The strength in this edition is way that several of the stories, which seem fairly innocent on the surface, linger with you because of the ideas that they consider. "Purple" by Robert Reed, the final novelette, is probably the most notable. It has a satisfying ending, but when you think about it too deeply the ideas are quite horrific. "I Was Nearly Your Mother" by Ian Creasey is also disturbing and compelling, with the ideas on hopping between alternate worlds seeming quite fun and innocent until you realise the damage it can do to peoples' psyches. The first short story, "Where", uses some stylistic writing choices that I found unreadable, unfortunately. I'm sure that the ideas are terrific, but I just couldn't get past the writing. "God in the Sky" by An Owemoyela is another one that sticks with me. It's left largely unresolved for good reason and although it's root is science-fiction, it's really a story about humanity and human nature. "Movement" by Nancy Fulda is the other stand-out short story and you have to read it to understand why, because explaining why it stands out would involve giving away the core of the story. Overall, this edition had more stand-outs than clunkers and I'll be going back to a few of the stories because I think they're ones that benefit from re-reading and re-considering after some deep thought. ( )

The March 2011 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine contains 8 short stories/novelettes as well as the usual columns and a poem. It starts off with a nice editorial in praise of author Neal Barrett, Jr. which Sheila Williams adapted from her presentation at a SFWA awards banquet.

John Kessel's "Clean" is a sad-sweet story of a young woman experiencing her father's premature decline into Alzheimer's dementia. There are long standing family tensions amongst father, mother and daughter. A procedure to potentially cure it is considered, but the cure comes at a steep cost. It is not an easy choice. I thought it was a good story, although none of the characters are exactly likeable.

Neal Barrett Jr.'s short story "Where" follows. Barrett has been writing for 50 years and his name is immediately recognizeable, but I don't think I have read much of him other than some stories in Asimov's in the 80's or so. "Where" is weird and and dystopian and depressing and I'm not sure what was going on. Especially the sex part and the cranking.

Ian Creasy's "I Was Nearly Your Mother" was interesting and unsettling. If parallel worlds exist, there will be some that are quite different, such as if Hitler won WWII, and others that are only slightly different, such as where you first started work. This story is of the latter type, where a very significant personal decision was made by a woman. Should she get an abortion or not. The worlds diverge where she has the baby in one and in the other she doesn't. The woman who aborted travels to the alternate universe to meet her daughter, Marian, who has lost her mother in the other world. The potential is that we have a win-win situation. The reality is we don't. We get lose-lose I'd say. This was a good character study.

I liked "God in the Sky" by An Owomoyela. Is the world coming to an end, when a bright light appears in the sky? Is God here? Some people think so. Our protaganist Katri doesn't see it that way. In the story we see how several members of her family react.

"Movement" by Nancy Fulda was easily the best story in the issue. The writing is beautiful. A girl, Hannah, has a type of autism that her parents want to cure with an experimental procedure. Hannah, to me, seems comfortable with her different perceptions of the world. Hannah is a dancer, and a talented one. We know Hannah's preference in the story, perhaps best expressed as this: '"No new shoes," I say. "I couldn't dance the same in new shoes."' Will Hannah's parents come to understand what she wants?

"The Most Important thing in the World" by Steve Bein is almost an old-fashioned schtick of a science fiction story - Ernie, a cabbie, finds what seems to be a time travel suit left in the back of his cab by a college kid. He plays around, we enjoy the ride, and he reconnects with the kid who left the suit behind to find out what is really going on.

"Lost in the Memory Palace, I Found You" by Nick Wolven was an OK story, although I'm not quite sure exactly what was going on. Things are changing fast and Ray can't seem to keep up. A lot of us feel that way about life! This story however takes it to a rather extreme.

"Purple" by Robert Reed finishes up the stories. The introduction to the story helped me realize rather quickly what was going on. The introduction explains that it was inspired by wildlife rescue/rehabilitation centers and raptor rehabilitation places that try to save injured animals and if possible return them. Many creatures of course due to their injuries cannot be returned to the wild. "Purple" is a good story about this, but on an interplanetary scale. It is a little odd as well.

Paul Di Filippo reviews a number of books with a focus on Poul Anderson, James Blish and Lester del Rey to close out the issue.

Overall I'd say this was a decent issue, and a couple stories such as Nancy Fulda's exceptional "Movement", and to a lesser extent Steve Bein's "The Most Important Thing in the World" raise this into the above average category. I can't give this a strong recommendation however. ( )