Fictional Worlds

Read a new short story by Linda Nagata, the author of Pacific Storm and The Last Good Man.

I’m happy on the road. The land stretches like a languid animal, and I find tranquility in its measured length. Outside the car the earth breathes, the ground rising and sinking. Even though I am the one driving, concentrating on the road and the trucks roaring past, it’s like a meditation for me—my mind empties into the open space.

Much like Ishmael, I have experienced a fair number of damp, drizzly Novembers in my soul. And I, too, have required a strong moral principle to prevent me from stepping into the street and methodically knocking people’s hats off. But unlike Ishmael, I can’t quietly take to sea because my lunch break is only forty-five […]

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

Amma’s Kitchen by Rati Mehrotra   I can always tell what dish my customers will order. Knowing what the dead crave is my gift. Or my curse. It’s hard to know which. This girl, for instance. Brown, like me, but pale, as if the color’s been leeched out of her skin. Dark, staring eyes, weeds […]

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

Rupert Weard leapt into the drawing room, escaping a hallway dense with impossibly angled, tentacular horrors trying to sell him insurance. “Ye gods, it’s bedlam out there,” he said.

Author: Janaya Young In space, hyper lanes operate like traffic lanes but with one important difference: you aren’t entirely in one place or another while traveling through them. Most people can’t tell. Maybe you feel a slight shudder of the ship, or for a moment you look down and your hand is not where you […]

Author: Andrew N. McCue I was 15 when I left home. Replacing schoolbooks from my pack with clothes and food, I steal my mother’s favorite can opener, some flatware and a small stash of cash. I walk mostly or hitch. Standing on the side of a road I read stapled, tacked and nailed sheets of […]

Once upon a time, there was a princess. Does she have to be a princess? Couldn’t she be the daughter of a merchant, or a scholar, or an accountant? An accountant? What would an accountant be doing in…

Author: David Barber “This is a rare photograph of Christ, taken before time tourism was banned,” said the Director of the Temporal Institute. The Senator stopped to examine it, and his entourage jostled and bumped awkwardly behind him. A picture-lined corridor led to the gallery overlooking the wormhole, and though each picture was an actual […]

Author: Majoki “I’m trying to tell you, Clem, I’m a Dusty Oyster. Just like you and Billy Lee, Davy, Sherm and Stevie. It’s me, Fizzy. You remember, don’t ya?” Clement Ellis stared unbelieving from his wheelchair at the young man jabbering at him. “Dusty Oyster? You? Nonsense. I’m old, but I haven’t lost all my […]

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

Artistic Encounters of a Monumental Nature by S.B. Divya

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

Author: James Flanagan Lying on the gurney, I slowly succumbed to the anesthetics. The last thing I recalled was a bright light and a frantic “Oh, shit.” *** I opened heavy eyelids and blinked. “He’s back.” My wife’s voice, distant, unsure. “Dad?” Andy, my son. They each held one of my hands. Restricted, restrained. I […]

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer The scream of fighters passing overhead fades. Silence resumes. The three sat at the undamaged end of the table return their gazes to rest on the woman sitting at the other end. Minutes pass. Finally, the middle one of the trio speaks. “I’m not sure ‘you’re late’ adequately covers this.” […]

“Go away, Todd. We’re busy,” Larry said. “Besides, you’re wasting your time. You know she only likes to fuck imaginary people.” “That’s because she hasn’t tried the real deal,” Todd said. “And that would be you?” Larry asked. Col yawned ostentatiously at Todd, but he didn’t take the hint. He was thick that way. There was hardly room for two people in the cubicle Col shared with Larry.

Author: Steve Kemple For one thing, they don’t prepare you for continental drift. How could they? We aren’t equipped to think on a geological time scale. You live eighty, ninety years and the tectonic plates move what. Thirty feet? Try this on for size: “I remember the Himalayas.” Not “I remember when the Himalayas were […]

People have no idea how much of themselves they can slough off. Every night, I clean oodles of ttae—exfoliated skin cells, rolled up into crescent doughs. They lap about in the Hot Springs; merge into foamy scums. I skim them with my net; run new water through the pools. When the baths brim again with […]

The planet of the worms is a cold, barren, sunless place. The worms do not think. They feel nothing but hunger, and so they eat. They eat through the planet’s surface. They eat through the planet’s molten core. Over time, the planet grows speckled and spongelike, riddled with tunnels and holes. But the worms don’t […]

If you were to drive to my sister Violet’s house today, you would find yourself at a very different place from the one I encountered on my first trip. The road up the mountain has been paved, for one thing, to make it more accessible to the tourists who now support it. Back then if […]

Author: Alastair Millar Heeeeeeey starfolks, it’s me, the Galaxian Gourmet, back to bring you the lowdown on another extraterrestrial eatery! This week, we’re on Marchioness Prime, checking out the famous Black Hole Brasserie, this is an episode you DON’T want to miss! Before we get into that, don’t forget to check out our sponsors, who […]

When people stay in hotel rooms, they suddenly turn into toddlers. Weird, creative, screwed-up toddlers. Let’s smear jam on the wall! Let’s leave apple cores in the drawers! Let’s hide used nappies…

Jaxon was not a connoisseur of art, but he could identify a work’s salient features. And the salient features of these particular works were that they were valuable, lacking any obvious security…

Author: E.L. Rose There are certain affordances that come with knowing your death can never be permanent. With every new reincarnation, you become a little wiser. The slate never gets wiped completely clean; you’re like a palimpsest of every life you’ve lived before, an old soul being rewritten indefinitely until every fragment of the past […]

Author: Soramimi Hanarejima After breakfast, I put on my smartglasses and launch Unfray. Even though lunch with her is still hours away, I need to get ready, need to gird my psyche. When the app opens, I’m met with an announcement that it’s going the subscription service route. Like so many of its ilk. While […]