{"id":14412,"date":"2022-05-29T15:07:52","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T15:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=14412"},"modified":"2022-05-30T21:39:47","modified_gmt":"2022-05-30T21:39:47","slug":"clarkesworld-188-may-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=14412","title":{"rendered":"Clarkesworld #188, May 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Summary:
\nThis issue has three solid stories from Rich Larson (Wants Pawn Term <\/em>opens with Mother creating Red to recover a \u201csleepyhead\u201d that has fallen from orbit), David Levine (Kora is Life <\/em>has Kestrel Magid become the first human to race jet powered hangliders on an alien planet), and Oskar K\u00e4llner (Gamma<\/em> sees cosmic beings fight a civil war in a dying universe). Also worth a look is Liang Qingsan\u2019s story of literary detection in a Chinese library.
\nNot a bad issue.
\n[ISFDB<\/a>] [Issue: CW<\/a>, Amazon US<\/a>\/UK<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Editor-in-Chief, Neil Clarke; Editor, Sean Wallace
\nNon-Fiction Editor, Kate Baker<\/p>\n

Other reviews:
\nVictoria Silverwolf,\u00a0Tangent Online<\/a>
\nGreg Hullender and Eric Wong, Rocket Stack Rank<\/a>
\nSam Tomaino,\u00a0SFRevu<\/a>
\nVarious,\u00a0Goodreads<\/a><\/p>\n

______________<\/p>\n

Fiction:
\nWants Pawn Term<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Rich Larson \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>
\nTea Parties around Nebula-55<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Adriana C. Grigore \u2217<\/strong>
\nHatching <\/em><\/strong>\u2022 short story by Bo Balder \u2217<\/strong>
\nKora Is Life<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novella by David D. Levine \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>
\nThe Possibly Brief Life of Guang Hansheng<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Liang Qingsan (translated by Andy Dudak) \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>+
\nA Manual on Different Options of How to Bring A Loved One to Life <\/em><\/strong>\u2022 short story by Oyedotun Damilola Muees \u2217<\/strong>
\nGamma <\/em><\/strong>\u2022 short story by Oskar K\u00e4llner \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong><\/p>\n

Non-fiction:
\nOf Time and Travel<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 science essay by Galen T. Pickett
\nMaking Short Work of Commentary: A Conversation with Dennard Dayle<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 interview by Arley Sorg
\nMore Complex Than Caricature: A Conversation with Alex Shvartsman & Tarryn Thomas <\/em><\/strong>\u2022 interview by Arley Sorg
\nEditor\u2019s Desk: Recognition<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 editorial by Neil Clarke
\nShrine of Nameless Stars (Cover Art)<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 essay by Daniel Ignacio<\/p>\n

______________<\/p>\n

Wants Pawn Term<\/em><\/strong> by Rich Larson gets off to a flashy start:<\/p>\n

Red\u2019s body is asleep in the protoplasmic muck, dreamless, when Mother\u2019s cable wriggles down under the surface to find her. It pushes through the membrane of her neural stoma and pipes a cold tingling slurry inside. A sliver of Mother becomes Red, and Red
\n.<\/span>
\nwakes
\n.<\/span>
\nup!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Later:<\/p>\n

Her body is different than it was yesterday morning. Mother has replaced her heavy skeleton with honeycombed cartilage, pared her muscle mass, stripped her blubber deposits. Her carmine hide has hardened to a UV-repellent carapace. Fresh nerve sockets along her spine are aching for input.
\nWill I be flying? Will I be fuck fuck fucking flying? I will, won\u2019t I?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mother has woken Red to retrieve a \u201csleepyhead\u201d that is falling from orbit. As she sets off on her mission we see that Mother is a spaceship that was torn in two during the Big Crash (there is a smaller, simpler version of herself called Grandmother in the other, smaller, section).
\nAs Red flies over the alien terrain she thinks of a threatening creature called Wolf and (spoiler), when she gets to the pod containing the sleepyhead, sees him on top of it. She dives down to attack him but is shredded when she flies into a nanotube filament web.
\nThe second part of the story sees Wolf connect the shell containing Red\u2019s brain into his body. They start communicating, and we learn that there are forty three sleepyheads (humans) in orbit, and that seven died earlier on the planet. As Mother doesn\u2019t have access to her drone factories (they were destroyed in the crash), she used the bodies of the dead humans in the construction of cyborgs like Wolf (who subsequently went rogue) and then Red.
\nWolf subsequently opens the pod and wakes the Sleepyhead\/human, who screams at the sight of him. Wolf\/Red then conclude, after the sleepyhead\u2019s response, that the humans will never accept them (the implication is that Wolf then kills the human).
\nLater, they see a new version of Red on the surface of the planet, heading towards Grandmother. Red\/Wolf decide to take a shortcut there to infect the smaller part of the ship with rogue code. This will be passed on to the new Red, and then to Mother, who will then kill the remaining sleepyheads, refashioning them into cyborgs like Red and Wolf.
\nThis is, for the greater part, a vividly told story of a colonisation spaceship gone badly wrong\u2014but the back end is mostly an explanation of the situation, and a sketch of an unconvincing ending. I also wasn\u2019t entirely convinced that the humans would not tolerate the cyborgs. Finally, it is a piece that would have worked better at longer length, and with a more organic development. I\u2019d also mention that the Little Red Riding Hood references\u2014including the \u201cOnce Upon a Time\u201d title, feel more like a gimmick than a good a fit for the tale.
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong> (Good). 2,600 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

Tea Parties Around Nebula-55<\/em><\/strong> by Adriana C. Grigore opens with what appears to be children making mud pies, growing a tree, and cooking various dishes on a damaged spaceship. During this latter activity the ship warns them that it needs to shut down the recreation wing as it cannot keep that area functional. They go and scavenge the area before that happens.
\nAfter this excursion they finish their cooking, and it becomes apparent that they are humanoid robots. One of them, Remi, has no sense of taste.
\nThere isn\u2019t much of a story here, and it\u2019s mostly just robots pottering about. It rather reads like a short extract from a YA novel.
\n\u2217<\/strong> (Mediocre). 2,700 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

Hatching<\/em><\/strong> by Bo Balder opens with a young female officer called Alzey who is woken up and told she has been assigned to a spaceship called the\u00a0Chaffinch<\/em>. After some of Alzey\u2019s backstory (she has undergone therapy as she was identified by her superiors as a \u201cpathetic people pleaser\u201d), she finds that she has been assigned as one of the\u00a0Chaffinch\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0\u201ctriad\u201d, a three-person team designed to safeguard against erroneous AI decisions. When she arrives at the ship she is surprised to find that (a) one of the triad is the\u00a0Chaffinch<\/em>\u00a0AI, and (b) the other human is Jae, an ex-boyfriend.
\nThe second part of the story is mostly relationship guff concerning Alzey and Jae, and sees them, after an awkward encounter in the corridor, later have dinner together. During this they post-mortem their failed romance and, despite some of Alzey\u2019s criticisms of Jae, it is obvious that she still enamoured with him (\u201cAlzey\u2019s heart skipped a beat\u201d, \u201cThis was the man she\u2019d known and loved so hard her gut still ached when she thought of that time\u201d, etc.).
\nThe last part of the story (spoiler) switches gears entirely and, when the\u00a0Chaffinch<\/em>\u00a0arrives at its destination, Alzey discovers that several AIs are meeting there to create a \u201cfree AI\u201d. She and Jae (who is in on the plot and requested her as a crewmate) are asked by the AIs to contribute their traits to the new AI\u2019s character. She agrees, and the AI is born:<\/p>\n

At first there was nothing out there. Darkness. A palpable waiting.
\nAlzey blinked.
\nA spark of light? But a minute twitch from Jae convinced her she was really seeing something. Why was she holding his hand again? But she didn\u2019t let go. It felt good to be close to someone human, someone warm and breathing and full of squishy biological life.\u00a0 p. 27<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Aw, bless.
\nThe three parts of this story are only loosely connected when you view this as a work of SF, but if you view it as a YA romance\u2014or as a piece where an under-confident young woman becomes more assertive, and gains the love\/approval of her ex-boyfriend and a group of AIs\u2014then it makes more sense. Not my thing, so this didn\u2019t do much for me.
\n\u2217<\/strong> (Mediocre). 5,400 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

Kora is Life<\/em><\/strong> by David D. Levine opens with Kestrel Magid practicing for an air race on the alien planet Kora. He is the first ever human to fly in this particular competition:<\/p>\n

A roar off to my right caught my attention. A pure white practice wing like mine, but with struts painted in red and blue . . . it was Skeelee. Of course. She gave me a roguish salute as she passed me, climbing fast.
\nMy patrons were the Stormbird clade, their colors yellow and black. The Sabrecat clade, red and blue, was Stormbird\u2019s longest-standing and most hated rival, and the loathing was mutual; Skeelee had given me nothing but shit since I\u2019d arrived here last month. I had tried to maintain a professional, sportsmanlike attitude in the face of her provocations . . . but this was no competition, not yet. This was only a practice session. So maybe I could rag on her a little without betraying my principles. I squeezed the throttle and surged upward after her. \u00a0p. 29<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This passage illustrates the personal and clan rivalries that run through the remainder of the story.
\nSkeelee gets the best of Magid in this duel (his Earth-built jet engine flames out on short finals to their landing zone on the beach), and (spoiler) she goes on to do the same again in the two formal practice runs before the final race.
\nIn between these contests we see: Kora\u2019s planetary and inter-clade politics at work; internal tensions in the Stormbird Clade that Magid represents (later on in the story their engineer commits suicide because the Stormbird Clade\u2019s engine isn\u2019t being used); and Magid generally acting like a fish out of water (getting into trouble with the aliens when sober, and also when drunk).
\nThe story comes to a climax in the final race, during which Magid has to cope with not only the murderous Coral Clade, but also the stormy weather and the knowledge that, if he wins, the culture of Kora will be changed forever. Needless to say, Magid wins even though he crashes short of the finishing line (his engine runs out of fuel this time, but the nose piece of his wing crosses the line first).
\nThis piece has pros and cons and, as it happens, most of the pros are noticeable when you are reading the story, and most of the cons occur to you afterwards. So, the pros: it is a good light adventure story (verging on YA) which is well paced, generally well-plotted, and is concisely and transparently told (oh, the joy of not having to hack through endless MFA verbiage). The cons: this is essentially a non-SF story about jet powered hang-gliders which has been moved to an alien planet; the bouncing nose-cone ending is weak and unconvincing; and the aliens are sketchily drawn (apart from the fact they have fur, we find out little else about their physicality). I\u2019d also add that Magid starts off the story as a fairly callow sort, and ends up pretty much the same despite everything that happens to him. Notwithstanding the latter reservations, this is an enjoyable and easy read.1<\/sup>
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong> (Good). 18,050 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

The Possibly Brief Life of Guang Hansheng<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Liang Qingsan,2<\/sup> translated by Andy Dudak\u00a0gives the narrator\u2019s account of his researches into Xijin Guang Hansheng, the author of\u00a0Ascent to the Moon: Travel Notes of Guang Hansheng<\/em>\u00a0(an incomplete Chinese newspaper serial from 1905-1906):<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the content of the fiction that drew me in, but the small, blurry illustrations accompanying it. Ratlike humanoids stood on the cratered surface of the Moon. They were rigging up a crude, concave reflector like a present-day satellite dish, using a crater rim for support.
\nI knew it was a reflector because in the far corner of the image was the Sun, shining a beam of light onto the Moon, which the dish redirected at Earth. Black smoke rose from the focal point on Earth.
\nThis gave me pause. Someone from the Late Qing knowing the Moon was cratered? Then again, it made sense. Part of the ether fantasy propagated back then was a notion that the fabled substance might fill the Moon\u2019s craters, so that from Earth, the Moon would appear smooth. But my brief doubt caused me to linger on this newspaper, originally no more interesting than the other exhibits. Serialized novel chapters, each with a summarizing couplet, were the main form of fiction in the Late Qing.
\nThis sheet of newspaper featured the ending of the seventeenth chapter of the novel in question.\u00a0 pp. 70-71<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The rest of the story isn\u2019t much more than an account of the narrator\u2019s obsessive and detailed research (mostly of the library\u2019s microfilms), but his commentary on what he finds paints a interesting picture of China at the turn of the century. As various leads go cold, others turn up and, along the way, we also learn a little more about the narrator (he isn\u2019t an academic, but won\u2019t reveal his social status to the librarians he chats with).
\nEventually, the narrator finds what he thinks is Hansheng\u2019s last article (most of the rest of Hangsheng\u2019s work is popular science), and his research ends. He concludes with an observation about the writer (and, perhaps unwittingly in the final part, himself):<\/p>\n

I like to imagine an awkward, cantankerous savant possessed of scientific insight transcending his epoch, but unable to communicate it effectively. Understanding much that others can\u2019t, proud yet distracted, getting no approbation, insignificant, at the end of his rope, nowhere to go, nowhere to vent, and not even knowing himself clearly\u2014and suddenly, death is coming. He has squandered his rare smidgeon of talent, while watching others advance while he stays where he is. Alone. Just like countless literati of the time, and now, and even the future.\u00a0 pp. 82-83<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suspect that this will be a Marmite piece\u2014some will be engrossed by the detail of the library detective work, and amused by the narrator\u2019s occasionally mordant observations (\u201cSelf-important people cannot abide silence or anonymity\u201d, \u201cI\u2019d heard the PhD student looking for\u00a0Reunions<\/em>\u00a0in the [vast ocean of the] microfilm archive had ended up with detached retinas\u201d), while others will be bored witless. Even those in the former camp (such as myself) may find that, ironic ending or not, it rather fizzles out. Still, an interesting piece if not a totally satisfying one, and I\u2019m glad I read it.
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>+ (Average to Good). 5,500 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

A Manual on Different Options of How to Bring A Loved One to Life<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Oyedotun Damilola Muees opens with the protagonist of the story, Harafat, joining a Telegram group in an attempt to buy a prosthetic body for her sister (whose consciousness has been uploaded onto a hard drive). Eventually, Harafat and a friend called Tutu go a nightclub to meet a contact called The Owl:<\/p>\n

Sticky bodies bumped into her as she shoved her way through flesh and metal and cloth. The west wing was somewhat silent. Cyborgs and humans engaged in drugs\u2014MDMA, ecstasy, nootropics. She knew these drugs, a department of Greencorps manufactured them. An emo girl wearing a mohawk approached her, asking if she was in need of company, leering at her.
\n\u201cCome with me,\u201d the emo girl commanded. \u201cThe Owl awaits you.\u201d
\nWalking through a passage with graffiti on the wall, Harafat looked back, heart beating in fear of the unknown. She entered a room peopled with AI, cyborgs, and humans. The dim lights made it hard to see their faces.
\n\u201cWhere\u2019s the place?\u201d Harafat asked.
\n\u201cSee for yourself.\u201d
\nEveryone there was engaged in teledildonics. They wore helmets with transparent tethered wires rooted into both sides of a device: an intercourse headware. According to the media, this device had been banned. Moaning clogged all around.
\nHer phone buzzed,\u00a0Are you enjoying the view?<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0pp. 88-89<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Owl offers Harafat a prosthetic body for her sister if Harafat can get access to \u201cFloor Zero\u201d of her company, Greencorps (who do nanotech engineering and prosthetics, etc.) or, alternatively, she can do a \u201cwetwork\u201d job, i.e. kill someone for them. Harafat goes for the first option and (spoiler) later seduces the new nanotech engineer who works on Floor Zero; she eventually manages to convince the engineer to take her there.
\nWhen a fire later breaks out in that location, something called \u201cthe suit\u201d goes missing and, after this, Harafat\u2019s sister gets her robotic body. During the period she is getting used to it, she expresses a desire to kill the boss of Greencorps.
\nHarafat is then arrested during the ensuing enquiry, but the suit, disguised as one of the security men, appears and frees her:<\/p>\n

More security personnel filed out with rifles, shooting the security man who kept walking. He shielded Harafat from sporadic shootings. They reached the building exit when the security man\u2019s body began to jerk. Behind them, another security officer turned on an EMP: this was the only way to confirm that the strange man was an AI. It changed to different people, including Azeezat. Distorted silver tins, crumpled face, elastic stomach, and limp feet. The AI kept changing until it became liquid, slithering toward an opening, finding its way beneath the water pipes. Harafat bolted.\u00a0 p. 93<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Harafat escapes and disappears, time passes, and she later opens a flower shop. When she is visited by a man who says he\u2019ll be looking out for her, it becomes obvious the visitor is Harafat\u2019s sister, and the robotic body she was provided with is the suit (which she has since been using to conduct a guerrilla war against Greencorps).
\nThis all reads, unfortunately, like formulaic cyberpunk with a bit of\u00a0Terminator 2<\/em> mixed in (see the passage directly above). The story also has one or two distracting stylistic quirks: the chapter headings are too long, and they also use non-continuous numbers\u201411, 07, 13, 20, 23, 31, 42 56\u2014which are presumably meant to give the impression we are only seeing snapshots of the action. I suppose this is competently executed, but I remained entirely uninvolved throughout: write what you know, I think (and use shorter titles).
\n\u2217<\/strong> (Mediocre). 4,050 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

Gamma\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>by Oskar K\u00e4llner, translated by Gordon James Jones3<\/sup>\u00a0opens with two interstellar beings, spawn of earlier civilizations who now live in the \u201cquantum foam\u201d of the universe, meeting at a black hole. There, Gamma, and another of the \u201cCollective\u201d, Kthelk\u2019tha, absorb energy by flying through its Hawking radiation. We subsequently learn more about them and the universe\u2019s recent history:<\/p>\n

When the stars had begun to fade, none of the contemporary civilizations were bothered. There would be thousands of millions of years before dark energy ultimately tore the galaxies apart, before the hydrogen ran out and the residual heat dissipated. And of course, they were right. Not the slightest trace of their civilizations remained when the end came. The races that were unfortunate enough to be born in the twilight era tried desperately to find ways to slow down the cosmic expansion, to invert the dark energy and make the universe contract. They were doomed to fail.
\nOthers tried to accumulate enough matter to build new suns. Some such projects met with success. Controlled wormholes stripped nearby galaxies and interstellar space, and enough elementary building blocks were amassed to construct yellow, fusion-driven suns. Dyson spheres as big as solar systems were built around each new star, to harness all its energy. Thereby, they created the conditions necessary to prolong life for a few billion years more. Yet eventually even those stars burned out, the Dyson spheres fell apart, and the last remaining stardust was consumed by supermassive black holes. The universe entered the era of darkness.\u00a0 p. 97<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some time after this encounter they fall out and separate, and then Gamma learns of a war started by a Collective faction called the Light Connexion. Gamma subsequently finds Kthelk\u2019tha and sees she has been infected by a virus. Gamma destroys the virus and revives Kthelk\u2019tha, and they decide to head into deep space as there will only be ongoing war at the black hole.
\nOut in the depths of the dying universe they begin to run low on energy and become dormant, but later wake when they find a Dyson sphere with an anti-matter generator that still has fuel. They explore the sphere and we learn about the builders.
\nThe story ends (spoiler) with Gamma and Kthelk\u2019tha having children (even though their progeny will only have limited life-spans). Then they discover that the builders of the Dyson sphere had developed an Omega device that can change the structure of the universe, alterations that would make it contract and cause suns to be formed. However, to do this, one of them will have to spread themselves throughout the universe and activate the device. Gamma realises that whoever does this will die but, despite Kthelk\u2019tha\u2019s protestations, she sacrifices herself anyway:<\/p>\n

Then she plunged into a subdimensional barrier, and her fingers touched the outer boundary of the universe. With the last of her strength, she activated the inversion protocol and several of the universe\u2019s constants were rewritten. The universe slowed down. She could feel it. It would soon begin to contract. New stars. New life. New possibilities.
\nHer body dissolved and spread as virtual particles throughout the universe. Through them vibrated a final thought:
\nIt is finished<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A suitably transcendent ending. This tale probably resembles other cosmic tales that have appeared in the field over the decades, but it is well enough done and a change from some of the usual subject matter you find nowadays.
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong> (Good). 7,200 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

The cover for this issue is Shrine of Nameless Stars <\/em><\/strong>by Daniel Ignacio, an eye-catching piece if one similar, in some respects, to the kind of \u201cfloating objects\u201d covers that Astounding<\/em> did in the 1950s.
\nThe first of Arey Sorg\u2019s two (presumably) email Q&As (they are not \u201cconversations\u201d, or interviews, as they don\u2019t have the spontaneity of those) is Making Short Work of Commentary: A Conversation with Dennard Dayle<\/em><\/strong>. Dayle appears to be more a stand-up comic, prankster and mainstream author than SF writer,4<\/sup> but his answers are correspondingly livelier for it:<\/p>\n

As an author who has sold work to a range of venues, but who often plays in speculative settings and ideas, do you draw a distinction between \u201cliterary\u201d and \u201cscience fiction\u201d? Do you feel like these categories hold important meanings?<\/em>
\n.<\/span>
\nThe distinction helps marketers and egoists. Marketers have a hard job, especially around a launch, so I sympathize. Egoists are harder to deal with.
\nI should be a little more precise. Literary fiction has a few competing definitions, which leads to people talking past each other. Commentators referring to literary fiction generally mean one of three things:
\n.<\/span>
\n1. Books more focused on interiority or form than plot.
\n2. Books in a broadly realistic milieu.
\n3. Books regarded as serious art.
\n.<\/span>
\nFans of definition one should dig deeper. Plenty of sci-fi focuses on the interiority and formal experimentation praised in MFA day care. Moreover, a lot of work uncontested as literary fiction deals heavily in plot.
\nAdvocates of definition two are simply fans of vanilla ice cream, white bread, and Brooklyn barbecue. Leave them in peace.
\nThree, however, is the most common, and often the subtext of the other two. I invite anyone insisting science fiction can\u2019t be serious art to discuss the matter in a Chili\u2019s parking lot. The winner gets to teach my class at Columbia.\u00a0 p. 123<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The next Q&A, More Complex Than Caricature: A Conversation with Alex Shvartsman & Tarryn Thomas<\/em><\/strong>, reverts more to the marketing release feel that these pieces often have (this one is plugging a new foreign language anthology, The Rosetta Archive<\/em>,5<\/sup> from the editors of the foreign SF magazine, Future Science Fiction Digest<\/em>). At times the responses sound like they are coming from politeness bots:<\/p>\n

Tarryn: Working with Alex is always extremely pleasant, even when I drop the ball, which is why I\u2019m always motivated to give my best.\u00a0 p. 134<\/p>\n

Alex: Generally [. . .] we had surprisingly little trouble gaining permissions to publish the stories we selected, even if the process involved dealing with authors, translators, and agents across the globe. Everyone was super helpful and the editors who originally published some of these stories really went out of their way to put us in touch with the authors and rights holders. Everyone wants the author\/story they published to gain some extra attention, and I never get tired of the level of good will that\u2019s present in our field!\u00a0 p. 136<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m probably being cruel; there are some snippets of interest:<\/p>\n

Tarryn: I think my main focus is always first story and then style. You have to have a good story, and my job is to both add and take away from the story to its benefit. I take away the poor style choices and bad grammar and spelling, and I add to the flow and the consistency. So these things are important whether it was written by a first language or a fourth language speaker. And don\u2019t be deceived: one of my absolute worst-written projects came from the US. So my approach is to look at each piece on its own merits.\u00a0 p. 134<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sometimes the editors don\u2019t exactly seem to be on the same page:<\/p>\n

Which, for you, are some of the most important pieces in this book, and why?<\/em>
\n.<\/span>
\nTarryn: Of course, this was primarily a Rosetta Awards showcase, and in fact the first story in the anthology is the winner\u2014\u201cR\u0153sin.\u201d I found the concept fascinating, and I\u2019m really glad it won. It traces a fine line through ideas about prejudices and what ultimately makes us human.
\nBut I feel to single out a piece as more important than the others is to miss the point here: we wanted to bring together an experience, like a blended whiskey if you will. If you want to focus on one story in particular at the expense of the others, it becomes too much like a single malt.
\n.<\/span>
\nAlex: Asking an editor to select their favorite story is a bit like asking a parent to select their favorite child. Like parents, some editors may actually have such thoughts, but we\u2019ll never ever share them out loud, because we don\u2019t want to make the other story-children feel bad.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And later:<\/p>\n

What, for you, are the \u201cmust-read\u201d stories in this anthology? If a reader picked one or two pieces to look at, what would you want them to read, and why?<\/em>
\n.<\/span>
\nTarryn: I would recommend \u201cJust Like Migratory Birds\u201d and \u201cThe Ancestral Temple in a Box,\u201d although I\u2019m rather fond of \u201cCousin Entropy\u201d as well. They just spoke to me in terms of their vibrant imagery and outstanding story concepts.
\n.<\/span>
\nAlex: I will refer you to my previous answer about stories and children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alex may be the diplomatic one here, but Tarryn\u2019s answers are much more interesting.
\nThere is also a science article in this issue, Of Time and Travel<\/em> <\/strong>by Galen T. Pickett, which is a short piece about Special Relativity, cause and effect, and FTL drives.
\nFinally, Editor\u2019s Desk: Recognition<\/em><\/strong> by Neil Clarke mentions award nominations for stories published in Clarkesworld<\/em>, the tenth anniversary of his heart attack at a convention in Chicago (gulp), and his tenth nomination for the Best Editor Hugo Award.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Although this issue has almost as many misses as hits, the three stories by Rich Larson, David D. Levine, and Oskar K\u00e4llner (not to mention the interesting tale by Liang Qingsan) are worth a look.\u00a0 \u25cf<\/p>\n

______________<\/p>\n

0. All page references are from the PDF version of the magazine available to Paetron<\/a> subscribers.<\/p>\n

1. In some respects, David Levine\u2019s story reminded me of the kind of thing that used to appear in the George Scithers-edited Asimov\u2019s Science Fiction<\/em>\u00a0(or\u00a0Isaac Asimov\u2019s Science Fiction Magazine<\/em> as it was then) of the late 1970s. I think there is probably a gap in the current magazine market for a publication that emphasises light entertainment and more traditional work, and which avoids political division and lectures, solipsism, apocalyptic fiction, and MFA-inspired writing in general.<\/p>\n

2. The Possibly Brief Life of Guang Hansheng<\/em> by Liang Qingsan was originally published in Chinese in Science Fiction World<\/em>, Supplemental issue, 2016.<\/p>\n

3. Gamma <\/em>by Oskar K\u00e4llner was originally published in Swedish in Efter slutet<\/em>, Catahya, 2017.<\/p>\n

4. The only story of Dennard Dayle\u2019s I can find in an SF publication is Own Goal<\/a><\/em> (Clarkesworld<\/em> #165, June 2020). He has just published a collection of short fiction, Everything Abridged<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

5. The Rosetta Archive<\/em>, edited by Alex Shvartsman & Tarryn Thomas, is available on Amazon UK<\/a>\/USA<\/a>. Normally I\u2019d run a mile from something like this as most of the recent translated SF I\u2019ve read has not been particularly good\u2014but I bought this one as it was only \u00a34.99 (the moral of this for publishers is, \u201cwatch your price points\u201d).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nice cover, but it makes it look like a fantasy anthology.\u00a0 \u25cf<\/p>\n\"rss\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: This issue has three solid stories from Rich Larson (Wants Pawn Term opens with Mother creating Red to recover a \u201csleepyhead\u201d that has fallen from orbit), David Levine (Kora is Life has Kestrel Magid become the first human to race jet powered hangliders on an alien planet), and Oskar K\u00e4llner (Gamma sees cosmic beings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clarkesworld"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pcj7-3Ks","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14412"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14440,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14412\/revisions\/14440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}