"All for One" by Steven J. Dines
"Dearest Etruria" by Toiya Kristen Finley
"Terms of Service" by Jason Stoddard
"Avatar" by Lou Antonelli
"The Fame Game" by Neil Ayres
In "All for One" by Steven J. Dines, Anthony Greengrass knows he has a problem. As the Prime Minister, he’s acutely aware that he’s at the head of a colossal group of people, looked to but not looked up to by the populace. He’s also acutely aware of how the intelligence of a crowd drops the more people are involved, how much the Home Office would love to find something to oust him with, and that his aide, Kepple, is one of their spies.
What follows is a delicately constructed game of cat and mouse in which Dines explores the nature of tyranny and the effect that political power has on the individual. It’s an unusually small-scale piece, little more than two people in a room, but for the most part it works pretty well. Greengrass is a convincingly detached, complacent figure, and the rage that he talks about is something that more than one country has witnessed in recent years. Likewise, the slightly clumsy way in which Kepple falls for what he’s saying is a nice piece of characterization, showing the younger man’s inexperience.
That being said, the story never quite kicks into high gear for me. The central concept is nicely handled but never seems to connect to the characters, and there’s a distinct hint of two stories, one science fiction, one political thriller, running in parallel but never quite connecting. Still, the ending’s great and Dines has a pleasingly bleak, blackly funny outlook on political life.
Cannon is going to die in "Dearest Etruria" by Toiya Kristen Finley. He’s reasonably happy about it, too, and is looking forward to the process because Etruria has said it’s the right thing to do. And Etruria has always done right by him.
That being said, the story never quite kicks into high gear for me. The central concept is nicely handled but never seems to connect to the characters, and there’s a distinct hint of two stories, one science fiction, one political thriller, running in parallel but never quite connecting. Still, the ending’s great and Dines has a pleasingly bleak, blackly funny outlook on political life.
Cannon is going to die in "Dearest Etruria" by Toiya Kristen Finley. He’s reasonably happy about it, too, and is looking forward to the process because Etruria has said it’s the right thing to do. And Etruria has always done right by him.
Finley’s story is a slow starter but drips with atmosphere from the get go. There’s a palpable sense, if not of doom, then of change, to much of the piece and a genuinely sinister air that perfectly highlights the central, literally destructive, relationship.
Etruria is the love of Cannon’s life, confident, assured, compassionate, and perfect for him in every way. So perfect that Cannon is both convinced he’s not good enough for her and prepared to do anything to please her. Unfolding in three strands, a letter from Cannon to Etruria, the story of their relationship, and following Cannon as he waits to die, this is a puzzle box of a story that rewards a second and third reading. There’s a lot going on here, and Finley balances it expertly, creating a story which is tremendously unsettling and yet, somehow, still oddly romantic.
Jeremy Ross works for the State Department in "Terms of Service" by Jason Stoddard. Jeremy Ross wants more challenges in his job. Jeremy Ross is about to get exactly what he wanted. Stoddard’s story takes two SF shaggy dog stories, the story told as email and the humorous alien invasion, and combines them into something new, fresh, and extremely entertaining.
As Jeremy discovers the exact nature of the "Terms of Service" he’s renegotiating, Stoddard’s keen ear for character voices comes into play. As well as the increasingly frantic Jeremy, there’s his laconic conspiracy nut, Kevin, Elder, the alien in charge of the contract and Jeremy’s increasingly feckless bosses. All these voices come together to create something which falls just this side of farce, a delicately constructed confection of a story which is immensely entertaining whilst never once going for the cheap laugh. A surprise of the most pleasant kind.
Lou Antonelli’s story, "Avatar," begins at the end, decades after a nuclear war. Doc Damon and Professor Ledkins are members of staff at the University of Texakarna, the capital of the new, if heavily damaged, Texas. It’s implied, although never stated outright, that in this world the Cuban Missile Crisis turned into all-out war, and much of America is in ruins. Decades on from the war though, scientists are patiently working to recreate mankind’s knowledge and Damon and Ledkins think they may have a solution to a very big problem indeed. What they find instead manages to not only turn the "post world war III" genre on its head but also to comment on one of the oldest and least interesting SF tropes with a good deal of compassion and warmth.
Antonelli’s story is hard work, at least at first. The war and the state of the world takes up much of the front end and is presented in a fairly unabashed info dump, albeit one which functions well for the character. That aside, there’s a lot to enjoy here from the peaceful, if ramshackle, University life Ledkins enjoys to the genuinely surprising ending. This reviewer is an unashamed fan of historical enigma fiction and Antonelli marries that with one of the oldest SF tropes in the book to create something new and quietly, intellectually heroic.
Jeremy Ross works for the State Department in "Terms of Service" by Jason Stoddard. Jeremy Ross wants more challenges in his job. Jeremy Ross is about to get exactly what he wanted. Stoddard’s story takes two SF shaggy dog stories, the story told as email and the humorous alien invasion, and combines them into something new, fresh, and extremely entertaining.
As Jeremy discovers the exact nature of the "Terms of Service" he’s renegotiating, Stoddard’s keen ear for character voices comes into play. As well as the increasingly frantic Jeremy, there’s his laconic conspiracy nut, Kevin, Elder, the alien in charge of the contract and Jeremy’s increasingly feckless bosses. All these voices come together to create something which falls just this side of farce, a delicately constructed confection of a story which is immensely entertaining whilst never once going for the cheap laugh. A surprise of the most pleasant kind.
Lou Antonelli’s story, "Avatar," begins at the end, decades after a nuclear war. Doc Damon and Professor Ledkins are members of staff at the University of Texakarna, the capital of the new, if heavily damaged, Texas. It’s implied, although never stated outright, that in this world the Cuban Missile Crisis turned into all-out war, and much of America is in ruins. Decades on from the war though, scientists are patiently working to recreate mankind’s knowledge and Damon and Ledkins think they may have a solution to a very big problem indeed. What they find instead manages to not only turn the "post world war III" genre on its head but also to comment on one of the oldest and least interesting SF tropes with a good deal of compassion and warmth.
Antonelli’s story is hard work, at least at first. The war and the state of the world takes up much of the front end and is presented in a fairly unabashed info dump, albeit one which functions well for the character. That aside, there’s a lot to enjoy here from the peaceful, if ramshackle, University life Ledkins enjoys to the genuinely surprising ending. This reviewer is an unashamed fan of historical enigma fiction and Antonelli marries that with one of the oldest SF tropes in the book to create something new and quietly, intellectually heroic.
Finally, Neil Ayres’s "The Fame Game" manages to put a neat alternate spin on the dystopian cyberpunk future by combining it with the last thing you’d expect: pop music. Specifically, J-Pop.
Chris Reagan’s job is simple; find the artist with crossover appeal, the artist who can hold a position at the top of the charts for longer than a day. This is a world where music is a tide instead of a river, new releases fighting one another in the swell to get noticed. "Best of the Best" by the artist, Kanada, is a legendary song, a timeless classic because it stayed at number one for an unprecedented two weeks, and nothing since then has come close. Until Chris Reagan has an idea…
It’s difficult to do anything even remotely new with cyberpunk, but Ayres does a pretty good job here, combining the traditional Eastern corporate monoculture of Blade Runner with the I-pod generation to create a story which celebrates the disposability of pop music in a surprising amount of blood. Despite this, the story has the same broad smile and high energy of the best J-Pop and finishes the issue on a high note.
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