Clarkesworld: Year Eight

by Neil Clarke (Editor), Michael Swanwick, Robert Reed

Since 2006, Clarkesworld Magazine has been entertaining science fiction and fantasy fans with their brand of unique science fiction and fantasy stories. Collected here are all of the stories this Hugo Award-winning magazine published during their eighth year. Includes stories by Michael Swanwick, Yoon Ha Lee, Robert Reed, Susan Palwick, Sean Williams, N.K. Jemisin, James Patrick Kelly, E. Lily Yu, Ken Liu, Xia Jia, Seth Dickinson, Juliette Wade, Matthew Kressel, and many more!

Contents:
Introduction by Neil Clarke
Passage of Earth by Michael Swanwick
Mystic Falls by Robert Reed
Weather by Susan Palwick
Human Strandings and the Role of the Xenobiologist by Thoraiya Dyer
A Gift in Time by Maggie Clark
Never Dreaming (In Four Burns) by Seth Dickinson
Wine by Yoon Ha Lee
The Cuckoo by Sean Williams
Five Stages of Grief After the Alien Invasion by Caroline M. Yoachim
Silent Bridge, Pale Cascade by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
And Wash Out by Tides of War by An Owomoyela
Tortoiseshell Cats Are Not Refundable by Cat Rambo
Grave of the Fireflies by Cheng Jingbo
Bonfires in Anacostia by Joseph Tomaras
Stone Hunger by N. K. Jemisin
The Contemporary Foxwife by Yoon Ha Lee
Suteta Mono de wa Nai by Juliette Wade
The Saint of the Sidewalks by Kat Howard
Daedalum, the Devil’s Wheel by E. Lily Yu
The Rose Witch by James Patrick Kelly
The Creature Recants by Dale Bailey
Spring Festival: Happiness, Anger, Love, Sorrow, Joy by Xia Jia
Of Alternate Adventures and Memory by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
wHole by Robert Reed
Pepe by Tang Fei
The Eleven Holy Numbers of the Mechanical Soul by Natalia Theodoridou
Bits by Naomi Kritzer
Communion by Mary Anne Mohanraj
The Aftermath by Maggie Clark
Water in Springtime by Kali Wallace
Soul's Bargain by Juliette Wade
The Symphony of Ice and Dust by Julie Novakova
Migratory Patterns of Underground Birds by E. Catherine Tobler
Patterns of a Murmuration, in Billions of Data Points by JY Yang
Autodidact by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
Morrigan in the Sunglare by Seth Dickinson
The Clockwork Soldier by Ken Liu
The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye by Matthew Kressel
About the Authors
Clarkesworld Census
About Clarkesworld

727 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 22, 2016

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

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

A massive collection of stories that are more fantasy than Sci-fi. Most of the stories here would fall into the speculative fiction or alternate worlds realm rather than pure science fiction. They are all well-written and cover a wealth of ideas and themes, but suffer from the fact that there is not enough background or character development in the tales. These are stories that expect the reader to sit back and let the narrative unfold. They work as a general rule but most of the stories left me wanting more depth. There are some original tales and some predictable tales and more than a few that I skipped over, but if you can make it through the 700-odd pages, this book probably won't disappoint.

[Hugo Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really good stories, some mediocre stories. So many of them that there is something for everyone.