Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 227, August 2025

by Neil Clarke (Editor), Marissa Lingen (Contributor), L Chan (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 August 2025 issue (#227) contains:

Fiction
* "A Shaky Bridge" by Marissa Lingen
* "And The Planet Loved Him" by L Chan
* "Sleeper" by R.T. Ester
* "Memories Are Only Valuable if They Can Be Lost" by Ai Jiang
* "Sea of Fertility" by Bella Han
* "Heart of Thunder" by Raahem Alvi
* "A Dream of Twin Sunsets" by Ryan Cole
* "Vwooom!" by Uchechukwu Nwaka

Non-Fiction
* "The Rebellion is Real: 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale in 2025" by Carrie Sessarego
* "Women, Technology, and the Future: A Conversation with Brenda Cooper" by Arley Sorg
* "Tactical Ballgowns and Genre Turduckens: A Conversation with Fran Wilde" by Arley Sorg
* "Editor's Desk: The Future of Dealing with AI Submissions" by Neil Clarke

Cover Art
"Blue Ship" by Pascal Blanché

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

209 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 31, 2025

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

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A Shaky Bridge" by Marissa Lingen - (4*) Buyer's remorse and an EXTREMELY plausible advertising tack our modern companies would pull on the most vulnerable among us. Easily a rage-bait story if there ever was one.

"And The Planet Loved Him" by L Chan - (5*) I love a great first-contact story and this one was rich with depth and speed, getting to the heart of the question of choice. I may not agree with the decision by the end, but it certainly put me right to the edge.

"Sleeper" by R.T. Ester - (5*) Beautiful SF that has a lot of everything I love: virtual clones, black site mystery, cults of personality, and truly interesting murder. Rich story. It was only after reading it that I realized I had already read the author's debut novel--which I also loved. So, bonus!

"Memories Are Only Valuable if They Can Be Lost" by Ai Jiang - (4*) Delightfully detailed look at the lifestyles of a rich future, from a laid off worker now stuck in the floating city, now unable to survive or return to his home.

"Sea of Fertility" by Bella Han - (5*) Probably my favorite story this month. I couldn't help but see it all play out beautifully in my mind's eye. Very colorful, exciting, interesting... and eventually profound. I would absolutely love to see this as a full-out movie. It'd probably become one of my all time favorites if it played out closely to the source.

"Heart of Thunder" by Raahem Alvi - (2*) I honestly enjoyed the back and forth tale of an old augmented soldier, what was done to him, what he'd done, and the endlessness of it. But the end twist? It just stole all the thunder and left me flat.

"A Dream of Twin Sunsets" by Ryan Cole - (3*) An old, old romance tale, with pollen filled SFnal trappings.

"Vwooom!" by Uchechukwu Nwaka - (5*) Sharp, rich writing in this short story. Evocative, stimulating, and smart. It's a whole thing in a spicy package.



Sea of Fertility was easily my favorite. The richest sensations. Followed by Vwooom! for the experience. Sleeper came in really close, though. I could live in all these words.





Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews is be interested in reading my SF (Very hard SF, mind you), I'm open to requests.

Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.

Arctunn.com

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

* "A Shaky Bridge" by Marissa Lingen, 2900 words, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Afterward, no one in Casey’s family could say when their feelings about the neural bridge implant started to sour.“
Scary and could very well be reality anytime soon. Evil corporation misuses its patients/customers. Unwillingly rent out ad space in your brain and spread the message…

* "And The Planet Loved Him" by L Chan, Singapore, 3290 words, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“I’ve been here a few weeks, and the sunsets never get old. The blue sun scintillates off the spore miasma, glittering into fractal rainbows.“
Colony based on fungal structures? Group consciousness and memory via mycelium? A bit too abstract for my taste. Not for me.

* "Sleeper" by R.T. Ester, 4940 words, ⭐️⭐️½
“Syd got seven grand to sign over the rights to her virtual clone.“
Sell your clone and make some money! The writing is not my thing.

* "Memories Are Only Valuable if They Can Be Lost" by Ai Jiang, Chinese-Canadian, 5530 words, ⭐️⭐️½
“Hovering around the corner of every alley you’d slinked along the shadows of was a holographic infinite snake—the upcoming New Year’s zodiac symbol.“
Also didn‘t grow on me. I can‘t even give you sensible comments about it.

* "Sea of Fertility" by Bella Han, China, translated by the author, 17180 words, novelette, ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
“My big brother vanished in the virtual city of Laputa, leaving no trace behind.“
As in the previous story, we are in a futuristic city. The bare bones of the city seem real, with a virtual layer over everything. A brother has vanished, in the real as well as the cyber world. This went into a surprising direction. I liked the ending.

* "Heart of Thunder" by Raahem Alvi, 8010 words, novelette, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
“Damian Marshall was a prisoner to his own brain.“
Augmentations and cyborgs for this one. Another evil corporation, as in most of the stories in this issue. The past is military action on Ganymede to crush a rebellion. War crimes. Mars is the present. Damien struggles with his failing augmentations and his memories. Malfunction. Loss of self. This one was grim, but good.

* "A Dream of Twin Sunsets" by Ryan Cole, 5130 words, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
“I met him on my first glider mission to the fields beyond the Dandelion.“
Martial law. A colony world full of rules. The past: An officer and a deserter. A romance. Gliders, flowers, poisoned pollen. The present: a different life, a path not taken, regrets. What an ending.

* "Vwooom!" by Uchechukwu Nwaka, Nigeria, 1390 words, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“The suit is too tight. Pinches just a little too uncomfortably around your neck, like phantom gnarly fingers constricting your windpipe.“
Augments again and the aftermath of war. A reinforced skeleton, nightmares. Regrets and final farewells. New purpose, compensation and last wishes. Reflective, nice.

NON-FICTION
* "The Rebellion is Real: 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale in 2025" by Carrie Sessarego 
I only skimmed, but this essay says many interesting things about 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale, the book and the TV adaptation (haven‘t watched, don‘t want to deal with such a depressing story).

Also worth reading:
* "Editor’s Desk: The Future of Dealing with AI Submissions" by Neil Clarke 

The full August issue can be found here.

This one was a mix of reading the digital magazine and listening to some of the stories in the Clarkesworld podcast on Spotify. This issue was a mixed bag, nothing stood out.
⭐️⭐️⭐️½, rounded down.

[David H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite here was probably Lingen's "A Shaky Bridge," though a few of the others were also various levels of intriguing.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice issue, with good stories by Marissa Lingen, Ai Jiang, Bella Han and Raahem Alvi.

- "A Shaky Bridge" by Marissa Lingen: a father recovers from a stroke with the aid of a neural device. But when the device starts making the father do unconventional things, the family has to decide what to do with it.

- "And The Planet Loved Him" by L Chan: a husband and wife team crash on an unexplored world, with the husband dead. Until the planet's fungal life revives him and gives the wife the choice of whether to join them or not.

- "Sleeper" by R.T. Ester: a 'sleeper' is offered the choice to kill a prophet that may be from the future. But the truth is revealed when the time to do the killing appears.

- "Memories Are Only Valuable if They Can Be Lost" by Ai Jiang: a worker at a 'floating city' struggles to get enough money to afford a train ticket to return home during the Lunar New Year. His attempts reveal the struggles of living in a city where people must work to live, and his memories of his home face away or are 'stolen' by the city.

- "Sea of Fertility" by Bella Han: a girl's brother vanishes from the virtual city of Laputa. With all trace of him gone in the city, the girl starts on a journey to locate him, a journey that would go back through the music he wrote virtually, and retrace the entire history of the girl's virtual reality and even past it, back to the world that was there before the virtual one.

- "Heart of Thunder" by Raahem Alvi: a 'retired' augmented soldier is sent to Mars for rehabilitation at a new job. But his military augments start to take over his life, giving him hallucinations from during the war, until the inevitable happens.

- "A Dream of Twin Sunsets" by Ryan Cole: on a deadly world filled with toxic pollen, a man is forced to crash-land in a pollen field. But he is rescued by a deserter from his colony (which is organised along military lines) and develops a relationship before going back. Years later, they meet again, but now they have to put their lives on the line against the colony if they are to save each other.

- "Vwooom!" by Uchechukwu Nwaka: a man who gave up on the education and care given by a man who took him in during a time of crisis decides to pay him back by doing a one-way journey into a space anomaly.

[Corrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarkesworld's August issue, number 227, delivers a thoughtful batch of science fiction that circles around memory, preservation, connection, and what gets left behind when tech tries to hold on to the human stuff.

The fiction opens with A Shaky Bridge by Marissa Lingen, a gentle but sharp story about crossing uncertain divides—literal and emotional—in a future where infrastructure and relationships both feel precarious. And The Planet Loved Him by L. Chan follows, painting a vivid, almost romantic picture of a stranded explorer on an alien world whose beauty and affection come with a quiet, inevitable cost. Sleeper by R.T. Ester brings a more introspective vibe, exploring rest, awakening, and what lingers in the spaces between.

Ai Jiang contributes Memories Are Only Valuable if They Can Be Lost, a poignant look at a laid-off worker navigating a wealthy future where memories can be stored, traded, or erased—raising questions about what makes them worth keeping. Sea of Fertility by Bella Han evokes lunar landscapes and personal rebirth, blending hard sci-fi with emotional depth. And last is Ryan Cole with A Dream of Twin Sunsets, a reflective piece on beauty under dual skies, and perhaps one more tucked in the lineup for good measure.

Can't really point to any favorites this time, nothing stood out.

I didn't read the non-fiction offering or listened to any of Kate Baker's audio readings this time.

3.6 stars

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This issue of Clarkesworld has a lot of stories focusing on what technology can and cannot preserve. It comes with an essay about 1948 and Handmaid's Tale along with interviews with Brenda Cooper and Fran Wilde. Neil Clarke also writes about how AI submissions have forced Clarkesworld to adapt.

"A Shaky Bridge" by Marissa Lingen is a piece inspired by current events where a millionaire at the head of a tech company is producing brain chips. A stroke victim uses the chips for rehab and becomes a mouthpiece for adware. 3/5

“Yesterday you said that Spencer Rawling was the best thing that ever happened to humanity and deserved a medal,” her mother said. “You never used to say that about someone with his track record of labor abuses and human rights violations.”

"And The Planet Loved Him" by L Chan follows a planetary explorer who has lost her husband but the fungi of the planet preserve him. 3/5

“Colony designation Ewan’s mental state is preserved within the Consensus. We can respond to any stimulus as he would. Colony Ewan exists distinctly within our shared mycelium, his neurological patterns captured at the moment he joined the Consensus."

"Sleeper" by R.T. Ester is an emotional piece about selling your virtual clone and digital cults that failed to hit. 2/5

"Memories Are Only Valuable if They Can Be Lost" by Ai Jiang is about a man so absorbed in his job that he loses touch with his family. 3/5

"Sea of Fertility" by Bella Han is a mystery that takes place in virtual reality when a woman tries to find her offline brother. It's a very imaginative piece that gets lost in itself. 3/5

"Heart of Thunder" by Raahem Alvi is the best written piece in this issue where a former soldier equipped with his augmentations comes to Mars to take a labor job. 5/5

“You have a dying neural chip inside your brain. Your personality edits and delusions are returning. You need an updated neural chip, but it’s not a part of your current employment plan.”

"A Dream of Twin Sunsets" by Ryan Cole is a forbidden romance set in a colony battling with deadly waves of pollen. 4/5

I met him on my first glider mission to the fields beyond the Dandelion. We were both young men then. His patchy beard still blonde, his sunburned cheeks not yet wrinkled from the years out in the wild. His name not yet carved into the secret prayers I whispered—every night, into my pillow—once my wife went to sleep.

"Vwooom!" by Uchechukwu Nwaka follows an unemployed mech pilot trying to get by in a changing world. 4/5

[Pontus Doverstav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good stuff in this issue!

I especially enjoyed A Dream of Twin Sunsets and Heart of Thunder. Also good (but not as good as the two previously mentioned) were And The Planet Loved Him, Sleeper and Memories Are Only Valuable if They Can Be Lost. An honorable mention goes out to Sea of Fertility for having a strong opening, but sadly it failed in keeping me interested at the back end.

[Vincenzo Fiorentino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favourites from this issue:

"A Shaky Bridge" by Marissa Lingen (3.5*)

"A Dream of Twin Sunsets" by Ryan Cole (3.5*)

[Roy Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good mix of stories this month.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A handful of short stories that were all okay

[Matthew WK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall 4.25 stars

Marissa Lingen 3 stars
L Chan 4.5 stars
Ester 3.5 stars
Ai Jiang 4 stars
Bella Han 3.75 stars
Raahem Alvi 5 stars
Ryan Cole 5 stars
Uchechukwu Nwaka 4 stars