Analog Science Fiction and Fact January/February 2021 (Vol 141, Nos. 1 \u0026 2) by Trevor Quachri

Analog Science Fiction and Fact January/February 2021 (Vol 141, Nos. 1 \u0026 2) Reviews

• 
  John Loyd

  8 • Mixed Marriage • 14 pages by Dan Helms
  Very Good. Population explosion has forced those on Earth to sleep six days a week and wake only on their day. Jae-Won a Friday man is going to marry a Sunday woman. Today is the first time they’ll have met in person. The Sunday customs are different than those on Friday.
  
  30 • My Hypothetical Friend • 11 pages by Harry Turtledove
  Good/Very Good. The Brot trade with Earth. Old Salty comes to Dave’s business for an inspection and reveals he/she/it is going home. Dave gives Old Salty a farewell gift that may say the two species are alike.
  
  42 • A Shot in the Dark • 11 pages by Deborah L. Davitt
  Very Good/Good. Dominic is a hermit. The one man at Uranus the furthest outpost of man. He gets a summons, there is an object entering the solar system and he’s the only one in position to make a close observation. He also gets some personal news.
  
  53 • Photometric Evidence of the Gravitational Lensing of Sao23820 by a Nonluminous Low-Mass Stellar Object • 5 pages by Jay Werkheiser
  OK+. Co-authors pull out of Rob's paper. Then the journal rejects it. Interesting, but the point seems to be the inflexibility of the scientific community rather than lets get some corroboration.
  
  58 • Conference of the Birds • 7 pages by Benjamin C. Kinney
  Very Good/Good. Surveillance birds spot Krina, find some anomalies. Requests for human attention are ignored, so they create their own. Really good job of describing the surveillance network, but not sure what Krina is doing.
  
  65 • Interstellar Pantomime • 3 pages by Martin Dimkovski
  Fair/OK. An interstellar probe finds that it’s being followed by some cloaked entity, shows it a presentation box that mirrors this encounter.
  
  68 • Matter and Time Conspire • 2 pages by Sandy Parsons
  Good/OK. A time traveler goes back in time, gets her mother to hook up with a better looking guy. One she was with before her original dad. On one meddling trip her mother catches her and says to put things back the way they were. Funny.
  
  70 • The Tale of Anise and Basil • 4 pages by Daniel James Peterson
  OK+. A human teller is brought before his alien captors. He’s given a specific set of rules for his next story, and it’s really bad. Purposely?
  
  74 • The Practitioner • 6 pages by Em Liu
  Good+. Morgan is a med student taking a medical ethics class in 2093. For that class she is following the career of James in 1965 whose patients were pregnant girls.
  
  80 • What Were You Thinking? • 9 pages by Jerry Oltion
  Good+. Anthony models animal behavior and after his girlfriend's cat barfed in his shoe he made a cat hehavior model. Which in turn led him to thinking about whether anything is conscious or just reacting to stimulus. Fun to read.
  
  90 • The Liberator • 14 pages by Nick Wolven
  Good. Carter is trying to infiltrate the labs in the wild lands where they are specifically trying to use random gene selection rather than the screening that is happening in Le Sys.
  
  104 • The Nocturnal Preoccupations of Moths • 16 pages by J. Northcut, jr.
  OK/Fair. Mars colonists are no longer getting support from Earth. Other outposts eventually demand the seed bank give up its stores which would leave nothing for the future. Just sad.
  
  120 • Changing Eyes • 9 pages by Douglas P. Marx
  OK/Fair. Tenzing left Mars six years ago when his daughter and then his wife died. Now business has brought him back. Half way through we learn the business is to help terraform Mars.
  
  130 • A Working Dog • 7 pages by anne m. gibson
  Good+. Megan designed automated robot lawnmowers in the shape of rabbits. Unbeknownst to her until she got her own dog was that pets were injuring themselves on the metal casing. Now she needs to make it right.
  
  140 • So You Want to Be a Guardian Angel • 4 pages by Michael Meyerhofer
  Fair/OK. Recruiter explains to asteroid hunting candidates the loneliness of the job.
  
  144 • Choose One • 2 pages by Marie DesJardin
  Fair. A dancer is among the finalists of the best of humanity. One by one the rest are eliminated. Sent back to their families, presumably. What would the aliens do if we don’t measure up?
  
  146 • We Remembered Better • 4 pages by Evan Dicken
  OK+. A mother left a memory to her kids. They don’t have fond memories of their mother and don’t really need to see a particular day from her perspective. And that’s the point.
  
  150 • The Last Compact • 6 pages by Brian Rappatta
  Good+. Sancus is an AI in a museum on Ceres. The narrator’s moms are leaving that job to go to Mars and the museum will be shut down. The narrator has become friends (or as close as possible) with Sancus but the narrator doesn’t have enough storage to take the god, even if it was ethical to do so.
  
  156 • Riddlepigs and the Cryla • 8 pages by Raymund Eich
  Good/OK. A dinosaur got loose from the preserve, injured a pig before being driven off by the farmer. Vet and ecologist from the dino company visit the farm, then track the cryla.
  
  164 • Belle Lettres of Astra • 13 pages by Norman Spinrad
  OK. Humanity is expanding throughout the solar system not due to faster travel, but rather hibernation that costs no lifetime. Ariel Dyson is planning an interstellar trip. Eight thousand years, but only a couple of lifetime days. Ishmael has been commissioned to write some alien consciousness stories. After a lot of spouting on how no one reads in the twenty-second century.
  
  178 • By the Will of the Gods • 18 pages by Charles Q. Choi
  Very Good/VG+. Harrow is dead. He was perhaps Hap’s one friend. Hap was orphaned, brought to foreteller’s temple in Nightingale where Harrow assigned his duties. After a run in with Chase, Harrow took more of an interest and really worked his hard. Now Hap wants to solve his murder. So much more going on in the story, starcrossed people being looked down on by the rest of society, but length on the story limits secondary story lines.
• 
  Timo Pietilä

  Mixed Marriage, novelette by Dan Helms
  In the future China people live on alternate days: some people work and live on Mondays, and another set on Tuesdays and so on. The other days are spent in suspended animation. People live in very small apartments, which are shared with six other families living on other days. A man who lives on Fridays has fallen in love with a girl who lives on Sundays via recorded video messages they use on work to transfer information. Sunday people are known to be lazy and carefree, and the family has some reservations about the marriage. When the girl arrives on Friday, she turns out to be very beautiful but also very open and talkative, very different from any Friday people. It turns out that the different days have developed pretty different cultures, a pretty good story with a premise lifted from Farmer’s Dayworld -series. Apparently, people age during the days they sleep. I find it hard to believe that a child’s mental and intellectual development and schooling would be possible in any way in one-seventh of time. ****
  
  A Shot in The Dark, novelette by Deborah L. Davitt
  
  A man is working alone on a moon of Uranus. His only companion is an AI. He is asked to match speeds with a strange object which is approaching the solar system. From early observations, it seems to be very smooth for a natural object. When he gets near, it seems clearly artificial, but is it peaceful or not? A fairly good story - or the beginning of a story, as the most exciting things most likely will happen after the story ends. The writing was pretty good and concentrated mostly on the thoughts and feelings of the main protagonist. The main character makes a pretty far-reaching conclusion at the end - I don't think that there was enough evidence for what he thought the probe was doing. The silly mistakes department: the ship is "burning fuel to match pace”, so it can’t stay long near the ship. In reality, once you match the speed of the other ship, you don’t burn any fuel. ****-
  
  My Hypothetical Friend, short story by Harry Turtledove
  
  Aliens use humans to produce things that humans really don’t even understand. They pay with “trinkets”, a technology which for them is beyond simple, but is next to incomprehensible for humanity. An alien comes to visit the human factory as its stay on Earth is ending. A short, pretty good story: The silly mistakes department: Air conditioning on an electric car doesn’t (of course) need a running engine. Why would it? And an electric car doesn’t have an “idle”. Why would it? ****
  
  Photometric Evidence of The Gravitational Lensing of Sao23820 By A Nonluminous Low-Mass Stellar Object, short story by Jay Werkheiser
  
  An astronomer makes a discovery that apparently is totally impossible and would redefine all known theories. He tries to publish it and doesn’t manage and practically destroys his career before giving, but not without a final “And yet it moves" thought. A fairly good story, but I wonder why the astronomer stuck to his explanation. If the observation is a real one, and it defies everything which is known, you should find a model that would explain the observation, not stuck to something which seems and most likely is impossible. ***+
  
  Conference of The Birds, short story by Benjamin C. Kinney
  
  Krina has stolen antiviral data and she is pursued by animal-looking drones, but are all drones bad? The story was a little hard to get into and didn't really make an impact – there was a bit too much explaining. ***-
  
  Interstellar Pantomime, short story by Martin Dimkovski
  
  The objects in space analyze each other and one gains information it was supposed to get. Just a short scene, not an actual story. **
  
  The Tale of Anise and Basil, short story by Daniel James Peterson
  
  A human rebel tells a story for “the Diamond Empress” to survive. It was supposed to a perfect story - and in a way it is. But a pretty stupid at the same time. Like this actual story (a scene), is also. **+
  
  The Practitioner, short story by Em Liu
  
  A medical student observes from the future the actions of an abortionist as a part of ethical education. She also helps at a free clinic in her free time. A pretty well written and good story, but the ending was a bit too much fantasy rather than science fiction. The silly mistakes department: still totally rotten healthcare in the US at 2092? Nothing has changed? And corticosteroids as a primary treatment for a child’s psoriatic arthritis? In 2092? It isn’t recommended (or even the cheapest) treatment even now. A totally stupid detail. ****-
  
  What Were You Thinking? short story by Jerry Oltion
  
  A man who works at a behavioral science lab starts to wonder how his girlfriend’s cat operates. How many behavioral rules and patterns does it have? It turns out that it's not so many. But do people operate on set patterns? Maybe that is a question that should not be looked at too closely. A fun, well-written story, like almost everything by Oltion. ***½
  
  The Liberator, novelette by Nick Wolven
  
  A man is on an undercover mission. He is infiltrating a group that works undercover beyond the state borders. They are apparently involved in something horrible. He succeeds in his infiltration, but it turns out that the group was onto him. But he manages to call in a strike to destroy the horrible compound that produces humans with no genetic alternations whatso *ever.
  
  The Nocturnal Preoccupations of Moths, novelette by J. Northcutt, Jr.
  
  Martian colonies are almost abandoned and surviving is hard. The keepers of the seed bank are facing pressures especially hard. A slow-moving tale where characters discuss things like they were presenting a doctoral dissertation with long complicated words and sentences - no one talks like that. ***-
  
  Changing Eyes, short story by Douglas P. Marx
  
  Another story of a Martian colony. The colony is struggling, but the fourth-generation descendants of mountain living Sherpas of Hilayays are able to almost survive. For some reason, they still are very spiritual people burning incense. There is a plan to “reignite” the planetary core with “Quark-shots”. Due to apparently extremely poor planning, there is a hitch, though. A shortish, extremely implausible story. (I wonder what would be the energy requirements to melt the inside of a planet?) **
  
  A Working Dog, short story by Anne M. Gibson
  
  A dog chases robotic lawnmowers which are shaped like rabbits. So much so, that he is in danger of dying from exhaustion. The designer ponders how she should change the design – but there is another way of looking at the problem. A shortish and amusing light tale. ***+
  
  So You Want To Be A Guardian Angel, short story by Michael Meyerhofer
  
  Some sort of info dump and behavior manual for those who guard humanity against asteroid strikes. Meh. **½
  
  We Remembered Better, short story by Evan Dicken
  
  Apparently the abusive mother has used her last money for a memory recording of one day. Her descendants aren’t too happy and aren’t even sure if they want to see the thing. Too short for the reader to care, either. ***-
  
  The Last Compact, short story by Brian Rappatta
  
  A young man who lives on Mars has been helping in the upkeep of an AI saint. When a project is being scrapped and he and his mothers are moving away he is torn, when the AI is scheduled to be archived. An Ok snip of a real story, far too short with too scant background to make me care of the characters. ***
  
  Riddlepigs and the Cryla, short story by Raymund Eich
  
  Dinosaurs are being raised on an alien planet. One has broken free from its containment and hurt a very valuable pig which is being used for harvesting organs for transplants. A team comes to look for dino. A short scene rather than a real story - there was no background, and there was no connection to the characters. ***
  
  Belle Lettres Ad Astra, novelette by Norman Spinrad
  
  ”Elon Tesla” has expanded all over the solar system. Travel between planets is slow, but apparently perfect deep sleep that doesn’t age people has been invented. There are indications that a Dyson sphere has been found, but there is no radio traffic coming from there. Travel to there would take a lot of real time, but little subjective time for the passengers. Fairly loose story with not much plot and a lot of rambling description of the world. ***-
  
  By the Will of The Gods, novelette by Charles Q. Choi
  
  An orphan is brought up by a strange caretaker in a temple which is situated on a kind crossroads of space routes. The caretaker doesn’t seem to be very good at repairing things, but he has some strange missions and teaches the orphan to fight. Then he is killed and the orphan tries to find out why and by whom. The story takes some time to get going, but turns out to be pretty good and well written. ****-
• 
  Daniel

  The first issue of the year features a number of strong stories, but also some (particularly among the shortest) that seem less complete or impactful. Though still dominated by 'hard science fiction' that favors technology and speculative details, a surprising number of the stories here put the speculative element to the back to focus on character relationships or other non-technical themes. I'm fine with that trend, and certainly with the balance that it brings to this issue.
  
  "Mixed Marriage" by Dan Helms — Soon Jae-won, the only son in a Korean family, awakens within their small allotment of living space to an important day ahead when he will meet his future wife. The story is set in a future where human population levels have resulted in adoption of 'time share', where families are designated just one day a week for going about activity, while sleeping the other six in cramped, shared quarters. Jae-won is a Friday, but the woman he is to marry is a Sunday, and generations kept separate has given rise to class and cultural differences that his family worries might interfere with a successful marriage. Interesting premise and story here from a clash of a conservative, traditional mindset with one more relaxed and open. I liked the ending and its take on how people can get comfortable in anything, and fear the work or discomfort that might arise from changing even something repressive. I don't know why Helms chose Korea as the setting, and am not familiar enough with Korean culture enough to know the accuracy in portrayal here. Looking at other's reviews of the story I'm concerned that so many of those seem to conflate Asian nations and cultures.
  
  "A Shot in the Dark" by Deborah L. Davitt — On Uranus' moon Titania, Dominic Vadas works for a UN space agency alone at the farthest station from Earth, happy to live a hermit away from human contact, and keeping interactions with his AI to a minimum. A new message from Earth with orders for Vadas to leave the autonomous robots going there and pack his bag to intercept and check out an extrasolar object that has arrived in our system. Along with the increased news from Earth arrives a letter from a daughter Vadas hadn't realized he had. Fantastic story with natural dialogue, lots of technical details, and a strong human element with character development to boot.
  
  "The Liberator" by Nick Wolven — A man infiltrates a criminal group that supports human reproduction without genetic modifications. Though the story is written well and engagingly as a thriller, the central theme here seems well-trodden and I didn't feel the story added much perspective on what human modification should or should not entail, or the nature of how 'defective' could be defined.
  
  "The Nocturnal Preoccupations of Moths" by J. Northcutt, Jr. — One of two stories in a row in the issue featuring a Martian colony. Here, the setting centers on botanists who are working hard to maintain seed banks amid the failing colony mission. The story is followed by a note of its historical influence from actions of botanists during the siege (of Leningrad if my memory serves) during WWII. The scientists actions and discussions are interspersed with passages on the behaviors of moth in the habitat. For me it was a beautiful, melancholy story of nature and human behavior during times of short supply.
  
  "Belle Lettres Ad Astra" by Norman Spinrad — Written for a special volume themed around the state of reading in the future, this tale involves "Elon Tesla", interstellar expansion of humanity through hibernation, and the possible discovery of a Dyson Sphere. I'm not a fan of Spinrad's columns usually, and this story felt just as ambling and uninteresting.
  
  "By the Will of the Gods" by Charles Q. Choi — A young man who has been raised an orphan in a temple found on a space route looks into the death of the temple's caretaker, the one man there who showed love for the boy and helped mentor him. A nice mixture of SF, mystery, and class commentary.
  
  "My Hypothetical Friend" by Harry Turtledove — Dave Markarian has built Interstellar Master Traders by profiting from his carefully established business relationship with the enigmatic Brot, a slug-like alien race that arrives on Earth with advanced technology well beyond humanities capabilities or even comprehension. He learns that the Brot representative that he has worked with for decades - perhaps even developed a friendship with - is leaving. Markarian's symbolic gift for the departing Brot shows a deeper perception of the human-Brot relatioship than he may realize. Alien contact (arrival on Earth) stories stereotypically go the way of conqueror or altruistic saviors, but as he excels at, Turtledove looks to history to speculate more realistic and imaginable interactions (business and personal) between trading partners with such differences in development between them.
  
  "Photometric Evidence of the Gravitational Lensing of SAO23820 By a Nonluminous Low-Mass Stellar Object" by Jay Werkheiser — A physicist relates being ostracized into an academic pariah after relentlessly pursuing publication of data he feels indicates the presence of a black dwarf star. Others refuse to accept this as it runs counter to the Standard Theory. Maybe physics is more black/white than bio, but I would think a bit of data might be consistent or inconsistent with something without leading a grand theory being so threatened. Other explanations seem to always exist. And this, I guess, takes place in the days before preprint servers? Story does say something about dogma in science that is worth saying, I just am not sure it did so in the best way.
  
  "Conference of the Birds" by Benjamin C. Kinney — Only after reading the author biography after this story, did it completely click with me. This is a story that merges artificial intelligence concepts with neurobiological intelligence concepts, a tale of drones acting out the will of a central hub, of individual actions within a larger societal organism. This one is dense, with a unique voice for its major character. For my tastes in fiction I'd say I like the concept more than the execution. But I get why some readers would find this a fascinating and rewarding read. Scientists or laypersons with an interest in neurobiology or AI should definitely give this a look.
  
  "Interstellar Pantomime" by Martin Dimkovski — A probe from Earth responds to an object trailing it as programmed, but unbeknownst to the probe's designers, this alien object can use its observations of the probe to extrapolate its origin. A simple, fair speculative idea. But, I'm not a fan of this kind of minimalist story around a hard SF concept, even if short.
  
  "Matter and Time Conspire" by Sandy Parsons — Flash fiction like the previous story, this one dealing with multiple 'me' characters due to the messing with time. An enjoyable enough read, but nothing special or particularly new to it.
  
  "The Tale of Anise and Basil" by Daniel James Peterson — This brief story features a human prisoner forced to be royal storyteller in an alien court. The alien ruler demands a story that conforms to rules of leaving no details unexplained or left to the imagination or face death. Considering the demand and its traps, the human storyteller finds a way to oblige. A commentary on unreasonable reader/reviewer demands for authors? Reads like a fable, but with the technical/philosophic arguments that perhaps make it fitting for Analog.
  
  "The Practitioner" by Em Liu — Medical students in 2093 observe events through time from past eras as part of their Medical Ethics course. One student has difficulties coming to terms with what she observes in the mid-1960s at an underground (illegal) abortion clinic. The politics of the story stay relatively muted despite the subject matter by focusing mainly on the student's emotions and her rationale for being involved in medicine. I liked it, and the story focuses less on the technology than I would have expected from the Analog venue, but that's fine with me.
  
  "What Were You Thinking?" by Jerry Oltion — What is consciousness? What is intelligent behavior compared to simple programmed responses. A boy observing his girlfriend's cat vomiting up hairballs designs an animal behavior experiment to address this question. I adored this story, and will probably feature it in my Biology in Fiction course where the debate over consciousness comes up quite a bit.
  
  "Changing Eyes" by Douglas P. Marx — The second story featuring Martian colonies, here with people descended from Sherpas, where a man who helped terraform the planet returns to help solve a technical problem/disaster, having left some time ago after his wife and daughter perished. The science behind the story (involving energy generation) was inconsequential to me, though may interest some. But, I did enjoy the theme of returning to a belovedly important place that also holds painful memories.
  
  "A Working Dog" by anne m. gibson — The second story in the issue featuring animal behavior and this one is humorous, clever, and charming. A woman who has invented lawncare robots made to appear like rabbits becomes concerned when she realizes they provoke canine hunting instincts, so she searches for a solution. Aside from the topic the story perfectly illustrates scientific problem-solving and carefully considering assumptions of what the problem is.
  
  "So You Want to Be a Guardian Angel" by Michael Meyerhofer — Candidates looking to work in the protection of Earth from asteroids receive a talk about what the job would entail, especially the loneliness. Very short story - not quite flash - but nothing particularly special about it.
  
  "Choose One" by Marie DesJardin — This strange piece of flash fiction features a dancer who has been selected by aliens as a potential 'best of' humanity (from all walks of life). Housed separately but with information on who remains, she watches as one-by-one other candidates 'disappear'. Unclear what happens to those who fail to measure up, or what the aliens are actually looking for. Existential angst is what this story seemed to be for me.
  
  "We Remembered Better" by Evan Dicken — Interesting story where two siblings are left one single memory in their estranged, abusive mother's will. One sibling is trans, and this decision seems to have led to much of the rift between mother and children. The story raises issues of what one might choose to do with the opportunities to view memories from the point of view of others, including those who you might vehemently disagree. It also touches upon sibling support.
  
  "The Last Compact" by Brian Rappatta — Another set on Mars. A young man and his mothers are moving, ending an AI-related museum project he was helping work on, with an AI saint now going into archive that the man wishes he could save and take with. This felt like a fragment of a story, and I cannot find it fulfilling anything significant with what it does contain.
  "Riddlepigs and the Cryla" by Raymund Eich — A vet who is really excited to get to treat a dinosaur is sad to discover her patient is actually a pig who has been injured by the escaped dino from the nearby preserve on this extraterrestrial planet setting. Some interesting ideas here on the 'value' of organisms common versus exotic, some speculation on transplant organ production, but lacked any depth beyond.
  
  "The Last Science Fiction Story" by Adam-Troy Castro — Flash fiction almost akin to a prose poem (although I guess that is oxymoronic?) The title is ironic, for there can never be a last one, as the story explains.
  
  With "Constructing a Habitable Planet" science fact by Julie Novakova and poetry by Jennifer Crow (Hidden Things) and Bruce McAllister (If).
  
  
• 
  Jeppe Larsen

  Analog starts the year of with a new cover design and a selection of stories focusing on the short length with 15 short stories and 6 novelettes. The good stories are mostly found in the novelettes and many of the very short ones are barely more than loose ideas that are quickly forgotten after being read. Not gonna review all stories, but a handful are worth mentioning.
  
  The first story is the best in this issue - "Mixed Marriage" by Dan Helms. The author imagines a future Japan where people are only awake one day of the week, being in some sort of cryosleep for the other six days. The reasons for this are not explained in detail other than some mentions of overpopulation and resource starvation, but it is not really important for the story to work. We follow a young man who lives on Fridays and he gets engaged with a woman from Sundays. Very different cultures has evolved in the different weekdays, so the story involves into a rather classic conflict of an outsider trying to fit in a new family. I liked the story and how the authors conveyed the mixed feelings the couple has with each other and their families. However, there is something with the whole premise that doesn't add up and it is even acknowledged by the characters. If people are only alive one seventh of their lives, they are actually only 11 years old (in lived experience) and not 80 - even though their body is. So apparently people physical age in this sleep state for six days a week, but it doesn't make sense they should behave mentally as adults when they only live on seventh of their lives.
  
  In "Photometric Evidence of the Gravitational Lensing of SAO23820 by a Nonluminous Low-Mass Stellar Object" by Jay Werkheiser an astrophysicist is convinced he has a discovered a black star - which should be impossible unless the standard model is wrong. No journal will accept his paper and he becomes more and more obsessed that he is right. The premise felt a bit constructed, but otherwise a good show of the challenges of breaking through in scientific research.
  
  Research is also at the center of “What Were You Thinking” by Jerry Oltion were Anthony is programming simulations of animal behaviour. He gets some inspiration from his girlfriends cat and his research spirals into deeper philosophical questions about human consciousness and free will. It is a fun story, but again the premise felt rather constructed for the point the author wanted to make.
  
  Nick Wolven is an author I will keep an eye on. Loved his latest story in Asimov's as well and “The Liberator” is rather grim story by Analog standards. Here Nick sets a story in a future were everyone is genetically altered and enhanced to avoid diseases and other weaknesses. Natural random gene selection is seriously frowned upon. The story follows Carter who infiltrates a small society that insists on making new humans the old fashioned way, but in the process he is confronted with the consequences of the actions of the people he works for. Solid story telling by Nick Wolven.
  
  “Belle Lettres and Astra” by Norman Spinrad has a nice old-school feel to it. A big telescope has discovered an intelligent civilisation thousand light years away. Apparently they have built a dyson sphere. Humanity can only travel a fraction of light speed, but a few idealists want to go into hibernation and travel to the dyson sphere even though it will take thousands of years. The protoganist of the story is given the task of writing a story intended for the aliens. Every writers dream and nightmare to get such a writing task. There is hardly any story or any conclusion to this story, but Spinrad manages to give a well written story with a nostalgic feel to it.
  
  The issue ends with “By the Will of the Gods” by Charles Q. Choi telling the story of an orphan who is trained in various fighting techniques by a master in some kind of church. It is a classic tale of teacher and protege, which changes into murder mystery when the teacher is killed and the young protege seeks out to find the killer. The story is well paced and the world building is interesting, but it ends with basically the villain explaining everything before the hero ends things properly - like a mediocre Bond movie.
• 
  Fernando Goulart

  A solid edition. My favorite stories were:
  - “Mixed Marriage” by Dan Helms
  - “The Liberator” by Nick Wolven
  - “By the Will of the Gods” by Charles Q. Choi
  - “A Shot in the Dark” by Deborah L. Davitt
  - “Belle Lettres and Astra” by Norman Spinrad
  - “The Last Compact” by Brian Rappatta
  - “The Practitioner” by Em Liu
  - “The Last Science Fiction Story” by Adam-Troy Castro
• 
  Oleksandr Zholud

  This is January-February 2021 issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact, the leading SF pro-zine. Here follow reviews of individual works. Overall impression is that this issue is rather weak
  
  Monumental Thinking [Editorial (Analog)] essay by Rosemary Claire Smith if there should be new faces on bank notes and new statues, whom (chiefly among scientists) to glorify? 3*
  Mixed Marriage novelette by Dan Helms a kind of 70s SF – population explosion on Earth led to people waking only one day per week. A boy from Friday plans to marry a girls from Sunday – and people’s cultures differentiated because different days don’t meet. 3*
  Constructing a Habitable Planet [Science Fact (Analog)] essay by Julie Novakova what characteristics a solar system should have to have a habitable planet? 4*
  Julie Nováková? [Biolog] essay by Richard A. Lovett a short bio of Czech SF author 3*
  My Hypothetical Friend short story by Harry Turtledove aliens start trade with Earth, local manager makes a gift to alien of kids figurines (like from happy meal) from his collection. 2.5*
  A Shot in the Dark novelette by Deborah L. Davitt a man living as a hermit on Uranus, with only AI for a company, receives an order to meet a strange object flying nearby. The story narrated by him and shows his extreme introversion, esp. after he got a message that he has a daughter. 3*
  Photometric Evidence of the Gravitational Lensing of SAO23820 by a Nonluminous Low-Mass Stellar Object short story by Jay Werkheiser a protagonist wrote an article, where his experimental data are not in line with current theories observing effects of a possible black dwarf star, which should appear in our universe only if it was like 1000 times older, and was ostracized from the scientific community. 3.5*
  Conference of the Birds short story by Benjamin C. Kinney an AI surveillance system self trains to follow hackers by evolution-like methods only to change sides. 2.5*
  Interstellar Pantomime short story by Martin Dimkovski a space ship from Earth meets alien ship and makes a show for it by showing small models of both ships meeting and sharing some stuff. Interesting idea of von Neumann machines aimed at first contact. 2.5*
  Matter and Time Conspire short story by Sandy Parsons a flash fic about kids making time machine to visit their mom to shift her to marry another man, which creates a new version of them. Mom becomes aware and orders to restore all… 2.5*
  The Tale of Anise and Basil short story by Daniel James Peterson some strange aliens order an earthman to invent a perfect story. 2*
  The Practitioner short story by Em Liu future medical care workers have a view of doctors of the past, in this case an illegal abortionist in the 1965 USA. 2*
  What Were You Thinking? short story by Jerry Oltion a programmer, who works on emerging rules in animals, decides to create a model of his girlfriend cat to find out why it barfs and finds much more that even humans maybe aren’t self-conscious but follow rules 3.5*
  Hidden Things poem by Jennifer Crow flow of consciousness…
  The Liberator novelette by Nick Wolven an agent under cover comes to a community of people, who don’t want to follow regulations on genetic perfection. He has a personal grudge because he was born with defects. He find out that each coin has two sides. 2.5*
  The Nocturnal Preoccupations of Moths novelette by J. Northcutt, Jr. Mars colony is about a few thousand strong and Earth stops sending food. A team of biologists tries to save a horde of different seeds, which should be used one day to grow on Mars. I had a suspicion that it is like a real life story and in the after note it is confirmed Saving collection of seedbank during blockade of Leningrad 2.5*
  Changing Eyes short story by Douglas P. Marx a Mars colony uses highlanders from Earth, including Tibet during terraforming. Now they blast their way to the heart of Mars to get heat, but a calamity happens. 2*
  The Last Science Fiction Story short story by Adam-Troy Castro a flash-fic about people always wanting to know what is behind the next corner. 3.5*
  A Working Dog short story by Anne M. Gibson an inventor creates autonomous lawnmowers, which a a great hit on the market, only to find out that dogs chase them and harm themselves. She tries to change dogs by training, but finds it easier to change lawnmowers. 3.5*
  Wave Function Collapse Revealed [The Alternate View] essay by John G. Cramer a description of author’s quantum handshake theory with background to problems of quantum theory. Way above my head but interesting. 3*
  So You Want to Be a Guardian Angel short story by Michael Meyerhofer a pilot’s pitch to newcomers that their work of shooting space debree is only for show and all work is done by AI. 2*
  Choose One short story by Marie DesJardin aliens gather a group of humans with diverse talents. Each day more and more of them vanish (killed?). only a narrator – professional dancer remains. 2*
  We Remember Better short story by Evan Dicken two siblings got a way to relive one memory of their abusive mother. Do they need to see the world from her POV? 2.5*
  The Last Compact short story by Brian Rappatta a boy from Mars has a virtual friend – a less known Roman god Sancus (a god of trust (fides), honesty, and oaths) is about to be wiped away because boy’s family moves away and has to free storage space. 2.5*
  Riddlepigs and the Cryla short story by Raymund Eich dinosaurs were re-created and but in a forest next to farms that grow pigs with organs to transplant. Dinos attack pigs, farmers are angry, a biologist narrator cannot get how can they call for destruction of dinos habitat. 2.5*
  Belle Lettres Ad Astra novelette by Norman Spinrad a writer hired to write as many alien minds as he can to feed AI while a human ship is on the way to a discovered Dyson sphere over 1000 light years away. 2*
  If poem by Bruce McAllister …
  By the Will of the Gods novelette by Charles Q. Choi a shun orphan after his parents die in a spaceship crush becomes a pupil in a temple. The world is a mix of old and new – in that star system there is another planet where ancient aliens created gates to other worlds, even while local population is still superstitious. Boy’s tutor is killed and he takes it to solve the murder. 3.5*
  
  
• 
  Mark Catalfano

  I liked "By the Will of the Gods" by Charles Q. Choi.
• 
  Paul

  A (excellent):
  
  Mixed Marriage by Dan Helms
  A Shot in the Dark by Deborah L Davitt
  By the Will of the Gods by Charles Q Choi
  Low Mass Stellar Orbit by Jay Werkheiser
  Changing Eyes by Douglas P Marx
  
  B (very good):
  
  The Liberator by Nick Wolven
  The Nocturnal Preoccupations of Moths by J Northcutt Jr
  Belle Lettres Ad Astra by Norman Spinrad
  What Were You Thinking by Jerry Oltion
  A Working Dog by Anne M Gibson
  So You Want to be a Guardian Angel by Michael Meyerhofer
  The Last Science Fiction Story by Adam Troy Castro
  
  C (average):
  
  My Hypothetical Friend by Harry Turtledove
  Interstellar Pantomime by Martin Dimkovski
  Matter & Time Conspire by Sandy Parsons
  The Tale of Anise and Basil by Daniel James Peterson
  The Practioner by Em Liu
  Choose One by Marie DesJardin
  Riddlepigs & the Cryla by Raymund Eich
  
  D (poor):
  
  Conference of the Birds by Benjamin C Kinney
  We Remembered Better by Evan Dicken
  The Last Compact by Brian Rappatta
  
• 
  Nolan

  I doubt this issue is superior to any others before it or any that come after, but I learned today that I could get Goodreads credit for finishing it—it counts as one of my annual books—so why not both read it and get credit for doing so.
  
  In Dan Helms’s Mixed Marriage, China has become so densely populated that residents enter suspended animation six days a week and may awaken only on their day. Upon awakening, they engage in a ritual that includes shaking their finger at the moon and cursing the United States. As the story opens, a young Friday man is about to meet his Sunday bride. He is officious and formal; the Sunday girl, who went through all the rigmarole to change her awake day to Friday, is vivacious and informal. Will a rather forward Sunday girl and a prudish Friday boy ever really get together? This is an interesting take on handling over population and cultural differences within the same country or even city.
  
  In Harry Turtledove’s My Hypothetical Friend, Dave the trader gives Old Salty the alien a parting gift. I’m apparently not an intelligent enough reader to have caught the significance of this story.
  
  A Shot in the Dark by Deborah L. Davitt fascinated me. Dominic is a hermit living on an icy satellite of Uranus. He gets the assignment to explore an object moving into the solar system, since he’s closer to it than anyone else. While traveling there with only his AI for company, he learns of the consequence of his more social past on Earth as a young man.
  
  Photometric Evidence of the Gravitational Lensing of Sao23820 by a Nonluminous Low-Mass Stellar Object by Jay Werkheiser is a laugh-out-loud look at the decidedly noncollegiate aspects of publish or perish. It seems to poke fun at the intractability of scientists and their sometimes obsessive seemingly unreasonable need to publish and be right.
  
  In Charles Q. Choi’s “By the Will of the Gods,” Hap, an orphan, comes to the temple of the future tellers. Harrow mentors him, and when Harrow dies, Hap must find his murderer. I liked this story because there was both a science fiction and a mystery element to it.
  
  As is the case with every short story collection I’ve ever read, this was uneven at best, and my dislike for the short-story frame continues unabated. But just as you find pearls in the midst of oysters, it’s the pearls that matter, and they’ll keep me coming back to magazines like this.
  
• 
  M Petro

  I've been working on reading a ton more this year and really just getting into Sci-Fi so keep that in mind. Stories that really stood out to me were:
  Mixed Marriage by Dan Helms - I enjoyed the concept of how the people worked around over population and how the people that lived in it.
  
  Constructing a Habitable Planet by Julie Nvakova - What a great crash course in building a habitable planet. A perfect point to leap from to learn so much more.
  
  My Hypothetical Friend by Harry Turtledove - Art imitates life and sometimes the other way around. I can see this happening.
  
  A Working Dog by anne m. gibson - I am a fan of stories about pooches and especially ones that end well. This was a fun read.
  
  So you want to be a Guardian Angel by by Michael Meyerhofer - I can see myself in the MC position.
  
  By the Will of the Gods by Charles Q Choi - What a great story to close out this issue.
• 
  Michael Goodine

  A pretty decent start to the year for Analog.
  
  The best of the bunch is Charles Q. Choi's "By the Will of the Gods." I get a feeling that the unique setting of this story will be used as the basis of a novel. I'll certainly read it.
  
  "Mixed Marriage" by Dan Helms is a good riff on Farmer's "Dayworld" premise. It sent me to the stacks to find more authors who have dealt with the "living only one day per week" premise.
  
  There is also a decent Harry Turtledove story this month. It is always nice to see a great story from an old favorite.
• 
  Dea

  Having read the first short in this collection I found myself reluctant to pick up the book again. You would think that this being a collection of stories one story that I did not particularly like would not mean that I would dislike others, but the story contained tropes that I actively try to avoid now-a-days and it sort of set the tone for the whole collection.
  
  For example, subtle racism that is sort of cushioned by light criticism.
  
  >But that was mostly just bigotry, like saying that Chinese people were bossy and arrogant and prone to corruption. Of course they were, but not all of them.
  
  Or the ever prevalent sexism, where women are expected to do all the housework and the protagonist cannot stop thinking about the soft boobies he will get to touch. Yeah I get it, old conservative culture, but short fiction is supposed to be a place where authors try to experiment because the cost of failure is much lower than that of a book.
  
  This sounds like making a big deal over nothing, but I am just so exhausted of these boring old tropes in my scifi that I refuse to let them slide. So this collection is going to go on a dropped pile and I will look for collections made by editors who are trying to branch out from the usual and the boring.
• 
  Luke Van Santen

  Was going to rate it 3 stars until I got to "By The Will Of God".