Minor Thoughts from me to you

Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 2013
by Sheila Williams

My rating: ★★★☆☆
Read From: 1 September 2013—11 November 2013

Novelettes

The Art of Homecoming—I enjoy Carrie Vaughn's urban fantasy series, about werewolves. But I wasn't sure what kind of science fiction story to expect from here. I needn't have worried. This is a character story driven by very human themes. Who am I? Where do I fit in? Where is home, if I haven't seen family in decades and they live in an alien environment?

Yubba Vines—The magazine describes this story as "gnarly realism". A roving restaurant, Lifter, fattens up the guests for an out of this world slaughterhouse. Weird and a bit trippy.

What is a Warrior Without His Wounds?—A Russian war hero, an amputee, is given the opportunity to be whole again. But at what price?

This was a good story but I felt like it was fairly predictable, lessening any emotional impact.

At Palomar—This is another of Rick Wilber's "Moe Berg" stories. Moe is back in another adventure playing baseball, crossing timelines, and (as always) fighting fascists. I enjoy these stories so it was a pleasant surprise to get a new one.

Short Stories

Haplotype 1402—A dystopic near future story. A disease wiped out most of Earth's population and only the lucky few, with the right haplotypes providing immunity, lived through it. A tiny band of survivors travels between reservations where the survivors live. But there are still moral choices to confront.

This was a weak story. The title doesn't match the narrative. Haplotypes are finally mentioned somewhere near the end, but haplotype 1402 never is. There's a throwaway line about American Indians ironically having more survivors than anyone else but the author never does anything with it. Overall, it felt like Kosmatka had more ideas than he had space. Rather than fitting the story to the space, he tried to jam everything in. It didn't work.

Blair's War—This one failed to catch my interest, thus I never read it.

Today's Friends—The Grays have invaded Earth. They're not like us and that's a problem because they want us to be just like them.

A good, chilling story. TODAY'S FRIEND WANTS TO HEAR YOUR SONG.