Asimov’s Science Fiction: January 2011

–published by Dell Magazines
–112 pages
–4/5 stars

The magazine industry has always baffled me. It is the second week in November, and I spent the day reading the January 2011 issue of Asimov’s. The February issue hits newsstands on December 21st. I am sure there is a reason for this, though it may be an oxymoron to call it a logical reason. Magazine time travel aside, my reason for purchasing this issue boiled down to three words: “Kristine Kathryn Rusch”. And those three words did not disappoint. However, let us take things in an orderly manner. Rusch’s novella, Killer Advice, closed this issue, so we will come back to it later.

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The Currents of Space ~Isaac Asimov

–published 1952, first Tor trade edition, 2010
–Tor Books
–238 pages
–4.25/5 stars

In a region of space not-yet entirely swallowed by galactic empire, the independent world of Sark holds dominion over the planet Florina, whose peasant class citizenry work the fields of kryt, a cellulose-based fiber craved all over the universe. When a lone spatio-analyst arrives feverishly predicted the planet’s destruction, his mind is wiped clean and he is found later by members of the laboring class, naked and enfeebled on the side of a road. This stranger, thereafter named Rik, is taken in by a peasant woman, Valona March, who nurses him back to health and finds work for him in the mill. After a year of child-like existence, Rik suddenly begins to recover snatches of memory. He knows what he used to be, and he knows that they are all in great danger.

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