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Showing posts with label Short Story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Short Story. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

The Bone-Stag Walks, by K.T. Bryski

Lightspeed]
★★★☆☆

(Horror) In mid-winter, a skeletal stag comes to the village begging for food, but it eats anyone foolish enough to talk to it. (3,379 words; Time: 11m)


Sing in Me, Muse, by Katherine Crighton

Lightspeed]
★★★☆☆

(Generation Ship) A young woman on a generation ship sings reports back to an Earth that may not even exist anymore. (1,941 words; Time: 06m)


Still You Linger, Like Soot in the Air, by Matthew Kressel

Lightspeed]
★★★☆☆

(Far-Future SF) Gil teaches students how to communicate with the Numens, vast, star-spanning alien intelligences indistinguishable from gods. (5,664 words; Time: 18m)


Tuesday, August 18, 2020

The Plague, by Yan Leisheng

[Clarkesworld]
★☆☆☆☆

(Epidemic SF) A plague that turns people to stone is depopulating the planet, and the narrator has the job of incinerating the bodies. Weirdly, some of them scream. (5,692 words; Time: 18m)


Drawing Lines Between the Stars, by Frank Smith

[Clarkesworld]
★★☆☆☆

(New Age SF) Bexar's life changes when his ship rescues a young woman whose ship was hit by a passing comet. (6,104 words; Time: 20m)


The Lori, by Fiona Moore

[Clarkesworld]
★★★★☆ Worth it just to see a realistic story about AI failure.

(Military SF) After corporal Cooper recovers from the disastrous battle of Kuching, he’s sure the sentient tank he worked with is still there somewhere, so he takes extended leave and goes to hunt for it. (3,623 words; Time: 12m)


Satin and Velvet, by Robert Minto

[BCS]
★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Magician’s Apprentice) At just 16, Greta is pretty young for an apprentice, but somehow she’s drawn the attention of a satin ghast, which only seems to want to help her get her work done. But this is what got the last apprentice killed. (2,869 words; Time: 09m)


The Many Lives of an Abiku, by Tobi Ogundiran

[BCS]
★★★☆☆

(Yoruba Horror) Sola loves her family and wants to be a good girl. The shaman’s claims that she’s really an evil spirit come to cause pain can’t possibly be true—even if her invisible friend says otherwise. (5,212 words; Time: 17m)


The Stitch Beneath the Ice, by Ranylt Richildis

[Strange Horizons]
★★★☆☆

(Horror) During Prohibition, a coffin maker who often brings bodies over the frozen St. Lawrence river in the winter decides to earn some extra cash bringing a coffin full of liquor instead. (5,651 words; Time: 18m)


Everything's Fine, by Matthew Pridham

[Single]
★★★☆☆

(Slipstream Horror) Today’s a big day at work, but just walking there looks to be a death-defying challenge, what with people randomly turning into monsters and such. (4,732 words; Time: 15m)


Juice Like Wounds, by Seanan McGuire

[Single]
★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Portal Fantasy; Wayward Children) In the Market, every exchange has to give fair value to both sides. Lundy and her friends want to do a quest that’ll generate so much fair value that they never have to work again. But they’re just kids. (5,894 words; Time: 19m)


The LEAP Test, by Alex Jennings

Publication logo
[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)


Sunday, August 16, 2020

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 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)


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)


Wednesday, August 12, 2020

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)


Thursday, July 16, 2020

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)


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