sonofthe's review against another edition
4.0
Lots of the stories here—and essays—stuck with me. There were a couple that didn't quite work.
Alone, on the Wind by Karla Schmidt was the strangest of them all, in a good way. I didn't remember as I was reading that the story was translated. Maybe that has something to do with why I was left with an overall alien tone. Either way, the imagery and characters were different enough, vivid enough, that I finished with quite an impression.
Now is the Hour by Emily Davenport worked together with things I'd been thinking about relating to anxiety. We can choose our reality (kind of). Good stuff.
Dale Bailey's Teenagers from Outer Space kept referring back to Keats in a way that worked for me. A couple of times, the original prose mirrored quoted references. Beautiful.
Kali Wallace's First Light at Mistaken Point made me emotional and contemplative. There's an overall note of sadness here, and a story of change or realization. Maybe some slight horror mixed in.
The emotions kept going in Madeline Ashby's A Stopped Clock—a story of love and old age—and Tobias S. Buckell's The Fish Merchant—a sort of first contact story that's really about love and death.
There are good essays and interviews here, also. Check it out.
Alone, on the Wind by Karla Schmidt was the strangest of them all, in a good way. I didn't remember as I was reading that the story was translated. Maybe that has something to do with why I was left with an overall alien tone. Either way, the imagery and characters were different enough, vivid enough, that I finished with quite an impression.
Now is the Hour by Emily Davenport worked together with things I'd been thinking about relating to anxiety. We can choose our reality (kind of). Good stuff.
Dale Bailey's Teenagers from Outer Space kept referring back to Keats in a way that worked for me. A couple of times, the original prose mirrored quoted references. Beautiful.
Kali Wallace's First Light at Mistaken Point made me emotional and contemplative. There's an overall note of sadness here, and a story of change or realization. Maybe some slight horror mixed in.
The emotions kept going in Madeline Ashby's A Stopped Clock—a story of love and old age—and Tobias S. Buckell's The Fish Merchant—a sort of first contact story that's really about love and death.
There are good essays and interviews here, also. Check it out.
pearseanderson's review against another edition
4.0
Probably the best stand-alone issue of Clarkesworld I've read so far, but that's not saying toooo much. I've found some of the magazine can be filler, and for this reason I've stuck to anthologies of year's best or recommended stories, but this issue was good. Teenagers From Outer Space was killer, A Stopped Clock was cute, The Engines Imperial and Reclamation did the whole space-epic thing right (but didn't grab me like other stories). The nonfiction was solid. It was a good issue. Reclamation was very similar to a story I read in Neil Clarke's Upgraded, and Buckell's fish merchant story had a plot with a strange sense of pacing and stakes (although it did do voice quite well). Alone of the Wind forced a romance and underexplained some setting elements. Now is the Hour was as cute as Stopped Clocked and fairly interesting. Thank you Neil for bringing us this mag. I will definitely be donating, even if it's just so that every tenth story can be good.
catevari's review
3.0
This is a weird (in a good way) and interesting story that sits in the crossroads of two important events in the protagonist's life: the death of her mother (and its aftermath) and the loss of communication with a mission to Mars where she both worked on the communication systems and her lover is aboard. It feels a bit like Shirley Jackson's Hill House in that there's a louring creepiness and sense of horror while it's simultaneously unclear whether anything is actually happening.
As with Hill House, I do wish there was more definition, but the story grabs on and doesn't let go until the very end.
As with Hill House, I do wish there was more definition, but the story grabs on and doesn't let go until the very end.
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