Fictional Worlds

Author: Majoki In the dappled sunlight she felt the late afternoon breeze turn the tide against the day’s heat. So pleasant, so perfect, like so many hundreds of summer evenings before in her back garden. She brimmed, feeling the privilege of contentment. But how to say it? In her best days, expressing these feelings had […]

Author: James Kelbert There was a tuna casserole baking in the oven as X forked its human to death. The timer went off just as the half-crusty blood oozed from the pale corpse onto the Formica countertop. In a vain expression of regret, X repeatedly smacked its trapezoidal head with its rusted digits. After the […]

Author: Allyson Foley His breathing was deafening in the confines of the helmet as he clung to the wreckage of the Palindrought. That thing had looked like one of theirs. Its clearance codes had checked out. Its hull, the call sign, even its frequency and flight path had all cleared. The ship had been Telphi […]

Author: David Penn On this planet in the Emerson V system, sardonically named Jacob’s Ladder by its first explorers, the dominant species looks superficially like an Earth stick insect. However, these creatures are as large as our blue whales, have ten minutely-jointed legs, each ending in an eye, and mouths which operate more like ancient […]

Author: Kristen Henderson Her right hand was so chewed up by the churning machine at the mill that she was left with little choice. Little choice but to have a dowdy female surgeon attach a claw-like contraption to what straggly shattered pieces were left behind. If only she’d been left handed, but she was so […]

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer I thought the skinny functionary nodded my way. The two of them are approaching, all eager smiles, curious glances, and whispered asides. “Are these seats taken? The server said they weren’t, but you know, they sometimes get things wrong. So, are they?” At least there’s two of them. Hopefully they’ll […]

Empathetic Ear by M. J. Pettit

Who Can Have the Moon by Congyun 'Muming' Gu, translated by Tian Huang

Light Speed Is Not a Speed by Andy Dudak

Author: David Broz There is plenty of time to think out in space, in the middle of nowhere, just me and the dark and the pinpricks of the stars. And I think about how I miss you. I want to ask you, do you ever think of me? My mind is wandering. What if I […]

This week we are delighted to be present as E. Lily Yu’s startling, gorgeous “Alphabet of Swans” makes its revelations. ~ Julian and Fran, August 27, 2023 Alphabet of Swans​ By E. Lily Yu “No major issues, I’m happy to say. A little myopia in the left, some astigmatism in the right.”

Author: David Barber The final part of the plan involved capturing a Jirt Princess. Morgan led one assault team, a band of Earthers who took terrible losses before the Jirt security swarm was destroyed. A last Jirt warrior blocked the way down into the palace. Evolution had selected the soldier caste for single combat with […]

They have never fought about it. “It’s your body,” her husband says, and means it. Only sometimes, when they’re out walking, a little girl will careen across their path roaring like a giggly tyrannosaurus, and he falls silent. “What’re you thinking about?” she asks, before she learns not to.

A weary resilience worker should know better than anyone: no one is safe when the world is always ending...

"Communicable" from THE ARCHIVISTS by Daphne Kalotay, recommended by Rebecca Makkai

"It Is What It Is" by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, recommended by Electric Literature

This week, we hope our free August story, Eugenia Triantafyllou‘s beautiful “Always Be Returning,” will transport all our readers to mythical and strikingly heartfelt shores. ~ Julian and Fran, August 6, 2023 Always Be Returning by Eugenia Triantafyllou

What does wanderlust mean when you’re a ghost? Find out by joining Darcie Little Badger’s wonderfully intrepid Corey and Jimena on the road. ~ Julian and Fran, April 2, 2023 Those Hitchhiking Kids By Darcie Little Badger They hadn’t died while hitchhiking, and ghosts couldn’t own a car, but Corey and Jimena shared the condition of wanderlust, so something had to be done. In high school, they’d ditch class to bus-hop through Houston, losing themselves in mazes of hot streets. Death hadn’t extinguished the urge to travel without aim, although it made the process trickier, more frustrating.

We kick off May with a new, free-to-read, Sarah Gailey story, set in a world where awards have a powerfully lasting effect. ~ Julian and Fran, May 7, 2023 Such an Honor by Sarah Gailey The Ganymede Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Composition was warm in Leonard’s hand, not that he could feel it. Maybe if it had been piping hot or freezing cold, the sensation would have made it through the calloused landscape of his palm—but it was only as warm as the dozens of hands it had passed through over the course of the evening. It felt like nothing. Everyone wanted to touch the damn thing so they could say they’d touched it, so that later, in some way, they could convince themselves that they’d touched him.

Karen Lord’s story this week asks what would we do if we could hear the echoes of all the choices we’ve made in other lives, but haven’t made in this one. It is a stunning meditation on time and choices. ~ Julian and Fran, March 5, 2023 A Timely Horizon

This week’s story from James Patrick Kelly connects art, memory and experience in entirely new and unexpected ways. In keeping with that ideal, you’ll find a link to the art that inspired the story at the end! ~ Julian and Fran, March 12, 2023 The In-Between

Thank you for traveling with us today as Rick Wilber’s “To the Mean,” transports us to the past and the future in this epic story of connection. ~ Julian and Fran, February 26 To the Mean By Rick Wilber Karolina di Chun, 211 Anno Domini, Roman Britain

Marie Brennan’s new tale examines the truth of stories we think we know well, and those we’ve never heard before.

Will Alexander’s “A Body in Motion” gives us a full-on SF space movie in miniature. It has everything: thrills, chills, laughs, mysteries, and an utterly charming Baby AI. I want to read more in this world! ~ Julian Yap, May 8 2022

This week, Will Alexander returns us to the universe of last year’s “A Body in Motion” where we’ll visit a space station that is very alive, and that finds certain guests highly upsetting. What could possibly go wrong? (Answer: Many things, including poetry!)

Authors are often asked, “Where do you get all your ideas?” In this historical fantasy set within the world of her Onyx Court series, Marie Brennan offers one answer about the source and price of inspiration. ~ Julian Yap, February 13, 2022.

For September’s first, free story, A. R Capetta takes us on a spectacular road trip beyond anything we could have ever imagined. ~ Julian and Fran, Sept 3, 2023 Resurrection Highway by A. R. Capetta You climb the fence, hit the yard of the body shop at three in the morning—whispered among automancers as the best time—and write sigils on the tires in a thick glop of white paint. You skim the wheels with the specially prepared olive oil, which Rye always called wake-up juice, infused with chilis and lemon peel and much less savory ingredients that you sourced from that guy in the Haight who swore the marrow was fresh.

"Wedding Party" from DIRECT SUNLIGHT by Christine Sneed, recommended by Elizabeth McKenzie

"Queen of Heaven" by Joel Cuthbertson, recommended by Electric Literature

after-life-by-joel-cuthbertson