future nostalgia
While going through some boxes a few months back, I stumbled upon a couple of twenty-odd year-old back issues of Analog magazine that I’d kept from my Dad’s stuff. When I was a dorky teenager, I loved digging through these paperbound wonders on Dad’s shelves, reading the stories, scouring the old adverts for mostly defunct games like Twilight 2000 and Traveller (neither of which I ever managed to play), and generally feeding the budding sci-fi geek sections of my brain.
I also inadvertently discovered what’s probably my favorite short story ever (thankfully contained in the cache I saved), which led me to all kinds of other interesting and enjoyable reads over the years.
So, right after the new year, in a wave of nostalgia, I gifted myself with my own subscription to the digest-sized magazine. My first issue arrived last week, much to my delight.
While the gaming column is, sadly, gone (the pen & paper RPG age has pretty much ended), I’ve been enjoying new stories about railgun fights on the moon, martian feral cats, a new twist on first contact, and a really bad date that turns out not so bad after all.
All told, I’m really glad I treated myself, and looking forward to where the rest of the year will take me.
