author : Stanley Schmidt

I don't tend to buy SF magazines any more -- too many books, too little time, so I have to prioritise, and I tend to prefer novels to short stories nowadays. And when I do choose to read short stories, in books, they come lumped together as author collections or themed anthologies. But, I was given a copy of this issue [disclaimer: by one of the included authors], read it, and was reintroduced to the experience of reading a bunch of stories and articles related neither by author nor by theme (apart from all being SF, of course). It made a pleasant change.

Contents (possible spoilers)

• Stanley Schmidt. Quality Control II: Reminder and Speculation. 1998

On the importance of complaining, if we want quality to improve

• Catherine Asaro. Aurora in Four Voices. 1998

(How Soz and Jato met, 16 years before the events told in Primary Inversion.) Jato is trapped in Nightingale, a city in permanent darkness, inhabited by mathematical artists who mostly ignore him. Soz arrives to repair her ship, meets Jato, and finds herself involved in his problems.

More of Asaro's great way of writing interesting characters living in a well-thought-out future-tech world. In particular I liked the interaction with the computer: a credible verbal interface, and not a 'subroutine' in sight.

• Tom Ligon. The World's Simplest Fusion Reactor. 1998

How to build a clean, non-thermal fusion reactor, as a school science fair project.

This article gave me a real jolt of that wonderful excitement I got from reading engineering SF as a teenager. They do write them like that any more!

• Geoffrey A. Landis. Outsider's Chance. 1998

He never really believed in space pirates, but now a crew is trying to hijack his cargo of frozen oxygen. So he invites one of them over for coffee to discuss things. Politeness is important on the frontier, after all.

• Fran Van Cleave. Ataxia in Ataraxia. 1998

Administrator of his own perfect colony, Mondragon is bringing up his clone-son Rafael to follow in his footsteps. But self-centred brat Rafael is more interested in staying in Tranq-ed harmony. Then barbarian traders arrive from Elfour, and Rafael has to grow up, fast.

• Jeffery D. Kooistra. The Alternate View. Calling Dr. Diogenes. 1998

(non-fiction) A call for help from someone who has diagnosed his own disease, but can't get doctors to listen to him

• Bud Sparhawk. High Flight. 1998

A meteorologist on Jupiter has to re-evaluate the reasons why she is there

• Allen M. Steele. Zwarte Piet's Tale. 1998

Colonial life on Mars is harsh, but maybe it doesn't take that much to put some magic back into things.

[I liked this more than the few Steele novels I've read so far, because the protagonists aren't such slobs, or, at least, their slobbishness isn't dwelt upon so much.]