Our February issue features a sprawling new novella by the award-winning Stephen Baxter, set in the same slightly shifted past of his Locus-award nominated novelette “The Ice War,” which appeared in these pages in September of 2008. You don’t have to be familiar with that story to enjoy “The Ice Line,” which features some of the descendents of those august personalities as they deal with the oncoming threat of Napoleon’s invading Grande Armée as it makes it way through England’s interior. The story of how Baxter’s terrifying Phoebeans (and a peculiar kind of undersea conveyance) are used in the war effort against old Boney, and with what dreadful consequences, awaits you in February!

February features three Asimov’s debuts that are sure to turn heads: “Stone Wall Truth,” by gifted newcomer Caroline M. Yoachim, is a tale of tribal warfare and medicine, and how the two are both inextricably opposed and yet forever linked—we think you’ll find Yoachim’s treatment brave, insightful, and even a little uncomfortable; Aliette de Bodard contributes a lovely and affecting story of post-singularity human beings who have achieved a sort of Zen satori in spite of their banishment by a cruel future-dynasty, and the not-yet-awakened monks who inhabit the spaces between the two in “The Wind-Blown Man”; and David Erik Nelson’s zany “The Bold Explorer in the Place Beyond” is sure to remind you of gonzo greats like Neal Barrett, Jr. and Howard Waldrop, not to mention Walt Kelly’s redoubtable Pogo! The venerable talents are also on display during February, with the return of Bruce McAllister, who offers a nostalgic and haunting ghost tale of northern Italy and “The Woman Who Waited Forever”; and Damien Broderick, who continues his unofficial series of tours de force inspired by classic SF talents, with “Dead Air” a Phil-Dickian meditation of claustrophobic urban sprawl and the recently deceased visiting from beyond the grave and through your television screen.

Robert Silverberg, in his Reflections column, continues his survey of the classic works of science fiction by “Rereading Clarke”; Peter Heck brings us “On Books”; plus an array of poetry you’re sure to enjoy.

Look for our February issue on sale at your newsstand on December 22, 2009. Or you can subscribe to Asimov’s—in classy and elegant paper format or those new-fangled downloadable varieties, by visiting us online at www.asimovs.com. We’re also available on Amazon.com’s Kindle!

New stories by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Robert Reed, Tom Purdom, Allen M. Steele, Alexander Jablokov, Molly Gloss, Sara Genge, William Preston, Peter Friend, Barry B. Longyear, and many others!