A review by spacenoirdetective
Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #225 by Caroline M. Yoachim, A.T. Greenblatt, Scott H. Andrews

4.0

Carnival Nine by Caroline Yoachim is essentially much less easy to understand than most of the stories on that list. A society of living wind up toys mourns its limitations. The characters all get a certain amount of winds per day as an unseen "maker" decides how much energy they will have each day before they "wind down" and their species lives maybe only 2.5 years (1000 days) at most. I pictured this entire story in animated form, with stop motion animated characters. I think the entire concept is eerie, sad, and even though I’m freaked out by the idea of toys coming to life, somehow the author creates an entire universe and society that revolves around this idea and it totally works. There was a Twilight Zone episode called “5 Characters in Search of an Exit” and this story reminded me of that episode. It’s more about the representation of human life as people wind down, an excellent metaphor for the burdens of disease and genetic limitations as well as emotionally incapable adults who give up when things get tough, but it’s also a brief existential nightmare in the same vein that Serling alluded to. Who is the maker? Where are they really? And yet the unanswered questions don’t matter in the scope of the terrible emotional toll the main character undergoes. It’s definitely deserving of a Hugo nomination. I’ve never read anything like it.