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Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 191, August 2022
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 August 2022 issue (#191) contains:
Original fiction by M.J. Pettit ("Tender, Tether, Shell"), Bo Balder ("The Pirate's Consigliere"), Finbarr O'Reilly ("Pollatomish"), Carrie Vaughn ("Polly And (Not) Charles Conquer The Solar System"), R.T. Ester ("Slight Forms"), Leonard Richardson ("The Scene Of The Crime") and Derrick Boden ("Migratory Patterns Of The Modern American Skyscraper"). Non-fiction includes an article by Octavia Cade, interviews with Ashley Mackenzie and Anya Ow, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.
Original fiction by M.J. Pettit ("Tender, Tether, Shell"), Bo Balder ("The Pirate's Consigliere"), Finbarr O'Reilly ("Pollatomish"), Carrie Vaughn ("Polly And (Not) Charles Conquer The Solar System"), R.T. Ester ("Slight Forms"), Leonard Richardson ("The Scene Of The Crime") and Derrick Boden ("Migratory Patterns Of The Modern American Skyscraper"). Non-fiction includes an article by Octavia Cade, interviews with Ashley Mackenzie and Anya Ow, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.
ebook
First published August 1, 2022
About the author
Neil Clarke
423 books417 followersNeil 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 6, 2022
Review is for Termination Stories for the Cyberpunk Dystopia Protagonist, by Isabel J. Kim.
Cool and Sexy Asian Girl stands outside the convenience store under the striped awning and waits for the rain to stop. The rain is never going to stop. Cool and Sexy Asian Girl would need to go to a different city for the rain to stop, a city not built on phosphorescent fluorescence and slick glass, a city that doesn’t breathe through its elevated train lines and subways. Cool and Sexy Asian Girl doesn’t remember when they built the train lines. She dreams of cities where it is not always night. Not that it’s always night here. But it is. In the heart, it is.
I loved this meta short story, with its cyberpunk, dystopian, framework. It's intriguing, and then once its caught your attention it gets into some pretty heavy questions - all while staying a story you want to read.
Find it online here: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_...
Cool and Sexy Asian Girl stands outside the convenience store under the striped awning and waits for the rain to stop. The rain is never going to stop. Cool and Sexy Asian Girl would need to go to a different city for the rain to stop, a city not built on phosphorescent fluorescence and slick glass, a city that doesn’t breathe through its elevated train lines and subways. Cool and Sexy Asian Girl doesn’t remember when they built the train lines. She dreams of cities where it is not always night. Not that it’s always night here. But it is. In the heart, it is.
I loved this meta short story, with its cyberpunk, dystopian, framework. It's intriguing, and then once its caught your attention it gets into some pretty heavy questions - all while staying a story you want to read.
Find it online here: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_...
September 24, 2022
Onwards with Clarkesworld Magazine issue #191 (August, 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.
I didn’t pick and chose, just dove in blind and listened to the audio versions read by Kate while reading along. On offer where:
Tender, Tether, Shell by M.J. Pettit
The Pirate’s Consigliere by Bo Balder
Pollatomish by Finbarr O’Reilly
Polly and (Not) Charles Conquer the Solar System by Carrie Vaughn
Slight Forms by R.T. Ester
Migratory Patterns of the Modern American Skyscraper by Derrick Boden
and The Scene of the Crime by Leonard Richardson
All stories were exceptional and very diverse, but if I have to pick just one favorite it will be Polly and (Not) Charles Conquer the Solar System by Carrie Vaughn.
(I didn’t read the three non-fiction offerings).
Themes: sci-fi, fantasy, space opera, dystopian, AI, aliens.
4 Stars
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prio...
Consider supporting them on Patreon.
I didn’t pick and chose, just dove in blind and listened to the audio versions read by Kate while reading along. On offer where:
Tender, Tether, Shell by M.J. Pettit
The Pirate’s Consigliere by Bo Balder
Pollatomish by Finbarr O’Reilly
Polly and (Not) Charles Conquer the Solar System by Carrie Vaughn
Slight Forms by R.T. Ester
Migratory Patterns of the Modern American Skyscraper by Derrick Boden
and The Scene of the Crime by Leonard Richardson
All stories were exceptional and very diverse, but if I have to pick just one favorite it will be Polly and (Not) Charles Conquer the Solar System by Carrie Vaughn.
(I didn’t read the three non-fiction offerings).
Themes: sci-fi, fantasy, space opera, dystopian, AI, aliens.
4 Stars
August 18, 2022
The highlights of this issue for me were "Tender, Tether, Shell" by M. J. Pettit, "The Pirate's Consigliere" by Bo Balder, and "The Scene of the Crime” by Leonard Richardson.
In Pettit's story, after a human dies in an accident in space, an alien adopts her augmented space suit to survive the loss of its biological exoskeleton. It's a very poignant tale of loss and memory from both the alien's perspective and the human colleagues of the person whose 'skin' the alien now inhabits.
Balder's offering is an engaging and rapidly paced story about ruthless pirates that think to take advantage of the seemingly naive inhabitants of a generation ship. One of the pirates has a change of heart, and finds the intended victims aren't so clueless as the others may think. I love the animalistic grim of the pirates in this.
And Richardson's is a classic mystery story with a science fiction setting, and time shenanigans. I enjoyed the mashup and a bit of detective fiction thrown into the mix of this issue.
I'm used to Clarkesworld issues having more heft in complexity, both technological details and thematic depth, than many of the stories seemed to have here. Lighter fare is good though. The Carrie Vaughn novella takes up a large part of the issue. As usual she writes well, but it's the kind of tale that should have stayed a short story. Much too long.
In Pettit's story, after a human dies in an accident in space, an alien adopts her augmented space suit to survive the loss of its biological exoskeleton. It's a very poignant tale of loss and memory from both the alien's perspective and the human colleagues of the person whose 'skin' the alien now inhabits.
Balder's offering is an engaging and rapidly paced story about ruthless pirates that think to take advantage of the seemingly naive inhabitants of a generation ship. One of the pirates has a change of heart, and finds the intended victims aren't so clueless as the others may think. I love the animalistic grim of the pirates in this.
And Richardson's is a classic mystery story with a science fiction setting, and time shenanigans. I enjoyed the mashup and a bit of detective fiction thrown into the mix of this issue.
I'm used to Clarkesworld issues having more heft in complexity, both technological details and thematic depth, than many of the stories seemed to have here. Lighter fare is good though. The Carrie Vaughn novella takes up a large part of the issue. As usual she writes well, but it's the kind of tale that should have stayed a short story. Much too long.
July 10, 2023
This was my first Clarkesworld collection I’ve ever picked up, and it was because for some reason every online used bookstore at once had this exact same issue and I couldn’t get the cover out of my head.
Like any collection, this had its ups and downs, but the highs were incredibly high (“Pollatomish” by Finbarr O’Reilly, which is a sci-fi spin on Irish revolutionaries with a cross-generational theme, and “Migratory Patterns of the Modern America Skyscraper” by Derrick Boden, which is a brief snapshot of a world with nanotech prefab skyscrapers used for both ill and good, are the two standouts). I also loved the few interviews mixed in at the end. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more Clarkesworld collections, as while my general feeling for short stories isn’t particularly positive, sci-fi ones have a much higher hit rate for me.
Like any collection, this had its ups and downs, but the highs were incredibly high (“Pollatomish” by Finbarr O’Reilly, which is a sci-fi spin on Irish revolutionaries with a cross-generational theme, and “Migratory Patterns of the Modern America Skyscraper” by Derrick Boden, which is a brief snapshot of a world with nanotech prefab skyscrapers used for both ill and good, are the two standouts). I also loved the few interviews mixed in at the end. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more Clarkesworld collections, as while my general feeling for short stories isn’t particularly positive, sci-fi ones have a much higher hit rate for me.
December 8, 2022
Tender, Tether, Shell - MJ Pettit ***
The Pirate's Consigliere - Bo Balder **
Pollatomish - Finbarr O'Reilly ****
Polly And (Not) Charles Conquer The Solar System - Carrie Vaughn **
Slight Forms - RT Ester ***
The Scene Of The Crime - Leonard Richardson **
Migratory Patterns Of The Modern American Skyscraper - Derrick Boden ***
The Pirate's Consigliere - Bo Balder **
Pollatomish - Finbarr O'Reilly ****
Polly And (Not) Charles Conquer The Solar System - Carrie Vaughn **
Slight Forms - RT Ester ***
The Scene Of The Crime - Leonard Richardson **
Migratory Patterns Of The Modern American Skyscraper - Derrick Boden ***
September 6, 2022
An enjoyable collection of stories like always, although I felt with few standouts. The longer piece by Carrie Vaughn was the most memorable IMO.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews