Clarkesworld #190, July 2022
“The Forgotten” by Eliane Boey
“Carapace” by David Goodman
“The Strange Girl” by Xinyu Xiu (translated by Emily Jin)
“To Be” by Ahmed Asi
“The Sadness Box” by Suzanne Palmer
“Termination Stories for the Cyberpunk Dystopia Protagonist” by Isabel J. Kim
Reviewed by Kevin P Hallett
The 190th issue of Clarkesworld contains six stories, including three novelettes. There are several terrific stories in this issue.
“The Forgotten” by Eliane Boey
This short science fiction story takes place in a future Hong Kong. Xi is a monitor working for her friend Wei who developed Lion City, a virtual reality modeled on Hong Kong at the turn of the millennium. Most people live virtually in Lion City while they cram their bodies into the actual city of Hong Kong.
When avatars of dead people illegally begin appearing, Wei asks Xi to find out why. A quest that takes Xi into the city’s dirty underbelly while dredging up memories of when she and Wei were students together. But what Xi finds will test her allegiance.
This was a convoluted story that was slow to read.
“Carapace” by David Goodman
An artificial exoskeleton becomes self-aware in this SF novelette set during a brutal war. SM-14 lost its human cargo in a surprise attack during a patrol. It’s the only survivor and picks up a wounded enemy soldier to bring back for interrogation.
However, the explosions have made SM-14 self-aware, and after reading the thousands of books left behind by its previous occupant, it is developing a conscience. Still, it loads in the wounded man and heads back to its defensive lines. Along the way, it forms a rapport with the new occupant.
Breaking through the defensive lines proves difficult since the explosions destroyed the beacons that identify it as a friend. As it fights against its defensive perimeter, SM-14 wonders what will become of it if it survives.
The author created an interesting take on the awakening sentience of an AI. He did it well enough to evoke empathy for the machine, and the tale’s tail had an unexpected twist.
“The Strange Girl” by Xinyu Xiu (translated by Emily Jin)
The strange girl and her husband await their son’s birth in this SF short story. A wonder drug against cancer has left humanity at the precipice of extinction as no babies survive to be born. But technology has finally found an answer.
Now the strange girl and her husband struggle through a pregnancy, as they follow all the rules and hope things will turn out. However, the woman would like a daughter too.
The story interleaved two stories together, and their relationship only became apparent at the end. Ultimately, the lack of a strong purpose weakened this plot.
“To Be” by Ahmed Asi
After an accident leaves him paralyzed, Raza is offered a new type of embod in this short SF story. Raza was a famous actor, and his close friend, Ayesha, wrangles a grant to try the new embod as an actor’s stand-in.
For months Raza practices, learning how to control the embod through the suspension cradle. Soon, thanks to Ayesha, word gets out that the great actor is returning to the stage. Now, all that is needed is a star performance in Hamlet.
The author’s story was light and very readable.
“The Sadness Box” by Suzanne Palmer
The boy’s father is an inventor in this SF novelette set during a future war between humans and technology. The enemy uses nanobots and warbots to infiltrate the minds of humans and convert them to botzombies. And though his mother claims they’re winning the war, the boy realizes that the enemy keeps getting closer.
One day, the boy’s inventor father shows him a box. A blue eye peers out when the boy switches it on, then a metal hand reaches through the lid to turn the box back off. The inventor claims it contains an AI that’s scared of the world and stays hidden in the box. The boy thinks the contraption is silly, but he steals it anyway.
After weeks of failing to communicate with the box, the boy decides to return it to his father. Soon, the enemy’s campaigns draw closer, dropping bombs and more sophisticated warbots in the human areas. The boy’s school is closed for weeks when he receives a distress text from his father. “HELP!”
The author created a curious and easy-to-read story that painted a bleak future technology war through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy. Well worth the read.
“Termination Stories for the Cyberpunk Dystopia Protagonist” by Isabel J. Kim
In this intrigue-filled short SF story, Cool and Sexy Asian Girl is helping Tourist discover the truth about his wife’s disappearance. She is a cruel helper who misled him in the past and continues to do so. When Tourist hears that Li knows something, she willingly guides him to find the elusive Li.
Cool and Sexy Asian Girl has a checkered history with Li. And it doesn’t take long before her control of the situation falls apart, and each of them realizes things about themselves they had concealed even from themselves.
This mysterious and convoluted tale was hard to follow in places. But the prose held the reader’s attention until the enigmatic end.
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