Uploaded October 16, 1996 -- Updated October 18, 1996
Here is the list of stories in this issue. If you have any comments or reviews, send them to jbailey@sff.net. Please indicate which issue and/or story you're referring to in the subject line, and try to keep comments for different stories separate in you letters so I can place them properly.
"Yesterdays" by Mary Rosenblum
[10/16/96]
"The First Law of Thermodynamics" by James
Patrick Kelly
"The Angels' Share" by Sonia Orin Lyris
"The Tragedy of Solveig" by Ian Watson
"In Coppelius's Toyshop" by Connie Willis
"Whoever" by Kit Reed
"Gifts" by S.N. Dyer
Miscellaneous Comments (on the magazine as a whole, editorials, columns, etc.)
Rich Horton: 10/16/96
Mary Rosenblum is an author of obvious talent who for some reason rarely connects with me. However this story did. It features a fairly standard near future, and a lead character who searches out non-digital records of famous people (analog videotapes, for instance), to sell as authentic historical "documents". Digital records are no good because they are so easily faked. The implication is that fewer and fewer records of our past are trustworthy (databases can be hacked, digital pictures altered, and so on), so that these authentic records are more and more important. This is brought home to him when a woman claiming to be his sister (whom he never met, didn't know existed) approaches him. He is unable to trust any documentation, and his own memories prove unreliable as well. The future of the story is routine, and the central argument maybe a little forced, but the theme is poignant and well-brought out, and the resolution is moving and honest.
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