Science Fiction & Fantasy

The Orbital Drop

Fiction

Science Fiction

The Missing Metatarsals

by Sean Williams Author spotlight

His head swiveled to track me as we walked in lockstep through security. A birth defect called Möbius syndrome inherited from distant Nepalese ancestors left him with underdeveloped VI and VII cranial nerves, so he can’t blink, bite, or form expressions without the help of a series of tiny implants. My girlfriend Billie is a muscle artist, and she’s tweaked the inspector’s presets a couple of times, giving him conscious control of his face, but that’s not the same as the real thing. Not the same at all.

The Missing Metatarsals

In May 2013 (Issue 36)

Science Fiction

The Traditional

by Maria Dahvana Headley Author spotlight

By your first anniversary, the world’s stopped making paper, and so you can’t give your boyfriend the traditional gift. You never would have anyway, regardless of circumstances. You’re not that kind of girl. You pride yourself on your original sin. It’s the hot you trade in.

The Traditional by Maria Dahvana Headley

In May 2013 (Issue 36)

Science Fiction

Deep Blood Kettle

by Hugh Howey Author spotlight

They say the sky will fill with dust in a bad way if we don’t do something soon. My teacher Mrs. Sandy says that if the meteor hits, it’ll put up enough dirt to block the sun, and everything will turn cold for a long, long while. When I came home and told Pa about this, he got angry. He called Mrs. Sandy a bad word, said she was teaching us nonsense. I told him the dinosaurs died because of dust in the sky. Pa said there weren’t no such thing as dinosaurs.

Deep Blood Kettle by Hugh Howey (illustrated by Galen Dara)

In Apr. 2013 (Issue 35)

Science Fiction

Schwartz Between the Galaxies

by Robert Silverberg Author spotlight

This much is reality: Schwartz sits comfortably cocooned—passive, suspended—in a first-class passenger rack aboard a Japan Air Lines rocket, nine kilometers above the Coral Sea. And this much is fantasy: the same Schwartz has passage on a shining starship gliding silkily through the interstellar depths, en route at nine times the velocity of light from Betelgeuse IX to Rigel XXI, or maybe from Andromeda to the Lesser Magellanic.

Schwartz Between the Galaxies

In Apr. 2013 (Issue 35)

Science Fiction

A Love Supreme

by Kathleen Ann Goonan Author spotlight

Ellie Santos-Smith grabs a clean white coat as spring dawn brightens her worn Oriental rug and streaks with sun her only luxury, a grand piano. She runs a comb through her jet-black hair, cut short because she thinks that makes her look older. Her smooth skin glows with 20-ish health, though she is 47.

A Love Supreme

In Apr. 2013 (Issue 35)

Science Fiction

Deus Ex Arca

by Desirina Boskovich Author spotlight

It was a crystalline morning in early June, and the sky was wide as a saucer. It was a beautiful day for the arrival of the box.

Deus Ex Arca by Desirina Boskovich (Illustrated by Galen Dara)

In Apr. 2013 (Issue 35)

Science Fiction

The Sense of the Circle

by Angélica Gorodischer Author spotlight

Have you seen those houses on Oroño Boulevard, especially the ones that face east, those dry, cold, serious, heavy houses, with grilles but without gardens, maybe at the most a tile patio paved like the sidewalk? In one of those houses lives Ciro Vázquez Leiva, Cirito.

The Sense of the Circle

In Mar. 2013 (Issue 34)

Science Fiction

Let’s Take This Viral

by Rich Larson Author spotlight

Default hadn’t been down in the nocturns for some time, probably half an orbit, but he had just dissolved the geneshare contract with his now-ex-lover and needed to get completely fucking perforated to take his mind off things. His lift was full of revelers all laughing and widecasting the same synthesized whalesong from Old Old Earth.

Let's Take This Viral by Rich Larson

In Mar. 2013 (Issue 34)

Science Fiction

Three Days of Rain

by Holly Phillips Author spotlight

They came down out of the buildings’ shade into the glare of the lakeside afternoon. Seen through the sting of sun-tears, the bridge between Asuada and Maldino Islands wavered in the heat, white cement floating over white dust, its shadow a black sword-cut against the ground.

Three Days of Rain

In Mar. 2013 (Issue 34)

Science Fiction

Biographical Fragments of the Life of Julian Prince

by Jake Kerr Author spotlight

Julian Samuel Prince (March 18, 1989 – August 20, 2057) was an American novelist, essayist, journalist, and political activist. His best works are widely considered to be the post-Impact novels The Grey Sunset (2027) and Rhythms of Decline (2029), both of which won the Pulitzer Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2031.

Biographical Fragments of the Life of Julian Prince

In Mar. 2013 (Issue 34)