Novelette by Tom Ligon
An alien civilization launches a weapon to destroy Earth's sun. In an earlier story, this weapon is defeated. Now Earth debates what the response will be. The U.N. Secretary General is the main character and seems to be the only one opposed to a violent response. The complication here is that it will take 40 years or more to respond, and even longer to know if we accomplished anything.
Issues of mutually assured destruction, turning into the monster you're fighting, etc. all come up, and are dealt with well, but the main thrust of the story is the majority in a democracy lusting after a suicidal option when logical analysis would tell them they are wrong. But emotions rule us in the end and you can't win a fight against a massive public opinion backed by all the major powers. This is really a long series of people having conversations with the Secretary General, with history references sprinkled in (Mr. Ligon even discusses the great Zheng He, but is apparently unaware of the Admiral's first contact experience.) The conclusion is a rather clever bit of politics, and is the sort of compromise I wish more real life politicians were smart enough to make. There is negligable "action", lots of talking, and yet this was one of the most interesting novelettes of the year; 4.5 out of 5.
Showing posts with label Analog July/August 2009. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Analog July/August 2009. Show all posts
Monday, December 28, 2009
Sunday, December 27, 2009
The Bear Who Sang Opera
Novelette by Scott William Carter
A cyborg hybrid grizzly bear has lost his singing voice, but he doesn't know who stole it since his memories have been tampered with. So he hires a hardboiled private detective who then travels around the galaxy talking to people who don't know anything and seem innocent. There is also a naked woman in boxing gloves. This is a cartoonish little story that is pretty good as far as it goes, but there is nothing really revolutionary about a bizarrely comedic SF/noir detective story. There are options for new ground here, but this story doesn't go into them. Still it was good, light fun. 3 out of 5.
A cyborg hybrid grizzly bear has lost his singing voice, but he doesn't know who stole it since his memories have been tampered with. So he hires a hardboiled private detective who then travels around the galaxy talking to people who don't know anything and seem innocent. There is also a naked woman in boxing gloves. This is a cartoonish little story that is pretty good as far as it goes, but there is nothing really revolutionary about a bizarrely comedic SF/noir detective story. There are options for new ground here, but this story doesn't go into them. Still it was good, light fun. 3 out of 5.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
The Large Hadron Collider: A New Era
Analog Fact Article by Dr. Don Lincoln
A nice, informative article about the LHC, what we hope to discover, what results would indicate what, and the importance of looking out for non-specific discoveries. The diagrams were good, and despite having read a decent amount of this before, there was a very good description of "curled-up" dimensions and how this would make gravity behave differently on a small scale. Most important though, was the graph of what we would expect to see for Higgs-boson decay, I haven't seen a popular article with this graph before, and it makes me really happy. A very nice science article overall, and written by one of the actual physicists involved.
A nice, informative article about the LHC, what we hope to discover, what results would indicate what, and the importance of looking out for non-specific discoveries. The diagrams were good, and despite having read a decent amount of this before, there was a very good description of "curled-up" dimensions and how this would make gravity behave differently on a small scale. Most important though, was the graph of what we would expect to see for Higgs-boson decay, I haven't seen a popular article with this graph before, and it makes me really happy. A very nice science article overall, and written by one of the actual physicists involved.
Preserving the Memory
Analog Fact Article by Janet Freeman
An over-broad summary of Alzheimer's research and our current state of knowledge and treatment options. Besides being very dry, new terms were introduced throughout and there was not enough depth on any one topic, instead taking an overview on everything. There was 0 editorial content to this article. You'd be better off reading review articles on PubMed.
An over-broad summary of Alzheimer's research and our current state of knowledge and treatment options. Besides being very dry, new terms were introduced throughout and there was not enough depth on any one topic, instead taking an overview on everything. There was 0 editorial content to this article. You'd be better off reading review articles on PubMed.
The Calculus Plague
Short Story by Marissa K. Lingen
A very short, very scary story about the development of virally transmitted memory. This one will be staying with me for a long time. And the point the 'antagonist', if you can call her that, makes at the end is all too true. 4.5 out of 5.
A very short, very scary story about the development of virally transmitted memory. This one will be staying with me for a long time. And the point the 'antagonist', if you can call her that, makes at the end is all too true. 4.5 out of 5.
Duck and Cover
Short Story by Don D'Ammassa
A low-level military intelligence guy in Vietnam begins to investigate one of his fellow soldiers who just isn't quite right.
This is almost entirely a Vietnam war story with all the SF content implied rather than outright stated. And it is creepy. Also very well written, but not a whole lot happens, so just sort of a spooky war story. 3.5 out of every 5 soldiers are named Elmer Colby.
A low-level military intelligence guy in Vietnam begins to investigate one of his fellow soldiers who just isn't quite right.
This is almost entirely a Vietnam war story with all the SF content implied rather than outright stated. And it is creepy. Also very well written, but not a whole lot happens, so just sort of a spooky war story. 3.5 out of every 5 soldiers are named Elmer Colby.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Seed of Revolution
Novella by Daniel Hatch
On a planet where genetics works on some 4x4 matrix I've spent way too long thinking about, mammalian life has evolved to look like anthropomorphic dogs, pigs, porcupines, etc. These talking animals have their civilization altered by a human survey team, and proceed to change their government while lecturing each other about philosophy and economics.
Now the economics, and the spreading memes/genes theme are food for thought, but don't think this story takes itself too seriously. The police inspector is a dog named Mag'Rrrruff, one of the revolutionaries goes by Porkle'pi, and a scene at a bar named The Maltese Frog starts off a series of film noir references. And unlike some novellas, it turns out this story was part of a series and I didn't even notice; it worked perfectly by itself.
The ending to the murder plot did sort of come out of nowhere, but the investigation of the murder was more of a device to drive the plot than it was a plot itself, and it worked well as such. I found myself oddly much more drawn into this non-serious world than is common for a comedic story, I just got caught up in the revolution. I'm not sure exactly where on the seriousness spectrum it should go, but either way it gets a cool 3.5 out of 5.
On a planet where genetics works on some 4x4 matrix I've spent way too long thinking about, mammalian life has evolved to look like anthropomorphic dogs, pigs, porcupines, etc. These talking animals have their civilization altered by a human survey team, and proceed to change their government while lecturing each other about philosophy and economics.
Now the economics, and the spreading memes/genes theme are food for thought, but don't think this story takes itself too seriously. The police inspector is a dog named Mag'Rrrruff, one of the revolutionaries goes by Porkle'pi, and a scene at a bar named The Maltese Frog starts off a series of film noir references. And unlike some novellas, it turns out this story was part of a series and I didn't even notice; it worked perfectly by itself.
The ending to the murder plot did sort of come out of nowhere, but the investigation of the murder was more of a device to drive the plot than it was a plot itself, and it worked well as such. I found myself oddly much more drawn into this non-serious world than is common for a comedic story, I just got caught up in the revolution. I'm not sure exactly where on the seriousness spectrum it should go, but either way it gets a cool 3.5 out of 5.
Failure To Obey
Novella by John G. Hemry
JAG...IN SPACE!
On the one hand, it isn't actually a bad concept and the first 1/3 or so of the story is some very well written military SF. On the other hand, the other 2/3 of the story are the trial, which drags on, and on, and on, and on, ...
I have to say that it wasn't that impressive of a courtroom drama either. The verdict was obscenely predictable, I never thought for a moment that it would go the other way once the trial was started. Just no tension at all. And once they started getting into the evidence, it became clear that all the charges were just specious, and the only reason it had been brought to trial at all was a misguided quest for revenge and the vagaries of bureaucracy. Additionally, he takes the dead horse message of "unquestioning obedience to orders is wrong" and beats it into a bloody equine pulp.
Finally there are a ton of references to books I haven't read. Not earlier Analog stories, NOVELS. I'm not going to buy a novel to understand the 1.5 out of every 5 pages you spend talking about things that have no relevance on the story.
JAG...IN SPACE!
On the one hand, it isn't actually a bad concept and the first 1/3 or so of the story is some very well written military SF. On the other hand, the other 2/3 of the story are the trial, which drags on, and on, and on, and on, ...
I have to say that it wasn't that impressive of a courtroom drama either. The verdict was obscenely predictable, I never thought for a moment that it would go the other way once the trial was started. Just no tension at all. And once they started getting into the evidence, it became clear that all the charges were just specious, and the only reason it had been brought to trial at all was a misguided quest for revenge and the vagaries of bureaucracy. Additionally, he takes the dead horse message of "unquestioning obedience to orders is wrong" and beats it into a bloody equine pulp.
Finally there are a ton of references to books I haven't read. Not earlier Analog stories, NOVELS. I'm not going to buy a novel to understand the 1.5 out of every 5 pages you spend talking about things that have no relevance on the story.
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