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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Editor-in-Chief, Neil Clarke; Editor, Sean Wallace; Reprint Editor, Gardner Dozois<\/p>\n
Galactic Central link Fiction: Non-fiction: This issue\u2019s fiction leads off with The Ghost Ship Anastasia<\/em><\/strong> by Rich Larson. This is about a crew that are sent to a bioship that has ceased communicating with the mining company that owns it. When the\u00a0team get aboard they find that the freethinker\u2014AI\u2014on board has passed the Turing threshold and has gone crazy. During this process it has absorbed all but one of the crew members into its biomass. A Series of Steaks<\/em><\/strong> by Vina Jie-Min Prasad is about a woman called Helena who is a meat forger in a future China. She uses printing technology to produce bootleg meat for various establishments while she tries to gather enough money to change name and move (there is an initially unspecified incident in her past that puts her at risk of prosecution). Helena wakes up to Lily humming a cheerful tune and a mostly complete T-bone model rotating on her screen. She blinks a few times, but no\u2014it\u2019s still there. Lily\u2019s effortlessly linking the rest of the meat, fat and gristle to the side of the bone, deforming the muscle fibers to account for the bone\u2019s presence. Prasad doesn\u2019t appear to have written any other SF (there are two non-genre publications listed in the author note at the end)1<\/sup> but if she is going to contribute further stories of this calibre she will be a promising find: this is a very entertaining piece and possibly one for the \u2018Best of the Year\u2019 anthologies.<\/p>\n Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities<\/em><\/strong> by Lettie Prell isn\u2019t really fantasy and SF, or have much of a story for that matter: I suppose you could call it a meditation or thought experiment. A man in a cell listens to one of the other inmates talking to himself about different types of justice. He falls into a doze and dreams:<\/p>\n There is a justice system with no police. People turn themselves in to prosecutors voluntarily, or are persuaded to do so by others. The prosecutors hear the confessions. One prosecutor is turning someone away, saying, \u201cWe cannot help you. While your situation is unfortunate, you have committed no crime.\u201d Interchange<\/em><\/strong> by Gary Kloster gets off to a bit of a clunky and unconvincing start. The main character is Lucy, who is one year on from killing her husband (he attacked with a knife after cheating with her sister) but has a conjugal machine that looks like him. Further stretching credulity is Lucy\u2019s job as a medic to a work crew that is constructing a highway interchange\u2014in a time limbo. The plan is to pop out of existence and then reappear six months later\u2014a microsecond in real time\u2014with the completed project. Milla<\/em><\/strong> by Lorenzo Crescentini and Emanuela Valentini (translated by Rich Larson) is a story about a surveyor on an idyllic alien planet who starts hearing a voice from his implant. As he records the various flora and fauna on the planet he concludes the voice is an alien AI, but when she starts reading poetry he realises something else\u00a0has happened. Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance<\/em><\/strong> by John Kessel (The New Space Opera 2<\/em>, edited by Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan, 2009) is an adventure about a warrior priest who has stolen a set of religious plays, the only set in existence, from Imperial City. As he makes his escape to the space port, the Gods speak to him, giving him instructions. The Shipmaker<\/em><\/strong> by Aliette de Bodard (Interzone<\/em> #231, September 2010) is one of her \u2018Universe of Xuya\u2019 stories that tells of a starship architect called Dac Kien building a new vessel. It is a stylishly told tale based on Viet culture:<\/p>\n And still she worked\u2014walls turned into mirrors, flowers were carved into the passageways, softening those hard angles and lines she couldn\u2019t disguise. She opened up a fountain\u2014all light projections, of course, there could be no real water aboard\u2014let the recreated sound of a stream fill the structure. Inside the heartroom, the four tangled humors became three, then one; then she brought in other lines until the tangle twisted back upon itself, forming a complicated knot pattern that allowed strands of all five humors to flow around the room. Water, wood, fire, earth, metal, all circling the ship\u2019s core, a stabilizing influence for the Mind, when it came to anchor itself there.<\/em> p. 122<\/p>\n The problems start when the birth mother of the starship Mind arrives early as a premature birth may be on the cards. The Mind is an organometallic organism and cannot survive outside a ship. The pregnancy of birthmother contrasts with Dac Kien\u2019s childless relationship and, while she is dealing with the emotional repercussions of this, she has to accelerate the building of the starship to ensure it is completed before the Mind is born.<\/p>\n The non-fiction in Clarkesworld<\/em> has so far struck me as a little on the lacklustre side and this issue is no different. It comprises of: a science essay, The Evolved Brain<\/em><\/strong> by Benjamin C. Kinney; A Collective Pseudonym and an Expanding Universe: A Conversation with James S.A. Corey<\/em><\/strong>, a short interview with Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck by Chris Urie; Another Word: Dystopias are not enough<\/em><\/strong>, an essay by Kelly Robson which makes a pitch for less cynicism and more positive SF stories in response to the current political situation (good luck with that); and, finally, Editor\u2019s Desk: Stomp Stomp Stomp<\/em><\/strong>, a short editorial by Neil Clarke about his work\/home situation getting on top of him and the refuge of SF escapism. Overall, this is a pretty good issue. The Prasad and Kessel and a large chunk of the Kloster story are particularly good, and there is nothing that is bad.<\/p>\n This magazine is available at Amazon UK<\/a>, Amazon USA<\/a>, Weightless Books<\/a>, Magzter<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(I got mine as part of the Gold subscription) and elsewhere<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Editor-in-Chief, Neil Clarke; Editor, Sean Wallace; Reprint Editor, Gardner Dozois Galactic Central link ISFDB link Fiction: The Ghost Ship Anastasia \u2022 novelette by Rich Larson \u2665\u2665 A Series of Steaks \u2022 novelette by Vina Jie-Min Prasad \u2665\u2665\u2665+ Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities \u2022 short story by Lettie Prell \u2665\u2665 Interchange \u2022 novelette by Gary […]<\/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-2483","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-E3","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483","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=2483"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2497,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483\/revisions\/2497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nISFDB link<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThe Ghost Ship Anastasia<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Rich Larson \u2665\u2665
\nA Series of Steaks<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Vina Jie-Min Prasad \u2665\u2665\u2665+
\nJustice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Lettie Prell \u2665\u2665
\nInterchange<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Gary Kloster \u2665\u2665\u2665
\nMilla<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Lorenzo Crescentini and Emanuela Valentini (translated by Rich Larson) \u2665\u2665
\nEvents Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 reprint novelette by John Kessel \u2665\u2665\u2665+
\nThe Shipmaker<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 reprint short story by Aliette de Bodard \u2665\u2665\u2665<\/p>\n
\nWaste Pickers<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 cover by Gabriel Bj\u00f6rk Stiernstr\u00f6m
\nThe Evolved Brain<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 essay by Benjamin C. Kinney
\nAnother Word: Dystopias are not enough<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 essay by Kelly Robson
\nEditor\u2019s Desk: Stomp Stomp Stomp<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 essay by Neil Clarke
\nA Collective Pseudonym and an Expanding Universe: A Conversation with James S.A. Corey<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 interview of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck \u2022 interview by Chris Urie<\/p>\n
\nAnother plot device (the one that supplies a ticking clock) is that Silas, one of the investigating crew, has had his sister die in a micrometeorite accident while they were enroute to the bioship. He still has her \u2018personality code\u2019 but it will decay as long as it is held in the ship\u2019s memory. This latter aspect never really convinces\u2014it sounds analogous to a Microsoft Word document becoming a bit tattered if you leave it on a USB stick for too long\u2014but there are some visceral Alien<\/em>-ish thrills to be had elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\nOne day she gets an order for two hundred T-bone steaks from an anonymous source, with the threat that she\u2019ll be exposed to the authorities if she doesn\u2019t provide them. Helena fears she won\u2019t be able to produce something so technically demanding in such a short time and advertises for help. At this point Lily walks into her life and the rest of the story is an effervescent and fun buddy movie.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat did you do,\u201d Helena blurts out.
\nLily turns around to face her, fiddling with her bracelet. \u201cUh, did I do it wrong?\u201d
\n\u201cRotate it a bit, let me see the top view. How did you do it?\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a little like the human vertebral column, isn\u2019t it? There\u2019s plenty of references for that.\u201d She taps the screen twice, switching focus to an image of a human cross-section. \u201cSee how it attaches here and here? I just used that as a reference, and boom.\u201d
\nUgh, Helena thinks to herself. She\u2019s been out of university for way too long if she\u2019s forgetting basic homology.
\n\u201cWait, is it correct? Did I mess up?\u201d
\n\u201cNo, no,\u201d Helena says. \u201cThis is really good. Better than . . . well, better than I did, anyway.\u201d
\n\u201cAwesome! Can I get a raise?\u201d
\n\u201cYou can get yourself a sesame pancake,\u201d Helena says. \u201cMy treat.\u201d<\/em> p. 28<\/p>\n
\nThe man is unhappy. \u201cBut how am I to live like this? How am I to restore the balance of things?\u201d
\n\u201cThat is not my concern,\u201d the prosecutor replies.<\/em>
\nCole watches as the man leaves the courthouse and goes down the street to a small shop providing justice-type services for people the prosecutors turn away. Cole peers over the man\u2019s shoulder and reads the menu of sanctions and punishments. Some of the choices are more severe than those meted out by the real justice system. The man purchases two days in jail. The handcuffs they use to lead him away cost extra. <\/em>p. 41\/42<\/p>\n
\nAfter all this has been set in motion the time limbo machinery malfunctions and, after some discussion, it appears they may have been in the far future for a few seconds: Lucy warns the camp boss that there is a possibility that airborne infections or other agents may have contaminated their environment.
\nSure enough, one of the workers is later bitten by a snake. This turns out to be a garter snake, but one with nano-technology fibre pathways throughout its body. Even though it has been chopped in half, both parts\u00a0regenerate and escape. These nanos also start growing in the man that is bitten…. The rest of the story continues apace.
\nAlthough the various elements don\u2019t gel particularly well at the beginning, once the infection occurs it becomes an increasingly compelling and gripping read and proceeds to a transformative ending. In short, average to start with but good to very good by the end. I look forward to seeing more of this writer\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
\nThis is slow to start, and the ending doesn\u2019t entirely convince. It has a nice last paragraph though.<\/p>\n
\nLater, when his spaceship is attacked, he takes refuge in the engine bay of his ship and unfolds a female soldier called Nahid from a nine-dimensional pouch concealed in his body. They manage to fight their way out and get down to his home planet in an escape pod. A perilous journey to the safety of his order\u2019s\u00a0monastery follows.
\nThis is a superior piece that is inventive and fast-paced and one that I would have rated higher if it wasn\u2019t for a couple of loose ends (the metal man under the mountain, the voices of the gods). I wondered if this was actually a nod to the archetypal pulp story, which would sometimes have unresolved plot-elements\u00a0to facilitate a number of sequels.<\/p>\n
\nWaste Pickers<\/em><\/strong>, <\/strong>the cover by Gabriel Bj\u00f6rk Stiernstr\u00f6m is rather dark, I thought, and dull with it.<\/p>\n\n
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