Status Updates From Clarkesworld Magazine, Issu...

Manjar dos Deuses by Anna Martino : imaginative and bittersweet

The Art of Navigating an Affair in a Time Rift by Nika Murphy : also fantastic and touching

Company Town by Aimee Ogden : fantastic and touching
The Odissey Problem by Chris Willrich: a further "response" to / expansion on Le Guin's The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (other recommended response story by N. K. Jemisin)

Marsbodies: A group of 10 astronauts get sent to Mars, their bodies in hibernation in orbit while they operate tgrpugh robots, or marsbodies. Mara has always been in love with Kyung Mi. When Kyung Mi starts to act weirdly, she suspects something is wrong with her body "upstairs". 2*

We Built This City: 4* I like where this is going, but why end in the middle of it? Nothing is resolved. Julia Lopez works maintenance on the dome of a floating city on Venus. A lot of jobs get cut, Julia walks out instead of working 16 hours. She can't find a new job. She get arrested and will be deported in two weeks. There is a leak in the dome and she goes with some of her coworkers to fix it.

Visitors From Other Stars: I'm glad it was short. It was interesting, but also dense maybe?

Inhuman Lovers: 4* a bit long. Two police officers get a side job, the android 3908 has disappeared. Turns out the woman giving them the job was an android too. Her husband (who went into hiding after it was revealed he tested on orphans) made her to control his business, while the real wife got sick. 3908 was his double. They stage it at the end that the android killed the husband.

Interview with Sam J. Miller: I just noticed the interviewees aren't featured in this issue, it's a bit weird to hear about their works but not reading any.

The Odyssey Problem: 1* I don't really get it. A child was rescued from the Room that was torturing them. Wanting to save their rescuers the Republic, they volunteer to go to the Branching Way ship that was attacking them. They get split in two for a while, and then what?

Everyday Dystopia: fine interview

The Art of Navigating an Affair in a Time Rift: 3* People are travelling between worlds after the rift (maybe just people who are unhappy with their lives?) Audra has her husband and daughter, but she fantasizes about Joseph the neighbour and keeps rifting. No resolution.

Manjar dos Deuses: 3* star chef Daniel uses a time machine to recreate his client's favourite dish (somehow using their hair?). His mother is dying, he goes with his sister to see their grandmother make a cheap version of manjar. The mother is some piece of work!

Editor's desk: complaining that writing this is hard...

Company Town: 3* Cass lives to overthrow the company, but the strike doesn't happen. Maya, her partner, travels through a fantasy portal very often, she leaves her sword behind this time. Cass takes it and goes outside during lockdown, determined to be her own hero.

Heard We Built This City by Marie Vibbert 5*

'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.

‘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.