Michael A. Burstein. Sanctuary. A Catholic Priest is giving a mass to those on a multi-species space station who are part of his flock. An alien begs for sanctuary in the ‘church’, claiming persecution. Some tricky dilemmas are posed, as the nature of the alien – criminal, heretic or persecuted – is open to interpretation, […]
Bud Sparhawk. Chandra’s Pup. I got a few pages into this story, and then did a check on previous stories I had read by Sparhawk. Some had impressed me, but I found that I had said of the predecessor story to this one, ‘Clay’s Pride’ (Analog Jul/Aug 2004), again, after managing only a few pages […]
Jack Williamson. The Stonehenge Gate. First instalment of a novel serialisation. Michael A. Burstein. 75 Years. A historian visits and berates her politician ex-husband for attempting to push back the period before individual census forms are made available, from 72 to 75 years. She knows the guilty secret which he is hiding, which is the […]
Michael A. Burstein. Time Ablaze. Somewhat formulaic time travel story in which a traveller from the future who has come to witness a ferry disaster off the New York coast at the beginning of the 20thC comes to break a cardinal rule in trying to change those events. Obviously there are dangers in such fiddling, […]
Both Analog and Asimov’s announced during 2003 that they would be publishing one issue less per year : moving to two double-month issues, and eight single-month issues. This is the first of the two double-month issues of the year, to complement the July/August double issue. Ramona Louise Wheeler. Inherit the Vortex. Further adventures of Ray […]
Edward M. Lerner. Moonstruck. Part One of Four. A serialized novel. Lerner’s ‘Dangling Conversations’ stories had First Contact being made by radio transmission, with trading in knowledge between species being the only contact. Here he has a more traditional First contact, with aliens arriving on Earth. I won’t be reading the story and thus won’t […]
Edward M. Lerner. Survival Instinct. The first lengthy instalment of a novel serialisation which continues on from the events of ‘Presence of Mind’ (Analog, February 2002). Having been reading short stories almost exclusively for several years making my way through this proved no easy task. Having several characters introduced with personal background information in the […]
Navajo Moon-Bird. Fran Van Cleave. Fairly routine story of a young Navajo girl who is struggling against family and cultural traditions. She sees the gleaming space plane in the desert nearby as a route for the development of her tribe and her personally. The gung-ho space mission is sponsored by a multi-millionaire, with a by-the-seats-of-his-pants […]
