Analog Science Fiction and Fact - January/February 2018

As 2018 looms, we put a year of quality fiction behind us, while another year of stellar stories awaits ahead. So let’s get to it, shall we?

We kick off with a little bit of an experiment in our new format: a serial. Belisarius is a Homo quantus, a breed of enhanced human capable of interacting with quantum states in a way the rest of us baselines are not. But he’s been lying low, putting his gifts to use as a gambler and con man, and when someone offers him a job so big and complex that he’s the only one who might be able to pull it off, even Bel can’t be sure if is everything is what it seems. You can find some clues in the first installment of “The Quantum Magician,” by Derek Künsken.

Our fact article is “Hell is Other Planets,” from Julie Novakova. It’s a close look at how our conceptions of Venus over the years have matched up to the reality.

Then we check in on Daiken, Adam-Troy Castro’s hyper-lethal retired black-operative. He’s traveling with an equally dangerous companion, but as their search for their former masters brings them ever closer to finding those who once controlled them, the risks grow ever closer as well, and they cannot be held at bay forever. You’ll be shocked by “Blurred Lives.”

We’ll also have an installment of Michael F. Flynn’s ongoing series, in “The Journeyman: Through Madness Gap,” as well as stories by David Gerrold, Alan Dean Foster, Ian Watson, Holly Schofield, Mary Turzillo, Eric Cline, Jeremiah Tolbert, Marissa Lingen, Andrew Barton, and Paul Carlson, as well as all our regular columns.