thereadingoutlaw's review

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3.0

The second Clarkesworld issue I've read, I think it's one of those things where I'm just going to have to become comfortable with having some of the stories really hit it out of the park for me and others really falling flat. This issue:

The good:
"The Fixer", in which we see what happens when a god-like figure interacts with a human-like creator - hint:: not good things.
"In the Midst of Life" where, through the eyes of a supposed cult leader and his discovery of some unsettling new manipulations of brain chemistry, we're asked to ponder the difference between life and living, and the full means we'll go to in order to keep other people on the same level we are, even if it's for the worse. Also a great commentary on what makes a 'cult'.
"Between Dragons and Their Wrath" - FUCKING DRAGONS.

The not-so-good:
"That Which Stands Tends Towards Free-Fall"- A confusingly written and oddly populated story about a militaristic future, led entirely by women and AI, who are on the hunt for...someone. For...something. Like I said, incredibly confusingly written.
"Blood Dauber" is a story about a relationship between a zookeeper and his girlfriend. As he discovers some kind of new insect life form, and becomes closer to one of the convict volunteers that serves at the zoo, his relationships outside work begin to fall apart. Boring, but also with a weird zoo/animal metaphor. We're all in cages, basically?
"Mercurial" is about an art collector. A bunch of convoluted events occur that necessitate her going home with an original Monet - or is it an original?

It would seem that, all in all, I had about the same overall experience with reading this issue, but enjoyed the newer fiction much more than last time!

kittyg's review

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4.0

This issue was a lot of fun in my opinion. I think that whilst I don't always adore all of the stories, this one was more interesting to me overall than the previous one.

Stories I enjoyed a lot:
The Fixer - this was a story about a sentient AI, something I've seen a lot of recently, but it worked well and was nicely written - 3*s
In The Midst of Life - a story about a cult-like society hiding away and doing all sorts of peculiar things. Told in the form of a diary - 3.5*s
Between Dragons and Their Wrath - a story involving dragons always sells itself to me if it's done well and this one was interesting and fun to read - 4*s
Blood Dauber - A really interesting look at a zoo worker and the way he interacts with the new worker whilst also discovering a new insect and breeding it. - 4*s
Mercurial - a fun story which felt very sci-fi and futuristic, but had a gritty detective element to it too. I can't wait to try more of Kim's work in the future as he seems pretty great - 4*s
and for Non-Fiction:
Six Quirks of the Human Genome - which spoke about various interesting snippets of science we know about genes - 3*s

There were a couple of other non-fiction and fiction stories which I won't mention as they didn't get higher than a 2*s from me, but the majority of this was really good.
Looking forward to next month's issue!
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