Fiction

Science Fiction

Moonlighting as a non-player character was a hell of a way to earn a living. Never made much sense to spend all that time garbing up in a virtual uniform that matched gamespace, but Overton took pride in the details. So getting punched in the stomach by someone so caught up in an augmented reality fantasy they couldn’t tell real from script, that left him in a foul mood. All the man had to do was ask the right questions, get Overton’s responses, and move on.

In Nov. 2012 (Issue 30)

Fantasy

A Princess of Spain

by Carrie Vaughn

Author spotlight

Catherine of Aragon, sixteen years old, danced a pavane in the Spanish style before the royal court of England. Lutes, horns, and tabors played a slow, stately tempo, to which she stepped in time. The ladies of her court, who had traveled with her from Spain, danced with her, treading circles around one another—floating, graceful, without a wasted movement.

In Nov. 2012 (Issue 30)

Science Fiction

A Well-Adjusted Man

by Tom Crosshill

Author spotlight

On September 3, 2045, Jim Turner shot dead an innocent girl and went home to his family a well-adjusted man. It was supposed to be a simple escapee bust, out in the projects. Intel said three hostiles in the apartment, armed and volatile, on the run from Louisiana Debtors. So they rammed the door and went in, two other guys and Jim.

In Nov. 2012 (Issue 30)

Fantasy

La Alma Perdida de Marguerite Espinoza

by Jeremiah Tolbert

Author spotlight

Marguerite Espinoza took her last breath as the sun slipped behind the Salt Mountains outside the expansive windows of her third floor bedchamber. Alvardo nearly missed the moment, eavesdropping to the gathered family’s whispered conversations. He had falsely predicted her passing four times in the past three days, but the passing was unmistakable. As Maestro Eusebio had said many times, “When the moment comes, you will know.” And he did.

Illustrated by Galen Dara

In Nov. 2012 (Issue 30)

Science Fiction

Ace 167

by Eleanor Arnason

Author spotlight

It was after I lost my job as the manager of a traveling troupe of precision unicyclists that I met Ace 167. I was down and out in a bar in Venusport, my last credit gone to buy cheap Venusian wine. The jukebox was playing an old, tinny-sounding Beatles tune and on the jukebox screen tiny grey figures cavorted: the Beatles in their prime, back in the magic 1960s. Gone, all gone, I thought.

In Nov. 2012 (Issue 30)

Fantasy

As the Wheel Turns

by Aliette de Bodard

Author spotlight

In the Tenth Court of Hell stands the Wheel of Rebirth. Its spokes are of red lacquered wood; it creaks as demons pull it, dragging its load of souls back into the world. And before the Wheel stands the Lady.

In Nov. 2012 (Issue 30)

Science Fiction

Searching for Slave Leia

by Sandra McDonald

Author spotlight

A slip, slide, falling through icy coldness, white noise like TV static. A breeze of hot buttery popcorn. Giddy laughter, sweaty bodies, fanfare music over the intercom, and what’s this? A ten-foot-wide movie poster of young, pale, undernourished Carrie Fisher, posed seductively in a gold metal bikini with a collar and chain around her neck.

In Nov. 2012 (Issue 30)

Science Fiction

Bear and Shifty

by Benjamin Parzybok

Author spotlight

I ambled around the side of the after-market armored minivan and helped Mr. and Mrs. Perkinson load in the rest of the grocery goods, stashing them in the back and strapping them down. They were going to have a hell of a ride home, we all knew it, so when the work was done, I lingered there.

In Oct. 2012 (Issue 29)

Fantasy

The Suicide’s Guide to the Absinthe of Perdition

by Megan Arkenberg

Author spotlight

You cannot stop an angel who truly wants to fall. This is the first thing you learn in Pandemonium. The second thing you learn in Pandemonium is how to drink absinthe.

In Oct. 2012 (Issue 29)