Science Fiction

Short Story Review: “When There Are Two of You: A Documentary” by Zun Yu Tan

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Clarkesworld Issue 220, January 2025 (Story Link)

As the title suggests, this short story is structured as a series of interviews. The interviewees are all people who use, or have used, a new technology called Sentience, which is literally a digital copy of yourself, implanted in your own head to help make you a better you. The two main interviewees are Walter Lee II, the first Android built to house a sentience, who continues on after his original self dies; and Joyce Chu, who comes to believe her Sentience may not have all the answers.

This loosely structured story is surprisingly light on tension, especially considering the premise seems built for it. The final decisions that Walter II and Joyce make are understandable, but not surprising or particularly bold. Despite the intriguing concept, the whole package didn’t quite gel for me. Joyce’s final choice regarding her Sentience made me wonder if her Sentience was really the problem. It’s hard to be sure if that was the point.

Short Story Review: “Tell Them a Story to Teach Them Kindness” by B. Pladek

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Lightspeed Magazine Issue 176, January 2025 (Story Link)

Jude is working as a “Curator” for the Milwaukee school district, assigned to prompt new stories using an AI called RIGHTR. RIGHTR is designed to create stories that offer moral instruction without offending anyone. On a whim, Jude decides to send a 10th grade teacher a story written by a human author (Le Guin’s “Omelas”), assuming – correctly – that like most people this teacher, Booker, has never read a real book and wouldn’t know what it was. The story is a hit with the kids and Jude keeps passing off human-authored stories as RIGHTR-authored prompts. The ruse works brilliantly, until it doesn’t.

The story is framed as a series of messages between Jude and Booker (as well as other’s in Jude’s orbit) and I felt this was a good format for telling this particular story. The contrast between the distinctive voices of the characters and the impersonal delivery mechanism is effective, and on-theme. The point of the story is to dramatize our present-day anxieties regarding the use of AI, as well as the alarming trend among parents (and increasingly compliant school boards) to censor anything that might “upset” their children. This story works well in fulfilling this objective, and Jude’s misconception about what made his deception successful is heartbreaking. However, in the end the story does not ask anything more of the reader than to agree with its own moral purpose. Ironic, if unintended.

Short Story Review: “Vast and Trunkless Legs of Stone” by Carrie Vaughn

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Clarkesworld #201, June 2023

Recommended

Carrie Vaughn’s latest is a first contact story, one that takes a scenario used hundreds of times before, then adds a rather unusual and ingenious wrinkle that makes for a thoughtful and exciting read. The protagonist, Mal, is chosen for the one-on-one meeting with a representative of a newly arrived alien race known simply as the Mapmakers. Mal is chosen because the Mapmakers insist on meeting with someone who is not in any way a “leader”, and the Mapmaker Summit Committee decided Mal was the best choice because, “she’s kind, she listens, and everyone likes her”. Mal is rehearsed and fed a lot of talking points they want her to cover (the usual stuff about technology, etc.). But the Mapmaker representative has a different idea of how they want the conversation to go. Vaughn, one of the most efficient storytellers in SFF, offers just the right amount of buildup before throwing the reader a curveball, one that is by turns intriguing, understandable, and kind of hilarious. I really enjoyed the effort Mal and the Mapmaker put into trying to have a natural conversation, even while many of the nuances in such an exchange are difficult to delineate. Another excellent story from a genuine pro.