July-August 2024 issues of Asimov’s Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction & Fact.
Cover art by John Sumrow (for “Sisters of the Flare”) and Shutterstock

Might as well get the bad news out of the way up front. There’s still no new issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, but we hope for better news next month.

Unfortunately, that’s the same thing we said two months ago, and two months before that. We’re now 2/3rds of the way through 2024, and F&SF has published only a single issue. Magazine publishing is hard, especially these days, so if they can get back on track by the end of the year, all will certainly be forgiven. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, there’s plenty of great fiction in the print magazines we do have in hand, the July-August issues of Asimov’s SF and Analog, including new stories from Greg Egan, James Van Pelt, Susan Palwick, R. Garcia y Robertson, Leah Cypess, Genevieve Valentine, Stephen Case, Alex Irvine, Michael F. Flynn, Alice Towey, Thoraiya Dyer, and lots more.

Sam Tomaino enjoyed the latest Asimov’s, and discusses it in detail at SFRevu.

The fiction begins with the novelette, “Sisters of the Flare” by Stephen Case.

This is set in an earlier time in the same universe as Case’s story in the July/August 2023 issue, “Daughters of the Lattice.” This is a summary: “a sisterhood that piloted ships around the galaxy using the Lattice, some sort of grid created by the Empress. But the Empress had shut it down when the disease known as the Cyst, which could devour whole planets appeared.” This story takes place during the shut down.

A novice in the sisterhood has a crisis of faith when her ship is stuck out in space in the middle of nowhere. Her superiors gave her and others a make-work project to determine their location. She finds a forbidden way to get that information. Good story.

“Flipped” by Leah Cypress

High school girl Becka suddenly finds herself the object of Jake’s affection They were friends when they were kids but not recently. But this is a different Jake, one from an alternate universe. He tells her about slips from one universe to the other. Things get strange, even for high school. Good story!

“The Good Lesson Keep” by James Van Pelt

In a very near future, Ms. Milspaugh is in her last year of teaching. She deals with students having access to technology that would distract them, a student teacher who has new techniques, some difficult students, and the class reading Hamlet. Beautifully written story that really touched my heart.

“Yarns” by Susan Palwick

In a future where a criminal organization named Combine is incredibly powerful. Irene is in hiding after she tried to help a boy who was the son of a Combine member. But a hitman has come for her, but he is so young. She shows him yarn and knitting and touches his heart. When will Combine come for them? Nice twist ending.

The issue concludes with the novella, “The Sixteenth Circumstance” by John Richard Trtek. This is a sequel to “La Terrienne” in the November/December 2021 issue. It follows the further adventures of M. Picot, the human Frenchman is indentured to the Krinn who lives quite well.

In this story, the Krinn have ordered him to leave Unemone and head to the planet Aphalaon on a mission of inspection. There he finds out some startling things about those in charge and what they are doing in secret. It has an effect on how he will be operating in the future.

Another great story about this Vancian universe. I will look forward to the next one.

Read Sam’s complete review here.

The new Analog is reviewed by the tag team of Mina & Geoff Houghton at Tangent Online, and they do a fine job. Here’s a sample.

“The Last Days of Good People” by A.T. Sayre is very well written.., The story is set on the planet Retti 4 and Warin is part of a team observing the sentient species of the planet, the rettys. The whole race is in the process of being wiped out by a virus but the decision has been taken not to intervene because the retttys are not considered to be advanced enough… Warin tries not to get emotionally involved till he gets sent to a local village with the team’s anthropologist. Slowly, he begins to communicate with the rettys and to get interested in their lives. He is not able to save them but he does risk all to save their sacred grounds… A haunting tale.

“Vouch For Me” by Greg Egan looks at how memory affects identity. Julia, Patrick, and their daughter Zoe all learn that they are carrying latent HHV-10. At some point, they will develop encephalitis which, if they survive it, will result in massive retrograde amnesia. They are tasked with making a record of their lives to help their future amnesiac selves… Patrick falls ill first and Julia realises the irony too late that no security in the world can guarantee that a person can emotionally reconnect to their life before amnesia. Chilling and sad.

“The Funeral” by Thoraiya Dyer is set in a post-scarcity Australia, a few centuries into the future. Robot avatars of the highly advanced artificial intelligence M.I.R.A.Q.L.E not only fulfil many physical needs, but also provide quite sophisticated emotional support to all who need it. The result for the people of Australia is a comfortable and secure near paradise, but what consequences might ensue if this self-aware AI develops emotional problems of its own?…

“As Time Goes By” by Cam Marsollier is set on an orbital waystation about a thousand years into the future. The ordinary routine of the station is interrupted by the unscheduled arrival of a small AI scout-probe of antique design. The incoming little craft had been one of many pairs of scout-probes sent out hundreds of years in the station’s past to find new worlds for the expanding human race, but the AI aboard had reprogrammed itself to an entirely different mission. One of the two humans who comprise the entire crew of this station is quite reasonably suspicious about the probe’s request for aid but her partner is more open, or more gullible, depending on your point of view and freely offers the necessary assistance to allow the probe to complete its new, self-appointed mission…

“Roundup” by Arian Andrews, Sr. is the legendary American Wild West transplanted into space. Then it morphs into a First Contact story between two very different lifeforms. The first person narrator is a solo spacer in the asteroid belt of the Sol system. He earns a good, if precarious, living by hunting down rocks laced with complex and valuable organics in the same independent way that “Buffalo Bill” Cody might have hunted buffalo across the Great Plains… The most valuable organics are those which are sufficiently complex to form a natural, semi-sentient, computing matrix. It might be life…

An emissary of the impossibly old and widespread civilisation of the Oort cloud makes contact with our protagonist and commands a halt to the wholesale slaughter, the immediate departure of the interlopers back to their own worlds in the inner system and the payment of severe reparations. The scene is set for a warlike confrontation unless these upstart trespassers accept a humiliating withdrawal…

“Terminal City Dogs” by Matthew Claxton is set in an anonymous US metropolis during an outbreak of very high quality graffiti which appears to be attracting far more attention and expenditure from the City Authorities than would normally be the case. The first person narrator has been directed to hunt down the perpetrators of this close to victimless crime in spite of, or perhaps because of, his own past youth as the graffiti artist of the title, Terminal City Dog.

Our protagonist has more sympathy for the perpetrators of these non-outrages than he can generate for the deeply unlovable and self-righteous City Authorities. Nevertheless he accepts that he has taken the City’s tainted shilling and doggedly earns that pay by eventually tracking down the criminal mastermind… This is a story about a detective, but it is not a detective story. The author’s real point is to address the question of who decides the rules on everyone’s behalf.

Read Mina & Geoff’s very lengthy review here.

Here’s all the details on the latest SF print mags.

Contents of the July-August 2024 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction

Asimov’s Science Fiction

Sheila Williams provides a handy summary of the latest issue of Asimov’s at the website.

John Richard Trtek’s exciting July/August 2024 novelette thrusts the charming Monsieur Picot into “The Sixteenth Circumstance,” while Stephen Case brings enthralling intrigue to the “Sisters of the Flare.” You’ll also find out why R. Garcia y Robertson’s adventurers are “Untouchable”! Don’t miss this issue!

Alex Irvine spins the boys of summer around the Solar System in “You Know Me Al”; Mark D. Jacobsen attempts to lift “The Weight of Oceans”; Robert Morrell, Jr., who’s new to Asimov’s pens a wry novelette about “A Family Matter”; Genevieve Valentine, who’s also new to the magazine, depicts a terrifying New York City that’s “Future Perfect”; and our third new author, Kenneth Schneyer, portrays a shattering situation in “Tamaza’s Future and Mine.” A teen in our new tale from Leah Cypess discovers that her universe has been “Flipped”; Susan Palwick attempts to redeem a difficult and potentially deadly situation with “Yarns”; and James Van Pelt schools us in why it’s vitally important that “This Good Lesson Keep.”

Robert Silverberg’s Reflections investigates “The Vampires of Poland”; in On the Net, James Patrick Kelly spends time “Dancing About Architecture”; Peter Heck’s On Books considers works by Gregory Frost, Charles Stross, Karen Lorde, and others. Plus we’ll have an array of poetry you’re sure to enjoy.

Get your copy now!

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

Novella

“The Sixteenth Circumstance” by John Richard Trtek

Novelettes

“Sisters of the Flare” by Stephen Case
“A Family Matter” by Robert Morrell Jr.
“This Good Lesson Keep” by James Van Pelt
“Yarns” by Susan Palwick
“Untouchable” by R. Garcia y Robertson
“You Know Me Al” by Alex Irvine

Short Stories

“Flipped” by Leah Cypess
“Tamaza’s Future and Mine” by Kenneth Schneyer
“Future Perfect” by Genevieve Valentine
“The Weight of Oceans” by Mark D. Jacobsen

Poetry

What They Didn’t Do by Mary Soon Lee

Departments

Editorial: The 2024 Dell Magazines Awards by Sheila Williams
Reflections: The Vampires of Poland by Robert Silverberg
On the Net: Dancing About Architecture by James Patrick Kelly
In Memoriam by Sheila Williams
— John Alfred Taylor
— Terry Bisson
— Howard Waldrop
— Tom Purdom
— Christopher Priest
— Brian Stableford
Next Issue
On Books by Peter Heck

Contents of the July-August 2024 issue of Analog Science Fiction

Analog Science Fiction & Science Fact

Editor Trevor Quachri gives us a tantalizing summary of the current issue online, as usual.

Many people know all too well that an outbreak of pandemic proportions can leave large amounts of the population with long-lasting health issues. When one of those issues is memory loss, it may become vital for people to have a way for their past selves to tell their future selves important information. But can you ever completely trust that your past self is telling you the truth? Well, your future self will find out in our lead story for July/August, “Vouch for Me,” by Greg Egan.

Exoplanets can be classified in a variety of ways, and while much attention is paid to the search for “perfect” ones, there’s less attention paid to the broadly-habitable but significantly more common ones, at least outside of our fact article next issue, “In Praise of Third Class Worlds,” by Kevin Walsh.

And of course we’ll have a wealth of other stories, including: “The Great Martian Railways”—trains on Mars!—by Hûw Steer; “Mandarins: A New World,” the final Analog story from Michael F. Flynn; an unusual human/AI connection in Thorayia Dyer’s “The Funeral”; “The Last Days of Good People,” a long novella from A.T. Sayre, in which an alien species can only make the best of a bad situation; “Murderbirds,” a Flash piece from Harry Turtledove, and more, from Alice Towey, Arlan Andrews, and others, including all our regular columns.

Get your copy now!

Here’s the full TOC.

Novella

“The Last Days of Good People,” A.T. Sayre

Novelettes

“Great Martian Railways,” Hûw Steer
“Vouch for Me,” Greg Egan

Short Stories

“The Funeral,” Thoraiya Dyer
“We Maintain the Moons,” Lyndsey Croal
“As Time Goes By,” Cam Marsollier
“The Book of Ten Thousand Faces,” Alice Towey
“Mandarins: A New World,” Michael F. Flynn
“Roundup,” Arlan Andrews, Sr.
“The Fulcrum,” Frank Ward
“Shaker,” Paula Dias Garcia
“Isabella Chaos,” Terry Franklin
“Prompt Injection,” Tom R. Pike
“Terminal City Dogs,” Matthew Claxton

Flash Fiction

“Murderbirds,” Harry Turtledove
“First Contact,” H.A.B. Wilt

Science Fact

In Praise Of Third-Class Worlds, Kevin Walsh

Poetry

Panthalassa, Marissa Lingen
Pioneers, Holly Day

Reader’s Departments

Guest Editorial: Personal Choice, Stanley Schmidt
Analytical Laboratory Results
In Times To Come
The Alternate View, John G. Cramer
The Reference Library, Rosemary Claire Smith
Brass Tacks
Upcoming Events, Anthony Lewis

Analog, Asimov’s Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction are available wherever magazines are sold, and at various online outlets. Buy single issues and subscriptions at the links below.

Asimov’s Science Fiction (208 pages, $8.99 per issue, one year sub $47.97 in the US) — edited by Sheila Williams
Analog Science Fiction and Fact (208 pages, $8.99 per issue, one year sub $47.97 in the US) — edited by Trevor Quachri
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (256 pages, $10.99 per issue, one year sub $65.94  in the US) — edited by Sheree Renée Thomas

The July-August issues of Asimov’s and Analog are on sale until August 13. See our coverage of the May-June issues here, and all our recent magazine coverage here.