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Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine
July/August 1998

This month's issue of Analog starts with an editorial by Stanley Schmidt who questions the 'artificial' barrier separating man from animal. He notes that various requirements (like the ability to communicate) have always been put forward as dividing man and animal. Yet, when studies show the barrier to be artificial or non-existent, new ones are put up. It would appear to Schmidt that some people want this separation, no matter what.

Stories featured in this issue are:

• "The Ice Dragon's Song" by Bud Sparhawk is another 'hard' SF story, this time set on Jupiter's satellite, Europa. A young ice harvester who hopes for better things has to run a race and perhaps sacrifice his life to save those of his family and friends after a disaster occurs.
• "Pathfinder Journal: Adventures in the Mars Business" by Geoffrey A. Landis is a fact article detailing his experiences as one of the scientists running experiments on the Mars Pathfinder mission. This is a fascinating article that gives an inside view on what scientists do during such missions.
• "Effacing the Truth" by Arlan Andrews is a 'Probability Zero' story that shows what could happen when the true nature of the 'Face on Mars' is known.
• "A Life On Mars" by G. David Nordley shows the race against time and politics by some people to get an organ donor from the Moon to Mars to save a life. It has some interesting things to say about morality too.
• "Science FIction Around the World" by James Gunn is an article by Gunn giving details on science fiction around the world. As the article shows, SF and Fantasy are not a particularly American or Western form of literature. Along with the article, two translated stories are given:
  • "That Invincible Human Spirit or The Golden Ships" by Alexandr Kramer (translated by Nora Hronkovà) shows what happens after first contact with alien ships; if there is a first contact.
  • "Ikaros" by Erik Simon (translated by Vernon A. Chamberlin) tells of a world where the inhabitants live on the inside of a planet which is a hollow shell. When the world is later found destroyed, there is much speculation on what happened but the truth may be simple and more chilling.
• "Slow Drowning" by Daniel Hatch takes place in a world slowly being flooded as the ice melts and global warming sets in with a vengeance. In this world, a global financier tries to protect his assets and discovers unlikely allies in the form of young people who appear to just gather together. But they may have a plan to dominate the world in the new order.
• "Moon-Calf" by Stephen Baxter visits a church somewhere in England that does not seem to be made out of locally available rock. Hints are provided that link it, via a book to a 'legend' about an Eastern explorer that is said to have gone to the moon.
• "The Golden Age of Rocketry" by Jeffery D. Kooistra looks back at the time when rockets were still experimental and people all over the US were trying to make them in their backyards.
• "The Long Way Home" by Shane Tourtellotte looks at the first interstellar journey. The crew are about to head back home when another mission from Earth, in a faster ship arrives. The crew of the first debate on whether they should try to enhance their ship to try to beat the crew of the later, faster ship home.
• "In Space, No One Can Hear" by Michael A. Burstein tells of a crisis in space that may be resolved with the help of the deaf brother of one of the crew members.
• "The Children Star" by Joan Slonczewski is the concluding part of a four part serialisation. The story concludes with the discovery of intelligent life in the form of microzoids on the planet (shades of Greg Bear's "Blood Music"). Now, the debate is on whether they should be destroyed by they can 'spread' to other worlds or welcomed into the circle of intelligent life forms. The debate is strongly presented as well as giving new fascinating view points on how micro-intelligent life forms may well view us.

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