Clarkesworld Issue 194

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Isabel J. Kim, Nadia Afifi, Yang Wanqing and Ann LeBlanc

• "The Rhythm of the Soul" by Michelle Julia John: a boy (and others) develop a special skill that causes them to be imprisoned and beaten 'for their own good'.

• "Accountability, and Other Myths of Old Earth" by Aimee Ogden: aliens arrive to put the world in order, whether humans like it or not. But some people don't like it and do small acts of rebellion and, in the end, one big act of rebellion while the aliens still wait for humanity to take account of their actions.

• "Calf Cleaving in the Benthic Black" by Isabel J. Kim: two scavengers are first to a derelict colony spaceship, only to discover something that may prevent their salvage rights, unless they are willing to kill for it; or come up with a different plan to save what they have found.

• "The Lonely Time Traveler of Kentish Town" by Nadia Afifi: a fascinating story of a person with the ability to view the past. Now trying to make a living in a country that dislikes foreigners and migrants, she is approached by a Palestinian who wants to view a historical confrontation between his grandparent and Winston Churchill. The risks they take to view and record the event would change both of their future actions.

• "Hummingbird, Resting on Honeysuckles" by Yang Wanqing, translated by Jay Zhang: a mother grieving for the loss of her daughter finds some solace in recordings of her as capture by her robotic flying hummingbird. But then she realizes that in this future where AI technology is ubiquitous, there may be a way to bring her daughter back in a different form, for a time.

• "The Transfiguration of the Gardener Irene by the Dead Planet Hipea" by Ann LeBlanc: an interesting story of an off-world shoot of a world-spanning fungal-like organism on a spaceship, who learns of the destruction of its world and is now fighting for its survival on the ship with the help of the ship's gardener.

• "The Whelk" by Samara Auman: a robot discovers and inhabits a near-derelict spaceship on a beach. They watch and learn as a world that has now turned its back on space exploration discusses their fate. In the end, the robot decides that together, they can do more than accept their fate on that beach.