A review by justkyliep
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 203 by Congyun "Mu Ming" Gu, Andy Dudak, Marisca Pichette, Thomas Ha, Priya Sridhar, Neil Clarke, Neil Clarke, Arley Sorg, Stephen Case, Koji A. Dae, M.J. Pettit

challenging hopeful mysterious slow-paced

3.5

There, always there, whether he watched the screen or not.

This was my first Clarkeworld, and like a lot of short fiction collections it was a mixed bag! I really, really enjoyed Window Boy (Thomas Ha) and all the creepy, looming horror it brought. Every time Jakey turned down the filters, I had a physical response--It was genuinely unsettling. I thought Resistant (Koji A. Dae) was also especially relatable in its intersection of technology, neurodivergence, and the medical system--but most especially in the line about liking people rather than patients. Finally, Gel Pen Notes from Generation Y Ship (Marisca Pichette) was such a lovely, horrible look at memory and immortality. I always love having an optimistic piece to treasure.

That said, most of the NFT and AI works were a flop for me. I didn't find any of them particularly enlightening or saying very much of importance (though several definitely believed they had something important to say). The NFT story in particular, Who Can Have the Moon (Congyun "Muming" Gu) had an interesting feeling of a very outdated work despite first being published in 2022. I would have liked to see more connection to the story telling to help carry these pieces through such rapid technology changes. 

I was happy with the non-fiction selections. None of them particularly wowed me, but I did find them interesting and worthwhile. I look forward to the next edition!