Another month, another batch of short fiction to read. Let’s take a look at the two magazines I read in full this July! 

Clarkesworld

Even when Clarkesworld doesn’t have a story that blows me away, it’s always a good read, and this month there were a couple standouts and a few others that were plenty enjoyable. 

It opens with one of my favorite new authors, Tia Tashiro and her short story Every Hopeless Thing. The narrative tells of a scavenger exploring the barren remains of Earth, looking for anything worth salvaging, interspersed with bits of backstory that explain how she got where she did, all dovetailing into the themes of rescue and paternalism.

Next comes another author I’ve enjoyed quite a bit in the past, with I Will Meet You When the Artifacts End by Amal Singh. This one tells of online dating on a generation ship, with opaque government decisions repeatedly interfering with communication and leaving the lead—and often the reader—in the dark about what’s truly going on. 

The issue’s sole novelette is a debut, The Best Version of Yourself by Grant Collier, covering happiness algorithms and a whole lot of ADHD representation in a story that feels a lot like a philosophical thought experiment brought to life in vivid detail. There’s delirious, never-ending happiness on offer, but at the cost of one’s individuality, and the decision on whether to accept will tear families apart. 

Stellar Evolutions in Pop Idol Artistry by Em X. Liu is the story of. . . well, a pop idol, discussing the renewal of his contact with flashbacks to the obsessive practice that made him what he is, along with the twisting path of inspiration that reveals hidden depths beneath the public persona. 

Aktis Aeliou, or The Machine of Margot’s Destruction by Natalia Theodoridou is not a story I would’ve expected to like based on the one-phrase pitch of “Greek gods in space,” but I found it the most beautiful and one of the most fascinating in the entire issue. It’s an exploration story, but a deeply personal one, with the human lead reflecting back on all the ways her past relationships had disappointed as she tracks a beacon and discovers something ineffably more beautiful—and perhaps more dangerous— than she could’ve ever imagined. 

The Happiness Institute by AnaMaria Curtis tells of a military outfit being tasked with researching happiness after the war has ended. Despite warnings that the tools of war would only lead them astray, each begins to sift through the available technology so as to pursue research avenues that fit with their own ideas of happiness. An interesting piece that doesn’t offer pat answers. 

The issue closes with the wildly disorienting Born Outside by Polenth Blake, featuring a six year-old not-quite-human narrator threading together memories and history lessons and current events to paint a picture of the dangers threatening humanity, along with the place of the classic sci-fi pod people in the whole affair. It’s a striking story—one that I immediately want to reread with the full context in mind. 

Also striking is this month’s editorial, in which Neil Clarke talks about how close he came to shuttering the magazine entirely. A sobering topic, no doubt, but heartening as he shares how close Clarkesworld has gotten to making up the subscribers they lost when Amazon pulled the plug on their magazine program—a deficit that has only shrunk since this issue was released. 

Also in the non-fiction section is an article on bees and hives in tech and science fiction, along with interviews with Donna Scott, lately at work anthologizing British sci-fi, and China Miéville, who talks about his current project with Keanu Reeves. 

GigaNotoSaurus 

This month’s longish story in GigaNotoSaurus, Samba do Espaço by Gustavo Bondoni, is almost exactly on the line between short story and novelette (my preferred online word-counter puts it in the novelette category by less than ten words), and tells the story of a woman from the favelas who puts to the side her considerable dance talent to join an elite, international crew of astronauts whose work ensures free electricity around the world. 

The main thrust of the story is a crisis in space that doesn’t stray far from genre conventions, but the lead’s position as a Brazilian woman on a crew of mostly white men adds another layer of depth to the tale, and the whole thing is told in such an engaging way that it’s easy to get invested in her plight. Throw in an immensely satisfying ending, and this month’s read was quite a ride. 

 July Favorites 

• Born Outside by Polenth Blake (short story, Clarkesworld)
• Aktis Aeliou, or The Machine of Margot’s Destruction by Natalia Theodoridou (short story, Clarkesworld)