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Asimov's Science Fiction
June 2007
Vol. 31, No.6. Whole No. 377
Cover Art for “Alien Archaeology” by John Allemand
NOVELLA
Alien Archaeology by Neal Asher
NOVELETTE
News from the Front by Harry Turtledove
SHORT STORIES
Three Days of Rain by Holly Phillips
Studies in the Field by R. Neube
Don't Stop by James Patrick Kelly
Tideline by Elizabeth Bear
Scrawl Daddy by Jack Skillingstead
Marrying In by Carrie Vaughn
POETRY
Rainstorm by Debbie Ouellet
Heat by Sandra J. Lindow
What We're Working For by Greg Beatty
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial: Heroes, Unsung by Sheila Williams
Reflections: Resurrecting the Quagga by Robert Silverberg
On the Net: RAH by James Patrick Kelly
On Books by Peter Heck
The SF Conventional Calendar by Erwin S. Strauss
Asimov's Science Fiction. ISSN 1065-2698. Vol. 31, No.6. Whole No. 377, June 2007. GST #R123293128. Published monthly except for two combined double issues in April/May and October/November by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications. One year subscription $43.90 in the United States and U.S. possessions. In all other countries $53.90 (GST included in Canada), payable in advance in U.S. funds. Address for subscription and all other correspondence about them, 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. Allow 6 to 8 weeks for change of address. Address for all editorial matters: Asimov's Science Fiction, 475 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10016. Asimov's Science Fiction is the registered trademark of Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications. © 2007 by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications, 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. All rights reserved, printed in the U.S.A. Protection secured under the Universal and Pan American Copyright Conventions. Reproduction or use of editorial or pictorial content in any manner without express permission is prohibited. All submissions must include a self-addressed, stamped envelope; the publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts. Periodical postage paid at Norwalk, CT and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER, send change of address to Asimov's Science Fiction, 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. In Canada return to Quebecor St. Jean, 800 Blvd. Industrial, St. Jean, Quebec J3B 8G4.
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CONTENTS
EDITORIAL: HEROES, UNSUNG by Sheila Williams
REFLECTIONS: RESURRECTING THE QUAGGA by Robert Silverberg
On the Net by James Patrick Kelly
NEWS FROM THE FRONT by Harry Turtledove
THREE DAYS OF RAIN by Holly Phillips
STUDIES IN THE FIELD by R. Neube
DON'T STOP by James Patrick Kelly
RAINSTORM by Debbie Ouellet
TIDELINE by Elizabeth Bear
HEAT by Sandra J. Lindow
SCRAWL DADDY by Jack Skillingstead
MARRYING IN by Carrie Vaughn
ALIEN ARCHAEOLOGY by Neal Asher
ON BOOKS by Peter Heck
WHAT WE'RE WORKING FOR by Greg Beatty
SF CONVENTIONAL CALENDAR by Erwin S. Strauss
NEXT ISSUE
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Asimov's Science Fiction
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Asimov's Science Fiction. ISSN 1065-2698. Vol. 31, No.6. Whole No. 377, June 2007. GST #R123293128. Published monthly except for two combined double issues in April/May and October/November by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications. One year subscription $43.90 in the United States and U.S. possessions. In all other countries $53.90 (GST included in Canada), payable in advance in U.S. funds. Address for subscription and all other correspondence about them, 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. Allow 6 to 8 weeks for change of address. Address for all editorial matters: Asimov's Science Fiction, 475 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10016. Asimov's Science Fiction is the registered trademark of Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications. © 2007 by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications, 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. All rights reserved, printed in the U.S.A. Protection secured under the Universal and Pan American Copyright Conventions. Reproduction or use of editorial or pictorial content in any manner without express permission is prohibited. All submissions must include a self-addressed, stamped envelope; the publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts. Periodical postage paid at Norwalk, CT and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER, send change of address to Asimov's Science Fiction, 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. In Canada return to Quebecor St. Jean, 800 Blvd. Industrial, St. Jean, Quebec J3B 8G4.
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JUNE 2007
Vol. 31 No. 6 (Whole Number 377)
Next Issue on Sale May 15, 2007
Cover Art for “Alien Archaeology” by John Allemand
EDITORIAL: HEROES, UNSUNG by Sheila Williams
Last month, I mentioned that Asimov's owes much to its assistant editors. These are people who toil mostly in obscurity. While their labor is essential, the work isn't glamorous, and, except for a line on the masthead, they go largely unheralded. The assistants’ duties usually include processing the enormous volume of mail that parades through our office dai
ly, filing, some contract work, proofreading the entire magazine, lots of production work, and, ultimately, meeting every deadline. We've always tried to make the office a fun place to work, but the happiest assistants and the ones who stay the longest, have come to us with a passion for science fiction.
Although many talented people have worked on the magazine, I only have space to mention a few. With one exception, I've limited this editorial to people who have worked for me, and I'm still forced to leave out many of those. The exception is also one of the most prominent editors in the SF field today. Elizabeth Mitchell started at Asimov's and our sister magazine, Analog, in the summer of 1980—a year before I joined Davis Publications—Betsy is listed as the editorial assistant on the January 1981 issues, but was quickly promoted to associate editor. By the time I moved from subsidiary rights to the magazine, Betsy had actually left Asimov's to work exclusively as managing editor of Analog. She shared an office with Analog's editor, Stanley Schmidt. Somehow, Betsy managed to juggle her work at Analog with teaching me everything she could about magazine production. There was a lot to learn, and I've always felt that without her I might have drowned. It's a good thing she drilled my duties in quickly, though, because not long after I arrived, she left Analog to become Baen Books’ first employee. Betsy is now vice president and editor in chief of Del Rey books, where one of her authors is the bestselling Naomi Novik.
One of my first editorial assistants started on the magazine as a young intern from New York University in 1984. A class at NYU had put her in contact with Omni Magazine'sfiction editor, Ellen Datlow, and Ellen sent her resume on to us. Tina Lee was one of the first people to intern at Asimov's. She was a fast learner and a hard worker and, fortunately, we found a part-time job for her at Analog a few months after the internship ended. A year later, we were able to offer her a full-time position as editorial assistant on both Asimov's and Analog. “Congratulations,” I told her. “You've climbed your way up to the bottom of the ladder.” We had become good friends, so she didn't kill me. Tina left us in 1987 to become my counterpart at Analog.
The editorial assistant position continued to be split between Asimov's and Analog. After we went through a couple of short-term assistants, Tina and I hired Ian Randal Strock in 1989. Ian came to us from Boston University. He was a great admirer of Isaac Asimov, and Isaac enjoyed him, too. Isaac visited the offices each Tuesday morning. When one of Ian's birthdays fell on a Tuesday, I created a fake memo about an important meeting and handed Ian, who'd come in a little late, a stack of rush photocopying needed for the meeting. Ian ran breathlessly into our conference room to discover that the “meeting” was really his surprise breakfast birthday party with company staff and Isaac. Ian sold some stories to Analog, and worked for both magazines for six years before leaving to found Artemis, his own SF magazine. He is now the news editor of Science Fiction Chronicle, a trade journal about the SF field.
A year and a half after Ian joined Asimov's and Analog, the staff was expanded to include another editorial assistant. Scott L. Towner came to us from the State University of New York at Fredonia on the recommendation of the poet, David Lunde. Scott was an Eagle Scout and a multiple-degree tae kwon do expert. He was something of a poet, too. Scott sold a few poems to Asimov's, one of which “The Curse of Bruce Boston's Wife,” received both a blessing from Bruce Boston and the 1996 Readers’ Award. Scott worked for us for six years, too, before moving on to other pursuits. He now runs a Christmas tree farm in upstate New York. His own account of exploits on the farm appeared in the “My Job” section of the December 8, 2002, New York Times.
Over the next few years, we went through a series of short-term assistants. One of those assistants was Paul Stevens. Like Tina Lee, he came to Asimov's and Analog via an internship from NYU. Paul had left the world of banking to begin a career in publishing. He interned with us in1998, and was fortunate that this association led to employment when the editorial assistant position opened up the following year. Not much later, Paul was promoted to a higher position at Analog (after more than twelve years in science fiction, Tina had left that magazine a couple of years previously for a job closer to her home.) Due to job turnover, Paul's rise through our ranks was quick, but he left us quickly, too. Paul has worked at Tor Books since March 2000. One of his authors is Jim Grimsley, a writer whose stories are familiar to the readers of Asimov's.
In the fall of 2000, another recent college graduate from the State University of New York, Brian Bieniowski, applied for an entry position at Asimov's. Trevor Quachri, who had been the editorial assistant of Asimov's and Analog before he'd moved into Paul's position earlier in the year, and I shared interviewing duties. We found Brian to be charming and extremely well read in SF. Little did we know that Brian would reach, and pass, the six-year mark at Asimov's, or that one day Trevor would be part of Brian's wedding party. I am delighted to report that Brian has recently been promoted to the position of managing editor. For the past five years, we've also received some assistance from the vivacious Mary Grant. Mary wears several hats at Dell Magazines, and we are pleased that one of those hats is that of an Asimov's editorial assistant.
This demanding entry-level position best suits those who think it's a major perk to have access to free science fiction and fantasy books, the chance to read the latest stories before anyone else, and the occasional opportunity to meet authors. Asimov's is fortunate that so many dedicated people who share this outlook have chosen to be a part of its history. It's a pleasure to have the chance to bring a few of them to your attention today.
Copyright © 2007 Sheila Williams
[Back to Table of Contents]
REFLECTIONS: RESURRECTING THE QUAGGA by Robert Silverberg
Once upon a time in South Africa there existed a zebra-like animal called the quagga, which has been extinct since the late nineteenth century. It had stripes only on its head, neck, shoulders, and part of its trunk; the rest of its body was a light chestnut brown in color, or sometimes yellowish-red, and its legs were white. Its mane was dark brown with pale stripes, and a broad dark line ran down the middle of its back. It was as though nature had intended the quagga to be a zebra but had given up the job halfway through.
When the nomad huntsmen known as the Hottentots were the only inhabitants of the South African plains, the quagga was a common animal there, grazing in herds of twenty to forty. The Hottentot name for it was quahkah, from the sound of its barking neigh. When the first Boers—Dutch settlers—arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, they adopted the name, spelling it quagga. (The Boers called regular zebras bontequagga, meaning “the quagga with conspicuous stripes.")
Soon large-scale quagga-hunting began. The Boers had no use for quagga meat themselves—they regarded it as a kind of horse, and Europeans have never been eager eaters of horseflesh—but they killed them as food for the Hottentots, whom they had enslaved, and used quagga hides for making leather shoes and sacks for the storage of grain, dried fruits, and dried meat. The quaggas vanished very quickly before this onslaught: by 1870 the last wild herd had been entirely exterminated. From time to time in the first half of the twentieth century isolated quagga sightings were reported in remote parts of South Africa, but none was ever verified, and even these dubious reports ceased after 1940. A few quaggas did survive in Europe for a couple of decades beyond the 1870 extinction date, having been been brought there as curiosities by collectors of unusual animals in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But offspring among the captive quaggas were rare, and the last male quagga in Europe died in 1864. The Berlin Zoo's one female died in 1875, and another, the last of her species, expired at the Amsterdam Zoo in 1883.
The quagga has figured in literature at least twice. Thomas Pringle, a nineteenth-century Scottish poet, mentioned it in his “Afar in the Desert,” speaking of the “timorous quagga's shrill whistling neigh” that was “heard by the fountain at twilight grey.” And in 1973 I myself wrote of it in a novella called “Born with the Dead,”
which is about a society of the near future in which a process has been developed to revive newly dead human beings. The revivees form a strange subculture of their own, completely outside normal human life, and among their amusing pastimes is to take part in African safaris where they hunt formerly extinct animals that have been brought back into existence by genetic manipulation. This is how I describe a quagga hunt:
"At first no one perceives anything unusual. But then, yes, Sy-bille hears it: a shrill barking neigh, very strange, a cry out of lost time, the cry of some beast they have never known. It is a song of the dead. There, among the zebras, are half a dozen animals that might almost be zebras, but are not—unfinished zebras, striped only on their heads and foreparts.... Now and again they lift their heads, emit that weird percussive whistling snort, and bend to the grass again. Quaggas. Strays out of the past, relicts, rekindled spectres.... “The hunt goes well. A quagga is killed, skinned, served for dinner that night. “The meat is juicy, robust, faintly tangy.” In the next few days my ex-dead characters see such animals as giant ground sloths and moas in the game park, and eventually they go on to hunt passenger pigeons, aurochs, and even a dodo.
What I didn't know, back there in 1973, was that a South African taxidermist named Reinhold Rau was already seriously thinking of trying to bring the quagga back from extinction. I was simply writing a science fiction story, inventing whatever details I needed to carry my story along, but Reinhold Rau had as his goal the actual and literal resurrection of a vanished species.
Rau first encountered a quagga—a stuffed one—in 1959, when he took a job as a taxidermist at Capetown's natural history museum. Something about that quagga moved him deeply. He saw it as a victim of man's ignorance and greed, and, as he said many years later, he felt that it was his duty—his destiny, even—to “reverse this disaster."
Asimov's SF, June 2007 Page 1
