Super high concept billions of years in the future is a tough sub-genre to pull off, as it can become very detached from any human relatability. Baxter and Egan can do it, and so can Künsken.

Clarkesworld June 2025

Humanity has evolved into multiple new species, some have engineered themselves so far that they aim to be able to survive the heat death of the universe. Others are bit more down to Earth so to speak.

Representatives from the various descenders from the human race are gathered in a court to discuss a wish from the aquatilis. They haven’t engineered themselves to survive the changing universe, but still want to live as long as possible, so they have a crazy plan to harness the energy from the exploding Moon to go back in time and live in the oceans of the Earth.

This leads to an interesting philosophical debate about evolution, consciousness, prime directive kind of ethics, and life, the universe and everything.

As the story is basically a court drama, it mostly consists of arguments back and forth, but the wild concepts and foundational world building makes this worth reading.

Read in Clarkesworld June 2025
Rating: 4