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Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
April 1998
In this month's Reflections column by Robert
Silverberg, he chronicles the first part of his journey to the former
East (Democratic Republic of) Germany. Despite the progress achieved
since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Silverberg finds much that needs to
be improved but without burying it's history.
Stories featured in this issue are:
- "Steamship Soldier on the Information Front" by Nancy
Kress.
An interesting story that takes a hard look at what is in store for us
as the 'Information Age' picks up steam. The main character in the
story is flying all over the world each day, looking up investment
opportunities while trying to find out why his son appears to be
turning away from the world. The answer comes in the unlikely form of
self-learning robots. Question is, what are the robots learning and
what does it mean at the end of the current age?
- "Auschwitz and the Rectification of History" by Eliot
Fintushel gives a quirky look at how a doctor attempts to rewrite
history by literally wiping out memories of the Nazi Holocaust.
- "The Year of the Mouse" by Normal Spinrad is
Spinrad's usual funny spin at current trends. Here, he looks at the
likely outcome when the People's Republic of China attempts to stop
the Disney Corporation from releasing an animated version of
"The Long March": with hilarious, but disturbing
results.
- "Animae Celestes" by Gregory Feeley is a story set in
two time frames. One set in the near future follows a student's
research into spiritus, the vapour thought to join soul to
body. The other is set in the past and looks at a heretic and Pope's
attempts to harness the same spiritus to alter their
fates.
- "The Value of Objects" by Daniel H. Jeffers looks at
the future of marketing by using representative samples to judge the
value of objects.
- "A Question of Grammar" by L. Timmel Duchamp looks at
the life of a young girl, bonded emotionally and biologically to an
alien who, via telepathy, uses the girl as a translator. She has
little choice as she is considered a terrorist by the Federation
authorities. But she has a choice to make when she turns out to be
vital in finding out the true intentions of the alien.
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