Status Updates From Clarkesworld Magazine, Issu...

Person, Place, Thing: The language-learning part of a colony interacts with humans, Dr. Kira and Captain Daniels. The humans are replaced by another who doesn't even share his name before making threats. The colony will go to Earth to find the nice humans to speak to. I wish the colony success.

Fluidity, Desire, and Survival: A Conversation with Rebecca Roanhorse About the author's upcoming short story collection. Interesting, but I didn't really liked the only short story of hers I read so I'll skip this one too.

Anatomy of a Novel: A Conversation with J.K. Sidorova I'm not familiar with this author, and nothing in this interview grabbed me particularly.

The Hands and the Brain: Complementary Dominance: read the beginning, skipped the rest

You Are Invited to Our SPRING CELEBRATION: 4* Narrated by a non-human being, in contact with a ship full of humans. Learning about each other's cultures. Hiding that they know Earth was destroyed, because the Captain would steal their child's heart (made with Uranium) to try to repair the human ship.

Those Who Left History: 3* People flee reality in "exclusive residence" that are self-contained space for only 1 person. One of the first is a man who won money gambling and writes his experience watching humanity. More and more people buy their own exclusive residence, there is a war, then the technology is used to trap a meteor, but the Earth is badly destroyed. Humanity comes back, wondering if the e.r. were real.

I'm DNFing Scion and will skip Scion: Afterword as well

Crosstalk, Elysium: (so far this issue has been disappointing...) 2* Karnarian ships run on stories, but maybe not. Dolly is the one who has to answer the riddles to start the ship, she says she is the 3rd member of the crew, but that is the ship. Split personality? A Karnarian pilot brings her to the "colony" after getting rid of her crew.

Editor's Desk: The Best from 2025: Listing all the nominees, not just the second or third this time.

First Human Ghost on Mars: 2* Captain Rogers dies before his launch to terraform Mars, but his body (and ghost) are brought along by the crew. The lander crashes, one of the astronauts Rivera dies. The ghosts can interact with the world when fresh. Then Rogers and Rivera die again, finding out they can now communicate with living people? Two other astronauts sacrifice themselves to save the last one.

Bend Like the Palm: 2* Nearly 100 years after 2170, there is a bad storm coming. A grandmother pushes her community to bend like the palm so not to break like a two-by-four. Very predictable, vague.