Clarkesworld #205, October 2023
“Possibly Just About a Couch” by Suzanne Palmer
“Down to the Root” by Lisa Papademetriou
“De Profundis, a Space Love Letter” by Bella Han
“Rafi” by Amal Singh
“The Blaumilch” by Lavie Tidhar
“Such is My Idea of Happiness” by David Goodman
“Post Hacking for the Uninitiated” by Grace Chan
“Timothy: An Oral History” by Michael Swanwick
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
Three novelettes and five short stories appear in this issue, all science fiction, although a few offer touches of fantasy as well.
“Possibly Just About a Couch” by Suzanne Palmer is the magazine’s shortest story. The author depicts the piece of furniture mentioned in the title as it survives from the beginning of the universe to the end, and beyond.
The whimsical premise and several wry remarks throughout the text suggest that this brief bagatelle is intended as an extended joke. The punch line is more serious than expected. One can admire the author’s ability to describe the entire history of the universe in slightly over two thousand words, but many readers are likely to find the basic concept too silly.
In “Down to the Root” by Lisa Papademetriou, a technician aboard a starship works with a man from a planet where the inhabitants are rumored to be reborn after death. When he is killed during an attack by an enemy vessel, she survives to carry his preserved heart back to his home world.
The above synopsis does not give away too much, as this plot element is revealed immediately, and only described in detail through flashbacks. Many aspects of the story will seem familiar to readers of space opera, although others are more original. Some may find the conclusion too open-ended.
“De Profundis, a Space Love Letter” by Bella Han is translated from Chinese by the author. A space wanderer discovers a huge, ancient structure full of books, objects unknown at a far future time when people rely on virtual reality scenarios created by artificial intelligences. He learns to read them, shares their contents with others, and begins to write his own works.
Obviously meant as an allegory for the importance of literature, this gentle fable is sure to appeal to anyone who loves books. There are no surprises in the plot, except for the identity of the narrator, which is a minor element. The story makes for pleasant reading, but some may find the metaphor overly obvious.
“Rafi” by Amal Singh takes place in a future society in which dissent or the possession of so-called contraband results in attacks by robots. The destructive machines often go on rampages at random, either due to technical failure or as a deliberate policy of the oppressive government. The protagonist grows a partly human, partly plant-like being from a seed. It must be kept hidden, but eventually demands to go outside, leading to a confrontation with the robots.
As can be seen from this synopsis, the story offers a surprising combination of disparate elements. The high-tech, dystopian, near future setting is quite realistic, while the human/plant creature, which appears without explanation, is pure fantasy. The blending of two genres is certainly imaginative, but many will find the contrast between them jarring.
“The Blaumilch” by Lavie Tidhar takes place on a colonized Mars. The protagonist joins a group of outsiders who give themselves an extra pair of arms and escape into a simulated, fantasy version of the red planet. (Without mentioning the author’s name, the imagined Mars is clearly based on the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs.) He meets one of the people who dig canals, just for the pleasure of digging. The encounter helps him find himself.
Essentially a series of character studies, from the main character and the canal builder to a wandering robot and the digging machine’s sardonic artificial intelligence, this tale has an appealing quirkiness. (The fact that the AI is named Moocher and previously operated a toaster may be a bit much.) The theme of a young person struggling to find a place in the world is a familiar one, of course, and readers may find the story lacking in excitement.
The narrator of “Such is My Idea of Happiness” by David Goodman lives in a future London in which the genetically altered elite, who have no need for sleep, force workers to drive themselves to exhaustion. (The narrator uses intuition, which both the elite and their artificial intelligences lack, to maximize profits in financial transactions for the elite.) Aching for rest and living in poverty (although his situation is not as desperate as that of the unemployed, who barely avoid starvation) he accepts a mysterious offer from a strange woman when things go from bad to worse.
This is the longest story in the issue, giving the author room to create a detailed, convincing future world. The plot is compelling and suspenseful while avoiding melodrama. The climax is fully satisfying, offering hope without being overly optimistic.
The main character in “Post Hacking for the Uninitiated” by Grace Chan is a rebel against an oppressive galactic government. Injured in one of her raids, her partner takes her to a hospital. She has a great number of neurological enhancements, and someone starts removing them, threatening to completely erase her memories. The two rebels have to find a way to escape and heal her mind.
This mixture of space opera and cyberpunk is narrated in an unusual way. Sections of the text in first person, from the protagonist’s point of view, alternate with sections in third person, from her partner’s point of view. Complicating matters is the fact that parts of the first-person narrative are flashbacks or hallucinations. This structure makes for intense but possibly confusing reading. The story has plenty of action for fans of adventure fiction, as well as decent characterization. However, a full explanation for the actions of the rebels is lacking and the conclusion is incomplete, as if this were an excerpt from a longer work.
I hesitate to say too much about “Timothy: An Oral History” by Michael Swanwick because the major premise, revealed partway through the story, appears to be meant as a surprise. There is much more to the work than just a plot twist, however. Suffice to say that in a nearly utopian future world recovering from a disaster many centuries in its past a brilliant scientist uses genetic engineering in a way that causes an enormous change in society.
The author explores the premise in a logical, plausible way, creating a future very different from our present, but one that seems as real. The choice to narrate the story in multiple voices, as the title indicates, is very effective. This gives the author a chance to demonstrate great versatility, as well as creating a large number of believable characters in a relatively short space.
Victoria Silverwolf wrote this review on Friday the Thirteenth.