Asimov’s, January 2008

The January 2008 issue of Asimov’s offers a variety of tales, ranging from straightforward SF to subtle fantasy.

In “Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders” by Mike Resnick, Silver and Gold are two old men who met each other as kids in the titular shop, which purports to sell magic tricks. They are now ninety-year-olds in a retirement home, reminiscing on the past, but they decide to take one last look at the shop, to see whether it’s still there, and when they find out it is, Baffle makes them an offer hard to refuse…

Although this starts slowly, I loved the atmosphere that it drew, from Chicago in the thirties to the present day, and the Emporium of Wonders is truly a wonderful place. The interplay between the two main characters was spot-on and often hilarious as they nagged at each other. The ending was not altogether surprising, but it succeeded in presenting both answers to a dilemma in a clever fashion, while not passing judgments on either. Recommended.

“Unlikely” by Will McIntosh is one of those stories that draws you in right from the start, and—much like the main protagonist—you’ll realise this tug of certainty and fight it all the way through until finally admitting you’ve been ensnared. The concept is simple. Using statistical data, the government has realised that some events—whilst outwardly having no relevance or direct connection—are inextricably linked to others—a crucial discovery when it comes to crime and accident control. As one character states:

“Remember that influenza virus that went around last January? It only affected people who own red cars. People who use their library cards at least twice a month are less likely to be burglarized than those who don’t have library cards. Is that enough? I can go on.”

Samuel is a forever-bachelor, a retired philosophy professor who is reluctantly teamed up with Tuesday, a new age female, because when they are in each others’ presence, the accident rate in the city drops considerably. There seems to be no reason for this; however, the statistical proof is irrefutable. As their relationship develops, Samuel does his best not to succumb to his feelings for Tuesday, for fear that by doing so, it will only add to the concept of fate—a concept he doesn’t believe in.

“Unlikely” is excellently written and pulls all the right heartstrings at all the right moments. Both Samuel and Tuesday are eminently believable as characters, and the ending is life affirming without being overly sentimental. The main strength of this story lies in taking a simple concept and focussing on the characters that it affects, subtlety which makes for a great piece of fiction.

“The Whale’s Lover” by Deborah Coates is, as the blurb says, a “straightforward science fiction story.” Tish is a woman ready to do anything in order to lose herself—to forget the shadows in her past. She has come to Pretoria to hunt the leviathans, huge beasts with precious crystals in their livers. Her desperate yearning to forget herself should enable her to call the beasts from the water.

Short and poignant, Coates successfully paints a troubled character in Tish, holding out tantalising secrets about the shame in her past—which makes the final revelation of what Tish fears stronger. I wasn’t really convinced by the ending, which I guessed early on; the way Tish comes to terms with her sins seemed too pat. But it’s nevertheless a strong story with amazing worldbuilding, reminiscent of “The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth” by Roger Zelazny (which also features huge marine beasts and a fishing expedition, though the tone is somewhat different in Coates’s story).

“The Perfect Wave” by Rudy Rucker and Marc Laidlaw revolves around the titular game, a networked VR surf simulation in a California town. Del, who has been playing the game for years, introduces his friend, Zep, to the simulation—and together with Zep’s girlfriend, Kaya, they try to design a Perfect Wave in order to thwart Lova Moore, who has the highest ranking on the game.

This is a surreal romp through what might happen with VRs. Rucker and Laidlaw employ nice turns of phrases and have good ears for dialogue. For all that, I found the story hard going. The characters felt too thin for my taste and the story too heavy with tech jargon. Both authors clearly have a wild imagination and infectious enthusiasm, but in the end, “The Perfect Wave” felt a tad inconsequential and fell short as a consequence.

Tanith Lee’s “The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald” imagines what would happen if a parasitic, incurable virus were to hit humanity—how would people cope? The story follows Jack and his friends, Ed and Marianna, as well as an old woman named Gane, in a series of vignettes that explores the way the world has evolved following the arrival of that deadly plague.

Revealing the nature of the plague would spoil the pleasure of reading “The Beautiful” and slowly discovering its symptoms through the combined lenses of Jack and Gane, gradually comprehending how horrific it is. Suffice it to say that Lee has come up with a clever twist on viruses and on the need they have to propagate themselves. Her quiet, subtle description of a population that has lost hope and who only attempts to live life, one day at a time, is masterful. Recommended and the issue’s standout for me.

[Reviewed by Aliette de Bodard except for “Unlikely” by Will McIntosh which was reviewed by Andrew Hook.]