Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 189, June 2022

by Neil Clarke, Aimee Ogden, Nika Murphy

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 June 2022 issue (#189) contains:

* Original fiction by Aimee Ogden ("Company Town"), Nika Murphy ("The Art of Navigating an Affair in a Time Rift"), Anna Martino ("Manjar dos Deuses"), Chris Willrich ("The Odyssey Problem"), Chen Qian ("Inhuman Lovers"), Marie Vibbert ("We Built This City"), and Adele Gardner ("Marsbodies").
* Non-fiction includes an article by Pauline Barmby, interviews with Sam Miller and Samit Basu, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.
*Cover Art: The Pod by Eddie Mendoza

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies

140 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2022

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

[Nataliya · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review is only for “We Built This City” by Marie Vibbert, the winner of the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novelette:

I can see how one would want this novelette to win since it tries to tackle important issue of corporate greed and workers rights and labor disputes, but by the time I finished it I was just happy to be done with it with the overall “meh” feeling from the whole experience.

It’s a good message but it’s unfinished and the execution is lackluster, and message alone can’t (and shouldn’t) sustain the story. It needs more.

Seriously, I’m not a big fan of the novelette ending just at the point where things are about to get both interesting and complicated. It’s like it ran out of steam before the idea needed to be fleshed out. But I suppose it’s easier to imply that the revolution is needed than to deal with the practicalities of it.

Maybe a “window washers on Venus” full novel would have given me more of what I wanted from this?

2.5 stars.

Read it here: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/vibb...

——————

Also posted on my blog.

[Gerhard · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Company Town’ by Aimee Ogden ****
An unusual story for Clarkesword in that it is a hard SF setting with fantasy elements in the mix. At least I think they are fantasy elements…

‘The Art of Navigating an Affair in a Time Rift’ by Nika Murphy *****
Highly unusual alternate (or intersecting) timeline yarn.

‘Manjar dos Deuses’ by Anna Martino ***
Evocative tale about food and memory."

‘The Odyssey Problem’ by Chris Willrich ***

‘Inhuman Lovers’ by Chen Qian *****
Despite the terrible title, this is a great story of love, robots and noir."

‘We Built This City’ by Marie Vibbert ***

‘Marsbodies’ by Adele Gardner ****
Another robot story! And, as usual, a really intriguing viewpoint.

[Jess ❈Harbinger of Blood-Soaked Rainbows❈ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars for the Hugo, Nebula, and Utopia award finalist We Built This City by Marie Vibbert.

My next entry in my end of year short stack that I read during the last days of the year was a wonderfully crafted dystopian tale set in a fictional "New Tenochtitlan" floating amidst the acidic clouds of Venus's atmosphere.

Julia Lopez's mother helped to build the city, a preconceived utopia envisioned by the Mexican government for the younger generations (I'm assuming because Earth has become inhabitable.) Instead it has fallen victim to the dark side of capitalism with its working class suffering the consequences of corporate greed, an influx of refugees from other cities, inadequate wages, crowded living space, and employment and budget cuts for the maintenance workers, those who work grueling 12 hour days in order to maintain the exterior of the city in terrible acid rain conditions, keeping it safe and durable for those who live inside. Julia is one of those workers. She likes her job but with every corner the higher ups cut, the more her legs burn and her back hurts, and the less time she gets to spend actually enjoying her life. When an administrative assistant approaches the workers one day and says that their workforce is about to be cut from 16 workers to 4 workers, what ensues is a fierce tale of revolution that happens from the bottom up.

I relate to this story in which a dystopian background illustrates a very real problem in society today. I began reading not really even knowing what the story was about and became captivated while reading. I loved the characters and felt for them. As a nurse, my coworkers and I are constantly facing the battle of lower wages, less raises, less workforce, all to line the pockets of those higher ups who run the show, but would be unable to do the grunt work needed to actually run the show. I have found myself staying late, pulling overtime, and breaking my back all to convenience those higher up on the chain, all of whom make a lot more money than I do. Sometimes, a revolution is necessary for change, and that's where this story hit me. I loved every second of it.

Highly recommended, and very worth the accolades it has received. Will put this author on my radar.
Read it for free here:
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/vibb...

[Michael Whiteman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Company Town - Aimee Ogden ***

The Art Of Navigating An Affair In A Time Rift - Nika Murphy ***

Manjar Dos Deuses - Anna Martino ****

The Odyssey Problem - Chris Willrich ***

Inhuman Lovers - Chen Qian, trans. Carmen Yiling Yan

We Built This City - Marie Vibbert ****

Marsbodies - Adele Gardner ***

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only listened to The Odyssey Problem by Chris Willrich from this magazine collection through the Wil Wheaton podcast. The short story had a Star Trek vibe, as a diplomatic spaceship rescues a child from a solitary existence trapped in a void so the neighboring planet can live peacefully. The captain wants to save this child from his cruel fate, but yet another spaceship from a more technologically advanced culture tries to intervene and impose its morals on the situation. This story is reminiscent of the short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin and a recent Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach.

[Silvana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating only for Marie Vibbert's We Built this City. I understand the appeal but I don't think the story stood out that much for me.

[Pau Lethani · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read We Built this City by Marie Vibbert.

I am a bit disappointed with this one. It felt quite flat. Probably it's just not for me.

[Hirondelle (not getting notifications) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read We Built This City" Marie Vibbert which is currently a Nebula award finalist for best novelette.

A me problem: the recent Nebula awards lists are not clicking for me, particularly the short fiction. This did not click so much it was the story which broke my series of reading a short story a day, which started January 31st. I started this March 14th, and I just did not care to finish it, and only finished it March 15th. It is not that long a story, or even objectively bad, just very much not a me story.

It is a very right now story, late stage capitalism and exploitation on something crucial for the survival of a colony-city floating in the atmosphere of Mars, with a "hispanic" flavor (more on that later). Quiet quitting, labor exploitation and strikes and all. Its heart is in the right place, even if the rage is somewhat tame. But it was all obvious, and didactic and IMO kind of shallow worldbuilding, and the writing was, for lack of a better word, boring.

A small rant and this is just me and likely will not ever bother a native english speaker, characters in this story have hispanic names written without diacritics (López is written Lopez, Ángel is written Angel for example). There is plenty of dialogue with words like mijo/mija (a word I am really pay attention because while innocuous in spanish, to me it means "piss") and abuela. Now I do not know how hispanic americans speak, or write their names, maybe that is really accurate for mexican-americans (rather than just cheap colorful details bringing instant diversity with little effort) but then it turns out they are a city founded by the Mexican government called New Tenochtitlan so presumably they were speaking spanish and abuela would just be grandmother and it is totally unnecessary! Adding a couple spanish words for instant diversity effect, but not bothering to spell names with diacritics it was a choice I just could not respect. My native language is far more phonetical than English (though not as much as Spanish), this stuff just feel condescending, ironically while trying to be diverse But that was just a small thing, which I would roll my eyes at but ignore if the story had clicked for me. It did not, because of other things, less specific, but it was worth pointing, if characters are speaking in a language, it is annoying authors writing in english their dialogue have characters drop words in the original language.

[Amy Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is only for the Odyssey Problem (if I happen across more from this magazine issue, I'll edit and add them in), as read by Wil Wheaton on "It's Story Time".*

I think you could subtitle this one: "How far down does the Omelas-hole go?" It starts with a premise immediately recognizable to anyone whose read "Those Who Walk Away from Omelas," but turns that on its head several times, and keeps expanding into larger (and maybe eventually more absurd?) ethical concerns. I'll put any other thoughts behind a spoiler bar, as this is a story that it might be worth entering into fresh, but one that I want to ramble about a bit.


The first major issue is that, while rescuing the person in the Omelas Hole is a good thing, directly causing the downfall of the rest of that person's civilization is not. If you're going to pull the person out, stick around to do some damage control, yeah? Help them find a way to rebuild that doesn't require the captivity and torture of an innocent person. This alone makes me wonder how deep the satire streak in this work goes.

The second issue is that the cascading list of related ethical concerns eventually leads to granting consciousness to unaware things so that they can feel joy. Is that really objectively better than leaving them inanimate? It may increase joy in the universe, but it also gives them the capacity for pain, etc, so... why bother? They weren't experiencing either before.

By the end, I'd concluded this was more a think-piece than anything else, with a strong satirical bent. How far down does our ethical obligation go? I think it depends on our needs and our technological abilities. I do not function without meat and other animal products. Would I prefer not to eat meat? Honestly, yes, but I value my own functioning more than the well-being of the animals farmed for me [others will come down differently on that issue]. If there were artificially created meat that met the same nutritional (and flavor and texture) needs, and didn't contain any of my food allergens? That would be awesome, but we're not there yet, technologically.


I may bump this one up to 5 stars on a relisten, but I came down on 4 on my first go.









*I would happily put this review on the story it goes with, and only that story, if the GoodReads folks hadn't slammed that door down in their "not a book" obsessionry.

[Corrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarkesworld Magazine issue #189 (June, 2022). You can read the stories online or listen to the podcast, hosted and narrated by the lovely Kate Baker https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prio...

Consider supporting them on Patreon.

That’s my first Clarkesworld of the new year done. Always a joy to read their high quality sci-fi offerings:

Company Town by Aimee Ogden
The Art of Navigating an Affair in a Time Rift by Nika Murphy
Manjar dos Deuses by Anna Martino
The Odyssey Problem by Chris Willrich
Inhuman Lovers by Chen Qian
We Built This City by Marie Vibbert
and Marsbodies by Adele Gardner

All stories were exceptional and very diverse, I really liked Inhuman Lovers by Chen Qian and Marsbodies by Adele Gardner.

(I didn’t read the three non-fiction offerings).

Themes: sci-fi, fantasy, space opera, dystopian, AI, aliens.

4 Stars

[Norman Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

“We Built This City”, by Marie Vibbert, 20 pages
2023 Hugo Award finalist - Best Novelette
2023 Nebula Award finalist - Best Novelette

City maintenance workers suffer layoffs when their budget is severely reduced. The remaining workers go on strike in protest, but are threatened by deportation if they don't return to work. Finally, in defiance of the police who are now blocking worker's access to their job site, two of the workers return to work to prove their value to the city's citizens. All of this takes place in a floating domed city in the atmosphere of Venus. The message of workers' rights is important, but there just didn't seem to be much meat on these bones.

I did not read any other content from this issue of Clarkesworld Magazine.

[Miki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read the fiction section.

"Company Town" by Aimee Ogden, "The Art of Navigating an Affair in a Time Rift" by Nika Murphy : all fantastic and touching.

"Manjar dos Deuses" by Anna Martino, "Inhuman Lovers" by Chen Qian, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan, "We Built this City" by Marie Vibbert, "Marsbodies" by Adele Gardner : imaginative and bittersweet.

"The Odissey Problem" by Chris Willrich: a brilliant "response" to / expansion on Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" (another recommended response story is by N. K. Jemisin).

[A.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story: "We Built this City"

This is one of those stories that make you mad because of the sort-sightedness of some characters. In this case, those characters are entirely off-screen, and possibly even off-world. They don't really understand what the people below them in the company hierarchy actually do, or why they are important. Sound familiar? It's a good look at a very important real-world problem. That's what science fiction at its best is.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We Built This City": An interesting and moving story about labor relations on a colony on Venus. The people we (all-to-briefly!) called "essential workers" in 2020 really are, well, essential. And human. Especially on Venus, but here on Earth as well. Solidarity with workers on all planets!

[Heni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating only for:

We Built This City BY MARIE VIBBERT
This is set in Venus and it's mostly about capitalist world (even interplanetary) where the people who do the most are the ones that are dispensable. 4 ⭐

[Katrina Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

We Built This City - Marie Vibbert - A great look at a post capitalist system and how the people who do the most are the ones who get screwed over. Fantastic!

[Zoe]

We Built This City, Marie Vibbert - 2023 Nebula Award nominee for novelette

[Kathryn Atreides · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Read "We Built This City" for Hugo readalong

[Marco · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is for "We Built This City" by Marie Vibbert.
Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Novelette category. I do not remember reading anything by this author before, hence I was quite excited to read it. I was not disappointed!
The story is set in the future, on a floating colony on Venus. The young protagonist is the children of one of the people that build the colony, but has a humble construction worker job. Her job is extremely important for the city survival, yet she is underpaid, and her employer try to get more and more from her and her colleagues with less and less.
A great reflection on labor, worker rights movements, and capitalism.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

We Built This City by Marie Vibbert

[Astrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

For "We Built This City"

[Dua (in reading slump) ✨]

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/vibb...

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/barm...

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read The Odyssey Problem by Chris Willrich

[Thia Reads A Lot]

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 189, June 2022 - Edited by Neil Clarke
I read this issue because "We Built This City" is nominated for the Hugo for Best Novelette. It was the piece I liked the most from this issue, 4*. I also liked Inhuman Lovers, which I also gave 4*.
The cover is gorgeous too.

Reading Journal Index: 2023-191