Year-To-Date
by Rating (Recommended stories grouped by RSR Rating)
Year-To-Date by Score (Recommended stories grouped by Score)
Year-To-Date by Magazine (Recommended stories grouped by Magazine)
Year-To-Date by Score (Recommended stories grouped by Score)
Year-To-Date by Magazine (Recommended stories grouped by Magazine)
Year-To-Date
by Rating
The year’s 5-star
and 4-star
stories recommended by Rocket Stack Rank are listed below like the monthly ratings.
The 3-star,
2-star,
1-star,
and Not
Rated stories are filtered to show only the ones recommended by
other reviewers.
Rating: 5
-> Hugo-worthy
Stories: 32; Estimated Time: 23h:47m (428K words)
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(SF Thriller; Murderbot Diaries) A
“security bot” assigned to support a survey team impresses them with its
competence as a series of things go wrong. What they don’t know is that it
has disabled the governor that prevents it from hurting people.
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(SF Thriller) After terrorists spring
her from cryo-prison, talented hacker Girasol goes into cyberspace to help
them target the rich businessman who put her in prison in the first place.
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(SF Mystery) The inventor of
trans-multiverse travel invites hundreds of instances of herself to a
conference. It’s great fun until one gets murdered.
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Bring Your Own Spoon
by Saad Z. Hossain Time: 15m (ShortStory) Issue: The Djinn Falls in Love, and Other Stories 2017
(Dystopic Fantasy) In a future,
polluted Dhaka, Hanu makes friends with a djinn, and they decide to open a
restaurant—even though almost everyone eats synthetic food.
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(Alternate History Fantasy; Dominion
of the Fallen) Two people from a secret, underwater House try to infiltrate a
troublesome surface House that rules much of a Paris still recovering from
long-ago magical wars.
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(Near-Future SFF) Bilqis, the only real doctor in a dying community
of religious exiles, finds something strange when she examines a pregnant
woman.
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(Military SF) The new tech the aliens
gave us created a golden age for some and abject poverty for others. MaryJo
joins the army to get out, knowing she may end up fighting rebels who are
friends or relatives.
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Destroy the City with Me Tonight by Kate Marshall Time: 11m (ShortStory) Issue: Behind the Mask 2017
(Superhero) The disease that turns
Cass into a superhero makes her almost invisible to ordinary people without
her costume.
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(Horror) Jenna has lived in New York
City ever since she died forty years ago. Now something is happening to New
York City’s ghosts, and she’s determined to find out what and stop it—if it
doesn’t find her first.
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How Sere Picked Up Her Laundry by Alexander Jablokov Time: 1h:04m (Novella) Issue: Asimov's 07.08|17
(SF Mystery) A struggling private
investigator in a city full of alien refugees, Sere risks her life seeking
connections between some mysterious aliens and an exterminator who blew
himself up.
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(SF Adventure) A team trying to
understand what happened to a human colony whose members have all regressed
to animal intelligence is distracted when someone uplifts their cat to human
intelligence.
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(Modern Fantasy) Claudio tends his
farm alone down at the tip of the Italian peninsula until a young woman and a
pregnant unicorn disturb his tranquility.
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(High Fantasy) Bekka is apprentice to
the local witch, and she's off to collect pixies. Joakem wants to walk with
her, and she can't tell him no.
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(Time Travel) A time traveler, an
immortal, an android, a telepath, and a variety of space aliens meet at cross
purposes in modern America.
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(Modern Fantasy) Chaplin Win is in
trouble for letting an unauthorized ghost talk with hospital patients, and
inspectors are coming tomorrow.
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(Near-Future SF) Trips from flooded
Miami to the trading post are always hazardous, especially for an old man,
but Tom needs supplies for his family.
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(YA Portal Fantasy; Dungeonspace) Flip
and his teenage friends accept a dangerous mission to steal from a dragon. They’re
really too green to attempt this, the dragon is very old and powerful, and
they’re falling behind on their trigonometry homework.
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(Post-Apocalypse) Alone in the ruins,
Boy finds an “Amerigun,” and he’s sure she’s up to no good. His failing robot
tutor gives his strange instructions, and for the first time, he’s not sure
what to believe.
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The
Greatest One-Star Restaurant in the Whole Quadrant by Rachael
K. Jones Time: 14m (ShortStory) Issue: Lightspeed 91
(SF Horror) A group of runaway cyborgs
has to prepare meals for unknowing human ships or else blow their cover. But
they’re short on one critical ingredient.
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(Time Travel) The time travelers
across the road think they’re being clever, but Jade’s family spotted them
right away. Even so, they’ve got a daughter her age, and she wants to make
friends.
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The Prisoner of Limnos
by Lois McMaster Bujold Time: 2h:28m (Novella) Issue: The Prisoner of Limnos 2017
(Fantasy Adventure; Five Gods) When
Nikys asks for Penric’s help rescuing her mother from an imperial prison, he
jumps at the chance to win her affections back. It’s obviously a trap, and he
doesn’t know anything about the place, but he does have a demon
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(SF Adventure) The ship hadn’t
activated Bot 9 in a long time—it’s an unstable model—but in a desperate
situation it needs all its resources. And how much trouble can it get into
hunting down a rat?
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(Fantasy Adventure) Tarkaster Crale, a
young thief down on his luck, meets up with friends who want to assault the
Anvil, the mountain where the last dragon hid its hoard—and from which it
dares people to try to take it.
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(SF Adventure) Eldrin and Althor have
grown up in the low-tech, honor-based culture of their father’s world, but
they are heirs to their mother’s high-tech, off-world culture. At age 16,
each will have to choose between honor and necessity, with results t
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There Was a Crooked Man, He Flipped a Crooked House by David
Erik Nelson Time: 1h:18m (Novella) Issue: F&SF 07.08|17
(Horror) Glenn’s boss sends him to
check out a new house he plans to flip, but just getting inside turns out to
be harder than anyone could imagine—never mind getting back out.
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(Horror) At a drunken party, Scarlett
tells the new boy a ghost story she’d promised her now-dead best friend she’d
never repeat.
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(Military SF) The rebellion on Thor is
getting worse, and Jack has to lead a mission from orbit to rescue some
hostages. His craft isn’t designed for this, there’s no ground support at
all, and he’s got a newbie to nursemaid.
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(SF Humor) After Charlie is unfrozen,
Kit guides him around the future. It’s, like, TOTALLY not what he expected,
and yet, like, kinda familiar, LOL.
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(Military SF) Lia’s top-secret work uses
hurricanes against America’s enemies by falsifying the weather and satellite
records to fool enemies into thinking no storm is coming.
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(Exoplanetary SF) On planet Isach, the
native Kites are enthusiastic converts to Islam, but they’re dying from a
virus that the local Muslims suspect was planted by the neighboring Christian
colony.
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(Mythic Fantasy) Because the gods
abandoned her people, she has sworn to kill them. Now only one remains.
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Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance by Tobias S.
Buckell Time: 20m (ShortStory) Issue: Cosmic Powers 2017
(Space Opera) After its side won the
space battle, an indentured robot with an uploaded intelligence finds an
important refugee who makes a dangerous offer it can’t refuse.
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Rating: 4
-> Recommended
Stories: 105; Estimated Time: 57h:41m (1039K words)
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(High Fantasy) Lillian likes the most
recent world, and she doesn’t want her uncles to tear it down. But they’ve
already dismantled the sun, so she’ll have to move fast.
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(Chinese SF) A blackmailer forces
Helena to make entire fake steaks for him or else he’ll tell the authorities
about her business printing fake beef for shady restaurants. She’s never
tried to make a whole steak though.
Other
Reviews
RSR
Mini-Review [4] Recommended By: RSR:4 SFRevu:4 GDozois:5 RHorton:5 JStrahan JMcGregor:5 CPayseur
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(High Fantasy) Based on a new prophecy
she found, Heoli leads her people out of the desert to a ruined city rich
with water. Some fear that it’s too good to be true, though.
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A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime by Charlie Jane Anders Time: 35m (Novelette) Issue: Cosmic Powers 2017
(Space Opera Humor) Sharon and Kango
have to go back to their home worlds to capture an ultimate weapon that threatens
the galaxy, or else they’ll never achieve their dream of opening a
restaurant.
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(SF Colony) When the nanofab failed
seventeen years ago, it condemned the colony to slow decline as their high
tech wore out and they switched to iron-age methods. Young Henry wants to fix
it and be a hero.
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(SF Humor) When Cjek guides her
damaged ship to an emergency landing in Roy’s cornfield, problems ensue
because she’s not the sort of UFO he was expecting.
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(High Fantasy) Osrith helps people
near the end of life find a god who’ll take them, for in her world, no matter
how old, worn, or broken you are, death must be earned.
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(SF) Harry, a clone of Lee Kwan Yew,
was on track to graduate until decided to start improvising.
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(Climate SF) Caer brings an abandoned
robot back to his hideout in the flooded part of town and tries to prepare
for attack by the raiders who dumped it.
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Bring the Kids and Revisit the Past at the Traveling Retro Funfair! by Seanan
McGuire Time: 17m (ShortStory) Issue: Cosmic Powers 2017
(Space Opera) Nora and Doc bring their
show to a Dyson Sphere, but their lack of funds forces them to sell some
attractions to people they probably shouldn’t be dealing with.
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(Historical Fantasy; Industrial Magic)
In order for her to marry her fiance, help her brother and pursue her secret
career as an illustrator, Charlotte has to keep her magic a secret.
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(Clockwork Fantasy) Zee lives with her
father in a windup world. Bored with her life, she decides to visit the
carnival. She meets a boy, and things
go from there.
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Children of Xanadu
by Juan Paulo Rafols1 Time: 49m (Novelette) Issue: F&SF 09.10|17
(Dystopia) In a China-occupied
Philippines, Dr. Garcia engineers superior children for his people’s
conquerors. He’s got a plan to turn the tables, if he can execute it before
he dies.
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(SF Adventure) Florian used to be a
climber back on Earth, and now he wants to be the first man to climb Olympus
Mons.
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(Near-Future SF) Dave drops out of
school when he gets hooked on a drug that lets you experience being other
people.
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(Military SF) India and China are at
war in Tibet about 100 years from now. Kandiah’s team are outnumbered by the
Chinese forces near Lhasa, but she makes a surprising discovery that could
turn things around
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(Dystopia) Sophie explains the events
that led to her fall from grace—that is, how she accumulated enough “unlike”
votes to be forced out of college.
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(Military SF) The Armory AI has been
out of service for a long time, so when a group of wounded soldiers try to
wake it up to assist in a battle plan, it takes a while to figure out what’s
going on. Or whether to trust them.
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(SF) C.J. brings his dying daughter to
Ariosto to see Crimson Birds, an art installation that includes a vast flock
of artificial birds.
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(Eldritch Horror) Delilah makes some money modeling,
and Crispin offers twice what anyone else does. He never lets her look at the
works in progress, though. He has his reasons.
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(SF) Dal approaches the end of it's
life and wishes to leave a worthy message to posterity--if the waterwraiths
will leave it alone long enough.
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Death on Mars by Madeline
Ashby Time: 27m (Novelette) Issue: Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities 2017
(SF Adventure) Four women staffing an
advance base on Phobos get a male visitor who brings them some bad news.
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Down Among
the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire Time: 2h:12m (Novella) Issue: Tor Novella 06/13/17
(Portal Fantasy; Wayward Children)
Twin sisters, Jack and Jill, escape from overbearing parents into The Moors,
a fantasy land where werewolves and vampires are real.
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(SF Sports) On an alien spaceship, the
Ecuadorian football team plays against France for the World Cup. But the
stakes may be a lot higher.
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(Near-Future SF) Nathan watches
helplessly as the alternate currency he created collapses, taking down his
friends and family with it.
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(Near-Future SF) Patrick’s wife,
Alicia, has become an online star, but the constant exposure of every detail
of their lives is ruining their marriage.
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(Hard SF) A secret 1970 space mission
sends a US and a Soviet woman on a one-way trip to deflect a killer asteroid.
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(High Fantasy) Jeone has been
descending the World Cliff for years, but she's never seen a town quite as
strange as Shasten Dhu.
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(SF Humor) The squids from space
haven’t been very popular for a while, but washed-up director Tony Casagrande
has a can’t-miss plan for a detective thriller with a human and a squid.
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(Fantasy Adventure) Two generations
after “Beowulf,” a young man returns to Grendel’s mother’s lair seeking his
grandfather’s famous lost sword.
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(Chinese Historical Fantasy; Pan Bao
and Jing) Jing and her father climb a mountain to find and kill a Snake-Devil
that has been killing people and goats, but she’s not exactly what they
expected.
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(Superhero) Young Oliver needs to
learn how to control his powers, but his superhero dad is always too busy
saving the world to help him.
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(Near-Future SF) In 2070, you can take
snapshots of your personality and talk to them later. Is it healthy talking
to your Keepsake self decades later? And should a Keepsake be allowed to
testify in court?
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(Post Apocalypse) HiQIRR was built to
rate national highways and report problems, but no one listens anymore. Only
Krace, and he wants HiQIRR to look for other surviving humans.
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Majnun by Helene Wecker Time: 12m (ShortStory) Issue: The Djinn Falls in Love, and Other Stories 2017
(Modern Fantasy) In modern Morocco,
Zahid gets called for the most difficult exorcism jobs. This one is going to
be a doozy.
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(Historical Uncanny Horror) Fifteen
years after his lover died in World War I, Siegfried starts receiving letters
from him, dated just before his death.
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(Horror) At 12, Junior thinks his dead
father has returned to protect his family. There’s a lot Junior doesn’t know
about his father—living or dead.
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(Near-Future SF) Through the eyes of a
drone, a “Tourist” explores a Sri Lanka town from the comfort of his own
home, but ends up taking an unexpected detour.
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(High Fantasy; Five Gods) Gravely
injured, out of money, and pursued by the imperial government, Penric needs
to get himself and his two companions out of the country, despite them being
so recognizable.
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(Horror) The narrator is an alien who
takes human form, but periodically has to change it. This is a problem if it
falls in love with someone.
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(SF Adventure Pastiche) In which we
learn of a hitherto-undisclosed fifth voyage of Lemuel Gulliver, to a place
called “Chicago” in 2022, and of the marvelous things that happened there.
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(Post-Apocalypse) In 2284, Earth is
recovering from geological and ecological catastrophe, and in Arizona a group
of survivors on Kitt’s Peak reaches another group at the Montezuma Castle
National Monument.
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(Colony-Planet SF) When Iolus refuses
demands that it become part of the empire, the imperial agents are much too
smart to destroy the planet, but they’re definitely up to something.
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(Japanese Historical Fantasy) Kenji is
just a boy, and a commoner at that, but his extraordinary drawing ability
attracts the attention of nobles and draws him into their plots.
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(SF Adventure) Captain Bernsdottir
wakes from hibernation with her ship stalled next to a vast alien artifact
and a mutiny in progress.
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(SF) Donna’s cold and distant husband
has an industrial accident the day she planned to leave him, so she stays to
nurse him back to health. After that, he’s different—in ways she likes.
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(Hard SF; Captain Nick Aames) When an
accident strikes, the Mars crew have to figure out how to salvage what they
can and somehow survive until help can arrive.
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(Alternate History Fantasy) Taharah’s
magic makes language come alive for audiences, but she seeks knowledge of her
people’s ancient, forgotten tongue.
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(Chinese Historical Fantasy; Pan Bao
and Jing) Pan Bao, his daughter Jing, and their snake-devil friend, Mei Li,
encounter a ghost who needs help. They usually expect to be paid for their
sorcery, but the ghost is very persistent.
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(Near-Future SF) Barry investigates
self-driving trucks that are being hijacked, although he has more than a
little sympathy for the unemployed truckers who he imagines are behind it.
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(Superhero) Teenage Emma remembers
when New York City was called “Hyde” and was filled with superheroes and
villains, but no one else does. Now there’s just one superhero left, and she
desperately needs to talk to him.
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(Superhero) When she’s not being a
superhero, Alice hides in the suburbs to get away from super villains and her
fans.
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Pipecleaner
Sculptures and Other Necessary Work by Tina
Connolly Time: 02m (ShortStory) Issue: Uncanny 19
(Generation Ship) As the ship
approaches its destination, Ninah’s work teaching preschool is about to come
to an end.
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(Portal Fantasy) Corinna was eleven
when her magical journey to the Land of Nibiru ended with her returning to
her kitchen at home. Now she’s waiting for her friends to return for her.
Probably.
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(Near-Future SF) In a world where
everything is recorded, Hoyt uses publicly-available online data to see if
his girlfriend is cheating on him.
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(Contemporary Fantasy; Brit Williams)
Teenage Brit enjoys teaching little kids at a Seattle Experience Outreach
camp, even though she senses that something evil haunts the abandoned bunkers
up the hill.
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(Contemporary Fantasy) Ansel feels
guilty about his little sister’s disappearance six months ago, and his search
for her leads him into the world of a board game their family played.
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(High Fantasy) Sarai’s talent lies in
scents, but she pursues poisons to get revenge on the queen who imprisoned
her on this island.
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(Military SF) To evacuate his unit
before the attackers get them, Josh has to get them from the 38th floor to
the 88th floor of a damaged skyscraper. And they don’t know what’s above
them.
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(African Folklore Horror) In the
darkness, a Sasabonsam hangs from a tree waiting for suitable victims to walk
underneath. You shouldn’t go out alone.
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(Military SF) Ensign Geary gets stuck
with shore patrol at the last minute, and he’s got his hands full. He’s got
four of the worst recruits to try to supervise five ships full of sailors,
marines, and airmen, and no matter how bad things get, they can al
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(Near-Future SF) Daniel, a lonely grad
student in Athens, Georgia, meets the girl of his dreams through an online
matching service. Now if he can just get her to meet in person . . .
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(Fantasy Adventure; Gorlen Stories) To
find the magician who cursed them, Gorlen and Spar journey to the swarming of
the Philosopher Moths, giant, telepathic insects reputed to cure even extreme
ailments.
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(SF) Liaison Rulii must travel into a
war zone to find a missing human linguist whom his king wants to meet in just
three days.
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Tasting Notes on the Varietals of the Southern Coast by Gwendolyn
Clare Time: 05m (ShortStory) Issue: F&SF 09.10|17
(Horror) In which a military conquest
is described in terms of the wines produced near each of the conquered
cities.
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(Chinese Historical Fantasy; Candyman
Ao) To undo some of the damage caused the last time he invoked zodiacal
spirits, Ao needs to lift a pair of conflicting curses cast by two warring
spirits.
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(Superhero SF; Wild Cards) Michael
“Drummer boy” Vogali seeks vengeance
on the terrorists who maimed him and killed most of his band and many of his
fans.
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(Superhero Humor) The narrator just
developed a new superpower that forces people to tell him the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
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(Post-Apocalypse) Syl thinks people
ought to at least try to put civilization back together—not just sit around
moping about how great the alien drugs that destroyed it were. And she
worries about her friend who wants to break into the aliens’s compound a
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(Epic Fantasy; Tensorate) The
Protector’s twin children threaten her absolute rule. Their magic is almost
as strong as hers, and they pursue technology as well.
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(Post-Apocalypse) Alois wants to go
back to the university—not spend the rest of his life guarding an old bridge.
Even if it does talk to him about the world before the collapse.
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(Space Opera; Machineries of Empire)
Rhehan used to be a Kel supersoldier before being kicked out. Now the Kel
needs Rhehan for a dangerous mission—offering the only coin Rhehan might
consider.
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(Post Apocalypse) War and pollution
are killing the last survivors on Earth, but an alien robot descends and
tells young Molly that there is still time to save the planet.
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(Fantasy Adventure) Crane and
Gilchrist arrive in filthy industrial Colgrid with a box that needs an expert
to open. An expert who may demand payment in some other form than cash.
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(SF Horror) A crew on planet Manka has
disappeared, possibly eaten by the natives. We read the transcripts to try to
decide what happened.
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(Modern Fantasy Horror) Only Marianne
can see that her new brother-in-law is a horror, and although she knows she
can summon the faeries to get rid of him, she also knows the price will be
very high.
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(Dystopia) Since the mist came down,
people are sorted into castes based on metal plates screwed into their
temples which determine how much thinking they’re allowed to do. A girl from
the top wants to break the system, and a man from the bottom may give
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(Chinese Fantasy Adventure) She was
only ten when they kidnapped her to train as an assassin, but now she’s
sixteen and she needs to prove herself.
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(Near-Future SF) Ethan gets an AI
reconstruction of his dead wife. He can’t touch her, but just being able to
see each other and talk should be enough. Right?
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The Lights
We Carried Home by Kay Chronister Time: 16m (ShortStory) Issue: Strange Horizons 02/06/17
(Cambodian Horror/Mystery) Thirteen
years after Dara’s sister Sopha disappeared, a foreign film crew comes to
their village asking awkward questions about what really happened to the
little girl.
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(Apocalypse) As civilization is dying
on Earth, a woman building a monument on Mars by remote control gets a
message from a Mars colony long thought to be dead.
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(High Fantasy; Saga of the Redeemed)
Georges has to help his master torture himself as part of his plan to make
himself immune to almost all forms of death.
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(Fantasy Adventure) Somewhere near the
every-changing Mocking Tower the Imagi Vert has hidden a sword that holds the
soul of the late emperor, and a thief has come to try to steal it.
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(Modern Fantasy Horror) In the Glasgow
slums, the gangs meet a mysterious woman who inspires them to even more
violence than usual. Eighteen-year-old Baz watches it happen and struggles to
understand it.
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(Hard SF) Haley hopes the
"colony" on Bikini island will let her people survive sea-level
rise, but a problem with local birds presents an unexpected threat.
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(Fairy Tale) The king programs a robot
to lie even more than he does, hoping to change his reputation as the biggest
liar in the kingdom.
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(Space Opera; Diving Universe) The
narrator leads a team salvaging long-lost technology from a graveyard of
starships, whose stardrives still disrupt the surrounding space in dangerous
ways.
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The Sand in the Glass is Right by James Smythe Time: 18m (ShortStory) Issue: The Djinn Falls in Love, and Other Stories 2017
(Horror) You can force a jinn to grant
you a wish, but they always find a way to twist it. Simon Bond figures out a
wish they can’t pervert. Or so he believes.
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The
Scholast in the Low Waters Kingdom by Max
Gladstone Time: 22m (ShortStory) Issue: Tor.com 03/29/17
(Space Opera) The Scholast fell to
earth in the Low Waters Kingdom and called on them to prepare to defend
themselves from an invasion from another world.
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(Fairy Tale) In which we learn that
there’s more than one way for a fisherman to find a selkie wife, and lots of
ways it can turn out.
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(High Fantasy; Tasik) The shark god
rises from under Mei’s island home, leaving all the inhabitants homeless or drowned.
She escapes and finds a home, but the shark god still has plans for her.
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(Far-Future SF; Great Ship) To secure
a deal with a world ruled by what appear to be intelligent rivers, the Great
Ship sends three representatives on a long, sub-light-speed mission. By the
time they get there, things don’t look so rosy.
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(Fantasy Adventure; Baldemar)
Baldemar’s attempt to retrieve the Sword of Destiny for Thelerion goes awry,
and rather than face his master empty-handed he flees—into even bigger
trouble.
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(Fantasy Horror) Edgar Allan Poe’s
writing has brought a creature into this world and it inhabits a young woman
who wants to be rid of it. It has its own agenda.
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(Horror) College friends Henry, Maggie,
and Russell decide to play archeologist in the back yard of an old, abandoned
house, but things get serious when they find the deformed skeleton of a
child.
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(Historical Fantasy) A young
apprentice at making magic gloves considers breaking the rules to make a
special pair to control his sister’s epilepsy.
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(Modern Fantasy) The narrator and her best friend
explore the beach where other teens hang out, but the real action is in the
little cave with the boys from the sea who have tails instead of legs.
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(SF) He spent his childhood on another
planet, but he’s trying to fit into highschool on Earth, and he really wants
a girl.
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Unfamiliar Gods
by Adam-Troy
Castro and Judi
B. Castro Time: 21m (ShortStory) Issue: Cosmic Powers 2017
(Horror) Faster-than-light travel
needs divine assistance, but the gods are capricious. A starship cast into
unknown space has no choice but to try to deal with unknown gods—and they are
usually the worst kind.
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(Modern Fantasy (Russian)) Little
Marcus walks the Moscow Metro at Midnight looking for stray animals and lost
souls to heal. But he needs something too.
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(Rural Fantasy) Sam is a good boy who
works hard on the family farm, although he does tease his little sister
Maura. She’s not a bad girl, but one time she got mad and turned him into a
rat.
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(SF Mystery) Jane wakes up in a
strange place. Did her professor drug her? And why is she suddenly 18 years
older?
|
|
(Generation Ship) The ship lost most
of its historical records some years back, and the narrator tries to use
music to maintain a connection with distant Earth.
|
|
(High Fantasy) Esmelda really needs to
impress the new king with her cooking, but the pesky ghost of the last cook
won’t leave her alone.
|
|
(Military SF) Technically dead after a
terrorist attack, Asante gets a new body and second chance at life, provided
he serves 5 years as an experimental supersoldier.
|
The 3-star,
2-star,
1-star,
and Not
Rated stories are filtered to show only the ones recommended by
other reviewers.
Rating: 3
-> Average
Stories: 188; Estimated Time: 74h:06m (1334K words)
|
(Animal Fantasy) Blackie’s getting
old, but he still goes out to explore when the moon is full and he can talk
to the other animals.
|
|
(Far-Future SF; Franden) When
Franden’s upper-class friend asks him to speak at his ascension party, he
knows he’ll be out of place, but the opportunity to meet the “Upheld” in
their own environment is too good to pass up.
|
|
(Horror) Helen comes to Meersee in
Germany to be a governess for her friend’s nephew. The child is young and
peculiar, the staff are old and peculiar, and more peculiar things turn up by
the minute.
|
|
A Singular Event in the Fourth Dimension by Andrea M. Pawley
Time: 15m (ShortStory) Issue: Asimov's 03.04|17
(SF) Olive’s parents are having a baby
soon, and she fears they won’t need an android daughter after that.
|
|
A Touch of
Heart by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro and Adam-Troy Castro Time: 15m (ShortStory)
Issue: Lightspeed 86
(Chinese Historical Fantasy) Dou hates
his neighbor because Gan’s farm flourishes while his own languishes. Enough
to seek out the Black Touch.
|
|
(SF Adventure) Even after 500 years,
Earth is still after the founders of the Colony, so when a probe wanders into
their system Duke has to find a way to get everyone to safety.
|
|
(SF Adventure; Prime Mondeign)
Unwanted third-son Luro leaps at the chance to join an expedition to find the
lost technological treasures of the legendary Empyrean.
|
|
(Alternate History Fantasy) There was
magic in Afiya’s songs. Even after they cut out her tongue, she still managed
to inspire the rebellion that ended slavery.
|
|
(SF) Daniel greets new children and
prepares his flock for harvest, but his successor is proving a problem.
|
|
(SF Epic) Tone’s wife has terminal
cancer, and to get the money to pay to freeze her until there’s a cure, he
signs up on a starship that won’t be back for centuries.
|
|
(Climate SF) After his teammate
disappears in the ruins of Las Vegas, a newsman goes to investigate—even
though he has a desk job and has never been in the field before.
|
|
(Modern Fantasy (India)) Little
Kalyani might be autistic, but no one in her village knows what that means. A
passing sage offers her a boon, but it’s not at all a cure.
|
|
(SF Adventure) Even though she’s blind,
Nata’s one of the best smugglers, and because of the war, she’s in great
demand. This latest deal, though, pays so well for so little work there’s got
to be something fishy about it.
|
|
(Virtual Reality) Sonia used to be a
fan of the <i>Labyrinthiad</i> until they killed off her favorite
character. Now she sneaks online and kills other people’s favorites.
|
|
(Modern Fantasy) On a visit to England
to try to forget about her abusive ex-boyfriend, Drew accidentally picks up a
couple of ghosts, who follow her home.
|
|
(Horror) Cassie uses the Sight to earn
a living, but visions only come to her in dreams, and some dreams aren’t
meant to be told.
|
|
(Military SF) The courts removed
Imbra’s ability to get angry or fight back, but he still wants to help his
world fight off the invaders who’re threatening them.
|
|
(Modern Fantasy) A missing teenage
girl turns up in San Francisco Bay, and now she’s 350 feet tall.
|
|
(Horror) Your life has been on hold
ever since you stopped at a diner 65 years ago, and you never stop wondering
what might have been.
|
|
Black Powder
by Maria Dahvana Headley Time: 24m (ShortStory) Issue: The Djinn Falls in Love, and Other Stories 2017
(Horror) The Kid wants to the other
kids in high school to pay attention to him, so he steals a rifle. The rifle
he steals is much more than just a gun, though.
|
|
(Alien SF) When the alien starship has
an accident, they have to skip their original target star and find a new one.
That turns out to be a hard decision to make.
|
|
(Hard SF) She’s been on Pluto for a
billion years, watching the sun expand. An alien robot has set up camp
nearby, and she needs its help with a problem.
|
|
(Military SF) Against her better
judgment, Cadet Pennyroyal accompanies her fellow cadet Leary on liberty in a
port where bad things have happened to a few other crewmembers.
|
|
Cake Baby
(A Kango and Sharon Adventure) by Charlie
Jane Anders Time: 24m (ShortStory) Issue: Lightspeed 90
(SF Humor) To avoid having their
spaceship repossessed, Kango and Sharon go on a dangerous mission to
infiltrate a cult and steal DNA from their children.
|
|
(Hard SF) Red and Churro look for
naturally-occuring superconducters in the cold Canadian winter, but the
competition is really murder.
|
|
(Contemporary Fantasy) Helping an old
man get over a chain-link fence leads the narrator into the world of the occult.
|
|
(Near-Future SF) Marcel
surreptitiously sprays people with pheromones to make them fall in love with
his clients. He’s not supposed to get attached to them himself.
|
|
(Detective SF) Emily agrees to help a
gangster find his missing octopus.
|
|
(Historical Fantasy) Ricardo needs to
hide out in a small, western town for a few days, where he meets Doc
Holliday. Doc figures out he’s a vampire, but for some reason chooses not to
expose him.
|
|
(Horror) Every 72 minutes, Negelein
has a vision of his own death. They don’t hurt him, but they’re so vivid,
they’re ruining his life.
|
|
(SF Dystopia) Brad has a cushy job
inside the Seattle Exclusive Zone, and he’s not eager to participate in a
game where a car takes you to an unknown destination, but the company is
making everyone play. But is it even a game?
|
|
(SF) 12-year-old Diamond gets involved
with a licensed terrorist group and manages to drag her mother into it too.
|
|
(Horror) Dick likes to visit the
supermarket and chat with the ghosts who hang out there, but lately Satan
keeps barging in and ruining it for him.
|
|
(Near-future SF) Everyone knows Jacob’s
driverless-car company destroyed the world economy, but he wants to tell his
side of the story.
|
|
(SF) When scientists find a way to
test people and animals for what everyone assumes are souls, the narrator
feels left out because he’s one of the people without one.
|
|
(SF) In the event of an emergency,
your body may be taken over by remote control.
|
|
Evangeline and the Forbidden Lighthouse by Emily B.
Cataneo Time: 19m (ShortStory) Issue: Interzone 270
(Magical Realism) On the coast of
Maine, Cady and her friend, Evangeline, find bottles that wash up with
messages about the future.
|
|
(Apocalypse) A virus causes women to
give birth to rabbits. Kendra flees Ohio with her girlfriend Steph when they
learn Steph is infected.
|
|
(SF Multiverse) A Ph.D. student
focusing on alternate universes builds a machine that lets him look at lives
he might have lived.
|
|
(Space Opera; Machineries of Empire) A
Heptarchate undercover mission lead by one of Jedao’s friends has gone
missing, so Jedao goes undercover to try and rescue them.
|
|
(Alternate History Robot SF) Computron
was the only intelligent robot built in the 1950s. Now all he does is answer
questions from children and write fan-fiction about the robot in the
Hyperdimension Warp Record TV show.
|
|
(Near-Future SF) Locals plan a riot to
disrupt foreign factories in Vietnam which use a drug called “focus” to
control their employees.
|
|
(SF) Hunting an ex-ruler who committed
genocide, Beadith ends up stranded on an island with him and a strange
psychoactive moss.
|
|
(Modern Fantasy) An intelligent
birdcage narrates the story of a young runaway, a lonely old lady, and a
missing bird.
|
|
(Interstellar SF) Galleon runs trade
routes between Sol and Ra. She’s very attached to her human captain, but he’s
showing signs of settling down with a human woman.
|
|
(High Fantasy) A gallows girl uses her
power to let hanged men take a little innocence to the next world. Kal’s
sister was a great one, but Kal worries that her first assignment won’t go
right.
|
|
(SF) Kushal and his wife had a
telepathic link installed before she went to war. Now he’s still getting
messages from her, even though she died months ago.
|
|
(Far-Future SF) By the time Eos turned
her light back on, Sagitta was an iceworld, so she sent an avatar to see if
she could atone to any of the survivors.
|
|
(SF Adventure Humor; The Family) With
the death of Crown Princess Rylla of Callisto, things in the Jovan system are
about to get nasty, and at 18, Cole is ready to be right in the middle of it.
|
|
(Fantasy Adventure) The young Marquis
has to marry for money, and he’s not quite sure how his new wife is going to
cope with his mistress.
|
|
(Urban Fantasy; Jack Shade) Carol has
always felt a piece of her was missing, so she hires supernatural
investigator Jack Shade, to find it. It seems simple enough, but quickly
becomes much more than simple soul retrieval.
|
|
(Post-Apocalypse) Just before a
chemstorm strikes, Salpe encounters two demons between her community and the
bee hives. They don’t act like the demons in the stories, though.
|
|
(Mythic Fantasy) Atalanta was the only
woman Argonaut, and her version of the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece
is rather different from the one we usually hear, albeit a bit more
plausible.
|
|
I am a Handsome Man, Said Apollo Crow by Kate Elliott Time: 36m (Novelette) Issue: The Book of Swords 2017
(Historical Fantasy Adventure) Apollo
Crow takes an assignment from the Emperor to steal the sketchbook of a woman
whose speeches are fomenting rebellion.
|
|
(Dystopia) The narrator is a normal
human in a world of hostile genetically modified people, and she’s desperate
enough to do anything for money to replace the failing body modifications
that let her “pass.”
|
|
(High Fantasy) Jared has almost
brought the princess to safety, but he worries that Kat, the crazy women who
accompanies them, might have betrayed them.
|
|
I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land by Connie Willis Time: 1h:01m (Novella) Issue: Asimov's 11.12|17
(Urban Fantasy) A novelist finds a
bookstore in New York that sells “the rarest of rare books.” These books look
pretty ordinary, for the most part, and there sure do seem to be a lot of them.
|
|
(Slipstream) Shelly’s grandma teaches
her how to deal with ghosts so she can continue the family ghost business.
|
|
(Alternate History; Moe Berg) It’s
1940. Moe Berg heads to Dublin to do a deal that might help the US get the
Japanese out of San Diego before the armistice signed after the Nazis
captured England falls apart.
|
|
(Modern Fantasy) A young hemophiliac
American boy in Italy visits a creepy old house to try to get old stamps for
his collection.
|
|
(AI SF) Zerith is a new AI, and he’s
required to spend some time in a class of human students.
|
|
(Near-Future SF) Inside a reverse
stasis bubble, a work crew can take six months to build a new interchange
while no time passes outside. No one’s quite sure what can happen if
something goes wrong, though.
|
|
(Post Apocalypse) The four teens are
the last people left in their town, and they hold a prom night every few
days—while trying to ignore that crack in the sky.
|
|
(Near-Future SF) Pau is sure that his
kidnappers want information about the secret project he’s working on, but why
don’t they ever ask him any questions?
|
|
(Post-Apocalypse) Even though she’s
just a little girl, Aneko keeps looking for a way to escape the slavers who
ambushed her mother’s coach and captured her.
|
|
(Superheroes) Ice Sickle joined the
Excaliburs to fight evil, but Sin-Master may be her match.
|
|
(Horror) Annie’s grandmother is dying,
and her parents are fighting, but she keeps imagining that she sees giant
dragons under the mountains and wishes she could join them.
|
|
(SF) Porous enjoys being a prison
guard up until a new prisoner arrives who stirs things up.
|
|
(Epic SF) An alien intelligence,
exiled to our solar system, passes the time by interacting with the Earth.
|
|
(Alternate History) In 1988 England,
13-year-old Pete obsesses over the threat of nuclear attack, while his
5-year-old sister obsesses over Laika, the space dog.
|
|
(High Fantasy; Stormwrack) Gale and
Parrish solve a mystery involving a dead merman, a missing magical artifact,
and their captain, who only wants to retire in peace.
|
|
(Near-Future SF) Sam is a talented hacker who extracts
Jane’s personal info in order to seduce her.
|
|
(Horror) In a remote part of Arkansas,
Victoria plans to celebrate her 100th birthday in style.
|
|
(Horror) A city inspection in a week
creates a crisis for the small creatures who scurry around Mag’s house. They
think she’s their mother. She thinks they’re rats, when she thinks about them
at all.
|
|
(Time Travel) At age 12, Marley loses
her parents, but instead of getting foster parents, her 28-year-old future
self comes to take care of her.
|
|
Message in a Bottle
by K.J. Parker
Time: 16m (ShortStory) Issue: The Djinn Falls in Love, and Other Stories 2017
(High Fantasy) The narrator seeks a
plague cure a long-dead scholar may have left in a bottle. Or it might be a
new kind of plague. But how to decide?
|
|
Milla
by Lorenzo Crescentini2 and Emanuela Valentini1
Time: 09m (ShortStory) Issue: Clarkesworld 124
(SF) As Marek surveys Shiva, the most
Earth-like planet yet discovered, he chats with an AI named “Milla,” the sole
survivor of a long vanished civilization.
|
|
(SF) The narrator suffers a near-fatal
car accident, but new technology lets him be productive again.
|
|
(SF Adventure) The last robot in the
solar system uses his creator’s death as an excuse to escape from the museum
he’s been imprisoned in for forty years.
|
|
(Alternate History) Adolph Hitler, a
failing private investigator in London, tries to locate a relic alleged to be
the spear that pierced the side of Christ.
|
|
(Post-Apocalypse) The world is
gradually being destroyed by what seems like an alien plague that attacks
people and software alike. Caitlin lives in a seaside Scottish town, nursing her
dying lover.
|
|
(Modern Fantasy) Nagiko lives in Tokyo
and loves to explore her city. Her city loves her too and has plans for her.
|
|
(Dark Fantasy) At sunset, Ezekiel
Nightshade, King of Night, rises from the earth and heads for an appointment
with a dying woman. But her seven-year-old daughter bars the way.
|
|
(High Fantasy) Tarangkaya made Bidaten
into supersoldier from infancy, and she’s been content to serve them for
years. Then her mistress takes a new bride who makes her think differently.
|
|
(Modern Fantasy) Unexpectedly, you
woke up female this morning, in someone else's body. Now you have to decide
what to do about it.
|
|
(Exploration SF) A child on a
spaceship worries that the first five planets they've found weren’t
habitable, and the sixth isn’t looking good.
|
|
(Hard SF) Harvey’s theory predicts a
one-way filter is possible, letting matter through in only one direction. In
practice, there are a few really important safety issues he should have
worried about.
|
|
(Time Travel) The narrator revisits
the past hoping either to change it, understand it, or at least make peace
with it.
|
|
Owl vs.
The Neighborhood Watch by Darcie Little Badger Time: 11m (ShortStory) Issue: Strange Horizons 07/10/17
(Modern Fantasy) Nina knows that owls
appear to warn us of impending catastrophe, but what does it mean when one of
them keeps harassing you?
|
|
Pan-Humanism:
Hope and Pragmatics by Jess Barber and Sara Saab Time: 40m (Novelette) Issue: Clarkesworld 132
(Climate SF) This story follows Amir
and Mani’s careers starting when they’re teenagers in water-starved Beirut.
|
|
(Time Travel) In which a chorus of
time travelers give us advice, in the paradoxical way of time travelers.
|
|
(Dystopia) Lenae and Shirelle are just
high school girls with no futures, but they fantasize about fighting the
corporations who keep people down, and they find a unique way to do it.
|
|
(Alien Abduction) Cindy’s boyfriend
says alien’s abducted him, but she’s sure he was with another woman. Up until
the aliens contact her too.
|
|
(Modern Fantasy) Ten-year-old Polly
wishes she could see fairies like her friend Isabelle can. She wishes a lot
of things. Not all wishes should come true.
|
|
(Solar System SF; John Demitrius
Stories) Epic Khorasani travels to Venus in disguise to get evidence of
illegal genetic engineering in the cloud colony of Proteus.
|
|
(Post-Human) Jin is a mercenary hired
to protect archeologists investigating an ancient ship built by the extinct
human race.
|
|
(Post-Apocalypse) Satellite City will
die if it can’t find a new source of power. Alia thinks the secret lies in a
library of ancient books, but she needs results soon because her support is
drying up.
|
|
(Steampunk/Horror) The narrator flies
a lantern ship, a balloon with a special light that keeps away the ghosts
that gather during storms. Out of money, she’s desperate enough to take a
dangerous contract from a man she hates.
|
|
(Horror) On his way home, Edwin meets
an exotic woman who’s part lion and loves asking riddles.
|
|
(SF Horror) Aris wanted a male slave
from off-planet, and she thinks Firen is a fine choice. Young, strong, flawed
only because he can’t speak.
|
|
(Time Travel) A modest proposal for a
grant to experiment with a most imperfect time machine.
|
|
(Hard SF) We read the log books that
survive from two human colony ships which arrived at Tau Ceti e. We know
things didn’t go well, but we don’t know why.
|
|
(Multiverse) Sarah travels the
multiverse looking for a reality where her daughter isn’t a drug addict.
|
|
(Fantasy) As a girl, Mara learned that
you need to cry seven tears into the sea to summon a selkie. She’s always
felt more a sea creature than a land creature anyway.
|
|
(Slipstream) When Finley gets bitten
by a vampire, he’s pissed because he didn’t consent. When he learns he’s
going to become a vampire, he’s really upset, because it’s not legal for a
trans person to be a vampire at all.
|
|
(Near-future SFF) After the government
rules he isn't really human, Chris loses his human wife and hybrid kids.
|
|
(Time Manipulation) Lolonyo keeps
rewinding his initial meeting with Aliza, sure he can eventually make it
perfect.
|
|
(Fantasy Humor) On speed-dating night
at the Dog and Biscuit, Meg notices that all the guys seem to be figures from
Greek mythology.
|
|
(SF) Far in the future, Flaminio meets
the love of his life when a woman steps through a matter transmitter that
hasn’t worked for centuries.
|
|
(Near-Future SF) A “sasquatch” is
pregnant, and that’s a big problem.
|
|
(High Fantasy) The city of Vannat
offers forgiveness to former war criminals, but those it deems unworthy get
trapped inside stone walls that appear out of nowhere.
|
|
(High Fantasy) Allpa receives a magic
sword on his grandmother’s deathbed. Three spirits in the sword are supposed
to train him to be a mighty warrior, but he really just wants to be a better
farmer.
|
|
(Planetary SF; Coyote) A scientific
team tagging “boids” in the wilderness on Coyote copes with equipment that’s
falling apart, a drunken leader, and the man-eating, flightless birds
themselves.
|
|
(High Fantasy; Baldemar) Young
Baldemar gets a favor from a moneylender’s hired muscle. The challenge is
paying it back.
|
|
(Modern Fantasy) Jeanne hires Mr.
Warlock because no normal attorney could cope with the problems her late
husband’s crooked relatives are causing her.
|
|
(SF Conspiracy) Suffering from
writer’s block, the author agrees to house sit for some rich friends of his
agent.
|
|
(Horror) Sir Henry prepares to
resurrect a dead murderess as an offering to dark and hungry sea gods who
expect something from him on his 49th birthday.
|
|
(Horror) As kids, Lila and Beth had
adventures exploring mysterious houses with strange rooms and scary
occupants. Forty years later, Beth tries to discover whatever happened to
those houses—and to her friend.
|
|
(Horror) There are always three
sisters. When one gets big, Father eats her, and Mother has a new baby. This
is the story of how that cycle ended.
|
|
(Horror) The narrator wants to bring
her father back from the dead, but first she has to trick her brother into
helping eat his cremated remains.
|
|
The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine by Greg
Egan Time: 40m (Novelette) Issue: Asimov's 11.12|17
(Dystopia) Dan loses his job and goes
looking for something that hasn’t already been automated away. There’s not
much, and what he does find is rather strange.
|
|
The Dragon that Flew Out of the Sun by Aliette De Bodard Time: 12m (ShortStory) Issue: Cosmic Powers 2017
(Space Opera) As a child, Lan learned
her family lost their world when a dragon came out of the sun, but now she
wants to know the real truth.
|
|
(Alternate Reality) The narrator wakes
up every day to an endless party in an infinite house that seems to have
replaced the whole world. She’d like to get out, but she can’t even remember
her own name.
|
|
The First Day of Someone Else's Life by John Schoffstall Time: 23m (ShortStory) Issue: F&SF 05.06|17
(SF Thriller) Your name is Mook
Donnel. You’re an important person. You negotiate with governments for your
corporation. But you don’t think that’s who you really are at all, and the
lady in your head won't stop talking to you.
|
|
(SF Colony) Jill ‘s trebuchet that can
throw rocks across a crater is her first “creative anachronism” to get any
real interest from the colony, but is it good for anything?
|
|
(Fantasy Adventure) Nev has been in
hiding for eight years, so when some men offer him too good a deal to sell
their fish, he suspects a trap.
|
|
The Future
of Hunger in the Age of Programmable Matter by Sam J. Miller Time: 21m (ShortStory) Issue: Tor.com 10/18/17
(Near-Future SF) Otto and Trevor host
a party where some friends demonstrate the latest in polymer toys. Otto meets
Avram, who won’t be good for their relationship. But it’s the toys he should
be worried about.
|
|
(SF Adventure Humor; The Family) In
3V, Amanda is a proud space princess, but in the real world she’s a
17-year-old high school dropout who lives with her mom. Slavers are after
her, and some parts of the 3V world are more real than they ought to be.
|
|
(SF Epic) The narrator describes his
life in a very different North America, where everyone is male.
|
|
The History of the Invasion Told in Five Dogs by Kelly
Jennings Time: 07m (ShortStory) Issue: F&SF 05.06|17
(Alien Invasion) The narrator
describes his/her efforts to stay alive over a period of years. Each segment
includes a dog who made a difference in the narrator’s life.
|
|
The House
at the End of the Lane Is Dreaming by A. Merc Rustad Time: 22m (ShortStory) Issue: Lightspeed 91
(SFF) Alex’s town is being attacked by
aliens, and she needs to save it somehow.
|
|
(Military SF) A terrorist group has
kidnapped an alien, and Serena’s team need to find them and free it before
it’s too late.
|
|
(Historical SF) In 1899 London,
Inspector Grant investigates a lady who claims her big electrical apparatus
is for a camera, even though it looks like a bomb or a death ray.
|
|
The Last
Boat-Builder in Ballyvoloon by Finbarr
O'Reilly1 Time: 19m (ShortStory) Issue: Clarkesworld 133
(SF Horror) Meant to clear plastic
from the sea, the artificial “squids” have put the oceans off-limits to
humanity. Not everyone takes that lying down.
|
|
(Fantasy) It pleases Mrs. Lim that her
children keep sending her gifts even ten years after her death, but her
daughter’s gifts aren’t always appropriate.
|
|
(Post-Apocalypse) Casey’s only
companion on the Airforce base is a robot, which is determined to protect
her. That includes keeping her from investigating frozen clones that might
survive in a distant vault.
|
|
The Last
Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard) by Matthew
Kressel Time: 19m (ShortStory) Issue: Tor.com 03/15/17
(SF) Reuth has come to a beach resort
on Ardabaab to try to finish his last novel before he dies. A young girl
distracts him, then inspires him.
|
|
(Fantasy) Tom takes a job as an indexer
in a library that exists outside of space and time for the purpose of
collecting books and manuscripts (among other things) that were lost.
|
|
(Near-Future SF) Danner investigates a
problem at the house where little dinosaur toys are housed since they were
recalled for being too intelligent.
|
|
(SF Pastiche) When Zena’s brother
disappears into a mysterious forest on her family property, she goes looking,
and she finds that not all of the Martian invaders perished at the end of the
War of the Worlds.
|
|
(Historical Fantasy) On the train from
Moscow to exile in Dzhambul, Lina Stern is visited by three younger versions
of herself.
|
|
The Mouth
of the Oyster by Adam-Troy Castro and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro Time: 19m (ShortStory) Issue: BCS 239
(High Fantasy) Plague took the
narrator’s vision, but now he has the opportunity to get new eyes. Eyes that
might see narrowly but too well.
|
|
(Near-Future SF) At age 11, Teddy has
the best life, with great hardware and software toys. Those toys let his
parents keep him under tight control, but he doesn’t mind until he finds
something he really wants to do.
|
|
(Near-Future SF) After an accident, a
man gets a new body, but he has trouble believing he’s really the same
person.
|
|
(Generation Ship) Captain YΓ‘nnis needs
to get the ship moving again, and then God gives him a message.
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The Ones Who Know Where They Are Going by Sarah Pinsker Time: 05m (ShortStory) Issue: Asimov's 03.04|17
(Fantasy) You have lain in your cell
long enough to forget how to walk. Then you see sunlight and realize someone
has left the door open.
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(SF) Lillian grew up poor, but soon
she’ll be one of the first astronauts to traverse a wormhole. Memories of her
father keep haunting her, though.
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(Sword and Sorcery; Baldemar) Master
Thelerion sends Baldemar and Oldo on a dangerous mission to recover a
powerful magical artifact.
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(Urban Fantasy) Some nights shining
lights appear atop hills in urban areas, and people who walk into them
disappear—some say to fairyland. A cop who thinks otherwise tries to talk a
young woman out of trying it.
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(SF) A young woman reacts to the news
that our universe is just a simulation by making wild choices that her family
has to deal with.
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(Fantasy Adventure) Viorica attempts
to steal the famed Εiret Mask from CodruΕ£, brother of her dear friend. There
are lots of complications, not least of which that CodruΕ£ expects someone to
try to take it.
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(Fantasy Erotica) The new queen wants
a beautiful male statue carved to satisfy her desires.
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(Horror) Jackson partly revived an
ancient mummy to use in his carnival. The undead thing has an agenda too,
though.
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The Toymaker's Daughter
by Arundhati Hazra1 Time: 17m (ShortStory) Issue: F&SF 03.04|17
(Fairy Tale) As she paints them, the
girl makes up stories about the wooden toys her father carves, unaware that
she’s filling them with magic.
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(Fantasy Mystery; Quillifer) Quillifer
intends to discover who tried to assassinate the wife of the queen’s lover,
even though suspects are plentiful and clues are few.
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(Magical Realism) Hamete lives in
Borges’s “Library of Babel,” and his life changes forever when he follows a
rabbit into the depths.
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(Horror) Jason struggles with a bully
in elementary school, a stepdad who hates him, and he thinks the local
equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle is causing local kids to disappear.
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(Dark Fantasy) Hiding from her own
problems, Winona volunteers at the local ornithological museum after she hits
a bird with her car.
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(High Fantasy) Diogenes ought to be
using the magician’s floating castle to help the emperor, but he feels obliged
to honor his promise to restore Sylva’s body to her—even if it destroys the
world.
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(Post-Apocalypse) Valentin’s implant
should let him talk to the machine gods, but he’s failed the test three
times, and he decides to run away before facing it again. Of course things
outside the town are even worse.
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They Will
Take You From You by Brandon O'Brien1
Time: 20m (ShortStory) Issue: Strange Horizons 05/01/17
(Alternate History) Back in the
fifties, the Benefactors came to Earth and made some people “geniuses.” Now,
as those people die, the Benefactors “harvest” their bodies. Akeem hates them
for this, and he fears his grandmother might be next.
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(Fantasy Horror) When the world
changed and the sky turned silver, magic became real, Emma Anne became a
little girl and her neighbor became a pirate. But can a little girl fight off
an attack by the Loping Man?
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Three Can Keep a Secret...
by Bill Johnson and Gregory Frost Time: 31m (Novelette)
Issue: Asimov's 03.04|17
(SF Thriller) A resourceful assassin
from Earth comes to an unnamed planet on a mission to double-cross someone.
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(Paleontology SF) The Titanosaur bone
destroyed Bill’s career because its isolation smacked of fraud. But there had
to be another explanation.
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(Near-Future SF) A homeless man fights
a government decision to put him in hibernation.
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(Time Travel) James’s sleepwalking
therapist tells him his episodes are caused by someone from the future trying
to contact him. But about what?
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(SF Horror) Married at age 10, she was
determined to do anything to support her husband. No matter what.
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(SF) The starship wakes her up 32
years too soon, and the only other person awake is a really strange guy.
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(Near-Future SF) The narrator visits a
reserve in Northern Canada where they’re experimenting with resurrected
mammoths.
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(Near-Future SF) Each sleep takes
Artemus two years closer to his goal, but he wakes up weak and starving after
each one, and he doesn’t need nosey neighbors bothering him while he
recovers.
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(SFF) Ugo can “remember” things from
the future, which he shares with Cynthia—including the fact that she’ll be
his wife someday.
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(Near-Future SF) Adam has 70% of the
memories of the man who created him, but something vital is hiding in that
missing 30%.
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(SF) The Arnos power grid has a
problem, but the entities that run the power satellite are having
difficulties of their own—including not knowing how long ago this problem
started.
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(Slipstream) A man who just stole the
universe hides in Howard’s apartment, interrupting his attempt to propose to
his girlfriend. Then it gets weird.
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Vanguard 2.0 by Carter Scholz
Time: 19m (ShortStory) Issue: Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities 2017
(Hard SF) In the early 2030s, Sergei
works for Uber collecting trash in low-Earth orbit. He’s surprised when
Uber’s boss comes up and has a special mission for him.
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Waiting Out
the End of the World in Patty's Place Cafe by Naomi Kritzer
Time: 13m (ShortStory) Issue: Clarkesworld 126
(Apocalyptic) The narrator wants to
spend the last hours before the asteroid strike with her parents, but she
runs out of gas in the middle of South Dakota.
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(Fantasy Adventure; Gorel of Gloris)
Searching for his lost homeland, addicted to a drug excreted by gods, and
suffering withdrawal, Gorel gets an invitation to an adventure—to kill a god.
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(Modern African Fantasy) Wura has
miscarried three times, so she decides to make a child from clay and
lightening.
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Welcome to
Your Authentic Indian Experience by Rebecca
Roanhorse1 Time: 19m (ShortStory) Issue: Apex 99
(Near-Future SF) Jesse uses virtual
reality to give tourists a vision-quest experience. It’s demeaning, but it
pays the bills. Then a tourist turns up who wants a really authentic
experience.
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(Far-Future SF; Franden) Franden goes
to a fight club to get some ideas for characters in his stories. A peaceful
sort, despite his size, he has no intention of actually participating.
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(Horror) Lyle is having a bad day,
what with finding his wife in bed with a cop, but not as bad a day as this
lady he finds hanging from a tree because her neighbors decided she’s a
witch.
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(Fairy Tale) You are a knight cursed
to kidnap maidens and the die trying to keep them when a knight comes to rescue
them. Over and over.
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What's a
Few Years When You Get Money and Friends in High Places? by R.R. Angell Time: 28m (Novelette) Issue: CompellingSF 06.07|17
(Near-Future SF) A young body builder
gets an offer from a rich old man to swap bodies.
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(Exploration SF) A cave-in on Titan
leaves Darlo trapped, but he’s not going to die without a fight. It’s
probably a bad sign that he’s having visions of his dead wife, though.
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(Time Travel; Martin & Artie)
Trapped in the past, Martin tries to engineer a change in reality that will
let him go home.
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(Military SF) Four international teams
develop combat robots to stage a fight on Mars—televised live, of course.
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(SF) Regina and Ilkay take an annual
holiday together in Istanbul, renting “blank” bodies for the occasion.
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(Portal Fantasy) Your house is full of
doors to other worlds, and you can’t keep yourself from exploring them—even
though they’re dangerous.
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Rating: 2
-> Not Recommended
Stories: 40; Estimated Time: 17h:52m (322K words)
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(Near-Future SF) Penny uses a
technology that lets her share some of her daughter’s pain from a congenital
joint problem.
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(Science Fantasy) Castaa and the other
initiates of the Water Caste travel with their master to try and fix a
problem with the machines that stir the lake.
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A Portrait
of the Desert in Personages of Power by Rose Lemberg
Time: 2h:07m (Novella) Issue: BCS 229
(High Fantasy; Birdverse) The Old
Royal has ruled the desert for millennia from their palace where a star once
fell, but the arrival of a young stranger brings chaos.
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(Planetary Adventure) Azuki travels to
Goliath to bring the ashes of his dead girlfriend home. Exporting human
remains is illegal, so he gets help from some poachers.
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Arp! Arp! by
Christina De La Rocha2 Time: 13m (ShortStory) Issue: Analog 09.10|17
(SF Techno Mystery) Monique comes to
an ocean platform that extracts phosphorus from sea water to solve the
mystery of why the plankton that drive it are dying.
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(Planetary Exploration) In the methane
oceans of Titan, Bishop and her crew try to figure out what happened to
another ship which seems to have been crushed by a giant alien vessel.
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(Colony Planet SF) Since the Combine
all but abandoned Sloe, scavengers are important, and Fox is a good one. Her
latest mission could be her best yet, provided she survives it.
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Concerning the Devastation Wrought by the Nefarious Gray Comma and Its
Ilk: A Men In Tie-Dye Adventure
by Tim McDaniel Time: 10m (ShortStory) Issue: Analog 03.04|17
(SF Humor) Austin catches some men in
tie-dye costumes digging up his plants in the middle of the night.
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(Horror) Marilee dates a brilliant
plastic surgeon who might have murdered his ex-wife and has an unhealthy
interest in brains.
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(Surreal SF) A priesthood of
mathematicians has kept the planet Cemar safe, but things have been safe for
so long that some people think the priestesses themselves are the bigger
danger.
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(Near-Future SF) Tullio and Irma serve
the eccentric, 104-year-old, Chief—the last prime minister of Italy—in his
“Shadow House,” a place immune from surveillance.
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(AI) The narrator’s therapy includes
some cute little robots that help cheer her up.
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(SF) A woman approaches the narrator
to help her smuggle a special package to the human survivors of an alien
virus that could make people something more than human.
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How To Be A Barbarian in the Late 25th Century by Jean
Johnson Time: 22m (ShortStory) Issue: Infinite Stars 2017
(Military SF) Mitch Turman files a
report on a routine combat mission, but on the side he writes about the same
episode, but turns it into an epic battle in a swords & sorcery universe.
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(SF) The narrator has been cast away
on a deserted planet for seventeen years. He’s filled up 766 logbooks, and
he’s starting on 767. And he’s having awful dreams.
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(Near-Future SF) Users who stop taking
a memory enhancement drug end up losing everything they learned on it, making
it possible for banks to repossess someone’s education.
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(Military SF) An ex-soldier on a
colony planet who hunts for mines with a modified giant rat finds
companionship in an injured soldier.
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(Horror) When the narrator plays his
guitar, people really listen.
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(Alternate History) Charles Manson
spends ten years in prison and doesn’t start his cult until 1977 instead of
1967.
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(Hard SF) Long after the loss of its
crew, Kade-5 continues its mission of terraforming the planet. It finds
something interesting, but whom can it tell?
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(Slipstream) In the village of
Rushford, New York, women have started giving birth to appliances instead of
babies.
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Some
Remarks on the Reproductive Strategy of the Common Octopus by Bogi TakΓ‘cs
Time: 11m (ShortStory) Issue: Clarkesworld 127
(Far-Future SF) An uplifted octopus
finds a mysterious capsule in the water and wonders if one of the
long-vanished humans might be inside it.
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(Mind Uploading) Is an uploaded
personality a legal person? Is it kidnapping to make a copy? Is it murder if
the original hires a hit man to target the copier?
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(Climate Apocalypse Horror) As the
seas have risen, terrible things have come crawling out of them. Jersey wants
Mir to come with him and move inland, but she won’t go without her disabled
father.
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(SF) Someone has attacked New York and
MIT, and 16-year-old Shipton is caught in the middle of it.
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(Alien Invasion) Only juvenile aliens
are capable of original thought, so we can't even tell the adults that
they're destroying our world. Reaching the juvenile's means going deep inside
the enormous females.
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(Historical Fantasy) In the first days
of World War I, young Oskar is left to manage the Mundaneum as the Germans
approach. He’s nervous, but hopeful they’ll respect the institution and its
priceless artifacts.
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(Hard SF) Things look bad for the
repair crew, come to fix an unresponsive space ship. Their AI expert is all
doped up, mourning his sister who died in transit, and the AI isn’t
broken—it’s insane.
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(Horror) ‘Nisha only has five hours to
get across New York to her dead aunt’s apartment before the city comes to throw
away all her stuff. She’s not even sure it’s worth it, but they said her aunt
was a witch…
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(Far-Future SF) Five sex partners
decide to explore the remains of a casino that was pushed into a black hole
an eon ago.
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(Military SF) After spending almost
her whole life as a lunar soldier, Gita gives an interview to a reporter
about what it was like and how she’s adapting to life in India.
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(Space Opera) Shemesh returns from his
mission on planet Kadesh to face inquisition by the Exiliarch. What really
happened when he met the heretic there?
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(Science Fantasy) Sarnai’s family have
always grown rockets, but her teenage daughter seems to have an unhealthy
fascination with them.
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(Hard SF) An international conspiracy
of scientists struggles to save climate data from governments trying to hide
or falsify it.
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(Epic SF) The Galactic Eye has found
hundreds of alien races, but, so far, humanity has done nothing but count
them. That’s about to change.
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(Offworld SF) The Dunyshar are
stranded on an outpost, but NuTay dreams of going home to Earth.
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(SF) A Loonguni travelling box can
safely carry thousands of passengers, but the ever-changing architecture
makes it uncomfortable for the first human passengers.
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(SF Adventure) If Sarai and Khulan
can’t get the vaccine to Batbayer settlement, the whole colony may perish
from the plague.
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(Colony SF) People who don’t like
living underground in the colony can live inside giant “whales” that float
high in the planet’s atmosphere. That’s usually pretty safe.
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What I
Told My Little Girl About the Aliens Preparing to Grind Us Into Hamburgers
by Adam-Troy
Castro Time: 08m (ShortStory) Issue: Lightspeed 89
(SF Horror) The narrator’s
four-year-old asks uncomfortable questions about the holocaust that awaits
the human race in just a few weeks.
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Rating: 1
-> Needs Improvement
Stories: 12; Estimated Time: 5h:09m (93K words)
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(Dystopia) The ability for women to
mix and match genes from multiple men leads to social unrest.
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(Planetary SF) After taking fifty years
to reach planet Kendavala, colonists are disappointed to find strict
regulations on where they can settle. But is anyone actually going to enforce
those rules?
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(Fantasy Science) Carlos is
second-in-Command of a submersible city, and he has to cope with a sequence
of failures that threatens to destroy them.
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(Military SF) Rita’s success in AIs
for marketing leads to success in military applications. A bit too much
success.
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(Utopian SF) Ben visits an asteroid
mining ship to study the people who live on it, and he falls in love.
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(Hard SF) In which the end of the
world is brought to you by plastics.
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Six-Gun
Vixen and the Dead Coon Trashgang by Ashok K. Banker
Time: 26m (Novelette) Issue: Lightspeed 81
(Old West Fantasy) Six-gun rides into
Dead Gulch and finds the townspeople don’t like “her kind,” but they have a
mission for her: to kill the Dead Coon Trashgang.
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(Climate SF) Keely inherits an
advanced robot from her eccentric aunt.
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(Near-Future SF) A TV show features a
person and a therapist, and the audience tries to guess whether the therapist
is human or an AI.
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The Shallowest Waves
by Thoraiya
Dyer and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro Time: 24m (ShortStory) Issue: Analog 01.02|17
(Hard SF) Charlotte dreams of seeding
Europa with life, if only she can find someone to fund it.
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(Colony Ship) A woman on a colony ship
tries to save the life of her best friend.
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(Space Opera) Xin’s orderly life on
Eighth Colony changes forever when she ushers a mutilated body through the
portal.
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Rating: Not
Rated
Stories: 4; Estimated Time: 1h:30m (27K words)
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(Mainstream) Cyd’s suicide brings his
friend Kelvin to Albany for his memorial.
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(Mainstream) In 1888 a woman suffering
a hideous deformity was murdered in London. Today, her descendent wants to
find the culprit.
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(Mainstream) A young man has a
life-long obsession with cryptography.
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(Mystery) Ambrose runs a bookstore on
a remote Hawaiian island. He gets tangled up in the mystery of a visitor who
chained himself underwater and drowned.
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Hi guys, love your site since I discovered it earlier this year. Do you know the sidebar link to the year-to-date page still goes to the 2016 one, rather than this one?
ReplyDeleteThanks, I've fixed the link.
DeleteNo prob. Thanks so much for the rec of "And Then There Were (N-One)"; I wouldn't've seen it otherwise, I suspect, but it will almost certainly go on my Hugo noms.
Delete