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Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
February 2002

This month's issue of Asimov's features a Reflections column by Robert Silverberg who gives further thoughts on the death of Poul Anderson. He compares Anderson's literature and way of writing about outer space with the journeys of Odysseus, saying that both urge us to look beyond our horizons and to explore the great unknown.

Stories featured in this issue are:

"Across the Eastern Divide" by Allen M. Steele. Another fascinating story set in Steele's "Coyote" series, this one has a group of kids from the colony world who covertly build a raft as part of their plan to explore an unknown part of the world. They are found out by an adult who forces them to take her with them. But one of the children has another reason for going on the dangerous journey.
"Tourist" by Charlie Stross. Another tale involving Manfred Max, set in a future where computing power is cheap and found everywhere. Max is on his way to a meeting when he is mugged and his powerful processing 'specs' stolen. Little does the mugger know how much Max depends on the specs to get him through life and how much the specs depends on Max to get things done.
"Touch Pain" by Cecilia Tan. An interesting story involving a man, who can apparently see and touch apparations that appears to be ghosts, and a girl who appears to have a traumatic past. As he tries to find out why she is having nightmares, he discovers more about his own ghostly abilities and learns the truth behind her nightmares. But can he help her achieve peace of mind?
"The Long Chase" by Geoffrey A. Landis. A fascinating tale set in a future where miniaturised robots roam the solar system. A conflict has broken out between robots who wish to remain independent and those who believe in a 'collective' intelligence. One independent robot tries to escape but is pursued. Will it be able to escape and must it use its own independence to help it survive?
"Quantum Anthropology" by Liz Williams. A tale that starts out as a tale of an anthroplogist who visits an uncharted world to find out more about its inhabitants and turns out to be something more chilling when quantum mechanics is introduced: who, after all, is the observer in this story?
"Threading the Maze" by Steven Utley. An intriguing story set in his series of "Silurian Tales". In this story, an angry man who has just lost his wife threatens the scientist who invented time travel (which enables people to travel back to prehistoric times). But the scientist points out that time travel is impossible and that the man has only travelled across parallel universes. The tale ends with one final, unexpected twist.

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Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine February 2002

Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
February 2002