Category Archives: Analog

Keith Laumer Sends a Message

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There are some writers who are superstars and whose names and works live long after they have entered the long night. There are others who do consistently good work, have their cadres of fans, and are forgotten within a few years or decades of their passing.

Keith Laumer

One such author was Keith Laumer (1925-1993), who was born on this day, June 9. Laumer died nearly three decades ago. In the early 2000’s Baen published a number of omnibuses of his work. Since then, he’s fallen into neglect.

Laumer is best remembered for his tales of the diplomat Retief or perhaps the Bolo series of intelligent tanks. But he wrote a number of other things, all of them enjoyable. He could do action and adventure, space opera, and time travel. He knew how to tell an entertaining story, and he could hide a moral lesson in it without detracting from the entertainment or beating you over the head with his message. Continue reading →

Astounding/Analog at 90

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Next year will mark the 90th anniversary of Astounding Science Fiction, known these days as Analog.  To mark the occasion, editor Trevor Quachri will be reprinting one story from each decade, starting with the 1940s and going through the 1990s.  Anything later than the nineties, Quachri says, is too recent. More time will be needed to determine what the true classics will be.  All right, I can go along with that, no problem.

There will also be no stories reprinted from the 1930s. The reasoning here is that the identity hadn’t really formed yet.  That sounds a lot like John Campbell hadn’t yet put his imprint on the magazine.  Considering Quachri was in full support of changing the name of the Campbell Award earlier this year, I find this an interesting position to take.  It’s his magazine, and he’s the editor, so I’m not going to make an issue of it. There are some writers from the Clayton days in the 30s who went on to have successful careers after Street & Smith took over the magazine, such as Clifford D. Simak, Jack Williamson, Edmond Hamilton, and Campbell himself. Continue reading →

A Review of The Retrieval Artist

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The-Retrieval-Artist-cover-webThe Retrieval Artist
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
WMG Publishing
Paperback $12.99 Powell’s
Ebook $3.99 Kindle Kobo Nook

Over the decade and a half (roughly) Kristine Kathryn Rusch has been building what has come to be known as The Retrieval Artist Universe, a set of novels and shorter works set in a common universe.  The Retrieval Artist is the first of these and was originally published in Analog.  I know because I remember reading it in the hotel the weekend one of my brothers got married.  (Don’t ask me how I remember this; I don’t know.  I just do.)

For the past year, Ms. Rusch has been writing a five novel sequence set in the Retrieval Artist Universe called Anniversary Day.  The first two are out, and the remaining three will be published in January, February, and March.  ARCs for these three arrived in my mail box the Friday before Christmas.  I’m going to read through the whole series, alternating reviews between here and Amazing Stories.

But I decided to go back and refresh my memory of the inaugural story in the series and post a review as an entry point for those of you who haven’t read any of the books yet.

Humanity has made contact with a number of different alien races.  As you would expect, each one has its own set of beliefs and laws, which sometimes are pretty different from those of humans.  By treaty, if you break a law while in alien territory, they can hunt you down and inflict whatever punishment their laws allow, even if the infraction was unintended and no big deal in human terms. Continue reading →

The Best Monster Story I’ve Read in Quite a While

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AFFMAY2014COVER“Cryptids”
Alec Nevala-Lee
Analog Science Fiction
May 2014

I wrote earlier that I want to try to read more short fiction  and more science fiction this year. I thank God for ereader apps on phones. I’ve been doing a lot of reading of short fiction on my phone, and this story is one I read today while waiting on various things (pick up wife from physical therapy, pick up son from school, etc.)

I’ve only read a couple of the stories in the current issue of Analog, but “Cryptids” is one of the most enjoyable stories I’ve read in the magazine in a while.  I like a good monster story, especially when there a rigorous scientific rationale behind it. Continue reading →

Long Looks at Short Fiction: "Coordinated Attacks" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

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Analog, July-August, 2011, $5.99

I know, I know.  That’s the previous issue of Analog.  The new issue came out last week.  I’m a little behind.

Anyway, you can still buy this issue in electronic format from Fictionwise by clicking on the link above.

I wanted to look at the novella by Kristine Kathryn Rusch in this issue.  It’s a science fiction thriller set on the Moon at least 200 years or so in the future.  (The exact date isn’t given but there are references to historical events that require that sort of time frame.)  If you haven’t read it, it’s worth your time to do so for reasons you know I’m going to explain.

The story has two plots, with one of them taking place four years in the past.  The story in the past concerns a police detective, one Bartholomew Nyquist, who is called in to investigate a murder.  He’s between partners, and the latest candidate, Ursula Palmette, is waiting for him when he arrives.  Bartholomew tends to be rather hard on partners, so he tends to go through them on a higher than average basis. 

In the present (at least as far as the story is concerned), the mayors of several of the Domes have been assassinated, almost simultaneously, and all in the same bizarre and horrifying manner.  Nyquist is involved in this case as well, although he’s not in charge of it and doesn’t show up in the present until the story is well-progressed.  Also involved in the investigation are Detective Savita Romey and Noelle DeRicci, Chief of Security for the United Domes of the Moon.  DeRicci and Nyquist are romantically involved, although that aspect of their relationship doesn’t enter into the events.

Maybe in the sequel Rusch will explore that aspect of her characters’ lives.  I’m sure there’s going to be a sequel.  Rusch started both her Retrieval Artist series and her Diving into the Wreck series as novellas in magazines, the former in Analog and the latter in Asimov’s.  This story has the same feel as the inaugural stories in those series. 

This is a gripping thriller.  You know the events of the case four years prior will come into play in the present and have something to do with the assassinations.  The way the two cases related was unexpected.  There’s some closure, but there are plenty of questions left unanswered.  Some of these questions are major plot points, others relate to background details that could become important as the series develops.  For instance, more than one reference is made to the fact that Nyquist has recently returned to active duty after healing from injuries he suffered in a major case the previous year.  Rusch never specifies what the exact nature of either that case or his injuries are.  But since it was a case involving terrorism, and the current case involves terrorism, I suspect a connection will develop at some point.

While the scenes set in the present have multiple viewpoints, including Nyquist, all the of scenes from four years ago are told from his point of view.  He’s a fascinating, complex character.  From what I picked up, he’s undergone some changes in the intervening four years, some due to the case four years ago and some from the case in which he was seriously injured.  I’d like to see more of those changes, just like I’d like to see more of Nyquist.  Not to mention have the mystery resolved. 

Kris Rusch is one of the best writers working today in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and (although I haven’t read any) romance.  If you haven’t read her work, here’s a great place to start.  If you have, then you know “Coordinated Attacks” is going to be worth your time.