Eric Mesa’s Reviews > Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 132, September 2017 > Status Update

Warmth: A kind of sci-fi take on the old Victorian practice of having a nanny completely raise the child rather than the parents. I liked it quite a bit.

Artificial Wombs and Control of Reproductive Technology: A non-fiction piece about a new tech that can provide a womb-like environment for super-premies and perhaps help them develop internal organs without any issues.

Mobius Continuum (translated): A neat story involving a bit of hand-wavy science to explain a time loop.

Bonding with Morry: A story taking place in the not-too-distant future involving a retired man and the robot that is tasked with taking care of him. I've read a few different stories in this emerging genre (probably because so many boomer parents) and this one still found a way to be touching and different.

Pan-Humanism: Hope and Pragmatics - A coming of age story in a post-climate change world. Rather than go super apocalyptic, the world seems to be like ours with a few important differences in social life and how that maps onto opportunities. It's a beautifully written story that constantly upends what I expect will happen and both does and doesn't have the ending I wanted it to have.

"The Secret Life of Bots" - A hilarious story about the worker bots (think of the little bot that Chewie yells at in Empire Strikes Back) as well as a metaphor for multi-generational workplaces. Many great paragraphs, but I like this one:
"Bot 9 ... found itself floating in space outside Ship ... Space was massive and without concrete elements of reference. Bot 9 decided it did not like it much at all."

Little /^^^\&- - A very weird story about planet-sized aliens (or planets that have gained sentience?) messing with Earth. Wow, that ending was profoundly weird. It was still a pretty fun read, though.

Antarctic Birds: Some kind of science experiment with genetic engineering - I'm a little confused at first about what's going on. My least favorite kind of story - at the end I still barely understood what was going on.