Fortune’s Final Hand by Adam-Troy Castro (Horror)
Fortune entered the gaming floor, where instead of heading straight for a table she wandered among them, noting the places where people wept and howled like wolves, emptied but not yet judged broke.
The Pyramid of Amirah by James Patrick Kelly (Fantasy)
Sometimes Amirah thinks she can sense the weight of the pyramid that entombs her house. The huge limestone blocks seem to crush the air and squeeze light. When she carries the table lamp onto the porch and holds it up to the blank stone, shadows ooze across the rough-cut inner face.
Femaville 29 by Paul Di Filippo (Fantasy)
The one exception to this general malaise were the children.
The Baum Plan for Financial Independence by John Kessel (Science Fiction)
She came over and shined the flashlight into the closet. I ran my hand over the seam of the door. It was about three feet high, flush with the wall, the same off-white color but cool to the touch, made of metal. No visible hinges and no lock, just a flip-up handle like on a tackle box. “That’s not a safe,” Dot said.
Ej-Es by Nancy Kress (Science Fiction)
Three hundred sixty years since a colony ship left an established world with its hopeful burden, arrived at this deadly Eden, established a city, flourished, and died. How much of Mia’s lifetime, much of it spent traveling at just under c, did that represent?
State Change by Ken Liu (Fantasy)
Rina imagined her ice cube in the dark, cold cocoon of the freezer. Stay calm, she thought. Block it out. This is your life. This bit of almost-death.
The Reality Trip by Robert Silverberg (Science Fiction)
I have revealed myself, thinking to drive her away in terror; she is no longer aghast, and smiles at my strangeness. She will accept the evidence of her eyes.
Serpent by James Patrick Kelly (Fantasy)
"You think it’s easy living in the garden? The never-ending picnic — that’s what your Bible says, doesn’t it?"
Death Every Seventy-Two Minutes by Adam-Troy Castro (Horror, Science Fiction)
Oblivion is not quite instantaneous; his neurons all fire at the moment his brain goes soggy with blood, giving him, in his last instant, an overwhelming taste of peppermint.
Staying Behind by Ken Liu (Science Fiction)
We die to make place for our children, and through our children a piece of us lives on, the only form of immortality that is real.
Explanations, Inc. by Nancy Kress (Science Fiction)
Harkavy stopped pumping and stopped scowling, and noticed the storefront and its hand-lettered sign: EXPLANATIONS, INC. WE EXPLAIN ANYTHING GRAND OPENING TODAY ... Harkavy snorted. Explain anything, indeed!
The Invisible Empire by John Kessel (Science Fiction)
"I begin to wonder if we can ever change them," I said. Lydia's voice was fierce as she replied, "If men were capable of change, then reason would have done it years ago. For most, the only answer is death."
Escape from New Austin by Paul Di Filippo (Science Fiction)
When the partitioning of the country was first being adjudicated, New Austin had managed to claim an irregular circle of land some sixty miles in diameter around the urban core. This allowed the city to retain many natural attractions and resources, not the least of which was The Salt Lick BBQ Restaurant in Driftwood.
Amanda and the Alien by Robert Silverberg (Science Fiction)
Amanda had always had a good eye for detail. And at the particular moment she had spotted the alien on South Main she had been unusually alert, sensitive, all raw nerves, every antenna up.
Logrolling Ephesus by David Langford (Science Fiction)
Published 2003 in The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Mark Roberts. As further indication of the unique flavour of the Guide, my contributor’s biography runs as follows ...
Yukui! by James Patrick Kelly (Science Fiction)
For weeks, Sprite had told herself that Ratchanee Malakul was helping her hero get better, but no. “You have to accept that Jaran is never going to have sex with you,” the lifeguide told Sprite, as she was leaving on that last day.