The December 2009 Issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

When I heard that the venerable Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction was offering free copies to bloggers to review their December 2009 issue, I jumped at the chance. However, I wasn’t expecting 258 pages (four novelettes and seven short stories) so I’ve been tardy in keeping up my end. For that, I apologize.

I admit that my expectations dimmed when I saw the cover. F&SF have had some great covers in the past. This one, meant to accompany the feature novelette, “Hell of a Fix”, didn’t work for me. It would be more relevant for a Halloween issue. Nor did it seem to have any relation to the story’s content.

The first story, “Dragon’s Teeth,” did nothing to improve my outlook. It seemed like it was going to be a formulaic sword and sorcery story: hero performs quest, gets desired woman, they live happily ever after. While I was relieved it didn’t follow that formula, it seemed to follow another formula: hero performs quest, falls in love with better woman than the one that inspired said quest, they live happily ever after. But that didn’t happen either. And I have to say that what we got I didn’t much care for either.

I don’t know if the author, Alex Irvine, was intentionally trying to shatter either formula, but what we got wasn’t so hot. Mr. Irvine set us up for several potential conflicts, but he denied satisfactory resolution. The one involving the titular dragon was seen through a hazy flashback. Others, involving a murder and a spirit who possesses the protagonist, seemed to be red herrings. And the ending reminded me of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” While technically not an accurate comparison, the main character’s inability to break out of social convention for a chance at love just seemed pathetic.

“Bad Matter,” by Alexandra Duncan, concerned a young woman with a doctorate in linguistics who receives a letter intended for her late father. As the story takes place in the distant future, she is surprised that the letter is written on actual paper. The letter is an invitation to come aboard a starship to see a woman named Ete. The letter is written in a dialect that comes across as Jamaican (to me) and thus makes its content cryptic.

The author’s suggestion that linguistic divergence is just as possible in cultural isolation as genetic drift is in isolated species here on Earth was an unanticipated treasure. While this, coupled with footnotes from future anthropology publications, made for a refreshing story, for all the built up tension felt by the protagonist, the climax of the story left me feeling let down. More precisely: “That’s it?” While the short story falls short, I find the universe that the author has conjured quite intriguing. I hope she revisits it someday in longer form.

The next two stories, “Farewell Atlantis” by Terry Bisson and “Hell of a Fix” by Matthew Hughes, lightened things up a bit. The former starts off with a man and a woman in a tiny movie theater who realize they can’t remember anything before they sat down to watch the movie. The author takes us on a humorous ride as the two characters slowly recover their memories thanks to a computer prone to boredom.

In “Hell of a Fix”, we meet Chesney Arnstruther, a rather dull fellow who spends his working hours as an actuary. He’s thrilled that he’s become a regular in his co-workers’ poker games, due to his penchant for always losing. It’s his turn to play host, but while setting up for the evening’s game, despite the improbable odds, he accidentally summons a demon. The two begin to argue over what the demon will grant to Chesney in exchange for his soul but our protagonist is steadfast in his refusal to enter into negotiations. His soul simply isn’t for sale.

Author Matthew Hughes writes a delightful tale taking Chesney’s argument for his innocence and extrapolates how this upsets the business of Hell.

Two of the next three stories deal with living on the Moon and how it might not be as glamorous as one might think. “Illusions of Tranquility,” by Brendan DuBois, sketches a Moon colony living by the seat of its pants with everyone required to go above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that wealthy tourists have a good time. The protagonist does her part to maintain the illusion and sell trinkets to a nostalgia afflicted visitor. Scruples be damned.

And if readers shudder at Mr. DuBois’ vision of a Moon colony, “The Economy of Vacuum,” by Sarah Thomas, will leave them feeling even awful. Virginia Rickles is the first person to live on the Moon. After the 24-hour news channels lose interest in the novelty and VIP’s no longer visit, she realizes she’s on her own.

“The Blight Family Singers,” by Kit Reed, is sandwiched between the two Moon stories. It’s about a musical family on a comeback tour playing at a college’s Winter Festival whose dark past and present are threatening to overtake them. The author tells the story from the viewpoint of several characters, each unique in personality and perspective. Each of them has bite and purpose. It’s a shame this story wasn’t longer.

“Iris,” by Nancy Springer, is a sad tale about an old woman surrounded by death on Christmas. While it could’ve been just a tear jerker with a sugary happy ending, it won’t let you get there without walking barefoot through a room of thumbtacks. If the author and F&SF will forgive me, here’s a line that I thought said a lot: “Lonely is when you buy postage stamps one at a time, so when there’s something to mail you can walk to the post office and talk to somebody.”

“Inside Time,” by Tim Sullivan, offers a unique look at time travel, but I’ve seen the plot too many times before.

Harvey Jacobs offers us a pair of good characters in “The Man Who Did Something About It.” Colin Cabe is the best mechanic on the planet but his reputation goes even further. The humorous tale he tells about his run in with a little lady named “Lullaby” with engine trouble is cute.

The issue ends with “I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said” by Richard Bowes. While not autobiographical per se, it’s more of a fictionalized incident from his life. Terribly ill, he’s forced to check into St. Vincent’s hospital where he’s stalked by a policeman in his dreams. The policeman accuses Bowes of crimes that only take place in his dreams. As his dream world and hallucinogenic reality blend together, Bowes feels threatened that one day he’ll wake up and he won’t be the man he once was, assuming he wakes up at all. It’s a poignant story of a man coming to grips with his own mortality and sanity.

In summary, I’d have to say this was a good read. After a rough start, I was treated to some really good stories. As the magazine market struggles to deal with the Scylla and Charybdis of the costs of operating in the Great Recession and the wide availability of free quality content on the Internet, it isn’t certain that the 61-year old Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction will survive. But I certainly wouldn’t bet against them.

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The New Space Opera

The New Space Opera is an anthology of short stories by some of the best sci-fi writers today. I picked up the first issue of this series (released in 2007) earlier this year. It's a 515 page tome containing 18 stories, edited by the venerable Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan.

What is space opera? It's one of those things that you know it when you see it. In the "good old days" of science fiction, it characterized most of what was produced: fanciful, oftentimes melodramatic, stories with epic settings, heroic action and technology that may not be grounded in reality. The writers of Ancient Greece would be comfortable with space opera. Star Wars is certainly space opera, but Star Trek is not. The term was considered derogatory for some time as the genre wallowed in the toilet. But in recent years, it’s enjoyed a resurgence as quality has returned minus some of the absurdities.

Since I hold no illusions as to being current with the sci-fi book scene, I thought that this collection would expose me to new (to me) writers while getting to savor new treats from familiar favorites.

Rating System:
5 Excellent
4 Very Good
3 Good
2 Fair
1 Poor
0 Awful

“Saving Tiamaat” by Gwyneth Jones - 2
“Verthandi’s Ring” by Ian McDonald - 2
“Hatch” by Robert Reed - 4
“Winning Peace” by Paul J. McAuley - 3
“Glory” by Greg Egan - 3
“Maelstorm” by Kage Baker - 5
“Blessed by an Angel” by Peter F. Hamilton - 5
“Who’s Afraid of Wolf 359?” by Ken Macleod - 4
“The Valley of the Gardens” by Tony Daniel - 5
“Dividing the Sustain” by James Patrick Kelly - 4
“Minla’s Flowers” by Alastair Reynolds - 5
“Splinters of Glass” by Mary Rosenblum - 5
“Remembrance” by Stephen Baxter - 4
“The Emperor and the Maula” by Robert Silverberg - 4
“The Worm Turns” by Greg Benford - 4
“Send Them Flowers” by Walter Jon Williams - 4
“Art of War” by Nancy Kress - 4
“Muse of Fire” by Dan Simmons - 5

The first two stories, “Saving Tiamaat” and “Verthandi’s Ring”, left me cold. I really didn’t connect with them, though the former ended well. The latter was so far in the future with vast time scales and god like technology that it seemed like I was reading mythology. After going 0 for 2, I was afraid that I might’ve made a mistake in picking up this book.

But the third story, “Hatch” by Robert Reed, got me. The story is the latest in a series of tales which take place on an alien constructed, Jupiter-sized starship circumnavigating the galaxy. Humans, and many other aliens, are just along for the ride.

“Winning Peace” and “Glory” were solid stories. The former dealt with a post-interstellar war treasure hunt while the latter concerned an archaeological dig on an alien world in the midst of a cold war threatening to turn hot.

Things took a turn for the better after that.

“Maelstorm” is about the amusing misadventures of a production company on Mars performing a retro form of entertainment known as “plays.”

There’s nothing amusing about the diabolical exploits of the titular character in “Blessed by an Angel.” It brought the promise of immortality, but the price was one’s soul. And “no” really wasn’t an answer it wanted to hear.

“Who’s Afraid of Wolf 359?” takes the clever play on words and runs with it.

“The Valley of the Gardens”, one of a few stories in which humanity gets its ass handed to it, skillfully pits bioengineered humans versus an extra-universal lifeform that achieved sentience when the universe only contained subatomic particles.

“Dividing the Sustain” is another amusing tale in which humans re-engineer themselves with strange physical characteristics to avoid becoming stale.

“Minla’s Flowers” shows that no matter how hard you try to save a world from destruction, you inevitably wind up destroying it. Good intentions and roads to brimstone destinations and all that. It’s such a good story that it convinced me to go out and buy Alastair Reynolds’ novel Revelation Space.

“Splinters of Glass” is an excellent tale of intrigue and love beneath the ice on Europa.

“Remembrance” is another Earth’s ass gets brutally kicked story. The problem is, no one remembers it. Well, one guy does.

“The Emperor and the Maula” is a bit gentler in its ass kicking of Earth. Humor salves the wound though. In order to save our world, a woman seeks an audience with the Emperor. But as Earth is considered barbaric, barbarians are to be executed upon setting foot upon the capitol world.

Corporations will always be up to shenanigans. Hostile takeovers for competitors will go on, whether the prize is greater telecom market share or wormholes. In “The Worm Turns” a plucky woman is sent out to traverse a wormhole before someone else can snatch away the rights to it.

“Send Them Flowers” lets us know that the laws of physics may change from one to universe to the next but love triangles are still messy.

History shows us that you can learn a lot about a culture by studying its art. In “Art of War” the same holds true for aliens, but whoever heard of soldiers as artists?

“Muse of Fire” ends the book on a spectacular note. A Shakespearean production company is tasked with performing various works of the Great Bard for humanity’s alien overlords. The performance of the work will determine whether our species lives or dies.

All in all, this is a great collection of stories that will please most sci-fi fans. Hard sci-fi purists are the only group that I don’t see enjoying this anthology. I’ll have to pick up volume two and see what great tales Messrs Dozois and Strahan have gathered for us to read.

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Old Man's War

The first of three planned sci-fi book review posts.

When I first read the title, I thought rather cynically, "Aren't all wars old man wars? Who ever heard of twenty-year olds starting wars?" But I pressed on and read the back cover.

John Perry did two things on his seventy-fifth birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.

That got my attention.

In turns out, the Colonial Defense Forces (CDF) want old people rather than young people so as to make use of their 75 years of life experience and skills. To work around the physical limitations of their septuagenarian bodies, the CDF downloads their consciousness into new, cloned bodies. You just have to commit to two years of service. After that, you can muster out and get the futuristic equivalent of 40 acres and a mule on one of Earth's new offworld colonies.

Unfortunately, most recruits don't survive the two years. The galaxy is a very dangerous place.

We follow John Perry as he befriends his fellow new recruits, becomes familiar with his new, enhanced body complete with BrainPal (think a wetware version of an iPod but ten times better), goes through basic training ("Nukes are for pussies!") and eventually his first taste of combat.

While this could just be a military sci-fi story, it is not. The CDF is just a vehicle to carry Scalzi's story along. The real focus is on Perry and his small band of friends and how they adapt to their strange new surroundings. And just as Perry successfully acclimates to his new life, he receives a surprise from his old life that throws everything out of whack.

Scalzi's writing has been likened to Robert Heinlein. However, Scalzi's style is complementary rather than imitative. Fans of the old master will appreciate this new story. I loved it, finding it very hard to put it down each night. I finished it in no time at all. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

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