Spectrum SF 7: November 2001

The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross

Part one of three: Bob Howard works as a sysadmin at the 'Laundry', which is accessible via a secret door in a stall in the gents at Euston Square tube station in London. The secret 'Laundry' does vital work: its operatives, all sworn to secrecy under the (unpublished) Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act (1916) protect the public against evil, powerful beings from other universes. Alan Turing's last (unpublished) theorem opened up access to other universes via 'thaumaturgic computing', necessitating the founding of the Laundry during the Second World War, to foil a Nazi threat to use these beings against the Allies. Bob is sent to the US by his enigmatic boss Angleton to bring home a British PhD show more researcher, Mo, whose topic is edging into Laundry territory. He manages to save her from unwilling participation in a summoning by three Arabs, one of whom seems to be possessed. A delightful combination of realism (in the depiction of technology use, office politics and government bureaucracy) and dark fantasy, as funny as it is scary.

Crew-dog - Mary Soon Lee

This is a recording narrated by an almost-intelligent dog. Dogs have achieved intelligence but this frightens some people. A sad story as the narrator realises what really is happening but must feign ignorance.

Josh Lacey - The pilgrim

William Mullins dies when his space rocket blows up. His dream passes onto his son, Joe Mullins, who builds the Mayflower, the first starship. Yet the cost of this dream continues to exact a toll. Both edifying and crushing in equal measure.

Green England - David Redd

Most stories do not stick in the mind over the years but this one I remember reading when this issue first came out. Mizta Shagga and Miz Bina arrive on a diplomatic mission from the USA at a deserted airfield in England.They encounter what seems like a Green paradise, where cities are no more. The American 'diplomats' are on a trade mission and will stop at nothing to sell to a society that ostensibly eschews trade. With what is revealed as a brutally repressive regime, sex still sells. A very funny, and at the same time deeply disturbing story, which makes crass American consumerism seem like utopianism, and which delights in playing with language in a number of ways, from Orwellian "doublespeak" to future divergence in English slang. One further level of (most likely unintended) irony is that this story is in a Scottish magazine. A lost classic.

The Kethani inheritance - Eric Brown

The Kethani are an alien race who offer immortality to those who accept an implant. A confirmed batchelor, who hates his father who has an implant so much that he refuses one, falls in love. Complications ensue and the story reaches a level of emotion (and even romance) not normally seen in science fiction. show less