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Reviews are for “The AI That Looked at the Sun�� (4.5 stars), “Monster�� (3.5 stars) and “Helicopter Story�� (removed from the issue).
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by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko - 4.5/5

“It all started with the solar flare.��

I loved this story, plain and simple. It does what it says on the tin �� it tells us a story of a brand-new AI that woke up and realized that its life purpose was to look at the sun. It’s an AI on the solar off large monitoring station, after all.

It’s a beautiful and touching story about a person - not human, but a person nevertheless - who realizes its true purpose in life and takes steps to fulfill it. The desperate yearning to reach for the dream, to do what you meant to do, to metaphorically reach for the stars �� how can you not feel empathy and understanding? I know I did.

“You devote your lives to pondering what purpose you have in the universe, but I knew from the start: the meaning of my life was to look at the sun.��

And that ending, this last few paragraphs, the ones meant not for us but for something bigger �� those made me just smile and feel my heart swell with juuuuust a bit of emotion.

“I have spent too much time on a simple thought:
You gave me my self. Thank you.��

4.5 stars. Love it!
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by Naomi Kritzer �� 3.5/5

“How did I ever believe that I knew you?��

A scientist is on a journey to track down an old friend - the one who back in childhood provided a much-needed kindred spirit to a nerdy outcast girl - interspersed with flashbacks showing the beginning and the heyday of friendship, and eventually a string of quite disturbing revelations.

When I check my e-mail one last time before I go to bed, I have an e-mail from a mysterious address that says, “Just like the story, sometimes sacrifice is required, Cecily, if everyone else is to survive.��

The science fiction here is quite subtle and centers around a bit of gene editing and bioengineering.

It’s overall well-written and thoughtful, and describes quite well that feeling of nostalgia and loss for close and intense childhood friendships, for people who used to be so important in your life but now are only echoes and memories. It’s quiet and contemplative, but it may be just a bit *too* subtle and subdued to create much of an impact. But it’s still a decent read, and the initial slow ramping up of the feeling that something is *very* wrong is nicely done.

“Because that is what you do when your friend is a monster. Truly a monster—not a part-time monster like a werewolf who can be contained with proper precautions, not a misunderstood monster like the Beast from the fairy tale, but a monster. You don’t defend them. You don’t deny it. You do what you have to do.��

Pet peeve: stop calling every sciencey “formula�� a “serum��.

3.5 stars.

Find it free here on Clarkesworld site:

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by Isabel Fall �� 3/5 - Hugo Awards nominee 2021:

Apparently this story was withdrawn by the author after a huge controversy, as its original title - I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter - was taken from an anti-trans meme. The author is a trans woman, and apparently she was trying to give a non-hateful hit in the search result for that expression and reclaim it. It backfired as the focus ended up all on the title, it seems, and not all those outraged by it have actually read the story, I’m given to understand - and that includes an author whose books I loved.

“We are here to degrade and destroy strategic targets in the United States of America’s war against the Pear Mesa Budget Committee.��

It’s a military science fiction that takes a serious look at being gendered as a helicopter. Weaponized gender in post apocalyptic war. Take an offensive meme and instead turn it into a clever and surreal piece of writing. No, I don’t quite *get* it. Neither gender nuances nor military SF are my forte. Yes, a lot of it goes right over my head �� and maybe I’m lucky that it does. But it’s done well, whatever it is.

And it made me reflect back on Svetlana Alexievich’s War's Unwomanly Face with this quote:

“And if that is not enough to convince you that gender grows deep enough to thrive in war: when the war ended the Soviet women were punished. They went unmarried and unrespected. They were excluded from the victory parades. They had violated their gender to fight for the state and the state judged that violation worth punishment more than their heroism was worth reward.
Gender is stronger than war. It remains when all else flees.��

3 stars.
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My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: /review/show...

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Recommended by: Dennis