MY RATING:

The April 2008 issue of Jim Baen's Universe (Issue #12, also known as Volume 2, Number 6) closes out their second year of publication with 12 pieces of short fiction and a handful of articles. Eleven of those stories are reviewed below. I did not partake of "Fish Story," a serial that is now in its twelfth part, but the stories I did read made for another good issue. Particular standouts in this issue are "Manumission" by Tobias S. Buckell and "Honorable Enemies" by Mike Resnick. Both stories take place in worlds I've visited before, and it was fun to return to them again.

Before I get to the reviews, a few words about the magazine itself. I've been reading this bi-monthly magazine for the past year, missing only one of those issues due to time constraints. On the whole, it's been a very positive experience. Being electronic, I can access it from anywhere. The multiple formats make it easy to read on a PC or handheld device. The caliber of talent they get is consistently impressive making each magazine worthy of the price of admission. They also showcase new talent besides seasoned authors making it an attractive venue for writers in any stage of their careers. They also offer a decent mix of science fiction and fantasy and, although the fantasy stories are less suited to my particular sf-leaning tastes, I must admit that some of them impressed me quite a bit. The worst thing I can say about Jim Baen's Universe is that the artwork is a bit amateur for a professionally published magazine. One could successfully argue that their budget is being spent on high-quality fiction instead of the visuals and that the magazine is better for it. You'll get no argument from me. If I had to choose, I'll choose the better fiction every time.

Speaking of which, individual story/article reviews follow...

"Manumission" by Tobias S. Buckell follows the story of Pepper, a mysterious operative who is indentured to a powerful Earth corporation. Pepper's assignments deal with recapturing corporate runaways, at least until he can earn enough money to buy back his freedom and the memories that the corporation stole from him. His latest assignment, a woman who is close to leaving Earth on the next shuttle, is a high-profile case that will change his life. Buckell's presentation is that of a gripping, high-tech spy story complete with gadgets and double-crosses. It serves up some nice action, too. Readers of Buckell's novels (Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin) will find an extra level of enjoyment here (I know I did) since Pepper is featured prominently in those longer works. It was great getting some of Pepper's back story, but thanks to his memory loss, he still remains a mystery. More, please.

Jody Lynn Nye's story "Virtually, A Cat" is about a cat-lover on a long mission in space who misses his cats terribly. (Apparently, it was a surprise to him that pets are not allowed on space flights. Not the brightest astronauts, are they?) He starts getting a little stir crazy, so his colleague devises a programmable suit through which he can feel the presence of a virtual cat, albeit one he cannot see. This works great for him until the mission calls for all available computer memory and his newfound pet, who lives in the computer, is in danger. Ho hum. Though well written in terms of clarity, this unfortunately reads like nothing more than a human interest story.

Jack McDevitt's short story "Indomitable" follows a boy and his father as they tour a space museum in a future Calgary. Sadly, there is little story here, only the germ of one - and that is that mankind has found enough new worlds on which to spread so as to make space travel unnecessary. This is an interesting idea, to be sure, but not explored to any significant length to be taken seriously.

Mike Resnick's hardboiled detective Jake Masters is back in "Honorable Enemies". Masters was last seen in "Guardian Angel" (from Down These Dark Spaceways) and "A Locked-Planet Mystery" (from Alien Crimes), and this story is just as wonderful. Here, Masters is looking for the person - or alien - that killed his partner. He has few clues, but his believable, deductive reasoning leads him where he needs to go. As before, the story is loaded with aliens aplenty and the characters in general run from honorable to shady. The alien crime lord ("George" for short) is interesting in that he upholds honor before all else. The noir setting is pitch-perfect (as are the tone and dialogue) and the mystery is sound. I would have loved to see Masters resolve the situation more directly, rather than others acting on the information he provided them, but when all is said and done, this story was a joy to read.

Sarah A. Hoyt's "Scraps of Fog" is a mild, modern-day fantasy about Sandra, a woman with an imperfect life. She's engaged to a man she doesn't quite love; she works as a police officer in a station with overprotective coworkers; and her family has died off or been scattered to the four corners of the Earth. Sarah meets a man claiming to be the long-dead King Sebastian who, according to legend, would return on a white horse to "mend all wrongs and set every maiden free." While there's never any question that Sebastian, who comes into Sarah's life as a police assignment, will set his sights on healing Sandra's pain in this otherwise uneventful story, Hoyt's writing style is engaging and shows clear talent.

"The Witch of Waxahachie" is a quick-moving parallel world story by Lou Antonelli. A group of Texans accidentally open a portal to a parallel world that fostered magic instead of technology around the time of the Industrial Revolution. There's not much more than that basic plot nor does there need to be. Well, maybe more characterization would have been welcome. In the end, the story makes for an interesting sf/fantasy hybrid that nicely avoids my usual indifference towards fantasy and makes for a fun read.

"Knight of Coins" by Margaret Ronald follows supernatural detective Genevieve Scelan on her latest case: to search for a trio of ancient tarot cards (one of which is the Knight of Coins) that could have disastrous effects for her client, Mr. Sforza. Genevieve's main sleuthing consists of a keen sense of smell which she uses to sniff out the trail of the missing cards. No, really. When considered as a pure detective story, that keen sense of smell comes off as a crutch for real detective work. The mystery and background of the cards is decent, but there is perhaps a bit too much unexplained magic here to suit my particular taste.

Jack Williamson's classic 1934 novella, "Born of the Sun," is an end-of-the-world story that is, contradictorily, set on a small stage. The cast of main characters consists of 3 people: scientist Foster Ross, who is on the verge of creating (singlehandedly) a rocket engine; his fiancée June Trevor; and Foster's scientist uncle, Barron Kane, who brings word of the end of the world. Kane has been living among a fanatical religious secret sect known as the Cult of the Great Egg, led by the powerful L'ao Ku. Kane's conjecture about the true nature of the Earth is verified by the cult, so he escapes to warn his nephew, Foster, of the approaching apocalypse. Foster's experiments with his cutting edge "motor-tube" may be the only salvation for humankind. And as if that weren't enough, L'ao Ku has sent men to kill the heretics who do not willingly accept the destiny of their twisted faith. Being written in a pre-spaceflight 1934, undoubtedly some will find the science here to be way off base. To me, this is the charm of classic science fiction: to see how people of the past envisioned the future. And this story has all the charm of a classic read. It's got the cataclysmic demise of the planet, a lone hero who could save the day, an outside force trying to stop them, and - above all else - a central science fictional idea that about the nature of the solar system that is pure wonder. This is the stuff that classic science fiction is made of.

Edward M. Lerner's time-travel serial, "Countdown to Armageddon," now up to episode 4, sees our time-misplaced heroes (scientist Harry Bowen and ex-Interpol agent Terrence Ambling) captured by the terrorist from their own time, Abdul Faisel. Faisel has traveled back to 720 A.D. to change the outcome of the Battle of Tours so the Islamic forces emerge victorious over the Christians. Here we get to see a little bit of Faisel's evilness in action. I still like this serial - it moves quickly, is entertaining, doesn't take itself too seriously and is written with a sure hand. (It would be helpful, I think, if each episode was prefaced with a short summary of all that has come before. I have my reviews to look back to; how do other readers keep track of what's happening between issues?)

Lucy Bond's "Red Tape and Cold Iron, or A Proposal for the Reintroduction of the Faery Folk to the United Kingdom" offers exactly what the title advertises: a matter-of-fact recounting of how a folklorist, working under the auspices of a rather-not-know politician, undertook her own agenda to rid the world of slackers and miscreants by policing England with faery folk. It's a light take on an interesting premise, and Bond's prose, lacking any dialog, certainly reads like a proposal - albeit one that is more fun to read.

The plot for R. J. Ortega's "Extreme Reservations" is relatively simplistic, but nonetheless fun. A couple inherits a riverboat bar that's in financial trouble and they look hopefully forward to an upcoming soirée only to discover that the guests are living, breathing characters from legend and fiction. The fun here is in trying to surmise the guest list from their short descriptions. I didn't get them all (and was thankful for the Flying Dutchman freebie), but it was fun trying to guess.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday June 10, 2008 at 12:33 PM
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