Soh Kam Yung reviewed Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 235, April 2026 by Neil Clarke (Clarkesworld Magazine, #235)
A good 'post-apocalyptic' issue of Clarkesworld.
4 stars
An interesting issue that starts off with three post-apocalyptic stories. Stories that I found good were by Rajeev Prasad, K. J. Khan and Malena Salazar Maciá.
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"Macaroni Art in the Age of Filtration" by Ryan Cole: a girl struggles to find a replacement mask for her brother, in a world wracked by volcanic eruptions and toxic gases. With the help of a friend, she may be able to find one, but time is running out for her own mask.
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"D0G" by Tania Fordwalker: in a post nuclear-war world, cybernetic D0Gs run rampant, searching for prey. One person, with a damaged D0G that does not kill until triggered, is searching for a way to stop them. But like another story about monsters, there may be not much that can be done about the D0Gs.
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"The Trajectory of Memory is Forward" by Rajeev …
An interesting issue that starts off with three post-apocalyptic stories. Stories that I found good were by Rajeev Prasad, K. J. Khan and Malena Salazar Maciá.
-
"Macaroni Art in the Age of Filtration" by Ryan Cole: a girl struggles to find a replacement mask for her brother, in a world wracked by volcanic eruptions and toxic gases. With the help of a friend, she may be able to find one, but time is running out for her own mask.
-
"D0G" by Tania Fordwalker: in a post nuclear-war world, cybernetic D0Gs run rampant, searching for prey. One person, with a damaged D0G that does not kill until triggered, is searching for a way to stop them. But like another story about monsters, there may be not much that can be done about the D0Gs.
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"The Trajectory of Memory is Forward" by Rajeev Prasad: an interesting story set in a future where a member of humans known as the Have-Nots steals a device from a colony of Haves. As the story progresses, we discover that various humans groups have been genetically modified to survive an ecological disaster, and now a Have-Not and a Have travel together to a city in an attempt to gather more knowledge and survive a falling birth rate. But what they discover would be more about their past troubles and maybe a way to change things for the better.
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"Eternity in Their Hearts" by K. J. Khan: an android becomes a companion to a dying person, a task it has also been doing for other people. During a discussion with the person's sister, who disagrees with the choice of the companion, we discover that the android can remember all the deaths, and has its own hopes for the future. But is the future a delusion from the android's company or a real one?
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"Shelter" by Nadia W. Aldsen: an alien enters a shelter run by a human and promptly disintegrates. That is just the start of a sequence of events that would involve the human taking care of the remains that would become an intimate part of the shelter.
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"The Forgetting Code" by Malena Salazar Maciá: an old man in a workshop helps others forget their anguish by taking away their memories. He remains puzzled by the disappearance of his daughter which he has never erased: until one day, he encounters the person who last saw his daughter and finds a way to bring her back, but at the cost of his own memories of her.
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"Human Studies 401" by Abby Nicole Yee: as part of the studies on humanity, an alien manufactures a humanoid to have a relationship with a human. From this comes the downfall of humanity, but it wins the alien a prize for best thesis.