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Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine
May 1997

This month's issue of Analog features an interesting editorial by Stanley Schmidt on the issue of privatisation of America's nature parks. He believes the government, bad as it is, can do a better job of preserving wildlife than the private sector. To me, it looks as if he has taken the pragmatic view that some parts of the country and economy are better left to a government.

Stories featured in this issue are:

• "Finder's Fee" by David Alexander and Hayford Peirce is a fascinating story that reminds me, a bit, of Larry Niven's Known Space stories. The protagonist, in deep debt, has only apparently worthless rocks to sell. As usual, the rocks don't turn out to be so useful after all. But he has to get the cooperation of strange aliens to discover their true worth.
• "Relics of the Big Bang" by Chris Vuille, Ph.D. is a science fact article which covers a lot of cosmological ground: primodial black holes, spacetime defects, shadow worlds and quark nuggets are just some of the things covered in this eye-popping article.
• "This Old Rock" by G. David Nordley looks at a familiar problem in an unfamiliar place: making your home pass an inspection so that you can live in it. But this time, the home is an asteroid and the inspector is one who can find fault with just about anything. Reminiscent of some of Heinlein's stories about life in space, this story is one that shows the gritty details of living (and surviving) in space.
• "Warrior's Honor" by Uncle River looks at a virtual reality with a difference: the characters's emotions can be felt by the real-life player. The protagonist wonders whether there could be any way this feedback could be used to help a society that is undergoing rapid social-disorder.
• "The Dream of Castles" by Wil McCarthy is a 'cute' story about the life of an intelligent home whose owners are legally squatters who don't wish to move. In the end, the house figures out an imaginative way to protect its owners.
• "The Mendelian Lamp Case" by Paul Levinson is a somewhat chilling story that shows that you don't need to have high technology to wage bacteriological warfare. The story is neatly wrapped up in an ending that hints of future conflicts to come.

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