One of the best stories in this issue of Clarkesworld, “Heart of Thunder” deals with some pretty timely issues. Among these are mental health and artificial intelligence. The main character deals with mental health issues. One of the remedies that he employs is mind augmentations that are built around AI. Unfortunately, this is expensive, and he ends up indentured to the corporation that created the augmentations. Nothing could go wrong there, right? The company requires he do some questionable things and the experience causes changes to the augmentations and to himself.
Once again, here is a story that deals with issues of the day by exploring their consequences in a near future world. In my opinion, this is exactly what speculative fiction does best. And the author Alvi paints an engaging, deeply felt portrait of a person dealing with them. Excellent read.
My rating: 5/5
