Asimov's SF, January 2007 Read online

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  Asimov's SF, January 2007

  by Dell Magazine Authors

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  Science Fiction

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  Dell Magazines

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  Copyright ©2007 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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  Asimov's Science Fiction

  January 2007

  Vol. 31 No. 1 (Whole Number 372)

  Cover Art by Michael Whelan

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  NOVELETTES

  Safeguard by Nancy Kress

  The Hikikomori's Cartoon Kimono by A.R. Morlan

  Trunk and Disorderly by Charles Stross

  SHORT STORIES

  Poison by Bruce McAllister

  Café Culture by Jack Dann

  Battlefield by Games R. Neube

  Gunfight at the Sugarloaf Pet Food & Taxidermy by Jeff Carlson

  POETRY

  The Wings of Icarus by John Morressy

  Place Mat by Moebius by Greg Beatty

  In the Light Room by John Garrison

  Paradise by Tom Disch

  DEPARTMENTS

  Editorial: Anniversaries by Sheila Williams

  Reflections: Farming by Robert Silverberg

  On the Net: Secrets of the Webmasters (Part Two) by James Patrick Kelly

  Science Fiction Sudoku by James Goreham

  On Books by Paul Di Filippo

  2006 Index

  Twenty-First Annual Readers’ Award

  The SF Conventional Calendar by Erwin S. Strauss

  Asimov's Science Fiction. ISSN 1065-2698. Vol. 31, No.1. Whole No. 372, January 2007. 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. © 2006 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. 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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  Click a Link for Easy Navigation

  CONTENTS

  EDITORIAL: ANNIVERSARIES by Sheila Williams

  REFLECTIONS: FARMING by Robert Silverberg

  On the Net: Secrets of the Webmasters (Part Two) by James Patrick Kelly

  SAFEGUARD by Nancy Kress

  POISON by Bruce McAllister

  CAFÉ CULTURE by Jack Dann

  THE WINGS OF ICARUS by John Morressy

  The Hikikomori's Cartoon Kimono by A.R. Morlan

  BATTLEFIELD GAMES by R. Neube

  PLACE MAT BY MOEBIUS by Greg Beatty

  GUNFIGHT AT THE SUGARLOAF PET FOOD & TAXIDERMY by Jeff Carlson

  TRUNK AND DISORDERLY by Charles Stross

  IN THE LIGHT ROOM by John Garrison

  SCIENCE FICTION SUDOKU

  ON BOOKS by Paul Di Filippo

  PARADISE by Tom Disch

  TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL READERS’ AWARD

  SF CONVENTINAL CALENDAR

  SCIENCE FICTION SUDOKU SOLUTION

  NEXT ISSUE

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  Asimov's Science Fiction

  Isaac Asimov: Editorial Director (1977-1992)

  Sheila Williams: 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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  EDITORIAL: ANNIVERSARIES

  by Sheila Williams

  With this issue, Asimov's enters its thirtieth year of publication. We intend to celebrate this event throughout the year. Every 2007 issue will carry a banner proclaiming our milestone. Naturally, we are a long way from knowing all the stories that will be published in 2007, but we have some terrific material on hand. With stories by writers like Nancy Kress, Charles Stross, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Jim Grimsley, Brian Stableford, Tom Purdom, Robert Reed, Mary Rosenblum, and Neal Asher, and stories promised from Lucius Shepard, Ian McDonald, James Patrick Kelly, and Connie Willis, every issue in 2007 will be a special one.

  An anthology commemorating the anniversary will be released by Tachyon Publications in the summer. This book is a representative sampling of the stories that have appeared in Asimov's over the past thirty years. It will include a cover by Michael Whelan, and work by Isaac Asimov, Octavia Butler, Bruce Sterling, Ursula K. Le Guin, and many, many others. While poring through hundreds of issues and thousands of stories to determine the table of contents, I was once again awed by the hours of enjoyment and the quality of the work this magazine has provided. Alas, an anthology is finite. We will omit a far greater number of worthy stories than we will reprint, but the book will provide you with a chance to sample, or to reacquaint yourself with, the magazine's history.

  This summer will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of my own professi
onal association with this remarkable magazine. I helped finish up the production of the November 1982 issue (volume 6, whole number 58—the issue that contained David Brin's riveting novella, “The Postman"), and I've been celebrating Asimov's anniversaries ever since. Our tenth anniversary issue (volume 11, whole number 116) included Pat Murphy's Nebula-Award-winning novelette “Rachel in Love.” To commemorate the anniversary, I participated in a talk with Isaac Asimov at New York City's packed West Side YMCA. Five years later, the cover blurb read “Spectacular 15th Anniversary Double Issue” Also identified as volume 16, whole numbers 184/185, it included Isaac's Foundation novella, “Cleon the Emperor.” The story tied with Lucius Shepard's “Barnacle Bill the Spacer” for the magazine's Readers’ Award. Although Isaac died that year, it was his fond wish that the magazine continue after him. I'm sure he would be delighted to find, fifteen years later, that Asimov's still holds a central position in the field.

  Of course, we plan to continue making history, too. April/May 2007 (volume 31, whole numbers 375/376) will be our official anniversary issue. Although its final content is undecided, the current line-up includes stories by Robert Silverberg, Jack McDevitt, Karen Joy Fowler, Mike Resnick, Michael Swanwick, and Gene Wolfe, as well as a new Coyote tale by Allen M. Steele. We've also been busy finding new writers and publishing the works of those who are just beginning to forge their reputations. In addition to a feature by the magazine's four previous editors and a personal reflection about the magazine by Robert Silverberg, the issue should include a number of other nonfiction surprises. An ideal piece for April/May would be a letters column by you, our readers—both long-term and brand new—consisting of reflections of your own. To make the deadline for that issue, please be sure to put your thoughts about your association with the magazine down on paper or email as soon as possible. See the box on page 11 for information on where to send these letters.

  Like you, I'm looking forward to celebrating many more anniversaries with the magazine. I can't wait to see what jewels the five hundredth issue will bring, what classic will be published in the fortieth anniversary year, and onward. I'll look forward to hearing your comments about the stories published now and in the years ahead as well.

  A word about the cover: Our current issue is the third January in consecutive years to carry stock art by Michael Whelan. It's also the first time that a piece of cover art has been chosen to illustrate a poem. I was familiar with Michael's lovely painting, “L'Echelle,” when John Morressy submitted his poem, “The Wings of Icarus,” to the magazine, and I knew the two works would go together perfectly. John's short stories were published in Asimov's in 1979 and 1983, but he is probably most strongly associated with his numerous tales about the Wizard Kedrigern that have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction over the years.

  I first met John and his wife Barbara at a small convention in New Hampshire in 1984. They were warm and gracious, and immediately put a terribly shy assistant editor at ease. My poetry inventory was rather bountiful when John's poem showed up in my office so I took my time about getting a contract out to him. A gentle nudge came on March 8, 2006. I apologized for the delay, and told him that I hoped to match the poem with a Michael Whelan cover. On March 9, he replied, “The possibility of a Whelan cover for my little poem will give me the patience of Prometheus.” On March 20, 2006, John died suddenly of a heart attack. Barbara Morressy patiently shepherded the poem through the contract and production process, and I want to thank her for making its publication a reality.

  Copyright © 2006 Sheila Williams

  [Back to Table of Contents]

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  REFLECTIONS: FARMING

  by Robert Silverberg

  I'm a science fiction sort of guy. I've written some fantasy, and edited some fantasy anthologies, but I don't really read very much of it, and, when I do it, what I reach for tends to be something of the sly, somewhat tongue-in-cheek sort that John W. Campbell, Jr. used to publish in his classic magazine of long ago, Unknown Worlds, or one of E.R. Eddison's heroic Norse-derived epics, rather than one of the multivolume sagas about Finding the Rightful Prince who will wield the Wand of Power (or Sword, or Ring), against the Dark Lord in the Great Apocalyptic Battle of Good against Evil. The Prince/Wand/ Dark Lord saga is okay now and then, I suppose, and some of the big modern fantasy sagas are pretty gorgeous stuff—I think in particular of George R.R. Martin's superb Song of Ice and Fire novels—but for me a little of that goes quite a long way.

  I don't play computer games, either. Don't know a thing about them, in fact. Some of my aversion to them is simply a generational thing, an unwillingness to spend time in front of a computer screen for anything but doing my work and getting my e-mail and looking things up on the Internet. But also I suspect that a lot of the computer games are just more Defeat the Dark Lord stuff, full of elves and wizards and dragons and spells, and there are other things I'd rather do in the remaining years of my finite life span than wage computerized warfare against the Powers of Abysmal Evil. My loss, perhaps, but so be it. I don't do crossword puzzles, either, or bungee jumping, or rock-climbing, because, though I know such activities afford great delight to many people, my a priori hunch is that there isn't much in them for me.

  This combination of my lack of interest in formula Evil Wizard fantasy and my sense that most computer games draw upon those very formulas has kept me from learning anything much about them. The other day, though, I saw a story in the New York Times about computer games that not only drew my attention to the computer-game milieu but, well, opened gateways into new realms of wonder for me. Not that the piece awakened any desire in me to start playing the games myself—far from it. But what I learned about the world of game-playing was so surprising in its perversity that it provided me with a little chill of sociological awe, the tingle of excitement that comes from peering into an alien world.

  The idea behind most and perhaps all computer games, apparently, is that the successful player acquires “wealth” as he plays, in the form of some sort of virtual “money” that is legal tender only in the world of that game, and uses that “wealth” to purchase more and more power in that fantasy world, until at last he can slay dragons with a flick of his eyebrow, or, maybe, leap tall buildings at a single bound. This is the same general idea that is found in such archaic games as Monopoly, where by means of successful rolls of the dice you gradually acquire real estate in Atlantic City and become a tycoon by making your fellow players pay rent on it to you. The chief difference (and bear with me if I'm getting some of this wrong) is that the Monopoly tycoon is trying to acquire such properties as Marvin Gardens and Boardwalk, and the computer-game aficionado seeks possession of the most potent magical spells, swords, talismans, and wands.

  As I recall from my Monopoly games of sixty years ago, there's no way to get possession of the major properties except by rolling the dice and following the rules. But, to my amazement, I learn from the Times not only that it's possible to use illicit means to become a big deal in the world of your computer game but that a whole industry has sprung up in China that is geared to making actual real-world money by selling virtual merchandise to computer-game cheaters who want to get to the top of their fantasy universe the quick way.

  The way you cheat at the games, I'm told, is to go to one of the many websites specializing in this kind of operation—"farming,” it's called—and simply buy, for very real money charged against your credit card, a belt of invulnerability or an enchanted sword or a stipulated quantity of magical gold or virtual warriors or whatever commodity it is that will allow you to ascend to higher levels of power in the game of your choice. Doing this is supposedly prohibited by the terms of use of most of the games, but that doesn't seem to matter much. Thus a Times reporter who in real life plays a game called “World of Warcraft” received an unsolicited e-message from a certain Hasfdlf, inviting him to go to a website where for $9.99 he could buy one hundred virtual gold coins that are legal tender in the
“Warcraft” universe, with discounts available to quantity buyers—$76.99 would get one thousand of the coins, for example.

  Anybody with more cash than scruples could thus rise instantly to a level of great might in “Warcraft” without having to bother to win those gold coins by clicking away at his computer in the dreary old-fashioned way. For instance, it can take six hundred hours or more of playing to reach Level Sixty, the highest power plateau of “World of Warcraft.” The entry-level player is capable only of killing piddling little creatures, it seems—the fantasy equivalents of mice or gerbils—and if he kills enough of those he can buy the ability to slaughter trolls or kobolds, and eventually, having pocketed the treasure of his victims and invested it in ever more puissant magical equipment, he finds himself up there on Level Sixty where one can lay waste to whole legions of fire-breathing demons or great tail-lashing dragons or what have you.

  I find all this quite astonishing. It seems to me—stodgy non-player that I am—that the whole point of the game, if there is one, is to hone one's skill through level after level until one has the great satisfaction of reaching maximum power. Thus one demonstrates, at least to oneself, that one has the sort of superior mental powers that a true Cosmomagus of the Vasty Deep ought to have. Great virtual effort brings great virtual rewards, as should always be the case in any kind of endeavor. But no, no: a lot of the players are impatient, it appears, and they go to some anonymous on-line “farmer” and buy his accumulated tokens of power and thereby get a fast-track ascent to big-time wizardry without having to exert themselves at all.

  Who are these “farmers” who deal in wizard-gold?

  They operate out of China, mainly. Game-farming is big business there. Chinese entrepreneurs have established game-playing factories, hundreds or maybe thousands of them, in which platoons of grim-faced young men earn their livings as full-time gamers, putting in twelve hours a day waging electronic warfare in imaginary kingdoms or distant galaxies. These expert players, as they skillfully annihilate the ogres and basilisks that they confront, pile up huge treasuries of the game-world's virtual currency—which their employers then sell to foreign geeks eager for an easy ride to the upper levels of their game.