Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine

Issue 26

Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Co-Op (Oct/Nov 2006)
ISSN: 1-4467-81-X
$7.95
Buy this issue
Go back to the Reviews page
Reviewed by Alexandra Pierce, Dec 2006

This was an… interesting issue of ASIM. I have to admit that it is not my favourite issue ever; some stories left me a bit cold, for reasons I’ll elaborate below. Others, though, were fantastic, which made reading it worthwhile. I am reminded that productions like this are intriguing beasts, and highly personal ones at that: I’m sure that some stories I love are so much fluff to others, and vice versa also.

The first cab off the rank in this set is “Marie and the Mathematicians”, by Matthew Kressel. It did not turn out as I expected. Marie is a waitress at a cafe in a university town. She listens to a bunch of mathematicians every day as they expound and argue about esoteric theories and conundrums. She finds that she can actually follow their discussion; it turns out that she has a remarkable head for numbers - and this is finally realised by Dr McGregor, with whom she is by chance in love. Dr McGregor, though, is not the man that Marie thought he was. This is one of the stories that I really enjoyed from this set. Rather than looking at the science behind technological revolution, it looks at the personalities and the manipulation. Frighteningly, I have no doubt that something similar to this exploitation really does sometimes happen….

“Chicken”, by Steve Wylie, was brilliant - and completely bizarre at the same time. On reading his bio, and finding out that he is a virologist, things suddenly made sense. It’s a very short story about a being who sets off on a journey in a blob of mucus, desiring two things: to reproduce… and chicken. She crashes, and then meets some new, interesting friends - with calamitous consequences. I really love the technique of presenting fairly normal situations from totally outrageous perspectives. This one takes the cake - and there’s no way I’m going to give it away.

I really enjoyed “Wildstyle”, by John Bowker, but I am a bit confused about how it got into ASIM. A story about identification, alienation, and graffiti, there are passing references to the magic of tagging, but it doesn’t seem (to me) to fit into the speculative framework Finch discusses in his editorial. Anyway: Rachel feels like she doesn’t fit in and no one notices her, so she decides to make her mark - literally - by going out graffiti-ing. She starts off with a tag made up of I and G - for Invisible Girl. Rescued by Devina Butterfly from a gang of delinquents, she starts to learn the art of making sigils in order to get noticed properly. It involves a lot of growing up, a bit of teenage angst and defiance, and a small amount of tension. It’s a great story, despite not involving much magic or fantastical elements.

“Lucky Tart” is a brilliant name from Tansy Rayner Roberts, and I hope she or someone else uses it again with even more of an eye for innuendo. This isn’t a story so much as a whimsical web spun by someone who clearly loves both food and the fantastic. It tells you how to make a tart that will make you very, very lucky - but also give your enemies power over you. It tells you how to find the ingredients, such as lemons from the end of the world, and incidentally that mermaids lay three different sorts of eggs.

“’Dants”, by Paul Hosek, is a frightening story - not quite dystopian, but verging on it. The title is a word used often in the story, and is short for redundant. This is a world where disassemblers are used to move easily around the world. Of course, sometimes there are malfunctions: like when a person appears at the destination, yet is also present at the origin. One of them - usually the one at the origin - is a ’dant. And something has to be done about them. This is a brief look at what being responsible for this process could do to a person, and what kicking the system might be like a fair way into the future, and the repercussions of that, too. Overall, I enjoyed this story. There aren’t too many characters, and most of them are drawn fairly intensely. There’s also an issue left neatly unresolved at the end, but not in so infuriating a way that it keeps me up at night.

Aspies = Aspergers, Auties = Autistic, in the story “Aspies and Auties and Long-leggedy Beasties”. The author, Alison Venugoban, wrote this just after being diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, and I imagine this was marvellously cathartic as well as providing an insight into the alienation people with Aspergers often feel. It’s the story of the last NT - Neurotypical - left on Earth, and how he feels being surrounded by people he doesn’t understand and who don’t understand him. I think Venugoban captures the feeling of alienation brilliantly, and - having taught kids on the Autism Spectrum - it’s changed my way of considering how they feel about the world, and how I think about them. That’s probably some of the highest praise a story can get, I reckon.

I was not so taken was “The Answer”, by Michael Simon, about a professor who had been investigating the afterlife and a journalist wanting to know why he stopped. The story was a bit predictable and the characters not particularly endearing or interesting. It wasn’t a very original story in general, unfortunately.

In terms of originality, “Obituary Boy” by Adam Browne and John Dixon get many more points, although the ending was a bit predictable (if fascinating nonetheless). Timothy has figured out the mathematics of death - when people will die - by analysing obituaries. What I thought was really good about this story was the inclusion of some of the domestic drama that could surrounds this talent? gift? - it’s something I would like to see a bit more of, actually.

The spookiest story, in many ways, is “And a Song in Her Hair”, by Michael Merriam. I love dryads - always have - so that is one reason for its appeal. As many might know, most relationships of any stripe between mortals and faery creatures is doomed. This one is no different. Henry is a cellist, who learns to play from a dryad. With only two characters, you have time, even in just 10 pages, to get to know the characters well. In a riff on “power corrupts”, this story shows how fame and success can sour even the sweetest and most earnest of people. It is a poignant and rather chilling story.

The rest of this issue of ASIM is taken up by two things. The first is “Old Weird, New Angles: Why Novelty is Overrated” - a short essay on contemporary fantasy by Elizabeth Bear. The second is a review of Troy (by Simon Brown) by Tansy Rayner Roberts, which first appeared here on our very own ASif!.

As I said at the start, this was not my favourite edition of ASIM. It did include some gems, and of course I am looking forward to the next one.

Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Co-Op (Oct/Nov 2006)
ISSN: 1-4467-81-X
$7.95
Buy this issue
Go back to the Reviews page
Reviewed by Adam Bales, Sep 2007

The first thing I thought when I put down this copy of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Entertainment Magazine (ASIM) was that Andrew Finch (this issues editor) and I share a similar taste in fiction. The ASIM team always put together a quality magazine but I particularly enjoyed many of the stories in this one.

The issue kicks off with “Marie and the Mathematicians” by Matthew Kressel. This is the story of Marie, a waitress with a photographic memory. Through observing the writings of a group of mathematicians as they come in for discussions she has gained an intuitive grasp of mathematics. However, Marie is more interested in one of the groups members, Dr. McGregor. When the doctor discovers her talent, Marie is offered her dream man but we are reminded of the phrase, be careful what you wish for. This story is well-written and fresh enough to be enjoyable.

Following this is “Chicken” by Steve Wylie which tells of a strange creature arriving on a new world devoid of chicken, a food she has grown to crave. This short work changes in significance at the end (or earlier, if you figure out what's going on). However, while I can admire the clever idea, I didn't particularly enjoy this story.

Next up is “Wildstyle” by John Bowker. Rachel feels invisible and so turns to graffiti to make herself seen. When a mysterious older girl teaches her the magic behind graffiti she has to learn the limits of power before she stretches too far. With interesting characters and a well-developed plot, this is possibly my favourite story in the book.

Tansy Rayner Roberts's “Lucky Tart” is a recipe for luck. There's a certain rhythm to the piece but I'm not really a fan of these sort of stories and so didn't enjoy it as much as I did many of the other pieces.

”'Dants”, by Paul Hosek, shifts the pace back. In a world where people are disassembled and reassembled, as a form of teleportation, copies of people (dants) resulting from glitches cannot be allowed to survive. So what happens when one of those whose job it is to eliminate dants falls foul of a glitch? This story is well-written and enjoyable. So, if I was you, I'd read it and find out.

Alison Venugoban's “Aspies and Auties and Long-leggedy Beasties” details a day in the life of a neurotypical in a world dominated by people with autism. The story is more a mood story than a plot story but I feel that the atmosphere created is strong enough to justify this. An enjoyable story that might help to give us a glimmering of what it feels like to be autistic in a neurotypical world.

“The Answer”, by Michael Simon, tells the story of a journalist pursuing a professor who has championed the idea of life beyond death but has now mysteriously retired. This story is written well enough and presents characters I could connect with. However, I didn't think it added much to the currently existing body of literature and so was a little disappointed.

The same goes for “Obituary Boy” by Adam Browne and John Dixon, the story of a young boy who discovers he can calculate the day that anyone will die. Once again, the writing here was fine but I felt that the piece was predictable and too similar to other stories.

The final story in the issue is “And a Song in Her Hair” by Michael Merriam. In this, a dryad promises to teach a boy how to play music. However, will her gifts ever be enough for him or will the taste just make him want more? Dark, and in some ways a little cliché, I nevertheless enjoyed this story.

There were two non-fiction articles in the issue. The first is “Old Weird, New Angles” by Elizabeth Bear which presents the idea that the stories that we proclaim to be original are often less so than we believe. Despite this, the conclusion she comes to is a positive one: the stories still display literary development and if we see them without the shackles of needing to see originality then we will understand them better.

The last piece in this issue is Troy by Tansy Rayner Roberts, a review of the book by the same name (but different author). This review is well-written and seems to deal with the book fairly. It serves as a nice closer to the issue.

I find it hard to make an overall comment on my feelings about this issue of ASIM because I feel that the stories within are of two distinct styles. In this issue, I feel that the more serious stories work better than the lighthearted ones, though overall I think the ASIM team has presented a good quality issue.