Asimov's July/August 2024

I've said it before but I'll repeat, I plan to mostly post highlights/recs from magazines like this. Some of the others range from "competent, just not my style" to "I don't understand how this got published," but I'm more hesitant about negative criticisms. I think especially as a (amateur) short fiction writer myself there's a risk of sour grapes or hypocrisy, like, if I complain about something someone else did, am I sure I've never done that in any of my original work? But more generally, the stress of "what if I don't like it/don't get it because I'm Shallow and Bad" is just...part of the big tangle of neuroses I take for granted and can't really explain well, it's just background noise. Anyway, this issue had some real question marks, but we're not gonna talk about that.

Sisters of the Flare (Stephen Case): enormous spaceship with immortal space nuns in their space hermitages and wilderness and fusion power. Like Dune, they have an aversion to thinking machines; like Anathem, there's a lot of uncomfortable weirdness about drugs; unlike The Game Beyond, the worldbuilding is bolstered by in-universe stories-within-a-story that give a sense of fantastical whimsy beyond "what if nuns but in space."

"What holds you to the floor?"
"Guiding hands," the stranger murmured, furrowing her brow.
"Correct. Same as guides a shuttle into the Prime Narthex. Or in the Great Concourse, where sisters glide down from the habitation spires? The hand there is gentle and balanced, guiding without acceleration." It felt strange to be speaking so many words without the staggered, familiar rhythm of prayer. When Sister Bessalarion called, Bess did almost all the speaking. "Or where two corridors come together at an angle and you step across, guiding hands catch and reorient you across the threshold. On planets, they have gravitas. Here, we have guiding hands."

You Know Me Al (Alex Irvine): I was pretty sure from the title alone I'd enjoy this, it's a reworking of Ring Lardner's story of the same name--an epistolary story about a barnstorming baseball player who sends letters home to his old buddy, except now it's across the solar system, and different planets have their own "ground rules" which are familiar to us but not so much to a 2160s player.

Do you believe that in this hick backwater you got to throw a guy four balls to walk him? What on Earth is the sense of that? The numbers tell you when you ought to walk a guy and there ain't no sense making a pitcher wear out his arm. Come to think of it, that's even worse than the way they make a pitcher throw over to first base to pick a man off.

The Sixteenth Circumstance (John Richard Trtek): an Earth human working for the Krinn Panharmony visits his predecessor and then checks in on a former employee, shenanigans ensue. Some of the end felt like it tapered off a little (and people who don't like epithets should steer clear, Monsieur Picot is "the Frenchman" half the time), but the setup was amusing and had some rich worldbuilding.

"All is patience, which is forever prequel," declared the Qanotoph wistfully.
Picot looked down and once more rummaged among his remaining scrollops, while the alien murmured knowingly, "The Third."
The human gave a silent chuckle. "You know," he said, "I'm getting the impression that the real secret to your sect's success is having a Circumstance to deal with every circumstance."

Both "Sisters" and "Circumstance" are follow-ups to other stories that were published in "Asimov's" before I started subscribing, there have been several of these especially among the novelette/novella length stuff. I'd be interested in reading those if I track them down ("Circumstance" I'm more curious about "what were these characters' relationships like before, if any; "Sisters" is more "I want more of this worldbuilding"), but no promises.