Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 240

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Issue can be read on-line: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/issue_241/

Rating: 4/5.

A good issue, with some interesting stories by Shi Heiyao, Elizabeth Bear, Louis Inglis Hall and Tia Tashiro.

• “A Vintage Kind of Death” by Alex T. Singer: in the future, a machine intelligence downloads into the recreation of a human body to live out the day of the person’s death following a recorded script. But its action occasionally goes off script when it gets partnered with another downloaded intelligence that wants to do more than just follow the scripted lives of people long gone.
• “The Mari Lwyd” by Fiona Moore: set in the author’s series set after the fall of civilisation, this one has the character and her robot searching some mining tunnels for a possible ghost, which turns out to be another robot. Failing to coax the robot out, she then runs into pirates that are terrorising the area. It is here that the robot gets to help her out, acting as a ghost.
• “How Does One Person Kill a Mountain?” by Shi Heiyao, translated by Andy Dudak: set in Africa, it involves an alien creature that is literally the size of a mountain. One person, who holds the mountain responsible for the death of his father, and for the misfortunes of the local people in the area, wants to kill it. But it turns out the creature has other plans, and maybe a way to convince the man to create a better future for him and the area.
• “The Job” by Elizabeth Bear: two persons are transformed into whales to explore an aquatic world for minerals under the sea. The job is boring, the findings are few, and one explorer just wants to find the minerals and get the job over so she can return home and, hopefully, make up with her partner who has left her. But the finding of intelligent octopods, and being abandoned by the survey company, gradually changes her perspective of the planet. As when she grows fond of the octopods, she finds herself defending it with her life against the returning humans who want to exploit it.
• “Five Bottles in Memory of the Winemaker Petronius Finch” by Louis Inglis Hall: a disturbing story of a winemaker who has learned the art of distilling humans into wine. Now, the son leads a tour of some of the wine created, including one that has never been tasted.
• “Roams the Planet of Our Grief” by Natalia Theodoridou: a passing planet harbours the cries of people who have died in unknown circumstances. Their cries are heard by some people who now seek to pass on their messages to their loved ones. The story follows one person who performs the duty, to the detriment of his relationship with others.
• “The Rice Paper Bleed” by Tia Tashiro: an old lady complains that her environment keeps changing around her and only she notices it. The only constant is the stream of westerns that she watches on TV. Then one night, she discovers the reason for the changes and the person who may be causing the changes in order to feed on her. But she is determined to fight back.

Magazine read from 2026/10/07 to 2026/10/09.