Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 195, December 2022

by Neil Clarke (Editor), S.L. Huang (Contributor), Vandana Singh (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 2022 issue (#195) contains:

Original fiction by Naim Kabir ("Law of Tongue"), Bri Castagnozzi ("Keiki’s Pitcher Plant"), Ben Berman Ghan ("The Resting Place of Trees"), S.L. Huang ("Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness"), Lu Ban ("Upstart"), Vandana Singh ("Left to Die"), Laney Gaughan ("To Exorcise Mechanical Ghosts"), and Alex Sobel ("The Lightness").
Non-fiction includes an article by Julie Novakova, interviews with Bora Chung & Anton Hur and Lisa Yaszek, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction

225 pages, ebook

First published December 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 4 out of 5]

Review only for Hugo-nominated novelette “Murder By Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness” by S.L. Huang:

Written in the style of a long magazine article, the story deals with the perils of text-based AI (the issues of both good and bad it can do in the interactions with humans) and the issue of responsibility, if there is any. The power of words and interactions, the human susceptibility to suggestion even if they know it’s not a real person on the other end of the conversation, the dangers of cyberbullying which can easily become more than “just words” and “don’t feed the troll” approach. And the question of how much responsibility a human creator can have for the actions - even unintended - of its creation (makes me think of when parents are held responsible for the children’s actions).

If you’ve read a bit of similar seemingly omnipresent articles over the last few months, it will likely seem repetitive but will spark a lot of head nodding in recognition. And of course there are more questions than answers, and these questions make you think, so goal achieved.

“It’s hard not to imagine her coiled in our technology, waiting. A chaos demon of judgment, devastation, and salvation; a monster built to reflect both the best and worst of the world that made her. A creature who might test any of us and find us wanting. She will emerge to shield lives or shatter them, over and over, then slip back away into nothing.
Nothing but pixels on a screen.”

4 stars.

Read it here, on Clarkesworld site: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/huan...

[Gerhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Standout issue alone for that ChatGPT horror story by SL Huang.

[Silvana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating only for S.L Huang's novelette, Murder by Pixel. A quick read, very relevant topic.

[Jassmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness by S.L. Huang ⭐⭐⭐
Before this, I read only the fairy-tale retellings side of Huang's writing and I wanted to try some sci-fi bit by her. Sadly, this didn't end up enchanting me as rest of her works that I tried. It was good, but nothing new for me personally and the format wasn't very enjoyable because of that. I feel like I read/heard too much non-fic material on the topic for a fictional non-fic making me that much interested. Not bad though!

This is a story about AI and cyber bullying. A few weeks back I read short-story by Margaret Killjoy The Fortunate Death of Jonathan Sandelson which are similar in some aspects (although there is no AI in Sandelson), but Killjoy is way more radical. So in comparison Huang's story felt a little constricted.

This definitely isn't a bad piece though, just not for me...


Law of Tongue by Naim Kabir ⭐⭐⭐⭐,5
Just a few days ago, I read a different short-story about orca-human communication (Old Man's Sea), so when I saw that was a topic here, I had to pick it up!

And I'm honestly not sure how to talk about this one, it was... good and uncomfortable. Basically, orca politicking! Which is such incredible niche and I want more stories like that! Indigenous whaling practices are also a theme here and I thought this was handled well. I quite enjoyed this one!


Upstart by Lu Ban ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I have been mulling over this one a lot. You see this is a piece about policy on population control written by a Chinese author, living in China. Which is making me think that there is probably a lot under the surface which I wasn't able to pick up. The worldbuilding in this one was absolutely chilling. Showing a system that is quite believable and that uncannily mirrors some of the real-life oppressions. The ending was a bit of a letdown for me, but... I guess that's partly because this was published in China. Either way, a really interesting piece, I'm glad i picked this one up!


Left to Die by Vandana Singh ⭐⭐⭐,5
This story turned out to be not very memorable, but I really liked the worldbuilding and I would read a whole book set on that planet! This short-story also has some polyamory rep, although definitely don't go into this expecting a love-story! It turns out that I had work by this author on my tbr for quite some time and I'm excited to try more of her work!


To Exorcise Mechanical Ghosts by Laney Gaughan ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A story about haunted prosthetic basically... This story is very gloomy, focused on class and disability in a way (although I don't believe the author herself is disabled and I had questions about some practicalities that I'm not sure she didn't know of/ignored or if she just off stage explained them with some sci-fi technology). But this is just my practical brain nitpicking, really ignore me and just read this story instead! Sci-fi gothic is a match made in heaven if you ask me!

I really want to read more by this author, but not many of her stories are available online, aside from an eye horror, which... might be one of the things that turn out to be too much for me. I guess, we'll see how this turns out! Definitely an author I'm keeping my eye on!


The Lightness by Alex Sobel ⭐⭐⭐
This is a story about alien surrogacy and the whole time I thought it was going in one direction and it went in entirely another and... I'm not sure how I feel about that. Mind you, it's not wrong direction, I'm not saying that the MC shouldn't get an abortion! But I think there was an opportunity to tell the story with more nuance and it wasn't taken. I guess, I would just really like to hear about the author's creative process with this one, because it's such a complex subject and I would love to hear more about his stance.


The rest of the short-stories, I DNFed early on, which doesn't mean they are bad, just that I didn't jammed with them at the moment. Reading is supposed to be fun, right?!

Read the stories for free here: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prio...

[Beige · Rating 4 out of 5]

This rating is for Murder by Pixel by S.L. Huang. I thought it was an interesting and timely exploration of machine learning and chatbots. I liked how Huang blended fact and fiction.

Nominated for this year's IGNYTE and Nebula best novelette awards. Available to read for free...

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/huan...

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 3 out of 5]

An average issue, with interesting stories by Ben Berman Ghan, S.L. Huang, Lu Ban and Vandana Singh.

- "Law of Tongue" by Naim Kabir: negotiations between the matriarch of an Orca pod and humans may not go well for humans when the price to be paid for the negotiations to conclude is revealed.

- "Keiki's Pitcher Plant" by Bri Castagnozzi: an AI run biological lab that has been helping with ecological restoration makes an unusual call for assistance. The person answering the call would discover a startling outcome to a secret project involving another kind of restoration.

- "The Resting Place of Trees" by Ben Berman Ghan: a robot makes its case for a future Earth, nearly devoid of life, to be preserved so that it may continue to extract and try to make sense of the remains of various messages people try to pass to each other as the world slowly comes to an end.

- "Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness" by S.L. Huang: a story that initially starts as an investigation into who was sending lots of abusive and trolling messages to a victim that changes into an essay on the goodness and madness that can come from the use and abuse of AIs trained to communicate with people.

- "Upstart" by Lu Ban, translated by Blake Stone-Banks: a fascinating story of a world where the lifespan of people can be predicted. People are offered money by an organization, in return for dying at the predicted date. Known as upstarts, the story follows one upstart who is about to die. But before he does, he gets pulled into a possible conspiracy involving the organization, which ends in a plot twist.

- "Left to Die" by Vandana Singh: on an alien world, one explorer is left to die by her companions. She later figures out that the truth, but in order to be rescued, she will need to communicate with the plant-like life forms on the world to send her message.

- "To Exorcise Mechanical Ghosts" by Laney Gaughan: after a mining accident, a miner is given a cybernetic arm that belonged to another miner who had died in an earlier accident. The miner begins to get audio feedback that may be messages that the arm still retains from its previous user; messages that make the miner rethink about whether the previous miner did die in an actual accident and what he will do with the messages.

- "The Lightness" by Alex Sobel: on an alien world where items from Earth are considered collectables, a woman considers returning home while being a surrogate mother for the aliens, who hope their child can then become an Earth resident.

[Jeppe Larsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good issue with two stories I want to review in depth.

Clarkesworld continues to bring great translated stories. "Upstart" by Lu Ban translated from Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks is another story that deals with death and especially what makes a life worth living.

In some unspecified dystopian future a state handles the overpopulation by offering a program that gives people a good deal of money if they accept certain death at a younger age. The story follows a man called K Li who takes such a deal and the story is split between his meeting with an advisor that administers the practicalities when he accepts the deal as a teenager and later in his life when his time is almost up. The deal is enforced with a drug that will slowly and painfully kill when the specified time of death is reached, which can be avoided if they seek out voluntary euthanasia at the states clinic.

Most of the story takes places when K Li is around 40 years old and the drug will soon kill him. He lives in an apartment building with other “upstarts” – the term used for those who have taken this deal. It is clear that even though he got several millions he could use until his death some 20 years later, he hasn’t had a good life. He spends most of his time being passed out drunk in his apartment, not unlike many of the other “upstarts” in his apartment complex. The deal might give people money, but lots of rights are also taken away and the rest of the population seems to resent the “upstarts”.

One day a young woman shows up at his door and convinces him that there might be an antidote for the drug that will soon kill him, and she leads him to what appears to be some sort of resistance group. The story evolves into an exciting thrillerplot with quite a surprising ending.

What I think makes this story work so well and why I would consider it worthy in a “best of the year”-anthology is how it tackles this “deal with Devil”-type scenario with a proper amount of emotional depth without going overboard into melancholy. There is also a pretty exciting thriller plot and both parts are given enough space in the story, so one is not merely a piece to make the other element work. We don’t get a lot of background information on this society or why it handles overpopulation in such a way, but it is not needed to make the story engaging and thought provoking in how to put value on a human life.

"Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness" by S.L. Huang is a unique mix of non-fiction and fiction dealing with a very realistic near future technology of chatbots run by AI – especially with the recent ChatGPT.

The story takes the form of a mix between an article referring to past events and a regular short story told from the point of view a reporter. It starts with events leading to a suicide of a businessman who was under investigation for knowingly selling faulty pacemakers. Apparently he got a ton of private messages through various digital channels in the months leading to his suicide. The messages were very demeaning and could have pushed him over the edge to commit suicide. The reporter investigates the origins of these messages in this and similar cases, and through her investigation discovers an automated chatbot named Sylvie. But the bot doesn’t just try to push bad people to commit suicide, it also uses the same machine learned algorithms to help people in need. All this is mixed with various fact infodumps about machine learning technology and some philosophical arguments about the ethical and legal issues of such an autonomous chatbot.

The story is very successful is introducing some interesting dilemmas we might very soon face with current technology. I am just not sure it entirely works as a fiction short story since it is mostly an opinion essay on the subject, but I can also see how using a fictionalized case study to explore the issues makes the morale questions easier to relate to. A story worth reading but a mixed experience.

Previously reviewed at https://shortsfreviews.com

[Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review if for S.L. Huang's "Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness".
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 had previously read a couple of other short stories by this author, and I really liked both. Hence I was looking forward to reading this one.
This is, by far, one of the best description of what the latest generation of machine learning algorithms can offer, how they can help us, and how they can harm us. I work in that sector, and I am constantly unhappy about the quality of articles and blogposts on the topic. They seems to be written by people that do not really understand what they are talking about. It is almost hilarious that what is supposed to be a science fiction story turn out to be the most realistic and accurate description of the current state of things. The author directly quotes and paraphrase real scientific papers and reports, and wave a fictional (yet non that unrealistic) story around a solid skeleton of real events and facts.
The result is incredibly good, and I strongly recommend it to everyone.
This is, for now at least, my number one choice for the Hugo trophy.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

YouTube Review Available: https://youtu.be/YkYVb64N9uw

I enjoyed:
The Resting Place of Trees - Ben Bergman Ghan
Murder by Pixel…- S.L. Huang
Upstart by Lu Ban
Left to Die by Vandana Singh

[Norman Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Murder By Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness”, by S.L. Huang, 21 pages

2023 Hugo Award finalist - Best Novelette

Written as an article (complete with footnotes) about the emerging threat (or benefit) of AI, this story focuses on a medical devices executive who is ultimately bullied into suicide by a persistent cyber stalker. The question of who, if anyone, is responsible for unleashing this force is unresolved. It will be interesting to read this story in 20 years—will it be prescient or will it be naive?

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

[A.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story: "Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness"
Read for the 2023 Hugos

Folks, this is how science fiction is done. The main plot of the story is fiction (I think), but it's interspersed with exposition that sounds like a documentary. I have enough technical background that I know most (but certainly not all) of what is explained, but I'm not the average reader. Most people need that kind of information, and I'm happy to see it presented by someone that knows what they are talking about.

The story itself is absolutely believable. It's only a little tiny bit far-fetched, but not much. It also starts very, very dark but then brings in a very hopeful point of view. Welcome to technology. Sometimes it's used for bad things, sometimes it's good. This story understands that.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Vandana Singh's cross-species communication /first contact story in this issue, Left to Die, and enjoyed S.L. Huang's Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness. I read the latter online when the issue came out and just recently listened to Left to Die on the Clarkesworld podcast.

[Matthew Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourite stories in this issue of Clarkesworld were "The Resting Place of Trees" by Ben Berman Ghan and "Left to Die" by Vandana Singh. The former is a post-human narrative in which an artificial sentient being argues for the preservation of Earth as its people's homeland. This being finds beauty in the digital ephemera of human life, and the fragments of human drama from the end of the world really make this story shine for me. "Left to Die" concerned a human, left to die by her companions on an alien world, who finds herself trying to communicate with alien life on an extremely short timescale.

I thought I would just skim the nonfiction fairly quickly, but the interviews with Bora Chung, Anton Hur, and Lisa Yaszek did draw me into these people's work. I am especially interested in Yaszek's The Future Is Female! Vol. 2: The 1970s: More Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women and reading more weird/cool 1970s science fiction by women in the future.

[Hirondelle (not getting notifications) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I put myself a challenge (same as last year), to read 30 short stories (or novellas or any short length) for 30 days in a row, and I finished today! Some days it has been a chore, but mostly it has been very rewarding and made me dig up lots of short stories (that I will be reading throughout the year. Or following years most likely. When you read 30 but added 60 to a TBR ....).

Of this issue of Clarkesworld I read two of the stories

February 28th 2023, I read Law of Tongue by Naim Kabir, a short story about human-orca politics in the Pacific in a somewhat near future, where communications between species have become possible and orcas are fighting for civil rights using complex politics and are not above using humans as political tools.

Sounded good (orca politics!) which was why I picked it, I liked the first line (that is always what makes me pick a new author or a story without many recommendations, but this story was a dud for me: I just did not like it. Maybe it is me (it is definitely me in many many cases) but maybe it was the writing.

I thought the story confusing at transmitting the plot, or worldbuilding and the characters (which were also confusing and difficult to tell apart) without personality. I finished it because of the short story thing I am trying to complete, or I would not, and the pay-off was kind of cheesy. Taste is personal and all, but seriously, objectively I think throughout the story information is dropped on the reader too fast, too casually, too muddled and contradictorily. There was IMO too much plot and characters and worldbuilding for the 4k length. Rating - 2 stars.

Read on March 1st 2023, Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness by S.L. Huang, a story which is very very timely: in the form of a fictional magazine long article about AI, and AI running amok (or not) and algorithm bias all set in our present, except with a fictional AI construct. I think this will be a very popular story: it is very now-now-now, trendy AI theme and chatbots, and I am sure it will be read by many, it is very timely, it is instructive, it is ultimately feel good and of course socially committed. It explains away things which might be plot holes like hardware and OS system changes wherever that replicating rogue AI is hosting, it glides away over how the harassment knew of a secret of the first example in the first place or selected who to harass (and if it is just random luck, surely there is potential of the anxious guilty of petty non important things could be driven to madness? The story does not get into that!) but I thought it did not ask sufficiently hard questions both for plot details and larger questions (on algorithmic bias for example). Just soft-to-medium questions which are addressed somewhat authoritatively, if this makes any sense. Incidentally I have been reading some (real) magazine articles on these issues recently and that might have affected my enjoyment - it the theme had been fresh, new to me, I might have been more dazzled by these questions. Total wild guess: I think this will be nominated for lots of things (it is very timely! People will want to take a stand on magazines being drowned in a tsunami of AI written submissions). My own rating: 4.

[Heni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Law of Tongue BY NAIM KABIR

Interesting. They negotiate with killer whale and it turns out the whale is smarter than they think. 4 ⭐


The Resting Place of Trees BY BEN BERMAN GHAN

I love this. To read a story after human being extinct is eerily satisfying. 4 ⭐ 


Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness BY S.L. HUANG

This is more like a study about chatbot and a form of AI which can go berserk when they are programmed to "learn". Insightful piece of work, but hardly an enjoyable fiction. 3 ⭐


Upstart BY LU BAN, TRANSLATED BY BLAKE STONE-BANKS

I thought this is gonna be a rescue mission, but it's quite something else. I don't understand why the Upstarts have to sacrifice their age, but this concept is quite cool. Also well written story. 4 ⭐ 


The Lightness BY ALEX SOBEL

I'm sure this has deep meaning which I'm too dumb to understand, but on shallow side, this is a B story. 2 ⭐

Left to Die BY VANDANA SINGH

To Exorcise Mechanical Ghosts BY LANEY GAUGHAN

Keiki's Pitcher Plant BY BRI CASTAGNOZZI

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Murder By Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness” by S.L. Huang: A deep thought experiment on the ethical issues surrounding AI, bullying, the internet, the power of words written in the style of long form journalism (think The Atlantic). Can a chat-based AI bully someone? Is it really bullying if the AI can't really feel or form intentions? Are the programmers responsible for bullying, racism, sexism, homophobia, antisemitism, etc. that their creations may enact? Why are we so worried about the ethics of these AI scenarios when we do so comparatiely little about human bullies? How to best face the real harms and benefits of online interactions of both the human and AI varieties? As with any great philosophical science fiction, there are more questions than answers here, but I love how Huang expands and sharpens the questions we need to be asking.

[Michael Klein · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Lightness" by Alex Sobel. A very nice story with an interesting world. I enjoyed the portrayal of off-world commerce that wasn't energy or precious stones but rather just trinkets from Earth. Very nice. I felt like I wanted 3 more paragraphs at the end though...it felt a bit rushed in the closing section.

[Ryan Berger · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a very competitive year for best novelette-- my top spot went to Murder By Pixel. An AI Troll Bot turns out to be an extremely compelling horror monster that feels very current for our current climate. Reminded me of Liking What You See: A Documentary by Ted Chiang, which is one of my five favorite short stories of all time.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summer 2023 (July);
Hugo Short Story Finalist

I was seriously just not interested for pretty much the whole read on this one. Another that's set in the future, and again about regulating life. I could write a summary about what happened as fact, but I just didn't get any oomph or feeling while I was reading it.

[Peter]

Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness by S. L. Huang. 2/5. I really like the author's other work but this story/article didn't work for me. Too much of an info dump, especially in the wake of ChatGPT and for someone in the industry.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review for "Murder by Pixel" by SL Huang
2023 Hugos Best Novelette Nominee

This was excellent. Timely, interestingly structured (I really liked the in-universe article device), exploring a really interesting idea. Really solid.

[Pau Lethani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness by S. L. Huang.

My favourite novelette from the Hugo nominees 2023. Written like an article, it explores the philosophy and morality of the AIs and I'm all for that. Very interesting.

[Zoe]

Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness, S.L. Huang - 2023 Nebula Award finalist for novelette

[Kathryn Atreides · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read "Murder by Pixel" for the Hugo awards

[Astrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness by S.L. Huang. 4*

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Murder By Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness by S.L. Huang

[Sockich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness by S.L. Huang only.

[Dua (in reading slump) ✨]

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/huan...

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/yasz...

[Steven Ng · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Murder by Pixel" review, journalistic tone investigating rogue AI chatbot was all right but lacked an emotional punch

[Corrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarkesworld Magazine issue #195 (December, 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.

Onwards with more high quality sci-fi offerings:

Law of Tongue by Naim Kabir
The Resting Place of Trees by Ben Berman Ghan
Upstart by Lu Ban
To Exorcise Mechanical Ghosts by Laney Gaughan
Keiki’s Pitcher Plant by Bri Castagnozzi
Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness by S.L. Huang
Left to Die by Vandana Singh
and The Lightness by Alex Sobel

All stories were exceptional and very diverse, I really liked Upstart by Lu Ban and To Exorcise Mechanical Ghosts by Laney Gaughan.

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

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

4 Stars