Reading Rebound

I finished the Dec. 2009 issue of Asimov's last night and I didn't have a positive view of the magazine. I gave up on the final story by Brian Stableford (I keep trying with him but I'm just not a fan) and the rest of the stories didn't do much for me, except for Mike Resnick's humorous high concept, "The Bride of Frankenstein." I was reluctant to pick up the Jan. 2010 issue but I've been trying to wipe out my SF mag backlog, so I did. I read the entire issue today and was glad I did.

It's rare to find any anthology, whether magazine or book, where you like everything but I found that today. Thanks to Geoffrey A. Landis for the mix of hard SF and character, Felicity Shoulders for the gut-punch ending in a story about a world where babies with modifications are abandoned, Steve Rasnic Tem for the uplifting melancholy, Chris Roberson for the birth of a Superman substitute in an alternate world, Robert Reed for the similarities and differences of his alternate world (which includes a never-made movie by Martin Scorcese, Carol Emshwiller for her wonderful oddball characters, and Allen M. Steele for the pulpy thrill of the "true" story of an alien lifeform landing on an exclusive Georgia island.