by ASF
Into this mess comes Martin, who’s been living in Iran with his wife and young son Javeed. It seems that Martin may very likely die soon, and he is troubled at the thought of abandoning his son. He asks Nasim to create a proxy, based on himself, that could carry on after his death. But will Zendegi itself survive long enough to fulfill Martin’s wishes?
The story is gripping, the details of Iranian society and politics are fascinating, and the characters are well drawn and captivating. As if that’s not enough, the philosophical questions of identity and humanity, which stay with the reader long after the story is done, are most rewarding. Definitely not to be missed.
Shades of Gray
Jackie Kessler & Caitlin Kittredge
Spectra, 414 pages, $16.00 (trade paperback)
ISBN: 978—0-553-38632-5
Series: Icarus Project 2
Genre: Superheroes
In Black and White, Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge introduced us to young superheroes Jet (Joan Green) and Iridium (Callie Bradford), who wield powers of darkness and light, respectively. Jet and Iridium started as best friends but became bitter enemies; in Black and White they had to co-operate to take down the dastardly villain Taser.
In Jet and Iridium’s superhero world, there are hundreds of super-powered extrahumans, most in and around the city of New Chicago. For decades, the global corporation Corp-Co has controlled the extrahumans by means of a high-tech system called Ops. At the end of Black and White, Jet and Iridium have taken down Ops—and for the first time, hundreds of extrahumans are free of Corp-Cos control. The heroes realize that they’ve been enslaved all this time . . . and they’re not happy about it.
Shades of Gray picks up where the first book left off. New Chicago is in chaos. Angry extrahumans are ransacking the city; anti-superhero groups are stoking the fires of suspicion and prejudice against the extrahumans. Jet, along with a small group of still-lawful heroes, attempts to quell the chaos . . . a job that seems helpless.
Meanwhile, Iridium is having her own problems dealing with Corp-Co, which is still very much in the fight.
Into the middle of this anarchy steps the sociopath Doctor Hypnotic, bent on his own nefarious schemes. Once again, Jet and Iridium must put aside their differences and work together to save everyone.
Jet and Iridium are engaging characters and their world is intriguing. If you’re looking for a light superhero adventure that touches on some fairly weighty questions of morality, Shades of Gray is your book.
Copyright © 2010 Don Sakers
Don Sakers is the author of A Rose From Old Terra and Dance for the Ivory Madonna. For more information, visit www.scatteredworlds.com.
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BRASS TACKS
Dear Dr. Stan:
I wanted to express my thanks for H.G. Stratmann’s “The Day the Music Died” in the May issue. As one who suffers regularly from “earworms,” I appreciated the story immensely.
Having done what obviously was rather extensive research on the subject, I wonder if Stratmann has found the answer to a question that’s tickled my curiosity: Is there a genetic marker for susceptibility to earworms?
I would appreciate it if you could pass that query on to the author, and this bit of apocrypha: Leo Kottke, it is widely reported, once had the Woody Woodpecker theme lodged deeply in his head and discovered what seems to be an earworm eradicator. He learned and played the melody backwards, sucking the worm right out.
Thanks as always for the great mag.
Yours,
Louie Ludwig
New Orleans, LA
Stan,
Your [June 2010] editorial suggesting that religious stories may be a “history of the universe for dummies” really hit home. I came to this conclusion years ago as a way to reconcile my parents’ beliefs with my growing scientific knowledge. Once I started down this way of thinking, two potential short stories came to mind. The first would be an examination of miracles using Star Trek devices. Replacing water with wine is easy if you have a teleporter. The second would expose Jesus as an intergalactic graduate student, running amok on Earth when all the “good” thesis topics were already taken. Speaking of graduate students, I started subscribing to Analog after picking up a copy in the math dept lounge in 1970. Let’s hope you can keep my brain working for another 40 years!
Regards,
Dr. William A. Hansen
Dear Dr. Schmidt,
To put what I have to say below into perspective, I have been an avid, regular, and satisfied reader of first Astounding and thereafter Analog since the mid-1950s. I still have almost every copy of the magazine during that period (with just a few exceptions). On the whole, I have received enormous pleasure and considerable education as a consequence, and rarely have I been disappointed with an issue.
However, I felt that the May 2010 issue (with the exception of “Farallon Woman”) was by Astounding/Analog standards very disappointing and below my expectations.
Having said that, the June 2010 issue was a delight!
Not a bad record—only one substandard issue (by my own subjective criteria) in some 55 years.
Please keep up the good work—but please also be kind enough to take another look at the stories in the May 2010 issue; maybe it is just me, but perhaps you too will find something lacking in most of them (even those by authors whose other work I have thoroughly enjoyed).
Yours sincerely,
Mel Anthony
Saumont-la-Poterie
Normandy
France
Dear Dr. Schmidt;
What a fun story! [“Space Aliens Taught My Dog to Knit!,” June 2010] A great play on all the conspiracy theorists out there. What made it especially fun is that the protagonists drove right by my house! I could picture every location mentioned.
I’ve been a reader since I started reading my dad’s copy back in junior high. I rarely find a story that I just cannot read. Keep up the great work!
Yours,
Don Harrington
Maple Valley, WA
Dear Ms. Dyson and Mr. Nelson:
I received Rocket Men as a present for my birthday and have been in the process of enjoying the history of Apollo 11 greatly. While reading it, my July/August 2010 issue of Analog appeared. Being decisive, I read both. And there on its pages was the story “Fly Me to the Moon,” a story of an elderly Apollo “moonwalker” that has to rescue a woman on the Moon using a faux LM.
Going back and forth between the book and the story was exciting as the short story matched the technical accuracy of the book so well. When the term BBQ was used in “Fly Me” to refer to rotation of the LM, it was a new term to me. As I sat that story down, the immediate page that appeared in Rocket Men specifically went into a description of the maneuver. It was as if you both were inside my head filling in complimentary information.
I just wanted to let both of you know how well your two approaches to telling the story of Apollo worked, both with each other and separately. It increased my appreciation of both. Thank you very much.
Ray Crisp
Stan,
I take pen in hand (well, okay, maybe just figuratively) to get my piece in. I have been reading Analog (as well as Galaxy and IF and others since the late ’50s). A recent editorial stirred me up to send a questioning reply.
Way back when, science fiction used to mean stories with lots of Gee Whiz and Wow and Golly Gee and I don’t know what else. They didn’t have to have a moral. The only requisite—if that—was that good had to triumph over evil. I saved most of those magazines and stored them away (probably a little too well because I can’t easily get to them to re-read them) but I don’t do that anymore with the later issues. Somewhere along the line, someone made the decision that all stories had to be based on “realistic” science. You have good stories now, but they don’t have any of the aforementioned characteristics. FTL driv
es are not allowed, so interstellar travel becomes next to impossible. Death rays and stun guns and all sorts of other weaponry can’t exist. Alien cultures have to correspond to what we believe is possible.
I guess my question is, would “Doc” Smith have been published in Analog today? Probably not. His science is not possible as we know it today. Would van Vogt have been published? The early Asimov (before he found out about true sci fi)? A lot of the “old masters” wouldn’t make it into print today because their science is not “real.” That would have taken away a lot of good, fun, rollicking stories. I mean, cars going 400 mph down super highways crisscrossing America! A young man inventing an FTL drive and taking his girlfriend with him! Star Wars. Star Trek. Tom Swift. Skylark of Valeron.
I quote from your essay, “Even if we ever reach a point where we know everything that could be learned (don’t hold your breath!).” How do we “know” that FTL drives can’t exist? And please don’t drag out Einstein—he has a good set of theories. Years ago, man knew that you can’t fly. Wait a minute, that happened (although we do have to use a machine to do it). So of course we couldn’t exceed the sound barrier. Wait a minute, that happened also. If we had put an integrated circuit in front of an electrical engineer 40 or 50 years ago and told him what it could do, he would have said “No way!”
As my wife is fond of saying, “You’re ranting.” So I’ll cut to the chase. Can we have some the old Gee Whiz or Wow or Golly Gee stories back? Until that returns, I guess I’ll continue to read Analog but not save it.
I do enjoy the science articles, though. I share a lot of them with my colleagues. My background is chemical engineering (for what it is worth) and a farm boy at that. I guess it was the old stories and the night skies that got me interested in science and I just hung in there.
Thanks for putting up with me, Stan.
Merle Fritz
I’m a little puzzled by some of your claims, such as, “FTL drives are not allowed,” since they appear rather frequently in our stories. However, I do agree that I’d like to see more fictional exploration of stories based on science that we don’t know yet (and maybe never will), which is, in part, why I wrote that editorial.
But I’m afraid the “Gee Whiz and Wow and Golly Gee” is a lot harder to achieve now than it was back then, in large part because so much has already been learned and done in reality that would have inspired such reactions then, and because so much more of the population has become accustomed to seeing “science-fictional” dreams come true.
Dear Dr. Schmidt,
I’m a few years behind in reading Analog—up to 2003 at this time—and would like first to offer a kudo on your editorial in the October 2003 issue; brilliant!
And now the comment: I could not help but notice, in the “Moonstruck” serial by Lerner, that multiple gender/racial identities were carefully ladled out amongst the various characters, almost as if the author had a list to apportion. And if he did have a list, was it his or yours? I have seen this before in Analog, especially in stories involving multiple characters, and it always strikes me as artificial and just too politically correct.
Aside from that, carry on with the good work—the content of Analog seems to continually improve.
Charles S. Chase
I doubt that he had such a list, and if he did, it certainly wasn’t mine. I’ve repeatedly criticized such “quotas” (which I’m told some publishers have tried to impose), in such editorials as “Equal Rights for Dumb Blondes” (August 1979) and “Nouveax Clichés” (October 1993). However, while I strongly oppose attempts to enforce a particular distribution of genders, ethnicities, etc., most writers are increasingly recognizing a tendency for things like crew make-up to become more diverse in reality.
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IN TIMES TO COME
Our December issue again offers an unusual combination of a story and a closely associated fact article. The story is Shane Tourtellotte’s “The Man from Downstream,” about a time traveler who does what he does for an unusual reason, and then faces an unexpected challenge about what to do next. The fact article is Tourtellotte’s “Tips for the Budget Time-Traveler,” which takes a quantitative look at some of the very practical problems such a traveler would inevitably face. Fact article, you say? No, we don’t think it’s likely that you’ll actually take such a trip anytime soon—but if the opportunity should unexpectedly arise, this is an important part of what you’d be up against.
While “The Man from Downstream” is not part of Tourtellotte’s “First Impressions” series, we also have a couple of stories that are parts of series you’ll likely remember—Christopher L. Bennett’s “Home Is Where the Hub Is,” and Brian C. Coad’s “A Placebo Effect,” in which long-suffering patent attorney Wally Mason is temporarily coaxed out of retirement—as well as some that aren’t. One of those, H. G. Stratmann’s “Primum Non Nocere,” could easily be considered a seasonal special, in a sneaky sort of way—though it could also be considered several other things, too.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Anthony Lewis
December is always a slow month for conventions because of the holidays.
19–21 November 2010
SFContario (Toronto SF conference) at Ramada Plaza Hotel, Toronto, ON. Author Guest of Honor: Michael Swanwick; Editor Guests of Honor: Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden; Fan Guest of Honor: Geri Sullivan; Filk Guest of Honor: Karen Linsley; TM: Robert J. Sawyer. Membership: 21+ CAD45, 13-21 CAD35, 5-12 CAD25. Info: http://sfcontario.ca/, [email protected], SFContario, 151 Gamma Street, Toronto, Ontario, M8W 3G4, Canada.
26–28 November 2010
DARKOVERCON 33 (Marion Zimmer Bradley Darkover Grand Council Meeting) at Holiday Inn Timmonium, Timmonium, MD. Guests of Honor: Elizabeth Bear, Amanda-Lee Ronanyne, Katherine Kurtz, Clam Chowder. Membership: until 1 November 2010—$45 adult, $22 6 to 12, free under 6; after that and at the door $50, $25, free. Info: www.darkovercon.org; [email protected]; Amida Council, PO Box 7203, Silver Spring, MD 20907. Checks to Amida Council.
3–5 December 2010
SMOFCON 28 (SF conference-runners conference) at Sainte Claire Hotel, San Jose, CA. Theme: Building Bridges. Membership: $65 until 15 November 2010, more afterwards and at the door. Info: www.smofcon28.org; [email protected]; PO Box 61363, Sunnyvale, CA 94088-1363.
17–21 August 2011
RENOVATION (69th World Science Fiction Convention) at Reno-Sparks Convention Center, Reno, NV. Guests of Honor: Ellen Asher, Charles N. Brown, Tim Powers, Boris Vallejo. Membership from 1 May 2010 until some later date (see website for latest details): Attending adult: $160; Attending 17 to 21: $100; Attending 0 to 16: $75; Supporting: $50. [Ages as of 17 August 2011]. This is the SF universe’s annual get-together. Professionals and readers from all over the world will be in attendance. Talks, panels, films, fancy dress competition—the works. Nominate and vote for the Hugos. Info: http://www.renovationsf.org/, [email protected], PO Box 13278, Portland, OR 97213-0278. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Renovation-The-69th-World-Science-Fiction-Convention/112169025477179?ref=ts; LiveJournal: http://community.livejournal.com/renovationsf/
Running a convention? If your convention has a telephone or fax number, e-mail address, or web page, please let us know so that we can publish this information. We must have your information in hand SIX months before the date of your convention.
Attending a convention? When calling conventions for information, do not call collect and do not call too late in the evening. It is best to include a S.A.S.E. when requesting information; include an International Reply Coupon if the convention is in a different country.
Copyright © 2010 Anthony Lewis
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Phantom Sense
Richard A.
Lovett & Mark Niemann-Ross
I’ve never understood how it could be stalking if all you’re trying to do is keep her safe. I just want to be a good father. Make up for all those years of being AWOL because CI-MEMS is a full-time job. You can’t be a father and CI-MEMS. That is, you can be one—that’s...
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Reader's Departments Science Fact
Novella
Phantom Sense
A tool and its user function as a unit, and the more complex and tightly integrated they are . . .
Richard A. Lovett & Mark Niemann-Ross
I’ve never understood how it could be stalking if all you’re trying to do is keep her safe. I just want to be a good father. Make up for all those years of being AWOL because CI-MEMS is a full-time job. You can’t be a father and CI-MEMS. That is, you can be one—that’s the same as for anyone else. You just wind up with big chunks of time when you have to choose between being AWOL from the Corps or from your family. And if you give your family more than a generic because-my-country-needs-me hint as to why, then you’re both in trouble.
Or that’s how it had been back before I became Staff Sgt. Kip McCorbin (Ret.). Before the (Ret.) bit, that is. Once that happened, it was just me . . . and the secrets.
Twenty years of missions. Twenty years of always being away. Chad, Ethosmalia, Kurdistan, the Altiplano Breakaway. Twenty years of never being able to explain. Then, when it ended and I finally could get my family back, it came at a price, like suddenly being blind. No, that’s not right. There are schools for the blind, a whole infrastructure for helping them learn to cope. As long as I had the Sense, I wouldn’t even mind being blind. Who needs eyes of their own when they have hundreds at their command? When you’ve been given a sense beyond eyes, beyond anything the norms have ever experienced?
Losing that is like losing your sense of touch. The world’s still there but you can no longer fully interact. Worse, in fact, because people at least know what a sense of touch is. Here, the only ones you can talk to are Corps psychs who only think they relate. How could someone understand what it would be like to lose the sense of touch if he’d never had it in the first place?