Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 214, July 2024

by Neil Clarke (Editor), Tia Tashiro (Contributor), Amal Singh (Contributor)

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 July 2024 issue (#214) fiction by Tia Tashiro ("Every Hopeless Thing"), Amal Singh ("I Will Meet You When the Artifacts End"), Grant Collier ("The Best Version of Yourself"), Em X. Liu ("Stellar Evolutions in Pop Idol Artistry"), Natalia Theodoridou ("Aktis Aeliou, or The Machine of Margot's Destruction"), AnaMaria Curtis ("The Happiness Institute"), and Polenth Blake ("Born Outside").Non-fiction includes an article by D.A. Xiaolin Spires, interviews with Donna Scott and China Mieville, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy

138 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2024

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

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

My recommendation is to subscribe to Clarkesworld if you want to stay current with short form sci/fi.

[Donald Hutchison · Rating 4 out of 5]

thank you china mieville, now i got a new book

[Captain Kipple · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good issue overall (as always!), but I wanted to especially say that "The Best Version of Yourself" by Grant Collier is superb. Remarkably, it is apparently his first published story. I'm looking forward to more from him!

[Nore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first volume I received after subscribing to Clarkesworld (which I put off for so long because I couldn't decide which magazine to support!), and I couldn't be happier with it. I didn't expect such a hefty little book - I was expecting, you know, a magazine. Filmy paper, floppy binding. But no! It's a book! A book worth displaying, with gorgeous cover art and paper with a pleasant tooth.

I won't get too deep into my reviews (my commentary on the stories can be found here, as I left notes as I was reading), but overall, I really enjoyed the short stories; I skimmed the nonfiction, but I found Mieville's interview interesting in passing.

Favorite story: The Best Version of Yourself. 4 1/2 stars - I had to put the book down to let this one percolate because I enjoyed it so much! Nothing is so compelling to me as a sympathetic portrayal of an evil - and the evil in this one is simply acting according to its nature. Can we really say that's so wrong, even if it's destructive and horrifying from our perspective? I found it fascinating, especially with the twist at the end, which reframed a lot of the earlier horror.

Runner-up: Born Outside. 4 1/2 stars but slightly less impactful than Best Version. I cannot believe how short this was - a staggering amount of commentary and an entire world packed into six pages. Lean, tight, and fascinating.

Least favorite story: Will Meet You When the Artifacts End. 2 stars - Bland worldbuilding, with an MC so disinvested in her own life that she's barely present in the world. The focus on the romance was a complete miss with me considering it's essentially a missed opportunities listing in the local newspaper. Just wasn't my bag!

Zero regrets subscribing. Great experience, 10/10, really looking forward to the next volume.

[David H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've returned to subscribing to Clarkesworld (last done in 2017!) after I had heard about and read Neil Clarke's editorial in this issue. That didn't mean I was going to start reading it immediately, especially as I was in the middle of some other reading projects, haha. Anyway, almost a year to the day exactly, I finally read the first of my new issues of Clarkesworld. It's good! I really liked Tia Tashiro's rather hopeful "Every Hopeless Thing" and Polenth Blake's "Born Outside." Singh's "I Will Meet You When the Artifacts End" was interesting but sad, and Collier's "The Best Version of Yourself" was interesting but said in a different way, haha. I liked the interviews with Donna Scott and China Miéville.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 3 out of 5]

An average issue, with interesting stories by Tia Tashiro and Grant Collier.

- "Every Hopeless Thing" by Tia Tashiro: a space scavenger visits a deserted and polluted Earth, only to discover it is not so deserted after all. Her attempts to get them to leave Earth fail, and she realizes that her desire to help every hopeless thing, like her ship that has an AI that was destined for the scrapyard, will be her guide to helping those who prefer to say at home.

- "I Will Meet You When the Artifacts End" by Amal Singh: on a colony ship heading to a new world, two people send messages to each over, though they have never met. But plans to do so are interrupted when parts of the colony need to go to deep sleep to save resources. And there is no guarantee they will wake up at the same time in the future. But one person is still determined to find the other, or at least, keep some memories of their talks together.

- "The Best Version of Yourself" by Grant Collier: the story is set in a future where nanotechnology can allow people to 'edit' themselves to remove unwanted mental states and achieve 'nirvana'. One daughter's mother has undergone the procedure, and she now believes her mother is no longer her mother. But a promise she had made to her mother has to be kept.

- "Stellar Evolutions in Pop Idol Artistry" by Em X. Liu: in the future, K-Pop like stars perform to a galactic audience. But like pop stars nowadays, they are made for their roles, and can just as easily be discarded for the next big thing.

- "Aktis Aeliou, or The Machine of Margot's Destruction" by Natalia Theodoridou: an explorer crashes on a planet where a strange signal was discovered. The signal turns out to be from a person that, to the explorer (and readers), is basically a god. Now they have to decide how far they want to take their relationship together.

- "The Happiness Institute" by AnaMaria Curtis: at an institute that tries to explore happiness, one person decides to dig a pool to be happy, while another discovers a way to mentally connect to others for happiness.

- "Born Outside" by Polenth Blake: in a future, some form of children would be born from large seed pods, and adjust to living on a world may not welcome them.

[Heni · Rating 4 out of 5]

FICTION 214
Every Hopeless Thing BY TIA TASHIRO
The usual post apocalyptic world, search and rescue, and finally hope. 3 ⭐

I Will Meet You When the Artifacts End BY AMAL SINGH ❌

The Best Version of Yourself BY GRANT COLLIER
Just a reminder that all your anger, disappointment and bad everything about you is what makes you you. To erase some of them will be to erase yourself. 3 ⭐

Stellar Evolutions in Pop Idol Artistry BY EM X. LIU
I love this one. This will hit real when you look at how kpop idols are treated, by both the company and the fans. Also, the quiet rebellion to be an independent artist? Magnificent! 5 ⭐

Aktis Aeliou, or The Machine of Margot's Destruction BY NATALIA THEODORIDOU
A bit extreme take on grieving but I get the beautifully wretched theme of it. You might not know yourself who is capable of love, when you erase the part of you which love your partner. Reminds me that grief, no matter how painful, is necessary. 5 ⭐

The Happiness Institute BY ANAMARIA CURTIS
More or less similar. When someone is in grief, they're taken into an institute which prescribe them a happiness pill. I think it's like toxic positivity, where instead you validate your grief, this institution choose to deny it with goodness therefore bury the original feelings. 4 ⭐

Born Outside BY POLENTH BLAKE
Weird lol 1 ⭐

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice issue, with mostly good stories :)

Every Hopeless Thing by Tia Tashiro - humanity has spread all over the Solar system. Sometimes scavengers come to Earth, a dead planet. One of them discovers something. This is the second story by Tia Tashiro I’ve read in Clarkesworld this year, and I want more. 4.6 stars.

I Will Meet You When the Artifacts End by Amal Singh - loss, hope, and love on a generation ship. Wonderful! 4.8 stars.

The Best Version of Yourself by Grant Collier - Do you want to be happy forever? This is a debut short story and a very creepy and interesting thought experiment. 3.8 stars.

Stellar Evolutions in Pop Idol Artistry by Em X. Liu - pop idols of the far future! Who do you want to be? 4.4 stars.

Aktis Aeliou, or The Machine of Margot’s Destruction by Natalia Theodoridou - you might suppose that this is a First Contact story. It is more than that, of course, and it is dark and magnificent. 4.6 stars.

The Happiness Institute by AnaMaria Curtis - philosophical and creepy story about happiness and the aftermath of war. 3.9 stars.

Born Outside by Polenth Blake - a scary and humane alien invasion story. 4.5 stars.

[Roy Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good set of fiction and non-fiction entries this month. I highly recommend buying an issue to try it out and then subscribing if you like it'
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/
For fiction I particularly liked
"The Best Version of Yourself"
"Stellar Evolutions in Pop Idol Artistry"
and
"Aktis Aeliou, or The Machine of Margot's Destruction"

For non-fiction I really liked
"Hive Minds and Drones: Bees Earthside in Futuristic Tech and Science Fiction" .

[Valentine · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay issue.
Stand-outs in this one:
- 'Every Hopeless Thing' by Tia Tashiro (second one of hers I've read; I'm into her stuff)
- 'The Best Version of Yourself' by Grant Collier

[Andy Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid anthology magazine, mostly literary SF. Stories that stood out to me were Every Hopeless Thing by Tia Tashiro and The Best Version of Yourself by Grant Collier.