Analog Science Fiction and Fact March/April 2020 (Vol 140, Nos. 3 4) by Trevor Quachri

Analog Science Fiction and Fact March/April 2020 (Vol 140, Nos. 3 4) Reviews

• 
  John Loyd

  8 • Noise Level • 22 pages by Raymond F. Jones
  OK+. Mart Nagle and many other top scientists are brought together in a top secret meeting. They're told of Dunning's anti-gravity invention. Shown a movie of his demonstration, and the second where Dunning dies. Dunning has been secretive and paranoid leaving no discernible notes. It's up to Mart and the rest of the scientists to reverse engineer the device.
  
  38 • The House of Styx • 48 pages by Derek Kunsken
  OK/Good. It's dangerous on Venus. Pascal's mother, sister and brother-in-law all died. He gets [more] acid burns in chapter one. They live in engineered trawlers, a native species. He has an older brother and nephew that live with him and his father in the low clouds. Another sister and brother have moved to a higher habitat. Marthe is in the assembly. She and her father both have issues with the political climate on Venus. Emile is friends with artists and poets who like to get high and want to commune with Venus. Meanwhile Pascal and his father, Georg-Etienne, investigate an inexplicable storm near the surface.
  
  86 • Camphor • 10 pages by Mark W. Tiedemann
  Good+. When Remy sees the visitor he is worried that he'll be recalled and have to leave Camphor. Havelock is there because of a species that may be a disease carrier.
  
  96 • Expecting to Fly • 8 pages by Edd Vick, Manny Frishberg
  Very Good. Infant Yetsade was the only survivor of a crash on PlanetAR. She was raised by the natives and expected to die the next season when she and her broodmates would be expected to fly. A human ship arrives and takes her aboard.
  
  104 • Midstrathe Exploding • 5 pages by Andy Dudak
  OK+. Part of Midstrathe was caught in a catastrophic temporal normalization. To the outside world people there are nearly motionless. In the present Ciaran is commissioned to take an old lady to view the wave-front. Also some flashbacks of his childhood.
  
  114 • A Stone's Throw from You • 2 pages by Jenn Reese
  OK/Fair. Older sister leaves for a mission to save the planet. While she's gone their mother dies leaving the young sister alone, who then follows her own path.
  
  116 • Dix Dayton, Jet Jockey • 4 pages by Liz A. Vogel
  Good+. Dayton's flight is delayed and he has to make a course correction. A proximity alert awakens him. He sees an unmarked ship closing in on an outbound freighter. Pirates.
  
  120 • Cooling Chaos • 5 pages by Gregory Benford
  OK. Companion piece to his science article in this issue. Mostly science on how to reverse run away global warming.
  
  126 • Respite • 8 pages by Catherine Wells
  Very Good+. Rafe built Respite a thousand years ago. The longevity treatments never made it to outposts like Respite, but he believes that people could still be alive and is rewarded by seeing that it is so. Unfortunately their systems are failing and although he can take a handful of people with him it'll be eighteen years before other ships can rescue the rest. Even with his repairs it looks like they only have ten years before failure.
  
  134 • Curious Algorithms • 9 pages by Hayden Trenholm
  OK/Good. Agnes is border patrol until its/her programming is overridden by something that Joshua has done.
  
  143 • War Lily • 3 pages by Beth Dawkins
  Good/VG. When a soldier dies they're consciousness, recorded before they ship out, is allowed to talk with their relatives again. Shelby gets four uses.
  
  146 • On the Causes and Consequences of Cat Ladies • 8 pages by Richard A. Lovett
  OK/Fair. A widow moves to a semi-rural house. Her cat is mauled and dies. A few days later a stray cat uses the cat door. There is mention of enhanced pet food, but it didn't seem to come into play.
  
  154 • Zeroth Contact • 6 pages by Joshua Cole
  Good/OK. Astronomers discover disks near asteroids. Definitely alien.
  
  160 • The Halting Problem • 2 pages by Em Liu
  Fair. John is a coder working as an airport bartender because he can't look at screens.
  
  162 • The Smartest Damn Machine on Earth • 2 pages by Bo Balder
  Good+. The smartest computer has been relegated to a circus attraction where it'll answer questions. A young girl is next in line to ask her question.
  
  164 • Leamonade Stand • 6 pages by Brenda Kalt
  OK/Good. Dani starts her one person salvage/recycling business, servicing small asteroid miners. Arkady is in trouble, but if she rescues him it'll put her out of business. Going back to her father is something she wants to avoid.
  
  170 • Rover • 8 pages by A.T. Sayre
  OK/Good. A rover is stranded on Mars with no new mission, so it goes on collecting data every day and trying to contact someone each night.
  
  178 • One Hundred • 10 pages by Sean Monaghan
  Good. Cam and Bettina are the youngest of the hundred people on Mars. They were just kids when they came, but now that the people on Earth are dead they have to make the best of it where they are. They need to come up with the ideas for a better future.
  
  188 • One Basket • 12 pages by C. C. Finlay
  Good. Resources are tight on the asteroid and life is dangerous. Alaya is getting to go outside for the first time to collect the fruits of her grandmother's invention.
• 
  Oleksandr Zholud

  This is Analog Science Fiction and Fact, the most popular of SFF paid magazines. The issue is March/April 2020 (Vol 140, Nos. 3 & 4).
  
  The Art of Noise [Editorial (Analog)] essay by Alec Nevala-Lee Another notion that this is the 90th year of publishing and a short review of what in the issue with spoilers of the “best of” novelette.
  Noise Level [Martin Nagle] this is 1952 novelette, quite interesting in both idea and execution. The story starts as the brass collects scientists and show them that some unknown guy uncovered anti-grav, but died during the demonstration. And because it is the Cold War era, all efforts are send to re-discover how anti-grav works before the USSR does it. 4 stars
  Veiling the Earth [Science Fact (Analog)] essay by Gregory Benford an essay linked to the story by the author in the same issue.
  The Pournelle Volume essay by Arlan Andrews, Sr. how to establish a worth of asteroid
  The House of Styx (part 1 of 3) [Venus Ascendant 1] a serialized novel, set on Venus in mid-22nd century. The planet (or its atmosphere, 50 km and higher) is colonized by people from Quebec. They live in dirigibles or/and local flying plants, extracting stuff from lower atmosphere. The D’Aquillon family is in the center of the story. After they decided not to abort their son with Down Syndrome, the authorities limited their supply, so the family become a major player in the black market. A very well done hard SF, reminding me of
  Red Mars, even if styles are quite different. 3.5 stars
  Camphor short story by Mark W. Tiedemann a planet is rediscovered by a multi-star human government after something akin to what was predicted in x took place. The ‘ambassador’ there got a visitor from that government reporting that there is a non-native species on the planet that can potentially cause epidemics. 2.5 stars
  Expecting to Fly short story by Manny Frishberg and Edd Vick another take on Mowgli, an Earth girl grown by hive aliens. 5 stars
  Midstrathe Exploding short story by Andy Dudak a temporal bomb was blown a long ago and now tourist came to witness people stuck like a fly in amber. A young boy present alternative ways to tourists to watch the site. 2 stars
  How to Go Twelfth poem by Mary Soon Lee a short poem
  The Inconstant Hubble Constant [The Alternate View] essay by John G. Cramer two different ways give different estimates for the Hubble Constant, and if we introduce just another kind of dark matter they can be made consistent. Interesting, but I am skeptical of adding one more variable we can only theoretically justify.
  Plank poem by Josh Pearce
  A Stone's Throw from You short story by Jenn Reese One sister goes studying to save our oceans while another bio-mods herself to a mermaid and dies. The story is a monologue of the former during the funeral of the later. 3 stars
  Dix Dayton, Jet Jockey short story by Liz A. Vogel a sneak attack on space pirates by supposedly unarmed civil ship. The idea was in Men-Kzin wars by
  Larry Niven in the 70s, so a low mark. 1 star.
  Cooling Chaos short story by Gregory Benford increasing Earth albedo to lower temperature in Arctic. Scientifically sound, literally weak. 2.5 stars.
  In Times to Come (Analog, March-April 2020) [In Times to Come (Analog)] essay by uncredited plans for the next issue
  Respite short story by Catherine Wells there is a failing far away colony to which suddenly a ship comes. Onboard in the creator of the colony, for in ‘bigger world’ people can live forever. Now he can try to save a few while the colony fails. 3.5 stars
  Curious Algorithms short story by Hayden Trenholm an AI works at delivering refugees from “behind the wall”, but meets a man Joshua, who tells that her work is based on a lie. 3 stars.
  War Lily short story by Beth Dawkins instead of sending back bodes of fallen solders, an artificial flower with their memories is sent back. But it has only 4 activations. As an idea quite nice, but why activations are limited makes ‘science-y’ part suspect. 3 stars.
  On the Causes and Consequences of Cat Ladies short story by Richard A. Lovett a widow gets a house away from the city and starts to feed stray cats that come. An unexpected final twist, which changes the gene of the story. 3 stars
  Zeroth Contact short story by Joshua Cole an astronomer following heavy metal asteroids sees a flying saucer that eats it. All attempts to contact the aliens fails. 3.5 stars.
  The Halting Problem short story by Em Liu a barman in the airport, who was a programmer but now has a strange psychological issue. 4 stars.
  The Smartest Damn Machine on Earth short story by Bo Balder an old former NSA computer works in carnivals and a girl finally asks it the right type of question. 3.5 stars.
  Lemonade Stand short story by Brenda Kalt a young woman should decide to follow her path of collecting stuff to finally get financial independence or help a stranded man. I thought it will be another take on
  The Cold Equations, but it is not. 2 stars
  Rover short story by A. T. Sayre Martian rover wanders across the red planet, cannibalizing old Earth tech to function, while Earth doesn’t send it any new instructions. 4 stars.
  One Hundred short story by Sean Monaghan a 100 strong colony on Mars has to find new ways to cope after the Earth had a disaster. 2 stars
  One Basket novelette by Charles Coleman Finlay [as by C. C. Finlay] a girl follows her grandma to find an old cash on the asteroid that will boost their finances. 2.5 stars.
  The Reference Library (Analog, March-April 2020) [The Reference Library] essay by Don Sakers some new releases
  Brass Tacks (Analog, March-April 2020) [Brass Tacks] essay by various letters and answers
  Upcoming Events (Analog, March-April 2020) [Upcoming Events] essay by Anthony R. Lewis [as by Anthony Lewis]
  
• 
  Seth Kennedy

  Solid issue. Promising start to a 4-part serial from Derek Kunsken, I enjoyed the Raymond Jones "Noise Level" reprint and the other standouts were AT Sayre's poignant piece, "Rover," about the autonymous rover on Mars, "One Basket" by CC Finlay and "One Hundred" by Sean Monaghan. But the quality was consistently good throughout.
  
  Just realized this year that I've been subscribed to Analog for about 26 or 27 years, and thanks to my mom grabbing me back issues slated for recycling from my high school's library, I've read pretty much every issue since the late 1980s, which gets me up to having read about a third of the magazine's issues over its 90-year history. I don't know what that gets me except for many, many, many hours of satisfied reading and dreaming over the years.
• 
  Timo Pietilä

  A pretty average issue.
  
  Noise Level • [Martin Nagle] • (1952) • novelette by Raymond F. Jones
  A reprinted classic story. A group of scientists is invited to a military base with utmost security. They are shown a film, which appears to prove that antigravity is real. An inventor wears a west, rises high on air and lowers himself down. Then he gives a rambling explanation of his invention, riddled with nonsensical references to astrology and other pseudoscience. When he is giving a second demonstration, his apparatus starts to smoke, then he falls to his death and breaks the machine. Scientists are supposed to recreate the invention. The inventor’s lab has no notes. His books are a strange mix of science and esoterica. Is it possible to recreate his work? A bit overlong, very Campbellian, even irritatingly Campbellian story. I think I have read pretty much the same story with a different invention (FTL-travel?) somewhere? Or have I read this one and mixing my memories? ***½
  Camphor • short story by Mark W. Tiedemann
  A planet has had an ambassador for a long time, but he really doesn’t understand the people of the planet. They have a strange taboo about bare arms, and everyone keeps their arms always covered. There might be an invasive animal who might be a carrier of severe disease that demands swift action. A lot of the story is just discussion. And there was too little backstory, so it was hard to get involved with it. ***
  Expecting to Fly • short story by Manny Frishberg and Edd Vick
  A girl is brought up by insectoid aliens, who go through a cocoon phase and transform from a pulpal phase to an adult phase. She is unhappy, as she can’t-go through that, learn to fly, and find her purpose. Then, she is rescued by humans. But adjusting to human life can be hard. A pretty nice, well-told, but, at places, slightly hurried story. ***+
  Midstrathe Exploding • short story by Andy Dudak
  An explosion of a city has been frozen. It will take a thousand years to happen. Tourists and religious fanatics journey to the wavefront of the explosion. A nice story with good mood, but once again there was not enough backstory to really get into it. ***
  Dix Dayton, Jet Jockey • short story by Liz A. Vogel
  A single passenger ship notices that a pirate ship is approaching a vital supply shipment. He doesn’t have any weapons. What to do? A simple scene-like story with little actual plot. ***
  Cooling Chaos • short story by Gregory Benford
  A “story” about how spreading aerosols to a higher atmosphere might stop global warming. There is a plot of sorts, but it is extremely thin. Another non-story. **
  Respite • short story by Catherine Wells
  A man arrives at a space station where no one has come for a long time. The people there have barely survived, and machinery is breaking down. The man who came has actually been building the station hundreds of years ago and is still alive due to antiaging treatments and time dilation. He can take only eleven people back with him and getting help will take more time than the machinery will last. A good story that works well as itself. ****-
  Curious Algorithms • short story by Hayden Trenholm
  An AI vehicle transports people who come from another side of a wall. It isn’t entirely clear what is on the other side and if people escaping or being deported through the wall. It isn’t entirely clear where the car is taking those people. Is it to a "rescue camp" that is really for imprisonment? The car wonders about that and even more when some restrictions are removed. Another story with a scant background that was more of a scene from a larger tale. ***+
  War Lily • short story by Beth Dawkins
  A soldier who has died in duty has three sessions where an AI recording of her personality can be accessed for a limited time. Nice and sweet story, but without an explanation of why the AI is so limited. ***+
  On the Causes and Consequences of Cat Ladies • short story by Richard A. Lovett
  A husband and wife team has developed a food that turns rats smarter. FDA didn’t allow human tests, and a foreign pet food company bought the patent. The husband has died of glioblastoma (he had been sampling his wares, so perhaps FDA wasn’t so wrong after all.) The wife lives with her cat, who dies after been mauled by unknown animals. But soon, there is another cat, and then second and a third. They all seem to be very particular about their food. A pretty good story with a not-too-happy ending. ***½
  Zeroth Contact • short story by Joshua Cole
  An astronomer spots a disk that seems to be eating a metal-rich asteroid. Eventually, several of the disks are spotted, but no attempt of contact with them seems to succeed. A pretty nice story where humanity is just a bystander. ****-
  Lemonade Stand • short story by Brenda Kalt
  A daring rescue attempt at the asteroid belt involving an emotionally absent father and an ex. This is a somewhat-too-short story where everyone seems to have close connections, more or less by an accident. ***
  Rover • short story by A. T. Sayre
  A Mars rover has been able to scavenge parts of other abandoned mars probes and has been able to function well past what was expected. It hasn’t been able to contact the Earth base for a long time, but then it finds a signal of a beacon. I wonder how the probe was able to achieve that level of AI. Also, the ending was a bit too unexplained. ***+
  One Hundred • short story by Sean Monaghan
  A Martian colony of 100 people is barely surviving after Earth has been destroyed by an asteroid strike. They are making advances, but slowly. A pretty good story, but perhaps it was too short - it wasn’t easy to learn to know the characters and their predicaments in a short story. ***½
  One Basket • novelette by Charles Coleman Finlay [as by C. C. Finlay]
  An asteroid colony is running low on water (I wonder where the water has gone, it should be 100% recyclable). A teenage girl is doing her homework when her grandmother asks her to go outside to gather eggs. A nice but simple story with a very strong YA vibe. ***½
• 
  F. William Davis

  This rating and review is only for 'One Basket' by C C. Finlay. (Explanation below)
  
  An excellent story, it starts off a bit uneasy but ends up being a whole lot of fun. Alaya's grandmother seems like a no nonsense, pain in the ass but actually she not only means well but turns out to have her own cheeky brand of humour. She gets Alaya all suited up and they step out onto the surface of their asteroid for a little chicken hunt, which turns out to be an egg hunt, but they're not actually looking for eggs and well, it's a secret and I'm not allowed to tell anybody. If you want to know you'll have to find out for yourself. An accident occurs and a dramatic rescue is attempted. The moral of this story is that sometimes there's no other choice than to put all of your eggs in one basket so you'd better learn to take care of the damn basket.
  
  **While I sort out how I'm going to get a hold of these magazines in Australia without ordering direct from the US and having to pay too much for shipping on every issue, I've decided to check out the stories that are available for free on the podcast. I have some back orders on their way over already and I will add reviews for the other stories when I get a copy to hold.
• 
  Par

  4 Stars! This rating/review is for the short story “One Basket” by C.C. Finlay. Excellent story. Reminded me of Artemis by Weir a little bit.
  Read: 1/17/23
  
  Link:
  https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...
  
  Quotes:
  - “Nothing’s going to happen, we’ll be fine… But just because we’ll be fine doesn’t mean we won’t be careful. It’s the other way around—careful is what keeps us fine. Got it?”
  - “Being trapped on Earth made people small—we had to move into space in order to grow.”
  - “Anybody who doesn’t have their head up in the stars the first time they go for a walk has their head up their ass.”
  - “You don’t have a choice. Sometimes all your eggs are in one basket. But then you better take good care of that basket.”
• 
  Paul

  Ratings for this issue:
  
  A (excellent):
  
  Noise Level by Raymond F. James
  The House of Styx, part 1 by Derek Kunsken
  Curious Algorithms by Hayden Trenholm
  Respite by Catherine Wells
  On the Causes & Consequences of Cat Ladies by Richard A. Lovett
  Rover by A.T. Sayre
  
  B (very good):
  
  Midstraithe Exploding by Andy Dudak
  Dix Dayton, Jet Jocky by Liz A. Vogel
  Cooling Chaos by Gregory Benford
  Zeroth Contact by Joshua Cole
  The Art of Noise (editorial) by Alec Nevala-Lee
  
  C (average):
  
  One Basket by C. C. Finlay
  Camphor by Mark W. Tiedemann
  Expecting to Fly by Edd Vick & Manny Frishberg
  A Stone's Throw from you by Jenn Reese
  War Lily by Beth Dawkins
  The Halting Problem by Em Liu
  The Smartest Damn Machine on Earth by Bo Balder
  Lemonade Stand by Brenda Kalt
  One Hundred by Sean Monaghan
• 
  Fernando Goulart

  A really good edition, I enjoyed all the stories, with the exception of one of two. But unfortunately, I could not connect with the cover serial story, thought the prose was confused, and I do not plan to follow up on the next edition.
• 
  Michael Goodine

  This issue worked for me. I enjoyed the first installment of Derek Kunsken's "The House of Styx" quite a lot, and look forward to the next installment. I guess that makes this a solid four-star issue.
  
  The rest of the stories are mostly average, though "Midstrathe Explosion" by Andy Dudak and "One Hundred" by Sean Monaghan stand out as being quite good.
  
  Quite a lot of stories about mining resources in space this month. Hey, that's Analog for ya.
• 
  Tony

  This issue was loaded with so many great stories that I finally subscribed.
• 
  Mj James

  The Editorial talks about showing diversity in science fiction. Yet, this issue was decadently lacking. By continuing to gear towards old school science fiction the magazine is keeping with a white, male, and straight view point. That is not to say that every story was written by a a straight white male, but that it all follows that formula.
  
  I ended up DNFing The House of Styx. The story features a character with Down syndrome. I wasn't thrilled with the way the character was introduced: "Jean-Eudes was Venus's only Down Syndrome Child." the sentence was thrown in without any context and did not really tell anything about the character who goes on to be a babysitter with no characterization of his own. However, when later the word "retarded" and the brother goes off on a tangent about how his brother ruined his family I was done. I did skim the rest of the story. I wanted to see if this was brought into the plot, or if the author called attention to how much B***S**** this is. It could be there, but not apparent. The story ends with an entirely different brother being called a genius - so I am guessing this issue is not called out. This is not diversity. This is perpetuating the myth that individuals with disabilities are a burden to society.
  
  ***will post the rest of my review when I have finished with the rest of the issue***
• 
  Mark Catalfano

  I liked "Camphor" by Mark W. Tiedemann, "Expecting to Fly" by Manny Frishberg and Edd Vick, and "On the Causes and Consequences of Cat Ladies" by Richard A. Lovett