Analog April 2009

I'm still working my way through my huge backlog of Analog Magazines. Next up is the April 2009 issue. The cover looked promising...winged spaceships with a ringed planet (Saturn maybe) as a backdrop, however none of the stories inside had anything to do with winged spaceships or ringed planets. There wasn't much science in the fiction in the issue either and the fact was a little thin as well, but that doesn't mean the stories inside aren't worth reading. My thoughts on a few of the more interesting stories and articles follows...

Gunfight On Farside, by Adam-Troy Castro is this issue's lead Novella. The story kept my attention all the way through and was entertaining. There has only ever been one "gunfight" on the moon and, in a way, this is the story of what happened there and many years after. The secret isn't what happened so much as what was never revealed, and why. As I said this was an entertaining read, even though the "secret" was easy enough to guess well before the story ended. Of course, in the end this was much more of a fantasy than a science fiction story...but you'll need to read it to find out why that is so.

Steak Tartare and the Cats of Gari Babakin, by Mary Turzillo was the next story in this issue, a novelette set on a well colonized Mars. Turns out a domed town...Gari Babakin...has had an infestation of Trixoplasma gondii. Cats do carry this parasite and it is communicable to humans that much is fact. That is makes human females sexy and smart while making human males slovenly drunkards and making both sexes frivolous and "inefficient" is...well, I doubt that's particularly factual, but an interesting hook to hang a plot upon. The citizens of Gari Babakin are happy, creative and productive, but the rest of the Martians have to take care to not become "infected" by them, and so their products aren't as widely used or as good as they could be. So, the corporation that owns Gari Babakin "right down to the last molecule" sends a delegation to secretly "infect" the colony with a viral agent to "free them of their parasites...and kill their cats! The citizens of Gari Babakin find a way to retain their culture, and get their revenge upon the rest Mars while they are at it. I found it interesting that this story really seemed to be about a tension between creativity and efficiency...sometimes you need a little inefficiency to create.

Foe, by Mark Rich, another novelette set on a well colonized Mars was, in my opinion the best story of the issue. Mr. Rich's name didn't make the cover, but I enjoyed his story more than any other. Foe dealt with the a very similar idea as the previous story....productivity vs. efficiency. A new Department Chief for the Office of Efficiency has just arrived at Dometown 26. He soon discovers that he now the "Face of Efficiency"...the Foe of everyone in the town. A little investigation and he decides that if he does his job well he'll be fired, or forced out, like the previous 16 Foes of the last 30 years and if he does a poor job he'll also be forced out or fired. Being sent from Earth to Mars, he isn't going to be sent back to Earth so he'll have to find another job here, and if he is unversalily disliked who will hire him? He decides to introduce inefficiencies into the system here and there to get himself fired, but do so in a way that will make him friends...or at least no enemies. Much to his surprise he discovers that the inefficiencies he is introducing...forcing an overworked manager to take a 15 minute break, allowing a 'crazy old bum' to paint a small section of the dome blue so it will like like an Earth sky, sending a worker home to practice her violin instead of working on reports that her boss has been pestering her about, requiring all the workers to stop work and attend a concert in the park...are having the opposite effect from what he expected. The manager is less grumpy and gets more done, the worker feels so much better after practicing for that concert that she comes in early the next day and able to focus on the reports gets them all done. The entire town's efficiency and productivity goes up with his introduction of inefficiencies into the system. In my experience, the old adage of "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is a truism that management too often forgets. Yes, I did enjoy this story especially when our hero changes his office door so his IN/OUT sign makes his office The Office of IN Efficiency whenever he is at work.

The rest of the issue was so-so. The short stories in this issue weren't very strong, and I can't really recommend them. The science fact article dealt with "Ribbonworlds", tidally locked worlds that may be habitable. I'll admit to skimming it, but it did make we want to run out and run a Traveller role playing game. The Alternate View article was a review of "cold fusion" which the author opines as a real effect whether mainstream physics wants to accept it or not.

All in all, a collection of stories worth reading.