Galaxy's Edge Magazine Issue 32, May 2018

by Mike Resnick, Joe Haldeman, Kristine Kathryn Rusch

A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy

ISSUE 32: May 2018

Mike Resnick, Editor
Taylor Morris, Copyeditor
Shahid Mahmud, Publisher

Stories: Effie Seiberg, Alex Shvartsman, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Laurence Raphael Brothers, Karlo Yeager Rodríguez, Gardner Dozois, Walter Dinjos, Leah Cypess, Kij Johnson, Brian K. Lowe, Brian Trent, Joe Haldeman, Barry N. Malzberg

Serialization: Daughter of Elysium by Joan Slonczewski

Columns by: Robert J. Sawyer, Gregory Benford

Recommended Books: Bill Fawcett and Jody Lynn Nye

Interview: Joy Ward interviews Catherine Asaro

Galaxy’s Edge is a Hugo-nominated bi-monthly magazine published by Phoenix Pick, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Arc Manor, an award winning independent press based in Maryland. Each issue of the magazine has a mix of new and old stories, a serialization of a novel, columns by Robert J. Sawyer and Gregory Benford, book recommendations by Bill Fawcett and Jody Lynn Nye and an interview conducted by Joy Ward.

98 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 2018

About the author

Michael "Mike" Diamond Resnick, better known by his published name Mike Resnick, was a popular and prolific American science fiction author. He is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He was the winner of five Hugos, a Nebula, and other major awards in the United States, France, Spain, Japan, Croatia and Poland. and has been short-listed for major awards in England, Italy and Australia. He was the author of 68 novels, over 250 stories, and 2 screenplays, and was the editor of 41 anthologies. His work has been translated into 25 languages. He was the Guest of Honor at the 2012 Worldcon and can be found online as @ResnickMike on Twitter or at www.mikeresnick.com.

Reviews

[Gary]

Editor Mike Resnick has a fondness for very short, humorous stories when it comes to original fiction, and this issue features quite a few. There are also classic reprints from Joe Haldeman, Gardner Dozois, and Kij Johnson, another installment of Joan Slonczewski’s 1994 novel Daughter of Elysium, and non-fiction from Robert J. Sawyer, Barry N. Malzberg, and Gregory Benford.
The best of the rib-ticklers is “Chocolate Chip Cookies with Love Potion Infusion” by Leah Cypess, written in the form of a blog post from “proud witch, baker, and blogger” Heather, who has the perfect recipe for making your crush fall madly in love with you. Of course, the comments section reveals some overlooked ethical and moral considerations, as well as concerns about how to undo the spell when you fall out of love.
I also enjoyed the darkly funny “Reality Show” by Brian K. Lowe, in which the galaxy only keeps Earth around for its entertainment value, though I felt the ending slipped off the edge a bit. Karlo Yeager Rodriguez’s “Emergency Evaluation for Penny Ante, as Recorded by CAL-Q-TRON of the Benevolent Order of Heroes” is good for a few chuckles, as an overly snarky and self-absorbed teen superhero sidekick gets her first job performance evaluation.
There are a couple of serious-minded tales as well. My favorite story in the issue is Brian Trent’s sci-fi horror quickie “Jackbox” in which a soldier has to face down the technologically reanimated corpse of a dead opponent. It’s a cynical war-story (they are literally fighting over sand in a resource-starved future) that successfully weds the ingenuity of classic Amazing/Astounding style sci-fi with EC comics irony-laden approach to horror.