Science Fiction Podcasts

Science Fiction

The Master who came for Enri was wearing a relatively young body. Sadie guessed it was maybe fifty years old. It was healthy and in good condition, still handsome. It could last twenty years more, easily.

Illustrated by Hillary Pearlman

In June 2014 (Issue 49)

Science Fiction

Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death

by James Tiptree, Jr.

—I am hugely black and hopeful, I bounce on six legs along the mountains in the new warm! . . . Sing the changer, Sing the stranger! Will the changes change forever? . . . All my hums have words now. Another change!

Illustrated by Li Grabenstetter

In June 2014 (Issue 49)

Science Fiction

Each to Each

by Seanan McGuire

Author spotlight

The smell of damp steel assaults my nose as I walk the hall, uncomfortable boots clumping heavily with every step I force myself to take. The space is tight, confined, unyielding; it is like living inside a coral reef, trapped by the limits of our own necessary shells.

Illustrated by Li Grabenstetter

In June 2014 (Issue 49)

Science Fiction

A Word Shaped Like Bones

by Kris Millering

Author spotlight

The dead man sits in the corner of the chamber enclosed by spaceship on all sides. He takes up a lot of space. He has been there for three days.

Illustrated by Li Grabenstetter

In June 2014 (Issue 49)

Science Fiction

Selfie

by Sandra McDonald

Author spotlight

If you ask me, I’m more like my mom than my dad. She and I love astronomy and the mysterious origins of the universe. Dad’s not only stuck on the past, he literally would move there if he could. Every summer he drags me along on his research trips to eras where sweaty-smelling people with wool bathing suits hole up in seaside deathtraps.

In May 2014 (Issue 48)

Science Fiction

A Tank Only Fears Four Things

by Seth Dickinson

Author spotlight

The surgery makes Tereshkova into a tank. In the war, she never showed any fear, not at Fulda, not even in the snows of Vogelsberg when the Americans dropped the first bomb. When Clinton and Yeltsin shook hands at Yalta, when the word came down to the 8th Guards Army to yield Frankfurt and withdraw to Soviet soil, Tereshkova spat into the dirt and said: “Too bad.”

Illustrated by Elizabeth Leggett

In May 2014 (Issue 48)

Science Fiction

Francisca Montoya’s Almanac of Things That Can Kill You

by Shaenon K. Garrity

Author spotlight

If you get ill after eating or touching something that didn’t make anyone else sick, you may be allergic to it. Especially if there’s a rash. Allergies are caused by your body rejecting substances it doesn’t like. There is no treatment but to avoid those substances. Fortunately, only a few types of allergies can kill you.

In Apr. 2014 (Issue 47)

Science Fiction

Codename: Delphi

by Linda Nagata

Author spotlight

“Valdez, you need to slow down,” Karin Larsen warned, each syllable crisply pronounced into a mic. “Stay behind the seekers. If you overrun them, you’re going to walk into a booby trap.”

Illustrated by Galen Dara

In Apr. 2014 (Issue 47)

Science Fiction

The Legend of RoboNinja

by RoboNinja
Translated by Brooke Bolander

Author spotlight

RoboNinja. A name for garbled tongues and garbled times. Interstate mudlarks peer at him from beneath grotty brows as he passes, eyes the size of headlamps reflecting the gelid glow of his visor. He once tried obscuring the light with handfuls of ash, smeared across LEDs and his shining silver carapace like the penitential marks of a sect long forgotten. It had worked for a time, until the monsoon came mocking once more.

In Apr. 2014 (Issue 47)

Science Fiction

The Mao Ghost

by Chen Qiufan
Translated by Ken Liu

Author spotlight

I still remember that evening: In the heavy air, the plastic dragonflies hovered just below the eaves like miniature helicopters, drifting about slightly even though there was no wind. I came home, and Dad was already in the house but kept the lights off. The setting sun came in through cracks in the window, and his face seemed indescribably thin in the dim, yellow light, like a stranger’s.

In Mar. 2014 (Issue 46)