Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 231, December 2025

by Neil Clarke (Editor), R.T. Ester (Contributor), Michelle Z. Jin (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 December 2025 issue (#231)

Fiction

"Tomorrow. Today." by R.T. Ester
"Imperfect Simulations" by Michelle Z. Jin
"The Cold Burns" by Anne Wilkins
"The Hole" by Ferenc Samsa
"Between Here and Everywhere" by Robert Reed
"This Sepulchral Aegis" by Rob Gillham
"Home Grown" by Madeleine Vigneron

Non-Fiction

"Decoding Animal (and Alien?) Language" by Gunnar De Winter
"Allegory and A Conversation with Simon Stålenhag" by Arley Sorg
"Climate, Hope, and the Global A Conversation with Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich" by Arley Sorg
"Editor's The End of the Year" by Neil Clarke

Cover Art

"The Brood" by Kristin Kest

Genres: Science Fiction

154 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 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

[She's So Novel! ꧁꧂]

The Kiwi offering in this magazine won a shiny new award in NZ, so I thought I would take a look. It has just been too long since I read any Science Fiction/Fantasy short stories.

Tomorrow. Today by by R.T. Ester
Nope, didn't get the point of this one & it was just too short to have any character building. 2.5★

The Cold Burns by Anne Wilkins
Winner of the inaugural 2025 Te Pae Tawhiti Award for Outstanding Achievement for a Short Story
& this short story is outstanding. As always, I'll remind everyone that I don't read a heap of science fiction, so what looks wildly original to me, may not look so good to a true aficionado of this genre. But I found this short story well paced, with well developed characters & an original if horrifying plot. 5★

Imperfect Simulations by Michelle Z. Jin
Very mathematical, fresh & interesting! I have a new favourite!5★

The Hole by Ferenc Samsa
This magazine, so far, is a great experience for me. Another wildly original story with great description. Of course this is 5★

Home Grown by Madeleine Vigneron
If there is one common theme with all these stories, so far it is cruelty. Is our present world influencing these writers' thoughts? I found this one interesting - it is a sliding doors type story. 4★

Between Here and Everywhere by Robert Reed
As I have said I don't read a lot of science fiction, but I still feel I have read this one many times before. Just couldn't force my way through it. DNF at approximately 50% 2★

This Sepulchral Aegis by Rob Gillham
Very odd & I didn't get totally engaged. 3★



& now for the articles - maybe.

Decoding Animal (and Alien?) Language by Gunnar De Winter
Making me think some more about what our future may hold. If we can't communicate with animals, how will we cope with aliens- or AI? 3★




I've not got back to this to finish the nonfiction articles & I have decided not to bother. Other friends have reported problems with the (unnecessary) new review page, so I have made a copy of this review just in case.

I've added up & averaged my ratings & I make it 3.6★, so since I round up 4★ it is. I can't see where I add my shelvings, so lets hope I can do that in edit mode afterwards.

[Bradley]

"Tomorrow. Today." by R.T. Ester -- (4*) A fairly interesting ship of Theseus story revolving uploadable bodies.

"Imperfect Simulations" by Michelle Z. Jin -- (5*) Lots of great probability ruminations butting heads against friendship. Great worldbuilding, too.

"The Cold Burns" by Anne Wilkins -- (5*) Great dystopia. Utopia. Lol. A pretty hard-hitting capitalist nightmare. I'd say cyberpunk, but this is one step beyond.

"The Hole" by Ferenc Samsa -- (4*) A pleasure-filled and debased vision of a future. Feels distinctly post-humanity, post-bodies, while reveling in the the same--as a mystery story. :)

"Between Here and Everywhere" by Robert Reed -- (5*) I'm reminded, AGAIN, how much I enjoy the Greatship series of Reed's. Memory and quest, yet again. :)

"This Sepulchral Aegis" by Rob Gillham -- (5*) Thank goodness for strange, disturbing, layered post-human space fiction. :) Best because it'll always be horribly human.

"Home Grown" by Madeleine Vigneron - (3*) Birth, direction, future. Pretty simple. Not sure I found it all that interesting, though. At least, not written like this.


I suppose I simply loved Imperfect Simulations. Between Here and Everywhere was great for its own story and how it builds on all of the rest of Reed's stories. I loved This Sepulchral Aegis for its oddities.

Not a bad month.

[J]

"Tomorrow. Today." by R.T. Ester: Short and meditative. I didn't connect with it all the way, but there are some interesting kernels there about parenting and cheating time with technology.

"Imperfect Simulations" by Michelle Z. Jin: A cool story that reached surprisingly far in time, told through a hyper-intelligent perspective. I liked the sketches of the world we get, the way time lags worked, and the conclusion that even if the world seems lost it's still worth hoping and trying for something better anyway.

"The Cold Burns" by Anne Wilkins: A stressful and suffocating setting, and I liked the way you feel the protagonist's frustration at his mother even though we all know it's some governing body creating those artificially tight conditions. The end let me down by hand-waving us into a solution in a hurry. I wish this had been a much longer story, but I'm not convinced the author knew how to get the characters out of this horrible and compelling world she'd set up.

"The Hole" by Ferenc Samsa: An unholy combination of Terra Ignota and The Matrix. Some cool ideas, but like Terra Ignota, it veers a little too far into some really strange fetishes. I also took way too long to figure out there were two different women the main character interacted with, but maybe that's on me.

"Between Here and Everywhere" by Robert Reed: I take it this story is part of a wider universe of other stories. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be able to stand alone, or if it would even make sense if I'd read the others. It still might not. Unfortunately, it was very long and I couldn't tell you what happened.

"This Sepulchral Aegis" by Rob Gillham: Weird, dancing between intriguing and a little too gross-body-horror for me. The end felt a little too abrupt.

"Home Grown" by Madeleine Vigneron: I loved this. A poignant read about two sisters, having to flee your home, and survivor's guilt.

Otherwise, the non-fiction bits were pretty good. I enjoyed Gunnar De Winter's article about animal language. I skimmed through one of the interviews because I wasn't super interested, but the other one has me wondering how I can get my hands on a climate fiction and non-fiction combo anthology that retails for $48.

Highlights: "Home Grown" and "Imperfect Simulations"

[Kam Yung Soh]

An average issue, with interesting stories by Michelle Z. Jin, Anne Wilkins and Ferenc Samsa.

- "Tomorrow. Today." by R.T. Ester: on the relationship between a father and his son, when the son has to make a decision about his life that may not be his after all.

- "Imperfect Simulations" by Michelle Z. Jin: on a human colony on another one world, one person hides his skill at predicting how people would behave by internally simulating their behaviours. But when Earth starts to cut off supplies to the colony, his simulations would reveal just what is happening. But what needs to be done may be a surprise, even to him.

- "The Cold Burns" by Anne Wilkins: in a 'Utopian' society where everybody is measured by how much they consume, one person struggles to lower his consumption footprint, which doing his job at moving frozen people to a new colony. Then he learns the truth about what really happens to the frozen people, and learns that his utopia is not one at all.

- "The Hole" by Ferenc Samsa: in an unusual country where 'golems' do most of the work, people indulge in entertainment shows (even peep shows) put up by other people. As two people has a conversation through a peephole, it is revealed that one golem has gone rogue and gained intelligence. One of the persons in the conversation is hunting the golem, but he may be the hunted by assassins sent by the golem, unless he can turn the tables.

- "Between Here and Everywhere" by Robert Reed: an archaic man may be the key to ending a search by a ship in space for a lost prize.

- "This Sepulchral Aegis" by Rob Gillham: a generation ship lost in space discovers a lifeboat harbouring a more advanced human. The human was to return to where it was found, but must convince the lonely captain of the ship to do so. But the way to do that may be via the captain's sleeping sister, and by revealing the secret to the captain's long life.

- "Home Grown" by Madeleine Vigneron: only one of two sisters can travel on a ship heading to another world. During the travel, she imagines the life her sister is having back on earth so vividly that she has a crisis and needs to recover to keep on living.

[Pontus Doverstav]

Lots of high quality stories in this issue.

I enjoyed This Sepulchral Aeigs, mostly for its imaging and setting, the plot itself didn't resonate that well with me. Plotwise The Cold Burns was my favorite, and the setting wasn't bad either.

I also found The Hole, Imperfect Simulations and Tomorrow. Today. to be enjoyable reads.

[Vincenzo Fiorentino]

Favourites from this issue:

"The Cold Burns" by Anne Wilkins (4*)

"Home Grown" by Madeleine Vigneron (4*)

[Ed Erwin]

A fine issue. My favorite stories were:
"The Cold Burns" by Anne Wilkins
"The Hole" by Ferenc Samsa
"This Sepulchral Aegis" by Rob Gillham

[Shawn]

A solid but muted issue. Strong themes around loss, displacement, and survival, but most of it plays things a little too safe. Home Grown carries the emotional weight and actually lingers; the rest is thoughtful, competent, and occasionally interesting, but rarely gripping. I respect it more than I felt it.

Standouts
• Home Grown — easily the strongest piece; intimate, sad, and grounded.
• Imperfect Simulations — good idea, clean execution, emotionally cool.
• Decoding Animal (and Alien?) Language — smart, engaging nonfiction that fits the issue’s themes without feeling dry.