A review by oleksandr
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 184, January 2022 by Neil Clarke
2.0
This is the January 2022 issue of SF/Fantasy magazine Clarkesworld, #184. I’ve read and enjoyed selected stories from the magazine in the previous years, as well as collections of “Year’s Best” by its editor [a:Neil Clarke|4005010|Neil Clarke|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1359923861p2/4005010.jpg], but it is the first time I’ve read the whole issue. In short, I was disappointed, but quite possibly I wasn’t in the mood for this kind of stories.
The issue contains 7 fiction pieces, 2 interviews, one science article and an editorial. Here is the breakdown:
The Uncurling of Samsara by Koji A. Dae is the name of the generation ship and also one of the names of ouroboros, the snake eating own tail. The protagonist just lost her Gram (grandmother), one of the last people born on Earth, with whom they were very close. Gram was programming food printers to have a variety of ‘tastes of home’ and because all ship in a closed system that recycle everything, including corpses, the protagonist stopped eating not to eat own Gram. The idea and linkage to ouroboros is great, but execution was a bit flat. 2.5*
The Lion and the Virgin by Megan J. Kerr a woman in a one-person space ship travels far away and several virtual personalities accompany her. As she closes to her goal, her body gets weakened by the voyage and can just words save heк, 2*
The Five Rules of Supernova Surfing or A For Real Solution to the Fermi Paradox, Bro by Geoffrey W. Cole two surfer dudes, who wore chrome versions of their original biological bodies upgraded with rad-shielding, antimatter rockets, enough computing power to run an interstellar economy, and killer sunglasses, but with the original biological brains (just for a challenge) surf-ride supernovas, but recently (last few million years) stars go supernova earlier than expected, destroying their avatars (and fun). It is like a parody on two surf dudes high on weed, but in post-singularity god-mode. Hasn’t worked for me. 2*
Bishop's Opening by R.S.A. Garcia a novella with potentially interesting setting: on the one hand a crew of three from a cargo starship, which is overdue maintenance, crushing bars on distant planets to try exotic foods. On the other, Valencians – high-tech humanoids, growing spaceships from special trees and playing some kind of game, supposedly chess-like, for they use titles like King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rooks, and Pawns. On their side readers follow Bishop, who is saved from an assassination by a man from the crew and who employs, as it turn out another crewmember’s estranged father as a Cook. Potentially interesting setting but not for me. 2.5*
No One at the Wild Dock by Gu Shi one of the more SF stories, translated from Chinese. It starts with a bang, namely a phrase “Humanity will die.” And then follows a long and a bit tedious story of how an AI, who is the narrator, was trained by instructors, at start sounding as a frightened child:
Pow! The woman slammed down the ruler. “Wrong!” She said to the man, “It took so much to get him to hear human speech, only it turns out, he’s an idiot!”
Holding back tears, Ai spoke the new words he’d learned: “He’s an idiot.” poignant story. 3*
Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism by Andrea Kriz a narrator finds out that her friend made an interactive VR game, where used their private relations as a story. The idea and execution are quite solid. 3.5*
For Whom the Psychopomp Calls by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko a crew of two, human and android, got a passenger – a psychopomp, which here means a death shepherd. Whom will it take? While weird SF like by x can be very cool, this doesn’t work for me. 2*
Zero-g Zoo: Trying to Solve Reproduction in Space by Julie Nováková a nice science article about the possible dangers of pregnancy in space – our problem is a complete lack of data on placenta animals. 4*
Working Towards Legacy: A Conversation with Ann & Jeff VanderMeer by Arley Sorg I knew [a:Jeff VanderMeer|33919|Jeff VanderMeer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1522640540p2/33919.jpg] as the SF author, but here he and his wife are presented as editors, of collections like [b:The Big Book of Classic Fantasy|43152973|The Big Book of Classic Fantasy|Ann VanderMeer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1553115930l/43152973._SX50_.jpg|66940478]. 3*
It’s . . . Complicated: A Conversation with James S.A. Corey by Arley Sorg With the final volume of Expanse series, [b:Leviathan Falls|28335699|Leviathan Falls (The Expanse, #9)|James S.A. Corey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1600283641l/28335699._SY75_.jpg|48382891], out, what would have they changed if they could and what are their plans for future. 3*
Editor’s Desk: 2021 in Review by Neil Clarke overview of what has been published with a bit of statistics. 2.5*
Cover Art: Return to Heaven 7 by Zezhou Chen 3*
The issue contains 7 fiction pieces, 2 interviews, one science article and an editorial. Here is the breakdown:
The Uncurling of Samsara by Koji A. Dae is the name of the generation ship and also one of the names of ouroboros, the snake eating own tail. The protagonist just lost her Gram (grandmother), one of the last people born on Earth, with whom they were very close. Gram was programming food printers to have a variety of ‘tastes of home’ and because all ship in a closed system that recycle everything, including corpses, the protagonist stopped eating not to eat own Gram. The idea and linkage to ouroboros is great, but execution was a bit flat. 2.5*
The Lion and the Virgin by Megan J. Kerr a woman in a one-person space ship travels far away and several virtual personalities accompany her. As she closes to her goal, her body gets weakened by the voyage and can just words save heк, 2*
The Five Rules of Supernova Surfing or A For Real Solution to the Fermi Paradox, Bro by Geoffrey W. Cole two surfer dudes, who wore chrome versions of their original biological bodies upgraded with rad-shielding, antimatter rockets, enough computing power to run an interstellar economy, and killer sunglasses, but with the original biological brains (just for a challenge) surf-ride supernovas, but recently (last few million years) stars go supernova earlier than expected, destroying their avatars (and fun). It is like a parody on two surf dudes high on weed, but in post-singularity god-mode. Hasn’t worked for me. 2*
Bishop's Opening by R.S.A. Garcia a novella with potentially interesting setting: on the one hand a crew of three from a cargo starship, which is overdue maintenance, crushing bars on distant planets to try exotic foods. On the other, Valencians – high-tech humanoids, growing spaceships from special trees and playing some kind of game, supposedly chess-like, for they use titles like King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rooks, and Pawns. On their side readers follow Bishop, who is saved from an assassination by a man from the crew and who employs, as it turn out another crewmember’s estranged father as a Cook. Potentially interesting setting but not for me. 2.5*
No One at the Wild Dock by Gu Shi one of the more SF stories, translated from Chinese. It starts with a bang, namely a phrase “Humanity will die.” And then follows a long and a bit tedious story of how an AI, who is the narrator, was trained by instructors, at start sounding as a frightened child:
Pow! The woman slammed down the ruler. “Wrong!” She said to the man, “It took so much to get him to hear human speech, only it turns out, he’s an idiot!”
Holding back tears, Ai spoke the new words he’d learned: “He’s an idiot.” poignant story. 3*
Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism by Andrea Kriz a narrator finds out that her friend made an interactive VR game, where used their private relations as a story. The idea and execution are quite solid. 3.5*
For Whom the Psychopomp Calls by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko a crew of two, human and android, got a passenger – a psychopomp, which here means a death shepherd. Whom will it take? While weird SF like by x can be very cool, this doesn’t work for me. 2*
Zero-g Zoo: Trying to Solve Reproduction in Space by Julie Nováková a nice science article about the possible dangers of pregnancy in space – our problem is a complete lack of data on placenta animals. 4*
Working Towards Legacy: A Conversation with Ann & Jeff VanderMeer by Arley Sorg I knew [a:Jeff VanderMeer|33919|Jeff VanderMeer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1522640540p2/33919.jpg] as the SF author, but here he and his wife are presented as editors, of collections like [b:The Big Book of Classic Fantasy|43152973|The Big Book of Classic Fantasy|Ann VanderMeer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1553115930l/43152973._SX50_.jpg|66940478]. 3*
It’s . . . Complicated: A Conversation with James S.A. Corey by Arley Sorg With the final volume of Expanse series, [b:Leviathan Falls|28335699|Leviathan Falls (The Expanse, #9)|James S.A. Corey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1600283641l/28335699._SY75_.jpg|48382891], out, what would have they changed if they could and what are their plans for future. 3*
Editor’s Desk: 2021 in Review by Neil Clarke overview of what has been published with a bit of statistics. 2.5*
Cover Art: Return to Heaven 7 by Zezhou Chen 3*