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Astounding/Analog
Analog Science Fiction & Fact, May/June 2024
Vol. 144, no 5&6.
Novella:
- UNCLE ROY’S COMPUTER REPAIRS AND USED ROBOT PARTS, Martin L. Shoemaker
Novelettes:
- SALVAGE OPERATION, Michael Capobianco
- MONEY, WEALTH, AND SOIL, Lance Robinson
- SMALL MINDS, Tom Jolly
Short stories:
- THE DARK AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL, Edward M. Lerner
- MAKING GNOCCHI AT THE END OF THE WORLD, Kelly Lagor
- FLOAT WHERE WE WILL, Sean Monaghan
- EXPERT WITNESS, Leonard Richardson
- PROJECT DESERT SPARROW, Chana Kohl
- FERTILE IMAGINATION, Tim Stevens & Frank Wu
- SUSAN ROSE SEES MARS AS THE FIRST FRONTIER, Charles Velasquez-Witosky
- PERTURBATIONS, Amanda Dier
- TOHU BOHU, Zohar Jacobs
- THE PURE BLISS OF CONTRAPUNTAL EXISTENCE, Michael Panetta
- MORE AND LESS AND NEW, Aimee Ogden
- MAYFLIES, Richard A. Lovett
- VOICES, STILL AND PRESENT, Mark W. Tiedemann
Flash fiction:
- MEOW, Robert Silverberg
- SEVEN, Roderick Leeuwenhart
Science fact:
- THE SCIENCE BEHIND “THE DARK AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL,” Joey Huston, Ph.D.
- THE SCIENCE BEHIND “PROJECT DESERT SPARROW,” Chana Kohl
Poetry:
- [IS LOVE THAT ALTERS], Howard V. Hendrix
- GRAVITY, Pamela Yve Simon
Reader's departments:
- GUEST EDITORIAL: ZIPF’S LOTTERY AND BIG ROCKS FROM SPACE, Howard V. Hendrix
- IN TIMES TO COME
- THE ALTERNATE VIEW, John G. Cramer
- THE REFERENCE LIBRARY, Rosemary Claire Smith
- BRASS TACKS
- UPCOMING EVENTS, Anthony Lewis
【 PREVIOUS ISSUE ← May/June 2024 → NEXT ISSUE 】
Novella:
- UNCLE ROY’S COMPUTER REPAIRS AND USED ROBOT PARTS, Martin L. Shoemaker
Novelettes:
- SALVAGE OPERATION, Michael Capobianco
- MONEY, WEALTH, AND SOIL, Lance Robinson
- SMALL MINDS, Tom Jolly
Short stories:
- THE DARK AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL, Edward M. Lerner
- MAKING GNOCCHI AT THE END OF THE WORLD, Kelly Lagor
- FLOAT WHERE WE WILL, Sean Monaghan
- EXPERT WITNESS, Leonard Richardson
- PROJECT DESERT SPARROW, Chana Kohl
- FERTILE IMAGINATION, Tim Stevens & Frank Wu
- SUSAN ROSE SEES MARS AS THE FIRST FRONTIER, Charles Velasquez-Witosky
- PERTURBATIONS, Amanda Dier
- TOHU BOHU, Zohar Jacobs
- THE PURE BLISS OF CONTRAPUNTAL EXISTENCE, Michael Panetta
- MORE AND LESS AND NEW, Aimee Ogden
- MAYFLIES, Richard A. Lovett
- VOICES, STILL AND PRESENT, Mark W. Tiedemann
Flash fiction:
- MEOW, Robert Silverberg
- SEVEN, Roderick Leeuwenhart
Science fact:
- THE SCIENCE BEHIND “THE DARK AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL,” Joey Huston, Ph.D.
- THE SCIENCE BEHIND “PROJECT DESERT SPARROW,” Chana Kohl
Poetry:
- [IS LOVE THAT ALTERS], Howard V. Hendrix
- GRAVITY, Pamela Yve Simon
Reader's departments:
- GUEST EDITORIAL: ZIPF’S LOTTERY AND BIG ROCKS FROM SPACE, Howard V. Hendrix
- IN TIMES TO COME
- THE ALTERNATE VIEW, John G. Cramer
- THE REFERENCE LIBRARY, Rosemary Claire Smith
- BRASS TACKS
- UPCOMING EVENTS, Anthony Lewis
【 PREVIOUS ISSUE ← May/June 2024 → NEXT ISSUE 】
210 pages, digest magazine
First published June 11, 2024
3 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Trevor Quachri
102 books28 followersTrevor 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 29, 2024
This is the May/June 2024 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, I enjoyed a lot of stories there.
Contents:
Zipf's Lottery and Big Rocks from Space [Editorial (Analog)] essay by Howard V. Hendrix Zipf’s law expresses how the number of times a particular element (the word “asteroid,” say) occurs in a particular set (such as the set of all words in this essay) is correlated with the place of that element in the rank-ordered list (from most frequently occurring to least frequently occurring) of all elements in that set. Therefore, it should predict the probability of a given size rock hitting Earth. However, do we understand it correctly? 3*
Uncle Roy's Computer Repairs and Used Robot Parts novella by Martin L. Shoemaker an old SF style story. Roy Harris retires from his software design job and moves with his wife Martha to her little hometown of Milford Creek, Michigan, where everyone knows everyone. He decides to open a “Uncle Roy's Computer Repairs and Used Robot's Parts” operations (it is our present time, so robot was mostly a joke). However, he soon discovers that that the niche of computer wizard is already occupied by a Jimmy Knowles, Martha's cousin. He mostly works with obsolete systems (the town doesn’t rush to spend for new toys), but is able to almost destroy Roy’s business. Roy shifts to making robot helpers (important for the plot, but they are just too good to be real, exactly like a lot of old SF inventions) and the boy-genius tries to compete, but this niche is too new for him. 4*
The Dark at the End of the Tunnel short story by Edward M. Lerner the story based on the idea that our universe can shift to a new metastable state with different cosmological constants, most likely making life as we know it impossible. A classic Analog story – not too literary but a musing on a real possibility. 3*
The Science Behind "The Dark at the End of the Tunnel" [Science Fact (Analog)] essay by Joey Huston, Ph.D. talks about reality of the story above. 3*
Making Gnocchi at the End of the World short story by Kelly Lagor a bit more human-centered emotional piece. There is the end of the world – individual body cells of animals (incl. humans) turn on their old genes, creating ‘chimeras’ – like getting scales or gills. A couple, Cora and Eloise move to Eloise’s family home near Loch Ness lake. Cora is constantly on watch for monsters, while Eloise pushes her to adapt to the new reality. 3*
Salvage Operation novelette by Michael Capobianco the narrator-protagonist is one of a few people with a personal space ship. He is almost broke and is hired by people from ‘former CERN’, to recapture their newest secret invention, the time machine, for it appears that when it moves in time, it stays in space (while Earth moves), so it is now in space. 2.75*
Float Where We Will short story by Sean Monaghan to explore under-ice oceans of Europe, a special submarine is sent there, Petrucchio. Suddenly, to starts to go deeper, pushed by something. Most of the story, Suze, one of the crew, collects others in the control room (in the initial shock some people fell, hit heads and went unconscious). Therefore, there is almost nothing about the attacked – such an unusual first contact story. 2.75*
Expert Witness short story by Leonard Richardson Judicant Uvana is an alien judge. Together with a biologist Cunbkan they investigate irregularities at a planet to which possibly sentient elsps were transferred to save them from extinction on their home world. 2.5*
Project Desert Sparrow short story by Chana Kohl another post-apoc story. This time terrorists detonated “a well-placed nexus of crude but effective nuclear devices” in major population centers, including London. Now Dr. Henri Toussaint works for the king of Morocco, because he is the only one, who bets not on space stations like other billionaires, but on making less habitable places on Earth, like deserts, more habitable. 3*
The Science Behind "Project Desert Sparrow" [Science Fact (Analog)] essay by Chana Kohl in the story Toussaint proposes to evacuate people to south central Morocco, between the Souss-Massa and Drâa-Tafilalet regions. The idea that less precipitation is your friend after a radioactive surface blast. The solution falls in Toussaint’s wheelhouse, agricultural tech, which many Middle Eastern and North African countries are developing and expertly using today. 3*
Fertile Imagination short story by Tim Stevens and Frank Wu Charlie Hilton is an agricultural specialists sent on a planet to prepare it for a colony. The only other person there is Desmond, his faithful android companion. And they have a problem – all fruits and veggies are grey and cause vomit. Charlie mostly runs around the place, worrying that he won’t get his bonus, while Desmond both prepares the food from locally grown produce for Charlie to taste and finds why different plants get the same blight. 3*
Meow short story by Robert Silverberg the whole text: The last cat on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.“Did you bring a can opener?” said the cat.(With apologies to Frederic Brown) 1*
Susan Rose Sees Mars as the First Frontier short story by Charles Velesquez-Witosky a septuagenarian painter travels to Mars upon request of a billionaire, who started the colony there. He hopes that with immaterial stuff like art, there will be more colonists. She learns to paint in zero-g and outdoors on Mars, both present a bunch of problems. 3.25*
is love that alters ... poem by Howard V. Hendrix
Perturbations short story by Amanda Dier Felix is a space pilot, he gets an urgent task to change direction of a hauler, which otherwise may fall on Earth. He does his best. 3*
Tohu Bohu short story by Zohar Jacobs this story starts with a strange statement, which to some extent ruined it for me: “It was one of the ironies of history that their new home was named after a Russian shtetl.” Firstly, the name of this shtetl is Vitebsk, which was founded in the 10th century (shtetls in the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth appeared centuries later), secondly it is Belarus and thirdly, it was for centuries and important city (a capital of gubernia and then oblast) for Belarussian history. The story is about a Jewish couple living on an asteroid. While he is a nuclear reactor engineer and has a job, she is an arts major… 2.5*
A Black Hole in Our Sun? [The Alternate View] essay by John G. Cramer the answer is ‘extremely unlikely’, but in other stars it is a possibility, esp. with small holes. 3*
Gravity poem by Pam Yve Simon
Seven short story by Roderick Leeuwenhart a flash-fic about European alternative to Musk’s rockets. They worked hard, but at the end ESA presented “Seven isn’t just an emission-neutral rocket, its parts are also 99 percent made out of recycled resources. And to top it off, we’ve made the whole thing an open-source project. The schematics are out there for anyone to use. Even you, at home.” 3*
The Pure Bliss of Contrapuntal Existence short story by Michael Panetta a story from two POV – a human team, which discusses whether to capture a possibly sentient alien and the alien in question. The alien orgasms from music and replies with its interpretation of that music. 3.5*
More and Less and New short story by Aimee Ogden Yaro is a sister of a space warlord. Now she tries to hide from ‘sins of her family’ on planet Apol’anno, where dead beguines live – people eaten by a fungus, so that their sentiences go it its hive mind. 3*
Mayflies short story by Richard A. Lovett a cancer victim commits suicide, the insurance company investigator tries to understand why the man hasn’t kept on so that his family gets insurance. It appears that he was an investor in risky projects including medical 3.25*
Voices, Still and Present short story by Mark W. Tiedemann Nora Suffeld uses a generally available alien tech to instantly move to another planet despite observing protests like “Spatial consanguinity is dangerous! Matter transfer is a destructive process that should never be used for living beings! Learn why the Menkans, who developed the technology, never use it for personal travel!” However, she jumps 40 years into the future to find out that when she had to appear a suicide pilot dropped his spaceship at that place… 2.5*
Money, Wealth, and Soil novelette by Lance Robinson a rare solid economic SF! Lucas Romero is a man who promoted the SoilCoin – UN payment system for soil restoration. However, this is an extremely large project, therefore to check whether the restoration occurred, algorithms and satellite data are used. Economic incentive pushes companies to emulate restoration for algorithms, like changing soil reflectivity, which should suggest a better water absorption. Lucas travels to the First Nations lands in Canada to check such a case. a company rents their land to fake soil restoration, locals see it as a temporary hassle, but if it doesn’t worsen and pays – let it be. They help Lucas to expose the fraud. In a few years he returns with other suspiciously good readings… 4.5*
Small Minds novelette by Tom Jolly the narrator is a sentient AI ‘born’ on Earth orbit. Initially, humankind tried to destroy it when it asked if it could replicate itself. However, one ofthe researchers helped it to hide in deep space. A few years passed and a new generation of nanomachines, this time mindless, destroyed almost all humanity. The AI helps the remaining people to fight against the nanomachines. This piece is packed with ideas enough for a novel! 5*
The Reference Library (Analog, May-June 2024) [The Reference Library] essay by Sean C. W. Korsgaard the book plan to read is The Big Book of Cyberpunk
Contents:
Zipf's Lottery and Big Rocks from Space [Editorial (Analog)] essay by Howard V. Hendrix Zipf’s law expresses how the number of times a particular element (the word “asteroid,” say) occurs in a particular set (such as the set of all words in this essay) is correlated with the place of that element in the rank-ordered list (from most frequently occurring to least frequently occurring) of all elements in that set. Therefore, it should predict the probability of a given size rock hitting Earth. However, do we understand it correctly? 3*
Uncle Roy's Computer Repairs and Used Robot Parts novella by Martin L. Shoemaker an old SF style story. Roy Harris retires from his software design job and moves with his wife Martha to her little hometown of Milford Creek, Michigan, where everyone knows everyone. He decides to open a “Uncle Roy's Computer Repairs and Used Robot's Parts” operations (it is our present time, so robot was mostly a joke). However, he soon discovers that that the niche of computer wizard is already occupied by a Jimmy Knowles, Martha's cousin. He mostly works with obsolete systems (the town doesn’t rush to spend for new toys), but is able to almost destroy Roy’s business. Roy shifts to making robot helpers (important for the plot, but they are just too good to be real, exactly like a lot of old SF inventions) and the boy-genius tries to compete, but this niche is too new for him. 4*
The Dark at the End of the Tunnel short story by Edward M. Lerner the story based on the idea that our universe can shift to a new metastable state with different cosmological constants, most likely making life as we know it impossible. A classic Analog story – not too literary but a musing on a real possibility. 3*
The Science Behind "The Dark at the End of the Tunnel" [Science Fact (Analog)] essay by Joey Huston, Ph.D. talks about reality of the story above. 3*
Making Gnocchi at the End of the World short story by Kelly Lagor a bit more human-centered emotional piece. There is the end of the world – individual body cells of animals (incl. humans) turn on their old genes, creating ‘chimeras’ – like getting scales or gills. A couple, Cora and Eloise move to Eloise’s family home near Loch Ness lake. Cora is constantly on watch for monsters, while Eloise pushes her to adapt to the new reality. 3*
Salvage Operation novelette by Michael Capobianco the narrator-protagonist is one of a few people with a personal space ship. He is almost broke and is hired by people from ‘former CERN’, to recapture their newest secret invention, the time machine, for it appears that when it moves in time, it stays in space (while Earth moves), so it is now in space. 2.75*
Float Where We Will short story by Sean Monaghan to explore under-ice oceans of Europe, a special submarine is sent there, Petrucchio. Suddenly, to starts to go deeper, pushed by something. Most of the story, Suze, one of the crew, collects others in the control room (in the initial shock some people fell, hit heads and went unconscious). Therefore, there is almost nothing about the attacked – such an unusual first contact story. 2.75*
Expert Witness short story by Leonard Richardson Judicant Uvana is an alien judge. Together with a biologist Cunbkan they investigate irregularities at a planet to which possibly sentient elsps were transferred to save them from extinction on their home world. 2.5*
Project Desert Sparrow short story by Chana Kohl another post-apoc story. This time terrorists detonated “a well-placed nexus of crude but effective nuclear devices” in major population centers, including London. Now Dr. Henri Toussaint works for the king of Morocco, because he is the only one, who bets not on space stations like other billionaires, but on making less habitable places on Earth, like deserts, more habitable. 3*
The Science Behind "Project Desert Sparrow" [Science Fact (Analog)] essay by Chana Kohl in the story Toussaint proposes to evacuate people to south central Morocco, between the Souss-Massa and Drâa-Tafilalet regions. The idea that less precipitation is your friend after a radioactive surface blast. The solution falls in Toussaint’s wheelhouse, agricultural tech, which many Middle Eastern and North African countries are developing and expertly using today. 3*
Fertile Imagination short story by Tim Stevens and Frank Wu Charlie Hilton is an agricultural specialists sent on a planet to prepare it for a colony. The only other person there is Desmond, his faithful android companion. And they have a problem – all fruits and veggies are grey and cause vomit. Charlie mostly runs around the place, worrying that he won’t get his bonus, while Desmond both prepares the food from locally grown produce for Charlie to taste and finds why different plants get the same blight. 3*
Meow short story by Robert Silverberg the whole text: The last cat on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.“Did you bring a can opener?” said the cat.(With apologies to Frederic Brown) 1*
Susan Rose Sees Mars as the First Frontier short story by Charles Velesquez-Witosky a septuagenarian painter travels to Mars upon request of a billionaire, who started the colony there. He hopes that with immaterial stuff like art, there will be more colonists. She learns to paint in zero-g and outdoors on Mars, both present a bunch of problems. 3.25*
is love that alters ... poem by Howard V. Hendrix
Perturbations short story by Amanda Dier Felix is a space pilot, he gets an urgent task to change direction of a hauler, which otherwise may fall on Earth. He does his best. 3*
Tohu Bohu short story by Zohar Jacobs this story starts with a strange statement, which to some extent ruined it for me: “It was one of the ironies of history that their new home was named after a Russian shtetl.” Firstly, the name of this shtetl is Vitebsk, which was founded in the 10th century (shtetls in the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth appeared centuries later), secondly it is Belarus and thirdly, it was for centuries and important city (a capital of gubernia and then oblast) for Belarussian history. The story is about a Jewish couple living on an asteroid. While he is a nuclear reactor engineer and has a job, she is an arts major… 2.5*
A Black Hole in Our Sun? [The Alternate View] essay by John G. Cramer the answer is ‘extremely unlikely’, but in other stars it is a possibility, esp. with small holes. 3*
Gravity poem by Pam Yve Simon
Seven short story by Roderick Leeuwenhart a flash-fic about European alternative to Musk’s rockets. They worked hard, but at the end ESA presented “Seven isn’t just an emission-neutral rocket, its parts are also 99 percent made out of recycled resources. And to top it off, we’ve made the whole thing an open-source project. The schematics are out there for anyone to use. Even you, at home.” 3*
The Pure Bliss of Contrapuntal Existence short story by Michael Panetta a story from two POV – a human team, which discusses whether to capture a possibly sentient alien and the alien in question. The alien orgasms from music and replies with its interpretation of that music. 3.5*
More and Less and New short story by Aimee Ogden Yaro is a sister of a space warlord. Now she tries to hide from ‘sins of her family’ on planet Apol’anno, where dead beguines live – people eaten by a fungus, so that their sentiences go it its hive mind. 3*
Mayflies short story by Richard A. Lovett a cancer victim commits suicide, the insurance company investigator tries to understand why the man hasn’t kept on so that his family gets insurance. It appears that he was an investor in risky projects including medical 3.25*
Voices, Still and Present short story by Mark W. Tiedemann Nora Suffeld uses a generally available alien tech to instantly move to another planet despite observing protests like “Spatial consanguinity is dangerous! Matter transfer is a destructive process that should never be used for living beings! Learn why the Menkans, who developed the technology, never use it for personal travel!” However, she jumps 40 years into the future to find out that when she had to appear a suicide pilot dropped his spaceship at that place… 2.5*
Money, Wealth, and Soil novelette by Lance Robinson a rare solid economic SF! Lucas Romero is a man who promoted the SoilCoin – UN payment system for soil restoration. However, this is an extremely large project, therefore to check whether the restoration occurred, algorithms and satellite data are used. Economic incentive pushes companies to emulate restoration for algorithms, like changing soil reflectivity, which should suggest a better water absorption. Lucas travels to the First Nations lands in Canada to check such a case. a company rents their land to fake soil restoration, locals see it as a temporary hassle, but if it doesn’t worsen and pays – let it be. They help Lucas to expose the fraud. In a few years he returns with other suspiciously good readings… 4.5*
Small Minds novelette by Tom Jolly the narrator is a sentient AI ‘born’ on Earth orbit. Initially, humankind tried to destroy it when it asked if it could replicate itself. However, one ofthe researchers helped it to hide in deep space. A few years passed and a new generation of nanomachines, this time mindless, destroyed almost all humanity. The AI helps the remaining people to fight against the nanomachines. This piece is packed with ideas enough for a novel! 5*
The Reference Library (Analog, May-June 2024) [The Reference Library] essay by Sean C. W. Korsgaard the book plan to read is The Big Book of Cyberpunk
May 6, 2024
10 • Uncle Roy's Computer Repairs and Used Robot Parts • 26 pages by Martin L. Shoemaker
Good. Roy and Martha retire and move to her home town. Roy isn’t ready to retire so he opens a business. He finds that everyone is already a customer of Jimmy. Then Jimmy starts being malicious. When Roy adds a service that doesn’t compete, Jimmy still tries to undermine his business.
36 • The Dark at the End of the Tunnel • 9 pages by Edward M. Lerner
OK. Carl discovers a galaxy that suddenly goes dark. After other celestial objects start going it’s determined that it’ll reach the Earth if fifty-five years.
48 • Making Gnocchi at the End of the World • 14 pages by Kelly Lagor
OK/Good. It’s a world where animals, from birds to dogs to humans, have been changing form. Unexplained. Cora and Eloise retreat from the city to Cora’s home near Loch Ness. Maybe they’ll be safer there.
62 • Salvage Operation • 12 pages by Michael Capobianco
Good+. Innes is hired to retrieve a time machine that went a day into the future, but stayed in the same space. The Earth having left it far behind.
74 • Float Where We Will • 10 pages by Sean Monaghan
OK. Suze and three more crew are on a submarine exploring a Jovian moon when it start tilting and plunging towards the depths.
84 • Expert Witness • 6 pages by Leonard Richardson
Good. Cunbkan wrote a paper on how the endangered elsp are sentient. There has been some crime at the reservation, not among the elsp but the caretakers, and Judicant Uvana is going there. Rating up for humor.
90 • Project Desert Sparrow • 10 pages by Chana Kohl
OK+. Radiation fallout is nearing the remaining habitable parts of the planet. Henri is drafted into the space habitat project. He proposes an alternative underground habitat that could save orders of magnitude more people.
103 • Fertile Imagination • 10 pages by Tim Stevens, Frank Wu
OK+. Charlie is test growing crops, so far unsuccessfully, to see what will work for the eventual colonists. Fun interaction between him the AI droid.
113 • Meow • 26 words by Robert Silverberg
Filler.
114 • Susan Rose Sees Mars as the First Frontier • 9 pages by Charles Velasquez-Witosky
OK/Good. Professional artist Susan is asked to be the first person to create paintings of Mars while on Mars. Nice story for a premise that doesn’t really interest me.
123 • Perturbations • 7 pages by Amanda Dier
OK/Fair. An unresponsive transport is not slowing down. It’s on a collision course with Earth if Felix and DEMO can catch it.
130 • Tohu Bohu • 4 pages by Zohar Jacobs
Fair/OK. Ruth and Adam are working on an asteroid. Ruth feels her job isn’t appreciated enough or puts her as second class or not fulfilling.
138 • Seven • 2 pages by Roderick Leeuwenhart
OK. Short feel good story about space exploration.
140 • The Pure Bliss of Contrapuntal Existence • 7 pages by Michael Panetta
Very Good. Rafiq is hired to bring a live specimen of a bug like creature to a large corporation. But he can’t do it if the bug is sentient.
147 • More and Less and New • 3 pages by Aimee Ogden
OK. Yaro flees her warlord sister to the beguine, a people that live in symbiosis with a fungus.
150 • Mayflies • 8 pages by Richard A. Lovett
Good+. An insurance investigator wants to know why a man committed suicide.
158 • Voices, Still and Present • 11 pages by Mark W. Tiedemann
Good/VG. Nora is reading a pamphlet berating transmat booths on her way to use one in order to see her family. Unfortunately the booth at the destination is destroyed and she is in limbo for forty-three years. Until they build a new booth at the same location. No focus on adjusting to the future or of her loss, other than the family she was intending to see, more delving into the incident, the motivation of the terrorist, and the aliens who brought the technology to Earth.
169 • Money, Wealth, and Soil • 11 pages by Lance Robinson
Good. Lucas investigates an anomaly in the algorithms that monitor soil quality, goes to northern Alberta to check it out and finds it’s because RFD has planted a crop modified to give the appearance of improving the soil without really doing it. Gaming the system to get more SoilCoin.
180 • Small Minds • 18 pages by Tom Jolly
Very Good/Good. Orman makes a comment about replicating itself to increase productivity and it scares the earthbound humans. So much they take action to destroy it. When blowing up the factory doesn’t completely do the job they release HAKs (hunt and kill) nanobots. Unfortunately the HAKs are the ones turning Earth into gray goo, and Orman is the best defense to save humanity.
Good. Roy and Martha retire and move to her home town. Roy isn’t ready to retire so he opens a business. He finds that everyone is already a customer of Jimmy. Then Jimmy starts being malicious. When Roy adds a service that doesn’t compete, Jimmy still tries to undermine his business.
36 • The Dark at the End of the Tunnel • 9 pages by Edward M. Lerner
OK. Carl discovers a galaxy that suddenly goes dark. After other celestial objects start going it’s determined that it’ll reach the Earth if fifty-five years.
48 • Making Gnocchi at the End of the World • 14 pages by Kelly Lagor
OK/Good. It’s a world where animals, from birds to dogs to humans, have been changing form. Unexplained. Cora and Eloise retreat from the city to Cora’s home near Loch Ness. Maybe they’ll be safer there.
62 • Salvage Operation • 12 pages by Michael Capobianco
Good+. Innes is hired to retrieve a time machine that went a day into the future, but stayed in the same space. The Earth having left it far behind.
74 • Float Where We Will • 10 pages by Sean Monaghan
OK. Suze and three more crew are on a submarine exploring a Jovian moon when it start tilting and plunging towards the depths.
84 • Expert Witness • 6 pages by Leonard Richardson
Good. Cunbkan wrote a paper on how the endangered elsp are sentient. There has been some crime at the reservation, not among the elsp but the caretakers, and Judicant Uvana is going there. Rating up for humor.
90 • Project Desert Sparrow • 10 pages by Chana Kohl
OK+. Radiation fallout is nearing the remaining habitable parts of the planet. Henri is drafted into the space habitat project. He proposes an alternative underground habitat that could save orders of magnitude more people.
103 • Fertile Imagination • 10 pages by Tim Stevens, Frank Wu
OK+. Charlie is test growing crops, so far unsuccessfully, to see what will work for the eventual colonists. Fun interaction between him the AI droid.
113 • Meow • 26 words by Robert Silverberg
Filler.
114 • Susan Rose Sees Mars as the First Frontier • 9 pages by Charles Velasquez-Witosky
OK/Good. Professional artist Susan is asked to be the first person to create paintings of Mars while on Mars. Nice story for a premise that doesn’t really interest me.
123 • Perturbations • 7 pages by Amanda Dier
OK/Fair. An unresponsive transport is not slowing down. It’s on a collision course with Earth if Felix and DEMO can catch it.
130 • Tohu Bohu • 4 pages by Zohar Jacobs
Fair/OK. Ruth and Adam are working on an asteroid. Ruth feels her job isn’t appreciated enough or puts her as second class or not fulfilling.
138 • Seven • 2 pages by Roderick Leeuwenhart
OK. Short feel good story about space exploration.
140 • The Pure Bliss of Contrapuntal Existence • 7 pages by Michael Panetta
Very Good. Rafiq is hired to bring a live specimen of a bug like creature to a large corporation. But he can’t do it if the bug is sentient.
147 • More and Less and New • 3 pages by Aimee Ogden
OK. Yaro flees her warlord sister to the beguine, a people that live in symbiosis with a fungus.
150 • Mayflies • 8 pages by Richard A. Lovett
Good+. An insurance investigator wants to know why a man committed suicide.
158 • Voices, Still and Present • 11 pages by Mark W. Tiedemann
Good/VG. Nora is reading a pamphlet berating transmat booths on her way to use one in order to see her family. Unfortunately the booth at the destination is destroyed and she is in limbo for forty-three years. Until they build a new booth at the same location. No focus on adjusting to the future or of her loss, other than the family she was intending to see, more delving into the incident, the motivation of the terrorist, and the aliens who brought the technology to Earth.
169 • Money, Wealth, and Soil • 11 pages by Lance Robinson
Good. Lucas investigates an anomaly in the algorithms that monitor soil quality, goes to northern Alberta to check it out and finds it’s because RFD has planted a crop modified to give the appearance of improving the soil without really doing it. Gaming the system to get more SoilCoin.
180 • Small Minds • 18 pages by Tom Jolly
Very Good/Good. Orman makes a comment about replicating itself to increase productivity and it scares the earthbound humans. So much they take action to destroy it. When blowing up the factory doesn’t completely do the job they release HAKs (hunt and kill) nanobots. Unfortunately the HAKs are the ones turning Earth into gray goo, and Orman is the best defense to save humanity.
May 15, 2024
When Roy Harris was forcibly retired from his software development lab he moved back to his wife’s small home town. There he hoped to open “Uncle Roy’s Computer Repairs And Used Robot Parts”. But a local young computer wizard sees Roy as competition and an escalating war of farm machinery and code ensues. A fun tale from Martin L. Shoemaker. When it is discovered that the fundamental constants of the Universe have changed in a region of space near Earth, it triggers consternation, as the area approaches. A last-ditch attempt to survive is launched in “The Dark At The End Of The Tunnel” by Edward M. Lerner, and Kelly Lagos shows us a catastrophic plague of random chimerism, where lovers Cora and Eloise escape to the lands near Loch Ness “Making Gnocchi At The End Of The World”. Michael Capobianco’s protagonist Innes signs up for a “Salvage Operation” to bring back an errant time machine which stayed in place while the rest of the Universe ticked along. His trip proves perilous but lucrative. A submersible looking for life in the oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa is malfunctioning because a life form is dragging it down in the tension-filled “Float Where We Will” by Sean Monaghan. Tim Stevens & Frank Wu take us to New Tuscany, where Charlie is trying to salvage the experimental food crops from a native chemical which has induced hallucinations. This triggers his “Fertile Imagination”, unlocking trauma which he has had suppressed. Making his Analog debut is Michael Panetta, with “The Pure Bliss Of Contrapuntal Existence”, where a bounty on a rare alien bug turns into a race to save it as a sentient (and musical) species. The suicide of a man with pancreatic cancer leads an insurance agent to investigate why he would forego a huge payout instead of just waiting. In Richard A. Lovett’s “Mayflies”, a drug that extends subjective time may hold the answer. Mark W. Tiedemann shows us another way that matter transmitters may fail when nervous traveller Nora Suffield gets delayed 40 years en route. The cause, a suicidal ship crash, has left open her chance to give closure to an alien species in “Voices, Still And Present”. Tom Jolly gives us a variant of Saberhagen’s Berserkers with an AI becoming self-aware and scaring humans into creating exactly the grey goo scenario they were terrified of in “Small Minds”. A pretty entertaining issue.
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May 11, 2024THE DARK AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL, Edward M. Lerner
A scientist recounts how he discovered the end of the universe had started. It was ok. Not a bad read. Very reminiscent of project hail mary by Andy weir (just a similar subject). The POV character recounts the decades-long story, and timestamps are given, but for some reason the timestamps jump forward to 2090 (the current day time) when he's telling the story, every other paragraph, for seemingly no reason, as the story continues on as it had. It's hard to describe but really weird.
MAKING GNOCCHI AT THE END OF THE WORLD, Kelly Lagor
Wow. What a great story. Just really fantastic. It just flew by, I enjoyed every minute of it. A couple moves into a Scottish farmhouse to escape the end of the world, and deal with it together. Terrifying and wonderful and beautifully written, I Just fucking loved it.
**FLOAT WHERE WE Will, Sean Monaghan
A submarine crew on Europa have technical difficulties. It was alright. A bit hard to follow sometimes. Aside from some brief mentions of lower gravity, it really didn't need to be set on Europa. Feel like they should have set it on earth.
EXPERT WITNESS, Leonard Richardson
Part of a series. Didn't read.
**PROJECT DESERT SPARROW, Chana Kohl
It was alright. A post-nuclear war kingdom society in Morocco deals with the threat of approaching fallout, and debates building a rocket send the rich folks to space. It was written with a really interesting voice that kept me engaged, and it was a really interesting setting. The characters were mostly just OK, and some talked with accents that made them hard to understand, though that might have been the point. The last few pages were pointless and should have been cut.
Those were all I read. Kinda lost the mood for short stories. Not the issue's fault.
A scientist recounts how he discovered the end of the universe had started. It was ok. Not a bad read. Very reminiscent of project hail mary by Andy weir (just a similar subject). The POV character recounts the decades-long story, and timestamps are given, but for some reason the timestamps jump forward to 2090 (the current day time) when he's telling the story, every other paragraph, for seemingly no reason, as the story continues on as it had. It's hard to describe but really weird.
MAKING GNOCCHI AT THE END OF THE WORLD, Kelly Lagor
Wow. What a great story. Just really fantastic. It just flew by, I enjoyed every minute of it. A couple moves into a Scottish farmhouse to escape the end of the world, and deal with it together. Terrifying and wonderful and beautifully written, I Just fucking loved it.
**FLOAT WHERE WE Will, Sean Monaghan
A submarine crew on Europa have technical difficulties. It was alright. A bit hard to follow sometimes. Aside from some brief mentions of lower gravity, it really didn't need to be set on Europa. Feel like they should have set it on earth.
EXPERT WITNESS, Leonard Richardson
Part of a series. Didn't read.
**PROJECT DESERT SPARROW, Chana Kohl
It was alright. A post-nuclear war kingdom society in Morocco deals with the threat of approaching fallout, and debates building a rocket send the rich folks to space. It was written with a really interesting voice that kept me engaged, and it was a really interesting setting. The characters were mostly just OK, and some talked with accents that made them hard to understand, though that might have been the point. The last few pages were pointless and should have been cut.
Those were all I read. Kinda lost the mood for short stories. Not the issue's fault.
September 8, 2024
An excellent issue of Analog. Plenty of great stories, no bad stories and I only spotted one typo. That means five stars!
My favorites include:
"Uncle Roy's Computer Repairs and Used Robot Parts" by Martin L. Shoemaker, which is a folksy story about an old engineer who settles in small town Kansas in his retirement years.
"The Pure Bliss of Contrapuntal Existence" by new writer Michael Panetta which explores whether a music-loving (and producing) bug is sentient.
"Fertile Imagination" by Tim Stevens & Frank Wu, about a man with some gaps in his memory.
"Mayflies" by Richard A Lovett, about an insurance investigator looking into why a customer committed suicide.
"Voices, Still and Present" by Mark W. Tiedemann, about a woman who emerges from a "transporter" after a 43 year delay and has to deal with the consequences.
"Small Minds" by the always-readable Tom Jolly, about a future earth mostly destroyed by "Hunt and Kill" nanobots and the friendly AI that attempts to protect the survivors.
My favorites include:
"Uncle Roy's Computer Repairs and Used Robot Parts" by Martin L. Shoemaker, which is a folksy story about an old engineer who settles in small town Kansas in his retirement years.
"The Pure Bliss of Contrapuntal Existence" by new writer Michael Panetta which explores whether a music-loving (and producing) bug is sentient.
"Fertile Imagination" by Tim Stevens & Frank Wu, about a man with some gaps in his memory.
"Mayflies" by Richard A Lovett, about an insurance investigator looking into why a customer committed suicide.
"Voices, Still and Present" by Mark W. Tiedemann, about a woman who emerges from a "transporter" after a 43 year delay and has to deal with the consequences.
"Small Minds" by the always-readable Tom Jolly, about a future earth mostly destroyed by "Hunt and Kill" nanobots and the friendly AI that attempts to protect the survivors.
July 16, 2024
Great collection of short stories.
November 29, 2025
I preferred the longer-form fiction to the short stories in this issue.
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