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Some interesting stuff, but nothing really grabbed me in this issue.
This is my first encounter with a sci-fi magazine and I can't wish enough that it happened much, much sooner. Clarkesworld is wonderfully crafted and I read this particular issue to test of I'd like it. Now I think I'll subscribe even if it's a lot less sci-fi than I'd like it to be.Juliette Wade's - The Persistence of Blood is exceptionally written and Kage Baker's - Are You Afflicted with Dragons was just outright cute and funny. I really enjoyed this.
Tool-Using Mimics - Kij Johnson *****Short series of possible explanations for the picture at the start, of a young girl with tentacles. Uses that merged image to draw comparison between the camouflaged protection an octopus gives its eggs to the way mothers and young girls must change themselves, must "pass, and pass, and pass" to get by in the world. Beautiful. The Persistence Of Blood - Juliette Wade ***A longer story about a woman's experience fighting for bodily autonomy through political e...
An issue in which I enjoyed pretty much every story. I didn't detect the theme as easily in this issue as I usually do. The novella that anchors this issue, The Persistence of Blood, is really well-written. Here are my per-story thoughts:Tool-Using Mimics: The author takes a photo - perhaps a real take or perhaps from a copypasta forum and comes up with a bunch of possible micro-stories that could go along with the photo.The persistence of blood: A combination of Dune and Handmaid's Tale, this n...
Not as good as last month... Preferred the non-fiction in this issue.
Stand out was the novella "The Persistence of Blood" by Juliette Wade. Slow building story of a woman whose race is dying out (low birth rates), fighting for women's right not to be bred to death.
Rating fort kij Johnson Tool-using mimics
I enjoyed most of the stories in this, which I would give 4-5 stars to individually. "The No-One Girl" and "Are You Afflicted with Dragons?" are both really, really good, as are the two experimental pieces by Kij Johnson and Izzy Wasserstein. I loved all of the essays and appreciated the information, opinions, and ideas communicated about cephalopods by Carrie Sessarego.The only story I didn't like was the novella, The Persistence of Blood — I stopped reading about a quarter of the way into it.
The quality of the stories in this issue is consistently fair-to-good, but nothing stands out. Entries by Kij Johnson and E. Lily Yu were the most disappointing, due to the higher expectations I have for those authors. The most interesting story in the issue is The Persistence of Blood, by Juliette Wade, a mid-size novella that succeeds in its detailed world-building and gives us a compelling protagonist with a high-stakes goal. Selemei is a politician's wife and a member of the highest caste in...
So far only listened to:~ God Decay by Rich Larson - Spotify podcast - 2.5*Futuristic story where science is experimenting with repairing broken bodies with parts that create super humans. It's not completely worked out yet.At the end of the podcast for Carouseling by Rich Larson, the narrator mentions that in God Decay we (view spoiler)[ lose Ostap but in Carouseling we lose Alice. She says she needs a HEA where they both make it and the author should write that next. She says this while laughi...
Enjoyed Rich Larson's "God Decay" and "The No-One Girl and the Flower of the Farther Shore" by E. Lily Yu.