Nore’s Reviews > Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 215, August 2024 > Status Update

three circuits - 1 stars - painfully, pointlessly twee, zero grounding in character or world to make me care about what was happening. also not my thing.

where my love - 1 star - I think I just hate romance. hints of interesting worldbuilding, but it's all overshadowed by a dank, oppressive little love story. absolutely not my thing but don't take my word for it.

deformed saint - 4 stars - really interesting worldbuilding. echos of war, unintended consequences, maturity, meaning-making and community. found it very satisfying.

canyon dance - 1 star - abjectly hated this one. dense, impenetrable worldbuilding, and a lot of it. feels like a 70s sci-fi graphic novel trying to cram all that rich visual impact into written format and it just didn't work in short story format. suffocating! interesting ideas but also I couldn't care about the plot, what little there is.

smth coming back - 3.5 stars. interesting. selfhood as biology and a social role both. enjoyed the understated nod to the worldbuilding, found the obsession with the other man a good hook to draw you through the story. ultimately unsatisfying in a plot-appropriate way. it's going to niggle at me for a while, I think, which is a positive thing to say. we're left with nothing more than the narrator in the end."

oh I missed the sort oooops. 3.5/4 stars. interesting little meditation on neurodivergence and the alien/other/inhuman. found the near future everyday dystopia vibes to be A Vibe, resonated, felt realistic. rly enjoyed the father/son dynamic. I'd read more in this world.