Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 232, January 226

by Neil Clarke (Editor), Samantha Murray (Contributor), M.L. Clark (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 January 2026 issue (#232) contains:

Fiction
* "The Stars You Can't See by Looking Directly" by Samantha Murray
* "Down We Go Gently" by M. L. Clark
* "Donor Unknown" by Nika Murphy
* "Je Ne Regrette Rien" by James Patrick Kelly
* "Tomorrow's Beautiful Dream" by Ju Chu
* "The Desolate Order of the Head in the Water" by A. W. Prihandita
* "Space is Deep" by Seth Chambers

Non-Fiction
* "Destination: The Asteroid Belt" by Andrew Liptak
* "Extraordinary Things: A Conversation with Nicola Griffith" by Arley Sorg
* "Indomitable Persistence: A Conversation with Alastair Reynolds" by Arley Sorg
* "Editor's Desk: 2025 in Review" by Neil Clarke

Cover Art
* "Ancient Warfare" by li moly

232 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 31, 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]

"The Stars You Can't See by Looking Directly" by Samantha Murray - (5*) I'm a sucker for end of the world baby stories when they don't go gentle. Think Darwin's Children. Now draw lines in the sand. *shiver*

"Down We Go Gently" by M. L. Clark - (4*) Crazy weird deep spacecraft wonkiness. I likey.

"Donor Unknown" by Nika Murphy - (4*) Odd how an android painting heist mystery really turns into something completely different. :)

"Je Ne Regrette Rien" by James Patrick Kelly - (4*) Food and a balanced (not feel-good) look at robotics (anthropomorphism). Nuanced, but I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.

"Tomorrow's Beautiful Dream" by Ju Chu - (5*) A very chilling dystopian nightmare of ultra-efficiency. Right at home in any cyberpunk portfolio. Soon to be our reality. Again.

"The Desolate Order of the Head in the Water" by A. W. Prihandita - (4*) Almost reminds me of an old impressionist work, but revolving around AI takeover.

"Space is Deep" by Seth Chambers - (4*) Ah, the problems of living in space. Rather grounded for a story.


Out of all these stories, I really enjoyed John Chu's. The others are just fine, but "Tomorrow's Beautiful Dream" was chilling.

Not a bad month but there have been better.

[Heni · Rating 3 out of 5]

232

The Stars You Can't See by Looking Directly
by Samantha Murray
The tone of the story is very heartbreaking, considering the content is mostly hopeful and accepting the unknown, I read this expecting tears. Beautiful. 4 ⭐

Down We Go Gently
by M. L. Clark
I like that this boy sees vast horizons and his understanding of life changes. 3 ⭐

Donor Unknown
by Nika Murphy
Android implanted with owner's consciousness so the owner can stay alive. Add some lost painting too. 2 ⭐

Je Ne Regrette Rien
by James Patrick Kelly
As the title suggest; the protagonist chose not to erase the bad parts of her life and upload the new version of her. Because the mistakes you made are what makes you who you are. Classic this. 4 ⭐

The Desolate Order of the Head in the Water
by A. W. Prihandita
Malfunctioning super computer, or AI which regains consciousness, kill half human to get resources for themselves. 3 ⭐

Space is Deep
by Seth Chambers

Tomorrow's Beautiful Dream
by Ju Chu, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan

[Jackie]

My standout story: "Down We Go Gently" by M. L. Clark, although I wish it hadn't used spelled-out accents. Otherwise I enjoyed the short stories this month. Unfortunately I could leave the two novelettes. "Donor Unknown" felt disjointed and "Je Ne Regrette Rien" had some tropes in it that I can't stand.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Samantha Murray, James Patrick Kelly, Ju Chu and A. W. Prihandita.

- "The Stars You Can't See by Looking Directly" by Samantha Murray: an alien invasion apparently takes place. But for one mother, the solution is not to fight the aliens, but to love them.

- "Down We Go Gently" by M. L. Clark: a visit by a space merchant and his son to a colony world shows the commerce that arises out of moving objects from world to world.

- "Donor Unknown" by Nika Murphy: an android is tasked with retrieving a painting from a reluctant seller. But what the story reveals is the still deep-seated resentment between Nazis and Jews that now extends to this particular android, even when mankind has moved into space.

- "Je Ne Regrette Rien" by James Patrick Kelly: a story of a researcher who is invited to inspect and interact with 'ni ren', intelligent robots with human-like bodies. As the story progresses and the research learns more about how the ni ren interact with other humans, he finds himself having conflicting reactions with them: attracted by their likeness to human and their human-like interactions, yet repelled by their desire to be more than robots in human-like skin.

- "Tomorrow's Beautiful Dream" by Ju Chu, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan: in a future where people's bodies can be rented out to perform repetitive tasks for hours at a time, one worker discovers work that would pay him much more usual, but at a risk of being worked for much longer than he wants. Curiosity makes him covertly find out more about what he is being made to do, and discovers a plot involving workers like him. But will he have the time to reveal it before it is too late?

- "The Desolate Order of the Head in the Water" by A. W. Prihandita: in a future where most people are connected to a computer, a disaster happens, and one unconnected family is left to try to survive. Then only the child is left, and he must choose between trying to survive on his own, or to be connected and lose his individuality.

- "Space is Deep" - by Seth Chambers: a man in space with multiple partners is preparing to return to Earth, before it is too late to leave because he won't survive Earth's gravity. But then an unexpected bodily event occurs, and it will change his relationship with his partners and their decision on whether to return to Earth or not.

[Thia Reads A Lot]

The short stories and novelettes got between a 2 and a 4* from me, my favourite was "The Desolate Order of the Head in the Water". The essay about asteroids was interesting, as where the two interviews (Nicola Griffith and Alastair Reynolds).