Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 240

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Issue can be read on-line: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/issue_240/

Rating: 4/5.

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Beth Goder, Zhu Yixuan and Rich Larson.

• “Water-Eaters” by Beth Goder: as negotiations for a place on a world for a human colony wind down, one human negotiator suddenly faces a request from the alien ‘water-eaters’ for her arm. Can she say no and risk losing a home her colony is depending on?
• “When Humans Are No Longer Born Human” by Zhu Yixuan: in a world where clones and embodied AI proliferate, an official has the task of classifying whether a pregnant person is human or not, to prepare for an upcoming vote that only humans can take part. Ironically, the official wonders whether he is more human or not than the pregnant woman.
• “To Walk This Distant Shore with You” by A.D. Sui: two friends prepare to be separated for life. One is to go into deep sleep until reaching the colony world, while the other has the task of remotely helping to prepare the new world for the colonist. Despite the gulf in time and space, they think of ways to communicate with each other.
• “And So I Open My Fists” by Rachel Sobel: a story about connections between families in an isolated rural area, set among people who appear to be gender-fluid in an interesting biological way.
• “Fistful of Antimatter” by Rich Larson: on a desert world, a transport is robbed by a mother and her family, setting off a chain of events that would lead to a revolution. Along the way, the family would encounter a decapitated man with a heart of antimatter and use him to rob a top security bank. The ending hints that the story may yet continue.
• “Country Music” by Madeleine Vigneron: the story of how a farmhand came to work on a farm, while listening to music on only one music band. But occasionally, as he scans the radio band, he gets messages from possible future expeditions to the outer planets.
• “Skin and Glass” by R. P. Sand: in a time when making eye contact bleeds your life force away, one person wonders whether living a long life without eye contact is worth it.

Magazine read from 2026/08/06 to 2026/08/11.