Our lead novella for May is David Bartell’s “Test Signals,” a novella very different from the author’s earlier stories here, but engaging and disturbingly thought-provoking. Disturbingly, because while the concepts explored may seem far-fetched to some, they’re solidly rooted in questions beginning to be raised here and now. Some of a person’s most bankable assets are now things far more . . . personal than the ones we’ve tended to think of in the past, but the law has only begun to consider who actually owns them. This, or something like it, could happen to you. . . .
Edward M. Lerner’s novelette “The Night of the RFIDs” also has origins uncomfortably close to home. In addition, we have a mixed bag of other stories, in a wide range of flavors, from authors including Dave Creek, Ronald L. Lambert, Carl Frederick, and Sarah K. Castle (a newcomer who recently made a splash here with “Kukulcan”).
The fact article comes from linguist Henry Honken, continuing his campaign to expand our linguistic horizons. The title “Strange Croaks and Ghastly Aspirations” is not his personal aspersion, but rather an early European observer’s impression of the South African “click” languages, on which Honken has himself done some recent research—which will surely stretch almost anyone’s understanding of just how widely languages can vary, even among humans!
