A Place Without Portals by Adam-Troy Castro (Fantasy, Horror)
She would not have reasoned that all of this would have made more sense than assaulting her with pig barbarians in plate armor and driving her to the exact place where any dark lord fearful of prophecy would not want her to go...
Long Live the Kejwa by Robert Silverberg (Science Fiction)
He stopped and watched the smoke. The first thought that came to him was to hang back cautiously, but then he shook his head and kept moving. This was his world, and he was going to keep the upper hand. They saw him first, though, and before he was aware of anything, ten blue-skinned men had stepped out of the woods and were kneeling at his feet.
Portrait of Ari by Mary Robinette Kowal (Science Fiction)
He stood up, fascination and fear churning in his brain. There had been so much blood. And her eyes. Something had happened with her eyes after she had passed out. Unnamed panic buzzed in his veins.
Plus or Minus by James Patrick Kelly (Science Fiction)
Mariska’s life aboard the Shining Legend went immediately from bad to awful. Even before he singled her out, she had decided that there was no way she’d be spending the rest of her teen years crewing on an asteroid bucket. Once Beep started persecuting her, she began counting down the remaining days of the run as if she were a prisoner.
Wavehitcher by Paul Di Filippo (Science Fiction)
Captain Ruffin had been prepared to see the wavehitcher clad in a typical joyrider’s amateur rig. But no, this wavehitcher sported very high-tech gear. Could he be a pirate — or a terrorist even?
The Last American by John Kessel (Science Fiction)
During the thirty-three years Andrew Steele occupied the Oval Office of what was then called the White House, in what was then called the United States of America (not to be confused with the current United State of Americans), on the corner of his desk he kept an antiquated device of the early twenty-first century called a taser.
Simulacrum by Ken Liu (Science Fiction)
I have no simulacra of her from back then. The prototype machines were very bulky, and the subject had to sit still for hours. That wasn’t going to happen with a baby. This is the first simulacrum I do have of her. She’s about seven.
Sand Castles by Adam-Troy Castro (Horror)
Here, on the beach, sat an immense sand castle. It had been sculpted over the course of three frenzied days by a team of artists who had seen fit to become world-class competitors at that delightful but largely irrelevant skill, who had come to the beach at the tail end of warm weather to create an ephemeral masterwork. Crowds had gathered to watch the construction in delight.
Jaiden’s Weaver by Mary Robinette Kowal (Science Fiction)
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a newly hatched teddy bear spider. When they first come out, they look like nothing so much as a drowned house cat. By the time they are dry, their downy baby fur has sprung out to give them the plumpness you associate with them. Their ears are outsized to their heads yet and their eyes are closed for the first several hours after hatching. The combination makes them seem adorable and helpless.
The Sixth Palace by Robert Silverberg (Science Fiction)
Ben Azai was deemed worthy and stood at the gate of the sixth palace and saw the ethereal splendor of the pure marble plates. He opened his mouth and said twice, “Water! Water!” In the twinkling of an eye they decapitated him and threw eleven thousand iron bars at him. This shall be a sign for all generations that no one should err at the gate of the sixth palace.