Review: Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 145

By EricMesa

April 11, 2025 - 4 minutes read - 715 words

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 145, October 2018 by Neil Clarke

The Miracle Lambs of Minane (Finbarr O’ Reilly) - The story has an indirect way about it that I usually don’t care for, but this time it works for (and is almost key to) the story. There’s always a potential conflict between what society declares is good and right and what works for any given individual. This story tells of a future just slightly past where we’re at and how folks have to deal with an age-old situation. It goes to show that SF doesn’t have to be about robots and space and The Internet.

Sparrow (Yilin Wang) - A beautiful short story illustrating how automation can come for anyone. It also, as is often the case with Clarkesworld’s focus on Chinese SFshort stories (as compared with other SFF magazines I read), provides a window into a country I barely know anything about. This story is universal in its overall story as well as in many of the details while others remain very Chinese. The best kind of international short story, in my opinion.

When we were Starless (Simone Heller) - At first this post-apocalyptic story had a little too much of “call a rabbit a smeerp” and I wasn’t enjoying it. I have a little more patience for that in a novel where there is time to gradually get to understand the terminology and how it relates to our real-world objects. But the story was so good that, once I got past that, it ended up being one of my favorites in this genre.

The Facecrafter (Anna Wu, Translated by Emily Jin) - A Chinese remix of Ready Player One and Flatland, combined with Chinese mythology. It was a little hard to follow the flow, but it was an interesting combination of influences coming together to tell a story of humans after the apocalypse.

Thirty-Three Percent Joe (Suzanne Palmer) - I’m pretty sure I’ve read another short story in this genre of smart body part replacements - that one (if memory serves) about a female protagonist. This one provides a lot of hilarity to balance the absolutely bleak world in which it takes place. I loved the story’s resolution and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone.

In Everlasting Wisdom (Aliette de Bodard) - A future SF story full of Vietnamese protagonists, but not (according to her website) part of the Xuya Universe of short stories and novels. I thoroughly enjoyed the world created in just a few pages. We quickly understand so much about what’s happening and the world in which the characters live. De Bodard is masterful in having her character go on a full character journey in just a few pages and I just want to know more about where things go and would even love prequels in this world.

The Falls: A Luna Story (Ian McDonald) - I’m pretty sure I’ve read another story that takes place in this author’s Luna world where corporations control the Moon and everyone living there is like a corporate town from the 1800s or early 1900s on Earth. This story is beautifully written. The author sets up anticipation and slowly dribbles out information in a way to keep ratcheting up the tension until we finally find out what happened. It’s also a great meditation on AI (more relevant now than when it was written) and emotions. Finally, through background details, it criticizes the technocratic company town idea.

NonFiction

Endless Forms Most Horrible: Parasites and SF (Julie Novakova) - A short non-fiction piece on real-world parasites and comparing them to parasites found in SFF. Some great examples of both real world parasites and some books to check out if the topic is interesting.

First Contact, Fantasy, and Cooperation: A Conversation with Steven Erikson (Chris Urie) - An interview with the author of the Malazan series about a SF novel he wrote that upends some First Contact tropes.

Another Word:In Praise of Taking it Slow (Sarah Pinsker) - An essay on giving your story time to age rather than rushing it out there. Perhaps instead of the naive answer to a prompt, you end up with something more clever.

Editor’s Desk (Neil Clarke) - Reflections on the magazine reaching 12 years old.