Yes, it is that time of the month again. A new issue of Clarkesworld magazine went live yesterday, and it has the usual mix of excellent content.
First up in the fiction department is “Alone With Gandhari” by Gord Sellar. Gord was a Campbell nominee last year and lives in South Korea. His previous story for Clarkesworld, “Of Melei, Of Ulthar”, made the Locus Recommended Reading List.
Gord’s story is also available as a podcast, read as ever by the wonderful Kate Baker.
Our other story for March is “The History Within Us” by Matthew Kressel, who also runs the excellent Senses Five Press. Matthew’s story will be podcast later in the month.
The non-fiction article this month is “Future Brains: Neuroscience Fiction versus Neuroscience Fantasy” by Luc Reid. I was particularly interested in what Luc had to say about the nature of memory. Our brains are very weird things.
The March interview is with Kij Johnson and focuses particularly on her amazing, and now Nebula-nominated, story, “Spar”. This is, of course, another opportunity to satisfy the large number of people who find my blog by searching for the term “tentacle porn”, but don’t let that put you off. What Kij has to say about the story is fascinating:
It’s deeply unpleasant as a story, offensive on many levels. I knew it worked as a story, but I wasn’t sure how it would be read and I wasn’t thrilled to be thought of as a tentacle-porn girl. There are a couple of sections that I hated, but they were effective and in they stayed. This is a story I love without liking it at all.
Finally our cover art for this issue is “Retro Robots” by Georgi Markov, who, I see from his bio, lives in a small village in Bulgaria. I love the way the Internet allows such people to sell to us.
By the way, Hugo nominations are due very shortly. Please do consider the many fine stories that we published last year. Clarkesworld is, of course, eligible in the Semiprozine category.
If you like what we do, and happen to have some cash to spare, Princess Cheryl always welcomes new minions. We get to publish great material because we pay well, and we can only do that with your help.
Splendid article by Luc Reid – well done! It will take us a good long while to understand how the mind truly functions. No fear of shattering that particular sense of wonder in any hurry.