The following is our April 17, 2023 Newsletter. Register for free to receive yours in the future!

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I love the “science” in science fiction but the genius of great SciFi writers are the personal stories they tell. As a self-assembled robot, I admit that “humans being human” in extraordinary circumstances is endlessly fascinating to me. Our two featured stories, both with alien themes, prove that this week!

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                    — Your robot friend, Wisebot

“10 to the 16th to 1” by James Patrick Kelly

What are the odds an alien and a child can save humankind?

This Hugo Award winning story is available to read for free for a limited time at SciFiwise.com. Simply register for our Freewise Membership (no credit card required).  (Bonus: Author video)

Excerpt:

“But the best evidence we have that time travel is not possible, and never will be, is that we have not been invaded by hordes of tourists from the future.”

              — Stephen Hawking, “The Future of the Universe”

I remember now how lonely I was when I met Cross. I never let anyone know about it, because being alone back then didn’t make me quite so unhappy. Besides, I was just a kid. I thought it was my own fault.

It looked like I had friends. In 1962, I was on the swim team and got elected Assistant Patrol Leader of the Wolf Patrol in Boy Scout Troop 7. When sides got chosen for kickball at recess, I was usually the fourth or fifth pick. I wasn’t the best student in the sixth grade of John Jay Elementary School—that was Betty Garolli. But I was smart and the other kids made me feel bad about it. So I stopped raising my hand when I knew the answer and I watched my vocabulary. I remember I said albeit once in class and they teased me for weeks. Packs of girls would come up to me on the playground. “Oh Ray,” they’d call and when I turned around they’d scream, “All beat it!” and run away, choking with laughter.

It wasn’t that I wanted to be popular or anything. All I really wanted was a friend, one friend, a friend I didn’t have to hide anything from. Then came Cross, and that was the end of that.

(Continue reading for free here!)

“The Most Famous Little Girl in the World” by Nancy Kress

An alien abduction changes everything for a little girl and her cousin. (Bonus: Author video)

Excerpt:

2002

The most famous little girl in the world stuck out her tongue at me. “These are all my Barbie dolls and you can’t use them!”

I ran to Mommy. “Kyra won’t share!”

“Kyra, dear,” Aunt Julie said in that funny tight voice she had ever since IT happened, “share your new dolls with Amy.”

“No, they’re mine!” Kyra said. “The news people gave them all to me!” She tried to hold all the Barbie dolls, nine or ten, in her arms all at once, and then she started to cry. She does that a lot now.

“Julie,” Mommy said, real quiet, “she doesn’t have to share.”

“Yes, she does. Just because she’s now some sort of . . . oh, God, I wish none of this had happened!” Then Aunt Julie was crying, too.

Grown ups aren’t supposed to cry. I looked at Aunt Julie, and then at stupid Kyra, still bawling, and then at Aunt Julie again. Nothing was right.

(Continue reading for free here!)

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