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 trend of more accessible narrative that we’ve seen over the previous two issues. Seasonal coincidence or not, this month’s offerings have a lighter flavor than usual, and their enjoyment depends at least partially on familiarity with their popular culture references. The rest of the issue consists of one nonfiction piece proper and an editorial.

“A Woman’s Best Friend” by Robert Reed achieves the issue’s best balance of thought-provoking imagination and escapism. On Christmas Eve, librarian Mary notices George, a man who claims to have lost his home and who jumped into a river trying to save someone. Reed quickly establishes an intriguing rapport between Mary and George, and the choice of Mary as protagonist, and the gradual unveiling of her knowledge regarding George’s predicament, is interesting both in terms of drama and gender roles. Reed avoids romantic clichés in their dynamic and establishes instead an offbeat attraction that amplifies the story’s thematic other-worldliness. Reed’s tale celebrates the myriad possibilities of creation without taking itself too seriously. The story is enhanced by an appreciation of its film reference, but one of my alternate selves who hasn’t seen the famous film informs me that it works equally well without it. As such, it might be described as a clever piece of Alternate Fiction, with a wisely plausible “alternate” explanation for characters and a situation we thought we might have known.

Mary Robinette Kowal’s podcast reading is fun and accelerates the story’s final, more exposition-heavy act with lively voice characterizations and well-timed pauses. Kowal’s reading of George makes him seem older than the story itself suggests, and in a subtle, perhaps accidental way, this makes the relationship between George and Mary even more unconventional than I’ve hinted at. I’m not sure whether this contributes to or detracts from the overall effect, but it certainly adds something distinctive.

“Episode 72” by Don Webb, a less sneaky, more overt alternative history tale, also relies more heavily on identifying its allusion to enjoy it. Senator Ball from New York travels with Jess Oppenheimer to the “plutonium bomb factory called Pantex in Amarillo, Texas,” where she is told of the Big Texan Steak House and its related sign, which will prove significant. She intends to film the inside of the barracks and editorially portray its inhabitants as regretful of their communist pasts. As in the other two stories in this issue, an unexpected attraction develops. I found some of the writing a little choppy, and the voices of the characters, in or out of the context of their extra-story existence, not quite convincing. Webb is adept at pacing his plot swiftly and furnishing his alternate history with droll observations and neat details. It is not a substantial story, to be sure, but readers may find the revelation of its “secret” enjoyable enough to justify it.

“The Completely Rechargeable Man” by Karen Heuler is a polished, entertaining, self-aware story about Johnny Volts, the titular character. Johnny meets Liz Pooley at one of the parties where he usually entertains guests—for a while, at least—with the talents that come with his rechargeable pacemaker and ability to power small objects. Johnny and Liz have “sympathetic electricity,” as it turns out. They move in together and put this effect to use by bypassing the power from the electrical companies and attracting electricity directly, which gets them into all sorts of trouble. Heuler acknowledges the irreality of her tale early on:

He knew—he understood—that his pacemaker powered his heart, and his heart recharged the pacemaker in a lovely series of perpetual interactions. He had no issue with it.

If Johnny is okay with this setup, the reader should be also. Heuler’s smart, skilful tale wrings as much as it can from its premise, and is at least as “glib” as Liz herself, though never facile. It works well as an extended metaphor for the social rules governing human behavior, with the final scenes using this as a springboard for some artful social commentary rather than the affective ending one might anticipate. In this regard, its tone and execution are consistent.

“To Believe the Magic Is Real: A Conversation with Ed Greenwood” by Jeremy L. C. Jones provides a lively description of prolific fantasy author and world-builder Ed Greenwood and presents an interview that focuses mostly on this last skill. Greenwood’s comments are instructive to aspiring writers and illustrate how his processes(es) not only result in worlds that readers find engrossing, but also how such realms are made internally consistent. Incidentally, both this piece and the story by Webb feature a number of distracting typos, something that will hopefully be avoided in future issues.

Neil Clarke’s “Frosty was a WHAT?!!” talks briefly about the Clarkesworld editorial change and offers readers the chance to win a book by submitting their suggestions for Christmas viewing. The editorial is brief; the best part is in fact the reader responses below it, with plenty of imaginative picks.

With a New Year upon us, we are bound to witness plenty of changes in all spheres of life. Let’s hope that the quality of Clarkesworld’s fiction is not one of them.