The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2018

A better than average issue with some fascinating tales by Lisa Mason, Matthew Hughes and J. D. Moyer. Gardner Dozois's story was disappointing because I expected more from the noted former editor of Asimov's Science Fiction. And Dale Bailey's tale of the Victorian Era with a horrifying ritual added was a fascinating read.

• "Widdam" by Vandana Singh: a story of a future where climate change is making parts of the planet hard to live. AI powered 'beasts' roam about digging for resources; if they aren't going rogue. The story, which feels like a fragment of a larger one, revolves around a journalist digging into the background of the creator of the AI beasts.

• "Aurelia" by Lisa Mason: a tale of a lawyer who becomes attracted to his client who asks him to settle some real-estate matters for her; so attracted that he then marries her. Later on, her strange behaviour begins to bother him; behaviour like not eating for days, then gorging herself, or preventing him from seeing her in her mouldy art room on certain days. And it may be tied to strange murders occurring with the victim's blood totally drained. Yes, it sounds like another one of 'those tales' but this one has an interesting and fascinating difference.

• "Neanderthals" by Gardner Dozois: a short piece about two warring groups over time control, which has caused Neanderthals to pop up in our timeline and one person who wants to get rid of them again. A rather 'run-of-the-mill' story coming from a noted writer of Dozois's calibre.

• "Jewel of the Heart" by Matthew Hughes: next in a series of stories on the assistant to a sorcerer. After he collected a powerful helm for the sorcerer (in a previous tale), he is called upon by the helm, who is an intelligent being, for a task: to find a missing part of the helm which hidden away after his creation. The task would require the assistant to call upon all his instincts and wits as he untangles the story he lands in, complete with a giant, murdering beings and a search for a lock and key that all revolves around the number three. Those who are used to playing computer games might recognize a use of that number in relation to computer games.

• "A List of Forty-Nine Lies" by Steven Fisher: a short flash fiction in which a saboteur attempts to start a revolution; but only if he can continue to lie to avoid detection.

• "An Equation of State" by Robert Reed: alien entities enter the Solar System and prepares for a battle with unstated alien enemies. But when the enemy doesn't appear, an alien diplomat gets permission to explore the Earth to see what humans are capable of. What the diplomat sees during its exploration, and does on Earth, would have an effect on the development of humanity and on the fate of the alien entities when they eventually descent on Earth to retrieve him.

• "Galatea in Utopia" by Nick Wolven: in a future where body shapes and outward sexual appearance can be changed at will, one 'guy' (XY chromosomes) takes on the appearance of a sexually attractive girl and at a bar bumps into the unexpected: a man who, due to his genetic makeup and allergies, is unable to change his appearance. Sparks fly and they become sexual partners. But then things go sour and unusual when he learns that the unchanging partner has been involved into relationships with other people and not in a good way.

• "Plumage from Pegasus: Toy Sorry" by Paul Di Filippo: a fun, short piece about a future when tiny narrators, recreated from the image and personalities of the authors, are created to give life to new multimedia books. But what happens when the narrators are inevitably stored away and forgotten by their readers?

• "The Equationist" by J. D. Moyer: a fascinating piece on the life of a man who, from young, sees the lives of the people around his as a series of curves and equations. As he grows up and progresses mathematically, he begins to see more mathematical patterns and attempts to change the lives of the people around him by 'changing' their equations. But in the end, it is only by changing his own equation of life will he find happiness.

• "A Feather in Her Cap" by Mary Robinette Kowal: a short, interesting story that a lady who makes hats who moonlight as an assassin in secret. But after her latest kill, she is denied payment by the person who hired her and who also hints that he knows her identity. She plots to get her payment and revenge with the help of a master thief. But the interesting part of the story will turn out to be her motive for being a killer-for-hire.

• "The Donner Party" by Dale Bailey: a deliciously horrifying (pun intended) tale set in Victorian times that involves a yearly ritual dinner of human meat. One up-and-rising lady is invited to dinner and gets accepted into 'higher' society. Then, she makes a terrible social mistake and is made an outcast. When after some struggles she is re-accepted with some backroom negotiations, the price of re-acceptance becomes known, making the reader think about just what people are willing to do for social acceptance.