Vol. 29 No. 6 (#353)
Contents: Novella: The Little Goddess by Ian McDonald - Novelettes: The Edge of Nowhere by James Patrick Kelly Bad Machine by Kage Baker - Short Stories: The Ice-Cream Man by James Van Pelt, Martyr's Carnival by Jay Lake, Rainmakers by Ruth Nestvold - Poetry: Pterogotus by Steven Utley, Sister Light by Holly Phillips, Tycho by David Lunde, Sister Dark by Holly Phillips, How to Tell If It's an Android by Bruce Boston - Departments: Reflections: Mr. Orwell, Meet Mr. Dick and Herr Kafka by Robert Silverberg Thought Experiments: When the Singularity Is No Longer a Literary Device by Cory Doctorow On Books by Peter Heck The SF Conventional Calendar by Erwin S. Strauss

The June 2005 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction is a consistently entertaining one. While none of the stories will make my Hugo list next year, they are all still very good. "The Little Goddess" by Ian McDonald takes us to a place very different than our own, a future Nepal. It starts out with a young girl who, owing to certain signs, is made a Kumari Devi, a goddess, and revered until the day she bleeds (in any way). That is just the beginning of her journey until she arrives at her destination when the true meaning of the title becomes clear. In "The Edge of Nowhere" by James Patrick Kelly, we are taken to a far future after humanity has uploaded itself into an intelligence called the cognisphere. The cognisphere has revived a limited number of people to live in a place called Nowhere. The story involves two people and a manuscript for a new book. "The Bad Machine" by Kage Baker is not a Company story but is a sequel to another story. This is an entertaining tale about a randy young man named Alec Checkerfield and his AI-protector, a pirate called Captain Morgan. "The Ice Cream Man" by James Van Pelt is set in an apocalyptic future where there are no children and humanity must deal with a mutant race. A man named Keegan tries to help by serving up ice cream. Jay Lake contributes his first story for Asimov's with "Martyr's Carnival" about how even misguided religious fanaticism can have remarkable effects. The last story, "Rainmakers" by Ruth Nestvold is about a woman who must at as an ambassador to settle a dispute between Earth and the residents of a planet called Chepanek. She discovers talents that she never knew she had. This issue is definitely worth reading.

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