Clarkesworld Issue 192

An average issue, with interesting stories by Fiona Moore, Amal Singh, Lettie Prell and Ken Liu.

• "The Slow Deaths of Automobiles" by Fiona Moore: the story of two people who bond over their love of a vintage, sentient car. They 'upgrade' the car with enhancements and replacement parts, but get into arguments over what the car itself wants to be. An accident would bring matters to a head, over what the car itself desires for its future.

• "Border Run" by Octavia Cade: a story of a reporter in the future assigned to report on a patrol boat in a future where ecological collapse has destroyed most fishing area, and the last one is guarded jealously and with ferocity against intruders.

• "Sub-son" by Amal Singh: a son dies, to be replaced by a clone, and dismay by his jealous brothers, for the soon is the favourite of their ailing mother. Things take a surreal turn when the mother also dies.

• "Shining Bursa and the Listening Post" by Sarah Pauling: a strange tale of a conqueror who gave up his heart for the power to conquer, and a creature who wants to restore it to him, but only if he decides to do so.

• "Live Update" by Lettie Prell: a biochemist agrees to be 'instantiated', along with others, in a virtual environment. But the new environment feels wrong, their memories are scattered and requires effort to remain focused on their task: to find out how to fix it, and it may require her biochemical insights to solve this technological problem.

• "Timekeepers' Symphony" by Ken Liu: an interesting series of vignettes about passing time: how it is perceived on different levels and different scales by various aliens and by humans who have also changed their perception of time.

• "Rivers Bend" by James Sallis: a short short about a series of letter responses written by somebody who may not not be human.