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Clarkesworld Issue 221 edited by Neil Clarke

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Book 12 of 2025: Clarkesworld Issue 221 edited by Neil Clarke: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

My favorites this month were “King of the Castle” by Fiona Moore and “The Hanging Tower of Babel” by Wang Zhenzhen, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan.

Also, this is the fourth consecutive story by Fiona Moore, all in the same world and with the same central characters (particularly Morag and her repurposed security robot Seamus), that has ended up as one of my favorites when they appear in Clarkesworld. She’s writing the kind of post-apocalyptic stores that really resonate for me, where the immediate post-apocalyptic part and all associated Bad Things That Happen have already happened, and society has moved on to finding ways to reconnect and rebuild. Post-post-apocalyptic, I suppose. Much more my style of story than the standard post-apocalyptic tale of people trapped in bad situations and having to cope with horrible things happening to them.

The stories I’ve read (I haven’t yet dug to see if there are more in this world) are:

Me holding Clarkesworld 221 on my iPad.

Simple Sabotage Field Manual by the United States Office of Strategic Services

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Book 11 of 2025: Simple Sabotage Field Manual by the United States Office of Strategic Services: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A fascinating little World War II artifact that in some ways can still be quite relevant. Sure, much of this is very much of its time, and many of the more specific suggestions are technologically obsolete now. But the broad strokes, and especially the oft-screenshotted section advising office workers on ways to slow down beaurocratic functions, are as useful today as ever. If, of course, you ever happen to find yourself in a situation where an autocratic fascist regime is in power and you have reason and opportunity to do what you can to gum up the works. (Ahem.)

Me holding the Simple Sabotage Field Manual on my iPad

Indiginerds edited by Alina Pete

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Book 10 of 2025: Indiginerds edited by Alina Pete: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A short but very solid anthology of comics dealing with the intersection of modern indigenous life and nerd interests. Several good stories in here; my personal favorite is Alina Pete’s “Dorvan V”, addressing Star Trek TNG’s colonialist underpinnings and how one fan’s relationship with it changes over their life.

Me holding Indiginerds