Asimov's SF, January 2010

by Dell Magazine Authors

  It's a lesson you might not expect from the story of a man in a rubber lizard suit.

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  Boody Call

  Every single review of Boody: The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers (Fantagraphics, trade paper, $19.99, 124 pages, ISBN 978-1-56097-961-6) must, by federal law, incorporate the phrase I've used as my section title into the review, so I decided to get it out of the way right up front. Now that that's dispensed with, let me simply advise you to rush out and purchase this compilation immediately. We all owe editor Craig Yoe (and the right-thinking folks at Fantagraphics) a big round of applause for getting the insanely awesome four-color dreams of Mr. Rogers between covers for the first time ever.

  Rogers lived a long life, from 1904 to 1996, but he retired from comics in 1952, thus making him an unalloyed Golden Ager. And he took full advantage of the lack of editorial rigidity and marketplace strictures in that nascent commercial art form known as funnybooks to let his imagination and pictorial talent run wild. These surreal stories presage everything from Basil Wolverton to Mad magazine to Robert Crumb. Aliens and strange physics abound, as well as plentiful pulp vigor, satire, and irreverence. Additionally we discover some of the same coded fetishism found in early Wonder Woman tales. “The Mysterious Case of Mystery Mountain,” with its imagery of bound and bridled women used as horses by a race of centaurs, must have sent some strange hormonal tremors through the minds and fibers of a juvenile audience.

  As usual with Fantagraphics books, the design of this volume is superb, as are the reproductions of old artwork. We can only hope for more Boody-ful installments to come.

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  Apocalypse Wow

  Post-apocalypse fiction is hot. From Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006) to the recent Wastelands anthology (2008) assembled by John Joseph Adams, our genre—and the mainstream—is awash in tales of survivors stumbling through the wreckage of civilization.

  This grand theme of SF, dating back at least as far as Mary Shelley's The Last Man (1826), seems particularly relevant these days, as formerly solid institutions—banks, newspapers, the auto industry—suddenly sprout hairline fissures which turn into giant chasms signaling collapse—or, at best, drastic and dramatic sea changes.

  The publicity release for Ball Peen Hammer (First Second, trade paper, $17.99, 154 pages, ISBN 978-1-59643-300-7) makes this explicit: “After the economic rollercoaster of this past year, the end of life as we know it is something that's in the forefront of everyone's mind.” So the reviewer is immediately moved to ask at the outset: does this graphic novel by writer Adam Rapp and artist George O'Connor deliver a believable day-after-tomorrow catastrophe, ripe with gripping narrative, empathizable characters and cautionary lessons?

  Hell, yeah!

  The focus of the story is on four main persons. Welton, a musician; Exley, an actress; Underwood, a writer; and Horlick, a “lost boy” adolescent. They occupy a sparse number of sets (Rapp's a playwright by trade), but we get plenty of insight into larger societal conditions through their dialogue. Their city is run by a dictatorial Syndicate, which doles out food, medicines, and punishments amidst plague conditions. A dog-eat-dog ethos prevails, and no one can afford nobility or ethics. Yet touches of real human grace, love, and kindness prevail. Surreal, oneiric moments intrude amidst the ashcan realism. O'Connor's delicate palette and masterful cartoony mimesis perfectly complements Rapp's minimalist staging and speech. It might never be exactly clear how we got from 2009 to this future, but it's all too plausible nonetheless.

  Readers might be reminded of Vertigo's DMZ series, and Warren Ellis's Freakangels. Toss in an odd flavor or two from Delany's Dhalgren (1975), and you've got a potent landscape of monitory horror.

  Copyright © 2010 Paul Di Filippo

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  TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL READERS’ AWARD

  It hardly seems possible that we could be up to the January issue already, but that's what the calendar says—and that means that once again it's time for our Readers’ Award poll, which is now in its (can this possibly be true? Seems like only yesterday that we started it!) twenty-fourth year.

  Please vote. Most of you know the drill by now. For those of you who are new to this, we should explain a few things.

  We consider this to be our yearly chance to hear from you, the readers of the magazine. That's the whole point behind this particular award. What were your favorite stories from Asimov's Science Fiction last year? This is your chance to let us know what novella, novelette, short story, poem, and cover artist, you liked best in the year 2009. Just take a moment to look over the Index of the stories published in last year's issues of Asimov's (pp.109-111) to refresh your memory, and then list below, in the order of your preference, your three favorites in each category.

  Some cautions: Only material from 2009-dated issues of Asimov's is eligible (no other years, no other magazines, even our sister magazine Analog). Each reader gets one vote, and only one vote. If you use a photocopy of the ballot, please be sure to include your name and address; your ballot won't be counted otherwise.

  Works must also be categorized on the ballot as they appear in the Index. No matter what category you think a particular story ought to appear in, we consider the Index to be the ultimate authority in this regard, so be sure to check your ballots against the Index if there is any question about which category is the appropriate one for any particular story. In the past, voters have been careless about this, and have listed stories under the wrong categories, and, as a result, ended up wasting their votes. All ballots must be postmarked no later than February 1, 2010, and should be addressed to: Readers’ Award, Asimov's Science Fiction, Dell Magazines, 267 Broadway, 4th Flr., New York, NY. 10007. You can also vote online at asimovssf@dellmagazines.com, but you must give us your whole U.S. mailing address. We will also post online ballots at our website, so please check us out at www.asimovs.com.

  Remember, you—the readers—will be the only judges for this award. No juries, no panels of experts. You are in charge here, and what you say goes. In the past, some categories have been hotly contended, with victory or defeat riding on only one or two votes, so every vote counts. Don't let it be your vote for your favorite stories that goes uncounted! So don't put it off—vote today!

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  BEST NOVELLA

  1.

  2.

  3.

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  BEST NOVELETTE

  1.

  2.

  3.

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  BEST SHORT STORY

  1.

  2.

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  BEST POEM

  1.

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  BEST COVER

  1.

  2.

  3.

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  NAME:

  ADDRESS:

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  SIGNATURE:

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  2009 INDEX

  This index covers volume 33 of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, January 2009 through December 2009. Entries are arranged alphabetically by author. When there is more than one entry for an author, listings are arranged alphabetically according to the story/article title. All entries are followed by a parenthetical note: (a) article; (c) cartoon; (ed) editorial; (na) novella; (nt) novelette; (p) poem; (r) review; (se) serial; and (ss) short story. Collaborations are listed under all authors and are cross-referenced. When a title, a parenthetical note, or an author's name is omitted, it is the same as that of the previous entry.

  Adams, Danny—

  Nearly Ready for Occupation (p) Sep 59

  Aikin, Jim—

  Leaving the Station (ss) Dec 56

  Barton, William—

  The Sea of Dreams (na) Oct/Nov 142

  Barzak, Christopher—

  The Ghost Hunter's Beautiful Daughter (nt) Oct/Nov 122

  Baxter, Stephen�
�

  Earth II (na) Jul 72

  Beatty, Greg—

  Unghost Stories (p) Oct/Nov 109

  Becket, Chris—

  Atomic Truth (ss) Apr/May 72

  Bergman, F.J.—

  Exobiology II (p) Jul 71

  Human Resources (p) Aug 67

  Berman, Judith—

  Pelago (na) Feb 58

  Regular Riders (p) Feb 104

  Berman, Ruth—

  Doing Splits (p) Aug 33

  Bieniowski, Brian—

  Guest Editorial: You Might Go Home Again (ed) Mar 3

  Blumlein, Michael—

  California Burning (nt) Aug 84

  Boston, Bruce—

  The Last Alchemist (p) Sep 75

  Broderick, Damien—

  Flowers of Asphodel (nt) Oct/Nov 70

  The Qualia Engine (nt) Aug 14

  This Wind Blowing, and This Tide (nt) Apr/May 114

  Uncle Bones (nt) Jan 80

  Brown, Eric—

  Cold Testing (ss) Jun 60

  Carlson, Jeff—

  A Lovely Little

  Christmas Fire (ss) Dec 10

  Cassutt, Michael—

  The Last Apostle (ss) Jul 10

  Chase, Robert R.—

  Five Thousand Light Years from Birdland (ss) Jan 51

  Clark, G.O.—

  Shiner (p) Dec 79

  The Silence of Rockets (p) Feb 53

  Coates, Deborah—

  Cowgirls in Space (ss) Apr/May 104

  Connolly, Tina—

  And My Sinuses Are Killing Me (p) Aug 55

  Cooper, Brenda—

  In Their Garden (ss) Sep 47

  Creasey, Ian—

  Erosion (ss) Oct/Nov 86

  Crowell, Benjamin—

  A Large Bucket, and Accidental

  Godlike Mastery of Spacetime (nt) Dec 66

  Tear-Down (ss) Sep 60

  Whatness (ss) Mar 80

  Davies, Colin P.—

  The Certainty Principle (ss) Feb 42

  Dietrich, Bryan D.—

  Edgar Allan Poe (p) Oct/Nov 141

  Di Filippo, Paul—

  On Books (r) Jan 102

  ———Mar 106

  ———Jul 107

  ———Sep 106

  Emshwiller, Carol—

  The Bird Painter in Time of War (ss) Feb 24

  Evans, Kendall—

  Speculative Tai Chi (p) Sep 20

  (with David C. Kopaska-Merkel)—

  Split Decisions (p) Jun 78

  Frank, Karin L.—

  Chicken from Minsk (p) Aug 9

  Frazier, Robert—

  And Drunk the Milk of Paradise (p) Jun 29

  Friesner, Esther M.—

  For Sale: One Moonbase, Never Used (p) Jul 35

  Garcia y Robertson, R.—

  SinBad the Sand Sailor (nt) Jul 36

  Wife-Stealing Time (nt) Oct/Nov 52

  Genge, Sara—

  As Women Fight (ss) Dec 24

  Shoes-To-Run (ss) Jul 63

  Slow Stampede (ss) Mar 70

  Goldstein, Lisa—

  Away from Here (ss) Sep 10

  Gudgel, Andrew—

  The Anti-World (p) Dec 23

  Gunn, Eileen

  (with Michael Swanwick)—

  The Armies of Elfland (nt) Apr/May 82

  Heck, Peter—

  On Books (r) Feb 107

  ———Jun 107

  ———Aug 107

  ———Dec 107

  Hoffman, Erin—

  Osteometry (p) Aug 13

  Johnson, Matthew—

  The Coldest War (ss) Feb 34

  Johnson, PMF—

  We Ignore Him (p) Apr/May 95

  Kelly, James Patrick—

  Going Deep (nt) Jun 18

  ———On the Net: And the Winner Is (a) Aug 10

  ———Hear Now (a) Jan 10

  ———Mind the Gap (a) Jun 10

  ———The People's Telescope (a) Oct/Nov 10

  ———The State of Pod (a) Mar 8

  Kopaska-Merkel, David C.

  (with Kendall Evans)—

  Split Decisions (p) Jun 78

  Kosmatka, Ted

  (with Michael Poore)—

  Blood Dauber (nt) Oct/Nov 18

  Kowal, Mary Robinette—

  The Consciousness Problem (ss) Aug 56

  Thought Experiments: Almost Possible (ed) Oct/Nov 14

  Kress, Nancy—

  Act One (na) Mar 12

  Deadly Sins (ss) Oct/Nov 138

  Exegesis (ss) Apr/May 129

  Unintended Behavior (ss) Jan 74

  Landis, Geoffrey A.—

  Monsters (p) Oct/Nov 138

  Small Conquerors (p) Apr/May 71

  Lindow, Sandra—

  The Hedge Witch's Upgrade (p) Oct/Nov 137

  Nightlife (p) Mar 69

  Lindsley, Heather—

  Where the Time Goes (ss) Oct/Nov 40

  Lunde, David—

  First Beer On Mars (p) Mar 43

  Singularity Song (p) Feb 56

  Malcohn, Elissa—

  Derivative Work (p) Oct/Nov 69

  Flotsam (nt) Oct/Nov 96

  McAllister, Bruce—

  On Zurlygg Street (p) Jan 13

  McDonald, Sandra—

  The Monsters of Morgan Island (ss) Jun 70

  McHugh, Ian—

  Sleepless in the House of Ye (ss) Jul 54

  McIntosh, Will—

  Bridesicle (ss) Jan 40

  Neube, R.—

  Intelligence (ss) Mar 44

  Niven, Larry—

  Passing Perry Crater Base, Time Uncertain (ss) Jan 38

  Oltion, Jerry—

  Her Heart's Desire (ss) Sep 68

  Phillips, Holly—

  The Long, Cold Goodbye (nt) Mar 55

  Poore, Michael

  (with Ted Kosmatka)—

  Blood Dauber (nt) Oct/Nov 18

  Popkes, Steven—

  Two Boys (ss) Aug 68

  Purdom, Tom—

  Controlled Experiment (nt) Jun 30

  Reed, Kit—

  Camp Nowhere (ss) Jul 24

  Reed, Robert—

  Before My Last Breath (ss) Oct/Nov 110

  Creatures of Well-Defined Habits (ss) Aug 34

  True Fame (ss) Apr/May 52

  Resnick, Mike—

  The Bride of Frankenstein (ss) Dec 80

  Resnick, Mike

  (with Lezli Robyn)—

  Soulmates (nt) Sep 31

  Rich, Mark—

  Within Your Shoes (p) Jun 69

  Roberts, Peter—

  Bridges (p) Apr/May 113

  Robyn, Lezli

  (with Mike Resnick)—

  Soulmates (nt) Sep 31

  Rosenblum, Mary—

  Lion Walk (nt) Jan 14

  Rucker, Rudy

  (with Bruce Sterling)—

  Colliding Branes (ss) Feb 10

  Rusch, Kristine Kathryn—

  Broken Windchimes (na) Sep 76

  The Spires of Denon (na) Apr/May 132

  Turbulence (ss) Aug 81

  Salih, E.—

  Messiah Excelsa (ss) Jan 62

  Schweitzer, Darrell—

  The World's Ending Again in 2012 (p) Dec 55

  They Believed in Fairies During World War One (p) Feb 23

  Shirley, John—

  Animus Rights (ss) Dec 34

  Silverberg, Robert—

  Reflections: Adventures in the Far Future (ed) Jul 6

  ———Adventures in the Far Future II (ed) Aug 6

  ———Building Worlds: Part I (ed) Sep 6

  ———Building Worlds: Part II (ed) Oct/Nov 6

  ———Building Worlds: Part III (ed) Dec 6

  ———Doomsday (ed) Mar 5

  ———Hic Rhodus, Hic Salta (ed) Jan 6

  ———In the Bush of Ghosts (ed) Jun 6

  ———It Wasn't All That Easy (ed) Feb 6

  ———Rereading Va
n Vogt (ed) Apr/May 6

  Skillingstead, Jack—

  Human Day (ss) Apr/May 96

  Spinrad, Norman—

  On Books: What Killed Tom Disch? (r) Apr/May 183

  ———The Folk of

  the Fringe (r) Oct/Nov 181

  Stableford, Brian—

  The Great Armada (na) Apr/May 10

  Some Like It Hot (nt) Dec 88

  Stanley, J.E.—

  Cabaret (p) Mar 78

  Steinmetz, Ferrett—

  Camera Obscured (ss) Sep 22

  Sterling, Bruce

  (with Rudy Rucker)—

  Colliding Branes (ss) Feb 10

  Stewart, W. Gregory—

  For Ye of Very Little Faith (p) Oct/Nov 85

  Strauss, Erwin S.—

  Conventional Calendar (a) Jan 112

  ———Feb 112

  ———Mar 112

  ———Apr/May 192

  ———Jun 112 ———Jul 112

  ———Aug 112

  ———Sep 112

  ———Oct/Nov 192

  ———Dec 112

  Swanwick, Michael

  (with Eileen Gunn)—

  The Armies of Elfland (nt) Apr/May 82

  Taylor, John Alfred—

  Bare, Forked Animal (ss) Jun 55

  Tem, Steve Rasnic—

  The Day Before the Day Before (ss) Sep 52

  Turtledove, Harry—

  Getting Real (nt) Mar 82

  Utley, Steven—

  The Point (ss) Feb 54

  Wilhelm, Kate—

  An Ordinary Day with Jason (ss) Apr/May 63

  Williams, Sheila—

  Editorial: The 2009 Dell Magazine Award (ed) Sep 4

  ———2009 Readers’ Choice Awards (ed) Aug 4

  ———400 (ed) Apr/May 4

  ———All Around the Town (ed) Dec 4

  ———Boom and Bust (ed) Jul 4

  ———Controlled Chaos (ed) Jan 4

  ———True Confessions (ed) Oct/Nov 4

  ———James Patrick Kelly (ed) Jun 4

  ———Musica Universalis (ed) Feb 4

  Willrich, Chris—

  Sails the Morne (nt) Jun 80

  Wolven, Nick—

  Angie's Errand (ss) Dec 44

  Zumsteg, Derek—

  Blue (ss) Aug 43

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