Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 233

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Issue can be read on-line: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/issue_233/

Rating: 3/5.

An average issue with interesting stories by Sarah Pauling, D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Fiona Moore and Louis Inglis Hall.

• “Remember Me in the Meat” by Sarah Pauling: in a future where people depend on machine implants to remember for them, one person goes on an undercover mission by being ‘wiped’ from memory banks of the machines. But she has her own reasons for going on the mission to assassinate a person who may change the climate of the world.
• “Chip” by D.A. Xiaolin Spires: a backpacker visiting a city takes a ride in an AI cab that, due to advertising reasons, tries to convince her to try a fast food outlet. In the ensuing conversation, the backpacker finds the AI has ambitions to be more than just a cab driver.
• “Think of Me Before I Disappear” by Raahem Alvi: a woman develops a loving relationship with an android. The question is whether the feeling is mutual or ‘just’ a matter of programming, something that the girl and android have to struggle with.
• “A Sleeper Ship Is Like a Game of Go” by Claire Jia-Wen: a story told in the past, present and future about the journey of a spaceship to colonise a world. Navigating and preparing the ship to face uncertain situations may tax the abilities of one person who has to control the ship during the journey.
• “The Iron Piper” by Fiona Moore: set in a post-collapse world where people mostly co-operate to live, a new group appears, offering technology and space for people to work on it. But things may not be what they seem, especially when the group wants to impose order from the pre-collapsed world.
• “Painstaking” by Rich Larson: a man and his brother are on the run from the authorities. As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that the two of them have an unusual ability that the authorities will kill to get.
• “Three Fortunes on Alcestis as Told by the Fraud Baeliss Shudal” by Louis Inglis Hall: the duke of several worlds calls on a famous fortune-teller to read his fortune. Only, the fortune-teller is a fake, which the duke ignores, for he only wants a fortune to match his violent tendencies. In the aftermath, two other fortunes are told by the teller, but unlike the first, these may have a chance of coming true.

Magazine read from 2026/02/12 to 2026/02/17.