Clarkesworld #207, December 2023
“Morag’s Boy” by Fiona Moore
“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Cyborg” by Samara Auman
“In Memories We Drown” by Kelsea Yu
“Waffles Are Only Goodbye for Now” by Ryan Cole
“The World’s Wife” by Ng Yi-Sheng
“The Last Gamemaster in the World” by Angela Liu
“Kill That Groundhog” by Fu Qiang, translated by Andy Dudak
“Eight or Die (Part 2)” by Thoraiya Dyer
Reviewed by Chuck Rothman
“Morag’s Boy” by Fiona Moore starts out the December issue of Clarkesworld with the story of a post-minor-apocalypse UK, where Morag has a knack for working to fix technology of the earlier ages. She is joined by Seamus, who has an even greater ability in that realm. Seamus keeps coming up with improvements, sometimes making mistakes because he doesn’t understand the larger picture, which Morag can explain. The characters are fine, but the story never really engaged me, and things went too smoothly to create any conflict.
Samara Auman contributes “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Cyborg,” about a group of sentient crows who mourn the death of Merle, the woman who had given them implants to make them intelligent. Most of it is a lot of philosophical musing that is not my cup of tea.
“In Memories We Drown” by Kelsea Yu is about Rosalie Chin, an oceanographer working a deep-sea station who finds a plant that, when eaten, brings back memories of favorite meals from the past. The people in the station are stuck there. Some disaster has happened on the surface and there’s no communication to find out what it is. Rosalie had been expecting her lover Alex, but, due to whatever the disaster was, has no idea what’s going on with him, but the tastes help them all to bring back memories of what they lost. The story is a powerful read, and the futile ending doesn’t detract from it.
Ryan Cole’s “Waffles Are Only Goodbye for Now” also deals with a disaster, told from the point of view of B3RT4A, a sentient refrigeration unit nicknamed Bertha, who still operates even though no one had called on her to do anything for years. When the boy Henree starts scavenging in the house, Bertha starts to interact with him, using the names of food as code words, and develops a friendship. Charming story and Bertha is a strong character.
“The World’s Wife” by Ng Yi-Sheng is a brief bit of fiction about someone reporting on the death of the husband of Mrs. Pang in space. Mrs. Pang demands the body be returned for burial, but there are some serious complications. A light tale which basically unfolds the situation in a well-done way. It reminded me of a Robert Sheckley story.
Angela Liu’s “The Last Gamemaster in the World” is primarily an idea story where the protagonist is a programmer who creates a worldwide simulation that seems to be reality for everyone and the protagonist gets to have a nice conversation with his mother, but the story didn’t really work for me.
“Kill That Groundhog” by Fu Qiang (translated by Andy Dudak) is set in a small café. Pei Dong meets with two other people, Lai Peng and Jia You and they all have a problem: they keep reliving the same day over and over (and, yes, the title directly references the movie). This is a problem story and focuses on how the three work to solve it. The puzzle is cleverly worked out and the issues clear and the result it a very enjoyable story.
Thoraiya Dyer’s “Eight or Die” is the second part of a long novella that was started in last month’s issue. Morino Mora is a miner from Ecuador who is taken by aliens to help them capture the criminal Neverage. Morino is skeptical of the mission, but has little choice if he wants to get back home. The story is a series of encounters with various non-human beings and Morino must keep thinking on his feet to stay on his mission. There are some very well-drawn aliens, whose thinking Morino has to understand while pretty much being on his own. The result is a fascinating story that never ceases to surprise.
Overall, this is an extremely strong issue with several real gems.
Chuck Rothman’s novels Staroamer’s Fate and Syron’s Fate are available from Fantastic Books. His story, “Pot” will soon be appearing in Podcastle, and he is working on programming for the Buffalo NASFiC next July.