New year, new stories! We start 2021 with a look at an unusual living arrangement creating stresses on a relationship in “Mixed Marriage” by Dan Helms; then we have a hardboiled slice of fiction in which a protagonist with “a certain set of skills” sets out to discover who murdered a friend and mentor, even when doing so seems to run counter to “The Will of The Gods,” by Charles Q. Choi.
Our first fact article of the year gets into the nitty-gritty of one of the most ambitious projects humans can undertake: “Constructing a Habitable Planet” by Julie Novakova.
And of course we have an abundance of other stories, from the unequal relationship in Harry Turtledove’s “My Hypothetical Friend” to the complicated rebellion of Nick Wolven’s “The Liberator,” plus more from Norman Spinrad, Deborah L. Davitt, Raymund Eich, Jerry Oltion, Em Liu, and others, as well as all our regular columns.

New year, new fiction! Let’s kick things off right, with our lead story for 2025: “Our Lady of the Gyre,” from Douglas R. Franklin. In his own words, it’s “about the fraught relationship between inhabitants of a seaborne community and an orbital artificial intelligence tasked with mitigating climate change.” It’s a short story, but also the cover—once you get it in your hands, I think you’ll see why.
 
We also have “Apartment Wars,” a novella from (relative) newcomer, Vera Brook: it’s an evocative look at the relationship between a physicist (and physicist’s widow) and her next-door neighbors in an Eastern European apartment block . . . but what role does their physics research play? Find out!
 
We also have stories including Paul Di Filippo’s Vancian “Quest of the Sette Comuni”; a bit of judicious temporal intervention in Tom R. Pike’s “Strange Events at Fletcher and Front”; the collision of the past and present in a science mystery for the ages in Sean McMullen’s “The Prince of Spirals,” and plenty more, from John Shirley, Richard A. Lovett, Kelly Lagor, James Van Pelt, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jeffrey Benford, and others.
 
You don’t want to miss it!

We may be talking about what’s coming up in the wintery final issue of the year, but summer is still a few weeks away as I write this at the end of May. Luckily, the stories next issue are great, whenever you read them!

Our lead story has an unusual contest in an even more unusual place, when a human is enlisted to help some familiar aliens learn how to race sailboats in “The Far Uncharted Ocean,” by Auston Habershaw.

Our primary nonfiction piece in the issue is part fact article, part speculative thought-exercise, in David S. Lindsay’s “Interstellar Paranoia.”

We also have the final installment of Shane Tourtellotte’s history of an alien space program (started in “The Malady,” November/December, 2021): “The Outsiders”—all will be revealed! And of course we have much more in store, from Sean McMullen, Kelsey Hutton, Matt McHugh, Jerry Oltion, and others, plus all our regular columns and features.

Our lead story this issue won’t need any introduction for long-time readers: it’s “Minnie and Earl Have a Kitten,” by Adam-Troy Castro. The title says it all . . . or, almost, because what it doesn’t say is that some long-running mysteries are finally solved! If you know, you know. Newbies and long-time fans alike won’t want to miss it!

On the nonfiction end of things, biologist Kelly Lagor looks at the Neanderthal in science fiction, in “Unfutured Race.” We also have an installment of Edward M. Wysocki’s ongoing series of special features about the impact Astounding authors have had on the world around us; in this case, he asks: “Finding the Enemy: Did Doc Smith Inspire the CIC?”

And of course we have many more stories, like an SFnal take on a classic mystery format in “Carter’s Refugio,” from Hayden Trenholm; the navigation of knotty labor practices among humans and non-humans alike in Tom R. Pike’s “The Compromise”; jobs and technology adapting to our changing environment in “Firegrounds” by Jen Downes; an alien AI’s First Contact with humans in Mark W. Tiedemann’s “The Transitive Property of Names”; James Van Pelt channeling his inner John Updike in “The Circumambulation,” and much more, from Wil McCarthy, Meghan Hyland, Tony Ballantyne, Kedrick Brown, and others, plus all our regular columns and features.

Many people know all too well that an outbreak of pandemic proportions can leave large amounts of the population with long-lasting health issues. When one of those issues is memory loss, it may become vital for people to have a way for their past selves to tell their future selves important information. But can you ever completely trust that your past self is telling you the truth? Well, your future self will find out in our lead story for July/August, “Vouch for Me,” by Greg Egan.

Exoplanets can be classified in a variety of ways, and while much attention is paid to the search for “perfect” ones, there’s less attention paid to the broadly-habitable but significantly more common ones, at least outside of our fact article next issue, “In Praise of Third Class Worlds,” by Kevin Walsh.

And of course we’ll have a wealth of other stories, including: “The Great Martian Railways”—trains on Mars!—by Hûw Steer; “Mandarins: A New World,” the final Analog story from Michael F. Flynn; an unusual human/AI connection in Thorayia Dyer’s “The Funeral”; “The Last Days of Good People,” a long novella from A.T. Sayre, in which an alien species can only make the best of a bad situation; “Murderbirds,” a Flash piece from Harry Turtledove, and more, from Alice Towey, Arlan Andrews, and others, including all our regular columns.

It has been said that teaching kids is a bit like the Peace Corps slogan: it’s the toughest job you’ll ever love. But what happens when you mix surly teens with some (very) heavy machinery? Well, that sounds like a job for “Uncle Roy’s Computer Repairs and Used Robot Parts,” by Martin L. Shoemaker, our lead story for May/June.

Then our fact articles this time out will be a pair of Science Behind the Story pieces, one for Edward M. Lerner’s “The Dark at the End of the Tunnel” and one for “Project: Desert Sparrow,” by Chana Kohl, the subjects of which will become apparent when you read their eponymous sister stories.

And of course, there’s plenty more, including: “Small Minds,” from Tom Jolly; a “Salvage Operation” with Michael Capobianco; a look at “The Dark at the End of the Tunnel” by Edward M. Lerner; the workings of “Project: Desert Sparrow” by Chana Kohl; hearing “Voices Still and Present” with Mark W. Tiedemann; fleeting “Mayflies” from Richard A. Lovett; “Making Gnocchi at the End of the World” with Kelly Lagor; and many others, plus our usual columns, including the winners of this year’s AnLab awards!


This issue, we have some real bangers, including a long novella from David Gerrold that shows just what one small but highly motivated group can do when left with no alternative, in “Ganny Goes to War”; a look at a future in which consumers have finally had “Enough,” from William Ledbetter; the next chapter in the (mis)adventures of a certain amorphous shape-shifter, in Auston Habershaw’s “Brood Parasitism”; a survey of the current state of epigenetics, both in real life and SF, by Kelly Lagor; a couple of tax/prank season-appropriate stories from Don D’Ammassa and John W. Armstrong; and much, much more, from Gregor Hartmann, Romi Stott, Adam-Troy Castro, Deborah L. Davitt, and others.

The new year is (almost) upon us, and that means a new batch of stories, fresh out of the oven and waiting for you on the cooling rack! For your enjoyment, we present:

A royal scion discovers a most unusual pet, in “Kagari” by Ron Collins; a bit of teenage mischief turns deadly serious in “Hull Run” by David Goodman; a unique blend of historical fiction and SF in “The Handmaiden Alchemist” by Marie Vibbert; a look behind the curtain at one of our lead stories last issue, in “The Science Behind ‘Apollo in Retrograde ’” by Rosemary Claire Smith; a contest of wits between two authors (or . . . ?) in “Game, Set, Match” by Robert Friedman and Barry Malzberg; a tale of literally otherworldly music, of the sort that could only come from Stanley Schmidt, in “Music of a Different Sphere”; and much, much more, from Eric Del Carlo, Jay Werkheiser, Kelsey Hutton, Phoebe Barton, Benjamin C. Kinney, and others, including all our regular columns and features. 

Don’t miss it!

It’s probably hard to believe—if you read this in mid-October, when this issue goes on sale—that our next installment is already the November/December seasonal issue, but it is! (And if you think that’s weird: I’m writing this in late May!)

So we begin to close-out 2023 with “Apollo in Retrograde,” a follow-up to Rosemary Claire Smith’s popular 2012 novelette, “The Next Frontier.” Time has marched on since we last saw Natalya Orlova, and so has the space race, after the events surrounding the Apollo 13 mission in the previous story. But while failure isn’t final, success is fleeting, and new challenges arise that Natalya and the rest of the crew may have more trouble handling as the years progress and the program moves into the ’70s.

Our fact article really—ahem—digs into the reality behind one of the most famous planets in the history of this magazine—and all of SF: Arrakis, in “Dune and Superdune,” by Kevin Walsh.

We also have the SFnal equivalent of a locked-room mystery from longtime Analog regular, Rajnar Vajra; a light-hearted yarn of just about the most out-of-the-way tourist trap possible in “The Eiffel Tower of Trappist-1d” by Jeff Reynolds; an action-packed ship recovery mission in Mark Pantoja’s “The White Tiger”; a heart-rending reminder that sometimes we treat pets like people more for our benefit than theirs, in “An Infestation of Blue,” by Wendy N. Wagner; something seasonal in Ron Collins’ “Home For Christmas,” and more, including stories from Greg Benford, Michael Cassutt, Tom Jolly, Kate McLeod, Michael Capobianco, James Sallis, and other! 

In our first story next issue, “The Apotheosis of Krysalice Wilson” by Howard V. Hendrix, cutting-edge training techniques take a young ice-skater to the peak of her ability . . . and beyond.

Then our fact article looks at how ancient fish fossils are providing new insight into the mass extinction of the dinosaurs in “Fishkill on the Tanis,” from Richard A. Lovett.

Plus we’ll have a plethora of other excellent stories, including: Academic infighting reaches new levels over dueling theories of time-travel in Andrew Sullivan’s “Peer Review”; a little space piracy results in some rapidly-growing problems with jungle flora in “The Quickener,” from J.T. Sharrah; a creative take on First Contact, in Monalisa Foster’s “The Deviltree”; a grandfather must make a heavy sacrifice for his loved ones in “Second Sight,” by Grey Rinehart; an updated riff on a drive-in horror classic, in Eric Choi’s “Beware the Glob”; a catastrophe for an orbital debris cleanup crew requires a big leap of faith in “Trust Fall,” from Zack Be; a team on Titan follows in the footsteps of earlier explorers who have gone missing, and finds more than they bargained for in “Boojum,” by Angus McIntyre; a musician with a prosthesis fights to make music on her own terms, in Aleksandra Hill’s “Secondhand Music”; Smart vehicles and “social credit scores” collide in “Bad Car,” from Lorraine Alden.

Plus pieces from Benjamin Kinney, Vera Brook, Leonard Richardson, Jen Povey, and Edward M. Wysocki, as well as all our regular columns.

You don’t want to miss it!

When a humble tinker’s apprentice in a failing colony has a chance at the adventure of a lifetime (or more), it may also mean leaving his home behind to face its fate; what choice can he make? Find out in our lead story next issue, “The Tinker and the Timestream,” by Carolyn Ives Gilman.

Then we present a pair of fact articles for your enjoyment: a deep dive into planetary formation from Kevin Walsh, in “Why are the Keplerians so Different?” as well as a “Big Ideas” piece about extinctions and the Fermi Paradox from Howard Hendrix, “The Passenger Pigeon and the Great Filter.”

And of course we have a bunch of material thematically-appropriate for the April Fool’s Day season, including the answer to a classic SF question in “The House on Infinity Street,” by Allen M. Steele; the truth about “What Women Want,” from Katherine Tunning; a quest for lost love upended in “Incommunicado” by Andrej Kokoulin; the most caveating an emptor can do when considering “The Problem with Bargain Bodies” by Sarina Dorie; a failed health inspection that works out for everyone in Leonard Richardson’s “Meat”; and much more, from Robert R. Chase, Rajnar Vajra, Shane Tourtellotte, Stanley Schmidt, Aubry Kae Andersen, Adam-Troy Castro, and then some.

You don’t want to miss it!

When an encounter with a ghost suggests to young Aleyara that there may be a world beyond the one told of in her species’ stories about their arboreal home, she and a band of friends set out to discover the truth, but their biggest challenge may yet be waiting for them even if they can make it home . . .

That’s next issue, in “Aleyara’s Descent,” by Christopher L. Bennett.

Then “The War Against the Bugs” has proven to be a popular story premise for a long time, but it’s turned on its head next issue, when the war leads to a fragile alliance with some of the “bugs.” And there’s something corrosive at the heart of the tenuous peace, which might just lead to a return of the old bloody days for both peoples. . . . Find out in “Poison,” by Frank Wu and Jay Werkheiser.

We also have a genuinely speculative fact article in “Astronautical Explanations for ’Oumuamua” by Duncan Lunan, plus much more from ML Clark, Mark W. Tiedemann, Allen M. Steele, Kelly Lagor, Sean McMullen, Jen Downes, and others, along with all our regular columns.


When a humble tinker’s apprentice in a failing colony has a chance at the adventure of a lifetime (or more), it may also mean leaving his home behind to face its fate; what choice can he make? Find out in our lead story next issue, “The Tinker and the Timestream,” by Carolyn Ives Gilman. 

Then we present a pair of fact articles for your enjoyment: a deep dive into planetary formation from Kevin Walsh, in “Why are the Keplerians so Different?” as well as a “Big Ideas” piece about extinc¬tions and the Fermi Paradox from Howard Hendrix, “The Passenger Pigeon and the Great Filter.” 

And of course we have a bunch of material thematically-appro¬priate for the April Fool’s Day season, including the answer to a classic SF question in “The House on Infinity Street,” by Allen M. Steele; the truth about “What Women Want,” from Katherine Tunning; a quest for lost love upended in “Incommunicado” by Andrej Kokoulin; the most caveating an emptor can do when considering “The Problem with Bargain Bodies” by Sarina Dorie; a failed health inspection that works out for everyone in Leonard Richardson’s “Meat”; and much more, from Robert R. Chase, Rajnar Vajra, Shane Tourtellotte, Stanley Schmidt, Aubry Kae Andersen, Adam-Troy Castro, and then some. 

You don’t want to miss it! 

Another January/February issue is nearly upon us, and once again, we close out the old year and ring in the new with some top-notch stories.

First among them is our lead novella: it’s not unusual for a killer to have a personal motivation for a series of slayings, but it is unusual when the killer in question is an elephant. What’s more, when a doctor thinks he may be able to curb the animal’s murderous rages, the implications go much further than anyone expects. How far? Find out in “The Elephant Maker,” by Alec Nevala-Lee.

Then our fact article, “Life, But Not Quite as We Know It,” on some very unusual sorts of potential life forms, comes to us from Christina De La Rocha.

And of course we have plenty of other stories, like “EDIE,” a tale with some of the aforementioned unusual life, by James Dick; a pleasantly hardboiled SF yarn in “Hothouse Orchids” by Harry Lang; a look at harmless vacation fun from the other side of the ledger, in “The Bends” by Rajan Khanna; and a clash of values in a quiet little (post-apocalyptic) town upstate, in “The Battle of Wanakena,” by Megan Hyland, as well as much more, including seasonal offerings like “Christmas at Albert’s” by Mark W. Tiedemann, and “A Real Snow Day” by M. Bennardo, and stories both sad and hopeful, as befits the end of one thing and the beginning of another, from authors including Marie Vibbert, Shane Tourtellotte, James Van Pelt, Victoria Navarra, Erik Johnson, Tom R. Pike, Matt McHugh, Lorraine Alden, and more.

We’re already wrapping up 2022, but we still have a few treats in store before we see the year off! Next issue, our cover story features the return of an iconic science-fiction character: when a genetically-modified animal is killed and the details don’t add up, ARM sends one of its top investigators—Gil Hamilton! Get the whole story in “Sacred Cow,” by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes.

Our fact article for the issue, from Christopher MacLeod, wonders if rather than the popular Alcubierre drive, a quantum mechanical star-drive might instead be “Another Way To the Stars.”

Then, of course, we also have a wide selection of other stories: 
Even a peace between humans and aliens can be fraught with hidden danger, as we see in “Jazz Age,” by Mark W. Tiedemann; the Nietzsche quote about staring into the abyss turns out to be far more literally true than anyone expected in Lisa Herbert’s “Seen”; a high-tech repo man stumbles into a far-reaching conspiracy in “Cryptonic,” by Aurelien Gayet; a robot struggles to find its better self in “In All Good Conscience,” by Meghan Hyland, and more, from Guy Stewart, Mark Laidlaw, Tom Jolly, Holly Schofield, Leonard Richardson, Deborah L. Davitt, and others, plus all our usual columns and features!

Our September/October issue arrives as summer begins to wind down and fall begins to creep in through the cracks, and we have stories to suit both moods.
 
Our lead piece is a bit of historical (science-) fiction that wouldn’t fit as well anywhere but Analog: in the early days of America’s entry into WWII, a former minor-league baseball player finds himself contributing to the war effort at an ordnance plant, but he also finds more secrets than he bargained for. What’s going on, and how do some familiar faces figure in? The answers lie in “Kingsbury 1944,” by Michael Cassutt.
 
We’re always happy when our fact article ties into a story, as it does next issue, thanks to Marianne Dyson’s novelette, “The Power of Apollo (16),” and the associated Science Behind the Story piece, both of which involve some fascinating information that only Marianne (one of NASA’s first female flight controllers) could bring us.
 
We’ll also have a timely bit of fiction about a potentially worrisome asteroid, from Jerry Oltion in “Shepherd Moons”; a chaotic romp through a multiversal arms bazaar, from Ian Creasey, in “Self-Regulation”; and many others, both a little scary and a lot silly, including stories from Tom Greene, James Sallis, Marie Vibbert, Rich Larson, Marissa Lingen, and much, much more!
 
You don’t want to miss it!

By the end of the events of “The Malady” by Shane Tourtellotte (November/December 2021), readers saw a huge mystery solved, but those answers also brought new questions to light: who was responsible and why? And perhaps most importantly: what next? Well, our lead novella for next issue, “Truta and Pilta,” can answer that last matter at least: a space race. 

Then our first fact article of the issue considers some of the more esoteric properties of black holes, in “Black Holes and the Human Future” by Howard V. Hendrix. We also have a fact “short” about the problems with fictional bio-scanners—you know: as in “Scanning the planet for life-forms, captain!”—from Valentin D. Ivanov, in “Biosignatures: the Second Biggest Blunder of SF.”

And of course we have plenty of other fiction pieces, such as one featuring a unique combination of time-travel and astronomy, in Jerry Oltion’s “The Dark Ages”; an all-too-accurate tale of technological turnover, in AT Sayer’s “Across the River”; plus a summer’s worth of blockbuster action, ranging from the meeting of a shape-shifter and an assassin in “Punctuated Equilibrium,” by Auston Habershaw; a tiny flaw leading to a nail-biting rescue, in “Single Point Failure,” by Sean Monaghan; and a pulse-pounding struggle for revenge or redemption in “Across the Sand Sea,” by TL Huchu, and many more, from Michèle Laframboise, Aimee Ogden, Steve Toase, Joe McDermott, Kelsey Hutton, Bruce McAllister, and then some!


Not every character strictly needs an origin story—life is rarely that simple. So while next issue’s Andrea Cort tale, “Burning the Ladder” by Adam-Troy Castro, isn’t one, it’s still a formative moment, earlier than any we’ve seen so far, that has big ramifications for the character we’ve come to know. New to the Diplomatic Corp, Andrea struggles to understand the abuse an alien child suffers at the hands of its own species, but she may just learn a painful and permanent lesson that no good deed goes unpunished instead.

Our fact article for the issue is from Raymund Eich, looking at some of the exact logistics of interplanetary colonization, in “The Believers Shall Inherit The Solar System.”

And we’ll have stories including a tale of an old man, his dog, and an environmental reclamation project, in Bud Sparhawk’s “Simple Pleasures”; a trippy (in multiple ways) Probability Zero from Louis Evans, “Gateway Drug”; an unusual pair of firefighters who are more than the sum of their parts in Alice Towey’s “Firebreak”; an orphan making his way in an alien world in Eric Del Carlo’s “A Boy in the Key of Forsaken”; the return of a cunning shape-shifter in Auston Habershaw’s “Proof of Concept”; all-out warfare in Timons Esias’s “Beachhead”; desperate times demand hard choices in A.C. Koch’s “Planetfall”; nearly-forgotten knowledge struggles to be preserved in Jessica Reisman’s “Aconie’s Bees”; and more, from Sean McMullen, Stanley Schimdt, Jerry Oltion, and others!

When an escapee from an interstellar cult looking for an old flame stumbles across an enigmatic structure on a distant planet that seems to be drawing alien creatures to it, his unique experiences may just be the thing that qualifies him to see more of the situation than anyone else. But he’s not the only one who seeks its meaning, and there are others who would do anything to get it. At what price, understanding? Discover the answer next issue, in “Exile’s Grace,” by Mark W. Tiedmann.

Our fact article for the issue. “Evolving Brainy Brains Takes More Than Living on a Lucky Planet,” by Christina De La Rocha, is part evolutionary biology and part planetary geology in an attempt to shine light on one of the more profound questions we have about human life.

We’ll also have a Journeyman story from Michael F. Flynn; a bit of “youth in revolt . . . on a starship” from J.T. Sharrah; stories from C. Stuart Hardwick, Michael Swanwick, Brenda Kalt, and more; plus a special feature on humor in Analog from Stanley Schmidt (as well as a couple of thematically-appropriate stories to accompany it); and of course, all our regular (and regularly excellent) columns.

New year, new issue! We start things off with a bang, in the form of a novella from a titanic team-up: in the aftermath of a disaster, the survivors have to discover a way to communicate with a most alien life form or die trying. My intentionally vague description doesn’t do it justice, as you’ll find out in “Communion,” by Frank Wu and Jay Werkheiser.

Our fact article for the issue also comes from Jay Werkheiser, in the form of a Science Behind the Story on Kepler’s Laws, concluding in this very issue, and we have a “speculative history” Special Feature, in
Brishti Guha’s “The Robots of Ancient India.”

We also, of course, have a wide array of stories, from androids fighting pirates in Tom Jolly’s “Cloudchaser” and a potentially other-worldy trap in Tony Ballantyne’s “The Lobster Pot” to a high-stakes heist in Raymund Eich’s “A Fistful of Monopoles” and some environmental justice in “Yellow Boots” from Stephen L. Burns, as well as plenty more, from Liz A. Vogel, Megan Hyland, and others.

Don’t miss it!

Next issue, we close out the year . . . and Kepler’s Laws, Jay Werkheiser’s serial begun in this very issue. You’ve read the beginning: now find out how it ends, when tensions come to a head and the quiet conflict explodes into the open. Stands are taken, mysteries are solved, and not everybody makes it out alive. Don’t miss the exciting conclusion!

Then Christina De la Rocha continues her informal series of fact articles on global warming, with “Will Nuclear Power Save Us From Global Warming?” The answer is, like many things, not entirely straightforward, but that’s what makes it interesting.

And of course we’ll have a myriad of shorter stories, including the return of a long-absent fan-favorite author, with “Malady,” by Shane Tourtellotte, as well as pieces from Dan Reade, Brenda Kalt, Barry Malzberg & Bill Pronzini, Robert Reed, Bill Frank, and more. 

This issue, we’re going to do something that’s a little unusual for a number of reasons: we’re experimenting with the serial format by bringing you a full-length novel in just two parts, and we’re revisiting the lethal world of Kepler from Jay Werkheiser’s original novelette, “Kepler’s Law,” much expanded, in Kepler’s Laws (note the plural). Folks who remember the original story and recall the desperate attempts of the colonists to settle on the chemically hostile world might think they have an inkling of what’s in store, but far from it—Kepler’s Laws is about 90,000 words beyond what you’ve seen. Hold on to your hats; survival is going to come at a cost.

Perhaps the primary objection to using nuclear power to wean ourselves off of fossil fuel is that terrestrial nuclear power plants are dangerous. If that’s the case, then might we skirt the issue by making them nonterrestrial? We take a look in our fact article for the issue, “Orbital Nuclear Power,” by Donald Wilkins.

Then we have a planet held in thrall by two feuding petty tyrants when contract killer Rage Laskin drops in to take a job, but naturally things rapidly go pear-shaped in “The Silence Before I Sleep,” by Adam-Troy Castro.

And of course we have a wide variety of other stories from familiar faces like J.T. Sharrah, John Vester, Marissa Lingen, Robert Scherrer, Marie Vibbert, Joel Richards, and Holly Schofield, plus new names like Marco Frasetto and Bianca Sayan, plus the next entry in all of our fine features and incredible columns. 

When a crew of pirates decides to rob a ring station, the last thing they’re expecting is a pair of rivals who’ll band together to save everyone . . . if they don’t kill each other first. All hope lies with . . . “The Unlikely Heroines of Calisto Station,” from Marie Vibbert. (That blurb works best if you read it in your best “Trailer Guy” voice.)

Our fact article for the issue is a look at Venus as it may have existed in the distant past (and the not-so-distant past of science fiction) in “Return to the Golden Age: Why Venus Might Actually Once Have Been Habitable,” by Richard A. Lovett, and we’ll have a special feature from Edward M. Wysocki, as well as an interview with theoretical cosmologist and author of The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking), Katie Mack.

And of course there will be plenty of fantastic fiction, including a Space Age alternate history, in “The Next Frontier” by Rosemary Claire Smith; orbital derring-do that takes on personal significance in C. Stuart Hardwick’s “Sample Return”; a check-in with a much older version of a familiar character, now retired and living in a dome on Mars when disaster strikes, in “Long Day Lake.” Don’t miss it!

When an orbital salvage team stumbles across something lurking among satellite debris, a rote recovery mission becomes a matter of life and death. And even if they manage to survive, can they also hope to safeguard the Earth? Find out in May/June’s lead story, “Dangerous Orbit,” by Analog newcomer M.T. Reiten.

Many headlines were made recently about the discovery of potential evidence of life on Venus, and our fact article for the issue comes from one of the very researchers who made that discovery, who’s also an author with a long history at Analog: David L. Clements writes about “Possible Signs of Life on Venus.”

Then we have a host of other stories and special features, from such authors as Lettie Prell, Neal Asher, Charles Q. Choi, Tom Jolly, Jay Werkheiser, Bond Elam, and more, plus all of our regular features, of course.

Something unknown to humans is killing squid in huge numbers off the coast of Monterrey, and Emilia, a marine biologist, is trying to unravel the mystery, but it may just put her and her daughter’s lives at risk if she can’t solve it, and quickly. Follow her, in our March/April cover story, “Flash Mob,” by Meg Pontecorvo.

Then when a woman goes missing on an alien planet and no one seems willing to help, one man must venture into terra incognita with a local guide to try to find her, no matter the cost, in Catherine Wells’ “Invasive Species.”

Climate change isn’t just about temperature, as we see in our fact article for the issue, “From Atmospheric Rivers to Super Typhoons: The Future Looks Bright for Weather Disaster Fans,” from Christina De La Rocha.

And of course we have plenty of other stories, from Sean McMullen, Tony Ballantyne, Sean Monaghan, Brenda Kalt, Ray Nayler, Tom Jolly, Marie Vibbert, James Van Pelt, Aimee Ogden, and more, plus all our regular and (regularly excellent) columns.

It’s hard to believe we’re already wrapping up the anniversary year with the next issue, but you know we’re going to go out with a bang!

Our cover story marks the overdue return of an author and characters absent from Analog’s pages: what have the otter-like Cochee-coco been up to since we last saw them back in 2012? Find out in “Together We Can Be More” by Juliette Wade.

Then our fact article focuses on some famous SF concepts by some of the people who thought them up: we return to Dyson Spheres and Ring-Worlds in “Big Smart Objects” by Greg Benford and Larry Niven.

Next, our retrospective piece is a fine look at the weight of duty and the consequences of shirking it, in Gordon R. Dickson’s “Call Him Lord,” as well as a provocative accompanying essay from yours truly.

We also have a pair of special features diving deep into our history: “The Women We Can See in Analog” from Marie Vibbert, and “How Articles Came to Analog” by Edward M. Wysocki, as well as a range of fine fiction from the likes of George Zebrowski, Grey Rollins, Brenda Kalt, Gregor Hartmann, Eric Del Carlo, Marissa K. Lingen, M. Bennardo, and more!
You don’t want to miss it!

And the anniversary year rolls on! We have a new novella from Adam-Troy Castro, the provocatively titled “Draiken Dies”—but you’ll actually find that anchoring the issue; our cover story is a bit shorter, but no less worthy—it’s a tale of a trio of tween girls with a knack for science and an eye for adventure, in the style of the best Heinlein Juveniles—it’s James Van Pelt’s “Minerva Girls.”
 
Derek Künsken’s House of Styx serial may have wrapped up, but we haven’t seen the last of the setting just yet, as Derek takes us behind the scenes to look at “The Science Behind The House of Styx,” our fact article for the issue.
 
We’ll also have the next in our series of retrospectives, this one from current Asimov’s editor and former Analog executive editor, Sheila Williams, plus something suitably seasonal yet lighthearted in Sarina Dorie’s “I, Bigfoot”; an SF-spin on a fairy tale in “The Chrysalis Pool” by Sean McMullen; the hunt for the future’s most valuable commodity in “The Treasure of The Lugar Morto” by Alan Dean Foster; the life and times of an enhanced boxer in “Home of the King” by Dan Reade; a city full of shifting timelines in “City” by Joel Richards; plus stories from Maggie Clark, Jay Werkheiser, Mary Soon Lee, James Sallis, Aimee Ogden, and more!

Imagine: a desperate crew finds a last ditch, unexpected lifeline, but to take advantage of it, they may have to cross a threshold they’re unprepared for. At what price, survival? Find out in our next issue’s cover story, “Sticks and Stones,” by Tom Jolly.

Then our retrospective also serves as a tribute to Vonda N. McIntyre, who passed away in 2019: we present her “Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand,” as well as a few words from former Analog editor, Ben Bova.

We’ll also have the finale to Derek Künsken’s “The House of Styx” and a sequel to Jay Werkheiser’s September/October 2018 fact article, “Alien Biochemistry: Embracing The Carbon Chauvinist,” in which he embodies the role of a critical thinker and outlines the opposite position, in “Alien Biochemistry: Rejecting the Carbon Chauvinist.”

And of course we’ll have plenty of other fiction, including a novella-length sequel to Stan Schmidt’s 2015 serial, Night Ride and Sunrise, as well as stories from Marie Vibbert, Robert R. Chase, Elisabeth R. Adams, Alec Nevala-Lee, Rich Larson, and more!

The celebration continues! Next issue, our cover story is one where alien physiology also leads to alien philosophy: it’s “Moral Biology,” by Neal Asher.

Then we have arguably the most famous piece in our retrospective series: Anne McCaffrey’s “Weyr Search,” with a poignant introduction from Analog’s majordomo, managing (and poetry) editor, the superlative Emily Hockaday.

Our fact article is the rather self-explanatorily titled “Space Dust: How an Asteroid Altered Life on Earth . . . Millions of Years Before the Dinosaurs,” by one of our most popular nonfiction authors, Richard A. Lovett.
Of course we also have part two of Derek Künsken’s serial, The House of Styx—no spoilers, but readers who enjoyed the nuanced characters, hard science, and imaginative world-building in The Quantum Magician and especially “Persephone Descending” will find much to love here.

We’ll also have scores of other stories, about dirty deeds in a mining colony in “A Breath of Air,” from Tom Jolly; an alien getting a wider look at its own culture in Ramona Louise Wheeler’s “The Calm Face of the Storm”; a father try to bond with his daughter in spite of changing technology in Eric Cline’s “It Was Tradition When You Turned 16.”

Our 90th anniversary kicks off with the magazine you hold in your hands, and it continues full swing throughout the year and next issue: 

We open March/April with the next anniversary retrospective, Raymond F. Jones’ 1952 gem, “Noise Level,” accompanied by an introduction from Alec Nevala-Lee.

Then we’ll have the first of three installments of Derek Künsken’s serial, The House of Styx. An unexpected discovery sets a family of hardworking prospectors on Venus down a dangerous path, with repercussions that could shape the entire planet and beyond.

We’ll also have a short story and tie-in fact article from Gregory Benford, a very Analog take on an old adage in C.C. Finlay’s “One Basket,” plus fiction from Jenn Reese, Andy Dudak, Catherine Wells, Richard A. Lovett, Edd Vick and Manny Frishberg, and more, on top of all of our ongoing columns and features.

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Analog Science Fiction and Fact is a renowned magazine that combines captivating science fiction stories with scientific exploration. Established in 1930, it has become a premier publication for enthusiasts of imaginative storytelling and cutting-edge science. Each issue features thrilling narratives, futuristic technologies, and scientifically grounded articles, offering readers an immersive experience into the realms of science and fiction. 

The magazine also features scientifically grounded articles, exploring the latest advancements in fields such as astrophysics, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Having consistently attracted some of the genre's most celebrated authors, Analog Science Fiction and Fact has been a launchpad for renowned writers such as Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke. 

Don't miss the opportunity to explore the captivating world of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, where every issue transports you to extraordinary realms of possibility and challenges you to contemplate the wonders of the universe.

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Analog Science Fiction and Fact - January/February 2021

Analog Science Fiction and Fact - January/February 2021

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