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Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
September 1997

This month's issue of Asimov's features a Reflections by Robert Silverberg talking about the Mars meteorite that may offer the first evidence that life may have once existed on Mars. I found it quite clear in pointing out the evidence put forward by the NASA scientists is not definitely conclusive but the idea that life may have existed is what is so exciting about the discovery.

Stories featured in this issue are:

• "The Apprenticeship of Asabetta di Pietro Cavazzi" by L. Timmel Duchamp is a story about a young women in a sanctuary who is pregnant with the child of a lord. But she needs to know that he loves her and plans to marry her. So, she starts to practice magic (with the help of an older women) and learns, in the end, that magic works not only on the person being magicked, but also on the magician.
• "Call Me Sue" by Aimee Kratts is a wild 'Terry Bission' like story about a woman who, in the act of being run over by a bicycle, throwing her things at the phone and answering her mynah bird, finds that she may have started the collapse of the universe into her room (sounds familiar, right?)! Populated with characters popping in from the future, she must repeat the events to stop the collapse. Only, the mynah bird has died and she needs to train a new one in only a few hours. Well, talk about your 'fixer-upper'...
• "Balinese Dancer" by Gwyneth Jones is the story of a family roaming the French countryside in a camper. At one site, they pick up a cat which is connected with another camper that mysteriously goes missing. The situation is very contemporary (set in a deteriorating world) but hints of chilling things to come.
• "Smelling of Earth, Dreaming of Sky" is the flip side of the 'angel falls to Earth' story. Only this time, instead of doing good deeds to get redemption, the angel decides to have a good time. Only her idea of a good time includes having 'road kills' for dinner and training her children (she got married) to be like the Addams family! This is a rather fun, but uncomfortable story to read.
• "Poyekhali" by Greg Abraham is set in the future when we have made contact with aliens (the Noiesni) who just want to help. A doctor, attempting to locate a patient in order to complete his TB treatment, runs into one of the Noiesni who is also looking for the patient. In a wild chance over the galaxy, the doctor discovers how events from the past and future can be intertwine by a person's wishes.
• "Vergil and the Dukos: Hic Inclusus Vitam Perdid (or, The Imitations of the King)" by Avram Davidson is probably the last story he wrote before his death. The story concern Vergil Magus who gets involved in passing sentence on people who may not be who they seem to be. In usual Davison style, the story somehow rambles along, covering a lot of side material before getting to the end.
• "Lethe" by Walter Jon Williams is an interesting story set in the future where cloning is a fact of life. The story concerns three pairs of clones each of different ages and different professions and characters. When one of the clones is killed in an accident, the other half grieves and finally hatches a plot to recreate her from the other clones. But, as the story shows, even then you may not get what you want.

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