Total Stories: 306; Estimated Time: 99h:40m (1794K words)
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Rating: 5 ->
Hugo-worthy
Rating: 4 ->
Recommended
Rating: 3 -> Average
A Case Of Identity by Edward M. Lerner
Time: 24m (7K words) Issue: Analog 12|15
A quantum AI playing at detective is
recruited by a young woman to investigate the disappearance of her fiance.
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A Hot Day's Night by Paolo Bacigalupi Time: 09m (3K words) Issue: F&SF 09.10|15
Journalist covering the slow death
from lack of water of a near-future Phoenix joins a scavenger for a night to
get a story with a new angle.
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A Planet Called Desire by Gwyneth Jones
Time: 40m (12K words) Issue: Old Venus
Wealthy John Forrest has himself
transported across space and time to primordial Venus, before it lost its
oceans and life.
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A Residence for Friendless Ladies by Alice Sola Kim
Time: 26m (8K words) Issue: F&SF 03.04|15
A physically female high-schooler
wants to transition to a man, but her grandmother sends her to a place that
tries to make women into ladies.
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After
by Ron Collins
Time: 01m (500 words) Issue: Analog 03|15
Short-short, in which a mechanical
problem traps a crew member outside the spaceship and the rest of the crew
try desperately to save him/her.
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Agent Neutralized by David Wellington Time: 27m (8K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF Zombies) In a US trying to recover
from a zombie epidemic, Whitman ferries two passengers through lawless
territory from Atlanta to a camp in Florida.
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Airtight by Michael Capobianco Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: Mission: Tomorrow
(Hard SF) When Lon lands on the comet
Ondine, he'll stake a claim and make a fortune. He's almost there, but lots
of things can still go wrong.
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All The Childhood You Can Afford by Daniel Suarez
Time: 30m (9K words) Issue: Twelve Tomorrows 2016
In Gavin's world, children have to pay
for everything, and often can't even afford to be born until long after their
parents are dead. He's 16 today, in a dead-end school that doesn't teach him
what he really wants to know.
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All The Wrong Places by Sean Williams
Time: 16m (5K words) Issue: Meeting Infinity
(SF) A young Australian man regrets
breaking up with a girl and chases her across time and space, trying to catch
up with her and apologize. Delightful.
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Three different accounts of (modern
day) human encounters with "ambiguity machines" are presented, each
one a story in itself.
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American Golem by Weston Ochse Time: 20m (6K words) Issue: Operation Arcana
(Military Fantasy) When a young
soldier dies in Afghanistan, his grieving grandfather creates an unliving
assassin and sends it after the man responsible.
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An Immense Darkness by Eric James Stone
Time: 10m (3K words) Issue: Analog 03|15
Antonio's project has developed a way
to make virtual copies of living human brains, and now that's all he has left
of his fiancee.
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Ro can't tolerate touching other human
beings, but an accidental contact with an alien changes Ro's world.
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Arnheim's World by Therese Arkenberg Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: Analog 05|15
In the far future, a rich recluse
terraforms an entire world just for himself and his few remaining friends.
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Around The NEO in 80 Days by Jay Werkheiser
Time: 25m (8K words) Issue: Mission: Tomorrow
(SF) Ultra-rich Phil Foggerty bet that
he could fly around a Near-Earth Asteroid and return to Earth in just 80
days. He has a clever plan, but his enemies don't want him to get off the
ground.
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Ashfall
by Edd Vick And Manny Frishberg Time: 10m (3K words) Issue: Analog 07.08|15
Beekeepers threatened by volcanic ash
discover new things about their robotic bees.
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Baby Steps by Lettie Prell Time: 08m (2K words) Issue: Analog 11|15
Something goes wrong when a dying
woman is uploaded into virtual reality, and Jayden has to figure it out and
fix it.
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Jake and his brothers are doomed to
dance forever unless he can find women willing to help break the curse.
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Begone
by Daryl Gregory Time: 24m (7K words) Issue: Asimov's 10.11|15
A man has mysteriously been replaced
by a near-duplicate, and he plots how to get his job, home, and family back.
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Bidding War by Rich Larson Time: 11m (3K words) Issue: Asimov's 12|15
In a fairly near future Canada, Wyatt
bids online for a mezo-American flute he thinks would be just the gift to
patch things up with his girlfriend. Mildly amusing.
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Akari Yamaguchi is a 16-year-old girl
in present-day California whose very creative plan to save the dolphins
causes some chaos.
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Boxes
by Nick Harkaway Time: 11m (3K words) Issue: Twelve Tomorrows 2016
Tanya Sobel has lost her husband, but
she wants to hold onto the medical devices that had supported his life.
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Brainwhales are Stoners Too by Rich Larson Time: 18m (5K words) Issue: Interzone 257
(SF) Teenage Bea would do anything for
Theo, including breaking into the lab where her mom works to get pictures of
a real brainwhale. Fun read.
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Brigas Nunca Mais by Martin L. Shoemaker Time: 24m (7K words) Issue: Analog 03|15
The surprising tale of how Nick Ames,
the famous, no-nonsense captain on the Earth-Mars run, had such a disastrous
first wedding that there was no marriage.
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Building, Antenna, Span, and Earth by Ken Brady Time: 07m (2K words) Issue: Analog 11|15
A former rock climber makes one last
jump, from the top of a kilometer-high tower on a high-gravity world.
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Butterflies on Barbed Wire by Marie Vibbert
Time: 12m (4K words) Issue: Analog 10|15
A young man whose family is in the
tattoo business has problems convincing his elders that they should try new
things.
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Candy From Strangers by Jay O'Connell
Time: 16m (5K words) Issue: Asimov's 01|15
In a near-future Boston, Morgan looks
for people about to commit suicide and makes them his "clients."
His help is free, but is it worth what it costs?
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Carriers by Tananarive Due Time: 19m (6K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) Decades ago, when plague ravaged
the US, carriers like Nayima were exiled. Things are changing now, but at her
age changes are hard to accept.
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Cease and Desist by Jay Werkheiser Time: 04m (1K words) Issue: Analog 07.08|15
Lazy, fat guy is sued by his future
self for causing his health problems.
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Cetacean Dreams by Robert R. Chase Time: 21m (6K words) Issue: Analog 05|15
Europa station uses trained dolphins
to help explore a mystery in that moon's vast world ocean.
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A young Nigerian man learns that he is
clairvoyant--which opens up lots of temptation.
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(Military SF) Sitting in front of an
array of monitors, Karin supports combat teams with intel from drones and
AIs. In two years, she's never lost a soldier, but tonight is going to be
busy.
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Come-From-Aways by Julian Mortimer Smith Time: 08m (2K words) Issue: Asimov's 12|15
One night in present-day Maine, a
teenager with a pregnant girlfriend rows into the fog to think things over.
But strange alien equipment often washes up on Bartlett's Beach on foggy
nights.
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A young girl with birth defects longs
to be a cyborg.
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Mysterious blue flashes followed by
falling grit signal that something very strange is happening.
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Daily Teds by Ron Collins Time: 18m (6K words) Issue: Analog 04|15
Fun story about Ted, a slacker grad
student in physics who discovers that his professor's "gamma gun"
has unexpected properties.
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Dancing With A Stranger In The Land Of Nod
by Will Mcintosh Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) Following a plague that paralyzed
most of the population, Teale takes her family out of what's left of Denver
to find a better place to care for them.
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Day Job
by Tom Purdom
Time: 29m (9K words) Issue: Asimov's 04.05|15
Len has empathy problems, so after
losing yet another job, his girlfriend gets him to go to a clinic where they
can fix things like that--most of the time.
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Defender of Worms by Richard A. Lovett Time: 1h:25m (26K words) Issue: Analog 01.02|15
Brittany, an AI, and her human host,
Memphis, flee across the desert from rogue AIs who want to destroy Brittany
if she won't join them.
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Die, Sophie, Die by Susan Jane Bigelow Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: Lightspeed 61
People keep harassing Sophie online
over an article she wrote, but one of the harassers is very different from
the others.
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Narrator desperately takes one of her
androids apart in a race with time to save her lover's life.
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English Wildlife by Alan Smale Time: 51m (15K words) Issue: Asimov's 10.11|15
A man and his girlfriend visit
England, and he worries about her intense interest in old stone carvings of
snarling heads called "green men," because of the leaves carved
around them.
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Exile From Extinction by Ramez Naam Time: 14m (4K words) Issue: Meeting Infinity
(SF) As the war between humans and AIs
comes to a violent close, you and your children flee for the stars, if you
can escape pursuit. A fun read.
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Exit Interview by Timons Esaias Time: 14m (4K words) Issue: Analog 11|15
A prisoner, confined for life on an
inhospitable alien world, gets a sign that something is finally going to
change.
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Fool's Errand by Judith Tarr Time: 22m (7K words) Issue: Analog 01.02|15
Marina is an underemployed scientist
managing cargo on a starship when a stasis capsule fails and she finds
herself trying to deal with a horse. Heartwarming.
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Four Seasons in the Forest of Your Mind by Caroline M. Yoachim
Time: 07m (2K words) Issue: F&SF 05.06|15
A very alien sort of aliens have a
very different sort of first contact with humanity.
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Frogheads by Allen M. Steele Time: 41m (12K words) Issue: Old Venus
Ronson is a PI from Earth hired to
track down a tycoon's son, who has gone missing on Venus.
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(Military SF) Thrilling story set ~100
years from now where a young woman flies orbital combat missions for a
"nation" that only exists on the Internet.
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Ghost Colors by Derek KΓΌnsken Time: 12m (4K words) Issue: Asimov's 02|15
Brian is haunted by a second-hand
ghost who, in life, had been a paleontologist loved Brian's aunt. Brian
doesn't mind him, much, but his new girlfriend says the ghost has to go.
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A young man studying to be a
video-game designer falls in love with a classmate after she falls and hits
her head--the same day all the stars went out.
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He Came From a Place of Openness and Truth
by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam Time: 20m (6K words) Issue: Lightspeed 56
Teenage Ben doesn't understand why
he's attracted to Mikey. He never like guys before, and there's something
really odd about Mikey.
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Heart Of Brass by Alex Jennings Time: 32m (10K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
At need, Thea becomes the Brass
Monkey, who roams the streets of Seattle fighting crime and super villains.
But Thea is dissatisfied and wants to spend more time with her boyfriend.
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Heaven Come Down by Ben H. Winters Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) Teenage Pea has survived the
deaths of everyone else on her colony, and now she's starting to hear the
voice of God.
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Heavy Sulfur by Ari Marmell Time: 17m (5K words) Issue: Operation Arcana
(Military Fantasy) Peyton's magic
helps the British fight the Germans in World War I, and he's very good at it,
but now they need him for a dangerous "Heavy Sulfur" mission.
Whatever that means.
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History's Best Places to Kiss by Nik Houser Time: 21m (7K words) Issue: F&SF 01.02|15
Amusing time-travel story in which a
couple decide that disrupting their own wedding would be cheaper than getting
a divorce.
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Holding Hands With Monsters by Haralambi Markov
Time: 12m (4K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
A horror story, in which the narrator
meets the monster under the bed, and things go from bad to worse.
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Holding the Ghosts by Gwendolyn Clare
Time: 11m (3K words) Issue: Asimov's 03|15
A body used commercially to host the
personalities of dead people starts to get a mind of its own. Satisfying.
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How to Remember to Forget to Remember the Old War
by Rose Lemberg Time: 09m (3K words) Issue: Lightspeed 61
Veteran living in a future San
Francisco suffers from PTSD despite the memory-wipe treatment given by the
military.
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In Skeleton Leaves by Seanan Mcguire
Time: 21m (6K words) Issue: Operation Arcana
(Military Fantasy) Neverland's eternal
war between the Pan and the pirates has grown unusually nasty of late, and
the Wendys are concerned about it.
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Stories say that deep in the the
Brotterling caves something sings a song that drives people insane, but four
cavers are trapped in there, and Karyn intends to find th
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In the Dawns Between Hours by Sarah Pinsker
Time: 03m (980 words) Issue: Lightspeed 61
Tess decides 1943 is no place for a
gay woman, so she builds a time machine. Now she just has to decide when to
use it.
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In The Valley Of The Shadow Of The Promised Land
by Robin Wasserman Time: 26m (8K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) After the skyfall, Isaac lead
"The Children" to a place of safety, and later created a theocracy.
But now he's dying, and he struggles to preserve his legacy.
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A man searches an alien concentration
camp for relatives of his step-sister, who was an alien too.
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Into the Fiery Planet by Gregor Hartmann
Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: F&SF 07.08|15
Young man helping terraform a volcanic
planet gets a chance to show he can do more than grunt work.
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A game tester in a future China
evaulates an extremely realistic, totally immersive video game. Bloody as it
is, the fact that it's based on historical events means it's marketed as
"educational.
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Jubilee: A Seastead Story by Naomi Kritzer
Time: 24m (7K words) Issue: F&SF 01.02|15
Beck is a teen-age girl who lives on
Seastead, a collection of offshore platforms claiming independence from the
US. Their organization has collapsed, and do-gooders from the mainland are
trying to help deal with a couple of epidemics.
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Karma Among the Cloud Kings by Brian Trent Time: 25m (8K words) Issue: Analog 03|15
Preema is a Jain, sworn to kill no
life, working on a gas giant planet extracting hydrogen for starships. The
Jains have a menial job, collecting debris, but something about the debris
bothers Preema.
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In present-day New York, Kia is a
17-year-old black girl still haunted by the disappearance of her cousin
Giovanni seven years ago.
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La HΓ©ron by Charlotte Ashley Time: 21m (7K words) Issue: F&SF 03.04|15
In France in 1699, a magical fighter
comes to Caen to duel with creatures from faery.
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Last Transaction by Nik Constantine Time: 08m (3K words) Issue: F&SF 03.04|15
On colony 13, citizen 79867 is about
to have a very bad day, owning to an unauthorized transaction.
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Life's A Game by Charles Stross Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: Twelve Tomorrows 2016
Arrested in a foreign country, a UK
game developer tries to explain to his lawyer why he shouldn't be charged
with war crimes despite certain problems with his latest product.
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Like All Beautiful Places by Megan Arkenberg
Time: 13m (4K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(Hard SF) Grecia survived the destruction
of San Francisco, and she works with Lena to make a simulation of the city
for posterity.
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Live From the Air Chair by Maggie Clark Time: 26m (8K words) Issue: Analog 09|15
A post-apocalypse DJ in Earth orbit
has to help his ex-girlfriend find an important bit of space junk.
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After mankind receives the first
message from another civilization, there is a huge debate about whether to
send our own messages. A mock trial is held to hear both sides. Entertaining
exploration of alien languages, machine learning, and dialogue systems
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In a near future where all work is
automated, a man's wife is drafted to be "employed" by the system,
and he struggles to find meaning in life without her.
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Margin Of Survival by Elizabeth Bear
Time: 22m (7K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) After the collapse of
civilization, Yana sneaks into a military base to hunt for food. Not that the
folks in the base will be willing to share.
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Mercenary'S Honor by Elizabeth Moon Time: 24m (7K words) Issue: Operation Arcana
(Military Fantasy) A fun tale wherein
an old mercenary captain's retirement plans are interrupted by a young
mercenary sent to fight him.
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In a near-future Philippines, Marty
takes his family to his hometown to see a miracle that transforms artificial
food into real food.
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Monsieur by David Gerrold Time: 46m (14K words) Issue: F&SF 09.10|15
The narrator wants to write vampire
stories. He meets someone who can tell him all about them, and he writes down
his story, starting in 1870s Seattle.
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No Decent Patrimony by Elizabeth Bear
Time: 25m (8K words) Issue: Asimov's 02|15
About 150 years from now, a man who
made his fortune providing immortality to the wealthy dies in a car
explosion, and his son reckons with his legacy.
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Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys: The Elephant's Tale
by Damien Angelica Walters Time: 11m (4K words) Issue: Apex 75
The elephant laments the sad state of
the circus, remembers how much better it once was, and watches those who try
to escape.
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Ash enjoys his life in virtual
reality, but lately he's got a strong desire to return to the real
world--even though he barely remembers it.
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On Edge
by Sarah A. Hoyt Time: 14m (4K words) Issue: Mission: Tomorrow
(SF) As related by their admin, Cass, two
"geniuses" trying to invent teleportation for Amazon.com bite off
more than they can chew.
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On the Dying Winds of the Old Year and the Birthing Winds of the New
by Kate Elliott Time: 50m (15K words) Issue: Lightspeed 59
In this fantasy, Mai lives in exile in
the independent town of Salya, but the theft of a courier bag means that King
Anjihosh doesn't intend to leave her or the town in peace.
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Oneness: A Triptych by James Patrick Kelly
Time: 11m (3K words) Issue: F&SF 07.08|15
Three tales of seduction: one SF, one
horror, one both.
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Orion, Rising by Arlan Andrews, Sr. Time: 03m (1K words) Issue: Analog 01.02|15
Short-short. In 2024, a bunch of guys
in a bar watch the first moon landing in decades, complaining that it's not
different enough from the first landings.
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Out of the Jar by Eric Schwitzgebel Time: 12m (4K words) Issue: F&SF 01.02|15
Amusing story about a philosophy
teacher who gets in touch with God and discovers he's a teenager running an
illegal simulation program.
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Pareidolia by Kathleen Bartholomew And Kage Baker
Time: 36m (11K words) Issue: Asimov's 03|15
Josephus fixes problems for a
23rd-century company that uses time-travel to extract valuable artifacts from
ancient times. Mostly light-hearted and fun.
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Partible by K. J. Zimring Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: Analog 04|15
Heartwarming story of a man in
near-future Seattle who learns he had a son with a woman he knew nine years
ago--except that he never had sex with her.
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Pathfinder by T. C. Mccarthy Time: 19m (6K words) Issue: Operation Arcana
(Military Fantasy) In a Korean War
fought with spells as well as bombs, Hae Jung works in a hospital camp where
she uses her secret ability to guide the dying to Heaven.
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Heartwarming story of how Torulf and
Judith, an elderly couple on Mars, unexpectedly find themselves given custody
of three preteen grandchildren they didn't know they had.
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Portrait of a Witch by Albert E. Cowdrey
Time: 25m (8K words) Issue: F&SF 01.02|15
The FBI forces crooked accountant
Alfred to take a job with Lord Pye on a Caribbean tax haven to try to prove
Lady Pye is a serial killer.
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Tispy and her crew make a living illegally
collecting "metadata" from important people they randomly walk by.
Then they get a tip about a big party to target.
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Bev and her son Benj are among the last
people left in town when bad news arrives.
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Rascal Saturday by Richard Bowes Time: 32m (10K words) Issue: F&SF 09.10|15
A late-21st-Century young woman lives
in a New York that's dying from climate change, and she wants to escape to a
lightly-populated alternate reality that her family can access--but she's not
on good terms with her family.
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Resistance by Seanan Mcguire Time: 26m (8K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) Megan has survived the grey mold
created in her lab which has destroyed most of the world. She's ready to die,
but other survivors are looking for her.
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Riding the Waves of Leviathan by Garrett Ashley
Time: 23m (7K words) Issue: Asimov's 12|15
In the near future, a teen-age boy's
world is turned upside down when a giant monster starts hauntings the beaches
in his town.
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After giving up on a physics Ph.D.,
Walter tries teaching high-school
physics. He knows his subject cold, but struggles to relate to the kids.
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River, Clap Your Hands by Sheree R. Thomas
Time: 10m (3K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
The narrator, a survivor of a
hurricane-induced flood, mourns her lost baby and feels that the water is
calling to her somehow.
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SF story in present-day Seattle.
Nicole and Andrew are star-crossed lovers, who meet in a bus accident. They
marry, they divorce, and then things start to get strange.
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An illegal, near-planetary drag race
for rather unexpected stakes.
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Rules Of Enchantment by David Klecha And Tobias S. Buckell Time: 19m (6K words) Issue: Operation Arcana
(Military Fantasy) A squad of US
Marines escorts an Elven princess through enemy territory controlled by
goblins and trolls.
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Rush Down, Roar Gently by Sara Saab Time: 20m (6K words) Issue: Interzone 259
An old woman hazards crossing a
drowning future Beirut to make an apology to an old friend she had wronged
thirty years before.
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A "heisen implant" allows
Detective O'Harren to explore alternate universes to help solve crimes in
1930s Chicago.
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Sealskin by Carrie Vaughn Time: 22m (7K words) Issue: Operation Arcana
(Urban Fantasy) After a mission gone
wrong, Richard, a young Navy SEAL with really great ability in the water,
thinks about quitting the Navy. So he takes vacation in Ireland to look for
the father he never knew.
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Ships in the Night by Jay Werkheiser
Time: 11m (3K words) Issue: Analog 06|15
A starship crewman chats in a bar and
tells about a curious incident that happened during a near-light-speed
cruise.
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Slider
by Bud Sparhawk Time: 22m (7K words) Issue: Analog 05|15
Around 2050, a failed minor-league
baseball star has high hopes for his son, but when the boy gets an unexpected
offer from the Orioles, there are strings attached.
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Somewhere I Have Never Traveled (Third Sound Remix)
by E. Catherine Tobler Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: Clarkesworld 105
Technician at a Jovian helium-mining
station has recurring dreams that something on the planet is calling to her.
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Song For The Asking by Carmelo Rafala
Time: 24m (7K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
The narrator, a priest in a fantasy
world, crosses the ocean to bring his church a boy he has trained and a woman
he has captured. But something is strange about both of them, and the convoy
has lots of problems.
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Stonebrood by Alec Nevala-Lee Time: 38m (11K words) Issue: Analog 10|15
A near-future story about a team in
Pennsylvania trying to put out a fifty-year-old underground coal fire using
swarms of mosquito-sized drones to try to map the extent of it. But there are
worse things down there than toxic gasses, and the most dangerous
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Mishy returns from an underwater city
where she hid from the war for 20 years--but the war isn't over.
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(Fantasy) The Mad Hatter and the March
Hare continue their tea party where time has stopped. But does even
timelessness have an end?
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Ten Days Up by Curtis C. Chen Time: 19m (6K words) Issue: Mission: Tomorrow
(Hard SF) Kenna works ten-day shifts
on the space elevator. When she ends up trapped outside, she has to find a
way back in before a solar flare hits.
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That Seriously Obnoxious Time I Was Stuck at Witch
Rimelda's One Hundredth Birthday Party by Tina Connolly
Time: 16m (5K words) Issue: Tor.com 08/26/15
Camellia is a non-magical teenager
stuck looking after primary-school-aged witch kids.
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The Chart of the Vagrant Mariner by Alan Baxter Time: 20m (6K words) Issue: F&SF 01.02|15
Daniel is a cabin boy on a pirate ship
whose captain obsesses over a madman's map that supposedly leads to untold
treasure.
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The Crashing of the Cloud by Norman Spinrad
Time: 21m (7K words) Issue: Analog 09|15
A master hacker on the lam from the US
government signs up to help Islamic terrorists.
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On planet Duranga, a novice research
team struggles to prove that the communication system of the
"mantas" they study amounts to an actual language.
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The Empathy Vaccine by C. C. Finlay Time: 11m (3K words) Issue: Analog 06|15
A man believes he'd be a better
executive if he could turn off his empathy for other people.
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The Extraordinary Extraterrestrial Togo Mouse from Ghana
by Ryan W. Norris Time: 16m (5K words) Issue: Analog 03|15
Brett, a reporter, investigates Dr.
Alex Jordan's claim to have discovered extraterrestrial life in Africa.
Creatures so similar to mice that no one noticed how strange they were
before.
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The First Step by Kristine Kathryn Rusch Time: 11m (4K words) Issue: Asimov's 08|15
An aging scientist wants to be the
first to use the time machine he's invented.
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The Gazelle Who Begged for Her Life by Francis Marion Soty
Time: 16m (5K words) Issue: F&SF 01.02|15
Sobering tale of Kafar Al-Din, who
meets a Jinni in the woods outside Aleppo and tells the tale of how he comes
to be leading a gazelle that seems to be begging for its life.
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The God Year by Jim Grimsley Time: 26m (8K words) Issue: Asimov's 09|15
The people of an ugly fantasy world
where the narrator's drunken husband beats and humiliates her and his
handicapped child await the coming of a god.
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The Godstone Of Venus by Mike Resnick Time: 50m (15K words) Issue: Old Venus
Scorpio and Merlin accept a contract
as bodyguards for a man and woman seeking the fabulous, priceless Godstone.
Except no one else on Venus seems to have ever heard of it. A fun read.
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The Great Leap of Shin by Henry Lien Time: 27m (8K words) Issue: Analog 01.02|15
In this Chinese fantasy, in the style
of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," the eunuch Mu Hai-Chen tries
to engineer an earthquake, and the boy Ten Li tries to stop him.
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The Guns Of The Wastes by Django Wexler
Time: 26m (8K words) Issue: Operation Arcana
(Military Fantasy) Young recruit Pahlu
sails into the Waste on a land ship to join the fight against the robotic
sraa.
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In a fantasy port town, Malen loses
his job and struggles to find a way to earn some money to support himself and
his child.
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The Laminated Man by Albert E. Cowdrey Time: 24m (7K words) Issue: F&SF 05.06|15
Cairns retired from the FBI at 60 to
pursue one, last, mysterious case--off the books.
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The Last Dying Man by Geetanjali Dighe
Time: 08m (3K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
Nisha and Chayaa bear witness to the
end of the world, watching Mumbai collapse, and "indexing" everyone
who falls. Without knowing why.
|
The Last Movie Ever Made by Charlie Jane Anders
Time: 20m (6K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) A weapon malfunction has left the
whole world deaf, but teens Rock and Sally are still determined to make
another independent movie to post online.
|
The narrator is a soldier in a
far-future army that transports soldiers by turning them into beams of light.
But he has funny visions when he's a light beam, and he's starting to
question the whole war.
|
(Urban Fantasy) A moving story about a
man who lives alone in the woods discovers a goblin has been stealing his
firewood. But why?
|
The Marriage of the Sea by Liz Williams Time: 07m (2K words) Issue: Asimov's 04.05|15
A fantasy story in which the narrator
is scheduled to become the "Bride of the Sea."
|
The New Us by Pepe Rojo Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: Twelve Tomorrows 2016
In a chaotic near-future Mexico, a
young woman has problems with experimental implants she was paid to try out.
But finding the company responsible proves challenging.
|
A women in a future Hong Kong that has
survived some sort of global disaster is forced to take one of the architects
of the catastrophe as her bride--for the purpose of catching others who were
involved.
|
(Fantasy) Murder mystery involving a
team of precognitives critical to the war effort. Entertaining.
|
Part six of the Mongolian Wizard, in
which Ritter goes to Krakow in disguise to find evidence of atrocities so
grave that London cannot believe them.
|
The Race For Arcadia by Alex Shvartsman
Time: 20m (6K words) Issue: Mission: Tomorrow
(SF) At the end of the 21st Century,
Nikolai flies Russia's first interstellar spaceship alone, hoping to beat the
Americans and the Indians to the new planet, Arcadia.
|
The Smell of Blood and Thunder by Liz J. Andersen
Time: 35m (11K words) Issue: Analog 07.08|15
A world where people coexist with
intelligent dogs and cats sends for a vet to cope with a problem with
intelligent fleas.
|
The Sunset Of Time by Michael Cassutt
Time: 46m (14K words) Issue: Old Venus
Jor, a an exile from Earth, manages
the Lens project on Venus. Meanwhile the natives are dismantling their cities
and heading out to sea in anticipation of a global disaster they insist is
coming.
|
The Thirteen Mercies by Maria Dahvana Headley Time: 17m (5K words) Issue: F&SF 11.12|15
In a modern-day world that uses magic,
a group of soldiers sentenced for war crimes struggle to make sense of their
punishment.
|
The Tip of the Tongue by Felicia Davin
Time: 20m (6K words) Issue: Lightspeed 61
The government has taken away
everyone's ability to read, but Alice misses her books and wants to do
something about it.
|
Bronwyn is a Tufa, the Appalachian
equivalent of the "fair folk" She's marrying a country preacher,
and for some reason the local equivalent of the "little folk" are
interested in it.
|
The Ultimate Space Race by Jaleta Clegg Time: 10m (3K words) Issue: Mission: Tomorrow
(SF Humor) In a future where space
missions are funded by reality TV, Ethel and Henry watch the exciting
conclusion of a four-month race to Mars and back.
|
The Uncertainty Machine by Jamie Ford Time: 11m (3K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(Steampunk) Phineas used a mysterious
machine to predict that Halley's Comet would wreck the Earth in 1910. Now
he's trapped in his underground bunker. Can the machine help him get out?
|
The Wizard Of The Trees by Joe R. Lansdale
Time: 46m (14K words) Issue: Old Venus
Unexpectedly transported from Earth to
Venus, Jack helps a prince and princess fight to prevent a race of birdmen
from enslaving the world by getting both halves of a magic talisman.
|
The Wormhole War by Richard A. Lovett Time: 41m (13K words) Issue: Analog 06|15
Earth's attempts to use wormholes to
travel to other stars keep getting blocked by something.
|
Things Worth Knowing by Jay O'Connell
Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: F&SF 03.04|15
In the near future, Stanley supervises
school kids grades 1-12 while they use an automated system to learn, but one
boy seems to be learning abnormally quickly.
|
This Quintessence of Dust by Oliver Buckram
Time: 05m (2K words) Issue: F&SF 07.08|15
Having lost her human partner, a robot
investigates some deaths.
|
Today's Smarthouse in Love by Sarah Pinsker
Time: 06m (2K words) Issue: F&SF 05.06|15
A house AI falls in love with the
house next door.
|
Tomorrow is a Lovely Day by Lisa Mason Time: 23m (7K words) Issue: F&SF 11.12|15
Tomorrow, Benjamin graduates school
and can start a new life as a teacher, but he has to finish one last day at a
job he really hates.
|
Transfer Point by Barry N. Malzberg And Bill Pronzini
Time: 10m (3K words) Issue: Analog 04|15
Amusing tale of an immigration officer
on the moon in 2289 faced with the news that the immigration office will be
moving to Mars.
|
Trickier With Each Translation by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam Time: 18m (6K words) Issue: Lightspeed 61
A woman is trapped in a time loop by a
jealous super hero, and her own super power doesn't help her.
|
Tuesdays by Suzanne Palmer Time: 18m (6K words) Issue: Asimov's 03|15
Customers at a remote, west-Texas,
late-night diner report a UFO sighting, and the police come out to
investigate. Played for laughs, it's a fun read.
|
Tumbling Dice by Ron Collins Time: 19m (6K words) Issue: Analog 07.08|15
A space gambler meets a girl he's got
to have--even though he knows she's on the make.
|
(Horror) Frankton, NZ gets a shipment
of twenty "lichen splice" wives--free, courtesy of the government.
But these aren't like the last batch of wives.
|
Voice Prints by devorah major Time: 12m (4K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
Held captive by aliens, a woman tries
to reason with her new guard.
|
We Jump Down into the Dark by M. Bennardo Time: 17m (5K words) Issue: Asimov's 12|15
Anders joins a mission to try to save
two people from a colossal space station before it twists itself apart.
|
Fun fantasy tale in which Rose, a
middle-aged general store owner, agrees to be "warden and
postmaster" for the new government--even though other locals aren't
reconciled to having lost the war.
|
Willing Flesh by Jay O'Connell Time: 22m (7K words) Issue: Asimov's 04.05|15
In the near future, a morbidly obese
young man is attracted by an ad that offers to help you lose weight by taking
control of your body during those boring exercises.
|
Windshear by Angus Mcintyre Time: 25m (8K words) Issue: Mission: Tomorrow
(Hard SF) Bruno has finished his work
on a merleta, an airship in the Venusian stratosphere, and today he's going
home to Brazil. Except there seems to be a problem with his transportation.
|
On a spaceship in the far future,
Rasakhi tells the story of how the last human died.
|
Zen Angel by Rajnar Vajra Time: 1h:09m (21K words) Issue: Analog 05|15
In 2065, the government gives the
apparently-immortal Lenny Silver a dangerous mission of great importance to
the human race.
|
Rating: 2 -> Not
Recommended
In this gruesome fantasy, Vendanj submits
to months of cruel torture in order to gain entry to the Mal society to try
to avoid a war with his own.
|
A House of Her Own by Bo Balder Time: 16m (5K words) Issue: F&SF 09.10|15
Young girls on a lost planet where
people have developed a symbiotic relationship with the planet's native life
forms see their world disrupted when it is rediscovered by human beings.
|
A Thousand Nights Till Morning by Will Mcintosh
Time: 1h:36m (29K words) Issue: Asimov's 08|15
Aliens conquer the Earth, but a
psychiatrist from our Mars colony manages to make things worse.
|
Irina leaves the solar system to be
with Hull, a "man" he's known just two weeks, who won't treat him
like a mentally-ill person.
|
(Military SF) A soldier on an isolated
drone base chats with a psychologist about his online love affair.
|
A Walkabout Amongst The Stars by Lezli Robyn Time: 20m (6K words) Issue: Mission: Tomorrow
(SF) Earth sends Tyrille to
investigate why the Voyager 1 spacecraft abruptly began broadcasting
again--as if someone had refurbished it.
|
Acts Of Creation by Chris Avellone Time: 09m (3K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) Agnes interviews Reeves, one of the "sensitives," whose
uncontrollable psionic abilities have nearly destroyed civilization.
|
Two disabled veterans of a near-future
war meet in a virtual-reality world.
|
All-Natural Organic Microbes by Annalee Newitz
Time: 17m (5K words) Issue: Twelve Tomorrows 2016
In the near future, Sandy Green works
for a fading news site but dreams of getting a fellowship so she can write an
expose of a health-care scam.
|
An Idyll In Erewhyna by Hal Duncan Time: 14m (4K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
Two couples on Mars have challenges
with their new furniture and accommodations.
|
A childless woman is consumed by
dreams that she has a baby.
|
A woman reporter in a dictatorship
investigates an old third-world massacre with help from a female android
designed for other purposes.
|
(Military SF) In the near future, a US
Senator finds a unique, nonviolent way to respond to apply pressure to
trouble-making countries.
|
Aspects: A Galactic Centre Story by Gregory Benford
Time: 23m (7K words) Issue: Meeting Infinity
(SF) A group of human beings fleeing
"mechs" that are trying to exterminate them, come across a building
their ancestors constructed before their civilization was destroyed.
|
Be Three by Jewelle Gomez Time: 14m (4K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
Tryna is being held captive,
immobilized, but she doesn't remember why. Perhaps she's being tortured, but
she's not sure about that either. It might be something she agreed to. But she
needs to figure it out.
|
Biology at the End of the World by Brenda Cooper
Time: 38m (11K words) Issue: Asimov's 09|15
In a future where genetic engineering
is strictly forbidden, a young woman new to enforcement helps search space
habitats for forbidden biology experiments.
|
Body Politic by Kameron Hurley Time: 23m (7K words) Issue: Meeting Infinity
(SF) Narsis interrogates opposition
saboteurs, sent by a man named "Keli." Narsis has to catch Keli
soon, and his best lead is an incoherent prisoner.
|
Breakfast in Bed by Ian Watson Time: 11m (3K words) Issue: Analog 07.08|15
Max and Sandra explore the nature of
the multiverse in bed together.
|
Butterflies by Peter Wood Time: 13m (4K words) Issue: Asimov's 01|15
Ruth studies insects in an alternate
reality where the giant insects from 50's horror movies are real. But the
giant butterfly blocking the driveway is just an annoyance. So far.
|
As London falls to the waves, a tribe
of modified human beings takes over the waterlogged areas, fighting with the
human refugees.
|
Clarity
by Anil Menon
Time: 13m (4K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
In a future Mumbai, India, a man
mourns the loss of his brother, who left him only his 11-year-old child and a
useless glass desk.
|
Clones
by Alex Smith
Time: 21m (6K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
While Zyrn looks for habitable worlds
in a distant future, Martin looks for love in the gay bars of 1980s
Philadelphia. But what's the connection between them?
|
Double Exposure by Don Sakers Time: 03m (900 words) Issue: Analog 05|15
A government agent asks an intoxicated
SF writer for help on a time-travel project. (short-short)
|
Each Star A Sun To Invisible Planets by Tenea D. Johnson
Time: 05m (2K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
William is a giant who has forgotten
everything, but he's got a data recorder to remind him--assuming he really
wants to know.
|
Eleven Stations by FΓ‘bio Fernandes Time: 06m (2K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
The narrator wants to commit suicide,
but then he finds his body is levitating. That's worth exploring before the
end, for sure.
|
Excalibur by Jack Mcdevitt Time: 13m (4K words) Issue: Mission: Tomorrow
(Hard SF) Gordon Kerr, writing a
history of NASA, uncovers documentation about a mysterious unmanned mission
that no one talks about.
|
Festival by Christopher Brown Time: 35m (11K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
Eden is a 20-something news reporter
in a US dystopia. She and some college friends plan a long weekend at a
festival in Austin, TX, but Eden has bigger ideas.
|
Collection agent in a flooded London
performs a particularly nasty kind of foreclosure.
|
In modern New York City, Carlos hunts
the evil undead--even though he's half-dead himself.
|
Guns Don't Kill People by Jacob A. Boyd
Time: 10m (3K words) Issue: Analog 07.08|15
On a remote planet, an AI rifle aims
to help her owner deal with real threats to his well-being.
|
Hob's Choice by Tim Sullivan Time: 30m (9K words) Issue: F&SF 11.12|15
Hob Dancer has come from Earth to Cet
Four because his great-great-grandmother wants him to learn about the
natives, who are struggling to survive human colonization.
|
Hollywood After 10 by Timons Esaias
Time: 10m (3K words) Issue: Asimov's 10.11|15
Time travelers visit a dinner party in
McCarthy-era Hollywood where something important almost happened.
|
How to Masquerade as a Human Before the Invasion
by Jenn Reese
Time: 02m (685 words) Issue: F&SF 03.04|15
Instructions to sleeper agents from
other planets on how to blend in while waiting for the invasion.
|
In the Mix by Arlan Andrews, Sr. Time: 04m (1K words) Issue: Analog 07.08|15
A young woman in the late 21st Century
makes a living creating a very strange sort of online art.
|
In the Time of Love by Amy Sterling Casil
Time: 16m (5K words) Issue: F&SF 05.06|15
A man wants to build a device to stop
time--in a sense.
|
In The Woods by Hugh Howey Time: 22m (7K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) April and Remy wake up long after
the apocalypse should be over, and they find they have a mission to complete.
|
Increasing Police Visibility by Bogi TakΓ‘cs Time: 03m (960 words) Issue: Lightspeed 61
Extraterrestrials are illegal in
Hungary, but the ET detectors have some problems.
|
A couch potato finds his intelligent
house is helpful, annoying, and demanding.
|
Jingo And The Hammerman by Jonathan Maberry
Time: 20m (6K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(Zombie) Zombies pile up at the fence
that protects the survivors' colony, and Jingo and Moose work together
dismembering them assembly-line-style. They philosophize while they work.
|
Just Browsing by Stephen Lombard Time: 25m (8K words) Issue: Analog 01.02|15
A small-town librarian has to host
aliens from Epsilon Cygni who for unknown reasons have asked permission to
visit his library.
|
In a fantasy empire, Vera tries to
bring down the criminal underworld in the capital.
|
Letter From an Artist to a Thousand Future Versions of Her Wife
by J. Y. Yang
Time: 04m (1K words) Issue: Lightspeed 61
A woman's message to her wife chases
her spaceship at the speed of light.
|
Lightning Jack's Last Ride by Dale Bailey Time: 31m (10K words) Issue: F&SF 01.02|15
In the near future, during the second
US Civil War, the narrator and his friends drive armored race cars to steal
gasoline from the Federal government.
|
Living Hell by Joe Haldeman Time: 24m (7K words) Issue: Old Venus
The narrator attempts a rescue mission
for a group of women trapped at a station on the Venusian equator. A recent
solar flare ruined a lot of electronics, so he has to fly the old-fashioned
way.
|
Malnutrition by J.T. Sharrah Time: 50m (15K words) Issue: Analog 01.02|15
Kadija is the first Umabari diplomat
to meet with human beings. Umabari have a taboo against eating in public, and
there are unexpected translation difficulties.
|
Marduk's Folly by Sean Vivier Time: 04m (1K words) Issue: Analog 01.02|15
Marduk's Accord finds a star whose
planetary system doesn't match what they expected, but disagreeing with the
Accord isn't easy.
|
Narrator has a wicked friend with a
device that makes people forget how to say specific words.
|
Mara is a college student who flies
drones to monitor police brutality at protests, but she knows something is
wrong when no one at all shows up for a protest.
|
Ann discovers she can remove parts of
people's bodies without hurting them--much.
|
My Time on Earth by Ian Creasey Time: 13m (4K words) Issue: Asimov's 10.11|15
Amy just got back from a trip to Earth
with her parents, and she excitedly tells her friends all about the ghost she
met in England.
|
Orpheus’ Engines by Christopher Mckitterick Time: 28m (9K words) Issue: Mission: Tomorrow
(Hard SF) JoveCo hired Nina to figure
out mysterious transmissions from the natives on Jupiter, who appear to be
trying to sabotage their operation there.
|
An AI in charge of an interstellar
junk yard dreams of better things.
|
Pale Blue Memories by Tobias S. Buckell
Time: 38m (12K words) Issue: Old Venus
Astronauts from an alternate Earth
where WWII was a stalemate crash on Venus and are enslaved.
|
Phenol-faerie by Jay Werkheiser Time: 03m (900 words) Issue: Analog 03|15
Short-short about a grad student
trying to study faery dust.
|
Plant Children by Jessica Yang Time: 11m (3K words) Issue: Lightspeed 61
Qiyan harmonizes her botany thesis
with her desire for children--sort of.
|
Giant monsters invade a US city, but a
group of eccentric neighbors stick around anyway.
|
Racing to Mars by Martin L. Shoemaker Time: 1h:10m (21K words) Issue: Analog 09|15
A violent lady doctor, an abusive
captain, and the ship's owner's spoiled 20-year-old son on a trip to
Mars--what could go wrong?
|
Rattlesnakes and Men by Michael Bishop
Time: 40m (12K words) Issue: Asimov's 02|15
Wylene Godfrey, her husband Reed, and
daughter Celeste move to Wriggly, Georgia, where everyone owns at least one
rattlesnake.
|
Robot Boss by Erick Melton Time: 19m (6K words) Issue: Analog 03|15
Don's supervisor is an AI, but what
makes it worse is that, much like a human boss, it seems determined to blame
him for its own mistakes.
|
Second Birthday by Elisabeth R. Adams Time: 05m (2K words) Issue: Analog 03|15
Lisa gets invited by her friend Erika
to visit her lab for the second birthday of two of her creations.
|
Silencer - Head Like A Hole Remix by E. Catherine Tobler
Time: 09m (3K words) Issue: Interzone 259
The narrator and his friend are
transported against their will to different places and times where they shoot
children in schools.
|
A soldier-made-warship carries her
sister-soldier's corpse seeking a way to revive her.
|
On a future Earth, after most people
have left, a failed revolutionary decides to build a life-size wooden whale.
|
Songbird by Fadzlishah Johanabas Time: 17m (5K words) Issue: Interzone 257
(SF) In a near-future Malaysia, Arya
finds herself held captive by men who seem to be using her to produce some
sort of drug.
|
Space Bugs by Marianne Dyson Time: 04m (1K words) Issue: Analog 01.02|15
Short-short. When Congress shuts down
NASA, a couple of former astronauts think of a way to get it back.
|
Strategies for Optimizing Your Mobile Advertising
by Brenta Blevins Time: 03m (1K words) Issue: Analog 06|15
Someone who makes a living wearing
shirts that display advertising messages (updated in real time) is in trouble
when the shirt goes blank.
|
Tartaros by Mike Resnick Time: 13m (4K words) Issue: Mission: Tomorrow
(SF) Hiding from the police out in the
Kuiper Belt, Tarter runs across a planet that shouldn't be there.
|
Tasha's Fail-Safe by Adam-Troy Castro Time: 37m (11K words) Issue: Analog 03|15
Tasha is an interstellar secret agent
for the Hom. Sap. Confederacy. Her efforts to identify a mole put her life in
danger, and she has to rely on help from a person who hates her.
|
Teardrop by Lisa Mason Time: 23m (7K words) Issue: F&SF 05.06|15
On a very alien world, the human
executive director of the "Cultivation" project has gone native,
and he resists the people sent to arrest him .
|
A ship of very alien aliens crash
lands on Earth and has difficulty with the natives.
|
The goddess Artemis and her hounds
make trouble in modern Athens.
|
The Eighth Iteration by Bond Elam Time: 48m (15K words) Issue: Analog 04|15
Lucas has taken over the small human
colony on a jungle planet, and Jake and Margret try to resist.
|
The church of the Goddess plans to
sacrifice the engineers who recreated the "seeds of the goddess"
for them, but Madhav plans to escape.
|
The Garden Beyond Her Infinite Skies by Matthew Kressel
Time: 21m (6K words) Issue: Clarkesworld 104
Aya is a farmer who grows realms of
galaxies, skilled in finding and pruning the sick and malignant.
|
The Great Pan American Airship Mystery, or, Why I Murdered Robert
Benchley
by David Gerrold Time: 30m (9K words) Issue: Asimov's 07|15
In an alternate 1937, Pan Am debuts a
fleet of helium-filled luxury airships, and a steward on the maiden flight eavesdrops
on the famous passengers.
|
The Gun Between the Veryush and the Cloud Mothers
by Anna Tambour Time: 54m (16K words) Issue: Asimov's 04.05|15
Those Above fire the gun that seeds
the clouds which drop produce onto those Below, who gather and bring the
harvest up--but the gun may be failing.
|
The Happiest Place by Seanan Mcguire
Time: 19m (6K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) After a plague kills 80% of the
population, employees at Disneyland struggle to keep the dream alive.
|
The Hexagonal Bolero of Honeybees by Krista Hoeppner Leahy Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: Clarkesworld 110
In a post-apocalypse Earth, Gabhan and
his little boy Ciro compete with Mishka for a contract to pollinate trees.
|
The Internet Of Things Your Mother Never Told You
by Jo L. Walton Time: 30m (9K words) Issue: Twelve Tomorrows 2016
Eledy is 12, lives in London, suffers
from ennui, and likes to hack things with her friend Farah.
|
The Kroc War by Ted Reynolds And William F. Wu Time: 11m (3K words) Issue: Analog 06|15
Various people involved with the Kroc
war voice their opinions about it.
|
The Ladies' Aquatic Gardening Society by Henry Lien Time: 36m (11K words) Issue: Asimov's 06|15
Two ladies in late Nineteenth-Century
New England fight over their places in society via their gardens.
|
Harry and Aiden have more problems
than most couples, and it has nothing to do with them being gay.
|
The Long Wait by Allen M. Steele Time: 1h:06m (20K words) Issue: Asimov's 01|15
Dhanista's family has dedicated itself
to supporting Earth's first starship, Galactique, from their base on Earth.
As she grows up, her life is intertwined with events that happen to the
starship.
|
The last curator of a decrepit museum
mourns his lost love and obsesses over the music box that might bring them
back together.
|
In an alternate, 19th-century Europe,
aide de camp Ritter investigates a magical murder. This is #5 in the
Mongolian Wizard Stories.
|
The Philistine by Ted White Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: Analog 10|15
A failed, middle-aged artist works for
the government digitizing paintings and destroying them in the process.
|
The Sentry by Frank Smith Time: 11m (3K words) Issue: Asimov's 04.05|15
Rick has returned to the Titan colony
from the Tethys war, but he and his family are having trouble adjusting.
|
The Seventh Day Of Deer Camp by Scott Sigler Time: 18m (6K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) In the aftermath of an
unsuccessful alien invasion, George fights to keep a small group of surviving
alien children alive.
|
The Silicon Curtain: A Seastead Story by Naomi Kritzer
Time: 21m (7K words) Issue: F&SF 07.08|15
Teen-age girl on libertarian-inspired
floating city tries to help a boy before her mother takes her to California.
|
The Totally Secret Origin of Foxman: Excerpts from
an EPIC Autobiography by Kelly Mccullough Time: 25m (8K words) Issue: Tor.com 07/22/15
In retirement, a super hero reflects
on the events immediately after the "hero bomb" gave him super
powers.
|
The Yoni Sutra by Priya Chand Time: 13m (4K words) Issue: Analog 01.02|15
In a future India, Shalini juggles the
responsibilities of being a new bride and dealing with a new woman at work,
one who doesn't have the chip that protects her from men who make advances.
|
(Space opera) Mere, an executioner
android of the Principality, becomes curious about its barely-remembered
past, putting itself in danger.
|
An often-reincarnated soul wants a
fair chance at love, but something keeps going wrong.
|
Very Long Conversations by Gwendolyn Clare
Time: 17m (5K words) Issue: Analog 06|15
Becca is part of a team evaluating a
new colony planet when she finds evidence there may already be intelligent
life there.
|
Wandering Star by Leife Shallcross Time: 11m (3K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) Patches on a quilt commemorate
the final events before the destruction of Australia by an asteroid.
|
(Hard SF) A team of astronauts trains
for a one-way mission to set up a Mars colony.
|
The narrator attends a Catholic girl's
school. During recess, the girls play in an enchanted forest that transforms
them into something else.
|
Whey Station by Guy Stewart Time: 01m (500 words) Issue: Analog 04|15
A short-short, in which a couple
renovating an old barn discover mysterious appliances.
|
Why the Titanic Hit the Iceberg by Jerry Oltion Time: 20m (6K words) Issue: Analog 01.02|15
Some decades from now, Tony leaves a
dying, overheated Earth to take a job on an enormous rotating space habitat,
but he's unhappy that it mainly caters to the wealthy.
|
Rating: 1 -> Needs
Improvement
A Brief History of Whaling with Remarks Upon Ancient Practices
by Gabby Reed
Time: 04m (1K words) Issue: Lightspeed 61
Learn all about whales in space.
|
Teenage Trieste is the heir-apparent
to the Earth-Luna station at the L1 point, but she falls afoul of her
step-father and get exiled.
|
Jingfei fights copies of herself for
eternity--while other copies watch--but she does get the occasionally
interruption.
|
(Military SF) In 2041, the U.S.
President issues a declaration of war.
|
(Military SF) In the mid-21st Century,
Captain Aaron Fung flies sorties in support of ground troops in a war in
Yemen. His own AI and crowd-sourced support is more problematic.
|
Beneath the Silent Stars by Aidan Doyle Time: 13m (4K words) Issue: Lightspeed 67
(Soft SF) Jean-Paul has to find out
why the Mariposa X destroyed the hyperspace gate that linked humanity with
galactic civilization.
|
Bomber's Moon by Simon R. Green Time: 25m (8K words) Issue: Operation Arcana
(Military Fantasy) In 1944, Hitler has
sold his soul to the devil for demonic assistance to win the war. The allies
are receiving help from angels, although they're not quite what everyone
expected.
|
Coffee, Wi-Fi and the Moon. The unknown story of the
greatest cyber war of them all by Nikolas Katsimpras
Time: 05m (2K words) Issue: War Stories from the Future
(Military SF) Newspaper article
describes the events that led to a cyberwar between the US and Russia.
|
Dancing in the Dark by Ramona Louise Wheeler Time: 26m (8K words) Issue: Analog 04|15
A captain of an "ice ship"
finds a really big comet to help with terraforming planet Tarse.
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Deep/Dark Space by Gabrielle Friesen Time: 00m (260 words) Issue: Lightspeed 61
In space, no one should hear a dog
barking--especially not outside your spaceship.
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Expedition to another planet is
trapped in a snow storm and a crewman starts seeing hallucinations.
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Here is My Thinking on a Situation That Affects Us
All by Rahul Kanakia Time: 08m (2K words) Issue: Lightspeed 66
An intelligent spaceship from the
center of the Earth reflects on the meaning of life.
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Long Way Gone by David L. Clements Time: 10m (3K words) Issue: Analog 01.02|15
A man sends a copy of himself to start
civilization on a distant planet, but the copy has trouble adjusting.
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Mama
by Eliza Gauger Time: 01m (330 words) Issue: Lightspeed 61
Mama is vast, belt-born, seven feet
long, and she's a legend from Luna Park to Styx Landing.
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(Military SF) This tells of how Noemi
Laporte got involved with NAGARI, her relationship with Lorna Simms, and the
black hole that ate 100,000,000 people.
|
(SF) A transcript of testimony before
the U.S. Supreme Court gradually reveals what really happened with a human
photosynthesis technology.
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A famous actress in a future
megalopolis appears to commit suicide, and the police investigate, looking
for clues in the memories of her last few dozen seconds.
|
Tara's lover is leaving for Mars. Tara
cannot follow because of her blindness, but then she gets an option to try a
new treatment.
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Season of the Ants in a Timeless Land by Frank Wu Time: 44m (13K words) Issue: Analog 11|15
Scientists in Australia investigate a
plague of very peculiar ants.
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Sentience Signified by J. L. Forrest
Time: 25m (8K words) Issue: Analog 05|15
Bilit is exploring Joon, an earthlike
planet 24 light-years from Earth.
|
(SF) Flur leads humanity's first
mission to an alien race, the Cyclopes, with both scientific and diplomatic
objectives.
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The Badges of Her Grief by Andrew Barton
Time: 10m (3K words) Issue: Analog 03|15
Eun-jin Park is a reporter on planet
Esperanza. She investigates a woman up north who seems to be doing something
unusual with the native inhabitants.
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The Design Doyenne Defeats The Dullness by Paola Antonelli
Time: 25m (8K words) Issue: Twelve Tomorrows 2016
Laetitia is a designer in a 2060s
world that found science and technology to be dull. She urges people to take
more risks.
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The Exception That Proves the Rule
by Mathew Burrows Time: 21m (6K words) Issue: War Stories from the Future
(Military SF) Fresh from school,
Alastair joins a near-future British intelligence unit that's trying to
identify people before they become terrorists.
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The Gray Sunrise by Jake Kerr Time: 21m (6K words) Issue: The End Has Come
(SF) When news arrives of an imminent
asteroid strike on North America, 45-year-old Don Willis and his apathetic
teenage-son set off together on his yacht.
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Dr. Hallix has been in a funk ever
since the commercial success of his artificial womb. He needs something new
to distract him from mourning his dead wife.
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The Last Days of Dogger City by Mjke Wood Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: Analog 04|15
Adventure story about a catastrophe on
a near-future floating city off the coast of Europe.
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The Lexicography Of An Abusive But Divine Relationship With The World
by Ilona Gaynor Time: 18m (5K words) Issue: Twelve Tomorrows 2016
From the story itself: "This text
relays the thoughts of an unremarkable woman, whose un-profound influence has
ceased to effect the slighted of causes."
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Bureaucrat in an ugly dystopia starts
seeing signs of forbidden beauty in the debris on the filthy streets.
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In a strange, distant future, someone
resurrects an assassin and they have a relationship.
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Heckleck is a Hort on planet Patra.
Due to overpopulation, a lot of Hort will have to leave for another planet.
Heckleck is eager to go.
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Tombaugh Station by Robin Wayne Bailey Time: 19m (6K words) Issue: Mission: Tomorrow
(Hard SF) James Dayton commands a
Pluto base where the crew all came on one-way trips. After 18 years, there
are starting to be some problems--and casualties.
|
Micheline, a 15-year-old monster-fighter,
wants to prove herself by taking down a scissorclaw that has already killed
more senior fighters.
|
Ulenge Prime by Chuck Rothman Time: 12m (4K words) Issue: Analog 01.02|15
Fifty years from now, an African
dictator faces revolution owing to the cost of his space program.
|
Rating: Not Rated
An old man suspects his parents were
space aliens, and he embarks on a quest to learn the truth.
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A former ballerina tries to dance in a
home studio her husband built for her.
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Characters in the Margins of a Lost Notebook
by Kathryn Cramer Time: 11m (4K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
The narrator describes her adventures
with "Jack," a man who seems a whole lot like Samuel Delany.
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Dreams of Spanish Gold by Bond Elam Time: 07m (2K words) Issue: Analog 07.08|15
A godlike AI becomes human to learn
the meaning of being human.
|
A Philippine-American girl in
California is unsettled by the reappearance of a long-lost
"friend."
|
Ghosts of the Savannah by M. Bennardo Time: 34m (10K words) Issue: Asimov's 06|15
In prehistoric Africa, two women defy
custom and run with the hunters.
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Hamlet's Ghost Sighted In Frontenac, KS by Vincent Czyz Time: 15m (5K words) Issue: Stories for Chip
Logan is 18, part Hopi, missing his
father, hating his uncle, and stuck in a small Kansas town.
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An institutionalized teen-age girl
thinks she and her friends are monsters and aliens.
|
Nothing Goes to Waste by Shannon Peavey
Time: 03m (1K words) Issue: Lightspeed 61
A woman thinks she's being abducted by
aliens--one piece at a time.
|
The Ancient Engineer by Bruce Sterling
Time: 48m (15K words) Issue: Twelve Tomorrows 2016
In this fine historical fiction, about
145 AD, Julius Verus, a Roman engineer, heads back to his home village,
guided by the marvelous celestial computer of Archimedes.
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Eleven-year-old David's family are
cottagers resisting oppression by the Zunft, but today he has to fight with a
former friend.
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Eric Wong January 13, 2015
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