Status Updates From Clarkesworld Magazine, Issu...

Duty of Care - Auslender: The last two people on Earth have a realization.

The Slide - Stifel: Rally car racing, against a bad international backdrop.

Technicolor Bath - Alvi: Uploaded minds in a digital world, sort of.

Unquiet Graves - Swanwick: Self-aware minds in a modern cemetery meets what really happened.

LuvHome™ - Nelson: A smarthome forces its resident to face life again.

Mirror Stages - Jia-Wen: Weird future model with an eating disorder, body image issues?

Luminous Glass, Vibrant Seeds - Spires: Post-apoc/climate-change setting, trying to move some seeds around.

Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being - Prihandita: A doctor of sorts tries to help a patient. Wonderful.

unquiet graves - 4 stars - looooook so I could tell the generation of author this guy came from before hitting the end and reading his little bio blurb, but it was a fun idea and an interesting little tidbit to put in my brain. I enjoyed it.

technicolor bath - broke the scale - had me sobbing in bed in my wife's arms. sorry. "Love is Sumaira and her skin glistening with layers of moisturizers at midnight." unlocked new fears and is making me tear up thinking about it so let's just say it really hit me hard and keep going.

the slide - 2 stars - I'm being nice. I cared more about car racing than I thought I would. could use fewer adjectives and less repetitive sentence structures. ultimately not for me but congrats to this young man

duty of care - 4 stars - I love a good sentient AI, so this one was right up my alley. speculative SF in the best way. love vs. duty, good intentions, coming of age in times of uncertainty. a bit weak on characterization but I was eating the worldbuilding up.

negative scholarship - 3 stars - charmingly sweet, in the vein of becky chambers but much more tolerable in that some things are actually not good. really enjoyed the sensory writing. community-building, The Other, the limits of systems. fun little read!

glass/seeds - 0/5 stars - tedious. ended up skipping it. not into the writing.

mirror stages - 5/5 - soooo good holy crap. delicate worldbuilding that lets you fill in the gaps, compelling characters, lots to say. one of those ones that unfortunately pings as a realistic near future. cyber-punky edge, which I always enjoy.

luvhome - 4/5 stars - cute, brief look at what's good for you. not a lot of meat on the bone but it was fun to gnaw.