Clarkesworld Magazine, #31, April 2009
Clarkesworld Magazine has been nominated for a Hugo award in the category of “Best Semiprozine,” a fact prominently displayed on the website.
Is that a reasonable proposition?
Does it merit your Hugo vote?
Yes, and—well, read the stories and decide for yourself—but read more than just a single issue, as the style and themes vary wildly from month […]
Clarkesworld Magazine, #30, March 2009
The third issue of Clarkesworld Magazine this year brings us two well-crafted and thought-provoking stories, as well as a couple of diverting, though slightly underwhelming, non-fiction entries.
Ekaterina Sedia is in fine form in “Herding Vegetable Sheep,” a first-person account by 68-year-old cloud-herder Anita about her strained relationship with her daughter, Petra, and the disappearance of […]
Clarkesworld Magazine, #29, February 2009
Clarkesworld Magazine continues to deliver the goods with its second installment of the year. Issue #29, February 2009, contains two helpings of speculative wonder, and though the nonfiction pieces aren’t as stellar as in other recent issues, they’re still well written and informative, and we have three of them.
“The Second Gift Given” by Ken Scholes […]
Clarkesworld Magazine, #28, January 2009
The start of 2009 sees Clarkesworld Magazine in excellent shape. Issue #28, January 2009, contains one of the best nonfiction pieces published by the magazine and two memorable fiction offerings.
“Celadon” by Desirina Boskovich tackles, with only surface simplicity, two of my favorite themes in SF, post-colonialism and transcendence, through the exploration of a daughter-mother bond. […]
Clarkesworld Magazine, #27, December 2008
As Neil Clarke comments in one of the nonfiction pieces in issue #27, December 2008, of Clarkesworld Magazine, “this is the last issue to feature fiction picked by editor Nick Mamatas.” It is an interesting, somewhat whimsical, “cutesy” issue which Mamatas ends on. The three fiction pieces (as opposed to the normal two) continue the […]
Continue ReadingWhen Diplomacy Fails, edited by Mike Resnick and Eric Flint
At the end of the informative “Preface” of When Diplomacy Fails: An Anthology of Military Science Fiction, in which Eric Flint and Mike Resnick trace the historical development and popularity of the genre of military SF—providing numerous interesting examples along the way—the reader is advised to “Read, enjoy—and think.” How well do the eight stories […]
Continue ReadingClarkesworld Magazine, #26, November 2008
I concluded my review of last month’s issue by observing that Clarkesworld Magazine seemed to have “shifted away from more boundary-pushing work, with less emphasis on technique and more on conventional story.” The trend continues, at least partway, in issue #26, November 2008.
Mike Resnick and Lezli Robyn bring us “Idle Roomer,” which feels like […]
Eclipse Two: New Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Jonathan Strahan
Jonathan Strahan’s introduction does a good job of setting the right expectations for Eclipse Two, quite different in flavor from the first volume in the series. How so? “I deliberately nudged this Eclipse installment towards science fiction,” he explains, “dropping some of the balance that had characterized Eclipse One.” This leads to less variety in […]
Continue ReadingClarkesworld Magazine, #25, October 2008
Issue #25, October 2008 of Clarkesworld Magazine kicks off with Jim C. Hines’s “Gift of the Kites.” If not exactly a stellar take-off, it does achieve altitude pretty quickly. At the story’s start, Jesse, twelve years old, is flying a Superman kite with his stepfather, Kentaro, when another kite darkens the sky and changes Jesse’s […]
Continue ReadingKillers, edited by Colin Harvey
Killers are fun. Why not? Well, all right, someone does tend to get hurt, so maybe not fun—but certainly interesting. After all, a story about someone who kills or is in jeopardy of being killed (or both, as is often the case), presents an extreme example of a theme that inevitably draws us in: change. […]
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