Tobias S. Buckell

Neil Clarke

Madeline Ashby

Kali Wallace

Emily Devenport

Dale Bailey

Ryan Row

Karla Schmidt

Sean Bensinger

Clarkesworld Issue 119

Maggie Gordon

An interesting take on a war story, looking at the experiences of two, elderly street vendors as technology crumbles around them, sending the world into a tail spin. Ashby writes compelling characters, but I think the set-up was quite deserving of a full novel. I would have liked to see more of the repercussions of the hacker attack and what society did to cope. 

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I enjoy science fiction that pushes boundaries, but I also enjoy understanding what I am reading. Reclamation was hard to grasp. The imagery was confused, the narrative rambling, and it didn't strike me as particularly novel. 

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Sentient ships have been quite a theme these past few years in SF, but The Engines Imperial still seems to add something new. Fantastic AIs are built for a war that far outlasts the creators of these machines who end up having to decide who to support once their builders are no longer the rulers of the galaxy. It's a sad, but oh so familiar tale of lives sacrificed and the long effects of war. 

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Now is the Hour is about immigration and desperation and people taking advantage of others. But it is also about family and compassion and helping strangers. I enjoyed seeing Hawaiian protagonists, and reading something with an ending that didn't make me want to cry our of sorrow. 

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Alone on the Wind is another inventive SF story that just does not give itself enough room to tell its tale. The world is exceptionally different from our own, but it's hard to grasp how it works (or why it is the way that it is). I think it would work in book format with more detail. 

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Teenagers from Outer Space is an odd little story set in the 1950s after aliens have arrived on Earth. They live in their own neighbourhoods, but shop and go to school like their human counterparts. While there is not an active protest against their existence, there is tension and separation between the two communities. One teenage girl ends up pushing the boundaries as a protest against her abusive, restrictive father, and her terrible boyfriend. It's a strange, not quite fully fleshed out commentary on gender dynamics, and the aliens feel a bit too much like a mishmash of movie archetypes. 

Merged review:

Wow, this was a powerful short story that managed to be both fulfilling, but leave me wanting more. Charlie's mother has just died, and she is coping with the aftermath of the funeral with her sister. At the same time, she is stressed over a major problem with the Mars expedition that she designed the communications array for. The ship has gone silent until they get one 47 second message that is all but impossible to decipher. The piece is basically all emotions, with the stress over the shuttle issues juxtaposed over memories about Charlie's mother and her relationship with her sister. It is delicately written, very affecting, and a great mix of big science and domestic issues.

Clarkesworld Issue 119

Reviews