Website: clarkesworldmagazine.com

"The Contemporary Foxwife" Author: Yoon Ha Lee Main Characters: Kanseun Ong Main Elements: SF - Space stations, Fantasy - Shapeshifters "Stone Hunger" Author: N. K. Jemisin Main Characters: Ykka Main Elements: Fantasy - Wizards "Soul’s Bargain" Author: Juliette Wade Main Characters: Pelisma, Irim Main Elements: Science Fiction - Post Apocalypse "The Halfway House at the Heart of Darkness" Author: William Browning Spencer Main Characters: Keel, Dr. Max Marx Main Elements: Science Fiction - Virtual Reality "Gold Mountain" Author: Chris Roberson Main Characters: Johnston Lien, McAllister James Main Elements: Science Fiction - Alternate History Non-Fiction "The Issue of Gender in Genre Fiction: Publications from Slush" Susan E. Connolly "The Issue of Gender in Genre Fiction: The Math Behind the Slush" by Susan E. Connolly "Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance: An Interview with Jeff VanderMeer" by Ben Fry "Another Word: Reclaiming the Tie-In Novel" by James L. Sutter

"The Contemporary Foxwife" I found sweet and touching. A foxwife (kitsune?) is searching for a purpose in life while a woman is studiously avoiding her family heritage. They might each be what the other one needs.

"Stone Hunger" is the reason I'm reading this issue in the first place, I loved Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy and also enjoyed returning to that world in this short story, though I have to admit I had a little trouble figuring out where in the timeline this was taking place, must be after the events in the series. It's standlone really and can be enjoyed without even knowing the world in which it is set.

"Soul’s Bargain" was interesting, some sort of future post-apocalyptic world where people live underground for fear of wysps, little balls of light that are attracted to fire and can in turn set things on fire. A tale about not making assumptions about things you don't know and that realizing your enemy may in fact be your friend if you just take the time to try to communicate with them, to understand them.

"The Halfway House at the Heart of Darkness" is a dark tale of VR addiction, and the companies that provide the VR not wanting their addicts to be rehabilitated, even as they try to make the rehab counselors addicts as well. It is also about finding purpose in one's life, a reason to live.

"Gold Mountain" is also part of another series (which I have not read), an alternate world where North America is called Vinland (does that mean the Vikings settled it after all?) and China is the dominant power, where American whites are brought across to work on building the infrastructure of China, just as Chinese were brought to America to build the railroad. But at it's core it is a story of guilt, both of the protagonist Lien as well as the Vinlander James who tells his story to her. I enjoyed it enough to be interested in reading the books that inspired it.