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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Galactic Central link<\/a> Fiction: Non-fiction: In my initial Xmas covers post I omitted to list a number of festive efforts by Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>. This magazine regularly had\/has a \u2018Special Holiday Issue,\u2019 and I remember Connie Willis contributing seasonal stories to several of these but couldn\u2019t remember any Xmas covers. Well, I found eight of them.1<\/sup> The first short story is Alfred<\/em><\/strong> by Lisa Goldstein, and this is a low-key account of a twelve year old girl who meets a man, or rather ghost, in the park. Their occasional conversations alternate with scenes from her family life: the parents are concentration camp survivors, and she has a perpetually scared younger brother. At the end of the story she figures out who the man is.<\/p>\n Sepoy<\/em><\/strong> by Tom Purdom is set on an Earth that is dominated by the alien Tucfra. A disabled man called Jason is the subject of a recruitment attempt by Marcia, who is a \u2018seep,\u2019 a human who works on behalf of the aliens. The word \u2018seep\u2019 is a corruption of \u2018sepoy,\u2019 and we get a rather clumsy historical data-dump about how the British in India managed to rule the continent with a limited number of collaborators: I would suggest that is what they would be called in this situation, i.e., collaborators, not seeps. The Man in the Red Suit<\/em><\/strong> by Diane Mapes is about a woman taking her drunken husband\u2019s place as a department store Santa, and the strange photographer that is taking the kids\u2019 photographs. The Walk<\/em><\/strong> by Greg Egan is a philosophically interesting but not entirely convincing story about a hitman called Carter taking his victim into the woods to kill him. During the walk Carter tries to convince his victim that it is inevitable that he is going to die but that it doesn\u2019t matter:<\/p>\n For a moment, I just can\u2019t speak. I\u2019m fighting for my life\u2014and he\u2019s treating the whole thing like some abstract philosophical debate. I almost scream: Stop playing with me! Get it over with! But I don\u2019t want it to be over.<\/em> Finally the hitman offers him a neural implant to prove his point….<\/p>\n Thanatrope<\/em><\/strong> by Mark W. Tiedemann tells of a woman called Chloe who is living with an organic robot that is a copy of her dead husband Victor. The relationship isn\u2019t working and a third party called Peter, who was involved in Victor\u2019s construction, visits to see if he can sort the problem. Second Chance<\/em><\/strong> by Mary Rosenblum is about a doctor in Antarctica who is summoned to a Mars-mission training base that is located nearby. There she finds a woman called Sara who has severe frostbite to her hands and feet. The reason for her not having already been medevaced later materialises: (spoiler) the team have discovered an alien sphere. Sara tells the doctor she wants to go back out to it so she can return home….<\/p>\n The Sound of the River<\/em><\/strong> by M. Shayne Bell places an American in a town near a Niger River that has dried up and where there is a water shortage. While he is waiting to buy water from the water-sellers he goes to the local museum and discovers music by an artist that he liked as a boy. The last story in the issue is a second seasonal tale by Janet Kagan. I can\u2019t remember reading anything by this writer previously\u00a0but note in passing that she was very popular with the Asimov<\/em>\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0SF<\/em>\u00a0readership. Her \u2018Mirabile\u2019 series was a favourite of theirs\u00a0and she placed in the top three of the annual readers\u2019 awards no less than eight times. He ripped away the paper as flamboyantly as Nick had\u2014to expose the brightly colored nutcracker and a woven bag of nuts. Marianne held her breath. The problem had been, of course, to adapt the nutcracker to a recognizable Rejoicer version. She\u2019d made the Emperor Halemtat sit back on his haunches, which meant far less adaptation of the cracking mechanism. Overly plump, she\u2019d made him, and spiky. In his right hand, he carried an oversized pair of scissors\u2014of the sort his underlings used for clipping quills. In his left, he carried a sprig of talemtat, that unfortunate rhyme for his name. Chornian\u2019s eyes widened. Again, he rattled off a spate of Rejoicer too fast for Marianne to follow … except that Chornian seemed anxious.<\/em> P.150<\/p>\n There is more unrest when the Earth team celebrate Martin Luther Day, and matters come to a climax the next Xmas. The Cover<\/em><\/strong> by David Cherry is, obviously, for Janet Kagan\u2019s novelette, and there are several pages of Interior artwork<\/em><\/strong> in this era of the magazine, none of which, sad to say, is that striking. Too many of them fill the page and seem rather dark and muddy, as if they were done with charcoal, or are just plain amateurish. The best is probably by Bob Walters.2<\/sup> They spilled out of the Plaza Hotel into the soft white of Fimbulwinter. <\/em> It continues in an equally absorbing way. Overall, this is an OK issue, with nearly all of the fiction in the middle ground in terms of quality.<\/p>\n Galactic Central link ISFDB link Fiction: Alfred \u2022 short story by Lisa Goldstein \u2665\u2665 Sepoy \u2022 novelette by Tom Purdom \u2665\u2665\u2665 The Man in the Red Suit \u2022 novelette by Diane Mapes \u2665\u2665 The Walk \u2022 short story by Greg Egan \u2665\u2665\u2665 Thanatrope \u2022 short story by Mark W. Tiedemann \u2665 Second Chance \u2022 novelette […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asimovs-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pcj7-Cy","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2390"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2408,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390\/revisions\/2408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nISFDB link<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAlfred<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Lisa Goldstein \u2665\u2665
\nSepoy<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Tom Purdom \u2665\u2665\u2665
\nThe Man in the Red Suit<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Diane Mapes \u2665\u2665
\nThe Walk<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Greg Egan \u2665\u2665\u2665
\nThanatrope<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Mark W. Tiedemann \u2665
\nSecond Chance<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Mary Rosenblum \u2665\u2665
\nThe Sound of the River<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by M. Shayne Bell \u2665\u2665\u2665
\nThe Nutcracker Coup<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Janet Kagan \u2665\u2665\u2665<\/p>\n
\nThe Nutcracker Coup<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 cover by David Cherry
\nInterior artwork<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 by Laurie Harden, Steve Cavallo, Alan M. Clark, Bob Walters, John Johnson, David A. Cherry
\nLetters <\/em><\/strong>
\nPoetry<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 by Robert Frazier & James Patrick Kelly, Bonita Kale, Lawrence Schimel
\nNext Issue<\/em><\/strong>
\nOn Books<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 by Baird Searles
\nSF Conventional Calendar<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 by Erwin S. Strauss<\/p>\n
\nThis one was the third of the Asimov\u2019s Science Fiction<\/em> titles (the magazine had recently changed its name from Isaac Asimov\u2019s Science Fiction Magazine<\/em>) and appeared after a\u00a0double-size November issue, which was a Isaac Asimov tribute issue (he had passed away earlier that year).<\/p>\n
\nShortly after her visit Jason is visited by two agents of the Confederation of New England who ask him to implicate her as an agent of the Tucfra. Or else….
\nThis is a competent if fairly straightforward story.<\/p>\n
\nAfter she is discovered and sacked the photographer finds her in the mall bar, and it becomes apparent he knows a lot about her. As their conversation develops (spoiler) it becomes obvious he is an agent or aspect of Satan. He then shows her what the world would be like if he granted her wish of having never being born. First they visit her parent\u2019s graves, where she sees her sister, and then they go to her house, to find her husband happily married.
\nThe introduction describes this as a \u2018nasty little Christmas story\u2019 but it isn\u2019t that\u2014by the end it\u2019s just depressing. The best Xmas stories have a good measure of grit in them (It\u2019s a Wonderful Life)<\/em> but this one is nearly all grit (mentioning that she caught her seven year old daughter drowning kittens is a particularly unpleasant detail in a Xmas story). Nice last line though.<\/p>\n
\nAnd as long as I can keep him talking, there\u2019s still the chance that I can rush him, the chance of a distraction, the chance of some miraculous reprieve. I take a deep breath. \u201cYes, other people will live on.\u201d <\/em>
\n\u201cBillions. Perhaps hundreds of billions, in centuries to come.\u201d <\/em>
\n\u201cNo shit. I\u2019ve never believed that the universe would vanish when I died. But if you think that\u2019s some great consolation\u2014\u201d <\/em>
\n\u201cHow different can two humans be?\u201d <\/em>
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know. You\u2019re pretty fucking different.\u201d <\/em>
\n\u201cOut of all those hundreds of billions, don\u2019t you think there\u2019ll be people who are just like you?\u201d <\/em>
\n\u201cWhat are you talking about now? Reincarnation?\u201d <\/em>
\n\u201cNo. Statistics. There can be no \u2018reincarnation\u2019\u2014there are no souls to be reborn. But eventually\u2014by pure chance\u2014someone will come along who\u2019ll embody everything that defines you.\u201d <\/em>
\nI don\u2019t know why, but the crazier this gets, the more hopeful I\u2019m beginning to feel\u2014as if Carter\u2019s crippled powers of reasoning might make him vulnerable in other ways. I say, \u201cThat\u2019s just not true. How could anyone end up with my memories, my experiences\u2014\u201d <\/em>
\n\u201cMemories don\u2019t matter. Your experiences don\u2019t define you. The accidental details of your life are as superficial as your appearance. They may have shaped who you are\u2014but they\u2019re not an intrinsic part of it. There\u2019s a core, a deep abstraction\u2014\u201d<\/em> p.85<\/p>\n
\nThis is well enough told but the reality portrayed in the story doesn\u2019t convince.<\/p>\n
\nHe later tracks down the musician and goes to his house for coffee. While he is there he discovers the reason the musician never rerecorded his first album, and the explanation gives the story a satisfying\u00a0holistic arc. I don\u2019t think this is SF but it may be set in the near future (I didn\u2019t notice).<\/p>\n
\nThe Nutcracker Coup<\/em><\/strong> is a Xmas story set on the planet Rejoicing, where the dumpy natives have quills on their head and tails. The main character is Marianne, a member of the human diplomatic staff on the planet. When she goes into town (with an alien called Taleb to order glass balls from one of the other natives for her Xmas tree) she notices an\u00a0alien who has had his quills clipped. Taleb informs her that this is because he said something that offended their ruler Halemtat.
\nThe rest of the story tells of the developing civil unrest caused by\u00a0Halemat\u2019s oppressive behaviour, from the proliferation of glass balls similar to the ones\u00a0Marianne ordered (which are adopted by the affected aliens to decorate the tips of their trimmed spines) to nutcrackers carved in an unflattering or satirical likeness of Halemtat or his Vizier.<\/p>\n
\nThis is a pleasant, feel-good story, but I didn\u2019t think as highly of it as those who voted it the 1992 Hugo Award for best novelette.<\/p>\n
\nThe Letters<\/em><\/strong> column starts with as an interesting letter from Jose E. Santiago of Waltham, Massachusetts, about Isaac Asimov\u2019s editorial The Queen\u2019s English<\/em>. He tells of arriving in the country at age 18 and picking up a copy of Valley of the Dolls<\/em> and reading it with the help of a Spanish-English dictionary. He later moved on to SF after being given a copy of Ringworld<\/em> by a friend. Having started as a pot-washer he says he subsequently graduated school and works in electronics. He goes on to say \u2018I\u2019ll never speak or writer the Queen\u2019s English.\u2019 He is far too modest.
\nOther letters are on various topics, including a couple of extended responses to the annual reader ballot, one of which is by a current \u2018Best of the Year\u2019 editor Rich Horton.
\nI quite like one of the three poems, Christmas Day, Give or Take a Week<\/em><\/strong> by Lawrence Schimel, which places the Gods and Goddesses of Valhalla in Central Park after a meal in a hotel:<\/p>\n
\nThe women first, clustering on the sidewalk: <\/em>
\nFrigga in mink, Freya sable over feathers, imposing <\/em>
\nsilhouettes carved from the pale air, <\/em>
\nthe Lady Sif a heavenly face, blurred around the edges, <\/em>
\nher ermine melting into the snow. <\/em>
\nTheir escorts joined them, having neatly dispatched the bill <\/em>
\nwith the razor-sharp edges of their Visas and American Expresses. <\/em>
\nThey adjusted 100 percent virgin wool scarves, rabbit-fur <\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 lined gloves, <\/em>
\nbuttoned cashmere overcoats against the cold, Hugo Boss, <\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 Emporio Armani.<\/em>
\nTheir stomachs full and warm, their minds <\/em>
\nsurfeited with dinner conversation, <\/em>
\nthey were oblivious to the weather, coming down <\/em>
\nlight and slow for now, like muted television static <\/em>
\nshown at half speed. <\/em>
\nRagnarok had barely begun; <\/em>
\nthere would be plenty of time for blizzards later on <\/em>
\nwhen the giants came out of Jotunheim.<\/em> p.90<\/p>\n
\nThe Next Issue<\/em><\/strong> column states that the mid-December issue is on sale November 10th<\/sup>, which made me wonder why this issue was the Holiday\/Xmas one (further research shows it was on sale October 13th<\/sup>). It doesn’t seem to make much sense having your Xmas\/Holiday issue on sale a fortnight before Halloween….
\nOn Books<\/em><\/strong> by Baird Searles starts with a review of Doomsday Book<\/em> by Connie Willis, which he didn\u2019t seem to like that much. Of his other reviews, the one of Unwillingly to Earth<\/em> by Pauline Ashwell made me want to seek it out, and his comments on the \u2018Gormenghast\u2019 trilogy by Mervyn Peake made me want to pick it up and give it another go (I got to the end of the first volume last time).<\/p>\n\n
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