Fictional Worlds

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

Their progress through the woods had slowed to a stagger, but they kept going. They had to. Jane shoved one booted foot through the layers of fallen leaves, then the other. Imagination kept her fear…

Author: Nisheé An enormous clear lake mirrored the cosmos. Water and sky danced in unison as the rhythm of the waves echoed from the sapphire mountain cliffs on the other side. A warm breeze blew through the rows of magenta palm trees that lined the white sand shore. An occasional beep from our trusty aqua-droid […]

The Sound of Children Screaming by Rachael K. Jones     THE GUN   You know the one about the Gun. The Gun goes where it wants to. On Thursday morning just after recess, the Gun will walk through the front doors of Thurman Elementary, and it won’t sign in at the front office or […]

Andrew was convinced the writer had been trans. By this point his friends were tired of hearing about it, but he had no one else to tell besides the internet, and he was too smart for that. That wo…

Life is transactional. Give this, get that. It’s the first law of thermodynamics, nothing personal. No sense getting dust-fucked over it.

Near the center of the space, a worktable, and a loom—and the Matron. She sits at her loom, just as she has every evening long after the world has gone to sleep.

Pirates by E.F. Benson     For many years this project of sometime buying back the house had simmered in Peter Graham’s mind, but whenever he actually went into the idea with practical intention, stubborn reasons had presented themselves to deter him. In the first place it was very far off from his work, down […]

While Marya was usually excellent at imagining the worst, opening a portal to another world while crocheting had never really crossed her mind. She’d been determined to learn how to crochet once she…

The Lark Ascending by Eleanna Castroianni

His white skin looked even more pale in monochrome. In the final chapters, he had worn his officer’s uniform, to remind me of his country’s authority over my city.

The Game of Mao has only one rule: don’t explain the rules to the game of Mao. It’s the only rule we may be told — the rest are clouded in secrecy and it is up to us to figure them out through trial…

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

Author: Tobias Hope Young The falling star landed about fifteen years back. Killed everything in a ten-mile radial. Science folks say it did this by changing the center of cavity in the area. Ya see cavity is the thing that keeps us from floating away, and the center of cavity is at the center of […]

Author: Ruhsen Dogan Nar “Here it comes, get ready!” shouted Mehmet from atop a heap of dirt dumped two nights ago. Ali’s high-pitched, adolescent voice echoed from the roof of a three-story building at the entrance of a shantytown adjacent to Izmir’s skyscrapers: “I’m ready, bring it on.” Ali, unusually tall for his age, carefully […]

Author: Mark Renney The ‘Visage Wipe’ was promoted as a grand project. The language the campaign used was both simplistic and pompous. It was claimed it would unite us and yet only those aged between fourteen and twenty-four were eligible. For anyone older, it had been decided it was too late and we couldn’t be […]

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Don gives Ted a grin, then turns back to the dishevelled man standing in front of them. “Tell me again.” Ted snickers quietly. “I liked the bit where she rode in on a dinosaur.” The man sighs. “Short version: we’ve been messing with time travel for too long. We’ve broken […]

Author: Majoki I plotted interplanetary trajectories with a buggy whip. I routed the whole of the Infonet with a dot-dot-dash-dot. I was the perfect blend of the new and old. And loony as a toon. They called me Quantum Annie. My processing schizophrenia can be traced to the great integer overflow of 2038. Becoming self […]

Author’s Note: I’ve taken liberties here somewhat with both place and time so that the rise of Martha’s Vineyard as a safe place to travel for Black Americans intersects with the peak Deaf population of the island. Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language, which originated in the relatively isolated village of Chilmark, is distinct from American Sign […]

From: Nefnef_baby@lyons-edu.org To: Cara Hasani CaraMia1990@mailbuddy.gr September 18, 2015, 5:36 am Subject: I am drifting, but thank you for the photos My dear Cara, Thank you for sending me the photos, I never thought I’d feel this way again. But the pictures help. They really do. I can’t stop looking at them. Thank you for […]

Author: Jennifer Thomas Esteemed benefactors, honored guests: Thank you for attending today’s repatriation ceremony. We begin with our customary Planetary Acknowledgment. We gratefully recognize the communities on whose ancestral and unceded planet we gather today. We acknowledge the planetary dispossession and involuntary removals suffered by the inhabitants. While we have no intention of ceding the […]

There were seventeen people left between Dia and the end of her commission.

Hitchhikers clung to Tasi’s pants as he neared the edge of the forest. He brushed them off while walking and looked ahead to the open field that showed through the final rows of trees.

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

The Aunties Return the Ocean By Chris Kuriata Auntie Roberta landed badly on the roof of her escarpment house, scraping her knees across the flagstone shingles and splitting her pantyhose. Her arms were too full of black water to keep her balance so she nearly slid off the edge. She carried so much ocean she […]

Author: Igor Dyachishin Today may be the most important, and last, day of Anatoly Kravnikov’s life. When he was 25, Anatoly founded Kravnikov AI mostly using borrowed money but also some that he inherited from his mother – a stock market player with incredibly effective cognitive augmentations. Kravnikov’s enterprise turned out to be successful. As […]

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

As with all stupid things, it started with a dare.

I dress up as a clown and let people beat me up in the alley behind the cybermotel. The first man who ever did this to me, he was my best friend.