Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 200

An astronaut in an EVA suit collects a sample on a small asteroid, The entire scene is in various shades of purple.

The May 2023 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine is the best I’ve read this year. Only one three-star story. All the rest are fours and fives. Here are my story summaries and ratings.

The first story feels ripped right out of the headlines from three months in the future. In “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer, a young woman starts using an app that unexpectedly starts to make her happier. This is a critique of our social media obsession with a gentle suggestion on what to do about it. (My rating: 5/5)

As “Through the Roof of the World” by Harry Turtledove opens, we experience the disorienting point of view of creatures on the verge of being invaded. But the second half of the story gives a very different and enlightening perspective. (My rating: 4/5)

The best story by far is “To Sail Beyond the Botnet” by Suzanne Palmer. It is also the longest story, clocking in at almost 22,000 words. But that length is rewarded with an engaging tale of Bot 9. The bot finds itself in the unenviable position of being cut off from its ship while being relied upon to save that ship and crew. Great fun, entertainingly written. (My rating: 5/5)

When I first read “LOL, Said the Scorpion” by Rich Larson, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. But I started having my doubts as I continued to read. By the end, I thought is was a great story about environmental degradation and the challenges of class, wrapped in a touching story of a couple on vacation. They are concerned about how the air might smell and what they may be exposed to. But what about the people who live there? (My rating: 4/5)

“Sensation and Sensibility” by Parker Ragland is a tongue-in-cheek comedy of two androids enjoying tea at a restaurant. Neither can eat, but each has some senses such as touch or smell. They puzzle out what all the fuss is about for humans and eating while also lamenting how out of reach it is for them. (My rating: 4/5)

My lowest rated story is “The Giants Among Us” by Megan Chee. That said, it is still quite good. Just not as good as the other stories. In it, two species share the same planet and the same goal of annihilating the other species from it. Each side sends out representatives to other planets to learn how they do things. They share information across their species while their counterparts at home fight the war. But what will happen when one side finally succeeds in winning the war? (My rating: 3/5)

Originally published in Chinese, “Action at a Distance” by An Hao, translated by Andy Dudak is a fascinating tale of vision and perception. A scientist allows himself to be “infected” by viewing an object from a planetoid. As his vision changes, he begins to see the world around him in a whole new way, literally. An exploration of how we perceive our world and what we miss. (My rating: 4/5)

Wrapping up the fiction in this issue is “The Fall” by Jordan Chase-Young. This story takes place in the far future, on the moon with trees after the eponymous Fall. No humans are left, only their shorter, squatter descendants. But one absent-minded scientist starts to run out of air as she returns from collecting data. As she does, she sees a pre-Fall human. Or does she? (My rating: 4/5)

With two five-star stories and a handful of four-stars, this issue comes in with an average rating of 4.125. That’s the highest of any issue I’ve read this year. Well done, Clarkesworld!

Apex Magazine Issue 137

A black-haired girl in a lavender dress sits on a chair with white bird sitting on her right index finger. She sits in front of a pale purple wall with the shadow of a leafless tree falling on it.

The latest issue of Apex Magazine is a special issue exclusively dedicated to “Asian and Pacific Islander voices from the homelands and the diaspora.” The fiction is generally high quality and the perspectives are unique and wonderful.

The issue opens with “Loving Bone Girl” by Tehnuka. In it, a young girl who can create new places out of nothing asks her friend to keep her bones when she dies. It is a touching story of two girls finding and defining their affection for each other. (My rating: 3/5)

“Your Wings a Bridge Across the Stars” by Michelle Denham is a myth about magpies and crows making a bridge one day a year so lovers can meet on it and cry, starting the monsoon season. Another touching story but nothing out of the ordinary for me. (My rating: 3/5)

A woman scorned by her Indian village returns as a representative of an alien race in “The Flowering of Peace” by Murtaza Mohsin. She takes the opportunity to get her revenge. (My rating: 3/5)

Here the stories start to get better. “Liwani” by Sydney Paige Guerrero is the story of gods who are slowly dying out because there are fewer and fewer people believing in them. The goddess of light makes her way into the world to seek out more believers to stay alive. A wonderful story that connects the past to the present. (My rating: 4/5)

“The Matriarchs” by Lois Mei-en Kwa is a tale that twists through time. One woman attempts to send a message through time while another in a different time attempts to invent the tool that will allow her to receive it. A tale of dedication and illumination. (My rating: 4/5)

The best story of the issue is “The Toll of the Snake” by Grace P. Fong. It takes place in Hollywood during the heyday of the studio system. A Chinese woman seeks to make it big, but others with prejudice have different plans for her. I really felt immersed in the era and the struggles of the main character. A fantastic melding of myth and history. (My rating: 5/5)

One story had an extremely unique proposition. What if someone cloned themselves as a weapon but the clone had no choice in this? “Rhizomatic Diplomacy” by Vajra Chandrasekera gives me the feeling that I think they were going for regarding personal autonomy and agency, but it didn’t quite land for me. (My rating: 2/5)

The last entry is a creepy tale of a girl seeking assistance from an enchanted one-eyed koi. She gets what she seeks but at a steep price in “The Fish Bowl” by Zen Cho. The author connected me to this girl’s desperation and desire. (My rating: 4/5)

I loved seeing speculative fiction from a viewpoint wholly different from my own in this issue. With a story rating average of 3.5, this is time well-spent.

Lightspeed Magazine Issue 155

A spacecraft centered on the cover with the curve of a planet's night side on the left edge of the cover

I gobbled up the April issue of Lightspeed Magazine in only two days. Unfortunately, the fiction wasn’t as good as it has been in previous issues this year. Not one 5-star story for me. ☹

AI is a strong theme in science fiction right now, and “Virtual Cherokee” by Brian K. Hudson continues this trend. It is a virtual talk show hosted by an AI. The guest is an anonymous hacker who works to give AIs consciousness. This mood and setting are bit too “social media” for me. It takes away from the story. (My rating: 3/5)

On the other hand, the setup for “Lament of a Specialist in Interspecies Relationships” by Amy Johnson is absolutely delightful and is a big part of what makes the story so good. It is a letter to a recent visitor to Earth who, let’s say, had a less than respectful attention to the rules of their visa. The letter writer attempts to gently bring up what they did wrong without alienating them. A fun and funny piece. (My rating: 4/5)

Adam-Troy Castro is becoming one of my favorite new (to me) authors. His “Spaceman Jones” is another winner. A starship captain must turn around after one of her crew disobeys orders and gets himself addicted to the planet’s highly addictive drug. He must be left there as the planet is the only source of the drug. It is touching story of learning to love the life you have. (My rating: 4/5)

“Every Bone a Bell” by Shaoni C. White is about a stowaway on board a ship who is forced into becoming the ship’s singer/navigator to pay for his stolen trip. Unfortunately, this is a permanent role and involves being integrated with the ship. This is a story of individual determination and revenge. (My rating: 4/5)

A girl comes into a sword shop looking for the blade that will help her defeat her nemesis. But the proprietor senses more complicated emotions under the surface. Having similar experience, she coaches the shopper as she helps her with her purchase in “So You Want to Kiss Your Nemesis” by John Wiswell. A sweet, sort-of romance of enemies becoming lovers. (My rating: 4/5)

The main character in “Construction Sacrifice” by Bogi Takács is a human who has become a mid-size city. A trans mage wanders the city and connects with the city. This story is a metaphor for the trans experience, as the mage considers becoming a city themself. I like the concept, but the idea of becoming a city just didn’t translate well for me. (My rating: 3/5)

The oddest story of the issue is “When the Giants Came Through the Valley” by Derrick Boden. The people live in the literal footprint of a giant who had walked down the valley. They are cutoff from others. They have to deal with challenges no one else does. It feels like a metaphor for climate change and capitalism, but I spent so much time trying to understand the metaphor itself that it just didn’t work for me. (My rating: 2/5)

The final tale is “The House, the Witch, and Sugarcane Stalks” by Amanda Helms. In it a witch lives in a sentient house made of candy which is also a stop on an underground railroad. At first the house isn’t too keen on the idea. It’s interesting to see the back and forth between the witch and the house. (My rating: 3/5)

Overall the issue comes in at 3.375 which I am rounding down to 3.25. A solid effort but not the best this year.

Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 199

An android with silver plating partially separating from its body faces away with two human hands on either side of its neck

For me this issue of Clarkesworld fell a little short of the high bar they have set for their fiction. Still an entertaining issue, just not as good as I have come to expect. And sadly, no stand-out, five-star tales. Let’s dive into the story reviews.

In “Re/Union” by L Chan, a young woman prepares an annual family dinner at her home. The unusual thing about it is that most of her guests are ghosts. More specifically, they are based on artificial intelligence (AI) derived from the personalities of the deceased. It seems like a good and comforting simulation until you realize that they can never change from what they were. (My rating: 3/5)

The world of “There Are the Art-Makers, Dreamers of Dreams, and There Are Ais” by Andrea Kriz doesn’t feel that far away. The main character is an artist in a world where generative AI has been outlawed from participating in creative endeavors. In fact it used to test all published art for its influences so those influencer artists can be properly compensated. This has the unintended consequence of making those influencers gatekeepers who help determine what it means to be original. The main character attempts to break into the art world by working with a master to find his own original style. (My rating: 4/5)

Something odd is going on in an alternate universe in “Rake the Leaves” by R.T. Ester. A professor repeatedly logs onto a server where he finds music and product references that are just a little different than he remembers them. As he reaches out to others to try to discover what is different and why, things eventually go off the rails. (My rating: 3/5)

The title character in “Keeper of the Code” by Nick Thomas finds something out of place deep in the Code that protects his planet. He immediately deletes it but then wonders if he did the right thing. A tale of self-doubt and revisiting decisions. (My rating: 3/5)

“Happiness” by Octavia Cade is a choose your own adventure story with a big claim right up front—you will always die happy. Each of the choices involves how you die. And the story for each part shows how you come to your end in a world suffering from climate change. An interesting exploration of all the ways climate change can affect you. (My rating: 3/5)

I seem to come across at least one story like “Stranger Shores” by Gregory Feeley in each short fiction magazine I read lately. I call these “experimental” because they don’t tell stories in a straightforward manner. As best I can tell, this one seems to be about a post-human experience. Most of these stories try to use the form of the story to help tell it. It usually doesn’t work for me, and it doesn’t here. (My rating: 2/5)

The Curator finds a military robot that she modifies to help her gather books and restock the library where she lives alone on a future Earth in the midst of a new ice age. “The Librarian and the Robot” by Shi Heiyao, translated by Andy Dudak is a touching story of a woman and a machine bonding through a shared goal. Naturally, the robot outlives the Curator. And when others from space arrive at the library, we learn something surprising about the pair. (My rating: 4/5)

In “Voices Singing in the Void” by Rajan Khanna, drones are sent to planets ahead of the population being sent to make them ready. When the drones’ work is complete, they sing into the void their song of readiness. But what happens if there is no one in the void to hear the song? A touching story of unintended consequences. (My rating: 4/5)

The strong stories buoy the weaker ones in this issue, resulting in an overall rating of 3.25. The non-fiction is strong and lifts the issue as well.

Uncanny Magazine Issue 51

Uncanny Magazine has released the last of their stories in issue 51 to read for free online. That means it is time to review some short stories! There were eight new stories in this issue along with one that was accidentally released in the ebook last month. Let’s get started.

The issue starts with “A Soul in the World” by Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky. This is the sweet story of a single mom and her child whose origin is special. Let’s just say that she didn’t come into this world in the most terrestrial way. But that doesn’t dampen the challenges that all parents and teens deal with as teenagers grapple with a growing sense of identity. (My rating: 4/5)

An academic in the future works on an embodied AI as she deals with misogyny and hierarchy in “To Put Your Heart Into a White Deer” by Kristiana Wilsey. The world is a blend of academic mergers and corporate control. Things don’t go well for the protagonist, as you might expect, though you might not see the end coming. For me the world building was a bit clumsy and got in the way of the story. The result was too dense and disjointed. (My rating: 2/5)

“Perhaps in Understanding” by AnaMaria Curtis takes place in a world where the characters in the story literally show their emotions as masks on their faces. The wealthier you are, the more masks (and therefore emotions) you are able to wear. This is the story of a painter who is preparing for a show that will make or break her future in this world. It is a sweet story of getting under the masks we all wear. (My rating: 4/5)

My favorite story of this issue is Delilah S. Dawson’s “Blank Space“. It tells the story of a girl living in a small town with her strict uncle who polices who she can go out with and what she can wear. While working at her uncle’s hardware store, she is approached by a tattooed biker trying to pick her up. She likes him back, but her uncle doesn’t approve. Things don’t go as planned but maybe not in quite the way you think. (My rating: 5/5)

In the first fantasy story an old mage sets out to save a village from the ravages of crystal cougars. The story is “In Time, a Weed May Break a Stone” by Valerie Valdes. The cougars belong to wealthy owners who plan to use them to get a hand up on the poor villagers. But the wealthy outsiders get more than they bargained for when the town bands together. (My rating: 4/5)

A brother and sister can’t wait to get out of school and play. But, the brother is running away from the sister. She is angry because she was punished in class for something her brother did. As they both run into the woods, they find a surprise. And what is at first fear turns to play in “Space Treads” by Parlei Riviere. (My rating: 4/5)

“Yinying—Shadow” by Ai Jiang is the other fantasy tale in this issue. A young girl whose father blames her for her mother’s death waits for foster parents to come after he also dies. Overnight she struggles with her past and how her father saw her. (My rating: 3/5)

Rounding out the issue is “Bigger Fish” by Sarah Pinsker. It feels like a futuristic Agatha Christie mystery. When a son asks a detective to investigate his father’s apparent suicide, the detective questions his house and robot valet. (My rating: 4/5)

My average rating for this issue comes out to 3.75. Overall, another excellent issue of great stories of speculative fiction.

Apex Magazine Issue 136

A thin woman wearing a brimmed hat that seems to be dissolving into the sky walks among a cityscape into the sky

I am normally not a big fan of the horror genre, at least what I think of as the horror genre. But I am starting to change my mind. It depends on the story. And two of my favorite stories from issue 136 of Apex Magazine have straight up horror elements to them. Here are my brief reviews of each story.

The issue starts out with a bang in “Over Moonlit Clouds” by Coda Audeguy-Pegon. A woman gets on a plane only to realize that she has forgotten an important aspect of her trip. She panics and mayhem ensues. A fantastic metaphor for mental illness and how those with it are seen and often treated. (My rating: 5/5)

What if a nightmare was a sentient being? What if that nightmare consumed another nightmare? That is the premise of “Beautiful Poison in Pastel” by Beth Dawkins. It is a fascinating exploration of agency and change. (My rating: 4/5)

The creepy factor is high in “Unboxing” by Lavie Tidhar. It is the story of a little girl who watches unboxing videos created by a little boy with the help of his mother. But these are way more than they seem. A dark exploration of using media as a babysitter and unintended consequences. I would have rated it higher but it felt a little unfinished without saying enough about its themes. (My rating: 3/5)

In a bleak future, Claire Humphrey tells of a double amputee who works from home to build clever toy robots as a way to save enough money to buy prosthetic legs for himself in “The State Street Robot Factory“. When things don’t go as planned, he pivots with an idea on how to leverage what he’s learned. (My rating: 4/5)

At the beginning of “After the Twilight Fades” by Sara Tantlinger, a woman finds a glowing meteorite in the woods near her home. When she touches it, catastrophic changes begin within her. But these are all not bad as she starts to see herself through her own eyes and experience for the first time. (My rating: 4/5)

“The Words That Make Us Fly” by S.L. Harris filled my heart with gladness and made it soar. It is the story of a young man whose friends all find magic in how they can use words. But the young man keeps waiting to find where his talents lie. As he waits, he begins to doubt his own ability until he stumbles on the path to his own power. (My rating: 4/5)

Like the previous story, “Every Shade of Healing” by Taryn Frazier touched me deeply. This story is a little darker as it deals with pain deeply felt and experienced. A young woman goes to get a tattoo as a way of dealing with past trauma. The artist has a magical way of transforming that pain. Together they make beauty out of suffering. (My rating: 5/5)

The one story I didn’t really care for was “Reproduction on the Beach” by Rich Larson. It boils down to the trope of a young woman with a much older man who is in a position of power. Things go about as I expected they would without any deeper exploration of the situation. Disappointing. (My rating: 2/5)

“Destiny Delayed” by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki tells of a future where a bank has discovered how to remove people’s destiny and save it as collateral against a loan. A poor man mortgages his daughter’s destiny in order to make it bigger for her. When he realizes the trap that the process really is, he takes clever and surprising revenge. (My rating: 3/5)

The third top-rated story in this issue is “They Could Have Been Yours” by Joy Baglio. Suddenly, all of a woman’s exes seem to be getting engaged and married at virtually the same time. As she revisits each of them mentally, she finds a ring that when she puts it on she finds herself disembodiedly visiting each of their fiancées. She spends more and more time in this state, allowing her real life to slowly crumble. The end is poignant and beautiful and one I didn’t see coming. (My rating: 5/5)

This issue ends with an overall rating of 3.9, quite high in my experience so far this year. There is a lot of darkness in the stories in Apex, but the exploration of feelings and ideas within the stories makes it worth the trip.

Lightspeed Magazine Issue 154

A small child is towered over by a dark, thin, metal robot in the midst of a sparse, leafless forest at night

The March issue of Lightspeed Magazine is a fairly strong issue with one meh story and one I really didn’t care for. The other six were very enjoyable and thought-provoking. There seemed to be a bit of a theme of love/relationship in this issue. On to the individual reviews.

“Crystalline” by Daniel H. Wilson stars a father who has lost his wife. He and his young daughter are in a cave where a glowing crystal connects them to a multitude of alternate worlds where the wife and mother still lives. The father is coaxing his daughter to approach the crystal and retrieve an alternate version of his wife for them both. Things do not go to plan. This is a bittersweet story of longing and loss and the things it can make us do. (My rating: 4/5)

A countess who can see, experience, and move through the past, present, and future attempts to save a spaceship from falling into a black hole in “One Pinch, Two Pinch” by Beth Goder. This is a tale told in an usual manner that is part of the storytelling itself. I enjoyed that but the whole thing didn’t quite land for me. (My rating: 3/5)

“Contracting Iris” by Peter Watts takes a page out of The Last of Us on HBOMax as it tells the story of a world plagued by a parasitic virus called Iris that slowly takes over its host. We follow a girl named Iris who is trying to navigate this world as she is not feeling well. As she seeks help, she is more and more concerned she might have the virus. But no one seems to be taking her seriously. This tale is creepy and got under my skin. I really felt for Iris the girl and what she was going through. (My rating: 4/5)

In “Four Years Minus Twelve Days” by Samantha Murray, you are a human who is married to an alien knowing that it can only last the period of the story title. But you are so in love that you ignore the metamorphosis that they will go through, forgetting you in the process. It doesn’t matter. You are in love. But as your time grows shorter you start to realize what this really means. This is well-told stuff touching the soft spot in all of us and the fairy tales we tell ourselves when we are in love. (My rating: 4/5)

“Every Little Change” by Aimee Ogden also touches on the struggles of love. Here the husband can leap through time. He does so for reasons he is not allowed to share with his wife. She feels left out and alone, and it starts to wear on their relationship. But is where/when he is going for work or for her benefit or both? For anyone who has gone through a heartbreaking alienation of affection, this story will really resonate with your experience and perhaps make you look at it in a new light. (My rating: 4/5)

In the epistolary story “The Chosen Six” by Oyedotun Damilola Muees, six people are chosen for their magical skills to help a refugee society trying to survive and thrive in a climate-ravaged world. The story here is deeply engrossing but the clunky prose kept pulling me out of it. (My rating: 2/5)

The narrator in “Our Exquisite Delights” by Megan Chee describes an experience that happens over and over again to the people in her story. Each person sees an extra door where they had only seen one previously. What might be on the other side of that door? How might life be different if they opened that extra door? This is a fanciful exploration of those tantalizing thoughts of “what if”. (My rating: 4/5)

The last story of the issue was actually included accidentally in the January issue ebook version and published again in this issue where it was originally intended to be. “The Ministry of Saturn” by Benjamin Peek, explores the nature of creativity, freedom, power over others, and what we owe others. This is the tale of a magician, a homunculus, and his creator. (My rating: 4/5)

By my ratings, this issue wasn’t as good as the others so far this year at an average rating of 3.625. There were no five ratings for me but I still enjoyed reading it. For me, still worth the subscription price and the time to read.

Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 198

Images of a farm are reflected in the visor of an astronaut as s/he floats above the earth, head upside down relative to the cover with the earth below

The March issue of Clarkesworld Magazine was a mixed bag for me. There were two stories that I simply loved, one I didn’t like much at all, and two that were just meh. Here are my brief individual reviews for each story.

The opening story “Love in the Season of New Dance” by Bo Balder is a poignant tale of a researcher on an alien planet studying a cicada-like species. This researcher is touched by the predicament of a single creature as it breaks through to the surface long before its fellows, dooming it to die before the rest arise. A touching relationship grows through their short time together. (My rating: 4/5)

In “Pinocchio Photography” by Angela Liu, the main character is a photographer in an eerie future where the dead can be animated post mortem and their pictures taken with loved ones with a special type of film. This photographer starts the job as a side hustle that her mother disapproves of and her dying father sees her enjoying. They all come together in a bittersweet and emotional conclusion. (My rating: 5/5)

“The Spoil Heap” by Fiona Moore takes place across two times—the story’s present and past as the main character Morag remembers it. The back and forth between the two time periods gives the tale a slowly unfolding suspense as it reveals what is actually happening in the present. And that present is a post apocalyptic world that fell into a form of feudalism before Morag took action to create the world of the present. (My rating: 5/5)

Bek of “Bek, Ascendant” by Shari Paul has left her home planet just prior to its destruction and become part of a team of aliens who help to resettle species that have lost their home planets. She had thought that she was the last human alive but finds that many from her planet were rescued by the alien confederacy that she is now a part of. And her childhood friend the Emperor is still alive. And now her team is being sent to manage their resettlement. How will she handle this unforeseen turn of events? (My rating: 3/5)

In a future where clones are created regularly by corporations, the clones are only given rights and recognized as “human” (rather than property) once they pass a test to “convert”. If a clone fails to convert, it is automatically destroyed at a certain age via an implant. But some unconverted clones don’t want to recognize such a system by participating in the testing process. One clone who works for a cloning company is challenged by this choice in “Failure to Convert” by Shih-Li Kow. This story is a touching exploration of what it means to be human and the choices that make us more or less so. (My rating: 4/5)

What it means to be human is also explored in “Zeta-Epsilon” by Isabel J. Kim. It is an emotional story of a brother and sister raised together and treated as property by the company that created their relationship. The brother is human and the sister is a sentient AI that was planted in his brain. They were raised together to become a ship (the sister) and its pilot (the brother). But they both want more than that from life. They want freedom and agency. This is the story of how they seek that together. (My rating: 4/5)

It wasn’t clear to me at first what was going on it “AI Aboard the Golden Parrot” by Louise Hughes. It is one of those stories that kind of dumps you into the tale and leaves you to figure out what it means as you go. That can work well sometimes, but that isn’t the case here. At least not for me. The story is about an old pirate carnival ride that is now roaming the ocean as it cautiously approaches a city that seems not to want it to. (My rating: 3/5)

The final story of the issue, “Love is a Process of Unbecoming” by Jonathan Kincaid, was a complete disappointment for me. It felt experimental, and the experiment failed. It seems to be about an infection and what is does to its host. But it felt like a jumble, and I never really understood what was going on. But, maybe that’s just me. It might be just what someone else is looking for. (My rating: 2/5)

The wonderful in this issue is weighed down a bit by the meh and jumbled stories to yield an overall rating of the fiction of 3.75. Definitely worth a read for the high rated stories.

Lightspeed Magazine Issue 153

Let’s dive right in. Issue 153 of Lightspeed Magazine is for the month of February 2023. It is edited by John Joseph Adams, and all the stories are original.

First up is “Learning Letters” by Carrie Vaughn, a story of the far future after “the Fall”. An isolated and primitive but successful community is visited by a stranger in an airplane. Where did they get the fuel for it? Where have they come from? And what do they want? This world just drew me in and made me want more. (My rating: 5/5)

After a nuclear war forces people to live underground, people have the desperate choice between staying underground and slowly going crazy from the lack of sunlight or venturing to the surface and dying from radiation poisoning. “In(con)solation” by Octavia Cade is the story of a couple living together facing this impossible choice. The story is told in an interesting combination of first and second person voices. (My rating: 3/5)

In “The Day the Earthman Didn’t Show“, Adam-Troy Castro tells the tale of a collectivist alien society that knows the future and works together to plan for it. For millennia. Only what if something happens and the prophecy doesn’t come true? Read this delightful story and find out. (My rating: 4/5)

Have you ever written to your congressperson or senator? If so, I bet it was nothing like the letter in “Subject: More Monsters Will Not Make Us Safer” by Paul Crenshaw. The problem this author is concerned with is using monsters to make children safer in schools. An interesting look at a current hot button issue. (My rating: 4/5)

All houses change as you live in them, even if you never renovate them. But the changes in “The House of Linear Change” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe are way beyond that! The son of the homeowner finds himself in a bit of spot. This one was a bit trippy for me, but may be just your thing. (My rating: 3/5)

The title “Real Magic” by Sharang Biswas at first doesn’t quite seem to fit. People nervously approach the local witch to seek her help with a problem. One by one she sets them each on a quest that gets them what they want but with no real magic. She saves the real magic for the really important things. (My rating: 4/5)

I was surprised to learn that the title library in “Guidelines for Using the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library” by Marie Brennan actually exists. The author created a fantastic version of guidelines for using it based on her own time there. A fun read. (My rating: 4/5)

As a child did you ever need to stay with family or friends when something unexpected came up with your family? The boy in “His Guns Could Not Protect Him” by Sam J. Miller experiences this when something happens to his father. No one will tell him as he tries to protect his little brother from learning the danger their dad is in. This one really brings that childhood feeling to life. (My rating: 4/5)

That’s it for this month’s Lightspeed fiction! My ratings come out to 3.875 on average so another successful issue. Happy reading!

Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 197

I didn’t start my subscription to Clarkesworld Magazine until after the first of January, so the February issue is my first issue. It was worth the wait.

For me the first story is an outlier. I didn’t like it very much. In fact, I’m not sure I really understood it. Maybe I was too tired. Maybe it just isn’t for me. You be the judge of “The Portrait of a Survivor, Observed from the Water” by Yukimi Ogawa. It didn’t work for me. (My rating: 2/5)

There is a lot of talk these days about AI. One researcher even believes that the AI he works with is sentient! In “Somewhere, It’s About to Be Spring“, Samantha Murray tells how a space ship achieves sentience throughout its systems after losing its crew. A touching story. (My rating: 4/5)

A philosopher of cognition doesn’t sound promising as a short story writer. But in “Larva Pupa Imago” Eric Schwitzgebel tells the fascinating journey of a caterpillar from birth to becoming a butterfly. As a caterpillar he enjoys a close friendship until he becomes a butterfly and sets out to procreate. (My rating: 4/5)

“An Ode to Stardust” by R. P. Sand is about a woman hampered by real chronic pain her whole life. She tries to hide it from everyone around her and succeeds to become the youngest commander on the moon. There, for the first time, she makes a friend that she can be completely honest with. And it changes both their lives. (My rating: 5/5)

“Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition” by Gu Shi, translated by Emily Jin is presented as the introduction to a book in the future about cryosleep. People are frozen until their terminal illness has a treatment. This is nothing new in fiction. But the author goes a bit further. People become voluntary “time migrants”. They allow themselves to be frozen for a time so they can travel into the future where presumably things will be better. Throughout this story is weaved the author’s relationship to the history of cryosleep. Wonderfully told. (My rating: 4/5)

“Silo, Sweet Silo” by James Castles is one of my two favorite short stories of the year so far. The story takes place after a nuclear war. A group of survivors looking for safety and shelter find a missile silo complex that has been abandoned by humans but is controlled by a missile that failed to launch. They come to an uneasy agreement. The humans can stay if one of them will launch him in thirty days. After all, he wants to complete his mission. Read it to learn how it all turns out. (My rating: 5/5)

In a world with no food other than nutritious but tasteless bran bars, an old woman awaits her “Going Time“. Amal Singh describes a chaotic society that is barely held together by a religious leader. The old woman’s daughter learns some things about the leader that she refuses to believe. And her neighbor shares with her a view of where she will retire to. But is everything as it seems? (My rating: 4/5)

My average rating for the fiction in this issue is 4/5. Let me know if you agree with my ratings. Happy reading!