Review: Asimov's, March 2014, Vol. 38 No. 3 (Whole #: 458)

For once I agree with Lois Tilton's review on Locus. This issue is, simply stated, dull.
My question is, what happened to Asimov's? February's issue (not reviewed here) was awful - I wanted to throw the magazine outside of the window. March's issue is slightly better but only thanks to Peter Wood's story which is the only one worthy of being published. The statement is more surprising if its lack of originality is taken into account.

The Plantimal by Ken Liu & Mike Resnick. A very old couple decide to adopt a Plantimal, a sort of plant that might have a similar shape of a baby. Very quickly old sorrows emerge as the two kept secrets from each other. At times touching, this story does not deliver even if the idea is decent.

Drink in a Small Town by Peter Wood. Best of the issue. Would've been unnoticed as it feels of "already seen", but it's narrated quite well and majestically engages the reader.

Solomon's Little Sister by Jay O'Connel. A boring Virtual Reality story where characters can be killed over and over.

The Redemption of Kip Banjeree by Genevieve Williams. A story about a pissed-off teenager. Boring.

Through Portal by Dominica Phetteplace. A girl is lost in a time portal and her parents try to find her at any cost. Will they retrieve the correct girl? Boring.

Walking Gear by Sean Monaghan. Replacing limbs ain't cheap and Den knows it. For this reason he tries to rescue his sister, Jenni, who lost her leg and became a prostitute. Could have been more interesting, but fails to.

All the Pretty Little Mermaids by Cat Rambo. Petra creates toys, in this case mermaids. Boring.

Declaration by James Patrick Kelly. This would've been a good political tale about reality and future virtual worlds if the setting was more serious.

Updated reading queue (Sept. 2013)

UPDATED ON SEPTEMBER 17TH 2013

My reading queue is quite packed right now. List is NOT complete.

Science Fiction:

Asimov's Science Fiction, October/November 2013 (Double Issue)

Galaxy’s End Magazine, Sep-Dec 2013

Analog Science Fiction, December 1960

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, November 2013

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, October 2013

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, September 2013

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July/August 2013 (Double Issue)

Asimov's Science Fiction, September 2013

Asimov's Science Fiction, August 2013
Interzone July/August 2013

Mystery and Crime:

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November 2013

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, October 2013

Fantasy and Weird:

Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October 2013

Weird Tales, Summer 2013, Issue 361

Books:

A Song of Ice and Fire Book I – A Game of Thrones – By George R. R. Martin

Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Bottom of the 33^rd by Dan Barry

Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

Wernher von Braun by Erik Bergaust

To Read Read  On Hold  Will Not Read/Gave up

  

Review - Asimov's - September 2013, Volume 37 No. 9

Average issue. Let’s dive into the stories.

“The Discovered Country” by Ian MacLeod is another story of reality vs. virtual reality and life vs. death. Ingenious in the concept, I found it dragging quite a bit. I don’t know why it’s the cover story.

“The Unparallel’d Death-Defying Feats of Astoundio, Escape Artist Extraordinarie” by Ian Creasy. Nooooh! Noooooh! Such a good idea was thrown into the sewers! Astoundio is an escape artist of the future and in his last feat is that he wants to escape from nothing less than a black hole! He’s quite cool, he has a plan, the idea is great and the milieu is interesting. The first part is pure science fiction; we have the spaceship, we have the usual “virtual copies” of people and of course we have the love story. In other words, the reader is gladly willing to leave real world's physics behind so that he can read that Astoundio can actually escape from the black hole. Then, the story is completely ruined when a fantasy-like elements gets thrown in. Death itself is pissed off? A Doppleganger can travel between universes (already a weak plot device) with the spaceship? Come on, please. They require a big leap of faith. However, the ending, with the philosophical and paradoxical questions, is all right.

“A Hole in the Ether” by Benjamin Crowell. It’s the best of this issue. By far. Dedicated to Ray Bradbury, it’s full of “bradburian” references; Venus is mentioned and my guess is that it is a hidden homage to “All summer in a day”. I am not a Bradbury affecionado, but all the elements are there, inspired clearly by Fahrenheit 451. The story is very dystopian and I recommend its reading.

“What we Ourselves are not” by Leah Cypess. A story about differences and cultural values. Interesting concept.

“As yet untitled” by James Sallis is flash fiction. Nice read.

 “The Universe we Both Dreamed Of” by Jay O’Connell is a nice read about a guy interviewed by a girl. Or is she an alien? He doesn’t know.

“What Changes You, What Takes You Away” by Dominica Phetteplace is the story of a girl with Down Syndrome that gets in contact with an alien. The extraterrestrial’s appearance is like that of a human. A short story about being beautiful and somehow appreciated.

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

Review: "Asimov's Science Fiction" - December 2012 - Vol. XXVI, no. 12, Issue 443

Being awfully late in my reading queue I started reading December's edition of Asimov's with a worrying amount of delay. As a matter of fact I already got my January 2013 issue before I was half through with December's so I read it in a rush. In addition a banana I forgot in a backpack damaged the digest sized magazine irremediably (I won't go into detail, but you can imagine my happiness when I found about it).

Issue 443 gives us a beautiful novella by Steven Popkes and a few other good stories. I enjoyed reading most of this issue and I would suggest buying it for the cover price.

• "Sudden, Broken, and Unexpected" by Steven Popkes is the only novella in this issues and it's worth reading it. This story uses Artificial Intelligence and music to serve the purpose of making the answer to the question "What is human?" a little bit closer to being answered. I think this story is well written, Dot is characterized wonderfully and most readers will find Popkes's work enjoyable.
• "The waves" by Ken Liu is a novelette and is pleasant to read. If your "self" could go surfing through the universe, sharing a sort of Borg-like knowledge (but keeping individuality), than this would be the perfect adventure. It's a tale of immortality and I recommend reading it.
• "The Caramel Forest" by Chris Beckett is a short story and it is the cover story. It's a nice tale in which two children will discover that not everything looks like what it is. I found peculiar that the goblins could speak to the human's minds.
• "The wizard of the 34th Street" by Mike Resnick will remind most readers of the TV series "The booth at the end" starring Xander Berkeley. I enjoyed reading it, especially the final twist, but I found it too similar to its TV show counterpart to think of it as a truly original work. Don't get me wrong, it is darn good so if you haven't seen the TV series you will find much pleasure in it.
• "The Black Feminist's Guide to Science Fiction Film Editing" by Sandra McDonald. In a partially dystopian future movies are edited so that women are the heroes of the movies. "Total Recall" star is not Arnie but Sharon Stone. In such society all the 1980s macho movies must be revised which is not an easy task. In this story the main character finds the last copy of the movie "The Ginger Star" and will start thinking deeper about her job. What I found of particular interest is the fact that the first part was quite funny, while the second part was quite serious. 
• "The Pipes of Pan" by Robert Reed. Ok, don't bring this story to any Creationist's Museum. Interesting read, but in my opinion too obsessive.

As I said previously, this issue is quite enjoyable and I recommend it to you.