Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 229, October 2025

by Neil Clarke (Editor), Isabel J. Kim (Contributor), Fiona Moore (Contributor)

Clarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction, articles, interviews and art. Our October 2025 issue (#229) includes:

Fiction

"Wire Mother" by Isabel J. Kim
"The Cancer Wolves" by Fiona Moore
"Crabs Don't Scream" by H.H. Pak
"Understudies" by Greg Egan
"Giant Grandmother" by Liu Maiji
a"The Job Interview" by Carrie Vaughn
"In Luck's Panoply Clad, I Stand" by Phoebe Barton

Non-Fiction

"Space Bears and Engineering the Next Generation of Astronauts" by Gunnar De Winter
"Memory, Loss, and Memory A Conversation with Rich Larson" by Arley Sorg
"Technology as a A Conversation with Ken Liu" by Arley Sorg
"Editor's Nineteen" by Neil Clarke

Cover Art

"Overgrowth" by Quentin Stipp

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction

162 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2025

About the author

Neil Clarke is best known as the editor and publisher of the Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning Clarkesworld Magazine. Launched in October 2006, the online magazine has been a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine four times (winning three times), the World Fantasy Award four times (winning once), and the British Fantasy Award once (winning once). Neil is also a ten-time finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form (winning once in 2022), three-time winner of the Chesley Award for Best Art Director, and a recipient of the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. In the fifteen years since Clarkesworld Magazine launched, numerous stories that he has published have been nominated for or won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, Locus, BSFA, Shirley Jackson, WSFA Small Press, and Stoker Awards.

Additionally, Neil edits  Forever —a digital-only, reprint science fiction magazine he launched in 2015. His anthologies include: Upgraded, Galactic Empires, Touchable Unreality, More Human than Human, The Final Frontier, Not One of Us,  The Eagle has Landed, , and the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. His next anthology, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Seven will published in early 2023.

He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Wire Mother" by Isabel J. Kim -- (4*) A brief glance at a possible surrogate-dominated future, a nice nod to PKD.

"The Cancer Wolves" by Fiona Moore -- (4*) This is a continuation of a number of post-apoc nomad series. Just some slice of life between human and robot. It's kinda cozy.

"Crabs Don't Scream" by H.H. Pak -- (5*) Beautifully hard-core SF about an avoidant personality stuck in a bad job -- but dreaming about being a crab. :)

"Understudies" by Greg Egan" -- (5*) A very timely novella by Egan with his characteristic focus on the maths. Close to home, too, with AIs in conjunction with the nearly-screwed meat-minds of ourselves. It underscores a glimmer of hope in a nearly hopeless battle--of intelligence.

Giant Grandmother" by Liu Maijia -- (4*) Nice little story about change, and continuity and what it might mean to be post-human.

"The Job Interview" by Carrie Vaughn -- (4*) Tongue-in-cheek space adventure. Solid.

"In Luck's Panoply Clad, I Stand" by Phoebe Barton -- (5*) Take a hard stand for what you believe. Or rather, a heavy stand. I felt the vibe.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

1) "Wire Mother" by Isabel J. Kim, 3180 words
⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆
“Your mom loves you,” Cassie’s father says.
A teenager struggles to connect with her digital mother.

2) "The Cancer Wolves" by Fiona Moore, 5860 words
🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺
“Coming home to her farm after her usual visit to the spoil heap for tech scraps she could fix up and sell, Morag saw a dark, bloody, furry shape, about the size of a sheepdog, hanging on a set of drying poles near the gate of her neighbor’s farm.“
Another cosy post-apocalyptic slice-of-life story with Morag and her robot Seamus. I love these stories and I am always very happy to see a new one pop up.

Morag’s other stories can be found on Clarkesworld as well and are worth reading in order: The Walled Garden, King of the Castle, The Children of Flame, The Portmeirion Road, Morag’s Boy.

3) "Crabs Don't Scream" by H.H. Pak, 7550, novelette
🦀🦀🦀☆☆
“You fall in love at a train station fifteen seconds before the End of the World.“
Time travel. An alien clerk in badly made human disguise, traveling to collect data for a repository before The End of the World destroys the Earth. The clerk has issues with the last human life they were sent to catalogue. Not bad, but quite odd.

4) "Understudies" by Greg Egan, 17220 words, novelette
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆
‘“It’s completely up to you, whether you want to go ahead with this,” Vince’s father said, looking almost as uncomfortable as Vince in the sound-deadening, white-carpeted waiting room.“
Vince uses a scent-based learning device to keep up in a world where AI-human hybrids are starting to outcompete humans. He and his friends challenge the status quo by proving that human intelligence can still hold their own. A story about technology and self-reliance. I liked it, although the story was too heavy on mathematics.

Stories by Egan that I liked: Perihelion Summer (⭐️⭐️⭐️) and Dichronauts (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️).

5) "Giant Grandmother" by Liu Maiji, translated from Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks, 6900 words
🐘🐘🐘🐘☆
“The algal-protein reagent oozed from the glass vial and into the tube connected to my arm at a glacial pace.“
Ji-Yue’s evolution into a new life-form is paused when her grandmother visits, rekindling their bond and reflecting on love, change and what it means to evolve.

6) "The Job Interview" by Carrie Vaughn, 6300 words
🛸🛸🛸🛸🛸
“Roth Station was a rotating drum. Ops and engineering were on the same level, but on opposite sides. The debate, to go through the center or to walk around the ring corridor, was mostly philosophical.“
Fun story about too much bureaucracy on a space station during what develops into a code red. And we end up meeting an old acquaintance at the end. Turns out I have to catch up with a bunch of Vaughn‘s more recent short stories!

I have read a fair share of novels, e.g. Bannerless, and short stories by Vaughn over the years. She is a solid writer and her Kitty Norville UF series has been one of my favourites for a long time.

7) "In Luck's Panoply Clad, I Stand" by Phoebe Barton, 4090 words
⭐️⭐️⭐️½☆
“Seven months since the war and two since winter should’ve ended, and Lake Erie is still frozen thick enough for me to walk out and gather care packages dropped from orbit.“
Alice survives Earth’s nuclear war. She chooses to help survivors, refusing to return to her home planet at great cost.

Non-Fiction
"Space Bears and Engineering the Next Generation of Astronauts" by Gunnar De Winter
In this one the author looks at tardigrades and how they inspire ways to engineer better astronauts.

The full October issue can be found here.

After this edition I cancelled my Clarkesworld subscription. Not because I didn‘t like the content—I do and they really need our monetary support—but because I need a change. I plan to tackle my pile of short story anthologies in 2026 instead.

[Pontus Doverstav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some missed potential here, but mostly good.

The Job Interview was my favorite, and opener Wire Mother was also pretty good.

I thought that Understudies had some promise with it setup of humans vs AI-augmented humans, and what's an acceptable level of augmentation before the human is removed from the equation. But then it turned into 20+ pages of math problems, and then ending pretty unsatisfactorily without really getting anywhere with the setup.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Corrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarkesworld's October issue (#229) lands as a solid entry in its nineteenth year, blending sharp science fiction with a touch of the uncanny. Editor Neil Clarke kicks things off with an editorial reflecting on nearly two decades of the magazine, while inviting reader input on how to celebrate the big twentieth anniversary next year. The lineup features five original stories that explore everything from AI parenting dilemmas to cosmic understudies, all available in text and audio formats read by the fabulous Kate Baker. I only read this time.

The fiction leads with "Wire Mother" by Isabel J. Kim, a poignant look at a synthetic surrogate raising a child in a world where human bonds are fragile and tech steps in to fill the gaps. Fiona Moore's "The Cancer Wolves" follows, delving into a future where disease manifests as predatory entities, forcing characters to confront illness not just in their bodies but as something alive and hunting.
H.H. Pak's "Crabs Don't Scream" brings a gritty edge, examining exploitation on a crab-fishing outpost where alien labor and human indifference collide in quiet horror.
Greg Egan weighs in with "Understudies," a cerebral tale of simulated realities and the doubles who step into our lives—or deaths—when things go wrong (alas, I stank at math so this was a miss for me).
Rounding out the stories is Carrie Vaughn's "The Job Interview," a wry space opera romp about corporate absurdity amid interstellar stakes, and Phoebe Barton's "In Luck’s Panoply Clad, I Stand," which tackles conviction and consequence through a lens of armored resolve and moral weight.

As per the usual I did not read any of the non-fiction offerings.

Fiona Moore and Carrie Vaughn were my favorites.

4 Stars

[Jackie]

"Wire Mother" by Isabel J. Kim: Great story. She's a master of little details that hint at world-building over the course of telling a compelling narrative. This one kept me up too late just thinking about it.

"The Cancer Wolves" by Fiona Moore: Felt a little thin. I haven't read any other Seamus and Morag stories, so maybe I'm missing emotional context that would help it hit harder.

"Crabs Don't Scream" by H.H. Pak: Wild and fun.

"Understudies" by Greg Egan: I enjoyed it, but my eyes glazed over at a lot of the math. Paper-thin characters while still being mostly satisfying.

"Giant Grandmother" by Liu Maijia, translated by Blake Stone-Banks: I'm still not into the exposition dump style but it had a good emotional core. The science felt random.

"The Job Interview" by Carrie Vaughn: I was totally engrossed and felt the character's frustration. Good payoff, although the title gives away the game.

"In Luck's Panoply Clad, I Stand" by Phoebe Barton: Still wrapping my head around it. A sharp left turn between how it dealt with duty and burnout from the previous story. Not sure I follow the main character's logic.

Mixed as usual but a decent month overall. My favorites were "Wire Mother," "Crabs Don't Scream," and "The Job Interview."

[Vincenzo Fiorentino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favourites from this issue:

“Wire Mother” by Isabel J. Kim (3.5*)

“The Job Interview” by Carrie Vaughn (3.5*)

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one more than some of the recent issues. A bit more "science fiction" fiction than others (IMO).

[Roy Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great, well rounded issue as usual.
I especially liked "Understudies" by Greg Egan and "The Job Interview" by Carrie Vaughn.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Wire Mother" was a good story
"The Cancer Wolves" was odd

[Matthew WK · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars
Isabel J. Kim 4 stars
Fiona Moore 3 stars
HH Pak 3.5 stars
Greg Egan 3 stars
Liu Maijia 4.5 stars
Carrie Vaughn 4 stars
Phoebe Barton 4 stars