Clarkesworld“Emily of Emerald Starhip” by Ng Yi-Sheng
“If an Algorithm Can Cast a Shadow” by Claire Jia-Wen
“In the Shells of Broken Things” by A.T. Greenblatt
“The Eighth Pyramid” by Louis Inglis Hall
“Faces of the Antipode” by Matthew Marcus
“The Last Lunar New Year” by Derek Künsken
“The Last to Survive” by Rita Chang-Eppig
“Outlier” by R.L. Meza
Reviewed by Mina
At the end of “Emily of Emerald Starhip” by Ng Yi-Sheng, the author tells us that she has used characters and narrative details from a popular Singaporean play in her story (Emily of Emerald Hill, Stella Kon, 1984). But the tale stands on its own, without the reader needing to have read the play. The narrator falls in love with a man, Richard, whose mother turned herself into a spaceship and spawned a dynasty across galaxies. But Richard wants freedom from his mother and matriarch and is prepared to go to great lengths to obtain it. The tale turns into an Ancient Greek tragedy, where characters cannot escape their fate and “love is a kind of death.” Beautifully written.
In “If an Algorithm Can Cast a Shadow” by Claire Jia-Wen, a mother tries to understand why her son, Oscar, killed himself and his girlfriend. She buys a “digital double,” which builds a virtual silhouette of Oscar from his online activities. But the silhouette doesn’t have all the data on Oscar and only produces a petulant echo. The story asks questions about how online activities, especially interactive games, can influence teenagers, and about how much personal data we willingly give away. It looks at how grief affects everyone in different ways; at high parental expectations of the “good” daughter, coupled with not setting any boundaries for the son; and at undiagnosed depression, in particular post-partum depression. It portrays teenage aggression, alienation and rudeness very well. But will the mother finally be able to talk honestly with her daughter, Hannah? The story ends before we can find out. We hope so.
“In the Shells of Broken Things” by A.T. Greenblatt is a tale about determination and building bridges. Jude investigates why a family friend, Edna, left him an inheritance. Despite a debilitating disease he decides to travel to Edna’s childhood home, the Evergreen Dome. But the hoverbus breaks down and Jude must investigate from the service station he is stuck in, through calls. He befriends a child at the station, Maddie, who is also living with a debilitating disease. Slowly, Jude finds himself acting as a messenger between those who left the Dome when it failed and those who stayed. As his knowledge of Edna deepens enough to write her obituary, he realises that beauty can indeed grow in the shells of broken things.
As someone whose life has been deeply affected by a chronic, lifelong illness, I really appreciated Jude’s courage and determination and the message behind this tale.
“The Eighth Pyramid” by Louis Inglis Hall has some lovely world building. The author imagines an alien world where humans turn seven deserted pyramid into a city. The protagonist, Canticle, is saddened when gazing at the murals that turned the ancient civilisation that built the pyramids into caricatures and named them Lesser Men. Humans are the last civilisation in a dead universe, but Canticle’s father still receives radio messages like echoes from the dead. His project is shut down, and the past of the Lesser Men erased, but Canticle and her mother rebel. Read to find out what exactly the eighth pyramid is. A haunting tale and a hymn to lost civilisations.
“Faces of the Antipode” by Matthew Marcus is not an easy read. Not because it’s bad, but because some of the characters in it are truly alien—they are human but their thinking is very different. Quezel travels to the other side of the planet to stop the natives there from carrying out perceived deforestation. He does not understand the symbiosis between the forest dwellers and the forest. When he disappears, Tani goes in search of Quezel. The queen of the natives shows Tani the secret behind what Quezel called the “face trees.” Not my thing but read it if you like unsettling tales.
“The Last Lunar New Year” by Derek Künsken is definitely hard SF. In a very distant future, humanity has evolved into different forms that can survive the heat of a dying universe. A natural disaster is about to destroy the moon. In a court case, the aquatilis who evolved to live in the waters of the water moons of the solar system, are petitioning to harness the energy from the explosion of the moon to travel back in time and live in the oceans of a younger Earth. The Corona pastoris, the shepherds of the Earth and moon are not receptive to their petition. Until the star witness turns up. This tale takes a while to get into but is ultimately worth your patience.
“The Last to Survive” by Rita Chang-Eppig is a story about memory. Humans (neo-sapiens) have managed to become fully cybernetic and immortal. But they are beginning to lose their memories through data degradation or, strangely, to acquire new ones. The Glass Woman, the first human to survive cyberization, comes to the island (we aren’t told which island), and gives one of her memories to everyone she talks to. The narrator does some musing about memory, what makes us human and shared stories. It’s well-written, but I wasn’t ultimately convinced by this tale.
“Outlier” by R.L. Meza is a horror story, where scientists experiment on homeless people: the narrator is the creature that was once a homeless woman. It says a lot about our society that the creature initially finds being a lab experiment no worse than its life on the street was. Shaking itself free of their Stockholm syndrome, the creature plots its revenge. A very disturbing read.