Fictional Worlds

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “DAY-NA!” The roar of anger is so loud it stops everyone. Dayna, presumably the being we’ve managed to corner after a three-hour citywide chase, was dubbed ‘Jaqueline the Ripper’ by the newsfeeds. Surrounded by rings of armoured vehicles and furious enforcers, she was laughing. Now she looks scared. What’s coming? […]

Author: Majoki To dream is the dream. Anyone thinking that we need to sleep to live is missing the real payoff. We should be living to sleep. Snow White had it right for the wrong reasons. She didn’t bite a poisoned apple, she micro-dosed from the forbidden fruit of the real tree of knowledge: somna. […]

The Pull of the Herd By: Suzan Palumbo My doeskin calls to me from under the woollen blankets in the cedar chest at the foot of our bed. Diya murmurs beside me, eases back to sleep. I cling to her, try to calm the panic welling in my chest by inhaling her cardamom scent. The […]

Two Hands, Wrapped in Gold by S.B. Divya   My parents taught me to lie as soon as I could speak. Before I knew the meaning of the words, before I understood heat or fire, and long before I felt the pain of singed flesh, I learned to tell strangers that I burned myself by […]

Two Hands, Wrapped in Gold – PART TWO by S. B. Divya Walter and his small gang visited as promised. Taking my mother’s advice, I told them I had failed. They delivered a beating, which I accepted while curled into a ball on the ground beside my mother, my hands tucked into my armpits to […]

Two Hands, Wrapped in Gold by S.B. Divya I was hidden in a tree near the mill when the Duke of Bavaria arrived in Talgove. I had never seen the man before, but the coat of arms matched the hangings I’d seen in Salzburg. The sizeable retinue stopped by the water wheel. Blasius emerged from […]

An android mother writes a letter to her daughter . . .

In the same world as Everfair, a brutal king plagued by visions of the Black people he slaughtered in Congo attempts to destroy the spirits haunting him using an inventor's powerful but unproven machine...

A new novelette set in the realms of Kerstin Hall's acclaimed The Mkalis Cycle series. The 813th realm of Mkalis has fallen to a cruel and mercurial god, but Tahmais, its would-be successor, finds an unlikely ally in her quest to reclaim it at any cost....

There's more to “once upon a time” than meets the eye...

A contentious election and radicalized locals interfere with Canadian recovery workers’ efforts at the site of a catastrophic flood in near-future Mississippi.

While visiting the mysterious castle of Maidstone for an investigation, Judge Dee and Jonathan discover the only thing more menacing than a vampire child is twin vampire children...

On one of their earliest Visigoth assignments, Graff and Ell stumble into each other’s secrets (and one significant surprise) while conducting a recovery mission on a mining asteroid scheduled for imminent pulverization...

It’s just business as usual at the Bureau of Metahuman, Mutant, and Occult Affairs until an employee for the government agency begins to wonder if work is following her home. . . Thursday, 8:47 a.m. Leelee’s second cup of coffee hasn’t even worked its pitiful magic yet, she hasn’t finished deleting all her work emails […]

After a fraught, improbably long life, a post-apocalyptic archivist resigned to cataloging ephemera from the “old world” times finds his life upended by an orphaned girl. . .

A woman who fears she’s failing as a painter and as an artist seeks inspiration from one of her favorite poets and finds something even more wondrous, but also more impossible to capture on canvas…

Author: Mark Renney Each time Rod pushed his way through the portal, his initial response was disappointment. Although he hadn’t been aware of it the first time, he was actually stepping into the future. He realised this was an immense and astounding feat but it was just his flat, a perfect replica, albeit a little […]

Author: Hillary Lyon “You have three minutes,” Harmon said, sticking the end of an unlit cigar in his mouth.“Go.” “Okay,” Jepson nervously began. “Picture this: an unlikely romance between a peppy vacuum cleaner and a stoic lawn mower.” Harmon struck a match and lit his cigar. Jepson continued, “Defying the conventions of their middle class […]

Stranger Seas Than These by L Chan

Author: Stephen Dougherty The wind picked up the dust with brutal force. It ripped up the scorched land and tossed it into the never-ending night. Through the dark maelstrom, he could see what he hoped was Beacon Five through the scuffed glass of Beacon Two, its amber light scything through the burnt dust like the […]

“What’s your favorite tale?” I ask, voice quivering. My audience of thieves and killers, their gaunt, dirty faces illuminated by flickering firelight, eye me with equal parts skepticism and…

Author: Jean-Philippe Martin The traveler came to our house the day before harvest, detective. I did not notice anything amiss. He said the had nothing but was willing to work, so we housed him and showed him the next day how to pack, haul, and stack the boxes of fruit. He went along fine with […]

Author: Jeremy Nathan Marks ‘Sir, I hope you’re happy with the service you’ve received thus far.’ ‘Please alter your voice to that of a woman.’ ‘Sir, I hope you’re pleased with the services you’ve so far received.’ ‘I am, Moneypenny. May I call you Moneypenny?’ ‘You may call me whatever you like, sir.’ ‘Thank you.’ […]

Self-defense class in the virtual reality sim is supposed to be safe. My green dummy-partner lumbers toward me like a particularly unthreatening zombie and grabs my throat. I clasp my hands together…

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer There’s an angel on the veranda, stealing my tomatoes. Well, not actually on the veranda. She’s too tall for that. Got one foot at the top of the steps, the other on the ground. My daughter’s fascinated by the flickering shadows cast by the shimmering energy fields that make up […]

The Painted Skin and the Final Stroke by Zhu Yixuan

Author: R. J. Erbacher Timmy woke with a start and looked up. He heard scurrying overhead. On the roof? Hooves, maybe. He laid perfectly still and listened intently. It only lasted a moment and then stopped. For a while there was nothing and he began to lose hope that he had actually heard anything. A […]

Author: Majoki Pioneering computer scientist, Alan Kay, once said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” I have to disagree. I’ve found the best way to predict the future is to control it. And the easiest way to control the future is to be in charge of time. In my case […]

Homes for the Holidays by Heather Shaw & Tim Pratt   I stood on the slumlord’s doorstep and took a deep breath — one of the last I would take in this body, which had served me well despite being treated badly. It’s not the body I was born with — I don’t think I […]