Recent Notable Stories from Clarkesworld Magazine

 

The August issue of Clarkesworld, with a preposterously cool cover. (Art by Marcel Deneuve.)

It's no secret that I've been a subscriber to Clarkesworld for several years. There's a reason Neil Clarke has won the Best Editor Short Form at the Hugos for two years running, and the reason is that he simply picks good stories. (He also offers print editions of the magazine on their Patreon, which is something I wish more mags would do...) Clarkesworld also regularly publishes translated Chinese SF. Like many other genre magazines, Clarkesworld was hard hit by the recent Amazon Kindle fuckery and is just now managing to get back on its feet. 

So while this magazine is now in far better shape than it was, I still wanted to shout out a few of its recent stories, and encourage you to subscribe. You'll get a quality magazine that deserves your support. 

"Molum, Molum, Molum the Scourge," Rich Larson

Rich Larson is a tremendously prolific short story author, with over a hundred stories published. He also tends to write in the cyberpunk genre, which is not my favorite. However, many times his stories will overcome my dislike of cyberpunk. Which happened in this case: this is a fast-paced tale of Molum, a ten-year refugee from the gladiator pits who is dragged back in one last time. 

"Every Hopeless Thing," Tia Tashiro

Tia Tashiro is an exciting new writer, and this story shows why: Elodie and Skipper are a scavenger pilot/sentient ship partnership, hunting for usable fragments on a future dead Earth. Only they find actual human survivors, living underground for generations after the apocalypse, and offer them the stars--which the survivors turn down. An affecting tale of friendship and self-determination. 

"The Best Version of Yourself," Grant Collier

This is the polar opposite of the feel-good story that precedes it: this is creepy, visceral horror, about a future nanotech treatment that breaks down people's bodies and plants their disembodied brains in the ground, forming a "Nirvana"-like connection of millions of brains. This'll give you nightmares, but it's also unforgettable. The author's note states this story is his first publication, which is amazing. 

"Artistic Encounters of a Monumental Nature," S.B. Divya

This story shows the people of Earth--particularly artists and linguists--coming together to solve a mystery of monuments suddenly appearing in out-of-the-way places, 2001-style. This story speaks of the importance of art to the human condition, and how an alien species might interpret that. 

All these stories are free to read on the Clarkesworld website, but again--please subscribe if you can. (If you want an electronic auto-delivery subscription, Barnes and Noble still offers those for Nook readers.) (And no, neither Neil Clarke or anyone else has asked or paid me to say this. I just recognize how valuable Clarkesworld and other magazine like it are, and wish to see them continue.)