Asimov's SF, April-May 2009 Read online

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  Asimov's SF, April-May 2009

  by Dell Magazine Authors

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  Science Fiction

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  Dell Magazines

  www.dellmagazines.com

  Copyright ©2009 by Dell Magazines

  NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.

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  Cover Art for “The Spires of Denon” by Paul Youll

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  CONTENTS

  Department: EDITORIAL: 400 by Sheila Williams

  Department: REFLECTIONS: REREADING VAN VOGT by Robert Silverberg

  Novella: THE GREAT ARMADA by Brian Stableford

  Short Story: TRUE FAME by Robert Reed

  Short Story: AN ORDINARY DAY WITH JASON by Kate Wilhelm

  Poetry: SMALL CONQUERORS by Geoffrey A. Landis

  Short Story: ATOMIC TRUTH by Chris Beckett

  Novelette: THE ARMIES OF ELFLAND by Eileen Gunn & Michael Swanwick

  Poetry: We Ignore Him by P M F Johnson

  Short Story: HUMAN DAY by Jack Skillingstead

  Short Story: COWGIRLS IN SPACE by Deborah Coates

  Poetry: BRIDGES by Peter Roberts

  Novelette: THIS WIND BLOWING, AND THIS TIDE by Damien Broderick

  Department: NEXT ISSUE

  Short Story: EXEGESIS by Nancy Kress

  Novella: THE SPIRES OF DENON by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  Department: ON BOOKS: WHAT KILLED TOM DISCH? by Norman Spinrad

  Department: SF CONVENTIONAL CALENDAR by Erwin S. Strauss

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  Asimov's Science Fiction. ISSN 1065-2698. Vol. 33, Nos. 4 & 5. Whole Nos. 399 & 400, April/May 2009. GST #R123293128. Published monthly except for two combined double issues in April/May and October/November by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications. One year subscription $43.90 in the United States and U.S. possessions. In all other countries $53.90 (GST included in Canada), payable in advance in U.S. funds. Address for subscription and all other correspondence about them, 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. Allow 6 to 8 weeks for change of address. Address for all editorial matters: Asimov's Science Fiction, 475 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10016. Asimov's Science Fiction is the registered trademark of Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications. © 2009 by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications, 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. All rights reserved, printed in the U.S.A. Protection secured under the Universal and Pan American Copyright Conventions. Reproduction or use of editorial or pictorial content in any manner without express permission is prohibited. All submissions must include a self-addressed, stamped envelope; the publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts. Periodical postage paid at Norwalk, CT and additional mailing offices. Canadian postage paid at Montreal, Quebec, Canada Post International Publications Mail, Product Sales Agreement No. 40012460. POSTMASTER, send change of address to Asimov's Science Fiction, 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. In Canada return to Quebecor St. Jean, 800 Blvd. Industrial, St. Jean, Quebec J3B 8G4.

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  ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION

  Sheila Williams: Editor

  Brian Bieniowski: Managing Editor

  Mary Grant: Editorial Assistant

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  Peter Kanter: Publisher

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  Isaac Asimov: Editorial Director (1977-1992)

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  Stories from Asimov's have won 46 Hugos and 27 Nebula Awards, and our editors have received 18 Hugo Awards for Best Editor.

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  Please do not send us your manuscript until you've gotten a copy of our manuscript guidelines. To obtain this, send us a self-addressed, stamped business-size envelope (what stationery stores call a number 10 envelope), and a note requesting this information. Please write “manuscript guidelines” in the bottom left-hand corner of the outside envelope. The address for this and for all editorial correspondence is Asimov's Science Fiction, 475 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016. While we're always looking for new writers, please, in the interest of time-saving, find out what we're loking for, and how to prepare it, before submitting your story.

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  Department: EDITORIAL: 400

  by Sheila Williams

  Asimov's hits another important milestone with the publication of our April/May 2009 issue. With its arrival, we celebrate the four hundred opportunities we've had to showcase science fiction and fantasy short stories. When I realized this moment was nearly upon us, I contacted the issue's contributors for their thoughts on the occasion. Robert Reed replied, “Congratulations, Asimovs! Here's to the next six-hundred issues!” while Brian Stableford said, “Many congratulations on reaching the four hundredth issue; Asimov's has made tremendous progress over that time to become the leader in the field, and continues to make an invaluable contribution to the promotion and showcasing of SF short fiction—which has always occupied a precious place at the heart of the genre. I've been very proud to have been featured fairly regularly in the magazine over the last two decades, and hope to continue that association for many years to come.” In the midst of his congratulations, Brian neatly summed up what Asimov's is all about. It is a venue that nurtures and celebrates the short story. The stories receive some of this nurturing from the magazine and its editors, but most it comes from you—the people who read and support the stories and authors that you discover here.

  One of our long-time readers is Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the author and former editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. On a recent walk, she realized that “I'd met most of my favorite SF/F writers in the pages of Asimov's. I first read Connie Willis, Michael Swanwick, James Patrick Kelly, and Nancy Kress in its pages. I never miss Bob Silverberg's column. And since I've quit editing, I'm always happy to see my favorite writers, the ones I used to buy from, showing up in Asimov's—people like Robert Reed and Mary Rosenblum. I'm also happy to see all the new writers, too, and I look forward to seeing more of their work in the future.” Going Bob Reed one better, Kris adds, “I hope that Asimov's will be around for four thousand issues. That seems close to forever. But forever is good too.”

  Chris Beckett is one of those newer writers. Chris writes, “Congratulations to Asimov's on reaching your four hundredth issue: quite an achievement. Many would argue that the short story is science fiction's crowning glory. If so, Asimov's has done as much as anyone to nurture it. Writers like me owe a huge amount to magazines like this that make it possible for our tales to see the light of day.” The authors owe most of their thanks to you, because you have proven to be extremely receptive to the
works of new writers. On more than one occasion, you haven't hesitated to hand out the annual Readers’ Awards to a story by an author making his or her first appearance in our pages. Three such winners that come immediately to my mind are Alan Gordon's “Digital Music” (# 220), Darryl Gregory's “Second Person, Present Tense” (# 356), and Elizabeth Bear's “Tideline” (# 377). Looking over the early returns for the twenty-third annual awards, I can see that some of this year's first-timers are in the running. Readers tell me that the discovery of new authors in Asimov's often leads to the authors’ novels and a long-term enjoyment of their fiction.

  Asimov's has primarily been a home for science fiction, but we've also published some fantasy and a smattering of those weird and indefinable stores. Perhaps it is those unclassifiable tales that led Michael Swanwick to make the obvious connection between our latest issue and the Battle of Thermopylae. Michael says, “Ah, the four hundredth issue of Asimov's! It is on this hallowed text that we celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the fabled three hundred—the issue where a mere handful of Spartan writers turned aside the seemingly unstoppable onslaught of Xerxes’ Persian army of conquest. Though faced with more than a million opponents, a small force of genre writers led by King Leonidas held the pass of Thermopylae. This action was one of the most glorious literary events of all history. According to Herodotus, when a representative of the Persians boasted that their arrows would darken the sun, the Dieneces retorted, ‘Then we shall write in the shade!’ “Or maybe that's just Michael being Michael. It is in the shade of Asimov's, though, that writers like Michael have the freedom to follow the associations of their imaginations, and to take us along with them.

  The magazine's longevity seemed to have crept up on the unsuspecting Nancy Kress. She says, “Four hundred issues! I didn't realize it was that many (although she knows that she should have. A story of hers appeared in our fifth issue), but these days, four hundred isn't old. In fact, four hundred is the new two hundred, and Asimov's is just entering its prime, healthy and full of juice. In fact, four hundred may even be the new one hundred....”

  We're hitting our prime with terrific stories and new ideas. While most of you read Asimov's paper editions, sales of our electronic editions are growing. We're doing well at Fictionwise.com and the Kindle editions of Asimov's are selling briskly at Amazon.com. New to our own website, Asimovs.com, is a monthly movie review. Also at our website, you'll find links to podcasts of some of your favorite Asimov's stories. These podcasts are courtesy of Starshipsofa.com, the audio science fiction magazine. I'm sure you'll find lots of exciting new stories and innovations in the six hundred or six thousand issues that lie ahead.

  Copyright © 2009 Sheila Wiliams

  [Back to Table of Contents]

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  Department: REFLECTIONS: REREADING VAN VOGT

  by Robert Silverberg

  Over the last couple of years I've been rereading some of the books that made powerful impressions on me when I was a beginning reader of science fiction, some sixty years ago—books by Robert A. Heinlein, Jack Vance, Olaf Stapledon, Theodore Sturgeon. Now I come to one that left me utterly baffled, but not unfascinated or undelighted, when I first encountered it back then as a high-school sophomore: A.E. van Vogt's The World of Null-A. I was less baffled this time around, but less fascinated and less delighted also.

  It's important to note that I imposed a major handicap on myself the first time I read this perplexing novel. It was serialized in three parts in Astounding Science Fiction, the dominant SF magazine of its era, beginning in the August 1945 issue. I began reading Astounding in 1948, and quickly began buying back issues in second-hand bookstores. It happened that I found the September 1945 issue, containing Part II of the serial, before I found the first part. Because van Vogt's novel was so famous in its day, I couldn't wait to find the opening segment, but began with Part II, which provided a synopsis of the previous installment that I hoped would help me make sense of the second section.

  Reader, it didn't help me at all. Coming in in the middle as I was, I found that the story was the purest gibberish to my adolescent mind. Lively gibberish, yes, but gibberish all the same.

  A couple of months later I found the magazine containing Part I, and read that, and then, soon after, Part III. So I had now read the entirety of this celebrated novel, but I had read the parts out of order. Small wonder that I was perplexed! (I also got Alfred Korzybski's Science and Sanity, the book from which van Vogt had drawn the idea for his novel, from the library. My adolescent mind found it opaque and impenetrable. Later I learned that most older readers have the same reaction.) A year or so later, I acquired the hardcover edition of the novel—Simon & Schuster had published it in 1948, the first time a major New York publisher had reprinted a novel from one of the science fiction magazines—and read it again, this time in proper order. It still didn't make much sense. And now I have read it for the third, and probably final time. This time around it still seemed pretty nonsensical in some ways—but in others, because of van Vogt's revisions of the earlier text along the way, it struck me as not being nonsensical enough. I will endeavor to explain.

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  The World of Null-A was the beneficiary of powerful hype when it first landed on the science fiction audience of 1945. John Campbell, the editor of Astounding and the mightiest figure in the SF world at that time, announced it to his readers with a paragraph describing the arrival of the manuscript at his house while the writers Theodore Sturgeon and George O. Smith were visiting him. “I read the first few paragraphs of that yarn aloud about 11 PM, just before going to bed—so I thought. It's a van Vogt novel. You know van Vogt's trick of putting fishhooks in the first few paragraphs—they go in easily, but you can't back out; you have to go all the way through.... Well and securely hooked, we passed pages down the line. I finished the yarn at about 5 AM, with Sturgeon and Smith a few pages behind.” He would begin serializing the story in the August issue, and, because of the wartime paper shortages, Campbell pointed out, it would be wise for readers to subscribe to the magazine to be certain of getting every installment, rather than taking their chances finding the issues on the newsstand. “I think most of you know me well enough to know I'm not given to extravagant and unmerited advance encomiums. This is one of the super-stories.”

  And a super-story is how it has been regarded over the decades that followed. A reader poll in 1952 rated it the fourteenth greatest SF book of all time. A 1956 poll placed it ninth. A decade later, a similar survey put it in eighteenth place. The Hugo award did not exist in 1945, but when 1945 “retro-Hugo” trophies were voted on fifty years later, The World of Null-A finished second, behind one of Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels. Van Vogt wrote two sequels to it, one in 1948 and another many years later, and in 2008 Tor Books published Null-A Continuum by John C. Wright, yet another sequel written with the permission of van Vogt's estate. It is fair to say that The World of Null-A has had classic status in the SF field virtually from the day of its first publication.

  There was one conspicuous dissent from that evaluation, though—published just weeks after the third installment of the magazine serialization. It was the work of Damon Knight, then a twenty-three-year-old science fiction fan, who would go on to become a major SF writer himself as well as an incisive and important critic of science fiction: a lengthy essay published in the November 1945 issue of Destiny's Child, an amateur SF magazine. Knight's demolition of the van Vogt novel is still in print in a revised version in In Search of Wonder, that invaluable compilation of Knight's critical essays. I am grateful to Greg Pickersgill of Wales, a noted collector of the ephemeral mimeographed magazines of SF fandom, for supplying me with the text of the original 1945 piece.

  “Demolition” is the right word: “Far from being a ‘classic’ by any reasonable standard, World of Null-A is one of the worst allegedly adult scientifiction stories ever published,” Knight wrote. He promised “to prove that assertion by an analysis of the story on
four levels: Plot, Characterization, Background, and Style.” And he devoted thirteen closely packed pages to an onslaught in those four areas, quoting liberally to demonstrate that the plot is “muddled and self-contradictory,” the character portrayals are inconsistent, the background is haphazardly and perfunctorily developed, and the prose itself is “fumbling and insensitive.”

  I began my recent rereading of the book aware, of course, of the book's classic status, of my bewildered reaction to it as a boy, and of Knight's furious essay. I came away agreeing with Knight's attack, and yet finding virtues in this odd book nonetheless.

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  The storyline of The World of Null-A goes something like this:

  In the twenty-first century there appears a mutant superman named Gilbert Gosseyn, whose brain has an extra sector that gives him the power of teleportation, among other things. Gosseyn produces three or more clones of himself (the word “clone” wasn't used in the sense of duplicates in 1945, but that's what van Vogt means) and hides them in various places as potential replacements or continuations of himself. About the same time, Null-A, a “non-Aristotelian” method of multi-valued thinking, is developed, and, because its use produces superior mental capacities, its practitioners come to dominate the Earth and establish a utopian world government. In addition, Venus, which is habitable by humans, is colonized from Earth by elite candidates chosen by a super-computer, the Games Machine.

  The novel takes place in the year 2560, when what van Vogt calls a “gang” of unscrupulous men, some of them agents of a galactic empire, plot to overthrow Null-A, destroy the Games Machine, and conquer both Venus and Earth. As it opens the clone we come to know as Gosseyn I, a Games Machine candidate, discovers that everything he believes about his own identity is false (the paranoid theme that Philip K. Dick would later exploit so successfully). Then he wanders into the clutches of the gang, and several times either escapes them or is inexplicably released by them before he is finally killed, whereupon the Gosseyn II clone awakens on Venus and continues the story. (The fate of Gosseyn III remains unclear.) Eventually, after many an escape and recapture, Gosseyn II and a couple of allies thwart the gangsters and Null-A is saved.