eor

As usual it took me no time at all to go through an entire issue of Asimov's. After reading the first few stories I came to the conclusion that this was the gloom and doom issue. Many of the issues have stories that are sad, but they usually have other things that leave a compelling impression. But in this issue there seems to be a heavy tendency toward the sad. "Fireflies" and "You Will Go to the Moon" are the most dark, no light here don't bother to ask, kind of dark. "Nano Comes to Clifford Falls" is dark but determined. "The World and Alice" can make you feel you're all alone in the world. "The Djinn's Wife" is interesting, complicated, and no one lives happily ever after. The only stories to buck the trend are "Snail Stones" which starts dark and gets lighter, albeit a bit unrealistically and "Impossible Dreams" which is just your basic sweet, smarmy story (which I loved).

Overall, the stories weren't bad. "The Djinn's Wife", "Nano Comes to Clifford Falls", and "Impossible Dreams" are all strong contenders in their own sub genres. But as