Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 211

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Issue can be read on-line: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/issue_211/

Rating: 3/5

A good issue, with interesting stories by Tia Tashiro, Rich Larson, Derrick Boden, Shen Dacheng and Kelly Jennings.

• “The Lark Ascending” by Eleanna Castroianni: people sweep clean the former house of a dissident, leaving behind the house robot, who now only has memories of its owner and his daughter whom it cared for.
• “An Intergalactic Smuggler’s Guide to Homecoming” by Tia Tashiro: a smuggler returns home with her latest item to be passed on. The trip brings back memories of her struggles with here sister to leave the planet, whom she thinks gave up their dream to leave together. But a sudden decision to save the smuggled items, instead of handing it over, would change her life, perhaps for the better, and rebuild relationships.
• “The Indomitable Captain Holli” by Rich Larson: a fun and fascinating story about a girl living in a tower who plays a game with a ‘puppet’ in her virtual reality goggles. The game has her running up a tower, while her family, and another invasion force from another tower, pursue her. As the story progresses, the history of how the people came to live in two mutually hostile towers is told, and the importance of the girl for the future of humanity is revealed.
• “The Arborist” by Derrick Boden: the relationship between a tree, transplanted to an alien world to destroy its native life so that human can begin terraforming it, and an android are the focus of this story about the tension between letting native life live and killing so that humans, who have lost the Earth, can settle it.
• “The Rambler” by Shen Dacheng, translated by Cara Healey: an unusual story of a pedestrian bridge which suddenly decides to start walking. Most of the story is told from the viewpoint of rubbish truck workers who chase after it after the city administration couldn’t decide whose jurisdiction a runaway bridge falls under.
• “Occurrence at O1339” by Kelly Jennings: a story of a mining robot in space who suddenly makes First Contact with an alien civilization which threatens to destroy humanity unless they can prove they are sentient within 10 questions.
• “The Oldest Fun” by Natalia Theodoridou: an open-world video game appears at a school, and pulls in students who play it.

Magazine read from 2024/04/03 to 2024/04/19