Brian Bieniowski wrote the guest editorial and compared short stories to the B-side of old records -- something that will let you know if you want more of the artist.
Silverberg did Part 2 of Show not Tell.
I liked a lot of the stories in this issue:
"The Union of Soil and Sky" by Gregory Norman Bossert -- archeologists are looking for ancient civilizations on a foreign planet and find more than they expected.
"Mindband" by Pamela Sargent -- how does a reporter prove that a Pentagon contractor made a mistake that killed lots of people?
"Jackie's-Boy" by Steven Popkes -- a future Earth where plagues are everywhere and those that live are mutated. An elephant who can talk takes a boy with her to find other elephants (herd animals) and along the way find dragons.
"Adrift" by Eugene Fischer -- There's a new method of shipping over water: nodes go from one place to another and to platforms in the oceans. Kind of like containers that can run themselves. A group of children show up in a node at the platform but they'd been planning to get to the US, which would keep them. Will they have to go back to the danger of the Congo or on to the US? This story had to have been submitted well before the Haiti earthquake, but there is a part where the platform boss explains how they use the nodes to help disasters that strongly brought Haiti to my mind.
"They Laughed at Me in Vienna and Again in Prague, and Then in Belfast, and Don't Forget Hanoi! But I'll Show Them! I'll Show Them All, I Tell You!" by Tim McDaniel -- a mad scientist actually has valid projects but is laughed off the stage every time. Fortunately, his daughter is along.
"Pretty to Think So" by Robert Reed -- the president broadcasts that everybody must start east immediately. He won't tell why, but at the White House, they say it's a comet. It's an asteroid. It's aliens. What is it really? And how do our viewpoint family get away?
Tags: book
