I've been a subscriber to Asimov's Science Fiction since sometime in the early 1990s; either late junior high or early high school. I can never remember which authors I consistently enjoy, nor which stories deserve to be voted for in the Readers' Awards poll. I decided to kill both birds with one stone by starting to write mini-reviews here.
Note that I have this bad habit of putting a magazine down and then not getting back to it for months, and that was the case here. I'm starting my reviews for this issue from where I picked it back up.
I am also quite backlogged at the moment; I'm hoping to catch back up over the course of 2020.
Ventiforms, by Sean Monaghan
- I thought this was very well written. I read it to the end.
- Very interesting background idea (planet-scale art project).
- I loved idea of being able to rent an intelligent starship at what seemed a stupidly low cost, and then be able to have it fly you wherever.
- I was very turned off by the protagonist, as well as the plot - "a fiscally irresponsible helicopter mom hunts down her adult son because she disagrees with his decisions".
- Overall: 3/5
The Gorgon, by Jay O'Connell
- Very well written.
- Weird.
- I'm always sensitive to hand-wavy "super intelligent computer thing controls the world" plots because, well, I'm a computer programmer and I understand just how fragile pretty much everything software-related actually is.
- Despite that, I generally enjoyed this story, although I'm not sure about the ending.
- Overall: 3/5
Salting the Mine, by Peter Wood
- Another very well written story.
- I'm not entirely sure about the economics around the entire plot, but whatever - it had sarcastic aliens and took place on an alien world, that's good enough for me.
- I quite enjoyed it.
- Overall: 4/5
Taking Icarus Home, by Suzanne Palmer
- I can't believe it - four very well written stories in a row. Usually there's some sort of incomprehensible artsy piece thrown in.
- Again, this appealed to my hard sci-fi sensibilities; I love me some starships and space bases.
- Not sure the economy made sense.
- Still quite enjoyed it.
- Overall: 4/5
I then took another break to read some books.
Neom, by Lavie Tidhar
- Yet another well-written story.
- But was this even science-fiction? No, not in my opinion. It had elements of science fiction, but they were purely used for background.
- I could appreciate the literary aspects of the story, though.
- Overall: 3/5, just not my style but good nonetheless.
The Esteemed, by Robert Reed
- Six well-written stories in a row. That may be a record in recent years.
- Kinda hard to follow, especially towards the end.
- I guess this was a multiverse story?
- Overall: 3/5
