ASIMOV'S JAN. 2008

I'm still behind in my SF magazine reading but I've at least been able to read them in the month of their cover publication date. That has to count for something, right? Right? Anyway, here are some quick thoughts on the recently read Jan. 2008 issue of Asimov's.

The cover story this time out is "The Perfect Wave," a collaboration between Rudy Rucker and Marc Laidlaw. It's subcutlure SF, taking place in an establishment where you surf electronically and can design your own courses. Things get out of hand, of course, and it's a fairly cool idea. I think I may have liked it more had I read the story all the way through and not in bits and pieces like I did. Happens sometimes.

The next story was a bit more in my wheelhouse. Two old friends decided to seek out the magic store where they first met years ago in "Alastair Baffle's Emporium of Wonders" by Mike Resnick. They do find the shop, of course, and what happens next is quite entertaining. Well-written and fun.

Deborah Coates gives us the mood piece of "The Whale's Lover," which is the search for a leviathan and redemption. "The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald" by Tanith Lee tells the tale of an unusual plague in a way that things don't start to make sense until you get about halfway through the story. Will McIntosh looks at the strangeness of how the world works by throwing together two people whose proximity to each other makes everybody safer in "Unlikely." All three are good stories, with the McIntosh being my favorite.

The last story is the third part of Allen M. Steele's serialized novel Galaxy Blues, "Fool's Errand." Things get even more complicated amongst the aliens of the Talus and lead to an impossible situation. The next issue brings the last part and I'm looking forward to its conclusion.