Analog Novellas & Novelettes - 2011-2015

[DeltaV]

I've been a subscriber to Analog for about a dozen years. Before then, I used to buy the occasional issue at a local newsagent, so my rather limited collection goes back about 20 years or so. After spending some time over the last year reading issues from four different decades, I decided to revisit the novellas and novelettes in my own collection.

Now, I've always been a little picky as far as my SF intake goes. So for a few years I had the habit of tossing any issues that didn't have any stories that really grabbed me. But, tastes change, and maybe that was a mistake.

In any case, I thought I would post some brief overviews of the novellas-novelettes of 2011-2015, starting with 2011. I'm not sure how many Analog readers there are here on Chrons, but if any of you have favorite stories from those years, I'd like to hear about them.

So today I'll start with 2011.

January/February 2011

Novella:

First Day of Eternity by Domingo Santos. After 721 years, the generational ship Diaspora 32 finally finds a habitable planet. Upon landing, the colonists confront unknown diseases, a new climate and, in the case of many, difficulties adapting to life on a planet.

Novelettes:

At Cross Purposes by Juliette Wade. On a far off planet, a terraforming team is attacked and captured by an alien race. The aliens wonder if these strange bipeds have some role in fulfilling the Great Tree Purpose. If not, then their termination is the only alternative.

The Unfinished Man by Dave Creek. The fifth story spanning 10 years in Analog following the adventures of explorer New Human Leo Bakri and Artificial Human Mike Christopher. Mike joins Leo on the planet Kaleni studying the local ecology, and both try to work out their place in humanity.

Enigma by Sean McMullen. Enigma is an ancient artificial planet, completely covered with structures. An Earth mission, made up of genetically modified explorers, is sent to study it. They quickly learn that they are not the first to do so, and some began to fear that it contains a deadly trap for all of humanity.

Stay by Steven Burns. The domestic dog has been uplifted to sentience by an alien race, and their former masters 'put down'. The president of the American metapack must deal with a dangerous separatist movement in the Bad Lands. Its leader offers to trade something that could shake canine society to its roots.

The Frog Prince by Michael Flynn. The scarred man (who appeared in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue) has been captured by an agent of the Confederation of Central Worlds, and is being taken to a prison world deep in Confederation space. They are travelling on a stolen smuggler's yacht ... which has a few surprises of its own.



July/August 2011

There is a serial in this issue: Energized (Part 2 of 4). In the near future (next year actually!) the US is desperately trying to install power satellites in orbit to avoid falling before the power of oil-rich Russia.

The novella is:

Coordinated Attacks by Kristine Rusch. In the far future, the moon has been heavily colonized. Suddenly, the popular mayor of Armstrong Dome is assassinated, and reports come in of other political leaders being attacked. A hard-boiled detective is called in to work on the case, which stirs memories of another attack four years earlier. Are they related?

The novelettes are:

Jak and the Beanstalk by Ricard Lovett. Ever since he was a kid, Jak has dreamed about climbing the Beanstalk, an orbital elevator 65,000 km high with its base in Ecuador. After university, he gets a job with security at the base, and begins to plan his ascent.

One Out of Many by Kyle Kirkland. A government medical regulator is kidnapped by an infamous crime boss, and taken to a hidden laboratory where he witnesses the effects of Neuro-Fac, a lifestyle enhancer drug, on an addict. Thought to be essentially harmless, that no longer seems to be the case. After he is released, the regulator is not only puzzled by the motives of the crime lord but also by the discovery of the dead addict in a canal.


I obviously wasn't too impressed with Analog 2011, as those are the only two issues I kept! Looking at the online reviews at Tangent of the other issues, I can sorta see why. I was surprised to see Adam Troy-Castro's Andrea Cort story With Unclean Hands in the Nov issue. I have this as an eBook so I must have decided just to get that and toss the magazine.

What is a bit surprising is that, in the two issues I did keep, I liked all of the novellas and novelettes. There is a nice variety, although perhaps one common strain was the number of stories that had modified humans in some way or another (and one with dogs). If you are not interested in neural science, One Out of Many may not be your cup of tea as it goes into that in a bit of depth. Unfinished Man builds on themes from previous stories, which I did not remember.
All in all, though, two pretty solid issues.

Now to move on to 2012...

 

[J-Sun]

Interesting thread. I have reviews and what I put down for AnLab ballots for 2013-14 from a local copy of an old website I used to have. (I'd have to look through the issues and rely on memory for anything else.) Here are what I thought were the top 3 novelettes of 2013:

[After the first story in the Jan/Feb issue] comes Brad R. Torgerson's "The Exchange Officers", which is my favorite story of this issue. It's a tale of an attempted Chinese takeover of a U.S. space platform and the Marine and Army officers who are "there" by proxy, have the only two tele-operated machines not taken out by the Chinese EMP, and must try to stop it. The action sequences are very well done and alternate with the history of the Navy ground control system that will pave the way for a U.S. space renaissance and how the Army narrator came to be a part of it. The one problem with the story is that opposing "triangles of narration" might have served better - a lot of background relative to current events early on, with the background narrowing and the current events widening as the story progressed. As is, the background scenes are always good but become almost frustrating distractions from the foreground action. Some people might be put off by what they might see as a dusting off of a Cold War space story but I see it as a continuation of a winning form with changed and updated circumstances and technological interests.

The profiled author [also in the Jan/Feb issue], Robert Scherrer, gives us "Descartes's Stepchildren" which was to me, a genuinely haunting tale about a neurological experiment which may reveal that a significant fraction of humanity is not actually sentient but are just "Blanks" or insentient automatons. The personal and sociological ramifications of this are played out well.

The best story in the [April] issue also focuses on biology (genetics): Kyle Kirkland's novelette, "Altruism, Inc." This is also a story of blending in that it deals with alternative economics and its genetic concept and the blending feels odd but interesting at first and becomes seamless by the end. A somewhat tough "handle" (a private eye/problem solver) is hired to look into possible problems with a client's genetic modifications and, oh by the way, the client's wife would like him to kill someone. He declines but can't quite let go of the case. This leads him to the titular company and its vivid boss and curious doings and even into theories about far pre-history. There's an almost Heinleinian deftness in the exposition - the guy picks up a "brochure" from Altruism, Inc. but waits until he gets home "to activate it". Maybe I'm just old-fashioned but I visualized a paper brochure and was momentarily and pleasantly surprised. Similarly, we're plunged into the weird semi-money/semi-barter, everything-for-a-price alternative economy which is explained in small snippets as we go rather than with a single infodump somewhere in the story. So for creativity, pace, and exposition, I liked this.

 

[DeltaV]

I carry on looking at the novellas/novelettes in some selected back issues of 2012.

April 2012

The Most Invasive Species by Susan Forest. The new doctor on a frontier colony world is concerned by the physical abuse within the local sentient species. She decides to take direct action, but unwittingly causes a crisis within the sentient community and eventually draws the attention of the Alliance judiciary.

Ecce Signum, by Craig DeLancey. Third novelette in this story line. Students of an unusual school were implanted with manufactured genes, genes that grant the bearer unusual abilities. Now they are being assassinated. One of their teachers tries to find out why, assisted by her neo-canine.

May 2012

The End of Ordinary Life by Daniel Hatch. After a world-wide economic crisis, an Alaskan floatplane pilot tries to make ends meet all the while juggling multiple girlfriends. One of whom inadvertently gets him caught up in a conspiracy, him along with a most unusual passenger.

June 2012

Crooks by Paul Carlson. Third novelette on the adventures of Claude the trucker along with his robot sidekick Mek and his truck AI Dollbox. Fuel and cargo thefts are threatening the livelihood of a lot of truckers, and Claude & co figure they have to do something to stop it.

Food Chained by Carl Frederick. A three-man crew arrives in orbit over a habitable planet in the Rolf system. After an initial survey, disaster strikes when their FTL drive fails. Two of the crew descend to the planet in an escape capsule while the third, Elliot, opts for frozen life in a status pod. But before being frozen, Elliot makes a disturbing discovery.

July-August 2012

Nightfall on the Peak of Eternal Light by Richard Lovett & William Gleason. A man on the run from the mob seeks refuge on the moon. Finding a job cleaning the huge solar power arrays, he believes himself safe. Hitman 'Beau Geste' thinks otherwise.

The Conquest of the Air by Rob Chilson. Mining company John Co has hit the jackpot in the asteroid belt of the aptly named Bonanza system. Needing a place for R&R, they begin building a resort on one of the planets, drawing the attention of the local sentient species.

Sam Below Par by Ben Bova. More adventures of Sam Gunn, entrepreneur and womanizer par excellence. This time he plans a golf course on the moon, and enlists the help of a designer on the run from his mother-in-law, the Dragon Lady.

The Mutant Stag at Horn Creek by Sarah Castle. An abandoned mine has been leaking uranium for years into the local creeks, affecting the wildlife. In her long career as a Grand Canyon ranger, Sue has seen the effects first hand. And now her niece has shown up, looking for killer content for her vid channel.

To Save Man by H.G. Stramann. Tamkain is one of two aliens sent to make contact with Earth. In spite of his doubts about the true nature of these 'humans', his superior initiates direct contact by docking their ship to the ISS. As he learns more and more of human history, Tamkain's fears grow that these 'humans' are not ready to be admitted into the Harmony.

October 2012

The Liars by Juliette Wade. On the planet Paradise, a resort has been in operation for decades. Two linguists stop by for some R&R. The local sentients are the 'hired help' at the resort, but after making friends with one of them, the linguists become concerned that things are not as they appear to be.

Nahiku West by Linda Nagata. Officer Zeke Choy of the Commonwealth Police is called in to investigate a molecular science crime on the space habitat of Nahiku. One crime then leads to another, and as the mystery deepens, it appears that both his lover and her closest friend are involved.

The Journeyman: On the Short-Grass Prairie, by Michael Flynn. Far in the future, while fleeing a blood feud, two tribal hunters discover a crashed shuttle from an ancient war. Commissioned into a long-forgotten military force, they are sent to carry a message to a far-off hidden city ... that most likely no longer even exists.


BTW, I did not keep the July-August issue for the story To Save Man. This is what Tangent reviewer Dario Ciriello wrote about this novelette:

Except for the mentions of genitalia and anal probes, this one might have come from Horace L. Gold’s slushpile via a pinhole in the space-time continuum. Possibly the worst story I’ve ever seen in a professional publication.

Heh heh. Not sure it is the 'worst story ever published' ... there must be lots of competition for that award ... but it isn't very good and it is indeed surprising that it was published in Analog.


In hindsight, I can't say that I found any of these stories really outstanding. But there are some good ideas, nice characters and interesting settings here, so by and large entertaining reading.


I also came across the Analytical Library for 2011:

 

[J-Sun]

Sorry I can't comment on any of those stories.There have been several years where I didn't get magazines and I think 2011-12 was part of that. However, to finish 2013, here are what I thought were the top three novellas:

While it's perhaps got a bit too much of "Enemy Mine" to it and even a tiny dash of Return of the Jedi ("Let me look on you... with my... own eyes." - yet another slam at VR/tech), I really enjoyed the best story in the [July/August 2013] issue: Brad R. Torgerson's novella, "The Chaplain's Legacy". This is a sequel to a short story, "The Chaplain's Assistant" and, if you've read that, you might find fault with this, because I could sure tell where he was recapitulating so you could follow along if you hadn't. But, since I hadn't, it worked out fine for me. A species of cyborg mantis creatures has been busily, inexorably wiping out humans until, in the last story, a truce was forged by a scholarly alien's interest in humanity's spiritual concepts, which the aliens lack. (One of the more interesting things about this story is that I suspect atheists and devout alike could enjoy, or at least tolerate, the handling of religion.) In this story, the truce is about to fail and our chaplain's assistant is called back to help deal with the aliens. Again, I can't say much without spoiling things and since there are interesting perspective shifts and revelations throughout, I really can't say anything. Suffice to say this has some interestingly conceived people and aliens who go on a very interesting physical and psychic journey which moves in sometimes unexpected directions and in which I enjoyed the ideas and came to care about the characters. And it's very vividly told - there's something about the cast moving across the setting that lodges firmly in the mind's eye. Good stuff. (I have no idea how the best story in the issue is also a novella and a sequel and is not also the cover story.) Torgerson has registered on my radar now: he's published two stories in this year's Analog and had the best story in both issues.

Much better [than Rajnar Vavra's "The Woman Who Cried Corpse" (the preceding story in the January/February 2013 issue)] is Edward M. Lerner's second contribution to this issue, "Time Out". Possibly it's much worse in dealing with all its paradoxes but it seemed as (un)reasonable as most other time travel stories and was much more fictionally successful, drawing a couple of excellent characters and detailing their odd relationship as one of them struggles to invent a time machine and the other tries to deal with all the Bad Things that might ensue. Needless to say, the fate of the world hangs in the balance. I thought this put the protagonist into a fascinatingly cruel and tightly-packed jam and it worked very well for me, all things considered.

Finally, I can criticize elements of a story I somewhat liked rather than try to find good points in stories I didn't like [in the September 2013 issue]. The main problems [with "Murder on the Aldrin Express" by Martin L. Shoemaker] are that it's extremely anti-climactic and that the captain (and his second) have major conflicts of interest, yet investigate the crime. A civilian man on a Mars expedition falls to his death and evidence is raised to indicate it may have been murder most foul. So the man's wife, the expedition leader, an ex-girlfriend of the second-in-command, and a doctor are suspects. The conflict with the second and the ex is obvious from my description but there is also a conflict in that the blunt domineering captain was originally supposed to be the expedition leader but couldn't get along with the dead man and his wife based on differences over how such expeditions should be run. But, otherwise, this murder mystery in space was something I could read without being annoyed or feeling like I was in the wrong magazine.

So, obviously, between the novelettes and novellas, I really liked the January/February issue and really hated the September one aside from the Shoemaker.