Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 199, April 2023

by Neil Clarke, L. Chan, Andrea Kriz

Clarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction, articles, interviews and art. Our April 2023 issue (#199)

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

166 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2023

About the author

Neil Clarke is best known as the editor and publisher of the Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning Clarkesworld Magazine. Launched in October 2006, the online magazine has been a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine four times (winning three times), the World Fantasy Award four times (winning once), and the British Fantasy Award once (winning once). Neil is also a ten-time finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form (winning once in 2022), three-time winner of the Chesley Award for Best Art Director, and a recipient of the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. In the fifteen years since Clarkesworld Magazine launched, numerous stories that he has published have been nominated for or won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, Locus, BSFA, Shirley Jackson, WSFA Small Press, and Stoker Awards.

Additionally, Neil edits  Forever —a digital-only, reprint science fiction magazine he launched in 2015. His anthologies include: Upgraded, Galactic Empires, Touchable Unreality, More Human than Human, The Final Frontier, Not One of Us,  The Eagle has Landed, , and the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. His next anthology, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Seven will published in early 2023.

He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.

Reviews

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 3 out of 5]

An average issue, with interesting stories by L Chan, Andrea Kriz, Shi Heiyao and Rajan Khanna.

- "Re/Union" by L Chan: in a future where departed relatives are recreated digitally for a family reunion, arguments over the quality of meals made by descendents are still a flash point. But maybe not this time, courtesy of a 'ghost' in the machine.

- "There Are the Art-Makers, Dreamers of Dreams, and There Are Ais" by Andrea Kriz: in a future where art generating AIs are banned and only approved human artists can create original art, one to-be artist struggles to get approval to imitate an artist. But maybe imitating another artist may not be what the artist should stuff to do, after seeing what her house AI and other self aware AIs could do.

- "Rake the Leaves" by R.T. Ester: in a place that seems slightly out of kilter, a man has a conversation with a professor about hidden messages in a song by 'Dinah Ross'. It is only later when the man and others attempt a trick with a drone that sucks up raked leaves do they realise just what is off with the place they are in.

- "Keeper of the Code" by Nick Thomas: a person discovers a packet of data that should not be there. Upon reading it, he discovers it contains a plea for help but it may be over her may not have the power to fulfill.

- "Happiness" by Octavia Cade: all the various ways you could die happy, based on your choices.

- "Stranger Shores" by Gregory Feeley: a post human works on a document on humanity's journey to space in the past while it seems to complete its own journey in the present.

- "The Librarian and the Robot" by Shi Heiyao, translated by Andy Dudak: a librarian fleeing her destroyed home world goes to Earth to recover and preserve old books. There, she finds a war robot. Reactivated, the robot is given the task of helping her preserve and find more old books. The robot learns and, eventually takes over her job, ready to pass on knowledge to whoever comes next.

- "Voices Singing in the Void" by Rajan Khanna: on various planets and environments, builders create settlements for their Creators and send back queries to their Conductor for help and feedback. But the Conductor does not reply for reasons of its own.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories I liked:
Re/Union by L Chan
Rake the Leaves by R.T. Ester - Second favorite
Keeper of the Code by Nick Thomas
Happiness by Octavia Cade - This was probably my favorite of the issue.
The Librarian and the Robot by Shi Heiyao

[Margot Meanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the stories , particularly the one Andrea Kriz. Resonates with h current debates on ai generated art and is a evocative bit of fiction.

[Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally posted at myreadinglife.com.

For me this issue of Clarkesworld fell a little short of the high bar they have set for their fiction. Still an entertaining issue, just not as good as I have come to expect. And sadly, no stand-out, five-star tales. Let's dive into the story reviews.

In "Re/Union" by L Chan, a young woman prepares an annual family dinner at her home. The unusual thing about it is that most of her guests are ghosts. More specifically, they are based on artificial intelligence (AI) derived from the personalities of the deceased. It seems like a good and comforting simulation until you realize that they can never change from what they were. (My rating: 3/5)

The world of "There Are the Art-Makers, Dreamers of Dreams, and There Are Ais" by Andrea Kriz doesn't feel that far away. The main character is an artist in a world where generative AI has been outlawed from participating in creative endeavors. In fact it used to test all published art for its influences so those influencer artists can be properly compensated. This has the unintended consequence of making those influencers gatekeepers who help determine what it means to be original. The main character attempts to break into the art world by working with a master to find his own original style. (My rating: 4/5)

Something odd is going on in an alternate universe in "Rake the Leaves" by R.T. Ester. A professor repeatedly logs onto a server where he finds music and product references that are just a little different than he remembers them. As he reaches out to others to try to discover what is different and why, things eventually go off the rails. (My rating: 3/5)

The title character in "Keeper of the Code" by Nick Thomas finds something out of place deep in the Code that protects his planet. He immediately deletes it but then wonders if he did the right thing. A tale of self-doubt and revisiting decisions. (My rating: 3/5)

"Happiness" by Octavia Cade is a choose your own adventure story with a big claim right up front—you will always die happy. Each of the choices involves how you die. And the story for each part shows how you come to your end in a world suffering from climate change. An interesting exploration of all the ways climate change can affect you. (My rating: 3/5)

I seem to come across at least one story like "Stranger Shores" by Gregory Feeley in each short fiction magazine I read lately. I call these "experimental" because they don't tell stories in a straightforward manner. As best I can tell, this one seems to be about a post-human experience. Most of these stories try to use the form of the story to help tell it. It usually doesn't work for me, and it doesn't here. (My rating: 2/5)

The Curator finds a military robot that she modifies to help her gather books and restock the library where she lives alone on a future Earth in the midst of a new ice age. "The Librarian and the Robot" by Shi Heiyao, translated by Andy Dudak is a touching story of a woman and a machine bonding through a shared goal. Naturally, the robot outlives the Curator. And when others from space arrive at the library, we learn something surprising about the pair. (My rating: 4/5)

In "Voices Singing in the Void" by Rajan Khanna, drones are sent to planets ahead of the population being sent to make them ready. When the drones' work is complete, they sing into the void their song of readiness. But what happens if there is no one in the void to hear the song? A touching story of unintended consequences. (My rating: 4/5)

The strong stories buoy the weaker ones in this issue, resulting in an overall rating of 3.25. The non-fiction is  strong and lifts the issue as well.

[Daniel Farrelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three good stories, three eh, and two bad.

Re/Union, by L Chan -a vr family dinner with a bunch of AIs representing deceased relatives. I enjoyed it. Was very pure sci fi in that it explored a scenario that would happen if x technology existed. For a while I didn't understand what was actually happening, it would have been helpful to have a bit at the start where the main character put on her vr helmet and entered the VR world, maybe? Because I spent a while thinking the other family members were robots or holograms until the POV started crying and reflected that the tears wouldn't show up on her avatar. Otherwise it was real good though


There Are the Art-Makers, Dreamers of Dreams, and There Are Ais, by Andrea Kriz - a day in the life of a future artist, and a precautionary tale about Ai art legislation. I thought it was pretty good. Pretty entertaining. The characters were all interesting, even the mopey POV, and I thought the events were pretty imaginative and creative. I liked it. Bad title though.

Rake the Leaves, by R. T. Ester - too confusing and not explained well enough. I spent the whole story trying to work out what the deal with the setting was. It's a kind of 1984 setting and people have to rake leaves into a pile every morning so hovercrafts can come collect them, and one day the main characters glasses get sucked up and when they get them back they've been replaced with knock off glasses, which is a big deal for some reason. There's a professor and some time travel shit going on, but it wasn't well explained what was actually happening. Too complicated a setting for a short story, and the story underneath is a complete nothing burger. 👎

Keeper of the Code, by Nick Thomas - dnf. I found it too hard to understand. At first I thought it was a story about personified computer subroutines but then the POV went home and had sex with his wife so I don't know. The metaphors didn't always make sense and I didn't understand what was happening. Maybe would have been better as a comic book because then it could have gone all out on the imagery.

Happiness, by Octavia Cade - a choose your own adventure story about how you'd die. Like, by disease or murder or whatever. I got excited when I saw that you could jump around in the story, but the story itself was just fine. Not too exciting or interesting. Bit airy-fairy.

Stranger Shores, by Gregory Feeley -didn't like it. Too long, pretentious, and boring. Two super advanced humans go on a sight seeing tour of earth. I find it hard to listen to speech by robots, easier to read, but I like listening to Clarkesworld and this story would be too boring to read anyway. It's worse because it's a first person past tense recount of the events, from the perspective of someone who's pretty robotic and likes to tell not show everything going on.

The characters go to Earth and just fly around narrating for ages, until eventually the author just says "actually fuck this" and completely pivots on a dime. Literally they say "This, let me note, is not a travel book, a genre considerably less ancient than the mahākāvya, so I dispense with a narrative account of my progress through the Centaur." After that the characters talk to a native and get bonked on the head with a rock, but don't worry they're not in any real danger. Then the story goes full Game of Thrones Season 8. "Science fiction is great. Novels are great. Science fiction short stories are the height of cinema." It was cringe as hell.

“You should look at some of their visionary writing. Or better, since you understand the science already, their visionary fiction.” Hse smiles at this.
“They are creating sagas of their glorious future settling the solar system?” I ask, perhaps a bit wearily.
“Actually yes, and they are pretty good. But you are creating a text, are you not? In an ancient genre with an exotic name?” Zhao knows perfectly well what the name is. “Why don’t you read one of their texts? Many of them are prose tales—novels, or whatever they call them when they are shorter.”

Yeah I didn't like it.

Voices singing in the void, by Rajan Khanna - it was alright. Bit of a nothing burger. A few different planets have big hive mind AI systems set up to build sustainable cities for humans to live in once they arrive. Earth is one such planet, but there aren't any humans there anymore? Not sure. I think it would have been. Improved by only focusing on the one planet, not several. Even if all the same events happened, focusing on one single AI hive would have made it easier to keep track of. As it is, the story has a cool bit about the native creatures, then pivots to some other random place I don't care about.

The Librarian and the Robot, by Shi Heiyao, translated by Andy Dudak - on an evacuated, post apocalyptic earth, one librarian returns to restore a library, and finds a leftover war robot to help them. I really liked it. It was nice and cozy and charming. A couple references went over my head but that's a me problem. Yeah, no notes. Just real good.

Brains in a Jar, Video Games in a Petri Dish, by Priya Sridhar - didn't realise clarkesworld published essays. Whatever. It's about an experiment from a few years ago where a brain in a jar played pong, and what implications this might have for storytelling. Eh. Reads like someone whose not given much thought on the matter. "this might make for a good story!" ok then why didn't you write that story? They use YouTube videos as sources and call Hades a game that's designed to infuriate through constant failure. I'm sorry did you play Hades?

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This issue was a mixed bag, and it was slightly too mixed for a higher rating than 3.

Re/Union by L Chan – We are in a future that doesn’t feel far off. You can have a family dinner with preprogrammed digital ghosts. Rotten family dynamics surface, just like every time… and then lovely magic happens. A beautiful story, 4.8 stars.

There are Art-makers, Dreamers of Dreams, and Then There are AIs by Andrea Kriz – What would a post-generative AI art scene look like? What would an aspiring artist’s life be like? The author asks interesting questions. I liked the characters, the humans and the AIs. The story ended too abruptly. 4 stars.

Rake the Leaves by R.T. Ester – I like weird stuff, but this story was too disjointed and half-baked. Alternative realities, messed-up timelines, hidden messages, sinister conspiracies, yada yada yada. I got a headache, 2 stars.

Keeper of the Code by Nick Thomas – Your AI is a god, your planet is a sanctuary… But what about all those left behind, ages ago? 3.9 stars.

Happiness by Octavia Cade – a philosophical thingy about life and happiness, in which readers choose their own path through the story. Sorry, it wasn’t my cup of tea. 2 stars.

Stranger Shores by Gregory Feeley – post-humans, humans, and post-AI’s are doing their thing in the Solar system. I’ve read this many times before. 3 stars.

The Librarian and the Robot by Shi Heiyao – I love stories about libraries and librarians (of course I do!), but this one left me cold. It’s possible something got lost in translation. 2.9 stars.

Voices Singing in the Void by Rajan Khanna – abandoned AIs get lonely. Boring. 2 stars.

[Ryan Berger · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is, unfortunately, the weakest Clarkesworld issue I've read since I've followed them. By a lot.

Part of why I find Clarkesworld so impressive is because even when I don't like a story for the most part-- it does something interesting in a way that I can mark its quality without having to personally enjoy it. This was the first issue where I felt like every story whiffed on multiple levels.

"The Librarian and the Robot" by Shi Heiyao was somewhat enjoyable.

I'm sure it's just a blip. Excited for issue 200!

[Valentine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled to get through this one. My favourites were definitely 'The Librarian and the Robot' by Shi Heiyao and 'Re/Union' by L. Chan, both of which I listened to in audio format. Kate Baker's narration is wonderful. The rest of the stories were a bit meh, I wasn't a fan.