A.C. Wise Reviews Short Fiction: Clarkesworld
The May issue of Clarkesworld opens with a charming story, which also offers up some touching emotional moments. “Fishy” by Alice Towey sees a daughter tasked with going through her father’s office after his death, trying to track down a prototype he was working on that would provide clean water to millions. His shifty business partner is after the prototype as well, but it turns out her father used the AI fishing bot she gave him to encourage him to get out of the house to dictate notes that may provide the key to her search. “In Which Caruth is Correct” by Carolyn Zhao is a poignant exploration of trauma, set in a world where timeloops are used as a form of therapy. The idea is not to change the past, but to provide closure, though not everyone can stop themselves from trying to “fix” things or from getting lost in the past. Zhao makes effective use of second person, and the way time travel is used to explore loss, grief, and complicated family relationships is very nicely done.
“The Texture of Memory, of Light” by Samara Auman explores similar themes to Zhao’s story, in particular unraveling complicated feelings about a parent, and the way we process memory. Val struggles with grief and feeling adrift after her mother’s death. She’s been offered a job by the same corporation whose unsafe working conditions lost her mother her arm, leaving her conflicted. The story provides an effective look at how the present and the past impact each other, and how you can honor a loss and move on without letting past mistakes, or an imperfect relationship with the person who is gone, stop you from healing. “The Weight of Your Own Ashes” by Carlie St. George is a simultaneously lovely and painful exploration of gender, identity, self-perception vs. the perception of others, and the experience of being othered. Yonder is a multi- bodied being. When one of her bodies dies on Earth, and another male-presenting body makes the journey to pick up that thread of her life, her girlfriend and roommate refuses to adjust or see her as the same person. Alice insists on holding a funeral for Yonder and mourning her, despite Yonder still being alive. The story also reflects on being perceived as not belonging, no matter where you were born and grew up, and the way certain people are expected to perform emotional labor and put others’ feelings ahead of their own. While the story explores many facets of identity and interpersonal relationships, no one thread ever feels neglected, and St. George does a wonderful job of giving each equal weight.
“The Portmerion Road” by Fiona Moore is a standalone story set in the same world as the author’s story “Morag’s Boy” from the December 2023 issue of Clarkesworld. Morag seeks a treatment for her niece’s asthma and is offered knowledge by a group of archivists. In exchange, she and her robot, Seamus, would have to live and work with them, allowing Seamus to be studied. It’s a quiet meditation on the nature of sentience and the right to self-determination among nonhumans. “The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” by Thomas Ha is a subtly uneasy story with a haunted feel. The protagonist finds a strange, dead book, and takes it to Montague St. Video, where the Brotherhood specializes in restoring old tech. The book in question is called The Winter Hills, one in a series of Westerns with most straightforward plots, except this one, which ends in ambiguity as the wounded hero rides on to the next town, without any satisfactory resolution. The main character finds events in his life oddly mirroring The Winter Hills, as he’s pursued by Caliper John, a man purporting to be a collector, who is determined to get his hands on the book by any means necessary.
In “The Blinding Light of Resurrection” by Rajeev Prasad, Shiv steals genetic prints from his company in order to treat his wife Penelope’s cancer. It becomes increasingly clear, however, that Shiv is acting to satisfy his own pride, and has lost sight of Penelope as a person. Prasad does an excellent job of showing a character in the grip of obsession, who believes – or convinces themself they believe – that they are doing the right thing, while losing their way and letting the means become the end.
The issue closes with “Our Father” by K.J. Khan, a short piece about a man tasked with transporting a group of embryos to a colony world who ends up raising eight of them as his own children. There are several interesting threads in the story, and it would have been nice to see them given more space to breathe.
Recommended Stories
“In Which Caruth is Correct”, Carolyn Zhao (Clarkesworld 5/24)
“The Weight of Your Own Ashes”, Carlie St. George (Clarkesworld 5/24)
“The Blinding Light of Resurrection”, Rajeev Prasad (Clarkesworld 5/24)
This review and more like it in the July 2024 issue of Locus.
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