Galaxy’s Edge Issue 43, March 2020

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Rating: 4/5

A nice, average issue with fun stories by Andrew Peery, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Larry Hodges, J. Scott Coatsworth, Eleanor R. Wood, Janis Ian and Mike Resnick. Between the stories are appreciations by numerous writers about Mike Resnick’s influence on themselves and the SF community.

• “Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine” by Gerri Leen: it’s the end of the world and for two people who knew each other for a long time and then separated, it was time to get together again and enjoy each others company one last time.
• “Thank You For Your Service” by Andrew Peery: people line up to send their loved ones through an alien machine that can cure them of illness. But not everyone makes it through. And for two of them, the journey would end in both happiness and sadness.
• “Petra And The Blue Goo” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch: a librarian at the front desk has to deal with numerous aliens who enter her library for a scavenger hunt. But it all goes wrong when the aliens say they want her books, while she will do whatever she can to stop them from doing so, despite all the blue goo and other nasty things they may do to her books.
• “The Opposite Of Ghosts” by Morgan Welch: an investigator enters a ship that disappeared for days but appears to have been lost of centuries. There’s she discovers a man who is no longer a man, having lived for centuries but who now escapes. And it is her job to hunt him down, using (or by not using) her special talents to see humans by their ethereal form.
• “Biding Time” by Robert J. Sawyer: a murder is committed on Mars. The method is clear (incineration by a rocket blast) but the motivation would only be clear at the end although, like any proper detective story, it would be clear to the reader by the time the suspect is revealed.
• “Blood Wars” by Larry Hodges: a humorous tale of a time when vampires rule the world and human are little more than blood-providing stock. Real Vampire corporations strive to get their blood-based products on the market and be a hit to consumers. But when the original Dracula gets fed up with rival companies eating into his business, it may need some quick thinking by subordinates to figure out what to do.
• “The Starry Night” by Eric Leif Davin: a fictional tale about a certain painter who paints a certain starry night sky.
• “The Altar” by Eric S. Fomley: a wealthy family in the countryside needs an altar built before tomorrow. But then the builder discovers the reason behind the altar and has to decide whether he should save the family against their wishes; and possibly doom the world.
• “Cadmus P.I.” by Philip Brian Hall: a retelling of the founding of Thebes in Greece from the point-of-view of a Greek Private Investigator.
• “Complete Sentence” by Joe Haldeman: a man is sentenced to a hundred year of virtual prison time, equivalent to a physical day. But his lawyer has to race against time to get him out when his appeal is approved. But the question becomes whether he now want to be free.
• “I Am Salvador” by George Nikolopoulos: a short short about Salvador Dali, his older brother who died young and a fantastical reason for the origins of his surrealist paintings.
• “Eventide” by J. Scott Coatsworth: a man wakes up in an unexpected place, speaking to a woman who turns out to be not human. As they talk, we learn about their past and what may be in store for his future.
• “Lux Nocturna” by Eleanor R. Wood: a horrifying scream echoes through the house every hour but its owner, a piano teacher, does not know why; not until a certain night when a battle between music and a beast must take place.
• “His Sweat Like Stars On The Rio Grande” by Janis Ian: a story of a America that has build a Wall to isolate itself. Within it, a community of labourers work to harvest the food. But times become hard as their birthrate drops and the solution would be one of less free will and more effort.
• “Gods Playing Poker” by Alex Shvartsman: periodically, the top gods come together to play a game of skill and chance and to regale each other with tales of their tricks played on humanity. But the greatest trickster god is never present, never mentioned for he does not exist and even considered a myth by the other gods; or is he?
• “Distant Replay” by Mike Resnick: an entertaining story of an old man who meets with a younger girl who looks and acts much like his wife, who passed away several years ago. As they meet and talk about the strange coincidences, he learns that she isn’t happy with her current relationship and can’t decide whether to end it or end up in a loveless marriage. The answer would make the old man do one last effort to ensure her happiness before his impending death.

Magazine read from 2020/05/28 to 2020/06/06