, July-August 2023) • [Upcoming Events] • essay by Anthony R. Lewis [as by Anthony Lewis]

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Genres: Science Fiction

212 pages, digest magazine

Published July 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 the July/August 2023 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. Several solid pieces, but an average issue.

Contents:
Just Another Earth That Fell to Man? [Editorial (Analog)] essay by Howard V. Hendrix “If human species decimate or domesticate all and only those megafaunal species that do not decimate or domesticate themselves, then do human species, as megafauna, decimate or domesticate themselves?” or how we killed megafauna… 2.5*
The Analytical Laboratory (Analog, July-August 2023) [The Analytical Laboratory] essay by uncredited winner of the annual poll on the previous year’s issues.
The Jangler novelette by Wil McCarthy Tobey is an army veteran (the US was fighting cartels) with PTSD. He takes part in a clinical trial of a device that monitors brain activity as sup[plies prompts like STRONG EMOTION DETECTED. ADMIT? (Y/N). It helps him with anger issues but makes him unemotional. A solid take on a serious issue. 3.5*
Urras, Anarres, and Marsmoon [Science Fact (Analog)] essay by Kevin Walsh Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic novel The Dispossessed tells the tale of two planets, Urras and Anarres, habitable worlds that circle each other like fraternal twins, both orbiting the wellknown nearby sunlike star Tau Ceti. How likely is such a setting – seems not very likely. Solid science. 4*
The World in a Ramen Cup short story by Jayde Holmes Tk’Kii-mi is a representative of an alien race for whom eating rituals are very important. It is meeting with the Last Human, an old woman who gives him instant noodles to taste. She isn’t the only human, but the only one caring to transfer knowledge of daily life. 3.5*
Didicosm novelette by Greg Egan Charlotte’s father was a scientist, but when her mom died from cancer, he moves to believe in infinite worlds within our universe and commits suicide to leave this world. Charlotte grew up and studied cosmogony to show (in)finiteness. Some of Mr Egan’s works just don’t ‘tick’ with me, this is one of such. As the name suggests, it is about the Hantzsche–Wendt manifold, also known as the HW manifold or didicosm (says the Wiki). I haven’t ever learned what this means. 2*
In Times to Come (Analog, July-August 2023) [In Times to Come (Analog)] essay by uncredited
Nebulous Negotiation short story by James Dick and Jen Frankel Enjin 7 Cassandra Loomis is a part of low-class group of human workers at the alien ship Harvester 1 headed by octopus-like creatures. The shipmaster called her in to make her a leader of humans, a job she doesn’t need, but to deny may mean literally death… the problem of this story – it is a day of life, without a clear start or finish. 2*-
Playtime short story by A. T. Sayre the narrator works at a VR kindergarten/babysitting service (plus school) for very rich. One of parents asks to transform their ‘fairy godmother’ to look more like his wife, for they (arrogant self-serving bastards) won’t kids adoration/love but too busy to spend time with them. 2.5*
First Words short story by Michael Randle DeSoya is just about to make the first step on Mars, so he tries to prepare a phrase as immortal as Neil Armstrong’s one. Variants range from ‘May humankind make a fresh start on this ancient world.’ To ‘We step foot on planet in name of peace, not war.’ To “Mars, bitches!” The final choice is nice. 3.75*
The Queen of Copies Meets Her Match short story by Carrie Vaughn Carrie is a secretary and they got a new copy machine with AI installed, which can do a lot. When her boss asks for copies from a golf magazine (for his no less stone age pals), the machine goes all Odyssey 2001 ‘I’m afraid I can’t do that’… a nice flash fic for laughs. 4*
A Synthetic's Field Notes on Speed Dating and Birds short story by Ryan Hunkle an emancipated robot ex-soldier goes on Speed Dating and how different people react to him. Another humorous sort. 3.75*
The Carina Nebula short story by Kelsey Hutton a teenage girl on a ship meets a woman responsible or their in-ship museum, who accidentally drops a bunch of beads in zero-g (extremely hazardous, may clog air vents). She helps and later finds out that beads’ mosaics are connected to her past. 3*
Dandelion Seeds Swirling Over a Manhole poem by Kenton Yee
Blowout short story by Wole Talabi African Mars mission. There is an accident and Folake Adeyemi remote-controls a robot with sense feedback to go and save her brother. 3*
Recruit novelette by Stephen L. Burns six people from the present-day US are collected by supposedly one of three-letter gov’t agencies to participate in several tests. First they comform a whining dog-like creature with six legs… 3.5*
Everybody Needs a Conditions Box short story by David Ebenbach a newly born AI which should manage a floating city over Venus, asks its first question: OH, it said. ARE WE SURE THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA? How to persuade an AI not to be afraid? 3.25*
Here at the Freezing End short story by Benjamin C. Kinney two human salvagers are looting shuttles that fall on their planet to supply a meagre community of refugees (there is some kind of war outside). Should they help a heavily traumatized survivor, who may even be their enemy? What about the shuttle’s AI? 3*
Fermi's Silence short story by Jay Werkheiser a life of a scientist who looks for signs of life in the cosmos ands fails to find any, intertwines with similar futile searches by other beings like “I don’t understand it.” Configuration-Three encoded the thought-words into ligand molecules that dispersed in the whipping winds. “The formation is rich in reduced metals and carbon polymers.” It had so hoped that this time, this odd formation of metals and polymers, would be a sign of alien life. It examined memories from millions of wind cycles ago, when a series of configurations had sent memory-ligands out to a nearby world, hoping to find life there. Alas, the world had no wind cycle, and its air was too dense. a nice little piece. 4*
Ejected Black Holes and 3-Body Physics [The Alternate View] essay by John G. Cramer three-body problem with black hole, one ‘runs away’ leaving equidistance line of stars forming. 3*
Ode to Mulgrew poem by Jacob Strautmann
Gin and Rummy short story by Eneasz Brodski a junkyard owner lives on his own beside his great mounds of electronic junk. When his house AI alerts him to a scavenger, he finds a robot looking for supplies. The ‘invader’ is MatNZ Goodboy, who is (just like?) his childhood pet… a poignant story. 3*
From Our Bones a Garden Grows short story by Will Gwaun a flash fic about the last two survivors of a fleet, covering each other to the end. 2.5*
Skin Job short story by Gregor Hartmann there is a new cheap and effective way to affect MC1R gene (it affects melanin), so teens self-medicate, a white turning black and vice versa. 3*
The Martian Miracle short story by J. W. Benford McNair and Orisa are a couple, who are a part of a large Mars mission. Accidentally, Orisa gets pregnant and a question arises about what to do – no previous cases. Initially, she thinks of abortion, but when the station manager starts to pressure her to abort, she buckles and leaks info to the media… 3.5*
To Fight the Colossus novella by Adam-Troy Castro a sidequel for author’s Andrea Cort Series. A former soldier meets another, who tells a story of the Silent Colossus of Parnajan, a planet-sized human statue (?) in a void far away. Then these two plus a few more travel to meet it. 2.5*

[PAR · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars. This review is only for the novelette “Didicosm” by Greg Egan. It was my first read by him. For a Bookclub… I thought it started out great but then just became too much about the science that the story and characters kinda disappeared. Decent ending but not anything I would ever read again. And the science was well over my head. I hope not all his books are like that. If so, he probably won’t be an author I’ll read too much of. But I’ll certainly try one of novels sometime.
Read: 11/20/24

Can be read for free online here:
https://www.gregegan.net/DIDICOSM/Com...

[John Loyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

10 • The Jangler • 16 pages by Wil McCarthy
Good/VG. Tobey is in a clinical trial for the jangler. Which will hopefully help him suppress the rage and other negative emotions caused by PTSD. The trouble is it blocks strong emotions, both good and bad. Maybe he just needs to get used to it.

32 • The World in a Ramen Cup • 7 pages by Jayde Holmes
Very Good. Tk'Kii-mi shares a meal with Last Human. Not the last of her species, rather the last human to have walked on Earth. Tikamy asks for grand stories to commemorate this meal, not realizing that the importance was the everyday business of life.

39 • Didicosm • 17 pages by Greg Egan
Good. Charlotte is confused by the actions of her father, who goes on to commit suicide. His actions nudge her toward a career in cosmology.

56 • Nebulous Negotiation • 8 pages by James Dick, Jen Frakel
OK/Good. Cassandra is called in for a meeting with her supervisor. The humans on this ship have little standing and are mostly considered interchangeable and expendable. Accepting as a given they're already there, raise my rating, but how'd they end up there in the first place?

64 • Playtime • 5 pages by A. T. Sayre
Fair/OK. Jake is a technician in charge of playrooms where the resident kids enjoy virtual entertainment. Basically a glorified babysitter. One resident asks them to customize a program. He says he can do it, then the story ends.

69 • First Words • 3 pages by Michael Randle
OK+. DeSoya struggles with what he should say when being the first person to walk onto Mars.

72 • The Queen Of Copies Meets Her Match • 2 pages by Carrie Vaughn
Good/OK. The office assistant thinks the new copy machine features are great, until it refuses to make a copy because of copyright. Humorous.

74 • A Synthetic's Field Notes on Speed Dating and Birds • 4 pages by Ryan Hunke
Good/VG. Tom takes BeeDee, a synthetic, so that he can connect with humans.

78 • The Carina Nebula • 10 pages by Kelsey Hutton
Good. Meadow is walking around the ship when she notices an old woman having spilled beads in zero G. She stops to help clean up.

88 • Blowout • 10 pages by Wole Talabi
Good/OK. A crisis occurs at a drill site on Mars. Foloke is worried that something happened to her brother. The backstory is their mother was injured in a drilling accident (where she was a hero saving many people), so Foloke is protective and Femi perhaps rebellious, definitely feels smothered.

98 • Recruit • 22 pages by Stephen L. Burns
Good. Six people, including Tessa, are brought to some secret facility for some unknown purpose. Starting out like some sort of basic training, except these recruits aren’t typical military draftees. They’re in their thirties at least, and one is sixty-six.

120 • Everybody Needs a Conditions Box • 8 pages by David Ebenbach
Good+. The AI for the floating city on Venus is being turned on. It’s first communication is “Are we sure this is a good idea?” The chief technician has to reassure the city.

128 • Here At the Freezing End • 4 pages by Benjamin C. Kinney
Fair/OK. Avi and Erin are rescuers and/or salvagers. They are going to a shuttle to salvage what they can for their group. Sounds like they are going to die anyway. Either from the harsh environment or the local fauna.

132 • Fermi's Silence • 4 pages by Jay Werkheiser
Fair. Explorers are looking for life on Mars and not finding anything that looks like life. Meanwhile, a different researcher is having the exact same issue.

140 • Gin and Rummy • 2 pages by Eneasz Brodski
Good+. Rummy sees an old model robot rummaging through his junk. Nice job of Anthro(canine?)pomorphizing the MatNZ bot.

142 • From Our Bones a Garden Grows • 2 pages by Will Gwaun
OK. Two ships flee a battle. The human crew seeing the futility of continuing to run in these ships, start cannibalizing the ships.

144 • Skin Job • 6 pages by Gregor Hartmann
OK. A drug has been manufactured that can change skin color. Students at one high school are testing it out.

150 • The Martian Miracle • 10 pages by J. W. Benford
OK/Good. A couple on Mars is expecting a baby. The tightwad supervisor is livid. What can they do?

160 • To Fight the Colossus • 40 pages by Adam-Troy Castro
Fair/OK. Esker meets Griff, another old war veteran and joins his project. Griff is secretive about it, but Esker is still intrigued. I didn’t care for any of the characters. They seemed to all have a lot of pent up aggression that needed release. When we finally do get to the colossus all I saw was another pointless fight.

[Jeppe Larsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a pretty decent issue. The Greg Egan story was very mathy and interesting, but lacked a proper story to support it. "Recruit" by Stephen L Burns reminded me of the The Laundry Files, entertaining but also a bit silly.

"Skin Job" by Gregor Hartmann
This short story throws a very simple, but radical, premise and uses it to tell a thought provoking story. An illegal drug makes it possible to change ones skin color and a group of high school kids finds out that it isn’t all fun and games.

A couple of high school kids orders a drug from a shady internet site which allows them to change their skin color. On the surface they have noble intentions, like getting to experience racism they haven’t before, like being pulled over by the cops seemingly for merely being dark skinned. However, people born as that race rightfully don’t appreciate that their identity is being used like something you can just try on and remove again. Then the FBI gets involved and the kids end up in serious trouble.

What I like about this story is that isn’t didactic or condescending, even though it is pretty obvious that the author doesn’t think this will be a very good idea. The story does touch upon some interesting question with regards to how one can compare the experience of just being black for one day versus and entire lifetime, and how we can properly learn from other peoples experiences.

"First Words" by Michael Randle
What will the first words spoken on Mars be? Can anything top Niel Armstrongs famous words from the Moon?

This very short simply follows the astronaut that is going to be the first human to set foot in Mars and his struggle with finding out what his first words will be. There is nothing more to it than that, but it effectively portrays a believable scenario showing all the doubts the first human on Mars will likely have in that situation. Suffice to say, the story does end with the first words spoken on Mars – some may find it fitting and others disappointing.

"The World in a Ramen Cup" by Jayde Holmes
This story delivers exactly what its title says. It manages to put a lot of deep meaning and feeling into a cup of instant noodles and it is among the best stories from Analog this year.

An alien called Tk’Kii-mi have aquired the last existing human food from Earth – a ramen cup. The alien belongs to a species that through digestion of food “save” stories from other beings. Tk’Kii-mi has invited The Last Human (not the last human alive, just the last human to have come from Earth) to share this cup of noodles with him – with the purpose of digesting the humans story.

Tk-Kii-mi has some expectations to the story. He is looking for something grand that capture Earths entire history. However, The Last Human is just a normal woman missing her home planet and can only share her personal memories from her normal life. But her feelings and associations related to tasting a simple cup of instant noodles again, might just be the perfect portal into what life on Earth was like.

In a short number of pages the story portrays two interesting characters with an insight into their motivations and learnings they each gain from sharing a simple meal. Highly recommended.

"Fermi’s Silence" by Jay Werkheiser
As the title shows this is a short story dealing with a possible explenation for the famous Fermi’s Paradox.

The story switches between two viewpoints both asking the same question. Why haven’t we detected alien life yet? One is human and the other is likely some silicium based life form. They both go back and forth with all their various data readings and observations, and unsurprisingly are only looking for life signs like themselves thus missing the others.

The story is only four pages and sort of amusing, but its point is fairly obvious and unoriginal from the start, so there isn’t much more to the story than that.

More reviews at https://shortsfreviews.com

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Jangler” is an experimental neuro-device for the treatment of PTSD in war veterans. Tobey is accepted into the trial for his flashbacks and abrupt and uncontrollable anger and initially finds the device having a calming effect. But it has side effects and when the trial is called off it threatens his hope in Wil McCarthy’s fine tale. Charlotte, bereft and angry at the pointless death of her father (which she attributes to a pseudo-scientific book on cosmology), dedicates her life to debunking the Infinite Universe idea. But even after discovering the “Didicosm” she finds that some memes are harder to kill than others in Greg Egan’s excellent novelette. Jayde Holmes shares a taste of the destroyed Earth with an alien in hopes of preserving its memory in “The World In A Ramen Cup”, while Stephen L. Burns takes us to a most unusual training camp where the objective is not made clear but the things they encounter require all their nerve and nous to cope with in “Recruit”. Of the shorter pieces Jay Werkeiser’s “Fermi’s Silence” gives us another take on why we haven’t heard from the aliens, and Gregor Hartmann tackles the thorny issue of skin color with “Skin Job” where students decide to change their skin hues in an attempt to rid the world of prejudice. At the end of Cort’s War, a conflict in which humanity was almost wiped out, veteran Esker meets another veteran Griff and is recruited into a cabal offering the greatest battle ever. In “To Fight The Colossus” by Adam-Troy Castro we are taken to a distant part of space where the AIsource has designed a truly horrific and immense punishment for a war criminal, and we are left to contemplate that war will probably never end. Masterful!

[Michael Goodine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly strong issue of Analog. A few of my favorite stories include:

"The Earth in a Ramen Cup," by Jayde Holmes, which tells of the final earth-born human and the memories she wants to share with an alien friend while she still has time.

"Recruit," by Stephen L. Burns, about a motley group from the present day "recruited" into a mysterious program. A fun ending. If you like the way Burns writes (it feels a bit like John Scalzi or Spider Robinson) you'll like this. If not, it might be a bit much.

"Everybody Needs a Condition Box," by David Ebenbach. I'm a sucker for stories about stations floating above Venus for some reason. This one adds a fun twist involving sentient AI cities.

"The Martian Miracle" by J.W. Benford, which is about the first pregnancy on Mars.

Meanwhile, Adam-Troy Castro has another entry in his Andrea Cortverse (properly called the AIsource Infection Universe). It is pretty good, but I'm going to have to figure out a way to refresh my memory of this series if Analog is going to publish more entries in the future.

Also: way too many typos in this issue, especially in the Castro story. Analog should try to do a bit better.

[Mark Catalfano · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked "Recruit" by Stephen L Burns.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong issue. The novelettes by Wil McCarthy & Stephen L. Burns were my favorites.