The LEAP Test, by Alex Jennings

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆

(Portal Fantasy) Refugees from other worlds have to pass regular tests to make sure they’re integrating properly into our world. (2,414 words; Time: 08m)

The Ruby of the Summer King, by Mari Ness

[Uncanny]

★★★★☆ Hauntingly Beautiful

(Fairy Tale) The Summer King wants to court the Winter Queen, even though everyone warns him that it’s a long and perilous journey, for summer and winter aren’t meant to be together. (4,749 words; Time: 15m)

The Inaccessibility of Heaven, by Aliette de Bodard

[Uncanny]

★★★★☆ Recommended

(Fantasy Horror) Samantha searches Paris to try to find what’s killing fallen angels. (16,638 words; Time: 55m)

This is set in an alternate version of the world in her Dominion of the Fallen series. Those stories are also set in an alternate Paris with fallen angels, but in this world, there has been no destructive war; this city functions normally, with things like working taxis and cell phones. There’s no need to read those stories to read this one, and this one won’t spoil the series either.

The Nine Scents of Sorrow, by Jordan Taylor

[Uncanny]

★★★☆☆

(Clockwork Fantasy) Sorrow Farregon is a master perfumer, but the Queen wants something to make her conceive a child—which is challenging when the King is a clockwork automaton. (5,709 words; Time: 19m)

The World Ends in Salty Fingers and Sugared Lips, by Jenn Reese

[Uncanny]

★★★☆☆

(Temporal Apocalypse) The scientists’ plan to use temporal wormholes to protect the Earth from a giant asteroid has unexpected consequences. (895 words; Time: 02m)

Once More Unto the Breach (But Don’t Worry, the Inflatable Swords Are Latex-Free), by Tina Connolly

[Uncanny]

★★☆☆☆

(Allegory) You are always at a child’s birthday party, but there are monsters next door having their own party. (777 words; Time: 02m)

A Love Song for Herkinal as composed by Ashkernas amid the ruins of New Haven, by Chinelo Onwualu

[Uncanny]

★★★☆☆

(Future Fantasy) The Accident destroyed the whole Earth except for Africa, and brought a lot of supernatural things to life. Including the frosty tree spirits who’re haunting Ash and Herkinal’s hotel. (4,425 words; Time: 14m)

A Pale Horse, by M. Evan MacGriogair

[Uncanny]

★★☆☆☆

(Eco Apocalypse) A woman mourns the passing of the Scottish Gaelic language just as she mourns the death of the Earth’s ecosystems. (5,660 words; Time: 18m)

Father, by Ray Nayler

[Asimov's]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Punch-Card Punk) In an alternate 1950s with robots, spaceships, and flying cars, the US Army sends a robot father to the son of a dead soldier. (7,134 words; Time: 23m)

The Shape of Gifts, by Natalia Theodoridou

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Modern Fantasy) An ancient oracle living in our world struggles with the compulsion to deliver prophecies that no one will listen to—especially prophecies of the end of the world. (6,938 words; Time: 23m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

The Staircase, by Stephanie Feldman

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Horror) Five teenage girls explore a mysterious staircase to nowhere on a hill. Rumor has it that some who walk down it never come back. (4,335 words; Time: 14m)

Crawfather, by Mel Kassel

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Horror) The annual family get together involves a dangerous hunt of a gigantic man-eating crawdad. (4,024 words; Time: 13m)

A Bridge from Sea to Sky, by Bennett North

[F&SF]

★★☆☆☆

(Hard SF) When a collision almost severs the space elevator, Aoife and her coworkers struggle to try to save it—even though Earth is thinking of defunding it. (5,821 words; Time: 19m)

Madre Nuestra, Que Estás En Maracaibo, by Ana Hurtado

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Horror) Yesenia comes home to help care for her dying grandmother, an old woman who spent her life praying for the dead in Purgatory. Which turns out to have consequences. (3,419 words; Time: 11m)

Bible Stories for Adults No. 37: The Jawbone, by James Morrow

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Biblical Pastiche) In which the Angel of Death gives a salty account of the career of Sampson, Judge of Israel. (6,020 words; Time: 20m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

It will help to review a summary of the Sampson story before reading this.

Last Night at the Fair, by M. Rickert

[F&SF]

★★★★☆ Deeply moving, reminiscent of Ray Bradbury.

(Uncanny Fantasy) An old woman remembers the last night of her childhood, when she and her future husband snuck out of the house to visit the fair on the last night. (2,467 words; Time: 08m)

Recommended By: 👍RHorton.r+1 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

Knock, Knock Said the Ship, by Rati Mehrotra

[F&SF]

★★★★★ Solid Characters, Interesting Plot, Heartwarming.

(SF Thriller) Deenu, a refugee from the destroyed Lunar colony carrying a debt she’ll never pay back, works a dead-end job on a slightly shady cargo ship with a slightly unhinged AI. And then the cops show up. (5,708 words; Time: 19m)

Recommended By: 👍MHaskins+1 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

The Monsters of Olympus Mons, by Brian Trent

[F&SF]

★★★★☆ Plenty of Twists and Excitement

(SF Thriller) In the midst of a Martian Civil war, a wounded old man finds three monsters playing cards outside the abandoned Museum of Colonization, and he asks for their help. (8,370 words; Time: 27m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+2 (Q&A)

'Omunculus, by Madeleine Robins

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Steampunk Pastiche) A professor Henry Higgins attempts to train an automaton named Eliza to speak proper English and behave like a proper lady. (8,155 words; Time: 27m)

Recommended By: 👍RHorton.r+1 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

You don’t really have to be familiar with “My Fair Lady” to enjoy this story, but it definitely adds to it.

All Hail the Pizza King and Bless His Reign Eternal, by David Erik Nelson

[F&SF]

★★★★☆ Some Laughs and Excitement, Topped with a Little Horror

(Horror) Melissa isn’t happy about her daft sister-in-law buying a derelict restaurant where the last owner killed and cooked his wife 20 years ago, but it’s worse than she thinks. (12,264 words; Time: 40m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)