Apr. 2021 (Issue 131)

We have original science fiction by An Owomoyela (“The Equations of the Dead”) and Rich Larson (“Complete Exhaustion of the Organism”), along with SF reprints by Seanan McGuire (“Swear Not by the Moon”) and Ray Nayler (“The Ocean Between the Leaves”). Plus, we’re serializing an original fantasy novelette by Ashok K. Banker: Readers can look forward to reading “The Giving One” in two parts spread across two weeks. We also have fantasy reprints by Ann Leckie (“The Justified”) and Genevieve Valentine (“Blood, Ash, Braids”). All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with book reviews from our terrific review team.

Cover art by Caleb Worcester

Apr. 2021 (Issue 131)

Editorial

Editorial: April 2021

by John Joseph Adams

Be sure to check out the editorial for a rundown of this month’s delightful content, and of course, all our news and updates.

Science Fiction

The Equations of the Dead

by An Owomoyela

Author spotlight

The boyo working the transmitter doesn’t look like much, except his face is radiant. Radiant, like one of those pooka upworld adverts for neural templates. Dopamine-druggy, but lucid. Like he’s in love. Boyo also looks like he hasn’t spoken to a human in days, and like aside from the food allotments he doesn’t have a lick of capital. His clothes have that washed-while-wearing look, and they’re homespun; no fancy imported fabrics or styles. You’d walk away from this jondo in the market.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: An Owomoyela

by Benjamin C. Kinney

Given all of that, how did my consciousness end up in this particular skull, right here? Why do I have an experiential reality, and why is it (to the best of my awareness) singular, distinct, and specific to this body, this place, and this time? I’m a consciousness, you’re a consciousness, why don’t I have the inherent access to your experiences and not my own? Why does my “I” pointer point where it does?

Fantasy

The Justified

by Ann Leckie

Het had eaten nothing for weeks but bony, gape-mawed fish—some of them full of neurotoxin. She’d had to alter herself so she could metabolize it safely, which had taken some doing. So when she ripped out the walsel’s throat and its blood spurted red onto the twilit ice, she stared, salivary glands aching, stomach growling. She didn’t wait to butcher her catch but sank her teeth into skin and fat and muscle, tearing a chunk away from its huge shoulder.

Science Fiction

Swear Not by the Moon

by Seanan McGuire

In the last decades of the Terrestrial Age, when humanity had figured out how to leave the planet of their birth but not quite why they’d want to bother, the majority of the world’s wealth was concentrated in the hands of very few. This was not, in and of itself, remarkable: this pattern had repeated, over and over again, throughout human history.

Fantasy

The Giving One (Part 1)

by Ashok K. Banker

Author spotlight

The great sage Jamarg was absorbed in his meditation when the calm of his hermitage was disturbed by the thunder of a thousand hooves. Frowning at being disturbed from his meditation, he rose and went to see why mounted men had come to this remote place. His wife Rukunyi was hurrying back from the river, bearing a heavy earthen pot filled with fresh water. Her face glowed with excitement. “It must be my father,” she said to Jamarg.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Ashok K. Banker

by Laurel Amberdine

“The Giving One,” like all the Burnt Empire legends, is loosely based on a legend from the great story cycle, The Mahabharata. I first wrote about it in my Mahabharata Series published in India over a decade ago. I adapted it freely and brought it into line with the timeline and character history of the Burnt Empire trilogy, especially A Dark Queen Rises.

Nonfiction

Book Review: Victories Greater Than Death, by Charlie Jane Anders

by LaShawn M. Wanak

LaShawn M. Wanak says in her new review: “It’s been a while since I read something fun. Something joyous. Charlie Jane Anders’ first venture into the YA genre, Victories Greater Than Death, did not disappoint me in that regard.” Read her review to find out more!

Science Fiction

The Ocean Between the Leaves

by Ray Nayler

It began just like a fairy tale; an orphaned young woman pricked her finger on the thorn of a rose, and fell asleep. She had always loved to be outdoors, and so the job she had as gardener at one of the stately, ancient yalis along the shore of the Bosporus was perfect for her. The mansion looked out over the waters of the strait from the Asian side, where it widens to meet the Black Sea, just north of the border of Istanbul Protectorate. It was an investment owned by an Emirati family who was hardly ever there.

Fantasy

The Giving One (Part 2)

by Ashok K. Banker

Author spotlight

When Parsh returned home and found that his father’s calf had been stolen, and stolen by none other than the King of the very Stonak kingdom who had been slaughtering priests for decades, he did not hesitate. He took up his axe and set out on the road that led to Stonak City. He did not stop to think of the consequences of what he was about to do, nor of the odds against him. For while a priest caste’s disciplined meditation and learning compel him to consider carefully before embarking upon any venture, a Stonak’s very nature is predicated on swift reflexes and instinct.

Nonfiction

Book Review: Spider King, by Justin C. Key

by Arley Sorg

Reviewer Arley Sorg says: “Justin C. Key’s Spider King is a short, stirring read.” Want to find out what makes this serialized novella so worth reading? Check out Arley’s review!

Science Fiction

Complete Exhaustion of the Organism

by Rich Larson

Author spotlight

“It’s not a real baby,” Jain says flatly. “And we should kill it.” Another sunless morning in the Waste. She and Stromile have woken up to a gift: a canister of pepto-pink fluid with an infant inside it. The tiny figure is chubby and squirmy and perfect, and it’s only now that Stromile finally takes his eyes off the thing. “Kill it?” he echoes, rubbing his finger in the hollow of his collarbone. “You serious?” “Serious, yeah.” Jain nods her head at the canister. “This is them fucking with us, babe.”

Fantasy

Blood, Ash, Braids

by Genevieve Valentine

It didn’t take them long to find a name for us; almost as soon as they knew it was women inside the rickety biplanes they couldn’t catch, the Germans called us witches. It was because of the sounds our idling planes made from the ground, the story went, as if the German soldiers had spent a lot of time with brooms and knew what they sounded like, engineless and gliding fifty feet above them in the dark. (The wires holding the wings in place made the whistle.)

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Rich Larson

by Gordon B. White

These caretakers may be doing their genuine best to help Jain and Stromile, but they don’t understand what they’re doing. Humans need food and water and shelter more than they need understanding, but it’s a close thing. We are all driven by this mad desire to have other people really get us, to make the neural ghost in someone else’s head as close as possible to the one we carry in ours. The caretakers can keep Jain alive, but they’ll never get closer to knowing her than Stro did, and the facsimile is uniquely painful for that reason.

Nonfiction

Book Review: The Bone Maker, by Sarah Beth Durst

by Chris Kluwe

This month Chris Kluwe jumps into a world of bone magic and heroism. Did he like Sarah Best Durst’s new novel The Bone Maker? Better read his review and find out!