A.C. Wise

Analog 3-4/24 khōréō 3.4 Clarkesworld 4/24

The March/April 2024 issue of Analog opens with “Enough” by William Ledbetter, wherein a graffiti artist en­counters tech designed to resist tagging and report the location of artists to authorities. Working with his ex-girlfriend and her new partner, he finds a way to co-opt the tech and broadcasts a message of hope and resistance. “A Long Journey into Light” ...Read More

Asimov’s 3-4/24

The March/April 2024 issue of Asimov’s is quite a strong one. It opens with a “How Sere Kept Herself Together” by Alex­ander Jablokov, the third in a series of stories featuring Sere, an investigator, who in this case starts off looking into a kidnapping, but finds herself embroiled in a far more complex case. The worldbuilding is nicely done and the novella does a good ...Read More

The Deadlands Winter ’24

The Winter 2024 issue of The Deadlands is full of lovely prose and quiet stories meditating on life and death. In the beautifully written “Threnody in Dark Wood” by Avra Margariti, a profes­sional mourner who sings the dead through the Doorway receives a mysterious assignment to attend an empty funeral with a sealed coffin and soon realizes this is a job unlike any other. ...Read More

Analog 1-2/24

The January/February issue of Ana­log kicks off with “Kagari” by Ron Collins, which follows the young heir to a kingdom of birdlike beings. He is in love with a commoner, and not overly enamored of the strict rules governing his society, but he is given a human named Kagari as a pet who helps him see he might work within the system to effect change. “ ...Read More

khōréō 3.3

khōréō 3.3 includes two short stories and a nov­elette in two parts. The one I found to be most effective of the three is “The Blue Glow” by Lisa Hosokawa, which follows a failed suicide pilot as he returns home in search of his family, and finds only destruction. His journey is plagued by ghosts, but he holds onto hope that his mother and baby ...Read More

Clarkesworld 1/24

January’s Clarkesworld opens on a high note with “Nothing of Value” by Aimee Ogden. Skip technology allows people to travel long distances by allowing all the information about themselves to be downloaded into a new body at their des­tination while the old version is destroyed. The unnamed protagonist travels to Mars to meet up with a former friend/lover in hopes of rekindling their relationship. One of ...Read More

Asimov’s 1-2/24

The January/February 2024 issue of Asimov’s is bookended by two novellas, each involving the investigation of a crime. In Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “Proof of Concept”, Orli is a detective on an intergalactic cruise ship, investigating a seemingly straightforward mur­der. However, when she arrives at the crime scene, Orli discovers the body is actually a sophisticated hologram, leaving her to unravel what crime has actually been ...Read More

Augur 6.2

Several stories in Augur issue 6.2 draw on vari­ous traditions and fairy tales for inspiration. In “Moon-Eaters & Monsoons” by Rachel Evange­line Chiong, twin brothers Amihan and Hagbat set out to determine what is ailing one of their realm’s gods. They haven’t spoken in years, and the journey is fraught, their failure to listen to and understand each other putting both of them in danger. “ ...Read More

Clarkesworld 12/23

Clarkesworld’s December issue starts off with a sweet story, “Morag’s Boy” by Fiona Moore, about a young man named Cliff who leaves home and ends up being taken in by a woman named Morag who lives alone on a farm. Cliff shows an aptitude for fixing tech, but struggles to find a direction in life. Morag helps him find his way, leading him to become ...Read More

Analog 11-12/23

Analog’s November/December issue in­cludes a wide variety of short fiction. The standout story in the issue was “An Infestation of Blue” by Wendy N. Wagner, told from the point of view of a dog who wakes to find her consciousness altered through an Op­erator meant to allow her to communicate with humans. The dog, who now thinks of herself as Rebecca, discovers that the Man who ...Read More

Asimov’s 11-12/23 Clarkesworld 11/23 khōréō 3.2

Asimov’s November/December issue includes three novellas, along with an assortment of short stories and novelettes. The wide variety of themes and styles in this issue work well, with stories evoking classic science fiction, stories with an epic science fantasy feel, and others taking a quiet slice-of-life approach. “Berb by Berb” by Ray Nayler is one of the most effective pieces in the ...Read More

Analog 9-10/23 Clarkesworld 10/23 Flash Fiction Online 10/23

Analog’s September/October issue opens with the excellent novelette “The Apotheosis of Krysalice Wilson” by Howard V. Hendrix. Teen­age figure skater Krysalice is approached with the opportunity to implant experi­mental technology that will give her bet­ter reaction times and improve her sense of spatial relations – a kind of natural GPS akin to the way birds navigate as they migrate – enhancing ...Read More

Asimov’s 9-10/23 Clarkesworld 8/23, 9/23

Asimov’s “Slight Spooky” September/October 2023 issue starts off strong with the novelette “Deep Blue Jump” by Dean Whitlock. The story is set amongst a group of children who have been sold or abandoned into a life of harvesting drug-like dream berries. The conditions are brutal, working long hours, risking their lives climb­ing on dangerous vines to reach the berries, and watched over by slappers ...Read More

Augur 6.1 khōréō 3.1

Augur issue 6.1 is packed with a mix of fic­tion and poetry and includes Bailey Ma­cabre‘s “âniskac”, a comic which features lovely art and is set in a world recovering from environmental collapse looking back on the follies and failures of the past. Several of the stories and poems in the issue reflect on similar themes of climate change, regret over the past, ...Read More