In a dark future America where consumerism and gun culture are unchecked, a young family teams up to celebrate the first shopping day of the Christmas season in the most patriotic way possible. via Pocket

The mission: to survey the galaxy and beyond. An endless stream of probes and starships heading out into the universe, surveying, cataloguing, assaying. Forever. And on board those ships, the intrepid explorers who give it all meaning. We are a way … Grace’s Family | Tor.com via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2rIVDhG

Can dreams come true? They can if you win the lottery, which promises to provide what your heart desires. For a humble shopkeeper in Yiwu, it’s a living, selling lottery tickets. Until a winning ticket opens up mysteries he’d never imagined. via Poc… Yiwu | Tor.com via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2IBq5oa

When an AI that monitors casino gambling in Reno taunts a magician by revealing all his tricks, the magician is determined to exact his revenge. Best trick I ever saw? A lanky streak-of-piss Dutchman did it right in front of my eyes. A ring, a watch… The Guile | Tor.com via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2IBC3hI

Manhattan smells like rain. The last drops fall from the sky or else the rooftops, drifting down through the high air. With every step, her dress shoes throw out splashes from the thin, oily puddles. It’s ruining the leather, and she doesn’t care. v… When We Were Heroes | Tor.com via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2OITgEz

After marrying the prince and having her own child, Snow White visits her stepmother—promising to kill her in ever more horrible ways, at the same time attempting to stay away from the mirror that started it all. I shall drown you in the river where… Triquetra | Tor.com via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2M0P8Of

A provocative story about the relationship between the humans on a British airbase and the AI security system that guards that base. When a group of humans are killed, the question is who is responsible and why. via Pocket AI and the Trolley Problem | Tor.com via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2RW4lo8

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io The New Prometheus | Tor.com via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2KrTwd6 The Arctic wastes stretched wide in every direction, vast and irregular plains of ice which seemed to have no end. At their center, barely visible in the weak light provided by a sliver of sun at the horizon, was a rapidly moving sled. via Pocket

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via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io For over 25 years, the Wild Cards universe has been entertaining readers with stories of superpowered people in an alternate history. “Long is the Way” by Carrie Vaughn and Sage Walker sheds light on what people will do to escape the sins of their p… Long is the Way | Tor.com via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2VEs3ut

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io In  this standalone short story by N. K. Jemisin, author of The Fifth Season, the winner of this year’s Hugo Award  for Best Novel, New York City is about to go through a few changes. via Pocket The City Born Great | Tor.com via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2wbjbOD

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io In a cyber-enhanced, futuristic Chicago, Sonata knows near-immortality is achievable through downloading her mind into a cyborg body after death. But this young artist wants to prove that living forever isn’t the same as living a beautiful life. via… The Three Lives of Sonata James | Tor.com via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2x2XemM

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io

As an orphaned sixteen-year-old, Lynette was haunted by the ghost of Mirror Boy, the drowned child who replaced her reflection. Ten years later, she’s built herself a new life, but all that is threatened when Mirror Boy returns, warning of danger. v… Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy | Tor.com via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2Wx5lBA via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io In war-torn Kurdistan, a group of traumatized orphans is given a gift that could change their lives and the lives of everyone in the world, while in Washington, DC, an elderly woman undergoes medical procedures that radically change her life. My bro… OneZero | Tor.com via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2UAInv4

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io  In the deepest canyon in the inhabited worlds, giant mantas soar through the air and leave patterned structures behind. A team of sapiologists seek to prove that these delicate filaments are true language, not just bee’s dance. But time has run out… The Deepest Rift | Tor.com via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2YCj2Qc

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io The state took Aphra away from Innsmouth. They took her history, her home, her family, her god. They tried to take the sea. Now, years later, when she is just beginning to rebuild a life, an agent of that government intrudes on her life again, with … The Litany of Earth | Tor.com via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2yotAZH

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Among the universe’s civilizations, some conceive of the journey between stars as the sailing of bright ships, and others as tunneling through the crevices of night. Some look upon their far-voyaging as a migratory imperative, and name their vessels…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io As Tor.com departs from its longtime home, the iconic Flatiron building, we present this sweet farewell from Seanan McGuire. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io A dog detective is hired by a female human to investigate a murder that she committed. But of course, all is not as it seems. Before I take on an investigation for someone, I first make at least a cursory investigation of that someone. via Pocket Knowledgeable Creatures | Tor.com via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2NInacA

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Ritter was newly returned from seeding the harbor of Odessa with kraken eggs, an act of sabotage that would deny the Mongolian Wizard access to the Black Sea for years to come, when a uniformed young man appeared at his door with a telegram. “Tella-…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Something terrible had happened. Linnea did not know what it was. But her father had looked pale and worried, and her mother had told her, very fiercely, “Be brave!” and now she had to leave, and it was all the result of that terrible thing. via Poc…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Presenting a new original story, “Uncle Flower’s Homecoming Waltz,“ by author Marissa K. Lingen, a tale in which children and adults must be taught how to daydream properly; a respite against the never-ending war that rages around them. This story w…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Presenting a new original science fiction story, “A Clean Sweep With All the Trimmings,” by author James Alan Gardner, a Damon Runyon-esque tale of courteous guys, bulletproof dolls, and the fedora-clad spacemen that bring them together. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Egypt, 1912. In an alternate Cairo infused with the otherworldly, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities investigate disturbances between the mortal and the (possibly) divine. via Pocket A Dead Djinn in Cairo | Tor.com via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2yzzgRh