Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 221

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Issue can be read on-line: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/issue_221/

Rating: 4/5

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Rocío Vega, Somto Ihezue and Wang Zhenzhen.

• “Bodyhoppers” by Rocío Vega, translated by Sue Burke: in this story, a person’s consciousness can be stored while they bodies are ‘rented’. But some personalities get deprived of their bodies by a company and become outlaws, hopping into stolen bodies. One personality hops into a body and immediately runs away for a secret rendezvous, hoping to meet up before the company finds them, again.
• “King of the Castle” by Fiona Moore: set in a post-civilization collapse world, one person still seeks to become a leader to be feared in a village. But can this be done, when the village has moved on and prefers cooperation among its members.
• “We Begin Where Infinity Ends” by Somto Ihezue: a story about two boys and a girl who come together over a dream to save fireflies by using technology to make the environment better for the fireflies. Wrapped up in this tale is also a story of a blossoming relationship between them that leads to conflict and mixed feelings, but ends with a deeper and loving friendship between them.
• “A Planet Full of Sorrows” by M. L. Clark: a group of explorers discovers the remains of an alien city on a planet, sparking a race between different groups of human zealots eager to claim (and destroy) the city to further their on cultish agendas. The only way to save the city may be for the explorers to think out of the box, and consider what their recently dead and unorthodox crew member might do in this situation.
• “The Hanging Tower of Babel” by Wang Zhenzhen, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan: a son is taking care of his father, who was one of the people who helped build a space tether from the earth into space. But living in space has caused his father to suffer from an early form of Alzheimer’s, and an economic downturn has made the tether uneconomical and may now be partially dismantled. Now, the son has to figure out how to take care of his father’s deteriorating mental state, while preserving his legacy.
• “Numismatic Archetypes in the Year of Five Regents” by Louis Inglis Hall: a story about five minted coins and the person who made them during a time of upheaval and the (violent) changing of rules of the city.
• “Celestial Migrations” by Claire Jia-Wen: a story about the migration of celestial creatures, mixed in with the yearly migration of people studying creatures back to their homes.

Magazine read from 2025/02/12 to 2025/02/17