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Fantasy

Erm Kaslo arranged the materials of the experiment on the scarred and scorched workbench in his new lodgings. He had recently had to relocate to new quarters on the outskirts of Indoberia, after the custodial agent of his former lodgings had complained to the Commune about the noises, smells, and other disruptions arising from Kaslo’s suite of rooms. He had taken this isolated cottage in a clearing of the Forest of Shades, where his nearest neighbor was well out of earshot.

In Jan. 2014 (Issue 44)

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Science Fiction

In the Dying Light, We Saw a Shape

by Jeremiah Tolbert

Author spotlight

.@neiltyson calls them “space diatoms,” but I say “space whales.” They’re beaching themselves on our interstellar shores. Question is: why? —Tweet by @LilMeyerECID, January 7, 2021

Illustrated by Galen Dara

In Jan. 2014 (Issue 44)

Science Fiction

Leaving Night

by Gregory Benford

Author spotlight

Very quietly, in the dark of night, people began disappearing. Later research showed that they vanished while in their deepest sleep. The few available videos of sleeping people revealed that the air around them shimmered for a few seconds amid a soft humming sound. The bodies seemed to shrink to nothing. They were simply gone, leaving clothes behind. Seldom did the event even wake mates asleep beside them.

In Dec. 2013 (Issue 43)

Fantasy

The Correspondence Between the Governess and the Attic

by Siobhan Carroll

Author spotlight

The changeling hides in the window seat. On one side of her is glass, gauzy with rain. On the other, a thick curtain. November whistles through the crack in the window frame, but she dares not move. In this house she is a creeping, persecuted thing. Best if they don’t see her. She opens the book. Reading, she knows, is dangerous: none of the books in the house are hers, nothing is hers, and the family will hold this small act against her. But reading is a better escape than none at all.

In Dec. 2013 (Issue 43)

Fantasy

Miss Nobody Never Was

by James Patrick Kelly

Author spotlight

Everybody thinks that bartenders steal. You know what? They’re right. Maybe there’s an upright bartender someplace where it’s all parking lots and cornfields and traffic lights flashing yellow, but I doubt it.

In Dec. 2013 (Issue 43)

Science Fiction

Invisible Planets

by Hao Jingfang
Translated by Ken Liu

Author spotlight

Chichi Raha is a fascinating place, its flowers and lakes unforgettable to all visitors. There, you cannot see a single inch of exposed soil because the land is covered by vegetation: the anua grass, as fine as silk thread; the kuqin tree, tall enough to scrape the clouds; and many varieties of unnameable, unimaginably strange fruits, exuding seductive aromas.

Illustrated by Galen Dara

In Dec. 2013 (Issue 43)

Fantasy

Sleeper

by Matthew Hughes

Author spotlight

Erm Kaslo always found that a strong drink or two helped clear his head of the after-effects of the sedative that cushioned the fragile human psyche from the irreality of passage through a whimsy. He was sipping from a glass of red abandon in the second-class lounge of the second-rate liner, Armitou, when harsh bells clanged throughout the ship. Immediately, the ever-present underhum of the vessel’s normal-space drive lowered its pitch then began to fade. In a few moments, Kaslo couldn’t hear the sound at all.

Illustrated by Hillary Pearlman

In Nov. 2013 (Issue 42)

Science Fiction

The Turing Test

by Beth Revis

Author spotlight

“My name is Elektra Shepherd,” I say. “I’m eighteen years old. A freshman in university, majoring in artificial intelligence. Today I am a participant in a Turing test.”

In Nov. 2013 (Issue 42)

Fantasy

The Insect and the Astronomer: A Love Story

by Kelly Barnhill

Author spotlight

The Insect has never been in love. The Astronomer has never been alive. It is important that you understand this.

In Nov. 2013 (Issue 42)

Science Fiction

Death and the Hobbyist

by Sean Williams

Author spotlight

It wasn’t enough for my mother Juliet to be crazy. Of course not. She was always going to find a uniquely inconvenient way to drive us mad along with her.

Illustrated by Galen Dara