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Analytical Laboratory Results

2022 Analytical Laboratory Results

Once again, we’d like to thank everyone who voted in our annual poll on the previous year’s issues. Your votes help your favorite writers and artists by rewarding them directly and concretely for outstanding work. They help you by giving us a better feel for what you like and don’t like—which helps us know what to give you in the future.

We have six categories: novellas, novelettes, short stories, fact articles, poems, and covers. In each category, we asked you to list your three favorite items, in descending order of preference. Each first place vote counts as three points, second place two, and third place one. The total number of points for each item is divided by the maximum it could have received (if everyone had ranked it 1) and multiplied by 10. The result is the score listed below, on a scale of 0 (nobody voted for it) to 10 (everybody ranked it first). In practice, scores run lower in categories with many entries than in those with only a few. For comparison, the number in parentheses at the head of each category is the average for that category.

Once again, the AnLab results provide some fascinating information if we peek under the hood a bit.

First place in the Novella category isn’t much of a surprise, since Jay and Frank are favorites among readers, and “Communion” is a story that succeeds on both of their strengths. Of course, an Andrea Cort story from Adam-Troy Castro is always eagerly anticipated and appreciated by readers as well. And although Michael Cassutt’s “Kingsbury, 1944” didn’t come in first, I saw more glowing letters for that piece than anything else we ran the entire year. Maybe it didn’t have as many votes in number, but the people who liked it, loved it.

In Novelettes, Jerry Oltion’s timely “Shepherd Moons” proved as popular as we hoped, and the rest of the category is full of long-time favorites in the magazine, Michael F. Flynn, Tom Jolly, and J.T. Sharrah. It’s notable that Marianne Dyson’s “The Power of Apollo (16)” placed well here, as did as its partner “Science Behind the Story” fact article, which won in that category. That sort of content is part of what makes Analog special, and says a lot about what readers want to see.

The Short Story category is always competitive, and this crop was no exception. Relative newcomers to Analog sit comfortably next to icons and regulars, and the stories represent just a fraction of the sort of variety we see throughout the year.

Similarly diverse are the topics in the Fact Article category, dealing in subjects ranging from cosmology and information science to the space program to speculative chemistry to neurological evolution to quantum drives. And again, the two articles that tied in to fiction pieces were very well received.

This year’s poems range from whimsy to profundity to the philosophical to biography—a good variety and a good representation of what our Analog readers’ enjoy. History, deep thought, and of course plenty of stars.

Our Cover category has a trio of beautiful pieces, all of which could have easily come in first, but I have to say: Eldar Zakirov’s winning cover for “Communion” is on my personal short list of all-time favorites.

Since AnLab votes are so important in encouraging authors and artists to do their best work and to giving you the kind of magazine you most like to read, we hope to see even more next year. Use our online ballot, email, or “snail mail”! (Remember to be careful to vote in the right category, as listed in the annual index. Sometimes a few votes are wasted by being cast in the wrong category, and those simply can’t be counted. Using our online ballot makes this much less likely.)

NOVELLAS (3.02)

1. “Communion,” Jay Werkheiser & Frank Wu (6.00)

2. “Burning the Ladder,” Adam-Troy Castro (4.15)

3. “Kingsbury 1944,” Michael Cassutt (2.62)

NOVELETTES (0.78)

1. “Shepherd Moons,” Jerry Oltion (1.85)

2. “The Journeyman: At the Bluffs of Sinjin Trell,” Michael F. Flynn (1.38)

3. (TIE). “The Power of Apollo (16),” Marianne J. Dyson (1.33)
3. (TIE). “Cloud Chaser,” Tom Jolly (1.33)

4. “In Transit,” J.T. Sharrah (1.13)

SHORT STORIES (0.20)

1. (TIE). “Beneath the Surface, a Womb of Ice,” Deborah L. Davitt (0.82)
1. (TIE). “Sacred Cow,” Larry Niven & Steven Barnes (0.82)

2. “Maximum Efficiency,” Holly Schofield (0.72)

3. (TIE). “Boy in the Key of Forsaken,” Eric Del Carlo (0.67)
3. (TIE).  “Aconie’s Bees,” Jessica Reisman (0.67)

FACT ARTICLES (1.30)

1. “The Science Behind ‘The Power of Apollo (16),’” Marianne J. Dyson (2.36)

2. “Black Holes and the Human Future,” Howard V. Hendrix (2.00)

3. (TIE).  “Evolving Brainy Brains Takes More than Living on a Lucky Planet,”
3. (TIE). Christina De La Rocha (1.74)
3. (TIE). “The Science Behind Kepler’s Laws,” Jay Werkheiser (1.74)

4. “Another Way to the Stars,” Christopher MacLeod (1.44)

POETRY (1.19)

1. “Belter Cats,” Mary Soon Lee (2.10)

2. “Albert Einstein, Two Stills,” Robert Frazier (1.90)

3. “The Libraries of Mars,” Mary Soon Lee (1.59)

4. “Constellations,” Alex Pickens (1.49)

5. “In Perpetuity,” Bruce Boston (1.38)

COVER (2.28)

1. January/February, by Eldar Zakirov for “Communion” (5.23)

2. July/August, by Donato Giancola for “Truta and Pilta” (3.23)

3. November/December, by Maurizio Manzieri for “Sacred Cow” (2.21)

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