Clarkesworld #56

Spring has sprung, the maypoles are out in force around village greens, and the latest issues of various magazines have been released. Here’s what you can find in the latest Clarkesworld.

Our lead fiction this month is from Cat Rambo. “Whose Face This Is I Do Not Know” is a marvelously creepy story about, well, the title should give you a clue. As always, Kate Baker has the audio version available. Our second story is “The Architect of Heaven” by Jason K. Chapman. That one will appear in audio in a couple of weeks time.

Jeremy has been busy this month, with no less than three authors interviewed. Two of those come in a single package: Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson write together a lot. They talk about their first collaboration outside of the Dune universe. The other interview is with the recent Clarke Award winner and Campbell nominee, Lauren Beukes. The interview took place before Lauren became an international superstar, so it focuses on her work rather than awards. Lauren describes her editors at Angry Robot as, “like flesh-eating terminators on cyborg amphetamines—smart and sharp and hungry!” They will be so pleased.

The article I bought for this issue is a retrospective on the life and career of the great film score composer, John Barry. It is not entirely true that this was an excuse for me to include a YouTube clip of Shirley Bassey in full flow, but that might have had something to do with it. My thanks to John T. Stanhope for the article.

Our cover this month is “The Towers of KEILAH” by Ferdinand Ladera who is from The Philippines.

Neil has an editorial in the issue which is basically saying thank you to everyone for another Hugo nomination. I happily second everything he says. That includes hoping to see Sheila Williams win a Hugo sometime soon, though I very much want my friend Jonathan Strahan to win one too.

Much of Neil’s editorial is devoted to talking about Peter Watts’ story, “The Things”, which has picked up a whole bunch of awards as well as the Hugo nomination. In celebration we are offering ebooks of Clarkesworld #40 for just £0.59.

Of course there are ebook editions of Clarkesworld #56 available too. We are continuing with the £1.49 price experiment. Having people purchase these ebook editions helps enormously with the task of paying good professional rates to our contributors.