Clarkesworld #147, December 2018
“Marshmallows” by D. A. Xiaolin Spires
Reviewed by Kevin P Hallett
This 147th issue of Clarkesworld contains six stories, one of which is a reprint (and not reviewed), and another is a translation of a story originally published in China.
“Marshmallows” by D. A. Xiaolin Spires
This SF short is set in a near future were people mask reality through visual overlays that make the world seasonal. At Christmas time, houses appear as gingerbread creations and people as elves or even giant marshmallows.
Chunfei’s credit is low and her overlay stops as she commutes to work, forcing her to see the real world for a while. It soon becomes clear how much she is dependent on the overlays for her own happiness.
Spires has created an interesting near future world, but beyond showing us this world this story offered little in the way of intrigue to engage the reader.
“Bringing Down the Sky” by Alan Bao
A dirt-poor Tibetan boy spends each day climbing up a mountain to harvest clean air in this sobering SF novelette. The future reveals a sky so polluted that the stars and moon are things of folklore, lost beyond the perpetual, poisonous smog.
When two Americans visit to purchase clean air, the boy shows them a locally grown plant that helps to keep a part of a high valley clean. When they leave the boy returns to his life of drudgery. But one of the Americans sees potential in an extract from the plant’s stem that will benefit the people of the world, and the other sees a chance to use the extract to make a buck.
Which philosophy will gain the upper hand?
The story had an edge to it, leaving the reader caught up in the harsh myopic pursuit of money. Bao does a wonderful job of showing us a future rather than merely describing it.
“When We Find Our Voices” by Eleanna Castroianni
Keredi is one third of a mating triple in this SF novelette. In the past, humans had unleashed a disease that killed all women and are now dependent on avian-like aliens to continue humanity. Keredi and Nyalu combine with a man to create offspring, either new avian chicks or human baby boys.
To ensure they can keep humanity going, men have subjugated the avian culture, taking away their Voice and forcing them to labor and provide offspring. But, in time, the Avians remember their past and start seeking out the Voice that mankind strips from them at birth.
This was an interesting story that introduced several new ideas. At times the prose was a little slow, but the mystery and originality ensured it was a worthwhile read.
“The Names and Motions” by Sheldon J. Pacotti
Pacotti’s science fiction short is about Cassie, a sociopathic young girl who has brain implants to ‘adjust’ her perception of the world. Never used in so young a subject, Cassie’s young mind assimilates the inserts in ways never imagined before.
As she grows up, she black-markets new artificial modifications. Ones that ultimately allow her control over implants in other minds. Will her strange powers be used for good or evil?
This story raised interesting ideas, but the prose was slow and hard to follow in several places.
“Master Zhao: The Tale of an Ordinary Time Traveler” by Zhang Ran (translated by Andy Dudak)
An elderly man, Zhao, claims he’s lived his life countless times in this SF novelette. Zhao tells a stranger that his mind races ahead of his physical body, cursing him to live different branches, each one real to him, until it ends.
With many hundreds of years of memories in a fifty-year-old body, Zhao has no way to know what his real life is and what is just a fake branch to be erased in all but his memory. When he befriends the stranger, he has few illusions left, but he has an unusual request of the stranger.
The story had an odd appeal and sense of originality. The prose was engaging though it did drag in the middle before coming back to life toward the end.