Hodgepodge

A typical issue with only three stories worth mentioning:

Michael Flynn's novella Where the Winds Are All Asleep has a very Journey to the Center of the Earth feel to it and is exciting to the conclusion where it falls it a little flat.

The Autumn of the Empire by Jerry Oltion is a short that looks at what happens when the Emperor is always right on a planetary scale in a humorous way.

The real gem is Shallow Copy by Jesse L. Watson. It is a novelette that looks at what responsibility we have when creating an A.I. from both sides of the equation. IT is wonderfully written and conveys a great depth of emotion and is very thought provoking. Definitely going on the Hugo list.

The other highlight is Stan Schmidt's editorial on blindly following what today's technology tells us.

Novella

Gunfight on Farside by Adam-Troy Castro – A tale about history and how it is never what it seems, aliens on the moon and keeping secrets. Started out great then slid into average, but a good read and may end up on my Hugo list.

Novelettes

Steal Tartare and the Cats of Gari Babakin  by Mary Turzillo – An odd tale about parasites, cats and disease control on a Mars colony that didn’t click with me.

Foe by Mark Rich – A well written story about an efficiency expert on Mars who takes a different approach to his job. Heart warming, predictable, and fun to read.

Short Stories

The Final Element by Eric James Stone – A detective story about what happens when nano-replication becomes so good you can’t tell the copy from the original. Good twist at the end.

A Jug of Wine and Thou by Jerry Oltion – A tale about a couple that crash their light flyer and have to learn to survive ion the wild while awaiting rescue. Not original - I expected better from Oltion.

The Invasion by H.G. Stratman – The best story of the issue. A hilarious take on first contact that had me LOL more than once. If you are into the Internet culture at all you will really enjoy this story. Definitely on the Hugo list.

The Rest

Ribbonland by Kevin Walsh is the science fact article and it is an interesting study of the likelihood of most solar systems having planets with a ribbon of earthlike conditions on it. Dry at times but I enjoyed it. David Bartell’s Armchair Scientist  pokes fun at many preconceptions of submitting a scientific paper. Stan’s editorial on research was interesting but a little long.

Overall a solid effort.

A summary of this issue for your perusal.

Novelette

Cavernauts by David Bartell - An adventure tale of going into a deep cave on the moon Callisto to rescue two lost cave explorers. As the tale progresses the two main characters face increasing dangers and eventually find their lost friends and more. Started out good but slid downhill from there.

Short Stories

Madman's Bargain by Richard Foss - A well developed story about point of view and AI with a good ending. Thought provoking and will be on my Hugo list.
After the First Death by Jerry Craven - A second contact story with an interesting alien race and differing views of death. The story was exciting but the ending left me a little flat. Good read but could have been much better.
Lifespeed by Carl Frederick - A moralistic tale about sports and physical enhancement with an interesting twist. Well written.

Other Stuff

The Editor's Page - An appeal for fundamental change from Stanley Schmidt that is wishful thinking at best.
From Token to Script: The Origin of Cuneiform by Henry Honken - The science fact article is a wonderful history of the progression or writing and alphabet and is interesting if a little dry.
When All Else Fails by H.G. Strattman and Henry Stratman III - This month's Probability Zero article is a cute take on the "we are just a pawn in the scheme of the universe under a supreme being's control" ditty.Fun stuff.

Don Sakers fills in on the reviews and does an adequate job and the Alternate View by John Cramer relates some bizarre tales of how poor humans are at probability and how it affects our lives. The final installment of Robert Sawyer's new novel Wake is in this issue and now that I have the two back ordered issues, I can read the whole story. It will receive my regular review when I get it read (soon I hope).

Overall a solid issue, once again confirming to me that Analog is more to my taste than Asimov's.

This is the annual double issue which means they could put the Robert Sawyer serial and a long novella in. Here are my summaries:

Novellas
Doctor Alien by Rajnar Vajra - A mildly entertaining story about a doctor sent on a mission to cure an alien among aliens and gets more than than he bargained for. The end was OK but the "cuteness" of the language by the main alien race was really annoying and made me not want to finish the story. Analog publishes a lot of stuff by Vajra and I really enjoyed some of his earlier work years ago but the newer stuff leaves me flat.

The Recovery Man's Bargain by Kristine Kathyrn Rusch - Hands down the best story in the issue. Long even for a novella, it kept my interest throughout. It is set in the universe of the Recovery Artist novels but involves a different character. The pacing is great, the plot excellent and the ending twisted enough to satisfy me. The protagonist makes a bargain and runs into many snags, almost loses his life and in the end has to call in a marker to make good. This is on my Hugo list.

Novelettes
Zheng He and the Dragon by Dave Creek - This story started out so good and then the ending was so lame I couldn't believe it. It is well written except for the ending and a more satisfying conclusion would have made this a possible Hugo entry on my list but no.
To Leap the Highest Wall by Richard Foss - This is the best of the three novelettes but not a great story. It looks at how the space race may have been if the Russians had gotten there first, but with a nice twist ending. Interesting and worth the read.
Small Business by Edward M. Lerner - A mediocre story about corporate greed and espionage set in the future but it didn't really pull me in.

Short Stories
Rocks by John M. Hemry - A short tale about the evolution of rocks by man throughout history. Cute but totally predictable.
Excellence by Richard A. Lovett - In this story an aging athlete decides to go the way of enhancement with serious side effects. Interesting but I felt it could have been better.

The Rest
I didn't read the third installment of Robert Sawyer's new novel Wake, since I don't have the previous two issues (I might if the person I emailed for the back issues ever responds), Kevin Walsh's article about Neptune was very detailed but I was bored by it. Jeff Kooistra's Alternate View is a rant on the energy crisis but offers little new info.

Overall a disappointing issue except for the Recovery Man story, which was worth the price.