Fictional Worlds

The 1st Annual Lunar Biathlon By Rachael K. Jones Raji and I were always designing new torments for ourselves, and then calling them good, and running around the Moon was just the latest idea. We tattooed wedding bands on each other’s fingers after our courthouse elopement, and for good measure, each other’s names. Raji ran […]

Someday By James Patrick Kelly Daya had been in no hurry to become a mother. In the two years since she’d reached childbearing age, she’d built a modular from parts she’d fabbed herself, thrown her boots into the volcano, and served as blood judge. The village elders all said she was one of the quickest […]

Texts from the Ghost War By Alex Yuschik While I realize driving that mech likely takes all of your limited resources, please take care not to step on the roses. what Don’t step on the roses. I don’t care if we’re under imminent attack. Your mech is standing so close to them I’m cringing. who […]

Cherry Squid By Celeste Hollister It was the cherry squid that did him in. Outside his window, seventy stories up, the advertisement bloomed, melon yellow, racecar red. A shoal of squid rippled across the holo, a tangram pattern that morphed into a human face. Almost human, but with a Vrellan’s ruby eyes. Then a blush of […]

The Ghosts of Europa Will Keep You Trapped in a Prison You Make for Yourself By Matt Dovey –then scooted her chair over to the microscope. Amira only needed a glance at the holographic zoom floating over the scope. The viral cells were replicating rapidly, budding and splitting at a phenomenal rate. “Hey, Mariana, look at […]

Beetle-Cleaned Skulls By J. E. Bates Fine amber dust infiltrated everything in the Preserve. Each morning, I vacuumed it away with my ventral hose prior to opening my kiosk. I paid particular care to my curios: the fossils, the bismuth crystals, and the beetle-cleaned skulls. Forebears, especially the children, delighted in receiving my curios as gifts. […]

Red Kelly Owns the Moon By Shaenon Garrity Nobody remembered how Red Kelly got his hands on the moon. He picked up a lot of things back then. You had to, working at the Westinghouse on a brazier’s pay. Red played cards, ran numbers around town, and, every other year, warmed hands for the Democratic […]

Karma Among the Cloud Kings By Brian Trent I. Fifty thousand feet above Tempest’s highest clouds, Antarag Vel-heth invites me to sit beside him in the lobby of Lindorm Refueling Station. It’s a desolate, littered expanse of tables, party-streamers, and plastic people with unceasingly flapping jaws. “What… what are they doing?” I whisper, sweating despite the […]

Nothing to See Here By Arthur Doweyko There is a comfort in the strength of love; ’Twill make a thing endurable, which else Would overset the brain, or break the heart. ~William Wordsworth I heard a squawk—kind of like the goose call that comes out of a police cruiser. Blinking red and blue lights danced […]

Yosemite By D.S. McNab Have you ever wondered why park rangers are so deliriously happy with their job despite the crap pay? The easy answer is that they just really dig nature. But pull back that mossy curtain, and you’ll find a slightly less pleasant explanation. Here’s a hint: It has a tentacle tongue, about three […]

Whatever Tower, However High By Julia K. Patt It is my 567th day inside. But I’m not really counting. Outside, Leo and Maurizio sit by the front steps of the house playing 3D chess. Not far from them, Antonia tinkers with her latest project, which looks for all the world like a wheelchair with exhaust pipes. […]

By Mur Lafferty. Read by Anna Eley. When I was a kid, I believed it all, like that old wive’s tale that animals would be granted the gift of speech for one hour on Christmas Eve. I tested that out by keeping my cat locked up in my room with me all night. She never […]

By Mur Lafferty. Read by Daisy Ottmann, Anna Eley, and Stephen Eley. She smiled at last and gave a satisfied little sigh. He was just as she’d ordered. Without raising her eyes to his face, she asked, “So when do we begin?” “We just have some paperwork to go over,” he said. He bent over …

By Mur Lafferty. Read by Stephen and Anna Eley. Musical guest: Twisted Sister. “Look, I think I know where this is going,” Kris Kringle said, but Gingermuffin cut him off. “Do you? The Heartbreakers have been making Tom Petty sound good for years, and no one gives a damn. Tom Petty gets all of the …

By Mur Lafferty. Read by Deborah Green. Closing Music: “O Come All Ye Faithful,” performed by Twisted Sister. Gloria blinked. “Why do the people in Cleveland love Christmas more than anywhere else?” Toby grinned and spread his hands on the bar, unadorned fingers splayed. He stared at them, “I didn’t say Cleveland’s people loved Christmas. …

AUTHOR: John Shade NARRATOR: Amber Pracht HOST: Norm Sherman A Prayer at Noon appeared originally in Triangulation: Parch (Volume 7) edited by Stephen V. Ramey. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our Wikia Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter Help support the Pseudopod Kickstarter to support pay for narrators (… and get […]

AUTHOR: Anthony Tardiff NARRATOR: J. J. Campanella HOST: Adam Pracht The Battaile of the Mudde is an Escape Pod original. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our Wikia Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter Help support the Pseudopod Kickstarter to support pay for narrators (… and get this awesome Tiki […]

AUTHOR: Natalie Theodoridou NARRATOR: Ibba Armancas HOST: Tina Connolly When They Come Back was originally published in Crossed Genres (Issue 22), in October 2014. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our Wikia Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter Help support the Pseudopod Kickstarter to support pay for narrators (… […]

AUTHOR: Holly Heisey NARRATOR: Andrea Richardson HOST: Alasdair Stuart The Most Absurd Dance at the End of the Worlds is an Escape Pod original. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our Wikia Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… Holly Heisey launched their writing career in sixth […]

AUTHOR: Effie Seiberg HOST & NARRATOR: Tina Connolly RedChip BlueChip was originally published in Crossed Genres (June 2015 issue). Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our Wikia Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… Effie Seiberg is a science fiction and fantasy writer living in San Francisco. Her […]

AUTHOR: M. Bennardo NARRATOR: Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali HOST: Norm Sherman Water Finds Its Level was originally published in Lightspeed Magazine. (May 2013) Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our Wikia Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… Matthew Bennardo lives in Ohio. He co-edited the science-fiction anthology Machine of Death, […]

AUTHORS: Amy Sisson & Kate Suratt NARRATOR: Christopher Cornell HOST: Alasdair Stuart Captain Drake Learns His Lines is an Escape Pod original. It is the first story in the short story series The Misadventures of Captain Drake. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our Wikia Thank you for visiting […]

Monstrance of Sky By Christopher Mark Rose Aerbello — the shape one sees in the movement of wheat, blown by wind. The shape of wind, written in sheaves. I left me, without really leaving. Well, not I myself, but Eva. She told me she was leaving me, as we made love in our bedroom. It was …

AUTHOR: Charity Tahmaseb NARRATOR: Amy H. Sturgis HOST: Tina Connolly In a Manner of Speaking was originally published in Selfies from the End of the World: Historical Accounts of the Apocalypse, September 2015, DefCon One Publishing. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our Wikia Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter […]

Impossibility Crow By Remy Nakamura The Kingdom Coffee Missionary Handbook tells Paulo that he should always put his guns away during a door approach. He’s heard this hundreds of times before, but the Handbook speaks with a voice of authority, deep like a luchador’s, strong like a drill sergeant’s, calm like his abuelito’s. It slides …

Vegetablemen in Peanut Town By August Marion Otto scanned the grassy countryside for any sign of marauding vegetables. The steeple he and Darby were in wasn’t quite thirty feet tall, but it was taller than any other building in Peanut Town, so it offered an unobstructed view of the surrounding farmland. There were acres and …

by Alanna McFall narrated by Amanda Fitzwater with guest host Amy H. Sturgis Welcome to the 2nd Annual Artemis Rising a celebration of women and non-binary authors This story has not been previously published. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting […]

by Abra Staffin-Wiebe narrated by Diane Severson with guest host Mur Lafferty Welcome to the 2nd Annual Artemis Rising a celebration of women and non-binary authors This story has not been previously published. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting us […]

by Jen Finelli narrated by J.S. Arquin This story has not been previously published. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… Hi! I’m Jen Finelli, and I’m a professional author, content-consultant, and ghost-writer deeply in love. Because I’m also […]

Run By C.R. Hodges The claxon blares three times: all clear. We file out of the underground shelter and up the serpentine lava tube. Our semi-annual hibernation drill, bureaucratic gibberish for run down to the emergency shelter and hide, is now monthly. I’m all for avoiding nuclear annihilation, but I wish the drills weren’t scheduled so […]