The Monsters of Olympus Mons, by Brian Trent

[F&SF]

★★★★☆ Plenty of Twists and Excitement

(SF Thriller) In the midst of a Martian Civil war, a wounded old man finds three monsters playing cards outside the abandoned Museum of Colonization, and he asks for their help. (8,370 words; Time: 27m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+2 (Q&A)

Death on the Nefertem Express, by Brian Trent

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆ Mixed

(SF Mystery) Someone sabotaged a tourist train on planet Nefertem. It had to be one of the passengers, but can anyone solve the mystery before sunrise kills all the passengers—in just half an hour. (7,641 words; Time: 25m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

The Memorybox Vultures, by Brian Trent

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(SF Thriller) Donna creates and works with AIs that are created from dead people’s social media data. They can be fun to chat with before they get too repetitive, but they’re harmless. So why is someone trying to kill them? And her. (7,076 words; Time: 23m)

Crash Site, by Brian Trent

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆ Average

(Space Opera; War Hero) Umerah Javed comes to Osiris to recruit a washed-up operative to help her track a particular fugitive. (8,829 words; Time: 29m)

This story doesn’t entirely stand alone; it will help to have read at least the previous story.

An Incident on Ishtar, by Brian Trent

[Analog]

★★★☆☆ Mixed

(SF Adventure) Melissa moves to Ishtar station in the clouds of Venus because she’s a great teleoperator, but she keeps secret that she’s running away from a Terrible Mistake she made back on Earth. (7,009 words; Time: 23m)

Galleon, by Brian Trent

Find this issue

(Interstellar SF) Galleon runs trade routes between Sol and Ra. She’s very attached to her human captain, but he’s showing signs of settling down with a human woman. (8,157 words; Time: 27m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

A Thousand Deaths Through Flesh and Stone, by Brian Trent

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆ Average

(SF thriller; War Hero) The narrator thought he’d retired from Martian covert ops ten years ago, but his bosses resurrected a copy and expect him to do another mission for them. (7,329 words; Time: 24m)

Last of the Sharkspeakers, by Brian Trent

Find this issue.

(Hard SF) Tacan leads his pod to capture a load of food from one of the void sharks the Tower people use for transport. They consider Tacan's people little better than animals, so getting caught would be a disaster. (10,381 words)

Rating: 2, Not Recommended

 

Karma Among the Cloud Kings, by Brian Trent

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March 2015; ~7,700 words
Rating: 3, Good, ordinary, story

Preema is a Jain, sworn to kill no life, working on a gas giant planet extracting hydrogen for starships. The Jains have a menial job, collecting debris, but something about the debris bothers Preema.

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

Pro: Excellent the way the story builds up to the climax when the cloud kings resume their attack. Moving and horrifying all at once.

Con: Lots of problems appear on closer examination. Why did the new cloud kings trust the Jains? Why didn't the Jains alert the government? Didn't the Jains forsee that their actions would result in murder of many people, not just the guilty? And why didn't the cloud kings just make a trade deal? The quantity of hydrogen in a gas giant is immense.