In his editorial this issue, Neil Clarke reflects on the heart attack that nearly killed him five years ago. When the universe calls, you have no choice but to listen. Five years ago this month, it sent me a message in the form of a near-fatal heart attack. It was the sort of thing that not only caught me off guard, but my family, friends, and doctors as well. As I lay there in the critical care unit, the weight…

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Over at Tangent Online, Rebecca DeVendra reviews the riches at hand in the latest Clarkesworld. Andy Dudak writes the mind-bending tale “Fool’s Cap.” There [were] points when I felt like my brain had been melted and hung over a clothesline. It was great. Most stories that try to write about time-loops and parallel universes fall into many paradoxical traps: this is the nature of the thing. Dudak handles these ingredients like a master chef. The story follows Beadith, a Tribunal…

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The longest story in the May Clarkesworld is Kelly Robson’s novelette “We Who Live in the Heart.” Here’s a snippet from Quick Sip Reviews. The story centers [on] a character who has fled from human civilization belowground, a place where cooperation is king and time is heavily monitored and monitzed. The alternative, though, is to go up to the surface and try to live inside the body of whale-like creatures that seem about the only thing that can handle the…

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In his editorial in the April issue, Clarkesworld founder Neil Clarke reflects on his first few months as a full time editor. I left my day job at the beginning of February, but it’s only now beginning to feel real. Previously, whenever I had vacation time, I’d shift to full-time editor, so when I finally did quit, it just felt like one of those vacations: lots of work, little downtime. The same here, initially: I had a small mountain of tasks on…

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The March 2017 issue of Clarkesworld, issue #126, comes packed with tales of apocalypses. Here’s Charles Payseur from Quick Sip Reviews. Clarkesworld Magazine for March [contains] five original stories including a great novelette in translation… these pieces are concerned with new forms of intelligence and with the end of the world. Or maybe just with the end of certain aspects of it. But at least two of the stories are more specifically apocalyptic, and many besides are about doubt and depression,…

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The February 2017 issue of Clarkesworld, issue #125, marks an important milestone for the magazine — and for its editor and founder, Neil Clarke. Here’s Neil to explain (from his editorial, “The Next Chapter Begins“). The day this issue is published will be my first day as a full-time editor, which isn’t to say I’ve reached the point where I’m making a full-time salary. That’s going to take time, which I finally have. The first order of business is to…

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Over at Tangent Online, Kevin P Hallett has some praise for several stories in the January issue of Clarkesworld, starting with the delightfully creepy space derelict tale “The Ghost Ship Anastasia” by Rich Larson. This is a science fiction novelette set in the far future. A new generation of bioship, called Anastasia, has gone offline. Silas is a crewmember on a small ship sent to find the metal/biological hybrid. When he comes out of hibernation, he discovers his sister, a fellow…

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In his article “The Joy of Helping” in the latest Clarkesworld, writer and translator Ken Liu (The Wall of Storms, Invisible Planets) says some splendidly on-point things about helping others. The truth is: It feels good to help people. Even today, much of my motivation in editing and translating stories from China is still tied up with this satisfaction of helping writers reach readers. Surely I would have written more original works and made more money without these translations —…

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