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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Other reviews: Editor-in-Chief, Neil Clarke; Editor, Sean Wallace Fiction: Non-fiction: This issue starts with Two Ways of Living<\/em><\/strong> by Robert Reed, which is about a man who periodically hibernates in his flat to extend his lifespan to the point where he can travel the solar system. One day, when heading out for food after hibernating for several months, he trips over his neighbour\u2019s dog. His female neighbour is called Glory and the dog, which has an AI chip or something similar, is called Salvation. The conversation that develops is an uncomfortable about the way he is living his life, as is the next one he has with the pair twenty-six months later. The third time he wakes up (spoiler) she has broken into the apartment. She leaves him with the dog who says, like her, \u2018There are two ways of living.\u2019 This wasn\u2019t an ending that worked for me. \u201cDid you pass through Yellowstone on your way east?\u201d Michael asked. <\/em> Crown of Thorns<\/em><\/strong> by Octavia Cade has a married couple mourn their daughter against the backdrop of a plague apocalypse. They are located on a reef that is being destroyed by swarms of starfish and the resident scientists are discussing leaving the station to join survivors elsewhere. This is competently enough done but the dying world, reef and relationships all make it quite a depressing piece. This is not helped by being placed\u00a0after another apocalypse themed story (online this wouldn\u2019t be a problem as there is a week or whatever between stories, but if you are reading the book edition of the magazine . . .) I remember the first time Lindy walked into my home. This narrative is, as you can probably gather from the above, rather inward looking and not much happens. Alan: Dear Christopher, let\u2019s write a poem. This part might have worked better as the kernel of a different story. The first of the two reprints in this issue is The Discovered Country<\/em><\/strong> by Ian R. MacLeod (Asimov\u2019s Science Fiction<\/em>, September 2013), which is a novelette that is set in Farside, a virtual reality that is populated by very rich dead people. Into this world comes Jon Northover, sometime lover and musical collaborator of the dead superstar, Thea Lorentz. As they meet and rekindle their friendship we find out that the suffering of the (dystopian) real world is made worse by the existence of Farside because of, among other things, the money and resources that it consumes. Towards the end of the story we learn (spoiler) that Jon has been sent to destroy Thea with a data bomb, hopefully hastening the demise of Farside. I had gotten lost again, as I so often did, because it was dark there, in those musty and unswept hallways that run between the universes. I\u2019ve always been impressed by the amount of crap that seems to \ufb02oat in through the doorways and settle there, in some sort of plea for reality. An infinite network of passages linking the worlds of Shadow with that of the real might seem like a good idea, but who was going to keep it clean? The Lords were too haughty to concern themselves with things like that, and we humans were too . . . finite. There is an attempt to kill the critic when he is on his next assignment, and the plot thickens when he realises his wife may have left him for another man. The second half isn\u2019t as absorbing as the first but it is a pleasant enough read nonetheless.<\/p>\n There is\u00a0the usual non-fiction. SF Short Fiction Markets in China: An Overview of 2016<\/em><\/strong> by Feng Zhang does what it says on the tin, giving an insight into what seems like a healthy market. Howling at the Lunar Landscape: A Conversation with Ian McDonald<\/em><\/strong> by Chris Urie is an interview with the writer about his two \u2018Luna\u2019 books. Another Word: Reading for Pleasure<\/em><\/strong> by Cat Rambo is about the importance of reading for writers. I liked Jungle Deep<\/strong><\/em>, the photorealistic cover by Sergei Sarichev. The more I read of this magazine the more I am beginning to realise that it has a slightly schizophrenic nature: on the one side you have the original fiction, and on the other the reprints\u2014both of which have a markedly different feel. The original fiction, presumably selected by both Clarke and Wallace, reflects the nature of what the magazine will be like when it eventually publishes entirely original fiction. Those stories (from the handful of issues I\u2019ve read) tend towards an emphasis on descriptive writing, a focus on the characters and their thoughts\/feelings and identity\/relationships. There a number of common themes: AI, VR, aliens, etc. The reprints, on the other hand, make it feel like someone has spliced in a third of an issue of a Gardner Dozois edited Asimov\u2019s Science Fiction<\/em>. These reprints, whose prose and narratives are more lucid and accessible, also tend to upstage the originals. Other reviews: Bob Blough,\u00a0Tangent Online Greg Hullender and Eric Wong, Rocket Stack Rank Sam Tomaino,\u00a0SFRevu Various,\u00a0Goodreads Editor-in-Chief, Neil Clarke; Editor, Sean Wallace Reprint Editor, Gardner Dozois; Non-Fiction Editor, Kate Baker Fiction: Two Ways of Living \u2022 short story by Robert Reed \u2665 Real Ghosts \u2022 short story by J. B. Park \u2665 Waiting Out the […]<\/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-2780","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-IQ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780","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=2780"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2795,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions\/2795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBob Blough,\u00a0Tangent Online<\/a>
\nGreg Hullender and Eric Wong, Rocket Stack Rank<\/a>
\nSam Tomaino,\u00a0SFRevu<\/a>
\nVarious,\u00a0Goodreads<\/a><\/p>\n
\nReprint Editor, Gardner Dozois; Non-Fiction Editor, Kate Baker<\/p>\n
\nTwo Ways of Living<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Robert Reed \u2665
\nReal Ghosts<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by J. B. Park \u2665
\nWaiting Out the End of the World in Patty\u2019s Place Cafe<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Naomi Kritzer \u2665\u2665\u2665+
\nCrown of Thorns<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Octavia Cade \u2665\u2665
\nGoodnight, Melancholy<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Xia Jia (translated by Ken Liu) \u2665\u2665
\nThe Discovered Country<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Ian R. MacLeod \u2665\u2665\u2665
\nAt the Cross-Time Jaunter\u2019s Ball<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Alexander Jablokov \u2665\u2665\u2665<\/p>\n
\nJungle Deep<\/strong><\/em> \u2022 cover by Sergei Sarichev
\nSF Short Fiction Markets in China: An Overview of 2016<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 essay by Feng Zhang
\nHowling at the Lunar Landscape: A Conversation with Ian McDonald<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 interview by Chris Urie
\nAnother Word: Reading for Pleasure<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 essay by Cat Rambo
\nEditor\u2019s Desk: Recognizing 2016<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 editorial by Neil Clarke<\/p>\n
\nReal Ghosts<\/em><\/strong> by J. B. Park is about a dying man who us shortly going to be scanned to produce a replica computer persona that his family can access in the future. Meantime, he talks to the scan of his deceased sister. His (still alive) brother appears to visit but this also turns out to be a scan. Not much happens here\u00a0apart from various sibling issues being aired, and I found it rather dull to be honest.
\nWaiting Out the End of the World in Patty\u2019s Place Cafe<\/em><\/strong> by Naomi Kritzer starts with a young woman trying to get home to her estranged parents before an asteroid hits the Earth. A few hours short of home she runs out of petrol and ends up in a diner in Belle Fourche. Here, she meets a couple called Michael and Robin. In between ordering food and watching scientists talk about the probability of impact on CNN, she discovers a number of things about Robin (her parents were Jehova\u2019s Witness, she is trans, etc.). This makes her reflect on her estrangement from her parents.
\nIf all this seems like rather weighty navel-gazing it isn\u2019t, as it\u2019s an absorbing and\u00a0affecting piece that has the odd flash of humour, such as when Michael suggests she comes with them to Yellowstone rather than go home:<\/p>\n
\n\u201cNo,\u201d I said. \u201cEven if I\u2019d taken I-90 I\u2019d have passed north of it.\u201d <\/em>
\n\u201cWant to come see Yellowstone with us?\u201d Robin asked. \u201cIt has Old Faithful.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cAnd a supervolcano that could blow up at any time,\u201d Michael said. \u201cSo even if the asteroid misses us completely we could still potentially die in a cataclysmic disaster today!\u201d<\/em> p. 27-28<\/p>\n
\nGoodnight, Melancholy<\/em><\/strong> by Xia Jia (translated by Ken Liu) is a contemplative story that has two threads. The main one is about a depressed young woman who has two robots\/AIs, the second of which is a new arrival:<\/p>\n
\nShe lifted her tiny feet and set them down gingerly on the smooth, polished wooden floor, like a child venturing onto freshly-fallen snow: trembling, hesitating, afraid to dirty the pure white blanket, terrified of sinking into and disappearing beneath the featureless fluff\u00a0I held her hand. Her soft body was stuffed with cotton and the stitches, my own handiwork, weren\u2019t very neat. I had also made her a scarlet felt cape, like the ones in the fairy tales I had read as a child. Her two ears were of different lengths, and the longer one drooped, as though dejected.
\nSeeing her, I couldn\u2019t help but remember all the experiences of failure in my life: eggshell puppets that I had ruined during crafts class; drawings that didn\u2019t look like what they were supposed to be; stiff, awkward smiles in photographs; chocolate pudding burned to charcoal; failed exams; bitter fights and breakups; incoherent classroom reports; papers that were revised hundreds of times but ultimately were unpublishable . . .<\/em> p. 42<\/p>\n
\nThe other thread is more compelling, however, and contains AI related material, including transcripts of conversations purportedly between Alan Turing and a computer program called Christopher.<\/p>\n
\nChristopher: Write a poem?
\nAlan: I\u2019ve taught you how to do that. Don\u2019t you remember?
\nChristopher: Yes, Alan.
\nAlan: Writing a poem is easy. Just pick some words out of the word bank and arrange them according to predetermined rules.
\nChristopher: Yes, Alan.
\nAlan: Please, Christopher, write a poem for me.
\nChristopher: My precious one, you are my ardent mate.
\nMy love is pressed against your wishful heart.
\nMy soul desires caresses, testing art;
\nMelancholy\u2019s pity, a tender weight.
\nAlan: That\u2019s beautiful.
\nChristopher: Thank you, Alan.
\nAlan: I don\u2019t think I can do better.
\nChristopher: Thank you, Alan.
\nAlan: Does your poem have a title?
\nChristopher: A title?
\nAlan: Why don\u2019t we come up with a title for it together?
\nChristopher: All right.
\nAlan: How about \u201cLoving Turing\u201d?
\nChristopher: It\u2019s very good.
\nAlan: Such a beautiful poem. I love you.
\nChristopher: Thank you, Alan.
\nAlan: That\u2019s not the right response.
\nChristopher: Not the right response?
\nAlan: When I say \u201cI love you,\u201d you should respond with \u201cI love you, too.\u201d
\nChristopher: I\u2019m sorry, Alan. I\u2019m afraid I don\u2019t understand.<\/em> p.55-56<\/p>\n
\nEven though I don\u2019t think this piece is completely successful, I\u2019ll be interested in seeing more of this writer\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
\nThis is all, as ever, convincingly drawn by MacLeod, but I wasn\u2019t entirely convinced by the ending (Thea trusts him with her life even though Jon turns out to be something other than what he thinks he is).
\nAt the Cross-Time Jaunter\u2019s Ball<\/em><\/strong> by Alexander Jablokov (Isaac Asimov\u2019s Science Fiction Magazine<\/em>, August 1987) has an intriguing start:<\/p>\n
\nI looked in through doorways as I walked, to see such things as a city of hanging tree dwellings or an endless stairway that curved up from mist into blinding sunlight. These were delicate worlds, miniatures. As a professional critic of such Shadows I had to say that these worlds were not the style I usually liked, though one, where a regatta of multicolored dirigibles sailed above a city whose towers stood half in the sea, was excellent. <\/em>
\nA rough wind blew past, carrying with it the clamor of a cheering army, and the pounding of swords on shields. The passage tilted upward, and I climbed a set of rough stairs, smelling first lilacs, then, when I took a deeper breath, an open sewer. I choked, and was surrounded by buzzing \ufb02ies, who had wandered irrevocably from their world and, looking for shit, had found only the meager substitute of a critic. I ran up the stairs, waving the \ufb02ies away, past the sound of temple bells, the dense choking of dust from a quarry, and a spray of briny water, accompanied by the shrieking of seagulls.
\nGathered in a knot in the hallway ahead of me were a group of Lords, with their servant, a huge man wearing a leather helmet. Lord Prokhor, Lord Sere, and Lord Ammene, three balding men with prison pallor and rings below their dark eyes, waited for me to give them advice on acquisition. They sat on little folding stools, and looked uncomfortable.<\/em> p. 102-103<\/p>\n
\nEditor\u2019s Desk: Recognizing 2016<\/em><\/strong> by Neil Clarke is a useful editorial which provides a list of award nominated and \u2018Best of the Year\u2019 anthology inclusion information for stories that appeared in the magazine last year. One story, Things with Beards<\/em> by Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld<\/em> #117, June 2016) appears in all four (!) of 2016\u2019s \u2018Best Of\u2019 anthologies as well as being a Nebula Award nominee. Touring with the Alien<\/em> by Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld<\/em> #115, April 2016) makes it into three.<\/p>\n
\nAs to this specific issue, it is worth catching for the Naomi Kritzer story and the reprints (if you haven\u2019t read them in Asimov\u2019s Science Fiction<\/em> already).<\/p>\n![\"rss\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sfmagazines.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/16x16\/rss.png?resize=16%2C16&ssl=1\" "\\"Subscribe")
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