This story was first published in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination (Nov/Dec 2016) and was shortlisted for the inaugural Nommo Award for best African SF short story. via Pocket

Pamela swallowed a cactus and grew spines. They shot up through her pores, inches long and thick and stiff. They lay flat with the hair on her head. Everywhere she had hair, she grew spines instead. She enjoyed it, that first day, feeling them push …

By the time you get this missive, the deed will be done. I think it is best this way—an old-fashioned letter and a fait accompli (that’s “an accomplished fact” for you, Raymond ? ). I know it may come as a shock to some of you. I know, Mom, you’re g…

Castle Jordan stands in a place that makes sense according to the logic of castles. It has a good view of a remote area, the better to spot siege-minded armies on the march. But castles do not fit the logic of the moon. Exposure and isolation aren’t…

But I don’t want new eyes, he thought. The surgery isn’t bad, as surgeries go. The one he had when he busted his knee ten years ago, as a teen, was much worse. Or maybe it was worse because of what it had meant: that he’d never go out on the ice aga…

Okay, this rogue robot recovery gig is getting old and I’m saying this as the tech geek of the team. So that should tell you something about our situation. via Pocket

Bella arrived late at the party, carrying a doll in a box in pink wrapping paper. She’d owned the doll when she was young, and she’d hoped Natalie would like that. Now, she wished she’d bought something. Her sister’s husband answered the door while …

Design a spaceship. Or a space station, if you prefer. Imagine an artificial planet, or a galaxy. But start with a spaceship. Start from nothing except the vacuum of space. via Pocket

Just ahead of The Incredibles 2, there is a groundbreaking short film, Bao: the first computer-animated Pixar short directed by a woman, Chinese-Canadian Domee Shi. via Pocket

Klein Kelly’s body fell from the ninth-story window and plummeted into the flooded mega-campus below, puncturing the water’s glasslike surface with a sickening thunk. Foul water grabbed at the weight of her sneakers and her thick denim jacket. She w…

How convenient, this loose-fitting thing called a kimono. When the sky was not light enough to see me properly, not dark enough for people to feel too alarmed, that was the time of day I'd walk around among humans. I loved the thrill. Just waiting f…

Strange Horizons - Copy Cat By Alex Shvartsman, By K. A. Teryna, Art by Shel Kahn via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2LVrJmv

Gashapon girls, machine-made, capsule-kept; Sleeping beauties in bright baubles, Pristine toys oblivious to the world Before you. Crack the eggshell, watch me climb out. I was born knowing how to let you take me apart. You wanted something else but …

My grandmother thinks of her father’s lifespan with awe. “He went from the horse and buggy to a man in space,” she repeats wistfully. “I don’t think anyone will ever see progress like that again. via Pocket

No one ever expects a dinosaur. Especially not on a small town street— pounding the pavement with deadly clawed feet. via Pocket

Strange Horizons - Quietly Gigantic By K. C. Mead-Brewer via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2LFZ5kC

Strange Horizons - Every Good-bye Ain’t Gone By Eden Royce, Art by Geneva Benton via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2mVOPKE

Strange Horizons - Dying Lessons By Troy L. Wiggins via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2ApJVPF

Strange Horizons - Venus Witch’s Ring By Inda Lauryn via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2Ou5KQY

Strange Horizons - The People Who Sleep Beneath the Waves By Malena Crawford via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2K6NXvW

Strange Horizons - Hide Me in the Shadow of Your Wings By Christopher Caldwell via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2K6NObS

I believe that every child in the city should learn to climb trees. City folk train their children to swim and to dance, to run and play games, to cross the horizontal plane in every possible motion, but they always ignore the vertical. via Pocket

Strange Horizons - The Metal Eater of Luminous Smoke By Minsoo Kang via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2K1a8rm

Allpa received the magic sword from his grandmother, as she lay dying. “No, nor do you deserve it,” she snapped at him. She was a fierce old woman with a nose like a hawk’s beak and skin falling away in folds from her cheekbones. “You’re a farmer, n…

No one will sleep until the Princess learns the Stranger’s name. Liù the slave girl, who has loved the Stranger since before his exile, when he was a Prince, when he smiled at her—Liù alone knows who he really is. via Pocket

Look at what we woke. We feed them lies and watch them burn for it. via Pocket

I considered declining the invitation. It was too weird, too expensive, too far, too dangerous, too weird. Way too weird. An invitation like that would never come again. I’d regret it if I didn’t go. It lay on our kitchen table for three weeks while I argued out the pros and cons with Mabel. She …

Three months after the two men had pushed a needle into his thigh, Sheru learned something new about being sad. It happened just after the last of the strange dreams. They were not the kind of dreams that you’d expect a dog to have. The dreams he’d …

For as long as I can remember, Mythili has said she was going to leave. Even when we were children, she would tell Kumar and me that she was leaving the next day and we would never see her again. via Pocket

The interpreter’s voice is weak like a little bird’s, coming from a child’s lungs, but her diction is strong and certain like an adult’s. The Envoy speaks in his Earthian language and Henon words flow from Sam-Sa-Ee’s mouth. Across the table sits th…