Analog Science Fiction & Fact, July/August 2026

Astounding/Analog

by Trevor Quachri (Editor), Tom R. Pike (Contributor), Kevin Walsh (Contributor)

Vol. XCVI No. 7 & 8

Novellas:
• RED SHIPS, Tom R. Pike
• GO FORTH AND MULTIPLY, Meg Elison

Novelettes:
• CASUAL BRUTALITY, Michael T. Kuester
• DEAD GOD’S ALGORITHM, Auston Habershaw
• THE INHERITANCE, Alyssa Abigail Aquino
• CONVERSATIONS WITH CALLIE, OR THE SYNTHESIS OF DISDAIN AND LOVE, Lettie Prell

Short stories:
• THE ELEGANT TEST, David Horn
• VARIABLES IN THE DRAKE EQUATION, William Preston
• SIGHTSEERS, Nikolai Lofving Hersfeldt
• DISASTER RELIEF, Jennifer R. Povey
• AND HER BONES MADE THE HILLS, Mel Hubahib Loja
• FALLING, Jen Downes
• THE EEMIAN, J.A. Schultz
• CHURN, Andrew Dana Hudson
• THE END OF THE LINE, William Paul Jones
• A SKY FOR THE END OF THE WORLD, Gregor Hartmann

Science fact:
• WHEN A GREENHOUSE GOES WILD, Kevin Walsh

Poetry:
• ALONG THE FARTHEST SHORE, Robert Frazier
• HOPE IS AN ILLOGICAL CONCEPT, Fiona Perry

Reader's departments:
• GUEST EDITORIAL: AS ABOVE, SO BELOW—AND CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR, Howard V. Hendrix
• UNKNOWNS, A SLICE OF PI, Alec Nevala-Lee
• ALTERNATE VIEW, John G. Cramer
• IN TIMES TO COME
• THE REFERENCE LIBRARY, Rosemary Claire Smith
• BRASS TACKS

【 PREVIOUS ISSUE ← July/August 2026 → NEXT ISSUE 】

208 pages, digest magazine

Published June 8, 2026

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

[Kevin Phyland]

The emissary from the emperor of Ares arrived at Recife with the offer of ten warships. The Thane Llewellyn suspecting a poisoned chalice still accepts the gift as it will confer great power. But accepting “The Red Ships” fulfils the long game of Ares as Llewellyn’s subsequent heirs find to their cost in Tom R. Pike’s feudal tale. Space piracy has little place for mercy but the “Casual Brutality” of the almost-sanctioned trade has finally gotten to a law enforcement official in Michael T. Kuester’s grim story. A search for life in Europa’s ocean becomes a deadly race against a radiation storm in “The Elegant Test” by David Horn, while a Torrhoid investigator is sent to save the Moja race from mental subjugation by the Bodani Collective, a group mind composed of AIs in “Dead God’s Algorithm” by Auston Habershaw. It shows why doing the smart thing might be the wrong thing. When a researcher studying old astronomical photographs finds satellite streaks the immediate thought is extraterrestrial. But further examination shows it is not. It is something much more amazing in “The Eemian” by J. A. Schultz. At the top of a 100,000 km long space elevator is the restaurant known as “The End Of The Line”. There, William Paul Jones has a wily manager and gifted chefs attempt to solve an intractable political problem in a decisive and final manner. The PHI Institute instantiates human minds into a computer substrate, resulting in a type of immortality. When 8 year old Callie, dying of incurable cancer is instantiated her parents feel it was her only chance at life. In “Conversations With Callie” Lettie Prell  reveals that not everything human may be preserved. Thought-provoking. Another resurrection story to close the issue. When 7 yo Sebastian Pushkin was killed by a drunk driver his parents used his stored cord blood to grow a new son with recorded memories. Their joy is short-lived though when, first another Seb is delivered and then a female version. Their mother Winnie cannot deal with this and seeks redress in “Go Forth And Multiply” by Meg Elison. (Nice homage to Asimov as well.) Recommended issue.

[Brendan Powell]

Kind of a mixed-bag of good sci-fi and some dudes in this issue.