Let the Games Begin by Robert Friedman & Barry N. Malzberg

This quirky humorous story filled with meta genre references takes the form of an email correspondence between Rob who claims to be abducted by aliens and Barry who doesn’t believe it but is never the less somewhat helpful with creative analysis of Robs situation.

This story is aimed at science fiction fans that can appreciate this form of meta referential humour. It is well written, funny and does give the reader an interesting mystery plot to follow about what is really going on.

Read in Asimov’s July/August 2023
Rating: 3

Alphas by Gregory Benford

Aliens are in the solar system and headed for Venus. They completely ignore Earth and humans, and when some contact is finally established their message is basically saying to leave them alone and they won’t harm Earth.

Of course humans being humans can’t handle their curiosity, so even though several unmanned probes come back destroyed, a manned expedition is still sent to see what the aliens are up to at Venus.

What they find can best described as a giant hoop that is cutting Venus in half like a cheese string cutter. They get too close to the thing and most of the story is dealing with engineering and physics problem solving.

This is proper hard sf complete with diagrams and math equations. I don’t believe you need any special knowledge on physics to get the story, but a certain interest in these kinds of thought experiment stories is probably required. I can appreciate these kinds of stories, Greg Egan is a master in it, but there needs to be more than just the problem and the weird physics thought experiment. The protagonist has an interesting AI assistent that helps him on the way, but other than that, it feels like the story mostly exist for the author to play around with a fun physics problem.

Read in The 1990 Annual World’s Best SF
Originally published in Amazing Stories, March 1989
ISFDB Link
Rating: 2+

Fermi's Silence by Jay Werkheiser

As the title shows this is a short story dealing with a possible explenation for the famous Fermi’s Paradox.

The story switches between two viewpoints both asking the same question. Why haven’t we detected alien life yet? One is human and the other is likely some silicium based life form. They both go back and forth with all their various data readings and observations, and unsurprisingly are only looking for life signs like themselves thus missing the others.

The story is only four pages and sort of amusing, but its point is fairly obvious and unoriginal from the start, so there isn’t much more to the story than that.

Read in Analog July/August 2023
Rating: 2

Cheaper to Replace by Marie Vibbert

We probably all have experiences with having something broken but it seems impossible or at least economical pointless to repair, and it is just easier and cheaper to buy a new one. So it is not unreasonable to imagine a future where planned obsolescence is applied to humanoid robots.

The story follows Hahn who is trying to repair her already old robot James. Everyone tells her it will easier to replace but she is clearly emotional attached to this very specific unit. There may be workarounds in their programming giving them the option of being functional just a bit longer.

It is very clear that the author wants to write a story criticizing planned obsolescence and she basically succeeds with this touching simple story. I just wish it had a little bit more than that, because while it has a couple of charming moments it never goes anywhere unexpected.

Read in Clarkesworld July 2023
Rating: 2+

Vast and Trunkless Legs of Stone by Carrie Vaughn

Aliens arrive on Earth but instead of saying “take me to your leader”, they say “I want a conversation with a normal person”. A familiar concept but slightly different.

Mal has been chosen for the task and an army of government advisors have tried to prepare her for the conversation she is supposed to have alone with the alien. Unsurprisingly, all the plans for getting the secrets to their propulsion system goes out the window when the alien steers the conversation at something completely different.

It is a nice little story about first contact expectations and what really matters in the universe. The meat of the story is the unique conversation Mal has with the alien, where Vaughn really captures the nervous ramblings that would be likely for any person in that situation. I liked how the story writes itself into tbe tradition of more positive first contact stories and aliens with a mostly information gathering motivation.

Read in Clarkesworld June 2023
Rating: 3+

Better Living Through Algorithms by Naomi Kritzer

Clarkesworld has gotten a lot of media attention lately with its problems with AI-generated story submissions. We see plenty of negative effects of these new tools, but this short story manages to propose something a bit more constructive use of these tools - with respect to the more questionable moral dilemmas they also add.

In this near future a journalists hears about a new app that apparently is great at helping people to be more productive and happier. At first she thinks it sounds like a cult thing with how every user talks about it a bit too passionately. She tries it though and the key element is that the app is built around a community where other users are instructed to make real phone calls to other users. Like telling them it is time to wake up and remind them of their personal goals. This turns out to be quite effective. As we all know, the motivation to actually do something is low if it is just an app telling you, but if you have a friend waiting for you at the gym - then you have to go.

The story centers around this journalist and how she tries to unravel who or what is behind this special app. What starts as a great community where people help each other is quickly ruined by an influx of scammers and commercial interests.

I found this story to be fairly realistic in what tech could evovle into in the near future, while also acknowledging how easily otherwise noble intents can be quickly ruined by a few bad people. Not unlike how AI tools are used today.

Read in Clarkesworld May 2023
Rating: 4

The Snack by Bud Spurhawk

This 10 year old story was quite fun to read today, because we aren’t far from the “app”-controlled future depicted here. When smartphones were new, the phrase “there is an app for that” quickly became popular. This story presents a near future where there is an app in practically everything, which isn’t far off from all the IoT devices we have today.

A man has his life controlled by various smart apps as he tries to loose weight hoping it will impress his new girlfriend. His fridge controls what he eats and his shoes how long he runs.

There isn’t exactly any hidden message here as the story is fairly straightforward about how we should make our own decisions in life. Should we satisfy the apps or the people we care about? A pretty good story that barely feels like science fiction here in 2023.

Read in Analog March 2013
Rating: 3

Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo by John Varley

A couple of years ago I tried reading some of John Varley novels, but didn’t find them interesting. Reading his short stories is a completely different things. There are so many interesting stories from him the 70s and 80s, and this is just one among many in the big collection The John Varley Reader.

The basic setup for this story is really something else. A young girl stranded alone on an abandoned space station with only some dogs and plenty of alcohol for companionship. After years of living like this a Lunar police officer manages to get in contact with her, after it is discovered that someone is actually alive aboard this station that is about to crash. The mystery of who she is and why she is alive on the space station reveals a fascinating back story about a terrible virus that ravaged decades ago.

It is a very tragic and sad story, but not overly so because Varley often writes with a little added humor and lightheartedness. It wasn’t a particularly sad reading experience even though the actual story is.

Read in The John Varley Reader Originally published in Blue Champagne
Rating: 4

Saving Galileo by Sean McMullen

Sean McMullen is an Australian author I have just recently discovered and have been very impresses with basically every short story I have read of him so far. His collection “Dreams of the Technarion” is worth checking out.

The story follows Lars who has worked as an engineer on a large telescope project located on the Moon. He goes on a sort of date with a woman who turns out to be a contract killer on a mission to kill him. Somehow Lars is neither surprised nor very upset about this. The assassin can’t help being curious about why this seemingly harmless engineer has a price on his head, so Lars gets to tell his story.

McMullen manages to create an engaging story even though it is on the surface just two people talking. The main character even acknowledges this directly:

I have found that questions are the best way to explain a difficult idea. Do an info-dump, and people’s eyes glaze over. Force them to follow a trail of reasoning, and you have a convert.

p. 117

Both characters are interesting and the actual mystery about what Lars know and why someone wants him dead was well done and original.

Read in Analog May/June 2023
Rating: 4

Piggyback Girl by M. H. Ayinde

A common thing for science fiction stories is to take a current trend and extrapolate it into a more extreme form. This short story looks at social media influencers in a future where the technology allows a bit more following than today.

Amber is a popular influencer with many followers. She gets lured into taking it to the next level with an operation that gives her an implant in her brain, allowing her follows to hear, see and feel literally everything she feels. Anything just short of reading her thoughts. At first she is horrified, she didn’t read the fine print in the contract, but accepts her situation since it is only 6 months.

Most of the story is pretty straightforward and somewhat predictable with its message, however it takes a rather dark turn in the end. A good story but I was slightly annoyed that the whole premise relied too much on Amber not reading anything about what she actually signed up for. I thought that could have been handled better.

Read in Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2023
Rating: 3