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An Omodest Proposal - Lightspeed Magazine
An Omodest Proposal - Lightspeed Magazine
Esteemed neighbors, emissaries, ambassadors, and dignitaries, I write to you today not only as a statesman but as a scientist. We in the city of Omelas have been exceedingly lucky in recent years. The wars, diseases, and financial instability that have rocked the world have so far passed us by. Partly that’s been due to prudent precautions and smart public investments, but it’s also true that our fine city benefits in unique ways from ancient, dearly-held customs.
·lightspeedmagazine.com·
An Omodest Proposal - Lightspeed Magazine
Oasis Earth - 365tomorrows
Oasis Earth - 365tomorrows
Author: Timothy Wilkie Swathed in star shine and hidden behind the sun was our destination. I couldn’t wait to be buried in the bosom of old mother earth where the worms and insects thrived on bacteria not chemicals. A long time ago I threw away my mother for life among the stars. I had forgotten […]
·365tomorrows.com·
Oasis Earth - 365tomorrows
The Martian Invasion - 365tomorrows
The Martian Invasion - 365tomorrows
Author: David Barber Across the gulfs of space, intellects bold and curious observe our world and hasten their plans against us… Buried deep in our cold, slow cities, age after age passed unregarded and we cared nothing for the world above until fiery scouts began falling from the skies. The Elders would have ignored this […]
·365tomorrows.com·
The Martian Invasion - 365tomorrows
You Don’t Belong Where You Don’t Belong - Reactor
You Don’t Belong Where You Don’t Belong - Reactor
With her friends vanishing and her home planet of Ayeshij crushed under the weight of occupation, gemologist-turned-con artist Mitayre’s planning a very special retirement--the kind with telepathic birds, sharp teeth, and gory retribution...
·reactormag.com·
You Don’t Belong Where You Don’t Belong - Reactor
The Year Without Sunshine - Uncanny Magazine
The Year Without Sunshine - Uncanny Magazine
During one of the much smaller disasters that preceded the really big disaster, I met a lot of my neighbors online. I can’t remember if we set up the WhatsApp group because of the pandemic or the civil disorder or both. My Minneapolis block had always been reasonably friendly—people would take their kids around on […]
·uncannymagazine.com·
The Year Without Sunshine - Uncanny Magazine
New Mutant - 365tomorrows
New Mutant - 365tomorrows
Author: Mark Renney The moment is almost here. At last, after all the speculation and rumour, the grand reveal. A cage has been wheeled onto the stage, sitting at its centre, covered by a white sheet, pristine and perfect. Everyone is certain that, when the cover is pulled away, it will be intricate and ornate […]
·365tomorrows.com·
New Mutant - 365tomorrows
Down Under - 365tomorrows
Down Under - 365tomorrows
Author: Beck Dacus Each time the floor shuddered, all our chains rang like windchimes. The shackles around my ankles were linked to the wrists of the “inmate” behind me, on and on in a long line of us marching forward. As I stumbled I pulled on that man’s wrists, nearly bringing him down as well. […]
·365tomorrows.com·
Down Under - 365tomorrows
Terminal Lucidity - 365tomorrows
Terminal Lucidity - 365tomorrows
Author: Don Nigroni Yesterday on Christmas Day, I was at my filthy rich, albeit eccentric, uncle’s house. And that’s when and where everything went awry. After dinner, he took me aside to his library to enjoy a cigar and a tawny port. “We know our current materialistic paradigm is pure garbage, yet we still cling […]
·365tomorrows.com·
Terminal Lucidity - 365tomorrows
A Chest In A Room - 365tomorrows
A Chest In A Room - 365tomorrows
Author: Aubrey Williams The cheap hotel room was draughty, the shadows ink in the recesses. Each sheet of green William Morris wallpaper was peeling in at least three places. For all the dinginess, though, it was a room, and I needed one. By a feeble light I’d tried to work, but the sound of the […]
·365tomorrows.com·
A Chest In A Room - 365tomorrows
Providential - 365tomorrows
Providential - 365tomorrows
Author: Majoki When the founders of Providence made planetfall, they had but one credo to establish their new civilization on the uninhabited world: Blind ignorance is unfortunate. Willful ignorance is shameful. Manufactured ignorance is unforgivable. Two hundred forty-one local years later, when the invading conquerors of Providence divvied up the planet, they wondered why the […]
·365tomorrows.com·
Providential - 365tomorrows
The Rider - 365tomorrows
The Rider - 365tomorrows
Author: Antonio DIsi Yesterday, I turned forty, without even realizing it. My life has become an endless sequence of days and nights, of bicycle deliveries, all dictated by an unrelenting app. Every morning, I wake up not knowing what the day holds. The only clue is my smartphone, incessantly vibrating, announcing new orders to deliver. […]
·365tomorrows.com·
The Rider - 365tomorrows
The Mote in Bird’s Eye; or, Note Attached to a Frozen Corpse Retrieved from Deep Space - Lightspeed Magazine
The Mote in Bird’s Eye; or, Note Attached to a Frozen Corpse Retrieved from Deep Space - Lightspeed Magazine
Dear Aunt Harriet, If you’re reading this note it means you survived. That’s wonderful news: I always loved you the most. The notes I sent out with Aunt Anita and the cousins are friendly letters, I promise, us being kin and all, and I surely hope they survive too. But I’m happiest about you.
·lightspeedmagazine.com·
The Mote in Bird’s Eye; or, Note Attached to a Frozen Corpse Retrieved from Deep Space - Lightspeed Magazine
Saturday’s Song - Lightspeed Magazine
Saturday’s Song - Lightspeed Magazine
The seven siblings sit in a place beyond the boundaries of space and time, where everything is made of stories. Even them. Especially them. People are made of stories too, but only the versions of their stories that they tell themselves. Curated, limited, incomplete. Many of the stories people tell themselves are lies layered on partially-perceived things to give their lives structure and meaning. The siblings that sit beyond sit true, for they are made of all the stories that were, that are, that are to come.
·lightspeedmagazine.com·
Saturday’s Song - Lightspeed Magazine
Golubash, Or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy - Lightspeed Magazine
Golubash, Or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy - Lightspeed Magazine
The difficulties of transporting wine over interstellar distances are manifold. Wine is, after all, like a child. It can bruise. It can suffer trauma—sometimes the poor creature can recover; sometimes it must be locked up in a cellar until it learns to behave itself. Sometimes it is irredeemable. I ask that you greet the seven glasses before you tonight not as simple fermented grapes, but as the living creatures they are, well-brought up, indulged but not coddled, punished when necessary, shyly seeking your approval with clasped hands and slicked hair.
·lightspeedmagazine.com·
Golubash, Or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy - Lightspeed Magazine