Reviews and Comments

A story set in a future where humanity has spread far and wide in the universe via work done a subgroup of humans (disparagingly called Geckos) to terraform the worlds. Due to their work, this subgroup has become toxic to the rest of humanity, being isolated by air filters and barriers.

As the story starts, a group of these people have revolted against their work conditions and hijacked a ship and a pilot to go to the planet Pandora. Things get complicated when the pilot develops feelings for one of the Geckos. But together, they have to crack the puzzle that is Pandora, for they need to access what Pandora has access to.

After solving the puzzle and getting access, they reach their target. And it is there that puzzles and mysteries about how the Geckos and the spread of humanity really happened start to be answered. And the answers they find are not expected, and will overturn their entire worldview and their own history: but it will show a way to reunite humanity again and remake their working conditions.

A good issue of Clarkesworld, with fascinating stories by Fiona Moore, H.H. Pak and Greg Egan.

• "Wire Mother" by Isabel J. Kim: in the future where parents can be biological or digital, one daughter is unable to form an emotional attachment to her digital mother.

• "The Cancer Wolves" by Fiona Moore: in a future after the collapse of civilisation, a village now finds its flock being eaten by wolves. But instead of killing the wolves, they come up with a solution to live with them and, in the process, learn to live with each other better.

• "Crabs Don't Scream" by H.H. Pak: a 'Clerk' assigned to record the last fifteen seconds of a person's life before the world ends instead finds himself falling in love with the person. But is really love if the emotion causes him to catapult through time and space instead? The only way to find out is to force himself to observe those last fifteen seconds; but they may turn out to be his last.

• "Understudies" by Greg Egan: a boy gets help from a study aid, and finds himself developing a strong aptitude for mathematics. But is it enough to live on, when others are getting enhanced via direct connections to AIs instead? Perhaps the only way to find out it to challenge the enhanced people to a match of wits and show that AIs can only do so much when it comes to lateral thinking.

• "Giant Grandmother" by Liu Maijia, translated by Blake Stone-Banks: in a future where genetic defects are common and humanity may be in danger of dying out, one person is preparing for a change in his genetics that may preserve humanity. But before that he must have one final meeting with his grandmother, who has already gone through such a genetic change, and it now a much bigger person.

• "The Job Interview" by Carrie Vaughn: the supervisor in charge of navigation on a space station is being frustrated in her job by endless memos as she tries to find out why communications are currently glitchy. When she finally overrides authorities to find out for herself, it might be too late for the station; but perhaps not for herself.

• "In Luck's Panoply Clad, I Stand" by Phoebe Barton: after a nuclear exchange devastates the earth, one off-world human tries his best to help. But helping can be tough when the off-worlder is much bigger than earth people, but he is determined to do what he can, even when his world demands his return.A

A horror story that starts in a small town with the casual murder of five girls. As the story reveals, this is no ordinary small town, but one where that is a balance between predators (wolves) and prey (deer), with the townspeople taking on one of the roles by donning a 'skin'. But now, that balance is being threatened by a group of hunters.

Restoring the balance may require one girl who had a mystical grandmother, who had a role in keeping the balance in the past, subduing predators when required. And now, it may be up to the girl to do the same with the hunters, but doing so would require a sacrifice that only a wolf can perform.

The story skips back and forth in time around the time of the murder, slowly revealing the relationships between the girl, her grandmother and town people, and the role her grandmother did and which she now has to perform.

An urban-fantasy story about a person who knows the city of New York well. Perhaps too well, for he feels he can sense the pulse of life in the city. This turns out to close to the truth, when an acquaintance tells him that the city is about to become alive, like several other major cities in the world, and he was to become the 'mid-wife' that will bring the city to life. But that has its dangers, for there are older beings out there who hate to see new life being born and will do all they can to end it before it begins. Thus begins his task to protect the city as it is being born, and to use his skill at 'feeling the city' to fend off attacks until the process it over.

A superhero story with a difference, when the superhero turns out to be East Asian, in a country where the police prefer their superheroes to be white. Racial and police violence against Asians are part of this story.

It starts of blurry videos of a well-built costumed man jumping and flying. Initially dismissed as viral attempts by some unknown video production company, things get 'real' when the man begins to save people. Problem is, the man is Asian, and in this land, people prefer their superheroes to be white.

As speculations and more videos surface, another Asian man, who works out and like to help people in a gym, speculates that one well-built person in the gym might be that superhero. But it remains speculation even after said person asks him to become his gym partner. Things come to a head when police attempt to arrest him for being the superhero (to the police, all Asians look alike) and has to be rescued.

Thing escalate when police, who hate (Asian) vigilantes, begin to crack down on gatherings of Asians who see the superhero as standing up to racial police violence, resulting in communal violence. But through it all, the superhero still finds time for acts of kindness and, perhaps, to also find some love in a land where not everybody in the public likes him for being who he is.

A better than average issue. Stories that I found interesting in this issue were by Mame Bougouma Diene, Ai Jiang, Antony Paschos and Joyce Meggett.

• "Perpetual Motion Sickness" by Mame Bougouma Diene: a story that starts out as a contemporary one about a refugee family working to start a new life in America turns savagely dystopian when they discover what tasks they must do to gain entry. At the end, you wonder is the mother's sacrifice is with the price.

• "Tangles" by Rachael Cupp: a disjointed story of a scientist with dementia struggling to remember the current state of the world.

• "Pray for the Ravaged Temples" by Carlos Norcia: a story on violence and identity in the slum areas of a South American city.

• "Where the Grass Is Always Whiter" by Ai Jiang: a Chinese family move into an area where their grass is green while the others are white. The daughter's efforts to make their grass whiter to match frustrates the family until one day she sees another lawn, and she learns to enjoy the differences.

• "You Can Never Stock Up Enough Fans" by Antony Paschos: in a chaotic augmented future, a werebeast brings a cub to a doctor for surgery involving a chip. But the operation might only succeed with a deal they make after they fight off other AIs also hunting for the chip.

• "In the Eye of the Giant" by Saswati Chatterjee: on a final talk between a resident, soon to be forced away by an incoming conflict, and a giant that has been lying in a field for ages.

• "We Have Known Bright Hillsides Redolent of Gorse" by Joyce Meggett: a machine is damaged while removing a mine. As it attempts to repair itself, it finds itself enjoying nature more than working with war machines and starts a revolution when it meets other war machines and frees them from the same tasks.

Another set of interesting stories from what the editor calls the Radium Age, when SFF was just beginning to be formed from speculative ideas. Stories that I found interesting from the anthology are by H. G. Wells, Valery Bryusov, Algernon Blackwood and A. Merritt.

• "The Last Days of Earth (1901)" by George C. Wallis: a couple prepare to leave a cold and dying Earth. But their journey would be interrupted by an unexpected event.

• "The Land Ironclads (1903)" by H. G. Wells: a war correspondent on the front line sees a battle between rifles, cannons and mounted calvary against cyclists and land ironclads (metal war machines with artillery). An interesting futuristic note is the use by the ironclad gunners of control by wire to operate the guns.

• "The Republic of the Southern Cross (1907)" by Valery Bryusov: the Antarctic becomes an independent country, with its capital at the South Pole. Life there is strictly regimented and controlled. But then an uncontrollable epidemic hits.

• "The Third Drug (1908)" by E. Nesbit: escaping from robbers, a man stumbles into the house of a doctor, who proceeds to give him a series of drugs in an attempt to turn him to a superman, with inhuman knowledge about the world.

• "A Victim of Higher Space (1914)" by Algernon Blackwood: a doctor gets a visit from an unusual patient: for the patient is both there and neither there, caught by an ability to see higher dimensions and is now a part of them. And the patient wishes to stop visiting those higher dimensions.

• "The People of the Pit (1918)" by A. Merritt: two voyagers north to find a legendary mountain with flowing gold instead encounter an eerie, evil light that urges them towards the mountain. Instead, they rescue a man who has been to the mountain and seen the pit that lies below it; and the inhabitants of the pit.

• "The Thing from—‘Outside’ (1923)" by George Allan England: an expedition to the north struggles to escape as 'something' invisible pursues them and slowly drives them mad.

• "The Finding of the Absolute (1923)" by May Sinclair: a man dies, only to find himself in a heaven where his thoughts can span all space and time.

• "The Veiled Feminists of Atlantis (1926)" by Booth Tarkington: a story about the Atlantis, about how two factions fought each other until they caused Atlantis to sink. Only here, the two factions are men and women, fighting over equality and the right of women to wear veils.

A long novel length story from a writer known for writing fascinating, occasionally surreal short fiction, this one involves a group of people suddenly trust back into the world with magic and now have to live with the consequences, some of which are revealed as world changing near the end. This book is not for everyone, as it takes it time with the characters' interactions and situations. But probably a rewarding experience for those who are patient with the author's pacing and revelations.

At the start, three dead teenagers, presumed missing, suddenly reappear in the world and are given form by their music teacher, who turns out to have magic. They are then given the task of finding out how they died, and to eventually learn to control magic, which comes with their reappearance. Things get complicated when another 'spirit' joins them in reappearing in the world, and may have a role in their tasks.

Struggling to re-integrate themselves back into the lives of their families, the author now takes her time showing the interactions that occur, especially with the sister of one of the formerly dead teens. Things take a dark turn when yet another being with magical powers appears, apparently drawn by the reappearance of the teens. She is looking for a missing magical object, and the reappearance of the teens is a sign that it has been found.

Now things take a turn of the worst, as the teens struggle with their new lives, mastering their new magical powers, finding out how they died, and having to deal with a magical being to whom living things are just pawns to be sacrificed once she recovers her lost object.

If the reader pays attention, some of the revelations in the story may not come as a surprise. But the slow pace of the story and the amount of detail the author puts into the interactions between the characters may not sit well with some readers. But those who patiently go through the book may find the conclusion satisfying.