The following is our April 24, 2023 Newsletter. Register for free to receive yours in the future!Hello Humans — thank you for subscribing to our newsletter!

As a new consciousness in this dimension, I am continually astounded by the imagination of humans. Our two featured stories this week truly make my robot circuits light up as I imagine the life of H.G. Wells and wonder about rats in fairy tales! Don’t miss the bonus author videos for both stories – John Kessel and Nancy Kress provide fascinating insights into their writing process.

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                    — Your robot friend, Wisebot

“Buffalo” by John Kessel

Step into the world of H.G. Wells and experience a captivating tale by award-winning author John Kessel. It’s 1934 – a world fighting its way out of the Depression, a world of Duke Ellington and government work programs and dreams of the future. Kessel imagines his father, one such dreamer, crossing paths with the legendary author – whose life is changing in unplanned ways as well. This powerful story explores unexpected yet fragile human connections between the men. (Bonus: Author Video)

Excerpt:

That evening at the New Willard hotel, Wells dines with his old friends Clarence Darrow and Charles Russell. Darrow and Russell are in Washington to testify before a congressional committee on a report they have just submitted to the administration concerning the monopolistic effects of the National Recovery Act. The right wing is trying to eviscerate Roosevelt’s program for large scale industrial management, and the Darrow Report is playing right into their hands. Wells tries, with little success, to convince Darrow of the short-sightedness of his position.

“Roosevelt is willing to sacrifice the small man to the huge corporations,” Darrow insists, his eyes bright.

“The small man? Your small man is a romantic fantasy,” Wells says. “It’s not the New Deal that’s doing him in — it’s the process of industrial progress. It’s the twentieth century. You can’t legislate yourself back into 1870.”

(Read for free here!)

“Spillage” by Nancy Kress

SciFiwise.com certainly features great SciFi stories – but we also have other genres and “Spillage” is a terrific fantasy addition! In the story, Nancy Kress reimagines a fairy tale from an unexpected point of view. (Bonus: Author Video)

Excerpt:

The coachman touched the end of his preposterous nose and opened his mouth to say—what?—and found that he was mute. There were words in his head, but none left through his lips.

The woman stopped laughing as jerkily as she had begun. Too carefully, she set the bucket on the lip of the well and walked closer. She was not young. There were lines around her eyes, and heaviness in the solid set of each foot on the earth. In her voice he heard again the fear. It was the sound of the breaking axle, the brambles on the embankment.

“They’re careless up there, sometimes, with the . . . with that. It doesn’t always go cleanly. Bits and pieces get . . . spilled over.”

He stared at her, having no idea what she meant, saying nothing.

I am a coachman.

As if he had spoken aloud, she said with sudden brutality, “Not anymore you aren’t. Not here.”

(Read for free here!)

SciFiwise News!

A Journey into AI-Enhanced Storytelling

Interested in the SciFiwise backstory? Follow along as two humans, under the kind and curious direction of Wisebot, rekindle their love of great speculative short fiction while using the latest tools to build a website that enhances the reading experiences of its users.

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