[Home Page][Index of Reviews][March 2002][May 2002]
Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine
April 2002
This month's issue of Analog features an editorial by Stanley
Schmidt who takes issue with the current 'Throwaway Mentality' of
society. He is concerned that people are more willing to just throw
out or replace perfectly working products after just a few years and
wonders whether it is worth spending so much for the 'Latest and
Greatest' consumer products.
Stories featured in this issue are:
- "Hominids (Part 4 of 4)" by Robert J. Sawyer.
In the concluding part of the story, Ponter, the Neanderthal from an
alternate Earth, is on the verge of accepting his new life on our
Earth. But his Neanderthal partner, having successfully eluded the
watching authorities, rushes to duplicate the experiment that caused
Ponter's disappearance from his world, hoping to locate Ponter and
prove his innocence. Will life ever be the same for all involved?
- "Sea Changes" by Amy Bechtel.
A story about a veternarian who gets involved with a family who has a
very unusual set of sea creatures who have laid a bunch of eggs.
Things get complicated when the eggs hatch since the creatures'
lifecycle can only be guessed at.
- "Our Man in Pluvia" by Charles L. Harness.
A humourous story that about the various 'hoops' an agent has to jump
through in order to get a movie scene shot. It doesn't help when the
weather refuses to cooperate and threatens to do something it has not
done for a long time in a certain place.
- "Chum" by Jerry Oltion.
A story that looks at what happens when two old friends, while on a
fishing expedition, have to end up having to become closer than they
expected.
- "The Diamond Drill" by Charles Sheffield.
An interesting puzzle story that will challenge the reader. One
person claims to possess stage jewelry that resembles diamonds in all
but one respect. So, is he what has what he says it is or are they
diamonds in disguise? Try to figure it out before the end of the
story.
- "The History of Chan's Journey to the Celestial Regions" by Richard Foss.
An entertaining tale about a possible journey to the Moon that could
have happened a long time ago in a country that is associated with a
different kind of rocket.
- "Galactic Society" by Robert Zubrin.
This Science Fact article looks at whether there is life out
there and what form it would take. Starting with the
Drake Equation,
he examines the possibility that the first lifeforms (even on Earth)
may have been designed by aliens to evolve and propogate through space
and gives his own spin on how many galactic civilisations may be out
there. He then looks at how we can find and contact alien
civilisations and how to 'join' into such a society.
- Brane Bashing: Big Bang or Big Clap? by John G. Cramer.
In this Alternative View article, Cramer considers the
problems with the current standard model of the evolution of the
Universe and considers an alternative theory known as the 'ekpyrotic
cosmology' which describes the creation of the universe as the result
of a collion of higher-dimensional 'branes' (multi-dimensional
membranes).
[Home Page][Index of Reviews][March 2002][May 2002]
Copyright (C) 1997-2003 Soh Kam Yung
All Rights Reserved
Comments to author: firstspeaker.geo(at)yahoo.com
Generated: Thu, Apr 10, 2003