Asimov's Science Fiction January/February 2021

Our January-February 2021 cover story, “A Rocket for Dimitrios,” is Ray Nayler’s first novella. Set in an alternate fifties influenced by dangerous alien technology, it’s filled with intrigue and deception. The issue also features an exciting great-ship novella by Robert Reed. In “The Realms of Water,” an ancient human traveler meets an even older warrior. You won’t soon forget this account of alien warfare and the Great Surus.

Ted Kosmatka plays the odds in “Shy Sarah and the Draft Pick Lottery”; the importance of “Table Etiquette for Diplomatic Personnel, in Seventeen Scenes” is revealed in Suzanne Palmer’s captivating mystery; new author Robert H. Cloake considers “The Fear of Missing Out”; new author Sean William Swanwick examines the motives of “Humans and Other People”; and Nick Wolven’s moving story leaves “No Stone Unturned.” Join “The Three-Day Hunt” with Robert R. Chase; learn why “I Didn’t Buy It” from Naomi Kanakia; unravel a bureaucratic nightmare in Fran Wilde’s otherwise charming “Mayor for Today”; and find out whether a young crewmember should trust his “Hunches” in Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s thrilling new tale.

Robert Silverberg’s Reflections column celebrates “One Hundred Years of Robots”; James Patrick Kelly’s On the Net takes a look at humor and asks if we “Get It?”; Norman Spinrad’s On Books is “Out There” with Alan Dean Foster, James Gunn, and Brandon Q. Morris; plus we have an array of poetry and other features.