Fictional Worlds

These stories have 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 authors… Ben Hallert: I live in Oregon with my wife, two children, a plane, and a reach that regularly exceeds my grasp. […]

by Michael Buckley narrated by Barry Haworth This story has not been previously published. This episode also featured an excerpt from Ecko: Endgame by Danie Ware which you can get more info about on her website: http://danieware.com/tag/ecko-endgame/ and you can tweet her @danacea Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable […]

by Michael Reid narrated by Summer Brooks This story has not been previously published. Mentioned by Alasdair: https://weightlessbooks.com/category/format/subscription/mothership-zeta/ 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… I am a 2015 graduate of the Clarion Workshop, but I have no other …

by Gary Kloster narrated by Roberto Suarez This story has not been previously published. Mentioned by Mur: https://weightlessbooks.com/category/format/subscription/mothership-zeta/ 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… I’ve always loved speculative fiction. That’s the fancy name for stories that involve […]

by John Markley narrated by Carl Allery 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 narrator… Carl Allery has sold a couple of stories (Farthing Magazine, Killers ed. Colin Harvey), had a couple read out loud (BBC local radio, Escape Pod) […]

by David John Baker narrated by Mat Weller 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… Aside from my philosophical essays, I also write short science fiction stories. Some of […]

by Samantha Murray narrated by Ibba Armancas 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… Samantha Murray is a writer, actor, mathematician and mother. Not particularly in that order. […]

by Beth Goder narrated by Andrea Richardson with guest host Kate Baker 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 […]

At the Rialto By Connie Willis Seriousness of mind was a prerequisite for understanding Newtonian physics. I am not convinced it is not a handicap in understanding quantum theory. —EXCERPT FROM DR. GEDANKEN’S KEYNOTE ADDRESS TO THE 1989 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF QUANTUM PHYSICISTS ANNUAL MEETING, HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA I got to Hollywood around one-thirty and started …

What Glistens Back By Sunny Moraine Come back. You hear the call as the lander breaks up around you. You’re aware of the entirely arbitrary concepts of up and down before you realize what’s happening, and then they’re a lot less arbitrary. Down is not so much a direction as a function of possibility, of what might happen to you, of …

Your Body, By Default By Alexis Hunter They brought you back because they want something from you. Maybe one day they will bring people back because they can or because it’s the right thing to do — but for now there’s you and there’s them and there’s the unspoken obligations that lie between you both. […]

We All Scream By Marie Vibbert We weren’t, any of us, heroes. Aiden was a downright chicken. I’m allowed to say that; I love him. My husband doesn’t have to live up to your expectations of masculinity. I’ll beat the crap out of anyone who says otherwise. Me? I don’t stick my neck out. I […]

On the Fringes of the Fractal By Greg van Eekhout I was working the squirt station on the breakfast shift at Peevs Burgers when I learned that my best friend’s life was over. The squirt guns were connected by hoses to tanks, each tank containing a different slew formula. Orders appeared in lime-green letters on …

Ms. Figgle-DeBitt’s Home for Wayward A.I.s By Kurt Pankau I watch with hope as Ms. Figgle-DeBitt samples a slice of caramelized banana upside-down cake. She takes a nibble and seems pleased. She sweeps cybernetic fingers through the shock of gray hair that sits on the human half of her face, a gesture I’ve learned is […]

A House of Her Own By B. Balder Aoife was only eleven when she caught the little house in the forest. She surprised it as it drank from a puddle, half-hidden under a writhing tree root as large as her own body. Fast as an eel, she snaked her hand around it and held on …

Islands in the Dark By Sarah Goldman Road out from Kaysee was boring as ever. The kids we’d picked up this time weren’t anything to sneeze at: soft-spoken boy with eyes too teched up to blink, real young bratty kid who kept trying to backseat drive me from the hatch of a goddamn pickup, and a …

The Wind You Touch When You Run By James Beamon This pursuit starts as they all start, going after the Underground Railroad. It will end as it always ends, with us feeding the Minotaur. The in-between is where I tell tales. I wipe sweat from my eyes while my son Langston squints under the blue-white …

The Spice Portrait By J.M. Evenson They said my love for my daughter was excessive, that I made her weak by kissing her and singing in her ear at night. They also said I killed her. My mother did not believe in tenderness. She was gaunt, all teeth and hair, her face hard as a stone …

Planetbound By Nancy Fulda There’s a moment that comes, the first time you step on the rim of a planet, when you suddenly realize how breakable you are. When you finally understand that despite the bone density treatments, despite the braces cradling your back and legs, despite the half-dozen hands that support your first faltering […]

When All the Clocks Are Wrong By Beth Goder Jen locks her bike and heads towards the theater. She needs a break from studying, but more importantly, she needs to find Ash, who has her Soil Science notes. Jen promises herself she won’t try to kiss Ash–they’ll see the midnight movie, Ash will hand her the …

Four Seasons in the Forest of Your Mind By Caroline M. Yoachim Spring My tree is a pyramidal cell in the prefrontal cortex of your brain. There are millions of us here, in the forest of your brain, each with our own region to tend. My region is a single tree, for I am newly […]

Rocket Surgery By Effie Seiberg We’d tested plenty of missiles before, but Teeny was the only one that convulsed when we cut him open. Oh, your viewers need more background? OK, I’ll back up a bit. Lemme tell ya, kids today don’t know their history. Even locked up in here for the past ten years, …

Seb Dreams of Reincarnation By Aimee Ogden They unplugged Seb’s neurodes at the end of his ten-year tour of duty. He’d known it was coming, had been told before he ever signed the contract that if they left him in any longer his health would start to deteriorate. What they hadn’t mentioned was that his […]

By Gwendolyn Clare Read by Mur Lafferty Discuss on our forums. First appeared in Warrior Wisewoman 3 All stories by Gwendolyn Clare All stories read by Mur Lafferty Driving X by Gwendolyn Clare Carmela wouldn’t have stopped if she had known that the kid was still alive. She spotted the body lying under a creosote …

By Gwendolyn Clare Read by Mur Lafferty Discuss on our forums. Originally appeared in Asimov’s, 2011 All stories by Gwendolyn Clare All stories read by Mur Lafferty Rated 13 and up Ashes on the Water by Gwendolyn Clare I hoped that Ranjeet’s friends were as disreputable as promised. Ranjeet himself was late, of course. I’d …

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 […]