Asimov's Science Fiction: December 2013 - Plot & Excerpts
I used it to express my belief that we are never going to have any close encounters with the inhabitants of other solar systems. They're just too far away. Despite the best efforts of such people as my friends, the brothers Jim and Greg Benford, who even now are working to drum up interest in an interstellar voyage, the distance even to the nearest star is so great that only by magical means (a faster-than-light drive, for instance) are we likely to get to an extra-solar planet and return. "It's disheartening," I wrote back then. "I've spent five decades [six, now] writing stories about other worlds and other intelligent life-forms, and I don't like the idea that I've simply been peddling pipe dreams all this time. I do believe... that the universe is full of populated worlds. I do want to know what those alien races look like, how they think, what kind of cities they live in. I'd love to read alien poetry and look at alien sculptures. I might even want to risk dinner at a five-star alien restaurant.
What do You think about Asimov's Science Fiction: December 2013?
