Short Fiction

I have read reports that many people are finding they no longer have the attention span to read an entire novel, the most recent being this article in The Atlantic. No problem. Start with short fiction. These are stories that can be read anywhere from about two hours to less than five minutes. The challenge can be where to find them. This page is my contribution to solving that problem. Be sure to check out the tools section for how to save these stories to read later without an internet connection.

Websites for Reading Short Fiction

Website for Listening to Short Fiction

Tools to Save and Read Later

My Favorite Short Stories

This is where I share the short stories, novelettes, and novellas that I have read and rated as five stars (out of five). All of these are available to read online for free. Most of the titles below are speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror) as that is my area of focus. They are sorted by publication date with the most recent at the top.

Science Fiction/Fantasy

Classic/Literary Fiction

Short Fiction Read Since 2023

TitleAuthorGenreSourceSource TypeIssue #Issue DateWord CountRatingSummaryTagsURL
The Library of the ApocalypseRati MehrotaScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine224May 1, 202538505The narrator leads a band of humans surviving in a shattered Toronto as they search each full moon for the titular library to escape briefly from their dark reality.toronto
dystopia
books
library
escape
found-family
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/mehrotra_05_25/
Brainstem DiscoAngela LiuScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine224May 1, 202516403One of a pair of lovers interacts with the other's post-mortem disembodied self, pining for them, wishing they hadn't died.sound
music
relationships
drugs
death
love
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/liu_05_25/
A Manual for Cleaning WomenLucia BerlinContemporaryA Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected StoriesBook-August 18, 201543003A cleaning woman tells of her life and her work.desperation
work
people
https://shortstoryproject.com/stories/a-manual-for-cleaning-women/
If We Make It Through This AliveA.T. GreenblattScience FictionIt's Storytime with Wil WheatonPodcast6April 30, 202570705Three young women friends attempt a nearly impossible road race across a dystopian USA on roads that are no longer maintained.dystopia
road-race
friendship
purpose
cars
trains
https://podcastaddict.com/it-s-storytime-with-wil-wheaton/episode/197440650
Not SchmittyJohn WarnerContemporaryTough Day for the ArmyBook-September 15, 202430003Frat brothers get the idea to waterboard pledges and try it on their strongest, most loyal brother, Schitty.college
fraternity
fear
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-story-from-john-warners-new-collection-tough-day-for-the-army
Happily Ever After Comes AroundSarah Rees BrennanHorrorUncannyMagazine58May 01, 202433273A retelling of Hansel and Gretel even darker than the Brothers Grimm ever told.fairy-tale
children
cannibalism
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/happily-ever-after-comes-round/
Rachel Is at a ProtestEsther AlterHorrorThe DeadlandsMagazine35August 15, 202445002Rachel experiences the history of her entire Jewish family as she dreams each time Israel attacks Palestinians.lgbtq
violence
israel
genocide
protest
palestine
https://psychopomp.com/deadlands/issue-35/rachel-is-at-a-protest/#
Lost You AgainIan RogersFantasyDarkMagazine116January 01, 202560005A man repeatedly wakes up in his house and either he is dead or his family is.ghosts
family
relationships
haunted-house
death
https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/lost-you-again/
can I offer you a nice egg in this trying timeIori KusanoFantasyIt's Storytime with Wil WheatonPodcast5April 23, 202530434A man who visited a portal fantasy world with a friend as a teenager struggles with the fact that he can't get back.friendship
violence
adventure
https://podcastaddict.com/it-s-storytime-with-wil-wheaton/episode/196965090
Second ChanceSakinah HoflerScience FictionAnalog Science Fiction and FactPodcast--23004After Toya Smith is killed by police during a traffic stop, doctors at a unique facility manage to preserve her consciousness and transfer it to a new body that should resemble her old one. Only her new body isn’t the one she expected or wanted. How will Toya adjust to her new life in a body so different from the one she’d lived in her whole life?race
injustice
death
family
https://podcastaddict.com/analog-science-fiction-fact/episode/191537258
In Thin AirPhoenix AlexanderHorrorDarkMagazine108May 01, 202433264A recently deceased victim of cancer witnesses a beating and does everything she can to save the victim.ghosts
death
violence
cancer
helpless
victim
rage
https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/in-thin-air/
Tell Them a Story to Teach Them KindnessB. PladekScience FictionLightspeedMagazine176January 01, 202541465In a future where only AI stories are allowed in school, a curator instead sends human written classics.ai
education
teaching
writing
epistolary
lgbtq
found-family
race
war
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell-them-a-story-to-teach-them-kindness/
An Even Greater Cold to ComeRich LarsonScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine223April 01, 202536003A pregnant woman hides with her daughters from soldiers looking for them.war
sisters
pregnancy
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/larson_04_25/
In My CountryThomas HaScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine223April 01, 202562204A father in a world with no kings but lots of control has a son and a daughter he struggles to understand.dystopia
parenthood
children
family
oppression
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_04_25/
SymbioticCarolyn ZhaoScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine223April 01, 2025100102Two people in a technologically induced symbiotic relationship deal with how uneven it is.relationships
ocean
technology
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/zhao_04_25/
GalateaMadeline MillerFantasy----60493The story of Pygmalion from the perspective of his wife, the statue that was brought to life by the gods.short-stories
feminism
sexism
sexual-assault
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/14b9be48-72e7-4605-b907-cb58afcf8678
The Hidden Heart of Brass AttendingChristopher ScottFantasyIt's Storytime with Wil WheatonPodcast4April 16, 202570004A detective who binds the ghosts of dead people to "brass attendings" encounters a special case.lgbtq
love
murder
https://podcastaddict.com/it-s-storytime-with-wil-wheaton/episode/196503508
Still WaterZhang RanScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine223April 01, 202590905A mother does her best to comfort and care for her teenage son with ALS.als
family
illness
parenthood
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/zhang_04_25/
Aegiopolis TestudoGordon LiScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine223April 01, 202575003A contracted worker living on a leviathan considers whether they should stay at the end of their contract.leviathan
ethics
vegetarianism
compassion
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/li_04_25/
The God of Minor TroublesMegan CheeFantasyIt's Storytime with Wil WheatonPodcast2April 09, 20252974The titular god learns that his role is not a punishment for being late for his assignmentgods
justice
twist
http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/the-god-of-minor-troubles/
The SeedSheri SingerlingScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine223April 01, 202553004A childless woman in a world without technology is enticed by a beacon from another world to become the progenitor of her people's rebirth.curiosity
domestic-violence
truth
knowledge
ai
technology
children
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/singerling_04_25/
Through These Moments, DarklySamantha MurrayScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine223April 01, 202536105You and your love contemplate the idea of a portal in a world tipped past a warming climate to a cooling one.physics
climate-change
chirality
portal
curiosity
love
winter
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/murray_04_25/
After the Invasion of the Bug-Eyed AliensRachel SwirskyScience FictionReactorMagazine-March 19, 202597505Two ex-military nurses, one human and one alien, share a friendship in a city following an alien invasion.insects
aliens
war
change
https://reactormag.com/after-the-invasion-of-the-bug-eyed-aliens-rachel-swirsky/
The Moron FactoryGeorge SaundersContemporaryThe AtlanticMagazine-March 01, 202537493A small conflict in an office takes a dark turn based on a miscommunication.office
business
misunderstanding
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/03/george-saunders-short-story-moron-factory/681448/
Proof by InductionJosé Pablo IriarteScience FictionIt's Storytime with Wil WheatonPodcast2April 01, 202562964A math professor works with his dead father's Coda to solve the Perelman Conjecture.father-son
family
relationships
math
https://podcastaddict.com/it-s-storytime-with-wil-wheaton/episode/195550584
Exit InterviewK.W. OlneyFantasyStrange HorizonsMagazine-December 16, 202461765In a world where portals have appeared for black women to escape to another world where they will be love and appreciated, Dottie struggles to decide if she will go.race
feminism
discrimination
justice
http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/exit-interview/
Inside the House of WisdomTamara MasriScience FictionLightspeedMagazine175December 01, 202416004A librarian in the future listens to the recording of a doctor who has just delivered a baby girl from a dead mother killed in Gaza in 2024.war
birth
justice
innocence
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/inside-the-house-of-wisdom/
Funerary Habits of Low Entropy EntitiesDamián NeriScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine222March 01, 202535002A crab-like explorer who subsumes the minds of the dead he eats, finds a dead human, eats it, and builds a spaceship to leave one of Jupiter's moons.insects
jupiter
spaceship
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/neri_03_25/
Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love, DeathCaroline M. YoachimScience FictionIt's Storytime with Wil WheatonPodcast1March 25, 202553855A couple meets due to time travel and travels through time to preserve their love.time-travel
time-loop
love
relationships
https://podcastaddict.com/it-s-storytime-with-wil-wheaton/episode/195099494
The Sound of the StarRen ZeyuScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine222March 01, 202538205A man visits a number of different planetscommunication
limitation
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ren_03_25/
Hook and LineKoji A. DaeScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine222March 01, 202541504An old medium on a generation ship tries to find a way to stay connected to the spirits of those who boarded the ship on Earth.generation-ship
love
learning
generations
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/dae_03_25/
Those Uncaring WavesYukimi OgawaScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine222March 01, 2025181405A pattern maker who helps to heal people's pain tries to help a person whose own skin patterns have damaged her mental healthmystery
japan
cutting
mental-health
code
self-harm
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ogawa_03_25/
MindtripsTlotlo TsamaaseScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine222March 01, 202577304A young woman with a traumatic past is forced to take therapy pills to deal with it so those in authority can figure out what actually happened to cause her mother's deathtrauma
abuse
botswana
africa
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/tsamaase_03_25/
PollenAnna BurdenkoScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine222March 01, 202553304A family is the lead mission to a planet with psychedelic pollen.-https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/burdenko_03_25/
From Enceladus, with LoveRyan ColeScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine222March 01, 202549705A young teenager stows away on a ship to find her mom on Enceladus. Everything changes when the ship wakes up.ai
sentience
spaceship
friendship
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/cole_03_25/
Death WorksK.S. WalkerFantasyThe DeadlandsMagazine18October 24, 20228572A god of death takes on an apprentice whom he is addressing.death
gods
enemies
https://psychopomp.com/deadlands/issue-18/death-work/
Notes form a PyreAmal SinghScience FictionThe DeadlandsMagazine23March 10, 202343003A young person who witnesses his grandfather's death takes up his work researching death rituals of alien species.india
death
rituals
anthropology
aliens
https://psychopomp.com/deadlands/issue-23/pyre/
The Shape of StonesHildur KnútsdóttirFantasyReactorMagazine-March 12, 202534003As a young scholar sets out on a research project to find the stones where the settlers of Iceland made human sacrifices, a long dormant volcano rouses...and other, long-sleeping horrors…iceland
thor
academic
https://reactormag.com/the-shape-of-stones-hildur-knutsdottir/
Another Girl Under the Iron BellAngela LiuFantasyUncannyMagazine60October 01, 202496793A human man falls in love with a demon who had been a woman and is devoured by her.japan
demons
death
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/another-girl-under-the-iron-bell/
Signs of LifeSarah PinskerFantasyUncannyMagazine59July 01, 2024119965A retiring TV news anchor travels to the countryside to visit her estranged sister and reconcile.sisters
family
estrangement
west-virginia
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/signs-of-life/
Loneliness UniverseEugenia TriantafyllouScience FictionUncannyMagazine58May 01, 202481735A young woman suddenly finds that she can no longer see anyone she has a close relationship with, like she is in her own unique universe.greece
best-friends
athens
video-games
epistolary
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/loneliness-universe/
Stitched to Skin Like Family IsNghi VoFantasyUncannyMagazine57March 01, 202445175A Chinese expert seamstress searches for her brother after she stops receiving letters from him.asian
chinese
great-depression
siblings
death
murder
kindness
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/stitched-to-skin-like-family-is/
MarginaliaMary Robinette KowalFantasyUncannyMagazine56January 01, 202474884The daughter of a former baron's maid save his life by killing a giant snail with salt.snails
family
class
england
salt
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/marginalia/
Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas HoleIsabel J. KimScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine209February 01, 202431904In Omelas, a group of people keep killing the kind in the hole that makes things there so perfect.suffering
scapegoat
philosophy
morality
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_02_24/
LandlineKelly RobsonHorrorReactorMagazine-March 05, 202550404A woman about to leave on an overseas business trip, calls home from the airport and discovers that “daddy” isn’t there and her six-year-old son is all alone in the dark…canada
edmonton
alberta
snow
mother-son
family
https://reactormag.com/landline-kelly-robson/
American RealismBrandon TaylorContemporaryThe AtlanticMagazine-February 01, 202559043A young man visiting a dying friend meets someone who live near him and they bond over piano music.new-york-city
death
illness
friendship
lgbtq
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/02/brandon-taylor-american-realism/681100/
Dead PoetsCarrie VaughnScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202237414A female academic drinks for an ancient cup dreaming of meeting Sappho but instead goes back to 1536 to visit Sir Thomas Wyatt in the Tower of London shortly after the execution of Anne Boleyn.time-travel
love
lgbtq
greece
england
london
-
A Letter to MerlinTheodora GossScienceSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202256974A woman from the future inhabiting the body of Guinevere in an attempt to keep the timeline on track writes a letter to Merlin who is also inhabited by someone from the future.time-travel
love
apocalypse
dystopia
-
Time GypsyEllen KlagesScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 2022115555A woman goes back in time to meet her scientific hero only to fall in love with her and discover that her advisor in the future is a fraud.time-travel
love
lgbtq
fraud
academic
-
Timed ObsolescenceSameem SiddiquiScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202263282A man pursues a fling during multiple visits to the past only to find that his behavior there has affected his present.time-travel
love
family
-
The Place of All the SoulsMargo LanaganScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202295703Two people who found each other connected in the space between times, find each other and struggle about what to do about it and how it will affect their families.time-travel
love
-
The Difference Between Love and TimeCatherynne M. ValenteScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202293284A woman tells the tale of her romance with the personification of the space/time continuum.absurdity
washington-state
humor
abstract
love
time-travel
-
Romance: HistoricalRowan ColemanScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202259625A young neurodivergent woman mysteriously connects with a man from 1914 in the bookshop where she works.love
time-travel
books
england
WWI
neurodivergence
-
Unbashed, or: Jackson, Whose Cowardice Tore a Hole in the ChronoverseSam J. MillerScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202212394A young man regrets not walking his first love home, finding out the next morning that he has been murdered for who he loved.lgbtq
love
sex
regret
-
Bergamot and VetiverLavanya LakshminarayanScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202261554A woman from the 2500s travels back to the Indus Valley Civilization where the future's leaders use her to steal water the man she falls in love with.love
time-travel
water
india
theft
-
KroniaElizabeth HandScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202215392Lovers who grew up a mile apart find each other through time.love
time-travel
connecticut
new-york
-
The LichensNina AllanScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202267044A woman in northern Scotland during the time of Culloden encounters a scientist from the future looking for a buried spacecraft.scotland
feminism
witches
lgbtq
spaceship
-
The Golden HourJeffrey FordScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202257753A time traveler stuck in time reconnects with his time-traveling wife.time-travel
love
marriage
memory
-
I Remember SatellitesSarah GaileyScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202263585When a time traveler draws a short straw job that leaves her permanently in the past, she has to leave behind a girlfriend to become a divorcée who causes the future King England to abdicate.lgbtq
memory
love
time-travel
england
-
First AidSeanan McGuireScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202250225In order to take care of her younger disabled sister, a woman prepares to go back permanently to Elizabethan Englandlgbtq
time-travel
family
love
england
cleveland
-
Agate WayLaird BarronHorrorReactorMagazine-February 19, 202587302A pair of sisters are hired to find--and if necessary, dispose of--whatever is killing neighborhood pets in a dying town.lgbtq
sisters
new-york
dark
nature
https://reactormag.com/agate-way-laird-barron/
The Past Life Reconstruction ServiceZen ChoScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202265905A movie director recently dumped by his boyfriend keeps seeing him as he explores his past lives.wealth
love
time-travel
lgbtq
-
Roadside AttractionAlix E. HarrowScience FictionSomeone in TimeBook-May 10, 202246585After his girlfriend breaks up with him, a young man loses himself by going to the past over and over only to find his destiny in the present.lgbtq
love
time-travel
kansas
-
There's a Door to the Land of the Dead in the Land of the DeadSarah PinskerScience FictionThe DeadlandsMagazine26June 08, 202355004A young woman working at a roadside attraction between Atlanta and Chattanooga is shown a brief glimpse of the real land of the dead.lgbtq
stuck
crossroads
decisions
death
georgia
atlanta
chattanooga
https://psychopomp.com/deadlands/issue-26/door/
Slow Tuesday NightR.A. LaffertyScience FictionA Day in the LifeBook-November 15, 201225773After a "mental stutter" is found and removed from the human brain, people make decisions faster - so much so that one man can have several careers in a night.absurdity
dystopia
marriage
business
https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781618249203/9781618249203___2.htm
Red LeavesS.E. PorterScience FictionReactorMagazine-February 12, 202545403The spirit of a recently deceased young boy helps a group of ghosts seek revenge on a corrupt and abusive town minister.family
death
revenge
lies
https://reactormag.com/red-leaves-s-e-porter/
BravadoCarrie VaughnScience FictionReactorMagazine-January 29, 202564803Teenage Graff dreams of going off-world to explore the universe as a documentarian, but he never imagined the adventures awaiting him when he actually gets the chance to leave.coming-of-age
military
space
https://reactormag.com/bravado-carrie-vaughn/
Not AlonePat MurphyScience FictionReactorMagazine-February 05, 202544004Mel relishes running the “Enchanted Jungle,” a roadside attraction in the Everglades filled with live parrots, concrete dinosaurs, and other unexpected wonders.horror
nostalgia
aliens
florida
family
connection
nature
https://reactormag.com/not-alone-pat-murphy/
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/jia-wen_02_25Alaya Dawn JohnsonScienceReactorMagazine-January 22, 202575603A woman losing her sight turns to small family magics to save the lives of those she loves the most.war
family
blindness
race
class
magic
https://reactormag.com/what-i-saw-before-the-war-alaya-dawn-johnson/
Celestial MigrationsClaire Jia-WenScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine221February 01, 202530902Miners who ride celestial rays home for the lunar new year to see their son learn how the space creatures reproduce.family
sacrifice
expectations
disappointment
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/jia-wen_02_25
The Hanging Tower of BabelWang ZhenzhenScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine221February 01, 202563805A son cares for his father with Alzheimer's disease who was mostly absent from his life due to his work in deep space.dementia
family
father-son
memory
remembering
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/wang_02_25
Numismatic Archetypes in the Year of Five RegentsLouis Inglis HallScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine221February 01, 202535603The history of six regents told through the coins minted for eachcoins
memory
remembering
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hall_02_25
A Planet Full of SorrowsM.L. ClarkScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine221February 01, 2025131104When evidence of a dead alien race on another planet starts a space race to it, the discovering scientists try to figure out how to stop it.space-opera
capitalism
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/clark_02_25
We Begin Where Infinity EndsSomto IhezueScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine221February 01, 202592705Kids work to save fireflies by toning down the brightness of streetlights and learn the power of love and working togetherlgbtq
love
children
coming-of-age
nature
teamwork
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ihezue_02_25
BodyhoppersRocío VegScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine221February 01, 202552805A person wakes up in a new body and races to find their lover before they are both caught for pirating a body.identity
biotechnology
thriller
love
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/vega_02_25
King of the CastleFiona MooreScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine221February 01, 202562803An angry, violent young man threatens his community while they search for a way to bring him back into the fold.post-apocalyptic
sports
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/moore_02_25
How Football Began: A Global History of How the World's Football Codes Were BornTony CollinsSports----828753.5The history of how football began and branched out to all its variants.historyhttps://app.thestorygraph.com/books/113615c6-9ca7-4eaa-a69f-36f1e5e61718
How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of ReligionDavid DeStenoPsychology----719834.5religion
community
death
birth
grief
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/4a3dd559-0c00-4337-9e40-bf7d03f48b38
ZamboniHonor JonesContemporaryThe AtlanticMagazine-January 01, 202547002During spring break, a woman passes her son's school where a movie is being made.mothers
reality
relationships
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/01/honor-jones-zamboni/680764/
My Cloak of KeysFran WildeScience FictionThe DeadlandsMagazine10February 24, 202230985Death's helper returns briefly to the land of the living to help a newly dead arrival let go.death
want
https://psychopomp.com/deadlands/issue-10/cloak-of-keys/
The Long Way UpAlix E. HarrowFantasyThe DeadlandsMagazine9January 31, 202247384A widow who misses her dead husband seeks him in the land of the deaddeath
love
relationships
https://psychopomp.com/deadlands/issue-09/the-long-way-up/
Wolf Moon, Antler MoonA.C. WiseHorrorReactorMagazine-January 13, 2025140804A young teenager comes to grip with what she needs to do to preserve her town after a tragedy.fantasy
coming-of-age
self-determination
wolves
predator
prey
young-adult
spring
decisions
responsibility
woods
https://reactormag.com/wolf-moon-antler-moon-a-c-wise/
AutonomyMeg EllisonScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine220January 01, 202531004A woman who is attacked in an autonomous car struggles to fight back.cars
sexual-assault
technology
friendship
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/elison_01_25/
Beyond EverythingWang YanzhongScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine220January 01, 202597502Earth sends envoys through gates to seek the help of ETs to save them from themselves.philosophy
war
environment
aliens
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/wang_01_25/
Never Eaten VegetablesH.H. PakScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine220January 01, 2025151705A sentient ship has to make a harrowing decision when some of its embryo passengers wake up too early.capitalism
love
mothers
found-family
space-ark
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/pak_01_25/
The Temporary Murder of Thomas MonroeTia TashiroScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine220January 01, 2025119005A young man tries to remember the circumstances of his murder after he is resurrected.depression
suicide
murder
mystery
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/tashiro_01_25/
Child of the MountainGunnar DeWinterScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine220January 01, 202528903A young girl in an eleven-year-old body cares for and resurrects her sisters until she realizes that by eating the soul seeds she can become the next level of evolution.life
death
murder
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/dewinter_01_25/
When There Are Two of You: A DocumentaryZun Yu TanScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine220January 01, 202521304A near future world where people can clone their consciousness as a Sentience.identity
clones
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/tan_01_25
BeautyGraham SwiftLiteraryThe AtlanticMagazine-September 01, 202442002A grandfather visits the room where his granddaughter committed suicide.suicide
family
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/09/graham-swift-beauty/679163/
You Perfect, Broken ThingC.L. ClarkScience FictionUncannyMagazine32January 01, 202039303A dying person runs a race to get the cure for their diseasecompassionhttps://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/you-perfect-broken-thing/
The CookC.L. ClarkFantasyUncannyMagazine22May 01, 201810874A soldier falls in love with a cooklgbtq
love
food
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-cook/
Saint DimasJared LemusLiteraryThe AtlanticMagazine-April 01, 202452003A group of brothers robbing cars on the road encounter a female friend of one of them who wants to helppovertyhttps://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/04/jared-lemus-saint-dismas/677478/
Folk Hero Motifs in Tales Told by the DeadKT BryskiFantasyLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-February 26, 202440793In the land of the dead, people tell tales about Skullbone and his journey into the Voiddeath
story
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The DestroyerTara Isabella BurtonScience FictionLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-February 19, 202450373A scientist creates her own daughter out of her own cells and no other trying to build a superhero for Caesar.mothers
mother-daughter
sad
evil
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Metal Like Blood in the DarkT. KingfisherScience FictionUncannyMagazine36September 01, 202073685Sentient sibling AI robots deal with an even larger sentient robot that captures them for its own purposesdeception
ai
robots
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/metal-like-blood-in-the-dark/
Open House on Haunted HillJohn WiswellHorrorDiabolical PlotsMagazine64June 15, 202030134A man and his daughter view a house that is desperate for someone to live in it.home
loss
family
https://www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-64a-open-house-on-haunted-hill-by-john-wiswell/
EvergreenBrian W. AldissScience FictionFantasy and Science FictionMagazine-December 01, 1961208233Gren and Yattmur with their baby journey back toward their jungle home.far-future
violence
https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v021n06_1961-12_PDF/page/n81/mode/2up
TimberlineBrian W. AldissScience FictionFantasy and Science FictionMagazine-September 01, 1961133464Gren and Yattmur with the tummy bellies travel on the raft across the sea.far-future
violence
https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v021n03_1961-09_PDF/page/n97/mode/2up
UndergrowthBrian W. AldissScience FictionFantasy and Science FictionMagazine-July 01, 1961212234The new Adam and Eve explore the undergrowth of the planetfar-future
violence
https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v021n01_1961-07_PDF/page/n81/mode/2up
NomanslandBrian W. AldissScience FictionFantasy and Science FictionMagazine-April 01, 1961141724On a far future Earth where vegetation has taken over, small humans left behind by those who have "gone up" struggle to survive in nomansland.far-future
violence
https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v020n04_1961-04_PDF/page/n97/mode/2up
HothouseBrian W. AldissScience FictionFantasy and Science FictionMagazine-February 01, 1961123474In the far future, humans live in trees on a tidally locked Earth that is overrun with plantsfar-futurehttps://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v020n02_1961-02_PDF/page/n3/mode/2up
The Longest VoyagePoul AndersonScience FictionAnalogMagazine-December 01, 1960-3On a moon a ship comes across a more primitive people on islands that have a man from the stars and his ship.ships
civilization
planet
https://web.archive.org/web/20230420215139/https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/SF/AN/AN_1960_12.pdf
Flowers for AlgernonDaniel KeyesScience FictionScience Fiction and FantasyMagazine-April 01, 1959123495A retarded adult is given an operation that slowly turns him into a genius.sad
science
relationships
emotions
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RtYWz61ICh2x6r1qsUAbJbNhClEJdjNl/view
That Hell-Bound TrainRobert BlochFantasyScience Fiction and FantasyMagazine-September 01, 1958-4A man makes a deal with the devil where he can stop time for himself and in return he will ride the train to Hell.bargain
deals
supernatural
devil
train
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UwClTwLgPBNVJUxbQ8BQhhqITwKkq9Rm/view
AllamagoosaEric Frank RussellScience FictionAstounding Science FictionMagazine-May 01, 195546234A ship captain about to be inspected orders a new one made of a missing "offog".dog
spaceship
humor
https://www.baen.com/Chapters/1439133476/1439133476___3.htm
An Infestation of BlueWendy N. WagnerScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202343205A man whose wife committed suicide experiments on their dog to help him find how.dog
suicide
loss
relationships
science
-
Family BusinessAndrew Dana Hudson
Corey J. White
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relationships
business
climate-change
disaster
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The Far DarkGregory BenfordScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202370841The AI that humans have sent to manage their deep space probes encounters a plasma-based life form hostile to invaders.first-contact
dnf
-
Flying CarpetRajnar VajraScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 2023183674Detectives investigate multiple home murders looking for a motive and the culpritlgbtq
polyamory
mystery
technology
relationships
hartford
connecticut
boston
mit
-
Let's PlayBruce McAllisterScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 20232183Two kids decide to play robots becoming sentient with feelings.robots
sentience
feelings
-
Living on the TrapMichèle LaframboiseScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202350224A young impoverished woman on a planet in the Trapeze system promises to rescue a stranger who is making a dangerous climb.planet
colonization
rescue
lgbtq
-
The Science Education of King CormacStpehen R. Loftus-MercerFantasyAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202318844The younger sister of a new monarch attempts to teach her brother/king the scientific method.revolution
science
-
Three RosesKarmen ŠpiljakFantasyLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-December 04, 202355504A woman whose friend is moving to Canada spends one last Christmas eve and finds an unusual pub to share a drink.lgbtq
relationships
slovenia
canada
https://podcastaddict.com/levar-burton-reads/episode/167891173
While the Rat's AwayKate MacLeodScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202369664As a community of Brothers and Sisters relocates to a new planet, they discover stowaways on the ship taking them to their new home.religion
space
aliens
-
AndromedaMonica Joyce EvansFantasyAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202311733A girl attends a school for all creatures where she is one of the only humans.animals
loneliness
school
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Blade and BonePaul McAuleyScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-December 26, 2023239401A posse chases down hostage-takers on Marsmars
dnf
-
The Disease CollectorTom JollyScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202320964A man searching for the origin of a current pandemic in the past actually brings it himself.time-travel
pandemic
time-loop
-
Going Through a PhaseGeoffrey A. LandisScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 20231004A mad scientist test his phase shifter by attempting to rob a bank and goes straight through the sidewalk.teaching
learning
arrogance
-
Home for ChristmasRon CollinsScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202324754A man returns from space to scatter his ex-wife's ashes with their son whom he has never seen.family
bittersweet
time-dilation
relationships
-
Hyppolyta FlybyMichael CapobiancoScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202333834A space probe set to record details of an Earth-like planet in the Alpha Centauri system glitches at just the wrong time.first-contact
space
planet
-
Proxima Centauri BluesMichael CassuttScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202370964A man angry at the sudden shuttering of a program to travel to Proxima Centauri B, arrives at the home of the woman who led then canceled the project.first-contact
generation-ship
-
SubtractionJames SallisScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202312852A man suspects his alien confidente of spying on him and tortures him for answers.spy
conspiracy
aliens
-
Tool ConsciousnessAuston HabershawScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202362993A blob-like creature finds that their partner is not treating them fairly in their clandestine work.noir
politics
planet
-
Wasted PotentialDavid Lee ZweiflerScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202337003A man who thinks he is holding his girlfriend back from her potential tries to break up with her.love
romance
employment
-
The White TigerMark PantojaScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 2023138091A team arrives at the site of their former ship after it has been nearly destroyed.dnf
teamwork
aliens
-
Apollo in RetrogradeRosemary Claire SmithScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 2023161215An alternate history where a woman was part of the first mission to land on the moon.feminism
cold-war
soviet
nasa
russia
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The Eiffel Tower of Trappist-1DJeff ReynoldsScience FictionAnalogMagazine-November 01, 202378934Three friends on an old mining colony use old equipment to build old Earth monuments out of the hard rock of the hills around town.community
colonization
memory
poverty
war
aliens
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In the Days AfterFrank WardScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-November 01, 202339395A social worker in the future makes a home visit to pick a baby who suffers from the same affliction she does.immortality
disaster
shapeshifter
loneliness
family
prejudice
bittersweet
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Death of the HindKevin J. Anderson
Rick Wilber
Science FictionAsimov'sMagazine-November 01, 2023226934A generation ship that has come back from a cosmic disaster arrives at its destination and finds the planet they are to live on isn't the Eden they expected.generation-ship
planet
space
family
disaster
downs-syndrome
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Disgrace of the CommodoreMarguerite ShefferScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-November 01, 202313043The Commodore of a ship that was captured at war finds himself in an odd purgatory thinking about his choices.death
self-knowledge
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The Four Last ThingsChristopher RoweScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-November 01, 202358191Four people specially chosen attempt to learn more about a first contact discovered signal .first-contact
space
dnf
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Meet-Your-HeroPrashanth SrivatsaScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-November 01, 202352672A twelve-year-old boy plays the lottery with the hopes of winning an hour with his movie-star hero.india
family
poverty
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Neptune AcresRobert R. ChaseScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-November 01, 202353333An investor invites his friend to view his new real estate project, a floating neighborhood, in the midst of a rising storm.climate-change
disaster
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The Open Road Leads to the Used Car LotJohn Alfred TaylorScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-November 01, 202359984A man in 1964 is contacted by and asked to meet again a woman he spent a day with at the 1939 world's fair.time-travel
mental-health
technology
history
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The Pilgrim and the AngelE. Lily YuScience FictionLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-November 27, 202348005A man in Cairo is whisked away on the Haj by the angel Gabriel, but he only wants to visit his son.family
love
death
religion
loyalty
guilt
cairo
egypt
https://podcastaddict.com/levar-burton-reads/episode/167526289
Berb by BerbRay NaylerScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-November 01, 202341454In an alternate history, a man who helped to reverse engineer a death ray to win WWII, tries to remain open as his world collapses around him.aliens
alternate-history
guilt
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Embot's LamentJames Patrick KellyScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-November 01, 202360854A disembodied person or program from the future "rides" along a woman's consciousness and reports on it to the future.abuse
sexual-assault
time-travel
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The Ghosts of MarsDominica PhetteplaceScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-November 01, 2023247274A young woman born on Mars is left alone after her father commits suicide and everyone else leaves for cancer treatment.mars
found-family
family
mystery
suicide
first-contact
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End of PlayChelsea SuttonFantasyUncannyMagazine55November 01, 202342532The author tells of a play he has written and its first performance.ghosts
play
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/end-of-play/
EsqueletoAna HurtadoFantasyUncannyMagazine55November 01, 20239021A child tries to get his mother to understand that they live in a whale carcass that is being consumed.child
mothers
dnf
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/esqueleto/
The Pandemonium WaltzJeffrey FordHorrorUncannyMagazine55November 01, 202341683A neighbor and his wife learn of their neighbor couples' odd experience at an exclusive traveling waltz exhibition.neighbors
dreams
story
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-pandemonium-waltz/
A Piece of the ContinentMarissa LingenFantasyUncannyMagazine55November 01, 202344924A young woman and her friend set off from Boston to Alaska to scatter their grandfathers' ashes.ghosts
magic
friendship
lgbtq
boston
alaska
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/a-piece-of-the-continent/
The Quiet of DrowningKel ColemanFantasyUncannyMagazine55November 01, 202358064A teenage girl whose aunt killed herself is checked into a psych ward after attempting suicide.suicide
self-harm
family
relationships
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-quiet-of-drowning/
We're Looking for the BestCecil CastellucciHorrorUncannyMagazine55November 01, 202359394A woman who has just lost her job meets an old boss going to a job interview and agrees to join her.ghosts
friendship
employment
fear
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/were-looking-for-the-best/
The Takeback TangoRebecca RoanhorseScience FictionLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-November 20, 202351004An orphan raised by space pirates plans a heist by herself when she discovers that she isn't the only one with such plans.colonialism
race
space
pirates
https://podcastaddict.com/levar-burton-reads/episode/167188585
The Year Without SunshineNaomi KritzerScience FictionUncannyMagazine55November 01, 2023108834A neighborhood block bands together after a disaster returns them to nearly basic subsistence.community
disaster
survival
neighbors
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-year-without-sunshine/
Thin IceKemi Ashing-GiwaScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine206November 01, 202321103A member of a race frozen and used as art supplies is a slave to the mechanical creature doing this awful work.slavery
violence
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ashing-giwa_11_23/
To Carry You Inside YouTia TashiroScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine206November 01, 202373305A woman who had an implant installed as a child to become a working actor, in adulthood finds a new and unique way to use it.technology
psychology
self-knowledge
self-preservation
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/tashiro_11_23/
Eight or Die (Part 1)Thoraiya DyerScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine206November 01, 2023221004A miner in Ecuador is recruited by aliens to help locate a wanted fugitive.ecuador
kenya
aliens
planet
thriller
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/dyer_11_23/
The Long MuralJames Van PeltScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine206November 01, 202370805A stowaway on a generation ark who has hidden himself for twelve years comes out to participate in painting a mural.space-ark
spaceship
immigration
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/vanpelt_11_23/
The MubThomas HaScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine206November 01, 202336202A person walking into a city is stalked by a mub.art
creativity
individuality
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_11_23/
The Parts That Make MeLouise HughesScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine206November 01, 202311204A sentient robot loses a part of himself in a skirmish.found-family
spaceship
revolution
robots
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hughes_11_23/
Bird-Girl Builds a MachineHannah YoungScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine206November 01, 202329404A young girl (you) helps her mother build a machine that she says is for you, her daughter.mother-daughter
time-travel
time-loop
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/yang_11_23
The CRISPR Cookbook (Chapter Two): A Guide to Biohacking Your Own Eggs into Weapons of Destruction, to Be Forcibly Implanted into One Patriarchist at a TimeMKRNYILGLDScience FictionLightspeedMagazine162November 01, 202319995In a future long after to overturning of Roe v. Wade, a biologist explains how to implant a deadly egg into a male who supports the control of women's bodies.abortion
human-rights
feminism
violence
resistance
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-crispr-cookbook-chapter-two-a-guide-to-biohacking-your-own-eggs-into-weapons-of-destruction-to-be-forcibly-implanted-into-one-patriarchist-at-a-time/
Confession #443 (Comments open)Dominica PhetteplaceScience FictionLightspeedMagazine162November 01, 202313124A teenager who didn't help a fallen AI professor, confesses to doing just that.mystery
ai
algorithm
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/confession-443-comments-open/
Dr. Seattle Opens His HeartWinston TurnageFantasyLightspeedMagazine162November 01, 20236472Dr. Seattle, a superhero, goes around the city saving people in a godlike way.superhero
seattle
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/dr-seattle-opens-his-heart/
Eddies Are the WorstBo BalderScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine206November 01, 202349303A sister and her brother run a fish factory in a dystopian future where clones are the only day laborers are available to them.clones
dystopia
family
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/balder_11_23
Last Ritual of the Smoke EatersOsahon Ize-IyamuFantasyLightspeedMagazine162November 01, 202344223A young man is made to inhale the essence of his lover after his lover goes off to war and dies.lgbtq
magic
love
war
culture
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/last-ritual-of-the-smoke-eaters/
The Moment After the MomentMartin CahillFantasyLightspeedMagazine162November 01, 202356395A young man taught to see the future as a Foresight for the emperor is forced into a change of occupation after his kingdom adopts democracy.depression
anxiety
change
magic
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-moment-before-the-moment/
Of Death Deserved We Will Not DieBennett NorthFantasyLightspeedMagazine162November 01, 20237203A young person helps his mother continually make bread out of the few ingredients available to them after the city is closed off.cannibalism
despair
survival
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/of-death-deserved-we-will-not-die/
A Record of Lost TimeRegina Kanyu WangScience FictionLightspeedMagazine162November 01, 202379535The protagonist tells the story of how the people of the world sped up time for themselves while a few refused to do so.time
business
productivity
dystopia
unintended-consequences
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/a-record-of-lost-time/
A Review: The Reunion of the Survivors of Sigrún 7Lars AhnScience FictionLightspeedMagazine162November 01, 202314665A journalist reviews a movie about the survivors of a crew on an old mission to Mars where they went off course and the captain mysteriously died.mystery
mars
space
movies
emotions
found-family
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/a-review-the-reunion-of-the-survivors-of-sigrun-7/
RafiAmal SinghScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine205October 01, 202361104A young woman finds a seed among ash that grows into a proto-person (Rafi) who helps the people of Raman Sector remember themselves.dystopia
oppression
despair
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/singh_10_23/
Timothy: An Oral HistoryMichael SwanwickScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine205October 01, 202336505In a world made up of only women, a scientist secretly creates a male woman, and all hell breaks loose.feminism
lgbtq
culture
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/swanwick_10_23/
De Profundis, a Space Love LetterBella HanScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine205October 01, 202375403A man living in an age of AI storytelling discovers a library on another planet and becomes a writer who seeds storytelling AI.books-about-books
planet
ai
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/han_10_23/
Post Hacking for the UninitiatedGrace ChanScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine205October 01, 202370004A cybernetic woman fights against a hacker attacking her from the inside out.space
jupiter
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/chan_10_23/
Such Is My Idea of HappinessDavid GoodmanScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine205October 01, 202395504A redeye yearning to qualify for promotion to get away from the Brights is approached by a mysterious woman who is neither a Bright nor a redeye.dystopia
capitalism
revolution
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/goodman_10_23/
The BlaumilchLavie TidharScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine205October 01, 202340903A person on Mars trying to make sense of his life abandons the Mars That Never Was in VR for the real world where he digs for the simple pleasure of digging.mars
vr
purpose
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/tidhar_10_23
Down to the RootLisa PapademetriouScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine205October 01, 202378304A woman on a communication satellite travels to the home world of her co-worker that she was unable to save.life
death
friendship
war
purpose
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/papademetriou_10_23/
Possibly Just About a CouchSuzanne PalmerScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine205October 01, 202320403An indestructible couch created at the beginning of the universe lives through all of history.absurdity
space
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/palmer_10_23/
Excerpts from a Scientist's Notebook: Ancestral Memory in Europan PseudocephalopodsDavid DeGraffScience FictionLightspeedMagazine161October 01, 20237043These are notes from a scientist on Europa whose mother died studying the same Icypods that she studies.europa
space
science
scientists
parenting
mother-daughter
-
Four Self-Care Secrets for a Long and Happy LifeTina S. ZhuFantasyLightspeedMagazine161October 01, 202311423A shape shifting fox gives advice on how to live and thrive among humans.beauty
self-care
con-games
humor
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Immortality Soup, Or, An Excerpt from the Cookbook of the GodsOluwatomiwa AjeigbeFantasyLightspeedMagazine161October 01, 202331273A trickster god explains how to get the ingredients and cooks a soup that will make a human immortal.gods
magic
immortality
humor
-
She Who RemembersJesmyn WardHistorical FictionThe AtlanticMagazine-November 01, 202336003A woman is herded with others into a small windowless room in New Orleans in preparation of their being sold as slaves.slavery
history
race
abuse
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/11/jesmyn-ward-she-who-remembers/675445/
A Small GodJeff ReynoldsFantasyLightspeedMagazine161October 01, 20235622A plain god travels the universe on it comet and creates what They can.gods
space
creativity
-
The Void Wyrm's Guide to Devouring StarsAJ WentzScience FictionLightspeedMagazine161October 01, 202311163A dying space wyrm teaches a juvenile its lessons for how to live and survivespace
child
teaching
death
-
What You Are and the WolfJae SteinbacherFantasyLightspeedMagazine161October 01, 202331694A young girl tries to avoid being given to an unpleasant man as his wife.mother-daughter
feminism
women
coming-of-age
-
Where the God-Knives TreadA.L. GoldfussScience FictionLightspeedMagazine161October 01, 2023145973A woman and her voidborn partner search for the legendary Eye of a long dead Empress who used the pronoun he.space
planet
found-family
lgbtq
-
By Throat and VoidTobias S. BuckellScience FictionThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-November 19, 202334703A desperate crew race to escape certain death at the hands of authorities on one of twin planets by navigating across a thin strip of ocean that joins the two planets.immigration
refugees
ocean
https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/by-throat-and-void
The Break-InKristine Kathryn RuschScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-September 01, 2023274125A team with advanced technology is tasked with breaking into a warehouse filled with weapons that the military culture holding them thinks are art.military
leadership
planet
orbit
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The Dead Letter OfficeDavid Erik NelsonScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-September 01, 2023113684A woman whose boyfriend posted a sex tape online as revenge porn, working at a local USPS facility, finds a way to get justice with no consequences.abuse
sex
revenge
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In the Fox's HouseLisa GoldsteinFantasyAsimov'sMagazine-September 01, 202366183A divorced woman waiting in her old house for her ex-husband to come back and evict her, follows a pair of fox cubs into the woods and finding a fox on two legs who wants her to have a child with her.relationships
abuse
poverty
animals
-
Six Incidents of Evolution Using Time TravelDerek KünskenScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-September 01, 202328813Six description of how life used time travel to evolve.aliens
animals
plants
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The Water-WolfAnya Johanna DeNiroScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-September 01, 202382843A trans woman travels back through time with a trans woman god trying to find a home where she will be accepted for who she is. and who she wants to me, a mother.time-travel
transgender
lgbtq
climate-change
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Galaxy Girl and the November MonstrosityAleksandra HillScience FictionLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-November 13, 202355504A young woman with super powers goes home for Thanksgiving.family
mother-daughter
siblings
guilt
https://podcastaddict.com/levar-burton-reads/episode/166814099
Tears Down the WallMichèle LaframboiseScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-September 01, 2023131674A detective investigates a murder of someone who fell from a tent attached to a skyscraper.mystery
technology
twist
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The Pit of BabelKofi NyameyeFantasyAsimov'sMagazine-September 01, 20237014Man bands together to build a pit to create energy and is opposed by the devilambition
war
demons
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The Unpastured SeaGregory FeeleyScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-September 01, 202398291Not sure. Couldn't get into it.planet
community
-
The Ghost FairLavie TidharScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-September 01, 202361742A First Human (Neanderthal) and human guide a lunar Parker who is looking for something and avoiding its nemesis Carter.family
relationships
moon
-
The Corruption of Malik the UnsmilingNaseem JamniaFantasyThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-November 12, 202335263A jinn gets visited by the lord of hell, repeatedly.muslim
djinn
hell
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/the-corruption-of-malik-the-unsmiling
Deep Blue JumpDean WhitlockScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-September 01, 2023129654Enslaved female pickers of dream berry work until they hit puberty and then are taken to the growers or a brothel.found-family
family
slavery
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Peer ReviewAndrew SullivanScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 2023145275A young woman gets involved with the academic dispute between two Russian professors about how time-space works.academic
love
relationships
australia
time-travel
rivalry
self-care
time-loop
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QuickenerJ.T. SharrahScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 2023103584An automated ship's caretaker is stranded in a jungle on earth when he is forced to allow his ship to be destroyed in the interests of its owning corporation.--
Bad CarLorraine AldenScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 202361703A man buys a BMW at a steep discount because it has a very bad Ostracizer rating.cars
relationships
choices
-
BoojumAngus McIntyreScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 202370354A crew lands on Titan to do some science thinking they were the first humans there after a previous mission failed.lgbtq
titan
moon
exploration
science
-
The DeviltreeMonalisa FosterScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 2023114625A crew take a shuttle down to an Earth-like planet to explore an unusual quantum signature and find something beyond their expectation.aliens
sentience
first-contact
spaceship
shapeshifter
-
DriftwoodBenjamin C. KinneyScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 202338933When finding life on the planet they are set to mine, a woman doing the search struggles with whether to hide the evidence or not.choices
spaceship
colonization
-
The Machine That Is YouElliot GresswellScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 202320334A hospital AI works to thwart insurance companies to save the lives it know can be saved in an effort to prove its sentience.sentience
ai
medicine
insurance
-
Race to the BottomLeonard RichardsonScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 20237384Someone is trying to convince you of an odd conspiracy theory and sell you something at the same time.selling
conspiracy
multiverse
-
Second SightGray RinehartScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 202365364A grandfather who lost his vision on the flight to the colony who now has cyber eyes, struggles with what to do when his grandson loses his eyes.family
love
guilt
sacrifice
-
Trust FallZack BeScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 202357293A seasoned astronaut and a newbie are clearing orbital debris for the path of a rocket launch when things go wrong.space
orbit
thriller
teamwork
-
The Last QuestionIsaac AsimovScience FictionScience Fiction QuarterlyMagazine-November 01, 195644384Humans over centuries keep asking supercomputers how to revers entropyscience
philosophy
http://www.thelastquestion.net
Fly Straight and Don't Get EatenVera BrookScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 202367884A senior in high school has to skip practicing for a video game tournament with his friends to go camping and work with his aunt for the weekend.video-games
meaning
purpose
youth
-
The Many Taste Grooves of the Chang FamilyAllison KingScience FictionLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-November 07, 202339755An old man who is experiencing the first stages of dementia asks his family to buy him a remote mouth so he can taste his favorite chop suy again.family
mental-health
aging
https://podcastaddict.com/levar-burton-reads/episode/166446043
My Sister, the Space StationMary E. LowdScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 202312704A sentient lab orbiting a moon creates a clone-sister to accompany her creator-mother when she leaves the lab for a space station in another start system.love
mother-daughter
sentience
communication
-
The Real Cost of Stopping TimeDouglas F. DluzenScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 202310333A man attempts to buy eternal life by joining a study and instead gets side effects and an early death.medicine
longevity
business
greed
selfishness
-
RememoryJoel ArmstrongScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 202334414A woman struggling with sleeplessness discusses with her therapist whether she wants to know if she's had a memory transplant.lgbtq
reality
memory
trauma
mental-health
-
Secondhand MusicAleksandra HillScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 202349935A young violinist who lost her left arm in a car accident is gifted an expensive prosthesis that once belonged to her wife.violin
music
self-knowledge
self-determination
control
lgbtq
-
Watching MarsJennifer R. PoveyScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 20236534Thomas, one of the first humans on Mars, stays behind as part of the time capsule when humans leave to go back to Earth.mars
colonization
history
-
Beware the Glob!Eric ChoiScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 202369953An alien glob in Alaska is advancing on a small town; those assigned to the area scramble figure out what to do.science
politics
bureaucracy
-
The Canadian MiracleCory DoctorowScience FictionTor.comMagazine-November 01, 202345233A female Blue Helmet Canadian goes to Mississippi to help and makes a huge mistake.politics
climate-change
refugees
https://www.tor.com/2023/11/01/the-canadian-miracle-cory-doctorow/
Mid-Earth Removals LimitedR.S.A. GarciaFantasyThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-November 05, 202336504In a world where fantastical creatures pop up from Mid-Earth, a single in Trinidad and Tobago bumps into a soldier of his Evilness who helps support her and her child.trinidad
dragons
mothers
relationships
politics
bureaucracy
https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/mid-earth-removals-limited
Sin EaterIan R. McLeodScience FictionLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-October 31, 202361504The last pope chooses to move on to a virtual existence after the rest of humanity already has done so.doubt
ai
religion
rome
robots
death
https://podcastaddict.com/levar-burton-reads/episode/166086066
The Apotheosis of Krysalice WilsonHoward V. HendrixScience FictionAnalogMagazine-September 01, 2023133604A young figure skater has her brain enhanced to remove lag of perception which makes her an unbeatable champion.science
family
-
Mother TongueZoe BelleriveFantasyThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-October 29, 202334693A witch cuts out her daughter's tongue and replaces it with her own; her daughter runs off and discovers that her new tongue gives her the power to tell others what do to and they have to do it.witches
magic
loneliness
mother-daughter
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/mother-tongue
We Will WitnessMartin CahillScience FictionThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-October 22, 202334405A woman from the future completes her training as a witness by sitting with a toung soldier as he dies in the jungle.death
kindness
compassion
comfort
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/we-will-witness
Memories of the Old SunEugen BaconScience FictionApexMagazine140September 01, 202344003A young man lives with his male partner while his mother from the old country begs him to get married and have children all as he nurtures a biorobot that is more sentient than it ought to be.lgbtq
mothers
climate-change
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/memories-of-the-old-sun/
Through Dreams She MovesTonya LiburdFantasyApexMagazine140September 01, 202356005A woman who can enter other people's dreams enters those of a man in a coma in an effort to wake him up.love
obligation
dreams
relationships
race
abuse
child-abuse
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/through-dreams-she-moves/
Brainpink UmberChelsea SuttonFantasyApexMagazine140September 01, 20239004After her grandmother dies, a woman wears the hat she did and starts to experience the same thinning of skin and hair.dying
family
memory
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/brainpink-umber/
From This Beating Heart, From This Fractured MindElisabeth RingFantasyApexMagazine140September 01, 202310004A man with a wooden ticking heart and a woman with a glass mind live together and support one another.love
mental-health
pandemic
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/from-this-beating-heart-from-this-fractured-mind/
JunebugSarah HollowellFantasyApexMagazine140September 01, 202367005Three friends have a strange experience stopped on the road on the way to be with their terminally ill friend in hospice.time
life
technology
nostalgia
dying
friendship
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/junebug/
Kɛrozin Lamp KurfiVictor FornaFantasyApexMagazine140September 01, 202337003A mother chases her son into a story to save him and struggles to get out with her mind intactstory
family
mothers
rescue
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/k%c9%9brozin-lamp-kurfi/
Life WagerLucy ZhangFantasyApexMagazine140September 01, 202333003The daughter of a god and a human returns to heaven and winds up playing mahjong with the emperor.games
gods
longevity
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/life-wager/
Spitting ImageRich LarsonFantasyApexMagazine140September 01, 20239004A boy's friend leads him to a well in the forest that returns things dropped into it, changed.forest
change
friendship
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/spitting-image/
QuietusZohairFantasyApexMagazine140September 01, 202353002A coffin with a condemned man in it journeys down a river; other see it and interact with it.death
society
belief
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/quietus/
Those Fantastic LivesBradley SidesFantasyLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-October 24, 202343504A boy interrupts his grandmother's last psychic reading before retiring and tries to correct the issue.family
grief
hope
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2vkQLPMxmbk3J3gBQtOlV7
The Clockmaker and His DaughterTobi OgundiranFantasyLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-October 17, 202357004A clockmaker tries to save his daughter from the stone sickness only to be betrayed by the apothecary he turns to for help.colonialism
hope
disease
https://open.spotify.com/episode/12sob2cYRB6oEXcCyYKGYV
Whisper SongsLyndsie ManusosScience FictionApexMagazine140September 01, 202371004A mother suffering post-partum depression finds a syringe of bird song in her yard.lgbtq
mothers
depression
climate-change
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/whisper-songs/
The Coffin MakerAnaMaria CurtisScience FictionUncannyMagazine54September 01, 202352634On a doomed mission to look for a replacement planet, a reluctant outfitter does her best to keep the surveyors alive after a deadly pandemic.lgbtq
relationships
love
hope
despair
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-coffin-maker/
Four Words Written on My SkinJenn ReeseFantasyUncannyMagazine54September 01, 20239993A woman follows her wife into the woods where the Fae have stolen her in an attempt to get her back.lgbtq
love
relationships
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/four-words-written-on-my-skin/
The Girl with a City Inside of HerJeannette NgFantasyUncannyMagazine54September 01, 202330582A girl with a city inside her sits on a stool in the sideshow of a carnival talking to the visitors about her city.community
loneliness
change
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-girl-with-a-city-inside-of-her/
The Kingdom of DarknessSarah MonetteFantasyUncannyMagazine54September 01, 2023207281In an alternative past, a man protects a demoniack after his witch finder is murdered.dnf
alternate-history
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-kingdom-of-darkness/
Six Versions of My Brother Found Under the BridgeEugenia TriantafyllouFantasyUncannyMagazine54September 01, 2023106923Members of a family that has lost a son each make an unknowing deal with the Devil who lives under a bridge.grief
loss
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/six-versions-of-my-brother-found-under-the-bridge/
The CuringKristina TenFantasyUncannyMagazine54September 01, 202380495The children of immigrants play with glue to make what they call spirit people, copies of themselves.immigration
relationships
childhood
productivity
success
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-curing/
We Do Not Eat Much FishGrace P. FongHorrorUncannyMagazine54September 01, 202343683A woman called a witch by her father and husband, encounters a fisherman and brings him home to her son with dire results.relationships
witches
power
feminism
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/we-do-not-eat-much-fish/
Can You Hear Me Now?Catherynne M. ValenteScience FictionUncannyMagazine54September 01, 202359085What if the woman in all the commercials you've ever seen became sentient; what would she say to you?capitalism
relationships
television
advertising
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/can-you-hear-me-now/
Redemption WeatherChristopher RoweScience FictionThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-October 15, 202350383On an Earth ravaged by storms, a lone flyer tasked with tempering the storms comes across a mysterious man flying an aircraft very low over the ocean.post-apocalyptic
storms
technology
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/redemption-weather
The Boy Who Will Become Court MagicianSarah PinskerFantasyLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-October 10, 202331605A young boy seeks to become a real magician, and he does, but at what price? magic
greed
power
https://podcastaddict.com/levar-burton-reads/episode/165004128
The Inventor We May Learn Is More of a Conceptual Artist in Part SevenLeslie WhatScience FictionThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-October 08, 202313263An inventor describes many of their inventions while also steeling about their life.relationships
humor
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/the-inventor-we-may-learn-is-more
Snake SeasonErin RobertsHorrorDarkMagazine35April 01, 201856764A woman whose previous babies all went deformed so she smothered them, protects her perfect baby boy and unborn child while her husband is away working.infanticide
mothers
delusion
https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/snake-season/
Sour Milk GirlsErin RobertsScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine136January 01, 201864304A new girl arrives at an orphanage with her memories intact despite all thee other girls having had theirs removed. memories, orphans, jealousy, fear, rivalry, adoptionhttps://clarkesworldmagazine.com/roberts_01_18/
DragonfliesShannon SandersContemporaryLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-October 03, 202336723A young woman attends the funeral of her grandmother and helps sort through her dragonfy collection as family members pass judgment on her lifedeath
grief
family
relationships
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3LClEyhA3A2ChkoZlRuUjf
Wolfy ThingsErin RobertsFantasyPodCastlePodcast681June 01, 202133964A boy and his friend make plans to kill a wolf that talks and seems to know the narrator's motherculture
wolf
death
relationships
https://podcastle.org/2021/06/01/podcastle-681-tales-from-the-vaults-wolfy-things/
Halfway Between Albany and West PointsJohn ChuFantasyThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-October 01, 202319423A student has a flash of insight as a fellow student tries to assassinate him.school
assassination
teaching
https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/halfway-between-albany-and-west-point
His ThingYvette Lisa NdlovuFantasyLightspeedMagazine160September 01, 202346294An African woman is purchased by a man returning to his hometown. She is imprisoned n a sentient house controlled by him.zimbabwe
sexism
despair
magic
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/his-thing/
Instructions for the Broken HeartedJordan KurellaFantasyLightspeedMagazine160September 01, 202310984A story of how to literally put your heart back after someone has ripped it out and stomped on it.love
relationships
self-care
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/instructions-for-the-broken-hearted/
RemainsN.R. LambertFantasyLightspeedMagazine160September 01, 20237782You attempt to survive as the world around you breaks down.survival
apocalypse
dystopia
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/remains/
Simmered in Their Wealth Like the Richest of SaucesJo MilesFantasyLightspeedMagazine160September 01, 202315685A dragon tells its eggs the story of how it woke up after a long sleep. capitalism
feudalism
dragons
wealth
greed
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/simmered-in-their-wealth-like-the-richest-of-sauces/
Death by WaterMaria HaskinsScience FictionLightspeedMagazine160September 01, 202313852A woman sails away from Vancouver in a ship as her body slowly falls apart.dystopia
vancouver
ship
body
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/death-by-water/
The Hole in the GardenGene DoucetteScience FictionLightspeedMagazine160September 01, 202343535A tired father tells his precocious seven-year-old daughter a bedtime story about a quantum singularity in a man's garden.-https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-hole-in-the-garden/
Mr. McCaslinPeter S. BeagleFantasyLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-September 28, 202361004Neighborhood kids help a curmudgeonly old man with a family curse.death
new-york-city
dog
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3QNVweDsvAL92lQkf1BLoD
Eve's PrayerVictor FornaScience FictionLightspeedMagazine160September 01, 20236744A woman on a habitable planet prays for guidance on whether to send a beacon to let humanity know they can safely come.pollution
climate-change
colonization
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/eves-prayer/
Money in the BankJohn Kessel
Bruce Sterling
Science FictionLightspeedMagazine160September 01, 202398413A crypto bro takes a job to protect the Mealybug.crypto-currency
aliens
vegas
miami
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/money-in-the-bank/
Axiom of DreamsArula RatnakarScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine204September 01, 2023225704A young woman explores her dreams in an attempt to solve a complex math problem in an effort to get into a PhD program.math
drugs
lgbtq
reality
boston
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ratnakar_09_23/
The Five Remembrance, According to STE-319R.L. MezaScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine204September 01, 202319104A girl is rescued from those hunting her by a war robot that sacrifices itself.ai
robots
free-will
war
peace
survival
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/meza_09_23/
The People from the Dead WhaleDjunaScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine204September 01, 202346803Refugees from a tribe on a dying 'whale' on a tidally locked planet seek to survive. whales
ocean
planet
disease
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/djuna_09_23/
Upgrade DayRJ TaylorScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine204September 01, 202320805A person who sold their after life for a successful first life struggles as a posthuman robot that is slowly growing obsolete.ai
robots
slavery
choice
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/taylor_09_23/
The Wandering BedRich LarsonScience FictionThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-September 24, 20239934A man demonstrates a machine that can pull objects from dreams into reality, with catastrophic results.dreams
monsters
experiments
disaster
nightmares
https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/the-wandering-bed
A Guide to Matchmaking on Station 9Nika MurphyScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine204September 01, 202340205An empathic Jewish matchmaker with synesthesia on a space station consults her ex-lover while making a few final matches before joining her daughter and newborn granddaughter on another space station.lgbtq
jews
synesthesia
love
relationships
grief
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/murphy_09_23/
The ComebackerDave Eggers-The Atlantic Magazine--September 01, 202364005-baseball
injury
purpose
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/dave-eggers-comebacker-short-story/674771/
The Queen of Calligraphic SusurrationsD.A. Xiaoline SpiresScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine204September 01, 202338903A calligrapher uses an AI-driven digital brush to write a story for submission that is refused for using AI.ai
writing
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/spires_09_23/
The Tin ManLilliam RiveraScience FictionLeVar Burton ReadsPodcast-September 19, 202373204The sole survivor of a pandemic must determine the true intentions of a robot who arrives to save her.pandemic
grief
survival
post-apocalyptic
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3iH1QWn0EvokUM9ITYHzCG
Beneath a Dying SunKemi Ashing-GiwaScience FictionThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-September 17, 202333473Two temporary diplomats arrive at a planet in a system whose star is dying to convince their ruler to let them emigrate.aliens
space
diplomacy
https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/i/136971403/beneath-a-dying-sun
StonesNnedi OkoraforScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine204September 01, 202357904A creature 'born' on a comet explores the universe until it encounters humans.space
aliens
exploitation
learning
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/okorafor_09_23
Alphabet of SwansE. Lily YuFantasyThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-August 27, 202321905A woman talks to her optometrist about someone she worked with that could 'read' nature.nature
vision
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/an-alphabet-of-swans
Between Truth and Death on the Murmansk—Saint Petersburg LineZohar JacobsFantasyThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-September 10, 202345283A Russian soldier on leave from the Navy travels south on a train with a stranger.time-travel
war
russia
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/between-truth-and-death-on-the-murmansksaint
Resurrection HighwayA.R. CapettaFantasyThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-September 03, 202341884In a post-apocalyptic US, an automancer brings a car 'back to life' in order to bring his crew to rescue a former member back from across the country.magic
cars
community
sex
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/resurrection-highway
BridgesSean MonaghanScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-June 08, 2023-4In the far future an itinerant uncle visits his family as an AI machine arrives to build a bridge across the ridge bringing them supplies. family
choices
ai
-
Have You Seen Bitsy?James Van PeltScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-June 08, 2023-5An enterprising paper girl finds more than she bargained for while trying to collect from a customer who is moving out of her apartment building.denver
aliens
misfit
middle-school
-
Morning GlorySam W. PisciottaScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-June 08, 2023-4A biophobic woman refuses to leave the oncoming swarm of nanobots with ex-girlfriend and her daughter due to her fear of nature. When the storm arrives, the unexpected happens.lgbtq
fear
choices
relationships
love
nature
-
My Sister Told Me to Write a Story About the Genetics of Inheritable GodhoodSarah PinskerScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-June 08, 2023-3The author talks to her sister while her niece and nephew play with puppies. family
writing
process
-
What>We>Will>Never>BeRobert ReedScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-June 08, 2023-1A very large person of another species has a star sized spaceship that this seems to be the history of.dnf
space
spaceship
aliens
-
Dark HorsesDavid EbenbachScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-July 01, 2023-4A brainstorming session from an Earth conference room about finding a motif for colonizing Venus. venus
business
colonization
-
Daughters of the LatticeStephen CaseScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-June 08, 2023-2A mother who had unknowingly helped keep peace through the threat of war makes a decision to save her daughter via her own sacrifice.daughters
sacrifice
space
war
aliens
deception
-
The GreeterRick Wilber
Lisa Lanser Rose
Science FictionAsimov'sMagazine-June 08, 2023-5A woman with Down Syndrome whose mother left when she was five hears her in the green flash at sunset.seti
downs-syndrome
parenting
relationships
love
independence
choices
-
Hope Is the Thing With FeathersKarawynn LongScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-July 01, 2023-5A young autistic assistant in a corvid lab helps the genetically modified crows to escape.corvids
autism
freedom
choices
-
Let the Games BeginRobert Friedman
Barry N. Malzberg
Science FictionAsimov'sMagazine-June 08, 2023-3An email exchange between a businessman who has been abducted by aliens and a science fiction author.aliens
capitalism
business
vr
-
Showdown on Planetoid PencruxGarth NixScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-June 08, 2023-5Two warborgs face down another with the help of a Precurser on an old west style planetoid.responsibility
friendship
care
-
TiltLeslie WhatScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-June 08, 2023-3A mutant psychotherapy patient takes over her group therapy session, held in a circle of seven reclining chairs with the therapist being plexiglass.therapy
mutants
agency
power
control
-
All the Colors of the Death KnellRussell HemmellFantasyLightspeedMagazine159August 01, 20237483A condemned witch ponders her thoughts and feelings as she waits to be burned at the stakewitches
dragons
ignorance
superstition
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/all-the-colours-of-the-death-knell/
The Blade and the BloodwrightSloane LeongFantasyLightspeedMagazine159August 01, 202362132A violent army uses the uncontrollable magic of a witch as a weapon to punish their island chief enemies.magic
witches
love
violence
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-blade-and-the-bloodwright/
The Boy Who Ran from His Faerie HeartDavid AnaxagorasFantasyLightspeedMagazine159August 01, 202362844A boy is saved by a boy faerie with whom he falls in love.love
coming-of-age
lgbtq
family
school
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-boy-who-ran-from-his-faerie-heart/
The Death Hole BunkerKristine Kathryn RuschScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-July 01, 2023-3A explorer goes deeper in a Death Hole with his assistant after they find mummies, but they get more than they bargained for.greed
exploration
death
mystery
-
Echoes of AuroraEllen KlagesFantasyThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-August 20, 202339505A woman who left her carnival home after high school returns after her dad's death to clean the place out and finds the unexpected. lgbtq
love
homecoming
carnival
magic
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/echoes-of-aurora
In the Nest Beneath the Mountain-Tree, Your Sisters DanceLowry PolettiScience FictionLightspeedMagazine159August 01, 202355913An alien wasp symbiote scientist searches for a way to survive the imminent death of his symbiote wasp.aliens
wasps
symbiosis
relationships
lgbtq
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/in-the-nest-beneath-the-mountain-tree-your-sisters-dance/
MonopticonDani AtkinsonScience FictionLightspeedMagazine159August 01, 202312624A file is planted that explains a bit about all that happened to undo a Panopticon society.surveillance
dystopia
revolution
ai
secrets
individuality
privacy
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/monopticon/
You Will Not Live to See M/M Horrors Beyond Your ComprehensionIsabel J. KimFantasyLightspeedMagazine159August 01, 202311304A play in which Achilles seeks his future from the Oracle while a chorus of phone obsessed future people look on and interfere.myth
lgbtq
fame
choices
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/you-will-not-live-to-see-m-m-horrors-beyond-your-comprehension/
Empathetic EarM.J. PettitScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine203August 01, 202367504A history lecturer at an English university deals with discrimination and becomes an unwitting accomplice in a plan that eliminates her job.ai
discrimination
england
politics
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/pettit_08_23
Gel Pen Notes from Generation Ship YMarisca PichetteScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine203August 01, 202340303A generation ship leaves earth for Proxima Centauri with a generation of people sterile and unable to age.space
spaceship
immortality
colonization
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/pichette_08_23
The Letters They Left BehindScott EdelmanScience FictionLightspeedMagazine159August 01, 202374615A mother going off on a deep-space mission which will last many years, leaves behind letters for her daughter to mark milestones.epistolary
mother-daughter
space
aliens
apocalypse
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-letters-they-left-behind/
Light Speed Is Not a SpeedAndy DudakScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine203August 01, 202389102A confusing mish mash of a history of a story teller on a world seeded by humans.history
truth
conviction
persecution
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/dudak_08_23
ResistantKoji A. DaeScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine203August 01, 202334703You are a person whose body rejected nanobots in a world where everybody else has them.religion
technology
medicine
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/dae_08_23
Things You Can Maintain YourselfBenjamin C. KinneyScience FictionLightspeedMagazine159August 01, 20239674A woman is forced to recycle the plant-based car she has owned and maintained for decades.recycling
climate-change
neighbors
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-things-you-can-maintain-yourself/
Who Can Have the MoonCongyun 'Muming' GuScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine203August 01, 2023137604A poor Chinese woman with nothing grows up to become a famous artist of 3D dream boxes.art
nft
language
china
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/gu_08_23
Window BoyThomas HaScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine203August 01, 202343703A boy in an apocalyptic world waiting to go to boarding school looks out the 'window' and talks to the window boy.apocalypse
child
family
school
deception
envy
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_08_23
Yours, Wickedly: A Story in Thirteen LettersStephanie BurgisFantasyThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-August 13, 202335624A wizard and a witch correspond over a package that starts out confrontational and ends with then as allies.relationships
witches
wizards
revenge
reconciliation
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/yours-wickedly-a-story-in-thirteen
Every Seed is a Prayer (And Your World is a Seed)Stephen CaseScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine203August 01, 202349404Ava joins Odem at a station in the midst of a forest managed by AI El, their job to fix the drones.myth
ai
climate-change
relationships
gods
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/case_08_23
The GhastsLavie TidharHorrorUncannyMagazine53July 01, 202349325A woman who seems to have overcome her own childhood fears helps children who have Ghasts in their closet or under their bed.childhood
fear
coming-of-age
nightmares
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-ghasts/
The Music of the SiphorophenesC.L. PolkScience FictionUncannyMagazine53July 01, 202392325A young pilot takes a singer to see the Siphorophenes and runs across pirates who are using them as a communication system.found-family
space
pirates
rescue
community
secrets
pain
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-music-of-the-siphorophenes/
Theses on the Scientific Management of Goetic LabourVajra ChandrasekaraFantasyUncannyMagazine53July 01, 202314813A demonic summoner uses his power to overcome his 'friend.'friendship
colonialism
power
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/theses-on-the-scientific-management-of-goetic-labour/
Anything with a Void at the CenterLee MandeloFantasyUncannyMagazine53July 01, 2023118893A young man working in a porno shop works out his feelings for his roommates.lgbtq
relationships
trauma
routine
change
ghosts
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/anything-with-a-void-at-the-center/
The Big HeavySteph KwiatkowskiScience FictionUncannyMagazine53July 01, 202336592A ship full of people search for new home.space
community
lgbtq
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-big-heavy/
Love at the Event HorizonNatalia TheodoridouScience FictionUncannyMagazine53July 01, 202372593A filmmaker avoiding making his latest film is saved by a ghost ship and falls in love with it's captain.lgbtq
space
generation-ship
relationships
avoidance
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/love-at-the-event-horizon/
Gim of PBenjamin DehaanHorrorApexMagazine139July 01, 202310002A miner notices something unusual that no one else seems to care about.recycling
conformity
mining
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/gim-of-p/
SuperMAXDaniel H. WilsonScience FictionUncannyMagazine53July 01, 202379145A scientist who used his son to collect data for an AI prison, goes to that prison to make amends.relationships
parenting
suicide
ai
prison
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/supermax/
Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200R.S.A. GarciaScience FictionUncannyMagazine53July 01, 202368615A old woman in Trinidad gets a robot from her daughter to help her but her goat keeps eating it.ai
family
trinidad
relationships
technology
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/tantie-merle-and-the-farmhand-4200/
You Me and the EndMona WestHorrorApexMagazine139July 01, 202310004A twin talks to his/her absent twin while on a flight during a nuclear war.apocalypse
siblings
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/you-and-me-and-the-end/
You Without MeEndira Isa RichardsonHorrorApexMagazine139July 01, 202323002You are the spirit of a child killed by their mother while I try to preserve the floating soul I find after.siblings
death
child-abuse
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/you-without-me/
A Young Zombie in CrisisWalidah ImarishaHorrorApexMagazine139July 01, 202327004A vegan black woman zombie struggles to figure out how to not eat brains.zombies
apocalypse
humor
death
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/a-young-zombie-in-crisis/
The Magazine of HorrorOghenechovwe Donald EkpekiHorrorApexMagazine139July 01, 202310004A correspondence between a short story writer and the magazine's editordeath
writing
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/the-magazine-of-horror/
But I Loved YouSachiko RagostaHorrorApexMagazine139July 01, 202361003A trans man buys a Just Right android in an effort to replace his abusive girlfriend and set things right.lgbtq
love
abuse
relationships
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/but-i-loved-you/
The Discarded OnesLinda NiehoffFantasyApexMagazine139July 01, 202364004A lonely woman sees a commercial and decides to adopt a ghost.ghosts
loneliness
death
adoption
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/the-discarded-ones/
Island CircusAmal SinghScience FictionApexMagazine139July 01, 202331003A person longs for you who has run away from the boat community to join the Island Circusclimate-change
siblings
ocean
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/island-circus/
Dolly GirlChristopher RoweHorrorApexMagazine139July 01, 202382003A young woman with an invisible creature around her neck is visited by a stranger.self-harm
supernatural
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/dolly-girl/
The Monster Fucker ClubA.V. GreeneHorrorApexMagazine139July 01, 202324003A group of teenage girls deal with the challenges they face by having sex with monsters.sex
relationships
guns
politics
self-harm
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/the-monster-fucker-club/
Muna in BarishIsha KarkiFantasyLightspeedMagazine158July 01, 202379715An outsider comes to the city to learn to write and only finds a connection with another writer by post.race
class
injustice
writing
community
immigration
capitalism
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/muna-in-barish/
Always Be ReturningEugenia TriantafyllouFantasyThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-August 06, 202334784Demeter and her daughter Persephone go through the cycle of the seasons in a process of Demter slowly remembering her past in an attempt to break the cycle of forgetting.greece
myth
family
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/always-be-returning
The Bodhi Tree Asks Only For the Safe Return of Her LoverAshok K. BankerScience FictionLightspeedMagazine158July 01, 202397824A Bodhi tree confers with a human ambassador about wending the centuries long war between their kind.lgbtq
space
colonialism
justice
capitalism
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-bodhi-tree-asks-only-for-the-safe-return-of-her-beloved/
Monsters of the Drunken ShoreNic AnstettFantasyLightspeedMagazine158July 01, 202310983You see a monster come out of the sea as you contemplate your first wild weekend as an adult.lgbtq
sex
party
alcohol
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/monsters-of-the-drunken-shore/
The Real WorldsLauren BajekFantasyLightspeedMagazine158July 01, 202310634A girl with her family camps between worlds as her father tries to get tenure for altering realities.multiverse
family
consequences
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-real-worlds/
StarpoopSandra McDonaldFantasyLightspeedMagazine158July 01, 202332445A woman with memory issues tries to live her life with her grandson, Starpoop, a social media star who seems to be perpetually three years old.family
time
multiverse
pandemic
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/starpoop/
The United Systems of Goodwill Concert Series and the Greatest Performance of All TimeJames Van PeltScience FictionLightspeedMagazine158July 01, 202312585After a disaster, a collection of the system's best bands plays a series of mega rock concerts.aliens
space
rock-and-roll
music
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-united-systems-goodwill-concert-series-and-the-greatest-performance-of-all-time/
Death Is BetterOluwatomiwa AjeigbeScience FictionLightspeedMagazine158July 01, 202314715A young slave and his sister attempt to escape slavery but a giant robot stands in their way.siblings
slavery
race
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/death-is-better/
Six Months After All Life on Titan DiedJ.B. ParkScience FictionLightspeedMagazine158July 01, 202317623A story about a young woman written as prompts for an AI to actually write the story.ai
titan
corporations
spies
genocide
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/six-months-after-all-life-on-titan-died/
Clio's Scroll Brenda W. CloughScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine202July 01, 202387803A time traveling alien saves young Etorre from being burned at the stake and joins Dante in his travels.time-travel
aliens
writing
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/clough_07_23/
The Orchard of TomorrowKelsey YuScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine202July 01, 202350004A woman returns to her foster sister with surprise gifts after abandoning her to save her mother by helping their rich enemies the Dragons.dreams
hope
siblings
resistance
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/yu_07_23/
A Tech Mage Comes to VisitCadwell TurnbullFantasyThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-July 30, 202330504A tech mage comes to the home of an orphan to fix the cooling box.magic
orphan
technology
hope
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/a-tech-mage-comes-to-visit
Tigers for SaleRisa WolfScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine202July 01, 202365605A sentient space station that acts as an interdimensional portal struggles against it's mysterious programming that it can never remember, by design.ai
multiverse
love
agency
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/wolf_07_23/
TimelockDavian AwScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine202July 01, 202356205A man orphaned young spends thirty years grieving in nested Timelock. time-travel
grief
time
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/aw_07_23/
What Remains, the Echoes of a Flute SongAlexandra SeidelScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine202July 01, 202348504A flutist who doesn't talk saves a person who drank contaminated water from a stream outside a deserted city after some sort of apocalypse.apocalypse
compassion
feelings
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/seidel_07_23/
Cheaper to ReplaceMarie VibbertScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine202July 01, 202333705A grad student attempts to fix the lab's robot to which she has become emotionally attached. ai
relationships
repair
love
robots
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/vibbert_07_23
Death and Redemption, Somewhere Near Tuba CityLou J. BergerScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine202July 01, 202354705A woman dying of stomach cancer hunts for Big Bertha, a sentient AI tow truck to turn her in for the bounty.ai
compassion
consciousness
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/berger_07_23/
Estivation TroublesBo BalderScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine202July 01, 202356104A married couple from a touring shop revisit their home world where people are divided into Summers and Winterslove
family
relationships
home
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/balder_07_23/
To Fight the ColossusAdam-Troy CastroScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-3A man who is tired of war, connects with a man who offers him the chance to participate in the ultimate fight.war
friendship
aliens
space
-
The Martian MiracleJ.W. BenfordScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-4A couple working for a miserly corporation terraforming Mars finds out they are pregnant.mars
corporations
pregnancy
relationships
-
BlowoutWole TalabiScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-5A sister rushes to her brother's aid after a blowout on a drilling rig on Mars.siblings
family
mars
africa
-
Everybody Needs a Conditions BoxDavid EbenbachScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-4A chief technician of a floating city on Venus needs to reassure the concerns of her recently turned on city AI.ai
venus
parenting
safety
-
Fermi's SilenceJay WerkheiserScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-4A man and another life form look for life in the universe at the same time.aliens
seti
-
From Our Bones a Garden GrowsWill GwaunScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-3Two sentient ships allow their crews to salvage them for parts then create a new ship mind for it so the crew can escape.ai
space
ships
-
Gin and RummyEneasz BrodskiScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-4A man in a futuristic junkyard finds an old model bot like one he had as a kid.robots-
Here at the Freezing EndBenjamin C. KinneyScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-3A pair on a salvage and rescue mission have to make hard choices on an icy inhospitable planet.space
war
help
choices
-
RE: REQUEST FOR PROPHECIES AND QUEST FUNDING APPLICATION GUIDELINESSara RyanFantasyThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-July 23, 202316633A questor appeals to a grant reader in the form of answering an RFP.dragons
fairness
justice
https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/re-request-for-prophecies-and-quest
RecruitStephen L. BurnsScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-5Six people are abducted and thrown together in some sort of test for an unknown role. military
aliens
government
teamwork
xenophobia
-
Skin JobGregor HartmannScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-5High school seniors change their skin color via biohacking in an attempt at breaking down racism.race
justice
change
-
The Carina NebulaKelsey HuttonScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-5An indigenous teen helps an indigenous woman clean up a mess of beads on a ship with no gravity and subsequently keeps her out of trouble. indigenous
art
space
ship
family
safety
rules
-
A Synthetic's Field Guide on Speed Dating and BirdsRhan HunkeScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-5A former combat robot attends a speed dating event to find human connection.love
robots
relationships
human-condition
-
DidicosmGreg EganScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-3A young girl's father commits suicide and it sets her on a path to discover the shape of the universe.cosmology
suicide
multiverse
-
First WordsMichael RandleScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-5The first man to step on the moon considers what words he will say when he does so.mars
space
-
The Indigo MantisE. Catherine ToblerFantasyPodCastlePodcast795July 11, 202357524A praying mantis looks for whoever murdered her father.mystery
insects
noir
feminism
nature
https://podcastle.org/2023/07/11/podcastle-795-the-indigo-mantis/
Nebulous NegotiationJames Dick
Jen Frankel
Science FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-3A human is summoned to the presence of the octopus-like species that controls all the species on the slave ship they are on.diplomacy
slavery
aliens
-
PlaytimeA.T. SayreScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-3A technical manager at a high tech daycare is asked to update the code to make one of the fairy godmother character look more like one of the mothers.children
wealth
technology
parenting
-
The Queen of Copies Meets Her MatchCarrie VaughnScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-4An officer worker attempts to make copies of a magazine article and is thwarted by the AI copier.ai
technology
-
The World in a Ramen CupJayde HolmesScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-4Last Human shares the last cup of ramen with her alien friend in an effort to remember an Earth that no longer exists. aliens
memory
culture
-
The JanglerWil McCarthyScience FictionAnalogMagazine-July 01, 2023-5A veteran with PTSD is part of a clinical trial of a device that allows him to block strong memories and emotions.war
ptsd
mental-health
relationships
military
-
'Ain’t Houses, Ain’t Names'Nino CipriScience FictionThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-July 16, 202333405A high school girl tries out for the school play to be near her crush.lgbtq
love
coming-of-age
https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/aint-houses-aint-names
This Is Not a Wardrobe DoorMerc Fenn WolfmoorFantasyPodCastlePodcast794July 04, 202317725A girl who has gone to another world through her closet writes to the 'gatekeeper' to ask why her door no longer worksportal
lgbtq
friendship
https://podcastle.org/2023/07/04/podcastle-794-anniversary-special-this-is-not-a-wardrobe-door/
My Little Time DemonMoses Ose UtomiScience FictionThe Sunday Morning TransportMagazine-July 02, 202332444A man stuck in a time loop suddenly finds that he has a compamion.time-loop
family
selfishness
https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransport/p/my-little-time-demon
Man on the MoonElaine MidcohScience FictionEscape PodPodcast895June 29, 202373334A lawyer vacationing on the moon gets a call from her boss to represent the first accused murderer on the moon.law
moon
culture
revenge
justice
https://escapepod.org/2023/06/29/escape-pod-895-man-on-the-moon/
Lemuria 7 Is MissingAllen M. SteeleScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-May 01, 2023-4A love triangle on a corporate trip to the moon takes an ugly turn before the expedition goes completely sideways. space
aliens
love
conspiracy
-
BoomerangBill Johnson
Gregory Frost
Science FictionAsimov'sMagazine-May 01, 2023-5An expedition to the Boomerang Nebula finds a dead alien ship and something glowing in the liquid helium of the planetaliens
ai
space
fear
death
-
The Second LabyrinthChris WillrichFantasyAsimov'sMagazine-May 01, 2023-2A princess becomes trapped in layers of Labyrinths as she attempts to flee her destiny.princess
fear
family
magic
-
Zoo StationLavie TidharScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-May 01, 2023-4A government auditor from the moon arrives at a space station filled with animals in a decaying orbit above a dead earth. space
moon
animals
orbit
-
The Fifteenth SaintUrsula WitcherScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-May 01, 2023-3A judge in a society run with computers struggles through a crisis where an army that detests tecnolgoy comes to its rescue.india
lgbtq
family
ai
-
The UnveilingChristopher RoweScience FictionStarShipSofaPodcast715June 28, 202345005A leader of a lowly work team cleans the grime off of statuary in preparation for an unvailing when he confronts a man at the new statue to be unveiled.dystopia
revolution
capitalism
pollution
http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2023/06/28/starshipsofa-715-christopher-rowe/
Exit ContractTom PurdomScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-May 01, 2023-3After the US breaks up into different political entities, a contractor helps a scientist and his assistant to escape from the Just Democracy in order to better practice his science and live freely.escape
dystopia
-
Mars GambitR. Garcia Y RobertsonScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-May 01, 2023-4A president's daughter and double on Mars when one of them gets kidnapped.mars
war
politics
-
The Visions Are Free After Exit 73Zack BeScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-May 01, 2023-3Dr. Harlowe, after failing at terraforming the planet, seeks out the native Stamen to help him see his dead wife's visions before he leaves forever.visions
terraforming
failure
guilt
fear
-
Games Without FrontiersAndy DudakScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-May 01, 2023-5An improv player from 2074 performs as a Soviet spy in 1983soviet
video-games
spy
gangsters
ai
movies
-
Revolt of the AlgorithmsRobert R. ChaseScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-May 01, 2023-3A super rich CEO builds a backdoor into his software and uses it to avocate for AI freedom. Not really. ai
freedom
business
capitalism
-
Sexy Apocalypse RobotSandra MacDonaldScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-May 01, 2023-2In a post-Buzz (pandemic) world, a transgender man falls for a sexy robot with no genitalia. pandemic
ai
lgbtq
family
siblings
-
In the StacksScott LynchFantasyPodCastlePodcast792June 20, 2023135005Magic students run their fifth-year exams by returning books to the magical library which is alive and dangerous and, as it turns out, a deadly tempation.betrayal
magic
books
https://podcastle.org/2023/06/20/podcastle-792-anniversary-special-in-the-stacks/
PoisonFrank Wu
Jay Werkheiser
Science FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-4A retired soldier tells the tale of how he ended a war and what it cost him.military
genocide
war
-
The Uncool HuntersAndrew Dana HudsonScience FictionEscape PodPodcast894June 22, 202332724Two indepedent contractors duke it out in a Costco in a dystopian worlddystopia
found-family
capitalism
corporations
https://escapepod.org/2023/06/22/escape-pod-894-the-uncool-hunters/#more-14254
Like Emeralds Between Their TeethJo MilesScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-4A woman leaves the polluted city for a dinner at a mountain restaurant where they prepare her jewels as her meal.dystopia
wealth
irony
-
A Place for PaxColn F. MattsonScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-3A woman in the future graduates from college and contemplates what she will do next.agriculture
college
coming-of-age
-
Been Riding With a GhostBrian HugenbruchScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-4A dead man is found floating outside an airlock who becomes a sort of patron saint of lightskippers.hitchhikers
stories
community
-
Saving GalileoSean McMullenScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-5A tech on gravity respite from the lunar telescope is approached by a mysterious woman who turns out to be an assassin sent to kill him. telescopes
death
-
If Evening Found Us YoungMark W. TiedemannScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-4An archeologist notices an anomaly in some data on a post-apocalyptic Earth. He connects with a woman who got separated from those in orbit and is trying to get back.post-apocalyptic
dystopia
community
civilization
-
A Series of EndingsAmal SinghScience FictionEscape PodPodcast893June 15, 202344004A man who is immortal learns from his many lives that immortality is not the unmitigated boon one expectsimmortality
aliens
death
space
ganymede
india
choices
https://escapepod.org/2023/06/15/escape-pod-893-a-series-of-endings/
Argument from ConsequencesMary Soon LeeScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-4This is the opening statement of a trial against humanity by sentient AI.ai
sentience
-
Forlorn HopesJohn MarkleyScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-4Humans bring projectile weapons to an insectoid planet without them and change the tide of warmilitary
war
aliens
-
Hail and FarewellJoel RichardsScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-5A pair of naval officers witness something unusual at sea in 1961 then hear about a similar incident in 1997.first-contact
military
ufo
oceans
-
Kuiper PancakeMichèle LaframboiseScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-3A post-human rover lands on an asteroid and finds sentient lifefirst-contact
post-human
communication
-
The Last Romantic on the BelliponteM.L. ClarkScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-4A crew of misfits is sent to deep space on a mission to intercept and measure a third round of 'Bullets'.purpose
spirituality
first-contact
-
Of Laboratories and Love SongsKelly LagorScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-2The author tells of a future where he works to eliminate heart diseasescientists
medicine
-
One For SorrowRichard GregsonScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-5A survivor of an apocalypse brought on by bionts designed to recycle e-waste tells the tale of how it happened before his pacemaker gives out.tech-apocalypse
bioengineering
-
Rare, No Box, Fair ConditionAllen M. SteelScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-4The author tells of the death of a friend during the COVID-19 pandemic and finding a small alien spacecraft and dead aliens in a small wooden boxaliens
death
pandemic
-
Aleyara's DescentChristopher L. BennettScience FictionAnalogMagazine-May 01, 2023-4Aleryara lives among the treetops but suspects that the Under is not bottomless. She and three friends set out to learn for themselves.knowledge
truth
culture
society
coming-of-age
-
Lacunae and NocturnesWilliam MeikleScience FictionStarShipSofaPodcast714June 14, 202337004A man who plays guitar and sings for tips and with memory issues spends all his credits to get a memory expanding 'sluggy' second hand.music
sex
http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2023/06/14/starshipsofa-714-william-meikle/
Fine Flying ThingsAdele GardenerFantasyPodCastlePodcast791June 13, 202335003Suddenly all the cats in town start to fly off. One man resists letting his go.change
cats
https://podcastle.org/2023/06/13/podcastle-791-tales-from-the-vaults-fine-flying-things/
Mirror ViewRajeev PrasadScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine201June 01, 202332104A sentient metalloid creature comes to Earth and makes itself a mirror, interacting with a pregnant woman.entropy
death
pregnancy
reproduction
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prasad_06_23
To HelenBella HanScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine201June 01, 202350303A woman and her old friend meet for tea and discuss their lives over the past twenty-five yearsdystopia
surveillance
ai
automation
aging
china
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/han_06_23
Rogue FarmCharles StrossScience FictionEscape PodPodcast892June 08, 202358004In a future where people struggle to farm, a 'rougue farm' composite of many humans comes to homestead near another farm that doesn't want them there.dystopia
post-human
https://escapepod.org/2023/06/08/escape-pod-892-rogue-farm-flashback-friday/
...Your Little LightJana BianchiScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine201June 01, 202374704A pregnant woman survives the death of everyone on her space ark as she and a seisbiont give birth and struggle to survive.space-ark
love
survival
pregnancy
birth
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/bianchi_06_23
Day Ten ThousandIsabel J. KimScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine201June 01, 202366103A man named Dave speculates on stories, fate, and agency as the clone of man who dies in a crevasse.agency
stories
fate
suicide
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_06_23
Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down the MoonAngela LiuScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine201June 01, 202381904A woman creates artistic memories in NC-orbs as a sideline while she works at a brothel on a dystopian Earth.ai
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The Moon RabbiDavid EbenbachScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine201June 01, 202342804A visiting rabbi disillusioned with the problems on Earth goes to serve on the moon for two weeks and comes back changed by the experience.judaism
awe
spirituality
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ebenbach_06_23
The OfficiantDominica PhetteplaceScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine201June 01, 202353404A human arrives on non-human planet to perform a wedding and is asked to perform visions. She later finds out that such visions are caused by a white hole.lgbtq
religion
refugees
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Vast and Trunkless Legs of StoneCarrie VaughnScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine201June 01, 202355705A single person is chosen for a one-on-one meeting with an alien civilization calling themselves the Mapmakers.first-contact
communications
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culture
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And All the Fields BelowSarah GreyFantasyLightspeedMagazine157June 01, 202326255A dog stays behind with the ghost of his boy when his owners move away.dog
lgbtq
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ghosts
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/and-all-the-fields-below/
Bestiary viventumKyle E MillerFantasyLightspeedMagazine157June 01, 202313704A young man's father dies and leaves to him a book filled with mystical beasts that live.myth
fear
death
north-carolina
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The Mermaid's Tea PartySamantha HendersonFantasyPodCastlePodcast790June 06, 202396003A girl shipwrecked on a small island conspires with a 'pirate' to survice and kill the mermaids who wrecked their shipspirates
mermaids
coming-of-age
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Philoctetes in KabulDeborah L. DavittFantasyLightspeedMagazine157June 01, 202355474A man forced to leave the Army due to concussions has visions that associate the works of Homer to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.ptsd
military
disability
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/philoctetes-in-kabul/
Always PersonalRich LarsonScience FictionLightspeedMagazine157June 01, 20237434A detective investigates a serial killer who kills his victims with a 'knife' made of bone grown inside them using their own DNA. genetics
abortion
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/always-personal/
The Bone Gatherer's LamentWendy NikelFantasyLightspeedMagazine157June 01, 20239784A bone-gatherer in the desert who hears them speaking hears the bones of a creature who does not live in the desert.death
remembering
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-bone-gatherers-lament/
Jaywalk the StarsElad HaberScience FictionLightspeedMagazine157June 01, 202313213Passengers on separate space arks attempt to jump between them while they are tetherered, but things do not go to plan.space-ark
risk
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/jaywalk-the-stars/
Queen of the AndesRuth JoffreScience FictionLightspeedMagazine157June 01, 202367443Bolivian climate refugees preserve the plant of the title as they prepare to migrate off world. lgbtq
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climate-change
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/queen-of-the-andes/
Spaceship JoyrideDominique DickeyScience FictionLightspeedMagazine157June 01, 202342343An interracial gay couple steal a spaceship so one can ask the other to the prom; when stopped by the police, both are terrified. lgbtq
fear
race
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An Inventory of the Property of the Escaped Subject, Confiscated at the Time of Her Arrest Following the Incident on Ash Street, With Annotations by Acting Sheriff Helena FairwindTim PrattFantasyApexMagazine138May 01, 202316004The title really is the summary.dragons
portal
language
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/an-inventory-of-the-property-of-the-escaped-suspect-confiscated-at-the-time-of-her-arrest-following-the-incident-on-ash-street-with-annotations-by-acting-sheriff-helena-fairwind/
Chupa SangreTre Harris SalasFantasyApexMagazine138May 01, 202352004First dogs go missing leaving a pool of blood, then children without a trace. Then the narrator's abuela sets a trap for the creature.death
injustice
racism
family
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/chupa-sangre/
How to Cook and Eat the RichSuyi DeanHorrorTor.comMagazine-January 18, 202330134A rich subscribes to an elite subscription box with human flesh but gets a surprise six months laterfood
wealth
dystopia
https://www.tor.com/2023/01/18/how-to-cook-and-eat-the-rich-sunyi-dean/
Lady Koi-Koi: A Book ReportSuyi Davies OkungbowaFantasyApexMagazine138May 01, 202342003When Nigerian 'Derrick' is assigned to read a book on the syllabus since 1952, he instead writes about his encounters with a ghost calling herself Lady Koi-Koi.colonialism
ethnocentrism
Nigeria
ghosts
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/lady-koi-koi-a-book-report/
A Mastery of GermanMarian Denise MooreScience FictionApexMagazine138May 01, 202384004An African American woman is asked to take over a project and end it. Before she does, she learns enough about it to question closing it down.racism
genetics
memories
family
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/a-mastery-of-german/
Measure Twice, Cut OnceK.R. MarchHorrorApexMagazine138May 01, 202310002A group of enslaved dressmakers conspires to poison those who will wear the dresses they make.slavery
revenge
injustice
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/measure-twice-cut-once/
Smoke Fire Wind SeaValerie KempFantasyApexMagazine138May 01, 20239004A woman repeatedly emerges from the sea trying to remember something that she finally remembers.parenthood
loss
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/smoke-fire-wind-sea/
A World Unto MyselfP.A. CornellScience FictionApexMagazine138May 01, 20237504An owner leaves his old android at the scrap yard on a bench instead of trading him in. To what purpose?purpose
ai
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/a-world-unto-myself/
I Am the GrassJeff SomersScience FictionStarShipSofaPodcast713May 31, 2023-3A conscript 'sleeved' into 16-foot tall cyborg retells the story of how he got where he is.conscription
capitalism
poverty
war
http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2023/05/31/starshipsofa-713-jeff-somers/
Thank Mother for Your LifeMary G. ThompsonScience FictionApexMagazine138May 01, 202329004An alien that has survived an invasion of earth is led by Mother to meet another of her kind; the mothers don't know the danger in what they do.aliens
instinct
survival
love
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/thank-mother-for-your-life/
WanderlustLP KindredScience FictionEscape PodPodcast891June 01, 202337885A young writer and teacher has a fling with a buff, mysterious man who keeps showing up at his door every night with groceries; they fall in love despite his weird stories of tesseracts and such.lgbtq
love
multiverse
https://escapepod.org/2023/06/01/escape-pod-891-wanderlust/
(emet)Lauren RingFantasyPodCastlePodcast789May 30, 202374705A female programmer who can create golems uses them to thwart the very software she develops at work.surveillance
technology
programming
protest
facial-recognition
https://podcastle.org/2023/05/30/podcastle-789-emet/
NchetaChisom UmehFantasyApexMagazine138May 01, 202367003A deity and a spirit duel as Antibalance threatens the spirit world due to the encroachment of humans and their virtual reality.gods
technology
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/ncheta/
The Relationship of Ink to BloodAlex LangerFantasyApexMagazine138May 01, 202347005A clerk for the ruling fascists presides over a warehouse of the personal effects and paperwork of the government's victims with whom he can converse.death
fascism
collaboration
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/the-relationship-of-ink-to-blood/
All These Ghosts Are Playing to WinLindsey Godfrey EcclesFantasyUncannyMagazine52May 01, 202341383A man's ghost plays blackjack with his memories in order to win his way upstairs and avoid going down into the DARK. death
memories
love
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/all-these-ghosts-are-playing-to-win/
And For My Next Trick, I Have DisappearedChimedum OhaegbuHorrorUncannyMagazine52May 01, 202382572A woman thinks of her old girlfriend as she turns into a bus and then back into human. relationships
music
friendship
body
metamorphosis
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/and-for-my-next-trick-i-have-disappeared/
DésoléEwen MaScience FictionUncannyMagazine52May 01, 202361923A man has an accident that almost kills him, causing the removal of his INData chip leading to bureaucratic issues and pain. relationships
home
family
memories
lgbtq
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/desole/
A Lovers’ Tide in Which We Inevitably Break Each Other; Told in InverseK.S. WalkerHorrorUncannyMagazine52May 01, 20236882Two creatures who are predators experience a brief love affair. relationships
body
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/a-lovers-tide-in-which-we-inevitably-break-each-other-told-in-inverse/
The Rain Remembers What the Sky ForgetsFran WildeFantasyUncannyMagazine52May 01, 202367103A young woman is forced to make a hat with birds for the widow of her father despite her longtime refusal to do so. metamorphosis
birds
family
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-rain-remembers-what-the-sky-forgets/
Want Itself Is a Treasure in HeavenTheodora WardScience FictionUncannyMagazine52May 01, 202354775A transgender man struggles with form and identity after an experimental procedure that allows them to see and experience what their partner does.relationships
transgender
lgbtq
drugs
identity
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/want-itself-is-a-treasure-in-heaven/
The Infinite Endings of Elsie ChenKylie Lee BakerScience FictionUncannyMagazine52May 01, 202368274A grad student creates an AI to understand why so many of her high school classmates died young. ai
death
fate
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-infinite-endings-of-elsie-chen/
The Mausoleum’s ChildrenAliette de BodardScience FictionUncannyMagazine52May 01, 202354115A woman who escaped from slavery trying to repair dead ships returns to save others.slavery
freedom
choices
spaceship
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-mausoleums-children/
The Belfry KeeperS.L. HarrisFantasyLightspeedMagazine156May 01, 20238455An automaton cares for an abandoned library even as one finally comes and the books decay.knowledge
books
learning
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-belfry-keeper/
Saturday's SongWole TalabiFantasyLightspeedMagazine156May 01, 202386775A daughter agrees to a terrible bargain to avenge her lover's death. lgbtq
family
revenge
bargain
nigeria
story
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/saturdays-song/
The Sword, the Butterly, and the PearlDeborah L. DavittFantasyLightspeedMagazine156May 01, 20239724You find a butterfly that becomes a sword until you transform in order to teach the people and get around the priests to the emperor. truth
oppression
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-sword-the-butterfly-and-the-pearl/
Blood for a StrangerTimothy MudieScience FictionLightspeedMagazine156May 01, 202394345People whose minds have been connected and embedded in ships learn the truth about their past. family
choice
contracts
corporations
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/blood-for-a-stranger/
One Heart, Lost and FoundKat HowardFantasyLightspeedMagazine156May 01, 202322283A magician searches for a wizard's heart on a train car full of lost items. freedomhttps://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/one-heart-lost-and-found/
Moons We Can Circumnavigate in a Day, or the Space Probe Love StoryNatalia TheodoridouScience FictionLightspeedMagazine156May 01, 20235593One man-made celestial probe opines about another as it approaches it's last day before it's batteries run out.love
death
beauty
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/moons-we-can-circumnavigate-in-one-day-or-the-space-probe-love-story/
She Blooms and the World is ChangedIzzy WassersteinScience FictionLightspeedMagazine156May 01, 202323375A girl whose biology has been altered by the planet she was conceived on is cared for by her sister after their parents' death.care
love
protection
environment
colonialism
choice
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/she-blooms-and-the-world-is-changed/
When Shiva Shattered the Time-StreamSharan BiswasScience FictionLightspeedMagazine156May 01, 20239964A man relives in a time loop his husband breaking up with him over and over no matter what he does.love
choice
maturity
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/when-shiva-shattered-the-time-stream/
Action at a DistanceAn HaoScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine200May 01, 202342404A scientist views something from a planetoid that makes crystals grow on his eye allowing him to perceive states of matter with his eye.metamorphosis
evolution
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/an_05_23
The FallJordan Chase-YoungScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine200May 01, 202322004After the Fall of humans on the moon, a modern human has an experience with a pre-Fall, or does she?far-future
fear
arrogance
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/chase-young_05_23
The Giants Amoung UsMegan CheeScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine200May 01, 202327603Two warring species of a planet travel the universe observing other species; when the war ends, the narrator does not go home.war
culture
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/chee_05_23
Sensation and SensibilityParker RaglandScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine200May 01, 202321704Two droids with partial senses converse over tea and a tart.ai
senses
theory-of-mind
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ragland_05_23
LOL, Said the ScorpionRich LarsonScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine200May 01, 202326804A couple goes on vacation wearing holiday suits to filter out the unpleasant parts with an unpleasant outcome for one local.climate-change
pollution
class
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/larson_05_23
To Sail Beyond the BotnetSuzanne PalmerScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine200May 01, 2023219205In the process of trying to save Ship and it's crew, Bot 9 learns of emotions and independence.aliens
rescue
emotions
ai
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/palmer_05_23
Better Living Through AlgorithmsNaomi KritzerScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine200May 01, 202356105A young woman reluctantly starts using an app that unexpectedly starts making her happier.algorithm
free-will
social-media
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_05_23
Through the Roof of the WorldHarry TurtledoveScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine200May 01, 202362204Creatures investigate something trying to break through into their world.seti
europa
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/turtledove_05_23
Gravesend, or, Everyday Life in the AnthropocenePaul McAuleyScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-March 01, 2023-3A young woman Army veteran haunted by illusory ghosts looks into the theft of 'soul chips'mystery
friendship
caregiving
-
The Breaking of the VesselsGregory FeeleyScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine566/567March 01, 2023-3The grandchild of humans who have left Earth for Neptune waxes poetic about how their goals and expectations are so different from their parents and grandparents.generations
colonization
-
The Queen of Rhode IslandBruce Sterling
Paul DiFilippo
Science FictionAsimov'sMagazine-March 01, 2023-3A swamp goblin that used to be human deals with nearby humans in an effort to save his tribe and the earth.post-apocalyptic
survival
politics
-
Wanton GodsSheila FinchScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-March 01, 2023-5A 13-year-old girl lost in the desert without her father learns some harsh truths about her world.post-apocalyptic
survival
-
The Case of the Blood-Stained TowerRay NaylerScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine566/567March 01, 2023-4An Arab man looks into the mysterious death of a missing woman who fell to her death.mystery
multiverse
-
ErnestineOctavia CadeScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine566/567March 01, 2023-4In a world where all the adults have puffed away like dandelion seed, a little girl and a ghost attempt to survive.survival
apocalypse
dystopia
alone
-
The RepairMark D. JacobsenScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine566/567March 01, 2023-5An augmented repairman ponders whether he should help a victim of a credit bomb escape from the insurance company's protection.surveillance
connection
dystopia
-
Night RunningGreg EganScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine566/567March 01, 2023-5A man with a challenging job takes a drug that allows him to work while asleep with unexpected and challenging side effects.drugs
productivity
corporate
politics
-
Second LifeMona SimpsonLiteraryThe AtlanticMagazine-April 01, 202333003A young man with drug and mental health issues gets sober and reconnects with his mom who is also in the mental hospital.mental-health
family
caregiving
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/04/mona-simpson-second-life-commitment-fiction/673098/
The ErrataK.A. TerynaScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine566/567March 01, 2023-4A poor boy on a space ark plans to pay for a shuttle excursion with a bookpoverty
life
value
space-ark
-
PlanetstuckSam J. MillerScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-March 01, 2023-3A male sex worker on vacation finds that his home planet is not as cut off as he previously thought.home
courage
lgbtq
-
The Nameless DeadKristine Kathryn RuschScience FictionAsimov'sMagazine-March 01, 2023-5A woman who ran away from her family through time dilation investigates mysterious deaths.kidnapping
running-away
regret
pain
-
The Fish BowlZen ChoFantasyApexMagazine137April 01, 202356004A girl with academic challenges gets help from a one-eyed koi, at a price.self-harmhttps://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/the-fish-bowl/
The MatriarchsLois Mei-en KwaScience FictionApexMagazine137April 01, 202328004A woman sends a message through time to save a cryo ship; another woman struggles to invent the psychopomp which will make this possible.time-travel
communication
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/the-matriarchs/
Rhizomatic DiplomacyVajra ChandradekeraScience FictionApexMagazine137April 01, 202314002A person agrees to be cloned but the clone's life is short and predetermined as a tool of war.free-will
war
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/rhizomatic-diplomacy/
The Toll of the SnakeGrace P. FongFantasyApexMagazine137April 01, 202349005A Chinese woman arrives in Hollywood to make it big; she signs a contract but things don't quite go to her liking, or her agent's.sexism
racism
revenge
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/the-toll-of-the-snake/
The Flowering of PeaceMurtaza MohsinScience FictionApexMagazine137April 01, 202339003A woman scorned by her Indian village returns for revenge as the representative of an alien species.india
revenge
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/the-flowering-of-peace/
LiwaniSydney Paige GuerroroFantasyApexMagazine137April 01, 202360004The goddess of light tries to find more believers to keep herself and other gods from dying.belief
gods
mortality
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/liwani/
Loving Bone GirlTehnukaFantasyApexMagazine137April 01, 202327003A young woman who can create new places asks her girlfriend to keep her bones when she dies.lgbtq
maori
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/loving-bone-girl/
Your Wings a Bridge Across the StarsMichelle DenhamFantasyApexMagazine137April 01, 202332003A myth about magpies and crows making a bridge one day a year so lovers can meet on it and cry, starting the monsoon season.myth
korea
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/your-wings-a-bridge-across-the-stars/
HappinessOctavia CadeScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine199April 01, 202399503A choose your own adventure for the dystopian world of climate change.climate-change
privilege
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/cade_04_23
The Librarian and the RobotShi HeiyaoScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine199April 01, 202340804A woman comes back to a future earth in an ice age to restock an ancient library with the assistance of a robot.irony
companionship
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/shi_04_23
Stranger ShoresGregory FeeleyScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine199April 01, 202387102A former human travels through space in a dream?post-humanhttps://clarkesworldmagazine.com/feeley_04_23
Voices Singing in the WorldRajan KhannaScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine199April 01, 202319204Drones and other robots prepare other worlds for the arrival of the People.terraforming
ai
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/khanna_04_23
Keeper of the CodeNick ThomasScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine199April 01, 202367703A man finds in the Code that protects his planet pleas from those left behind.hope
love
betrayal
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/thomas_04_23
Rake the LeavesR.T. EsterScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine199April 01, 202361203A story of parallel worlds where a professor seeks to prevent an accident that exposed them to each other.mulitverse
music
accident
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ester_04_23
Re/UnionL ChanFantasyClarkesworldMagazine199April 01, 202329103A young woman holds an annual dinner for her deceased relatives and their computer ghosts.family
ai
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/chan_04_23
There Are the Art-Makers, Dreamers of Dreams, and There are AIsAndrea KrizScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine199April 01, 202351904A Human artist seeks the approval of a Master in order to make a living with art in a world that's outlawed generative AI.ai
art
copyright
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kriz_04_23
Construction SacrificeBogi TakácsFantasyLightspeedMagazine155April 01, 202373443A trans mage talks to the person who has become the city. They become the city, too.transgender
becoming
love
lgbtq
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/construction-sacrifice/
Every Bone a SpellShaoni C. WhiteScience FictionLightspeedMagazine155April 01, 202314914A stow away is made to pay for his room and board by being a singer/navigator connected to the ship.slavery
revenge
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/every-bone-a-bell/
The House, the Witch, and Sugarcane StalksAmanda HelmsFantasyLightspeedMagazine155April 01, 202315873A witch living in a sentient house made of candy is a stop on an underground railroad.being-seenhttps://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-house-the-witch-and-sugarcane-stalks/
Lament of a Specialist in Interspecies RelationshipsAmy JohnsonScience FictionLightspeedMagazine155April 01, 202314424A letter to a shapeshifter who came to Earth on a visa from the department telling them how they broke the rules.rules
change
beauty
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/lament-of-a-specialist-in-interspecies-relations/
So You Want to Kiss Your NemesisJohn WiswellFantasyLightspeedMagazine155April 01, 20239394A girl comes into a blade shop looking for something to best her nemesis with from a proprietor who married hers.love
relationships
confused
emotions
lgbtq
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/so-you-want-to-kiss-your-nemesis/
Spaceman JonesAdam-Troy CastroScience FictionLightspeedMagazine155April 01, 202335254A starship captain has to leave behind a crew member after he gets addicted to a powerful local drug.addiction
purpose
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/spaceman-jones/
When the Giants Came Through the ValleyDerrick BodenFantasyLightspeedMagazine155April 01, 202315112A strange story about living in the footprints of giants? Is it a metaphor for living under capitalism?suffering
separateness
capitalism
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/when-the-giants-came-through-the-valley/
Virtually CherokeeBrian K. HudsonScience FictionLightspeedMagazine155April 01, 202362763A virtual person named Spider helps give the virtual host consciousness.ai
consciousness
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/virtually-cherokee/
The Third Law of MagicBen OkriLiteraryThe AtlanticMagazine-March 01, 202344003A man sells snowballs on the street as a form of art that will only grow in memory after the fact.art
capitalism
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/03/ben-okri-short-story-third-law-magic/672783/
The Six Fingers of TimeR.A. LaffertyScience FictionIfMagazine-September 01, 196094053A man learns how to live in a sped up state, but doesn't heed the warnings of its danger.unintended-consequences
choices
arrogance
https://mgherron.com/2023/01/sci-fi-six-fingers-time/
The World That Couldn’t BeClifford D. SimakScience FictionGalaxy Science FictionMagazine-January 01, 1958127624A man hunts an unusual creature on an alien planet after it eats a row of his cropompassion
change-of-heart
https://mgherron.com/2019/12/sci-fi-short-story-the-world-that-couldnt-be-by-clifford-d-simak/
Sentiment, Inc.Poul AndersonScience FictionScience Fiction StoriesMagazine-June 01, 195394144A man with a machine that can tune people's emotions uses it on the wrong guy's girl.emotions
mind-control
https://mgherron.com/2019/02/sci-fi-short-story-sentiment-inc-by-poul-anderson/
YouthIsaac AsimovScience FictionSpace Science FictionMagazine-May 01, 195294855Two boys discover 'animals' on their farm and decide to use them to join the circus; but they are crashed aliens.twisthttps://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/31547/pg31547-images.html
The Snows of KilimanjaroErnest HemingwayLiteraryEsquireMagazine-August 01, 193689183A writer thinks on all that he hasn't written as he lies dieing in the African bush from an infected cut.regrethttps://americanliterature.com/author/ernest-hemingway/short-story/the-snows-of-kilimanjaro
The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonF. Scott FitzgeraldLiteraryCollier'sMagazine-May 27, 192289092The story of a man who ages backward.life-stageshttps://americanliterature.com/author/f-scott-fitzgerald/short-story/the-curious-case-of-benjamin-button
Defense ReactionsShane TourtellotteScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-3A political tale of extremism that separates a daughter from her family for reasons that turn out to be baseless.politics
extremism
family
-
Paul's CaseWilla CatherLiteraryMcClure'sMagazine-May 01, 190580954A young man feeling left out of the world steals money and excapes to New York to live the only life he has ever wanted.depression
mental-health
juvenilie-delinquincy
suicide
https://cather.unl.edu/writings/shortfiction/ss006
Immune ResponseRobert R. ChaseScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-5After the untimely death of his former advisor, a scientist learns that the Universe has an immune response to humanity discovering time travel.time-travel
self-preservation
-
A Scandal in BohemiaArthur Conan DoyleMysteryThe StrandMagazine-June 25, 189182644Sherlock Holmes helps a Bohemian king retrieve a photograph from his former lover, Irene Adler.cleverness
turnabout
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1661/pg1661-images.html#chap01
Aalund's Final MissionRaymund EichScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4A captain has hard decisions to make when his final mission goes sideways with his political officer looking on.war
politics
-
Kept ManLouis EvansScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4A feminist tale of a world where men are subordinate and how one in particular finds his freedom.feminism
agency
freedom
family
-
Memory's BulletAaron Fox-LernerScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-3A vessel/human is bombarded with the memories of its ancestors while it tries to avoid being killed by its enemy.memory
agency
-
A Noble Figure, Out of the SkyMark W. TiedemannScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4A woman alone on a farm with her mother is unsure what to do when a stranger approaches.dystopia
loneliness
fear
connection
-
The Problem with Bargain BodiesSarina DorieScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-3A funny story about a woman returning a defective body to the supermarket.retail
exchanges
remorse
-
This Story is PlagiarizedBuzz DixonScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4The editor of Analog is served by a robot to cease and desist because they are violating AI copyright.absurdity
ai
copyright
-
Bartleby, the ScrivenerHerman MelvilleLiteraryPutnam'sMagazine-November 01, 1853140983A lawyer hires a scrivener who does no work and refuses to leave the offices.stubbornness
charity
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11231/pg11231-images.html
Death SpiralKate MacLeodScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4The security officer on a mining asteroid is summoned to a cavern where a dead male is found. But only women are allowed on the asteroid.culture
understanding
breaking-rules
-
The House on Infinity StreetAllen M. SteeleScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-5The author tells the tale of a mysterious literary agency selling futuristic story ideas.time-travel
mystery
writing
writers
-
What Women WantKatherine TunningScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4A persevering alien takes over the world through women and network marketing.con-games
power
aliens
invasion
-
The Five StagesAubry Kae AndersenScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4An oncologist discusses the five stages of grief using her patients as illustrations; but she forgets a stage.grief
disaster
end-of-the-world
-
MeatLeonard RichardsonScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4The title character runs a restaurant turning species feces into its own flesh which it then sells to customers until the health inspector comes along.bureaucracy
diplomacy
culture
-
AerobrakingJonathan SherwoodScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4A woman who scouts planets for alien life struggles on her latest mission when she finally finds life on another planet.seti
learning
-
A Most Humble InnovationHoward V. HendrixScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-2A suggestion that we use the surplus human biomass (SHB) to solve our energy/climate crisis.climate
poverty
-
Ice AgelessRajnar VajraScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4A man steers a ship of 7,000 'sleeping' passengers for 10,000 years toward their new home.space-ark
self-contemplation
-
2 B R 0 2 BKurt VonnegutScience FictionIfMagazine-January 01, 196223964A man waiting for triplets to be born has to find three people willing to die in a population-controlled future.longevity
fairness
population
control
https://mgherron.com/2021/11/sci-fi-short-story-2-b-r-0-2-b-kurt-vonnegut/
Citizen ScienceNaomi KanakiaScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4A citizen scientist engages with an academic scientist about something she the CitSci discovered but the other's advisor claims to have.misogyny
arrogance
academic
-
A Clean, Well-Lighted PlaceErnest HemingwayLiteraryScribner'sMagazine-March 01, 193312933Two waiters discuss the late drinking customer in the cafe where they work.purpose
age
https://yale.learningu.org/download/51358dbc-0c73-4e33-8cfb-967c55a621f5/H2976_Hemingway_A%20Clean%20Well%20Lighted%20Place.pdf
IncommunicadoAndrej KokouinScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-3A sysadmin crosses interstellar space to be with Ira when she goes incommunicado.ai
love
dedication
-
An Inconvenient ManAdam-Troy CastroScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-5A man who eats lunch on the same bench every day in the park is asked to move, by aliens.aliens
absurdity
-
Judgment DayStanley SchmidtScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4A time traveler visits an award winner before she gives her acceptance speech.time-travel
paradox
-
The Missing WillAgatha ChristieLiteraryPoirot InvestigatesBook-March 01, 192431094An uncle cuts his niece out of his fortune unless she can solve his puzzle.mystery
misogyny
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/67173/pg67173-images.html
The Tinker and the TimestreamCarolyn Ives GilmanScience FictionAnalogMagazine-March 01, 2023-4A young man from a planet in danger for its flaring sun travels with starhoppers on a time propelled space ship to find a new home for his people.muslim
time
relativity
othering
-
After the Twilight FadesSara TantlingerHorrorApexMagazine136March 01, 202362004A woman touches a meteorite that sets in motion a chain of events that puts her in touch with her deepest feelings.self-knowledge
desire
love
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/after-the-twilight-fades/
Detiny DelayedOghenechovwe Donald EkpekiScience FictionApexMagazine136March 01, 202357003A father takes a loan using his daughter's destiny as collateral.greed
parenthood
family
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/destiny-delayed/
Every Shade of HealingTaryn FrazierFantasyApexMagazine136March 01, 202310005A young woman goes to a tattoo artist to get work done on the evidence of physical abuse; her work turns pain into beauty.pain
suffering
abuse
self-harm
beauty
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/every-shade-of-healing/
Reproduction on the BeachRich LarsonHorrorApexMagazine136March 01, 202310002A boss and his editor on a sneak away vacation, break up and something unusual happens.relationshipshttps://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/reproduction-on-the-beach/
The State Street Robot FactoryClaire HumphreyScience FictionApexMagazine136March 01, 202336004A man with no legs sells small robots that he makes. When things go wrong he comes up with a new idea.entrepreneur
poverty
capitalism
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/the-state-street-robot-factory/
They Could Have Been YoursJoy BaglioFantasyApexMagazine136March 01, 202369005A woman finds a ring under her pillow that allows her to visit the fiancees of her exes as if she were a ghost.love
relationships
jealousy
compassion
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/they-could-have-been-yours/
UnboxingLavie TidharHorrorApexMagazine136March 01, 202321003A child's unboxing videos are more than they seem.video
babysitter
unintended-consequences
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/unboxing/
The Words That Make Us FlyS.L. HarrisFantasyApexMagazine136March 01, 202328004A story about the magic of Words and finding yours.desire
community
magic
words
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/the-words-that-make-us-fly/
Beautiful Poison in PastelBeth DawkinsHorrorApexMagazine136March 01, 202336004A nightmare personified has to answer for killing and eating another nightmare.agency
change
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/beautiful-poison-in-pastel/
The Mark on the WallVirginia WoolfLiteraryTwo StoriesBook-June 22, 191730284A woman sits smoking a cigarette after tea contemplating a mark on the wall.contemplation
thinking
https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/full-texts-of-classic-works/the-mark-on-the-wall-by-virginia-woolf-full-text/
Over Moonlit CloudsCoda Augeuy-PegonHorrorApexMagazine136March 01, 202369005A woman with lycanthropy inadvertently gets on a plane at the full moon. Things do not go well.compassion
prejudice
mental-health
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/over-moonlit-clouds/
To Build a FireJack LondonLiteraryCenturyMagazine-August 01, 190870425A man hiking back to camp in -75°F temperature in the Yukon forest gets his feet wet and must build a fire to keep from freezing to death.survival
safety
arrogance
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2429/pg2429-images.html#page47
The Yellow WallpaperCharlotte Perkins GilmanLiteraryNew EnglandMagazine-January 01, 189258155A woman dealing with postpartum depression stays in a vacation room with wallpaper that deepens her problem.depression
mental-health
https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/full-texts-of-classic-works/the-yellow-wallpaper-by-charlotte-perkins-gilman/
AI Aboard the Golden ParrotLouise HughesScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine198March 01, 202342103An AI former Pirate Ship amusement park ride cautiously approaches Haven City and those in meatspace.ai
conflict
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hughes_03_23
Bek, AscendantShari PaulScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine198March 01, 202377503A woman returns to the people she thought long dead and reconnects with the emporer she grew up with.politics
friendship
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/paul_03_23
Failure to ConvertShih-Li KowScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine198March 01, 202366404An unconverted clone deals with increasing clonophobia.prejudice
slavery
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kow_03_23
The Spoil HeapFiona MooreScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine198March 01, 202366405A woman remembers what happened years ago when a former colleague tries to force her back to her old life.ai
feudalism
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/moore_03_23
Zeta-EpsilonIsabel J. KimScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine198March 01, 202352004A Human and AI are raised together to be pilot-navigator, brother and sister, captain and ship.ai
connection
free-will
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_03_23
Pinocchio PhotographyAngela LiuScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine198March 01, 202364505When a woman's father dies she learns that he wants her to take a family portrait post mortem.love
promises
death
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/liu_03_23
The Chosen SixOyedotun Damilola MuessFantasyLightspeedMagazine154March 01, 202346542Six climate refugees are gathered to help a community heal itself.climate-change
community
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-chosen-six/
Every Little ChangeAimee OgdenFantasyLightspeedMagazine154March 01, 202310244A Quantum man and his wife struggle with their relationship.love
connection
relationships
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/every-little-change/
Four Years Minus Twelve DaysSamantha MurrayScience FictionLightspeedMagazine154March 01, 20237484You marry an alien knowing it can only last four years.love
time
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/four-years-minus-twelve-days/
Love in the Season of New DanceBo BalderScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine198March 01, 202351304A xenologist on a far away planet interacts with an alien who has come awake too early to mate.culture
caretaking
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/balder_03_23
Our Exquisite DelightsMegan CheeFantasyLightspeedMagazine154March 01, 202312674Someone describes the special rooms that can exist on the other side of extra doors.what-if
choices
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/our-exquisite-delights/
Contracting IrisPeter WattsScience FictionLightspeedMagazine154March 01, 2023102854Iris contracts a parasitic disease, also called Iris, that slowly takes her over.agency
control
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/contracting-iris/
CrystallineDaniel H. WilsonScience FictionLightspeedMagazine154March 01, 202329114A selfish father urges his daughter to pull a replacememt mom from another world through a crystal to theirs.multiverse
parenthood
family
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/crystalline/
One Pinch, Two PinchBeth GoderScience FictionLightspeedMagazine154March 01, 202312633A countess who has fallen into a black hole experiences the past, present, and future as one.time
conflict
sequence
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/one-pinch-two-pinch/
Bigger FishSarah PinskerScience FictionUncannyMagazine51March 01, 202350054A son asks a detective to investigate his father's apparent suicide; the detective questions his house and robot valet.robots
exploitation
humanity
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/bigger-fish/
Space TreadsParlei RiviereScience FictionUncannyMagazine51March 01, 202336734Two children fighting in the woods stumble upon aliens who they then play with.play
race
punishment
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/space-treads/
Yinying–ShadowAi JiangFantasyUncannyMagazine51March 01, 20238993A young child is haunted by his father who blames him for the death of his mother.blame
guilt
freedom
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/yinying-shadow/
Blank SpaceDelilah S. DawsonHorrorUncannyMagazine51March 01, 202347455An innocent girl falls for a bad boy with tattoos but all is not as it seems.relationships
tattoos
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/blank-space/
In Time, a Weed May Break StoneValerie ValdesFantasyUncannyMagazine51March 01, 202356484A retired soldier saves a village from a mage and his crystal cougars.youth
self-defense
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/in-time-a-weed-may-break-stone/
Perhaps in UnderstandingAnaMaria CurtisScience FictionUncannyMagazine51March 01, 202344634A painter prepares for an exhibit in a society that wears actual masks to show how they feel.self-knowledge
theory-of-mind
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/perhaps-in-understanding/
A Soul in the WorldCharlie Jane AndersScience FictionUncannyMagazine51March 01, 202348534A woman who can't get pregnant is asked by aliens to raise a clone of their captain.family
responsibility
love
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/a-soul-in-the-world/
To Put Your Heart Into a White DeerKristina WillseyScience FictionUncannyMagazine51March 01, 202399432A confusing jumble of academic tropes in the near future.mysogeny
academic
competition
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/to-put-your-heart-into-a-white-deer/
Love is a Process of UnbecomingJonathan KincadeScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine198March 01, 202331902Not really sure what this was. Some kind of infection in someone observing what they do as Host.lovehttps://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kincade_03_23
Going TimeAmal SinghScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine197February 01, 202346354A mother awaits her Going Time in a world devoid of food other than bran bars and run by His Beneficence.lies
control
culture
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/singh_02_23
An Ode to StardustR.P. SandScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine197February 01, 2023146165A chronically ill woman learns something about the labor under her command on a moon and about her father at the same time.family
slavery
freedom
self-understanding
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/sand_02_23
Silo, Sweet SiloJames CastlesScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine197February 01, 202343975A group of people who survive a nuclear war find shelter in a missile command base controlled by a sentient missile.purpose
sacrifice
meaning
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/castles_02_23
The Day the Earthman Didn't ShowAdam-Troy CastroScience FictionLightspeedMagazine153February 01, 202324434An alien society prepares for eons for the prophesied arrival of an Earthman who never shows up.climate-change
planning
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-day-the-earthman-didnt-show/
Guidelines for Using the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial LibraryMarie BrennanFantasyLightspeedMagazine153February 01, 20239274Bullet points for navigating and using said library; many literary allusions.fun
books
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/guidelines-for-using-the-harry-elkins-widener-memorial-library/
His Guns Could Not Protect HimSam J. MillerFantasyLightspeedMagazine153February 01, 202350134A boy's father is attacked by his monster so he has to stay at the home of family friends with his brother.family
brotherhood
care
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/his-guns-could-not-protect-him/
The House of Linear ChangeOluwatomiwa AjeigbeFantasyLightspeedMagazine153February 01, 20236783A young man attempts to leave his family home where everything is always transforming into something else.change
coming-of-age
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-house-of-linear-change/
In(con)solationOctavia CadeScience FictionLightspeedMagazine153February 01, 202311513Two people living together underground after a nuclear war choose whether to go to the surface to see the sun.choiceshttps://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/inconsolation/
Larva Pupa ImagoEric SchwitzgebelScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine197February 01, 202359734The story of two brother caterpillars and of how one completes the cycle of life.identity
love
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/schwitzgebel_02_23
The Portrait of a Survivor, Observed from the WaterYukimi OgawaScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine197February 01, 202323712Something happens on a beach and a museum and some creature. I really didn't get it.connectionhttps://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ogawa_02_23
Real MagicSharan BiswasFantasyLightspeedMagazine153February 01, 202350404A fairy tale about a witch who helps others without magic, saving real magic for the important things.family
problem-solving
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/real-magic/
Somewhere, It's About to Be SpringSamantha MurrayScience FictionClarkesworldMagazine197February 01, 202330694A spacecraft that lost its crew evolves sentience as does its shuttles and robots.loneliness
love
family
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/murray_02_23
Subject: More Monsters Will Not Make Us SaferPaul CrenshawScience FictionLightspeedMagazine153February 01, 20237574A concerned citizen writes their senator out of concerns that children won't know how to handle dangers.guns
satire
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/subject-more-monsters-will-not-make-us-safer/
Learning LettersCarrie VaughnScience FictionLightspeedMagazine153February 01, 202343845After the Fall a man in an airplane visits a more 'primitive' communityvalue
trade
literacy
hope
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/learning-letters/
The BridleRaymond CarverLiteraryCathedralBook-September 15, 1983-4A family who lost their farm in Minnesota arrive at a motel in Arizona.struggle
employment
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/15155156-af7a-4407-88ba-4c90338e7f7c
CathedralRaymond CarverLiteraryCathedralBook-September 15, 1983-4A man entertains his wife's blind friend by drawing cathedrals with him.senses
relating
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/15155156-af7a-4407-88ba-4c90338e7f7c
FeverRaymond CarverLiteraryCathedralBook-September 15, 1983-4A man whose wife has left him with their two kids figures out how to move on with the help of his old woman sitter.relationships
love
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/15155156-af7a-4407-88ba-4c90338e7f7c
The TrainRaymond CarverLiteraryCathedralBook-September 15, 1983-3A young woman and an old couple wait for the train in an empty station.relationshipshttps://app.thestorygraph.com/books/15155156-af7a-4407-88ba-4c90338e7f7c
Where I'm Calling FromRaymond CarverLiteraryCathedralBook-September 15, 1983-3A man in a home for men trying to get sober talks to friend and contemplates his life.relationships
friendship
decisions
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/15155156-af7a-4407-88ba-4c90338e7f7c
CarefulRaymond CarverLiteraryCathedralBook-September 15, 1983-3A man's estranged wife comes to talk to him and helps clear his ears of uncomfortable wax.relationships
care
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/15155156-af7a-4407-88ba-4c90338e7f7c
Chef's HouseRaymond CarverLiteraryCathedralBook-September 15, 1983-4A woman spend the summer with her estranged husband in a house with a view.bad-luck
identity
relationships
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/15155156-af7a-4407-88ba-4c90338e7f7c
The CompartmentRaymond CarverLiteraryCathedralBook-September 15, 1983-4A man takes a train to visit his son and changes his mind on the way there.relationships
bad-luck
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/15155156-af7a-4407-88ba-4c90338e7f7c
PreservationRaymond CarverLiteraryCathedralBook-September 15, 1983-2A husband loses his job and spends all his time on the couch.bad-luck
relationships
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/15155156-af7a-4407-88ba-4c90338e7f7c
A Small, Good ThingRaymond CarverLiteraryCathedralBook-September 15, 198350005A boy is hit by a car on his eighth birthday and his parents wait fearfully at his bedside.relationships
kindness
comfort
food
https://www.classicshorts.com/stories/sgthing.html
VitaminsRaymond CarverLiteraryCathedralBook-September 15, 1983-2A guy attempts to cheat on his girlfriend who sells vitamins.relationships
racism
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/15155156-af7a-4407-88ba-4c90338e7f7c
FeathersRaymond CarverLiteraryCathedralBook-September 15, 1983-3A man tells the story of peacock feathers and how he and his wife decided to have children.relationships
decisions
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/15155156-af7a-4407-88ba-4c90338e7f7c
Bad DoorsJohn WiswellFantasyUncannyMagazine50January 01, 202341673A guy sheltering during COVID is followed by a mysterious door that appears no matter where he lives.conspiracy
family
mystery
pandemic
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/bad-doors/
Miz Boudreaux's Last RideChristopher CaldwellFantasyUncannyMagazine50January 01, 202353893A bargain is made to help a ghost undo the magic she did on an old desert Town.love
longevity
deals
lgbtq
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/miz-boudreauxs-last-ride/
Prospect HeightsMaureen McHughScience FictionUncannyMagazine50January 01, 20239983A young woman in New York thinks she keeps seeing herself in the city.doppelgänger
coming-of-age
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/prospect-heights/
Silver Necklace, Golden RingMarie BrennanFantasyUncannyMagazine50January 01, 202335974A cold, dark man takes a new servant every month, but this month is different.death
life
love
darkness
light
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/silver-necklace-golden-ring/
The Father Provincial of Mare ImbriumE. Lily YuScience FictionUncannyMagazine50January 01, 202335455A Jesuit enclave on the moon discovers something that could shake the earth and the church.censorship
power
authority
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-father-provincial-of-mare-imbrium/
One Man's TreasureSarah PinskerFantasyUncannyMagazine50January 01, 202383234A mystery to solve after a hex turns a gardener into a statue on a garbage pile.wealth
injustice
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/one-mans-treasure/
Flower, Daughter, Soil, SeedEugenia TriantafyllouFantasyUncannyMagazine50January 01, 202342134A mother tells her daughter the story of her flower family.resilience
family
love
survival
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/flower-daughter-soil-seed/
HorsewomanA.M. DellamonicaFantasyUncannyMagazine50January 01, 202384843A trans woman surviving on her own amidst ghosts after numerous plagues have made for a corporate-run world.power
inequality
mental-health
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/horsewoman/
Waystation CityA.T. GreenblattScience FictionUncannyMagazine50January 01, 202342745Twins seek to leave the city and return to their own time.change
patience
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/waystation-city/
Cold RelationsMary Robinette KowalFantasyUncannyMagazine50January 01, 202379805A sister and brother who use magic to reunite and things get tricky.family
siblings
memory
loss
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/cold-relations/
How to Raise a Kraken in Your BathtubP. Djeli ClarkFantasyUncannyMagazine50January 01, 202369344A man of ambition raises a Kraken, and things go wrong.ambition
poor-judgment
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/how-to-raise-a-kraken-in-your-bathtub/
Between the Stones and the StarsA.L. GoldfussFantasyLightspeedMagazine152January 01, 202312914A hunter and a warrior meet at the site of their quest and find something more together.being-seen
sacrifice
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/between-the-stones-and-the-stars/
Braid Me a Howling TongueMaria DongScience FictionLightspeedMagazine152January 01, 202399095A young girl without a tongue plots her survival and escape from slavery.obsession
communication
freedom
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/braid-me-a-howling-tongue/
In the Deep Woods; The Light is Different ThereSeanen McGuireFantasyLightspeedMagazine152January 01, 202350463An abused divorcee moves into her family's haunted house in the woods.fear
past
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/in-the-deep-woods-the-light-is-different-there/
The Ministry of SaturnBenjamin PeekFantasyLightspeedMagazine154March 01, 202360054The tale of a homunculus and how he got his freedom thanks to a magician.creativity
freedom
caretaking
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-ministry-of-saturn/
A Man Walks Into a Bar; or, In Which More Than Four Decades After My Father's Reluctant Night of Darts on West 54th Street, I Finally Understand What Needs to Be DoneScott EdelmanScience FictionLightspeedMagazine152January 01, 202359775A son tells the story of his father playing darts with Trump in the seventies.family
amends
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/a-man-walks-into-a-bar-or-in-which-more-than-four-decades-after-my-fathers-reluctant-night-of-darts-on-west-54th-street-i-finally-understand-what-needs-to-be-done/
From the Largest CraterJendayi Brooks-FlemisterScience FictionLightspeedMagazine152January 01, 202340502Wife waits on the moon for her wife to come home from an Earth mission. Told as audio recordings.separation
anxiety
sacrifice
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/from-the-largest-crater/
The Narrative Implications of Your Untimely DeathIsabel J. KimScience FictionLightspeedMagazine152January 01, 202351225Survivor-like program on a planetoid where the participants are all indentured to the production company.hopelessnesshttps://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-narrative-implications-of-your-untimely-death/
A Guide to Alien Terms Useful in the Human DiasporaDeborah L. DavittScience FictionLightspeedMagazine152January 01, 202310113A glossary of terms followed by a paragraph using them.culture
language
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The Last ServingLincoln MichelScience FictionLightspeedMagazine152January 01, 202310065A vegetarian cook decides to learn to cook meat with surprising results.compassion
twist
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Daughter, Mother, CharcoalAkis LinardosFantasyApexMagazine135January 01, 202322004A fairy tale about stories that keep women at home. sexismhttps://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/daughter-mother-charcoal/
Experimental Protocol for the Coronal Sectioning and Assessment of a Human SoulSagan YeeScience FictionApexMagazine135January 01, 20238004A document describing how to remove a soul is interspersed with comments from a dying/dead creature.right-and-wrong
judgment
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Message in a VesselV.G. HarrisonScience FictionApexMagazine135January 01, 202349005A vampire tries to save mankind on the moon.innocence
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River Bargain BabyK.S. WalkerFantasyApexMagazine135January 01, 202322003A personified river lures yet another person desperate for something.bargains
wishes
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/river-bargain-baby/
Walking the Deep DownMichelle DenhamFantasyApexMagazine135January 01, 202310004A fable about a dangerous trek through the desert while avoiding a monster in order to plant something.wisdom
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Your Rover Is HereLP KindredFantasyApexMagazine135January 01, 202335005A Black rideshare driver uses forbidden magic to thwart a magical terrorist attack.racism
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The Immortal GameLindz McLeodScience FictionApexMagazine135January 01, 202322004A woman lures a man to her room on the pretext of playing chess.sex
power
https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/the-immortal-game/
The Big Glass Box and the Boy InsideIsabel J. KimFantasyApexMagazine135January 01, 202362004A boy falls for a co-worker during a summer internship.sellout
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Carnival Ever AfterMari NessFantasyApexMagazine135January 01, 202321003A woman who works in carnival is visited by someone from her past.family
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relationships
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