Sean McMullen's "The Firewall and the Door" (novelette, star travel)

This is a story with a lot of classic tropes but with a simple message: "Give people wonders, & they'll sit back, open a beer, & watch. If you want them to get up & do something, you must give them mysteries."

Story summary.

An unmanned human starship was sent out to flyby Alpha Centauri system, change direction using gravity of one of its stars, & then go on to Gliese 581. This in a world that considers anything without obvious payoff as waste, so the project had major opposition.

Now, many decades later, the ship has reached the Alpha system, but things don't seem to be going as planned. There seems to be actual sabotage to the project...

Notes.

"Firewall" of title is the name of the "shield" of the starship. "The door" is a metaphor: the man who's not capable enough to do great deeds himself, but performs a great service by opening & keeping open the door for others who're capable.

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, March 2013.
Rating: B.Related: Stories of Sean McMullen.

"Analog Science Fiction and Fact", March 2013 (ed Stanley Schmidt) (magazine): Annotated table of contents & review

This is the last Analog issue edited by Stanley Schmidt - the longest serving editor of the magazine whose 34 year stint is longer than even John Campbell's, according to his editorial. Effective next month, the current Managing Editor, Trevor Quachri, becomes the editor.

Links on author fetch more works of author. For read stories, my rating appears in brackets. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there.

Table of contents (best first).

1. [ss] Harry Turtledove's "It's the End of the World As We Know It, And we Feel Fine" (A): Dog is to man as man is to...
2. [ss] Bud Sparhawk's "The Snack" (A); humor: App assisted healthy living...
3. [ss] Don D'Ammassa's "Pre-Pirates" (A); satire: Who's the loser & who's the winner if a preview of a work of fiction becomes available at a website ("prepubs.com") before the author has written it? Who owns rights to it?
   
   Old well hashed idea of simple casualty violation dating back to at least Asimov, but still quite a readable piece.
4. [novelette] Sean McMullen's "The Firewall & the Door" (B): Making a reluctant humanity go star exploring...
5. [novelette] Bond Elam's "Instinctive Response" (B): Two human superhero space scouts find a world with local aliens dying of an incurable disease. They'll help find a cure, & in the process learn something about human origins...
   
   Very classic style story with a lot of technobabble about DNA & cell dynamics. Cannot say I liked the story, but it was a fast easy read.
6. [ss] Andrew Barton's "The Paragaon of the Animals" (B): On  an alien world, a human women is working towards saving local low-tech sentients from human slavery.
7. [novelette] Marissa Lingen's "The Radioactive Etiquette Book" (B): A diplomat needs to deal with aliens with vary different value systems...
8. [ss] Barry Malzberg & Bill Pronzini's "High Concept" (B): "Harmless" & helpful aliens have arrived on earth, & after a few initial protests, people have become used to having them all over. That's when an author has idea for a novel where the plot has savage war involving these aliens. And will pay a heavy price for having thought such a demeaning idea...

Fact sheet.

Labeled: "No CXXXIII No 3".
Related: Stories from Analog/Astounding (whole issues only).

Sean McMullen's "Eight Miles" (novelette, free): Helping a Martian(?) warrior stranded on earth!

While there is not much new about the plot, I liked it for reasons I cannot explain - perhaps simply because it's a fast moving story that doesn't bore?

Story is set in 19th century London.

Story summary.

There are 3 main characters:

1. Angelica: A "deformed" "human" from "perhaps" a very high altitude unexplored place in Himalayas. She was on display as a freak in a circus from which Lord Gainsley purchased her.
2. Lord Cedric Gainsley: A very wealthy & ruthless individual who's learned a great secret about Angelica.
3. Harold Parkes: Narrator of the story. A balloonist hired by Gainsley to build machines that can ascent to unbelievable heights - heights where Angelica will be comfortable.

Parks will learn the intrigues of Gainsley, foil them, & hopes to have unbelievable adventures.

See also.

1. A E van Vogt's "Cataaa" (download): Intelligent alien exhibited as a freak in a human circus.
2. Eric Frank Russell & Maurice Hugi 's "Mechanical Mice": A man has found a way to tap the minds of those far more technologically advanced, so he can built their machines even if he doesn't understand first thing about those machines.

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, September 2010.
Download full text from author's site.
Rating: A.
Nominated for Hugo Award 2010 in novelette category.

Sean McMullen's "The Precedent" (novelette, environmental dystopia, free): "Victims" of global warming witch-hunt its culprits

It's an easy read, but is very dark. Modeled after any number of class-persecutions in history.

Story summary.

In the year 2035, the world has turned green, everyone born before 2000 is automatically a "climate criminal", those born after the tipping year are the "victims" & current rulers. To keep their conscience clear, the current rulers don't summarily execute the older folk; they instead hold monkey courts that sentence most to death with trials sometimes lasting just a minute.

This story is narrated by Dr Jason Hall, an 80 year old climatologist facing such a court. Through his eyes, we will see the horror of concentration camps. He will be the first individual pardoned by such a court, but will discover that this is not a happy outcome...

Fact sheet.

First published: F&SF, July/August 2010.
Download full text from Suvudu.
Caution: Recent F&SF fiction tends to be online only for a couple of months. Save it to a local file if you want to read it later.
Rating: B.