A short month with a lot of travel means my magazine reviews are coming later than usual, but coming they are. Let’s check out the February 2025 issues of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus. 

Clarkesworld

As with the January 2025 issue, this month’s Clarkesworld contains fewer than the usual eight stories, but with higher than average word count, as four of the seven clear 6,000 words and one tops 13,000. It starts with Bodyhoppers by Rocío Vega, translated by Sue Burke, a fast-paced cyberpunk story featuring a lead trying to carve out a life in a world where mere access to a physical body is a marker of privilege. It opens with the theft of a body and moves quickly from there, with the lead always trying to stay a step ahead of law enforcement. It provides just enough backstory to garner some pathos and offers plenty for fans of propulsive storytelling. 

Next, Fiona Moore’s King of the Castle offers a fifth installment in the post-apocalyptic Morag series that began with “The Spoil Heap.” For fans of community-building after much of the world had fallen apart, the whole series is well worth the read, and this installment is no exception. Another reliable winner. 

The issue’s first novelette, We Begin Where Infinity Ends by Somto Ihezue, is a slow-building, romantic tale of a youthful inventor and a small group of close friends growing variously together and apart through a series of illicit improvements to the local infrastructure. This is one with a care for characterization that centers the relationships between the lead and those closest to him.  

The longest piece in the issue, A Planet Full of Sorrows by M.L. Clark, entices the reader with the discovery of the ruins of a fascinatingly alien civilization, but the ultimate thrust is less about learning about a new species and more about preventing religious and political grifters from exploiting the discovery for their own gain. There are times where the political scene-setting runs a bit long, but it comes together in a clever and satisfying way.

The Hanging Tower of Babel by Wang Zhenzhen, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan, digs into messy questions of family and legacy, as the lead must care for a father whose work in space had kept him away for years on end and precipitated an early onset dementia that makes him unable to live alone. And what’s worse, the project is no longer profitable and is set to be dismantled, leaving him with nothing to show for his sacrifice. This is not a story propelled by the plot but instead processing hard situations. 

For me, the highlight of the issue is Numismatic Archetypes in the Year of Five Regents by Louis Inglis Hall, a secondary-world story that tells of political upheaval through the eyes of the artisan who makes the city-state’s coinage. It’s always interesting to see major political changes from unusual perspectives, and this one is an emotionally sharp tale that uses the structure wonderfully and delivers enough personal stakes to make up for keeping the reader in the dark about the politics behind the scenes. 

The issue closes with Celestial Migrations by Claire Jia-Wen, a story about laborers on long-term contracts trying to return home to see their child, as well as the long-term consequences of such an unsatisfying upbringing. For such a short story, this spends a lot of time worldbuilding, leaving some of the interpersonal elements needing more room to breathe. But those interpersonal elements have plenty of heft to make this well worth reading, even if I’d have liked to see an extended exploration. 

The non-fiction includes an introduction of the Reader Poll finalists—including my personal favorite in both categories, “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim and “The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” by Thomas Ha—along with an article on speculative RPGs and interviews with Sean Markey of Psychopomp and dave ring of Neon Hemlock. 

GigaNotoSaurus 

This month’s GigaNotoSaurus is the novelette Fox and Troll Bake a Cake by Jeff Reynolds, a sequel to 2022’s Fox and Troll Steal Math. It’s a lighthearted adventure fantasy that sticks close to many familiar tropes and is bound to amuse those who enjoyed the first installment. 

February Favorites 

• Numismatic Archetypes in the Year of Five Regents by Louis Inglis Hall (short story, Clarkesworld)