While this story doesn’t mention the Fermi paradox, it does deal with the question on why other intelligent life haven’t been discovered.

Analog March/April 2026

The premise is pretty straight forward, as scientists have launched probes to distant planets and are now working on the data. It shows that life is pretty normal, even intelligent life, but all discovered civilizations seems to be stuck at a pre-industrial level. The meat of the story is basically the scientists debating their findings, which leads to a hypothesis that may well known to readers familiar with the topic.

It may not be the most surprising story with original concepts, but I genuinely enjoy simple science procedure stories like these. The back and forth of ideas and questions seem authentic and is fun to read if you are into that sort of thing.

Read in Analog March/April 2026
Rating: 3