Clarkesworld “What Happens in Solarium Square 21” by Ashleigh Shears
“Albedo Season” by Ray Nayler
“A Stick of Clay, in the Hands of God, is Infinite Potential” by Jy Neon Yang
“Quantum Fish” by Bo Balder
“The Language Sheath” by Regina Kanyu Wang
“The Translator, at Low Tide” by Vajra Chandrasekera
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
All of the stories in the latest issue of Neil Clarke’s award-winning publication are science fiction, ranging from portraits of the near future to visions of the far reaches of time and space.
The main characters in “What Happens in Solarium Square 21” by Ashleigh Shears are two robots. The human being they served is dead, but they use 3-D printing technology to create the illusion that their owner is still alive. When a more advanced robot discovers their deception, they face the possibility of separation.
The author creates appealing nonhuman characters, with whom one can empathize. Despite the seemingly gruesome premise, the mood is one of light comedy. The plot will inevitably remind readers of a certain age of the movie Weekend at Bernie’s, not to the story’s benefit.
“Albedo Season” by Ray Nayler takes place on an inhabitable moon of an alien planet. A small number of humans managed to survive there after their starships crashed. Years later, an ecological crisis threatens to destroy them. A woman born on the moon uses the tools of science to discover a way to survive.
What is most striking about this story is the carefully constructed alien ecology that lies at the heart of the plot. This work will appeal to those seeking hard science fiction; in this case, the science is biology. In addition to this virtue, specific to science fiction, the story also has a clear, readable style and engaging characters. An enjoyable touch is that the narrator relates the events as something that happened before the listener was born, adding a sense of history to the tale.
In “A Stick of Clay, in the Hands of God, is Infinite Potential” by Jy Neon Yang, a holy war rages between a galactic empire ruled by the Church and rebellious apostates. Gigantic war machines, controlled by the human beings inside them, fight for the Church. The main character is one such warrior, cloned from the greatest female fighter, but in male form. An encounter on a planet of the apostates, mysteriously deserted, leads to a change in the way the warrior thinks about the battle.
Despite its space opera trimmings, this is really a story about trying to find one’s place in the world. Even for an imaginative tale of the very far future, certain of the events are implausibly fantastic. Much of the plot deals with issues of gender identity. Although this is a worthy theme for science fiction stories, it seems irrelevant here.
The protagonist of “Quantum Fish” by Bo Balder returns to her watery home world after several years. She discovers that the planet’s fish industry suffers from strange changes in the alien labyrinth that covers the world, just below the surface of the sea. A bizarre invasion uncovers the secrets of the labyrinth, and forces the protagonist to enlist the aid of her estranged family in order to save their world.
The premise is an unusual one, and the mystery behind the changes in the fish population is intriguing. Unfortunately, the answer to the enigma of the labyrinth strains credibility, and leads to a melodramatic climax.
“The Language Sheath” by Regina Kanyu Wang (translated from Chinese by the author and Emily Jin) involves an advanced form of automatic translation from one language to another. The main character works for the company developing this technology. Her job is to record herself speaking her native tongue, a rare and complex one, for several hours each day. Her son, educated at an English-speaking school, has limited knowledge of his own language. Their strained relationship and the stress of her job lead the woman to an emotional breakdown.
The story deals with the important problem of languages dying from lack of use. It also considers the more personal problem of young people drifting away from the culture of their elders. The speculative technology is believable, as are the fully developed characters.
Sri Lanka is the setting for “The Translator, at Low Tide” by Vajra Chandrasekera. Climate change leads to flooding of the small island nation. The narrator makes a living by translating the literature of this land for those who dwell in places that are more fortunate. A disturbing sign of even worse times to come is the behavior of the local children, which becomes increasingly violent.
This dystopian future is disturbingly convincing, particularly in the way that the narrator clings to the ordinary things of daily life in the face of chaos. The fact that ecological disasters have a much more devastating effect on poor nations than rich ones also adds to the realism.
Victoria Silverwolf hasn’t seen Weekend at Bernie’s.