Stories in category Science Fiction

Life Sentence

(7128 words, 36 minutes)

The nameless man who had killed and been caught, judged and sentenced and jailed to await his own death watched as the authorities prepared to execute his surrogate.

The murderer occupied one place in a bank of seats filled by other invited witnesses to the State’s administration of mortal justice. He had not been introduced to any of the other witnesses when the guards had coldly and somewhat roughly conducted him to his seat, and no one had since offered a name or hand to the man.

The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale

by Robert Silverberg | Science Fiction

(9241 words, 47 minutes)

Puillayne of Ghiusz was a man born to every advantage life offers, for his father was the master of great estates along the favored southern shore of the Claritant Peninsula, his mother was descended from a long line of wizards who held hereditary possession of many great magics, and he himself had been granted a fine strong-thewed body, robust health, and great intellectual power.

The Perfect Lover

by Paul Di Filippo | Science Fiction

(1049 words, 6 minutes)

Kiet the Mousekiller had begun his infamous career as a simple Thai pirate, preying on international shipping. Radicalized by the anonymous contamination of Mecca with a GPS-circumscribed green goo, he had become a terrorist, earning his sobriquet by his cunning destruction of Hong Kong Disneyland. Kiet’s latest scheme, not yet known to the public, involved a retired Japanese deep-sea drilling ship, the Chikyu, which Kiet and his backers had purchased on the open market under a false front. Now docked in the Indonesian port of Balikpapan, the ship was believed to be due to sail imminently, according to best intelligence.

Against Babylon

by Robert Silverberg | Science Fiction

(8224 words, 42 minutes)

Carmichael flew in from New Mexico that morning, and the first thing they told him when he put his little plane down at Burbank was that fires were burning out of control all around the Los Angeles basin. He was needed bad, they told him. It was late October, the height of the brushfire season in Southern California, and a hot, hard, dry wind was blowing out of the desert, and the last time it had rained was the fifth of April. He phoned the district supervisor right away, and the district supervisor told him, “Get your ass out here on the line double fast, Mike.”

Tomorrow and Tomorrow

by Mary Robinette Kowal | Horror, Science Fiction

(3844 words, 20 minutes)

“Is that your son?” Another mother sat down on the bench next to Tuyet. Tuyet nodded, barely taking her eyes from Vien. She ran the handiwipe over the ends of her fingers, trying to avoid the spots where she had rubbed the skin raw.

“Where did he get his new lungs?”

For a moment longer, Tuyet watched her son before turning to the woman. She held out a badge, her id and rank rotating ad infinitum in the holo over it. “I’d like to ask you to come to the station with me, Dr. Phan.”

Another Orphan

by John Kessel | Fantasy, Science Fiction

(18708 words, 94 minutes)
Awards: Nebula Award Winner, Best Novella

Ahab had sailed them into the heart of a typhoon. The sails were in tatters, and the men ran across the deck shouting against the wind and trying to lash the boats down tighter before they were washed away or smashed. Stubb had gotten his left hand caught between one of the boats and the rail; he now held it with his right and grimaced. The mastheads were touched with St. Elmo’s fire. Ahab stood with the lightning rod in his right hand and his right foot planted on the neck of Fedallah, declaiming at the lightning. Fallon held tightly to a shroud to keep from being thrown off his feet. The scene was ludicrous; it was horrible.

All the Flavors: A Tale of Guan Yu, the Chinese God of War, in America

by Ken Liu | Fantasy, Science Fiction, Western

(27558 words, 138 minutes)

“All the Flavors: A Tale of Guan Yu, the Chinese God of War, in America” by Ken Liu is a mesmerizing blend of historical fiction and fantasy, exploring the intersection of Chinese mythology and 19th-century American frontier life. Set in Idaho City during the tumultuous times of post-Civil War America, the story follows Logan (Lao Guan), a Chinese immigrant who embodies the legendary Chinese God of War (Guan Yu), as he navigates life in a hostile new land.

The Road to Nightfall

by Robert Silverberg | Science Fiction

(9011 words, 46 minutes)

The dog snarled, and ran on. Katterson watched the two lean, fiery-eyed men speeding in pursuit, while a mounting horror grew in him and rooted him to the spot. The dog suddenly bounded over a heap of rubble and was gone; its pursuers sank limply down, leaning on their clubs, and tried to catch their breath.

“It’s going to get much worse than this,” said a small, grubby-looking man who appeared from nowhere next to Katterson.

Evil Robot Monkey

by Mary Robinette Kowal | Science Fiction

(942 words, 5 minutes)

Sliding his hands over the clay, Sly relished the moisture oozing around his fingers. The clay matted down the hair on the back of his hands making them look almost human. He turned the potter’s wheel with his prehensile feet as he shaped the vase. Pinching the clay between his fingers he lifted the wall of the vase, spinning it higher.

One

by Nancy Kress | Science Fiction

(23684 words, 119 minutes)

“It’s a long way to fall, Zack.”

Zack scowled up at Anne, wishing she would go away. Bad enough to be lying on this damn hospital bed in a thin cotton dress that left his ass bare. Bad enough to be going into surgery for something wrong in his brain. Bad enough to not understand what that something was, not even after one of all those doctors had explained it, just the same way he’d never understood that kind of intellectual crap his whole stupid life. But having his sister loom over him, upright when he was down—well, wasn’t that just the icing on this particular shit cake?

The Kings of Mount Golden

by Paul Di Filippo | Science Fiction

(11760 words, 59 minutes)

“This is the devil’s own bargain you are forcing upon me, Warner Gilead, and you shall come to rue this day!”

Billy

by Paul Di Filippo | Fantasy, Science Fiction

(5170 words, 26 minutes)

The woman explained about Billy’s history, and his amazing post-pubescent changes. At one point she said, “We wish we could show you Billy’s empty head and undeveloped brain, but the network standards forbid it, since it is quite repulsive-looking.” The Doctor spoke up then, testifying to the minuteness of Billy’s brain. His air of authority was very convincing. Billy’s innocent looks–his face blank as cheese, his placid green eyes–and his unnatural voice, lent further credence to the miracle of his being.

Devils at Play

by Paul Di Filippo | Science Fiction

(4700 words, 24 minutes)

End result: nothing “normal” satisfies us, no simple pleasures persist. Everyday living, common rewards, leave us cold. And if we can’t get high, can’t feed the need, we feel like walking corpses. No simple chemical fixes seem to work, just total kinesthetic and proprioceptic stimulation, with a side order of mental jazzing, in the form of flouting all norms, rebellion across the board.

To Jorslem

by Robert Silverberg | Science Fiction

(21660 words, 109 minutes)
Awards: Nebula Award Nominee, Hugo Award Nominee

Our world was now truly theirs. All the way across Eyrop I could see that the invaders had taken everything, and we belonged to them as beasts in a barnyard belong to the farmer.

Basileus

by Robert Silverberg | Science Fiction

(6647 words, 34 minutes)

In the shimmering lemon-yellow October light, Cunningham touches the keys of his terminal and summons angels. An instant to load the program, an instant to bring the file up, and there they are, ready to spout from the screen at his command: Apollyon, Anauel, Uriel, and all the rest. Uriel is the angel of thunder and terror; Apollyon is the Destroyer, the angel of the bottomless pit; Anauel is the angel of bankers and commission brokers. Cunningham is fascinated by the multifarious duties and tasks, both exalted and humble, that are assigned to the angels. “Every visible thing in the world is put under the charge of an angel,” said St. Augustine in The Eight Questions.

Horizontal Rain

by Mary Robinette Kowal | Fantasy, Science Fiction

(2680 words, 14 minutes)

Something large moved through the dusk. Max gripped the arms of his chair, white-knuckled, and stared out the window. The trailer shuddered forward and slid off the foundation blocks holding it up. For an unbelieving moment, Max watched the floor fall away from him, as the trailer tipped on its side and then gravity snared the room.