Sunday, June 16, 2013

Review: Asimov's SF, August 2013

This issue is quite average.

- "The Application of Hope" is this month's novella. Here we have spaceships, space fold technology, weird alien civilizations and a star fleet. In other words, change a few words, call a spaceship Enterprise and you get a Star Trek spinoff. The story works and flows well.

- "Stone to Stone, Blood to Blood". Quite an interesting story about a child that is genetically modified to follow the Imperative, that is to make his assigned subject happy. Unfortunately, the Subject is an important member of a very important family. To make thing worse this subject is rebellious. Good story about friendship and duty.

- "Arlington" does not really deliver. The story itself is interesting but I didn't like the style; way too dry. A guy gets lost in a different dimension when flying solo. When he finally gets back he finds himself stuck in another dimension than the one he comes from.

- "Lost Wax". Ingenious but boring in my opinion.

- "The Ex-Corporal". A story that has a "already seen, already done" feeling. Nonetheless, it remains nice to read. It is clearly the author's homage to her father. Somehow this story works.

Here's the table of contents taken from Asimov's website:

NOVELLA
The Application of Hope by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

NOVELETTES
Stone to Stone, Blood to Blood by Gwendolyn Clare
Arlington by Jack Skillingstead
Lost Wax by Gregory Norman Bossert

SHORT STORY

The Ex-Corporal by Leah Thomas

POETRY
Turing Tests by Peter Chiykowski
Telling the True by Jane Yolen

DEPARTMENTS
Editorial: 2013 Dell Magazine Awards by Sheila Williams

Reflections: Rereading Simak by Robert Silverberg
On the Net: What Counts? by James Patrick Kelly
Next Issue

On Books by Paul Di Filippo

The SF Conventional Calendar by Erwin S. Strauss

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