Neil Clarke

A very nice issue, with mostly good to excellent stories! I was very pleased with it.

The Lark Ascending by Eleanna Castroianni - a robot household assistant takes care of a family and their memories. Good one! 4.3 stars.

An Intergalactic Smuggler’s Guide to Homecoming by Tia Tashiro - Does everything the title promises! Fun! 4.5 stars.

The Indomitable Captain Holli by Rich Larson - irreverent adventures with high stakes, involving two self-sufficient skyscrapers in an apocalyptic wasteland; the skyscrapers are run by glitchy AI’s. Fun, scary, really good. 4.7 stars.

The Arborist by Derrick Boden - a team of terraformers is making a planet ready for human refugees. This one raises ethical questions that I’ve seen in sci-if countless times. Not my kind of story. 3.7 stars.

The Rambler by Shen Dacheng - a walking bridge! Quirky and quite lovely. 4.5 stars.

Occurrence at O1339 by Kelly Jennings - a first contact story, with a twist. Cool, fun, funny. 4.5 stars.

The Oldest Fun by Natalia Theodoridou - strange and dark. I don’t know what I think of it, but 4 stars it is.… (more)

A pretty average issue: there were some good stories, some meh stories, and just one story that I rated above 4.5.

Hello! Hello! Hello! by Fiona Jones - a lovely first contact story. It’s this author’s first published one :) I liked it, 4.2 stars.

Phosphorescence by Ben Berman Ghan - a story about a post-climate apocalypse world in which the privileged are trying to save themselves and the rebels that want a different future. Good stuff. 4 stars.

Nine Beauties and the Entangled Threads by D.A. Xiaolin Spires - a pair of friends are trying to understand why forests are dying and send bots in. There are also themes of family, loss, and friendship. 4 stars.

A Brief Oral History of the Zopilote Dock by Alaya Dawn Johnson - the USA is no more, and some of the new states are white supremacist and dystopian. People are fighting back. This is brilliant and visceral. 5 stars.

One Flew Over the Songhua River by Qi Ran - a story of a family mixed with space exploration. It was alright, but nothing special. 3 stars.

Her Body, The Ship by Z. K. Abraham - a generation ship horror fever dream story. I did not enjoy the writing at first, but I liked how everything came together. 3.9 stars.

Geminoid by Malena Salazar Garcia - a very creepy and terrifying story of androids who are organ donors. 4.2 stars.

Swarm X1048 - Ethological Field Report: Canis Lupus Familiaris, “6” by F. E. Choe - alien intelligences observe and document life on deteriorating Earth and fall in love with a dog. It’s meant to be poignant, but I wasn’t very impressed. 3 stars.… (more)

This issue was interesting, especially the short story by Isabel J. Kim. But there were too many underwhelming stories, so the overall rating will be 3 stars.

“Scalp” by H.H. Pak - janitors walk among people in tanks, who are living virtual lives. I think it’s supposed to be poignant, but I didn’t enjoy it at all. 2.5 stars.

“The Flowers That We Intend To Share” by Rajeev Prasad - the end of childhood, sentient mechs, flowers that drug you and creepy families. I liked the feel of this story. 3.9 stars.

“The Enceladus South Pole Base Named after V.I. Lenin” by Zohar Jacobs - an alternative history of sorts, with Soviet colonies on Saturn’s moons. It’s written as old school Soviet sci-fi, but it is subversive, of course. 3.8 stars.

“Kardashev’s Palimpsest” by David Goodman - of post humanity and love spanning millennia. I liked it! 4 stars.

“The Peregrine Falcon Flies West” by Yang Wanqing - This one is a nice mix of combating climate change, aliens, birds and bird-watching, and people refusing to conform. A cool story. 4 stars.

(It’s nice to see more Chinese sci-fi in Clarkesworld! Even when I don’t like a story, it’s still interesting to read something different from my “usual” sci-fi diet.)

“Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim - a very vicious and brilliant dialogue with Le Guin’s famous short story. 4.5 stars.

“The Beam Eidolon” by Ryan Marie Ketterer - a story featuring a living planet and stupid humans. I’ve read similar stuff before. 3 stars.

“Lonely Ghosts” by Meghan Feldman - abandoned machine intelligences are trying to be less lonely. Nothing special, 3 stars.… (more)