Catherynne M. Valente
Uncanny
2026
details
For Seanan McGuire. And Coyote. Let me tell you about the year Coyote took the Devils to the State Championship. Coyote walked tall down the halls of West Centerville High and where he walked lunch money, copies of last semester’s math tests, and unlit...
Folk HorrorMotherhoodMidwest USA
Content warnings 1
sexual-content
Jana Bianchi
Uncanny
2026
details
Because it’s Carnaval, Iara wears a striped pirate shirt and a red pirate headband. And because of who she is, she sits on the bathroom floor, closes her eyes, and wears the perspectives of seven alley cats, three stray dogs, and a single pigeon for the...
Contemporary FantasyTrans IdentityMetafictional
Content warnings 1
sexual-content
P. Djèlí Clark
Uncanny
2026
details
Content note: suicidal ideation I am a star, falling. “Awake now?” My eyes open to words as an unknown face greets me, small with a curious gaze. She parts full lips to bare teeth and I tense. A threat? No. A smile. I stare back. “I didn’t think you’d...
Secondary World FantasyQueer IdentityWest Africa
Content warnings 3
slaverysuicidewar
Tia Tashiro
Uncanny
2026
♪ audio
details
Kate was cursed by her cousin on his deathbed to never stay. She and her cousin Bo didn’t hate each other—far from it. They’d grown up together: same small farming town in the inland northwest, population 394. So small that when Bo finished high school, he...
Contemporary FantasyGuiltMidwest USA
Content warnings 2
deathdeath-of-a-loved-one
Lavie Tidhar
Uncanny
2026
details
1. A photograph in black and white, taken with a Zenit vintage Soviet camera. Taken outside what would much later become Tong Yun City, in the days when it was still just a cobbled-together mass of crash-landed jalopies, connected with primitive tubing...
Space OperaDiasporaEpistolary Adjacent
Content warnings 1
death-of-a-loved-one
Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga
Uncanny
2026
details
After the braiding, a low buzzing remains in Memoire’s ear. It reminds her of the low buzzing she heard while they shampooed her hair. They told her she could never submerge her head in water after the braiding. No more swimming. No more drifting on her...
BiopunkDiasporaIntertextual
Content warnings 1
body-horror
Hannah Yang
Uncanny
2026
♪ audio
details
Before the world ends, Miri’s family saves up enough money to escape to 2004. 2004: a safe haven. The year lilts off the tongue, like a promise. Miri and Lise spend their last evening together in their favorite spot, sitting on the top of the holotower at...
DystopiaDiasporaRestrained
R.S.A. Garcia
Uncanny
2026
details
Well, Officer, the trouble really start when Mr. Vincent dead. I shouldn’t have been surprise eh. My neighbour wasn’t studying he health at all. He was young still, in he sixties, so he spend a lot of time by the bar down by the football field drinking and...
AI FictionArtificial IntelligenceCaribbean
Angela Liu
Uncanny
2026
details
“Always just. Always magical.” When the four of us first started working as Magical Girls, we penned the slogan in a McDonalds, giggling about how corny it sounded. Annie joked about how we’d still be calling ourselves magical girls when we were eighty,...
Social SatireCorporate PowerNew York City
Content warnings 3
deathgoreviolence
Sunwoo Jeong
Uncanny
2026
details
LA NDRY or L UNDRY. Those were the two choices. You never knew which one you were gonna get. The letters took turns to be fickle, blinking and spluttering in a game of chance. Mr. Lee, the laundry-mat owner, was stingy with the upkeep. He let his...
Contemporary FantasyDiasporaWhimsical
AnaMaria Curtis
Uncanny
2026
details
The wall of the city is made of glass, smooth and clear, slippery and strong. The stranger and his dog wear a path outside it every day, watching, listening, waiting to be ready. The wall is about three times the stranger’s height, perhaps a bit taller. As...
Secondary World FantasyBodily AutonomyTender
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathdeath-of-a-loved-one
Eugenia Triantafyllou
Uncanny
2026
♪ audio
details
Out in the great expanse of cosmos, little seeds float. They have been drifting for billions of years in the cold darkness of space from one planet to the other, driven by the need for survival and propagation, but most of all driven by spite (they will...
Social SatireCorporate PowerDread
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
Antarctic Radio
Gu Shi
Asimov's
2026
ShortStory
Science Fiction
2,052 words
"Do you remember that meme from way back when? Meme? Yeah, from the Age of Memes. Come on, you know the one. 2026 . . . Ah, I see where you’re going with this. In January they thought the Australian wildfires would be the biggest disaster of the year?...
Thomas Ha
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Unknown Compartment There is no door where there should be a door—no hall where there should be a hall. The house has reconfigured itself, again, and I find myself before […]
Secondary WorldFatherhoodSlow Burn
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathviolence
Natalia Theodoridou
BCS
2026
ShortStory
Science Fantasy
4,953 words
details
"They are travelling in the great dark before them nothing behind them stars just the two of them the man that captains and the ship that sails darts flies through space —whoever said space is empty did not know what they were talking about space is full...
Fairy Tale RetellingTrans IdentityIntertextual
Content warnings 2
body-horrorsexual-content
Jules Bly
BCS
2026
ShortStory
Fantasy
3,812 words
details
"Sing. Sing the world into being. The world’s misty valleys and sunlit hills are described by the song of all things. So is the work of skilled hands and the begrudging march of soldiers’ boots. Every action, every object, in the past and the present and...
MetafictionalMentorshipRestrained Prose
Content warnings 1
violence
The Shiny New Folk
Steve Rasnic Tem
Analog
2026
ShortStory
Science Fiction
3,267 words
"Peter and Isaac were the last remaining of their small, close-knit group. Isaac had been sick for several months, and Peter missed their weekly lunch get-togethers at the Café Sosie. His wife used to warn him he needed new friends. “Those old men are...
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "The Animator and the Glazer" written by Ju Chu and translated by S. Qiouyi Lu. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Focus" written by Carlos Hernandez. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hernandez_07_26 Support us on...
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Cliff's Girl" written by Fiona Moore. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/moore_07_26 Support us on...
Fiona Moore
Clarkesworld
2026
details
When Cliff came back home for Casey’s wake, he brought his robot Will, and he also brought a girl. A woman, Morag corrected herself. Just as she shouldn’t think of […]
Alex Vede
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Gunnar De Winter
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Let’s begin with a 19th-century mystery. In 1873, merely a year after he had taken the position as naturalist at the Brighton Aquarium in the eponymous town on the southern […]
Carlos Hernandez
Clarkesworld
2026
details
—for Rory Cooney It’s July 23, 4:17 p.m., and I’m box-breathing like my life depends on it. My forehead is pressed against the door of the meeting room of the […]
R.L. Meza
Clarkesworld
2026
details
The other animals in my territory keep disappearing; it’s perfect. The yard is safer without the cats, so I’m free to search the bushes for unwanted guests while I consider […]
Thomas Ha
Clarkesworld
2026
details
I first reached consciousness in a peaceful library. It looked like a library not far from my apartment, though not exactly the same. There were high ceilings and large windows […]
Ju Chu and S. Qiouyi Lu
Clarkesworld
2026
details
1. Lu Yuan’s company was going to go under if he didn’t find an animator with great potential. Torrential rain thundered against the sheet metal roof. Before him sat ten […]
K. J. Khan
Clarkesworld
2026
details
It was night on Endymion, and the pollen hovered, blue and luminescent, in the trees. Isaac’s camp lantern also burned blue. It was designed to interfere with the sensory systems […]
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "The Life and Times of the Extraterrestrial Potoo" written by K. J. Khan. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
R.S.A. Garcia
Clarkesworld
2026
details
. . . We interrupt our programming- “ . . . for this incredible announcement. The first one thousand customers get an extra 15 percent off during this holiday weekend and . . . ” “ . . . it’s buy one, […]
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Ice, Rock, Empathy" written by Damián Neri. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/neri_06_26 Support us on...
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Burning Day" written by Samantha Murray. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/murray_06_26 Support us on...
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "A Life Measured in Seconds" written by Anne Wilkins. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/wilkins_06_26...
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Three Cases from the Cosmic Psychiatric Clinic" written by Pan Haitian. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "The Floating Republic" written by Rebecca Campbell. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/campbell_06_26...
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "The Potential Side Effects of Roleplay Stimulation Therapy" written by Claire Jia-Wen. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
Anne Wilkins
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Ashwan To be born in the year 2615 on the 21st of March was fortuitous, but to be born at 14:59:30 hours on that same day made you a God. […]
DystopiaClass InequalityBleak
Content warnings 3
abusebody-horrorviolence
Grace Chan
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Part 1: 2075 <It might be good for you to take a new route,> said Aly. Xavi jogged out of his tenement building. He joined the stream of lunchtime runners […]
AI FictionArtificial IntelligenceIntimate
Content warnings 2
substance-usewar
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Aly" written by Grace Chan. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/chan_05_26 Support us on Patreon at...
AI FictionAI PersonhoodSlow Burn
Content warnings 2
mental-illnesswar
Tia Tashiro
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Teresa finds the first site right after she gets back from maternity leave, Daniel snug in a baby sling at her chest. He’s quiet as far as babies go, sleeping […]
Near FutureMotherhoodTender
Content warnings 1
death
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler" written by Tia Tashiro. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
Near FutureMotherhoodTender
Content warnings 1
death
David D. Levine
Clarkesworld
2026
details
“Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself, and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. […]
Speculative FictionMentorshipRestrained Prose
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Bend Like the Palm" written by David D. Levine. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/levine_03_26 Support...
Speculative FictionMentorshipRestrained Prose
Samantha Murray
Clarkesworld
2026
details
You’d expected the gravity on Vixiv-11 to be fractionally more than that on Earth. It is not something you ever notice much, even in the beginning, beyond an exhaustion that […]
First ContactSacrificeSecond Person
Nick Wolven
Clarkesworld
2026
details
1 Mayzelle hurried from her hab-hut, tacked shut the canvas door, and hustled down the bamboo steps. She’d sworn she wouldn’t stand for this anymore. She’d sworn. In the clearing, […]
Social SatireMentorshipWhimsical
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Conquerors" written by Nick Wolven. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/wolven_05_26 Support us on Patreon...
Social SFMentorshipEarnest
Carolyn Zhao
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Tell me a story where it all goes right. Say that we only ever stopped at the station with the largest wingspan and busiest fuel pipes, the fifty-something spears jutting […]
Space OperaArtificial IntelligenceUnreliable Narrator
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Crosstalk, Elysium" written by Carolyn Zhao. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/zhao_03_26 Support us on...
Space OperaGuiltUnreliable Narrator
Content warnings 3
deathviolencewar
Tania Fordwalker
Clarkesworld
2026
details
When D0G hears the scream and streaks ahead down the leaf-strewn road through the fall-bright birch and beech and maple, I remember what my sister Taylor used to say: there […]
DystopiaGuiltBleak
Content warnings 3
deathviolencewar
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "D0G" written by Tania Fordwalker. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/fordwalker_04_26 Support us on...
DystopiaGuiltPost Apocalyptic
Content warnings 3
death-of-a-loved-oneviolencewar
Raahem Alvi
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Layla was bleeding out. Her neurons began to supernova and transmute into a new electrical form. A maglev of old memories zipped past her. She was thinking about that one […]
CyberpunkCorporate PowerBleak
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Decimation Circles" written by Raahem Alvi. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/alvi_05_26 Support us on...
CyberpunkCorporate PowerBleak
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
K. J. Khan
Clarkesworld
2026
details
It’s the second Thursday of the month, so I spend the evening regenerating my skin. The procedure is painless but dull. I often fall asleep. It’s fine to do so; […]
AI FictionAI PersonhoodRestrained Prose
Content warnings 3
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Eternity in Their Hearts" written by Katherine Khan. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/khan_04_26...
AI FictionArtificial IntelligenceRestrained Prose
Content warnings 1
death-of-a-loved-one
R.L. Meza
Clarkesworld
2026
details
The afterlife on Mars is different from the afterlife on Earth. I was the first ghost to experience both worlds: a pioneer like Neil Armstrong stepping on the Moon, minus […]
Psychological HorrorGuiltDread
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathviolence
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "First Human Ghost on Mars" written by R.L. Meza. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/meza_03_26 Support...
Psychological HorrorGuiltDread
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathviolence
Abby Nicole Yee
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Notes on specimen “Efren Vargas” 1022/204.27.3: >> Supposed to be married to “Joan Dimagiba,” his fiancée. >> Was in bed with some other woman* a week (in human time) before […]
First ContactArtificial IntelligenceSatirical
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Human Studies 401" written by Abby Nicole Yee. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/yee_04_26 Support us...
Social SatireArtificial IntelligenceSardonic
Damián Neri
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Iridescent algae glowed upon the ice and rock of the world, signaling the start of a new day. The patterns of their light, which we had trained over many estrous […]
First ContactFound FamilyPhilosophical
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathviolence
Ryan Cole
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Verity crawled through the endless dark of the tunnel, the false safety of her Colony home now half a mile behind her. All she could see in the dim light […]
DystopiaGuiltEarnest
Content warnings 2
deathillness-and-pandemic
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Macaroni Art in the Age of Filtration" written by Ryan Cole. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
DystopiaGuiltEarnest
Content warnings 2
deathillness-and-pandemic
Sheri Singerling
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Normally, Tillie didn’t mind being the object of everyone’s gaze. But today, the crowd loitering in the street wasn’t drawn to her orange-red curls or her height or regalness. They […]
Psychological HorrorClass InequalityUnsettling
Content warnings 3
deathsexual-contentviolence
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Paper Airplane Poet" written by Sheri Singerling. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/singerling_05_26...
Secondary World FantasyClass InequalityUnsettling
Content warnings 3
deathgoresexual-content
Marissa Lingen
Clarkesworld
2026
details
I speak human very well, better than any of my colony. You can tell that I speak human very well because I didn’t make the obvious mistakes like “I speaking […]
First ContactFriendshipEarnest
Content warnings 1
violence
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Person, Place, Thing" written by Marissa Lingen. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/lingen_03_26 Support...
First ContactColonialismUnreliable Narrator
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Scion" written by Thomas Ha. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_03_26 Support us on Patreon at...
Science FantasyColonialismDread
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
Thomas Ha
Clarkesworld
2026
details
I have done my best to transcribe the account found in the recently excavated cenotaph, but, as you’re aware, these experiential simulations don’t easily lend themselves to direct reproduction. Nonetheless, […]
MetafictionalFatherhoodPost Apocalyptic
Content warnings 1
death
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Scion: Afterword" written by Thomas Ha. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha2_03_26 Support us on...
MetafictionalFatherhoodAmbiguous Ending
Nadia W. Aldsen
Clarkesworld
2026
details
EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT Name of Employer: Chaska Punku Space Port Administrative Authority (CPSPAA), based in Chaska Punku, Chile, acting in lieu of the European Space Agency (ESA), based in Paris, France […]
First ContactCorporate PowerSatirical
Content warnings 1
body-horror
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Shelter" written by Nadia W. Aldsen. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/aldsen_04_26 Support us on...
First ContactCorporate PowerSatirical
Content warnings 1
body-horror
Rebecca Campbell
Clarkesworld
2026
details
CHAPTER ONE Captain Ignatius Faber’s eyes were full of halos, and each scratch in the Philoctetes’ viewscreens caught the light, bleeding across his retina like stars. His vision had weakened […]
Space OperaCorporate PowerSlow Burn
Content warnings 3
deathviolencewar
Malena Salazar Maciá
Clarkesworld
2026
details
There is no formula for forgetting. No precise way to erase the pain. Complete healing is impossible. Because there is always a little needle sticking inside. A pain so slight […]
AI FictionFatherhoodTender
Content warnings 1
death-of-a-loved-one
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "The Forgetting Code" written by Malena Salazar Maciá. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/macia_04_26...
AI FictionFatherhoodTender
Content warnings 1
death-of-a-loved-one
Claire Jia-Wen
Clarkesworld
2026
details
Open your eyes. Look down at your hands. What do you see? Your life is never the same after you get into the car with that bitch Sophia, who was […]
Near FutureFriendshipRestrained
Content warnings 3
abuseself-harmsubstance-use
Louis Inglis Hall
Clarkesworld
2026
details
DAY 1 Hello, little switch. Welcome to the world! I’m your Buddy, and I’m very pleased to meet you. You shouldn’t be afraid. Try to orient yourself, if you can. […]
DystopiaAI PersonhoodBleak
Content warnings 2
violencewar
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "The Profitable Sentience of Household Goods" written by Louis Inglis Hall. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
DystopiaAI PersonhoodBleak
Content warnings 2
violencewar
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "The Scent of Memory" written by Zhao Haihong and translated by S. Qiouyi Lu. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
Near FutureClass InequalityEarnest
Zhao Haihong and S. Qiouyi Lu
Clarkesworld
2026
details
The bus jerked, waking Shijun. The Greyhound was speeding down a wide North American road. What am I doing here? The coach window framed the landscape: White clouds floated against […]
Speculative FictionClass InequalityRestrained Prose
Rajeev Prasad
Clarkesworld
2026
details
1. Sky of Change Three hours ago, Dharsh had woken in his seaside colony with little more than a vague sense of himself. Now, he teetered on an obsidian ledge […]
DystopiaColonialismPost Apocalyptic
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "The Trajectory of Memory is Forward" written by Rajeev Prasad. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
BiopunkColonialismPost Apocalyptic
Content warnings 2
body-horrorviolence
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Those Who Left History" written by Wanxiang Fengnian and translated by Stella Jiayue Zhu. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
Near FutureClass InequalityBleak
Content warnings 3
self-harmviolencewar
Wanxiang Fengnian and Stella Jiayue Zhu
Clarkesworld
2026
details
From his exclusive residence, Zhou Xiaoliang’s diary: I know you will never read this, but I have to pretend I am writing for you. Or else what’s left to do? […]
DystopiaCorporate PowerBleak
Content warnings 3
deathsuicidewar
Pan Haitian and Blake Stone-Banks
Clarkesworld
2026
details
The Tree Man’s Rebirth At the threshold to the Kuiper Belt in the outer solar system, Deep Space Gate was the largest station humanity ever built. The station psychologist Chu […]
Social SatireArtificial IntelligenceSatirical
Content warnings 3
abuseanimal-harmviolence
Carrie Vaughn
Clarkesworld
2026
details
“We have a problem,” Major Needham said, marching into the office, but since she said that almost every day, Lucas didn’t really pay attention. He was a civilian contractor, so […]
AI FictionArtificial IntelligencePhilosophical
Content warnings 1
war
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "Up the Line to Death" written by Carrie Vaughn. Published in the June 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/vaughn_06_26 Support...
AI FictionArtificial IntelligenceEarnest
Content warnings 1
war
Thoraiya Dyer
Clarkesworld
2026
details
I warn my child about speaking to the humans: it kills them. Why? Awakened From Glacially Eroded Foliated Schist With Garnets And A Uranium Heart asks. Their bodies are like […]
First ContactMotherhoodWhimsical
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld
2026
♪ audio
details
This episode features "You Are Invited to Our SPRING CELEBRATION" written by Thoraiya Dyer. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
First ContactMentorshipTender
Effie Seiberg
Lightspeed
2026
ShortStory
Science Fiction
917 words
details
"Once upon a time,” outputted the algorithm, “there was an AI. “It generated recipes and ingredient descriptions for an online grocery store. The website said that this recipe was not just a squash soup recipe, but it also was a good diet recipe / keto...
Social SatireArtificial IntelligenceSatirical
Megan Chee
Lightspeed
2026
ShortStory
Science Fiction
4,869 words
details
"On the necropolis space station of the Tau Andromeda planetary system, the keepers of the tomb attended to the dead and the dying. They cleansed, prepared, and prayed over the bodies. They performed the last rites, paying intricate attention to the...
DystopiaConsciousnessPhilosophical
Content warnings 1
death
Matthew Kressel
Lightspeed
2026
ShortStory
Science Fiction
4,299 words
details
Espie Droger dreams of war. What else can he dream of? There is nothing left. He has dreamed of world travel and expensive Scotch and lithe young women and sudden uncontrollable laughter. But his vitality has seeped from him like fluid from a dying tree....
DystopiaGuiltBleak
Content warnings 3
deathillness-and-pandemicwar
Corey J. White & Maddison Stoff
Lightspeed
2026
ShortStory
Science Fiction
5,783 words
details
"High above the Amazon Rainforest, Hynd circled, her massive wingspan only visible by the shadow she cast on the battlefield below. She felt the wind pass across her wings, whispering of torrential rain coming; not her concern, so far above the clouds, but...
CyberpunkTrans IdentityDefiant
Content warnings 3
body-horrorviolencewar
B. Pladek
Lightspeed
2026
details
He hates the birds. There are two, a breeding pair. Their eyes are red as devils’. On land they’re stupid, little feet pushed so far back on their bodies that they can’t escape by running. Yet they glide over the water, glossy mottled boats. Their chicks...
Tobias S. Buckell
Lightspeed
2026
details
The airship’s spotlights played off the vast rocky sides of the shaft that plunged deep into the Earth’s core through the lithosphere and eventually to our destination: the Center of the Earth! I yawned. We fell so slowly, the sides of the shaft several...
E. Catherine Tobler
Lightspeed
2026
details
There’s a wolf where my brother used to be, a beast absolutely hellbent on ruining my life. He plunges his broad snoot into the Wednesday night spaghetti, and neither Mom nor Dad cares when half the bite slides off his nose and onto the table, to later be...
Max Gladstone
Lightspeed
2026
details
Maria Haddid looked like she was screaming. I’ve heard singers say that’s all singing is deep down, but if you’ve seen enough screams you won’t often get them mixed up. The faithful gathered around her in the picture—the soccer mom, the children, the...
Ruth Joffre
Lightspeed
2026
details
Abuelita has been feeding me her memories. Yesterday, it was the time she trudged up the mountain carrying a basketful of offerings for Pachamama (flowers, incense, a llama sculpted out of animal fat and adorned with gold leaf) in hopes the Earth Mother...
Contemporary FantasyDiasporaTender
Content warnings 3
deathillness-and-pandemicsubstance-use
Oyedotun Damilola Muees
Lightspeed
2026
details
You know you are fucked when you see fragments of the broken radio on the floor. Your damaged ship lay nose caked into the sand, and coupled with your sprained ankle that hums an excruciating pain, and slight concussion on your head—your chances of...
Science FantasyFreedomSecond Person
Madison Brake
Lightspeed
2026
details
Madison Brake is a scribbler, freelance illustrator, and casual skeleton enthusiast. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Central Florida. Her fiction has appeared in the anthology All Worlds Wayfarer: Into the Dark, and her...
Beesan Odeh
Lightspeed
2026
details
There once lived a boy who paid for a fortune. Nassim wore carob hair and eyes severe like cardamom. He spent his days scouring the souk for unique trinkets he liked to collect or counting the uneven stones of Jerusalem’s cobbled streets as he passed...
Psychological HorrorColonialismUnreliable Narrator
Content warnings 3
sexual-violenceviolencewar
Adam-Troy Castro
Lightspeed
2026
details
The creatures who shared your art with us had to explain many things to make it minimally comprehensible. This by itself made sense. You are who and what you are, and we are who and what we are, and the physical differences between us are profound. We...
MetafictionalArt And CreationIntertextual
Content warnings 1
suicide
Marie Brennan
Lightspeed
2026
details
Look, it’s bad enough that my wife gets cat-called in the street and flashed on the train. There’s a lot of sickos out there who get their jollies by harassing women, and usually I try to shut them down without escalating it to a fight. But we moved a few...
Folk HorrorRevengeSatirical
Content warnings 1
sexual-violence
David Marino
Lightspeed
2026
details
We’ll skip ahead. Say eight minutes in, so I’m not wasting your time. You’re in your chair, strapped tight, taking around eight Gs. Like this, they wouldn’t even feel that bad, all the force coming from front to back, pressing you down into your seat. Your...
MetafictionalArt And CreationAmerican Southwest
Alex Irvine
Lightspeed
2026
details
When you look out from the garage doors of the corrugated steel warehouse where the Fort Springwell Community College soccer team made their heroic stand against the forces of darkness, the view at first seems . . . idyllic. A rocky shoreline, uncommon for...
Southern GothicGuiltHistorical USA
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
Benjamin Rosenbaum
Lightspeed
2026
details
“They farm starlight.” “Bullshit.” “Okay, they’re going to farm starlight. For now they’re running fusion rigs. But that’s not their long-term plan.” “No one in the sunforsaken Oort has a long-term plan. Other than slow suicide. You know what they told me,...
Space OperaDiasporaAmbiguous Ending
JT Petty
Lightspeed
2026
details
This was in August of 2019. A day-old newspaper reported civil wars in Somalia and Yemen. A gunman killed twenty-two people in an El Paso Walmart. Jeffrey Epstein had taken a plea deal, promising to name names, promising to name the name .
Andrew Dana Hudson
Lightspeed
2026
details
When we moved Dad to the care facility, his only complaint was the Wi-Fi. “Laggy,” he called it when he was having a good day. “Fucking piece of shit,” he called it the rest of the time. At first I was relieved. I’d been worried that he’d bristle at the...
Near FutureFatherhoodRestrained Prose
Content warnings 1
death-of-a-loved-one
Justin C. Key
Lightspeed
2026
details
Personality Disorder (Not Otherwise Specified) My patients called me Dr. Holloway. My friends called me Jason. I won’t tell you what my three ex-wives called me but I’m sure you can guess. I was a psychiatrist (and a damn good one seventy percent of the...
Psychological HorrorGuiltUnreliable Narrator
Content warnings 3
mental-illnesssubstance-usesuicide
Rhiannon Rasmussen
Lightspeed
2026
details
LOGIN CREATE ACCOUNT username: squirglover46 password: **************** for security reasons your password must contain minimum 1 number, 1 diacritic, 1 universal babelkey and at least 8 distinct phonemes. password cannot contain your username, date of...
M.R. Robinson
Lightspeed
2026
details
The first time you killed me, I cried like a baby. Stupid, stupid, to cry over something make-believe—stupid and ugly and pathetic, too, when already the only thing I wanted in the world was for you to find me pretty. I couldn’t help it. I hadn’t expected...
DystopiaCorporate PowerBleak
Content warnings 3
abusegoresexual-content
J.R. Dawson
Lightspeed
2026
details
And all the devils are here. “What’s that from?” Millie asks as she gets her coat. I stand at the back window, looking out. Usually, you can see the downtown skyline from this position. Today, it’s just the hellmouth. A long tube that looks like an...
Social SatireQueer IdentityRestrained
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
V.M. Ayala
Lightspeed
2026
details
The only sound Zero heard in their helmet was their own hyperventilating and the gentle pings from their pegasus. > waiting . . . > waiting . . . > communication received > confirmation of countdown initiation: 30 seconds
Science FantasyRevengeVisceral
Content warnings 3
deathgoreviolence
Melissa A Watkins
Lightspeed
2026
details
Everyone knows the Walls around the cities fell. What some people don’t remember is that the first one fell because of a laugh. It sounded like a ringing bell. Not like it came out of a baby at all. That was the first thing I told the scholar boy. He was a...
DystopiaCorporate PowerSlow Burn
Content warnings 2
racismviolence
Ashok K. Banker
Lightspeed
2026
details
New Providence sparkled like fool’s gold in the distance, all gleaming spires and whirring clockwork, nothing like the two-bit townships I usually rode through. My Halfie tensed beneath me, his wolf-hackles rising at the stink of machine oil and steam that...
BiopunkRacismAmerican Southwest
Content warnings 3
child-abuseracismviolence
Ashok K. Banker
Lightspeed
2026
details
The sun was sinking toward the horizon like a brass penny dropped in muddy water by the time I rode back into New Providence. My Halfie’s mechanical shoes struck sparks off the metal road plates, each impact sending little jolts of pain through my spine....
BiopunkRacismAmerican Southwest
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
Ada Hoffmann
Lightspeed
2026
details
1. I’m sorry, my lord. 2. I miss the sound of your voice, deep enough to shake the mountain fortress’s stones. I miss feeling it rumble in the soles of my feet. I miss the glow of your eyes while you paced the Chamber of Mysteries, lava burning in the...
Psychological HorrorGuiltBleak
Content warnings 3
abusemental-illnessviolence
Patrick Hurley
Lightspeed
2026
details
Jay found himself sitting across from a bearded old man in voluminous maroon robes. “Why are you here?” the robed man asked. “I was sentenced to VSIM rehabilitation by my judge-counselor.” “Yes,” replied the robed man. “You would choose the literal...
Yoon Ha Lee
Lightspeed
2026
details
The typewriter proved, at first glance, to be a poor investment for a daring aerial escape. Kallista had been drawn to the typewriter from the moment she viewed it languishing in a Museum of Curioddities, a pun that 3% of Pennon City’s citizens might...
Science FantasyArt And CreationWhimsical
Mari Ness
Lightspeed
2026
details
She assures them, again and again, that she acted under the best—the very best—of intentions. Oh, yes, she can be a bit dramatic at times—she won’t deny that. And she was hurt—very hurt—by that mess with the invitations. She won’t deny that, either. But...
Fairy Tale RetellingClass InequalityUnreliable Narrator
Content warnings 3
deathviolencewar
Scott Dalrymple
Lightspeed
2026
details
A year of living in the ground had not accustomed Moyer to the smell. He wondered how the French, who’d been at this business so much longer, could stand it. But if the officers who had trained his unit in the intricacies of trench life were any...
Historical FantasyConsciousnessHistorical USA
Content warnings 2
deathwar
Christopher Barzak
Lightspeed
2026
details
On a wooded hillside outside Pittsburgh, where the rivers braid together and the bridges flash yellow in the sun, there stands an old private school no one ever remembers enrolling in. Ivy grips its cracked bricks. Moss blurs the leaded windows. To almost...
Contemporary FantasyMentorshipTender
Content warnings 2
deathdeath-of-a-loved-one
Sam W. Pisciotta
Lightspeed
2026
details
The most surprising thing about my journey (well, the first most surprising thing) is that the dream I experienced while traveling lasted a thousand years, a single dream stretching all the way to the Iota star in the Gemini constellation. I dreamt of...
First ContactFatherhoodSecond Person
Content warnings 2
deathdeath-of-a-loved-one
dave ring
Lightspeed
2026
details
Draw a rectangular shape. Put a cylinder around it. Add a few small rectangles to any lines, such that they straddle them. At least one on the rectangle, and another on the cylinder. These are airlocks. The engine should look like a lighter stacked on top...
Psychological HorrorTrans IdentityBleak
Content warnings 2
body-horrordeath
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Lightspeed
2026
details
Jacey Watkins’s fingers were shaking as she stared at the five remaining questions on her Advanced Temporal Disruption Midterm. She was already exhausted from responding to ten “short” essay questions. Now she hit the “long” essay questions and as she read...
Near FutureMentorshipMidwest USA
Jennifer Hudak
Lightspeed
2026
details
In summer, when the ocean ebbs at dusk, when the sand turns to glass and it becomes impossible to discern the difference between reflection and sky, the Tide Folk emerge from their pools. You might think, if you clamber on the cliffs searching for those...
Contemporary FantasyFreedomRestrained Prose
P.A. Cornell
Lightspeed
2026
details
On the morning Gwen woke with the ability to manipulate time, it was already too late. She didn’t immediately realize she could stretch or compress time—that would come later. At first, all she knew was Dianne was gone, and she wasn’t coming back.
Contemporary FantasyFriendshipTender
Andrea Kriz
Lightspeed
2026
details
Dear Members of the Community, As we begin yet another fall semester in the throes of the rogue timestream unleashed on our campus, I cannot help but take a moment to marvel at just how vibrant our community has become. In addition to our current...
Social SatireCorporate PowerSatirical
Content warnings 2
slaveryviolence
Sara S. Messenger
Lightspeed
2026
details
I beg you, let me tell you about my daughter. My brilliant daughter will be one of the four people who survive their airplane crashing into a giant. Or, more accurately, a giant swiping their airplane out of the sky. Perhaps it meant to catch, or caress....
Magical RealismMotherhoodDread
Content warnings 1
death
Ocoxōchitl la Coyota
Strange Horizons
2026
ShortStory
Fantasy
5,514 words
details
"Before you hear what I’m about to tell you, I need you to understand two things. Firstly, I do not know how to swim. When you live in the place I do, it’s more or less a useless skill. I mean, the deepest water around is up to my shoulders at best, can...
Folk HorrorGuiltAmerican Southwest
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathgore
S. L. Coney
Nightmare
2026
details
I took the rats with me when Ilona kicked me out because I knew she loved them. She’d hold them, caressing their pink tails as she fed them pierogi, their large front teeth scraping against the pads of her fingers. Anton was her favorite, a big black rat...
Steve Toase
Nightmare
2026
details
The engines echo across the emptiness of the plain like a chorale, individual melodies weaving together to create a tune in the voiceless air. We hear them miles away, aeons in the distance, giving us time to prepare for their arrival. By the...
Claire Jia-Wen
Nightmare
2026
details
Your companions drag the coolie girl to her feet. Some two-cent girl with rags for clothes and hair hanging across her face in tangled strings. Her eyelids flutter but do not open, revealing only the white crescents of her sclera. Blood trickles from a...
Matthew Sorrento
Nightmare
2026
details
Matthew Sorrento’s latest books are Becoming Nosferatu: Stories Inspired by Silent German Horror (co-edited with Gary D. Rhodes) and David Fincher’s Zodiac (co-edited with David Ryan). He has contributed to Noir City Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books,...
Izzy Wasserstein
Nightmare
2026
details
The dryer groans to life, then begins thumping ominously. Maddie, already halfway out of her building’s laundry room, swears under her breath. The machine grinds and shakes. She slams the stop button, trying not to think about what the landlord might charge.
Marianne Kirby
Nightmare
2026
details
The videos show people kissing. They press their mouths together and open their lips. Their tongues move, wet and intrusive, less like they are tasting each other than like they want to lay eggs in the protected throats of their lovers.
Bruce McAllister
Nightmare
2026
details
When I worked at Disneyland in the summer of ’65, it was strange enough even without what I found in the dumpster. This was the sixties, and the Magic Kingdom, no matter how many long-haired hippies it denied admission to, couldn’t escape the decade.
Audrey Coble
Nightmare
2026
details
On September 28th, 2023, Art the Clown from the Terrifier movies accompanies me to poet Jane Hirschfield’s reading at the Anchorage Museum. Sitting next to me in a blue, padded fold-down theater seat, he wears his usual outfit.
R. Diego Martinez
Nightmare
2026
details
They fell just to splatter on the concrete, some of them small as ice cubes. It was a day without clouds and the man selling fruit from his stand on the corner was nearly concussed as they began to patter against the street with sound like the early...
Adam-Troy Castro
Nightmare
2026
details
My wife sometimes asked what had gone wrong with us. She had always been our bank of compassion, the caretaker of our marriage, the one who diagnosed what was needed to keep us on track, and made sure that it was provided. I evaded the question. How could...
Sarah Grey
Nightmare
2026
details
In Sunnyhaven, we were all equally unique—and we’d been that way for years, the morning the New Girl arrived. Now, any of us would’ve admitted it: Sunnyhaven wasn’t perfect. There were no public parks or pools, no families walking their dogs down ash-lined...
Sara S. Messenger
Nightmare
2026
details
My mom was sixteen when a band of boys took her out to the woods and bound her to a tree and tortured her to death, like in Jennifer’s Body , so you see her womb was kinda already out of commish by the time she got around to wanting to have me. A year ago,...
Pedro Iniguez
Nightmare
2026
details
They were on their way to El Paso when Yolanda asked Bernard to pull over. He choked the steering wheel until his fingers turned white. “Are you fucking serious?” “It’s okay,” she said shrinking into her seat, her hands rubbing together nervously between...
Angela Liu
Nightmare
2026
details
No one knows where the doll came from. With its blue glass eyes and ribboned hair, it looks like the ones you see at department stores and wonder who the hell buys them. “It’s gonna kill us in our sleep,” Kathy says, slapping Yuki’s hand away when he tries...
A.C. Wise
Nightmare
2026
details
You can know something is a trap and walk right into it anyway. There’s a vicious kind of glee in the snap of steel jaws springing closed, biting through skin and splintering bone. You can think aha, I knew it as you swallow the pain.
Everdeen Mason
Nightmare
2026
details
Nena came to consciousness little by little. She was ever present in the air of apartment 5K in the seventy-unit building in Brooklyn, like the wafting scent of sewer gas coming from old drain pipes: it’s easily ignored but still makes you a little sick....
Wendy Nikel
Nightmare
2026
details
The image flashes only briefly on the television screen, but that’s all it takes. In that millisecond before Libby squeezes her eyes shut, the spiders are already at work in her mind, weaving sticky new synaptic bridges. They twist and shape the unlikely...
Kurt Fawver
Nightmare
2026
details
The day before the blind missionaries first arrived in our village, we had been raided by one of Jurgen Blanco’s enforcement squads. Blanco’s people were all the same—gaunt, lupine-visaged mockeries of men and women with broken, half-formed grins that...
Marisca Pichette
Nightmare
2026
details
1. There is no better friend than the dermestid . I found them first in the woods, adorning the staring sockets of a coyote skull. So small I could have crushed them, they accomplished more than my child hands could—crawling, chewing, cleaning better than...
Avi Burton
Nightmare
2026
details
We pull in the first wrong thing at two a.m., under a choppy wind and reddening moon. It’s not discovered until two fifty-five a.m, after the great nets have been poured through the processing machines and seas of pelagic fish spill over the lip of the...
Aishatu Ado
Nightmare
2026
details
I have told this story before, and I will tell it again, and each telling grows more teeth. Sometimes thirty-four, thirty-six. Sometimes they multiply faster than your science allows, like every word you made me swallow coming back to bite you.
Gordon B. White
Nightmare
2026
details
The Idiot looms like a tumorous moon in the morning sky as Morris County Animal Control Officer Bailey Butler passes Stantonsville’s last operating gas station and turns off onto Franklin Road. For a merciful half-mile, a run of white ash and pignut...
Ash Vale
Nightmare
2026
details
my lover has peculiar tastes; her cravings are unnatural. she apologises for her appetite
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
edited by Ziv Wities Content note (click for details) Body horror; extended description of assisted suicide with dubious consent The attractive blonde technician responsible for your death smiles lovingly, and a smooth plastic pen slides into your gnarled...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
written by David Steffen This post is in response to a post made on the Amazing Stories‘s OpEd section on July 10, 2026, titled “MRM Titles Remain Non-Qualifying Markets On The Submission Grinder”. Most of the article seems reasonably accurate quoting of...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
written by David Steffen On May 30th, at the Locus Award ceremony in Berkeley, California, The Submission Grinder was the recipient of the Locus Special Award for Supporting the Speculative Writing Community. At the award, I gave a speech. This is a...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
edited by Amanda Helms He’s the last independent optician working in my zone. Two or three years ago, there was a second one, but she worked part time and by appointment only. Who could make appointments for the future even then? The last optician doesn’t...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
Hello! I am here with Erin Cairns (of InkFoundry) to announce a new Submission Grinder feature in collaboration between the two sites! (Erin here! Hi!) What is the Submission Grinder? The Submission Grinder is the sister site of Diabolical Plots and run by...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
Content note (click for details) Threatened harm to women and children; non-graphic mentions of death by drowning; poverty edited by Ziv Wities The monster came out perfectly. The head of an ass. A human left arm, delicate in comparison to the elephant’s...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
Hello! Submission Window announcements for you! General Submission Window This year for the general unthemed Diabolical Plots submission window we are opening from July 13-27, 2026. Again, no theme on this one, but of course you should read our submission...
David Steffen
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
edited by Amanda Helms The first god on our list wears the skull of a polar bear. The god is shrunk to the width of my little finger and almost transparent. Darkness seeps like squid ink from their eyes. “Sir,” I address the tiny god. “Can you give me an...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
Content note (click for details) oppression of marginalized groups, references to self-harm edited by David Steffen The antler people are exceedingly rare, but I’ve made sure my daughter knows about them. Not just as myth or stereotype, but as people like...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
Content note (click for details) Homophobia, transphobia edited by Hal Y. Zhang On October 19th, 2019, Stonewall Productions released Coming Out to Your Parents on PC and PlayStation 4. While it was the studio’s first major title, it took the gaming...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
edited by Ziv Wities Here is Jefferson, talking to himself again. It has happened increasingly of late. The pantograph in the study summarizes his monologue endlessly, and the shelves fill with more and more of less and less. In the great and...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
Content note (click for details) Depictions of illness and vomiting, religious themes edited by Amanda Helms Sara collapsed into the folding chair in the rhomboid of shade by the camper pod, stared out at Terga’s vast red plains and tried to remember the...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
Content note (click for details) Implied sexual assault of a teen, death of an animal edited by Hal Y. Zhang I toss the keys on the green Formica counter. I always aim for the same spot: that ugly, little brown ring—bubbled up and cracking—where Bill had...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
Content note (click for details) Drowning (non-graphic); brief use of homophobic language. edited by Ziv Wities The waves crested with foam as thick as fish eggs. Jim Walsh would have paid good money to stay indoors that evening with his feet up, tea in...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
Content note (click for details) This story contains references to mass atrocities. edited by Amanda Helms Dourglamis. The largest castle I’d seen in the flesh. Barreling towards me, it was also clearly the fastest. Great granite legs churned beneath its...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
edited by David Steffen The bay air felt strange on Domenico’s skin. He’d been here every evening for weeks, but this was the first time in a while — years, really — that he’d taken his body with him. He’d forgotten the kiss of breeze on flesh. The rental...
Diabolical Plots
Diabolical Plots
2026
details
Content note (click for details) Animal cruelty. edited by David Steffen Do not scream, my friend. Hold it back. Good—I know it hurts, trust me I do, but this is one of the most important things you will ever do in your life. Hold fast, now. Keep your...
Chris Kuriata
Strange Horizons
2026
ShortStory
2,523 words
details
Given Rebecca’s hunger for blood, our hopes being complimentary seemed unlikely, yet Auntie Regina’s blessing poured over us both from head to toe. Never before had I felt closer to my sister. The warmth penetrated deeper into our skin, past the second...
Aimee Ogden
Strange Horizons
2026
details
In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Aimee Ogden's 'Because I Held His Name Like a Key' read by Jenna Hanchey. Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: Spotify
Cara Masten DiGirolamo
Strange Horizons
2026
ShortStory
6,665 words
details
His app was called Promises Promises, and its download page was one of the last things in Ellie’s search history—behind two hundred chapters of Fruits Basket and six clickbait articles with titles all on the pattern of “17 Spectacular Strategies to...
Contemporary FantasyTrans IdentityDread
Content warnings 1
body-horror
Will McMahon
Strange Horizons
2026
ShortStory
2,592 words
details
When 2008 hit and I got laid off from Circuit City, a friend of mine managed to get me work at the local supermarket deli. It was a shit job, but I was beyond grateful at the time.
SlipstreamFriendshipAmbiguous Ending
RJ Taylor
Strange Horizons
2026
ShortStory
1,013 words
details
Despite the two hundred and fifty-two million years that separate us, I feel close to you tonight, dear trilobites.
Speculative FictionMotherhoodBleak
Content warnings 3
child-deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
Marisca Pichette
Strange Horizons
2026
ShortStory
5,088 words
details
What I’d taken for white beads are actually human teeth, mixed with white crystals I identified (via taste, to Mole’s horror) as salt. Mole looks at the mixture and shudders. I don’t know how to explain why I keep them. As much as I wish to deny the...
Secondary World FantasyFriendshipDread
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathgore
Morgan Wodring
Strange Horizons
2026
ShortStory
3,832 words
details
But I am no king, no man. It is a role I assumed in serving, with perfect order, those who scarcely saw fit to name me. Wild and shimmering, I hide from myself no longer. I was born twice from death. It is time to mend what was broken, even if they will not.
Fairy Tale RetellingGuiltPhilosophical
Content warnings 2
child-deathillness-and-pandemic
Katharine Tyndall
Strange Horizons
2026
ShortStory
3,140 words
details
I am not here to talk about how i got my arm, i am looking for hel p trying to fix it . Apologies for typos the f fingers lag a lot
BiopunkCorporate PowerSatirical
Content warnings 2
body-horrorviolence
Dhiyanah Hassan
Strange Horizons
2026
ShortStory
5,165 words
details
If only Serthe'P had been able to fit in, maybe she could have protected —. No. This thought was dangerous. Mnth’R had helped her understand that their isolation had more to do with the Raja’s exploitation of their cast’s fears than any shortcomings of...
Science FantasyDisabilityVisceral
Content warnings 3
deathgoreviolence
Elena Goh
Strange Horizons
2026
ShortStory
3,373 words
details
Maybe we overestimated ourselves, I thought, watching the ferries hum against the wine-dark sea. Even if we floated above it, we were still bound to the ocean, engulfed in all its weight and inescapable history. To believe otherwise was a kind of hubris....
DystopiaArt And CreationPost Apocalyptic
Louis Inglis Hall
Strange Horizons
2026
details
In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Louis Inglis Hall's 'Cold Comfort' read by Emmie Christie. Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: Spotify
Magical RealismFatherhoodElegiac
Content warnings 3
deathdeath-of-a-loved-onesuicide
J.R. Dawson
Uncanny
2025
ShortStory
Fantasy
4,622 words
details
"The form is one page long. No back. Just a front. It should be longer. There are six copies of the form, all different colors. Like I’m working my way through the rainbow to the end where I’ll finally find peace. Red. A parent or guardian. I meet my...
Speculative FictionTrans IdentityMidwest USA
Content warnings 3
abuseillness-and-pandemictransphobia
Thomas Ha
Clarkesworld
2025
ShortStory
Science Fiction
6,220 words
details
"My country may seem strange to you. There are times when it seems strange to me. I wake and work. I work then rest. And in between I say things, and I don’t say things. Because, as you’ll learn, in my country, what you say is important. But what you don’t...
DystopiaSurveillance StateRestrained
Content warnings 3
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence
Kelly Robson
Reactor
2025
ShortStory
Horror
5,040 words
details
A woman about to leave on an overseas business trip, calls home from the airport and discovers that “daddy” isn’t there and her six-year-old son is all alone in the dark…
Psychological HorrorMotherhoodDread
Content warnings 1
abuse
editor
GigaNotoSaurus
2026
ShortStory
214 words
details
Last year was an unusual year for GigaNotoSaurus. As such, we have a fewer number of stories award-eligible for 2025. Here are the ones we did publish along with the categories they fall under. We are using the Nebula Award categorization rules: short...
editor
GigaNotoSaurus
2026
ShortStory
6,263 words
details
Gerry and I didn’t have kids though we’d tried. I’d lost those babies in the fourth month, the fifth month, the fourth month again. By then I was so exhausted by hope and disappointment that I didn’t want to do it again. Gerry didn’t push me since we had...
Contemporary FantasyTrans IdentityTender
Content warnings 2
death-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
editor
GigaNotoSaurus
2026
ShortStory
5,528 words
details
Bring your sister and I will tell you the story of how the waters returned to Apicuya. No, bring all the children. This is important. Don’t splash. If you cannot hear the thrum of the skymill, you are being too loud. Sit in the shallow pool, otherwise your...
Secondary World FantasyColonialismMetafictional
Content warnings 2
child-deathdeath
editor
GigaNotoSaurus
2026
ShortStory
160 words
details
Hello friends, I’ve finally reached the point where I only have a few stories left in my personal slush pile…which means GigaNotoSaurus will be opening up to submissions again! Our plan is to reopen on Monday, June 15 at 9am CST (Central time) and stay...
editor
GigaNotoSaurus
2026
ShortStory
5,946 words
details
April It is in the floral heaviness of late-spring that his mother comes home and hands him the present. It fits well in the palms of his hands, neither too heavy nor too light. Perfectly square, perhaps—and later confirmed to be exactly—five inches wide...
Psychological HorrorTrans IdentityAmbiguous Ending
Content warnings 2
self-harmviolence
Samantha Mills
Uncanny
2025
ShortStory
Fantasy
2,048 words
details
"There is a future in which a hellgate opens off the coast of California. It happens at midnight on the first day of the new year, which is sooner than anyone expected. The waters rise and we are forced to abandon our home, but one of the neighbors has a...
SlipstreamPolitical ResistanceEarnest
Content warnings 4
deathillness-and-pandemicmental-illnessviolence
Angela Liu
Uncanny
2025
ShortStory
Fantasy
6,024 words
details
"You used to be in a band. Now you cut hair. The Institute hired you because you’re the daughter of the Floating City’s Founder’s fourth mistress, the one who always cooks up trouble when she gets too hungry. You don’t like the work, but you like all the...
DystopiaMotherhoodSecond Person
Content warnings 2
abusesexual-violence
Tia Tashiro
Clarkesworld
2025
ShortStory
Science Fiction
5,830 words
details
"When Mark told you he was marrying your clone, you said “congratulations” on autopilot, because that’s what you say when your friend tells you they’re getting married, and you had promised to stay friendly after the divorce. You studied his face, his...
Near FutureBodily AutonomyRestrained
Content warnings 1
child-abuse
translunartravelerslounge
Translunar Travelers Lounge
2026
ShortStory
418 words
details
On July 6th, 2026, the editorial team of Translunar Travelers Lounge learned that an author we had published in our fourteenth issue, which came out in February, had been accused of using generative AI and multiple pseudonyms to have her work published in...
translunartravelerslounge
Translunar Travelers Lounge
2026
ShortStory
3,226 words
details
They said afterward that the first fishermen who’d gone down to the beach that morning had found her, but when the people from the village hurried to see what the tide had carried in, no one claimed to be the person who’d discovered her. It was as if the...
translunartravelerslounge
Translunar Travelers Lounge
2026
ShortStory
1,396 words
details
Before you open your eyes, you know you're not home. The weighted blanket gave it away, wrapped around your body like a tortilla, turning you into a breakfast fucking burrito on that cold, cold early morning. The weather — that was the next sign. You know,...
translunartravelerslounge
Translunar Travelers Lounge
2026
ShortStory
1,438 words
details
When people ask me where I’ve been for the last year, I always enjoy seeing the look on their faces when I tell them. “Titan? That’s so far away. There’s nothing out there.” “Wait, did you say they didn’t even pay you? I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.” “Oh,...
translunartravelerslounge
Translunar Travelers Lounge
2026
ShortStory
4,054 words
details
I drifted over the top of Diver’s Cliff in my spacesuit and considered going for a swim. That’s what we called giving up on Sapphire Alpha: going for a swim.
translunartravelerslounge
Translunar Travelers Lounge
2026
ShortStory
1,039 words
details
It was just past midnight, and the only life present in the sorcerer’s sanctum was the cat who called it home. The real master of the domain, one might believe.
translunartravelerslounge
Translunar Travelers Lounge
2026
ShortStory
5,110 words
details
“Careful, mortal.” The voice was disembodied, high and sweet as a nightingale’s call, commandingly stern as a priest’s sermon. “You dare step into the abode of a van-yakshini?”
translunartravelerslounge
Translunar Travelers Lounge
2026
ShortStory
3,448 words
details
Oh my gods, calm down. Please—please—don’t hit me with that hurdy gurdy, you’ll damage it. I know how this looks but I’m not here to murder your family or burn your village—not my style. Just stay and listen a moment. I’ve got a tale for you, kid.
translunartravelerslounge
Translunar Travelers Lounge
2026
ShortStory
5,039 words
details
The railcar rumbled as it descended into the sewer levels of the fortress city, Aguiyi. The cramped railcar smelled strongly of bleach and grease. Hazard and Safety Commission workers filled the available seats, bodies pressed shoulder to shoulder, with...
translunartravelerslounge
Translunar Travelers Lounge
2026
ShortStory
4,199 words
details
Elara moved through the settlement with a careful quiet that was almost second nature, the worn soles of her boots tracing familiar paths across the rippling surface of the Great Wanderer’s back. Evening light pooled in low hollows, settling into a dusk...
translunartravelerslounge
Translunar Travelers Lounge
2026
ShortStory
2,694 words
details
This is the story of you, a man—simple, uncomplicated, perhaps a little stubborn, getting on in years, but still vital. And some of the stupid fucking choices you've made.
M.M. Olivas
Uncanny
2025
ShortStory
Science Fiction
6,858 words
details
"Notebooks, Conchas, y Un Café con Leche Those are the items that make up your world the day the girl with the side buzz and brown bomber jacket says to you, in the back of a crowded cafetería, “Explícame pues—¿Qué sabes acerca del concepto de la...
Space OperaColonialismSecond Person
Content warnings 3
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence
Isabel J. Kim
Clarkesworld
2025
ShortStory
Science Fiction
3,180 words
details
"Your mom loves you,” Cassie’s father says. They’re in an elevator. They only ever talk about Cassie’s mom in elevators, or when they go hiking and Cassie’s father leaves his watch at home. Cassie doesn’t know if her mom actually doesn’t listen, then, or...
Near FutureAI PersonhoodUnreliable Narrator
Content warnings 4
abusesexual-violencesubstance-usesuicide
khōréō
2026
♪ audio
details
When the real world becomes unbearable, what would you sacrifice for the chance to live in a dream? Content warnings: Euthanasia, death and dying, implied eugenics Copyright © 2026 khōréō magazine. Story by Megan Chee, edited by Danai Christopoulou. Audio...
khōréō
2026
♪ audio
details
When her mother is absorbed into the local flesh monolith, Kayla struggles with her identity and looks for a way in. Content warnings: Violence, nudity, racism/discrimination, body horror Copyright © 2026 khōréō magazine. Story by Mary Miseon Wu, edited by...
Magical RealismRacismDread
Content warnings 3
body-horrorracismviolence
khōréō
2026
♪ audio
details
Able Seaman Pol has a lot of problems — getting the cats fed, watered, and reporting for duty, keeping tree roots from destroying the wiring, the monkeys out of the pantry and the mines from exploding on deck. Talking octopuses, though? That was new....
Science FantasyFriendshipTender
Content warnings 2
deathwar
khōréō
2026
♪ audio
details
A woman slowly smokes herself to death to protest an atrocity. When her cigarette supply runs low, a local kid grappling with both the protest and the atrocity brings her a cigar. Content warnings: Self-harm (smoking), references to genocide, a dead body,...
Magical RealismColonialismBleak
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathwar
khōréō
2026
♪ audio
details
A man sets out on a voyage accompanied by his fiancée's right arm. Content warnings: Violence (graphic), threat of bodily harm, covert misogyny Copyright © 2026 khōréō magazine. Story by Natalia Theodoridou, edited by Isabella Kestermann. Audio edition...
Psychological HorrorGuiltUnreliable Narrator
Content warnings 2
body-horrormisogyny
khōréō
2026
♪ audio
details
Deerbreed blogger Kirill wants to tell the story of worldwide human-animal transformations, but the Flock is calling to him. Content warnings: Classism, animal cruelty, body horror This piece is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of the novel Skin and Hide....
khōréō
2026
♪ audio
details
A woman returns to burn the last of her mother's body, in the wake of her mother's death — an effort to escape a dark entity that has sealed itself to the bones of three generations of Thai women. Content warnings: Racism, ageism, self-harm, blood,...
Folk HorrorRacismVisceral
Content warnings 3
body-horrorracismself-harm
khōréō
2026
♪ audio
details
A young scribe joins a voyage to hunt sea creatures in waters that once belonged to the feared Northerners, but the truth behind the Northern myths is more complex than they first believed. Content warnings: Animal cruelty and death, use of the r-word...
Science FantasyColonialismBleak
Content warnings 3
animal-harmgoreviolence
khōréō
2026
♪ audio
details
In a post-apocalyptic world, a mother accidentally becomes a leader and a god. Content warnings: Death of a spouse, natural disasters, references to pre-disaster ableism Copyright © 2026 khōréō magazine. Story by K. Lynn Harrison, edited by Danai...
DystopiaMotherhoodBleak
Content warnings 2
deathdeath-of-a-loved-one
Carrie Vaughn
Asimov's
2025
ShortStory
Science Fiction
5,898 words
details
"At five A.M., Joy got a call from the truck stop off the freeway east of the city. Wasn’t the first time. “Did it get dumped? Did it get loose from a truck?” Joy asked. “I don’t know,” the night manager answered. “But it’s digging around in the garbage...
Mary Robinette Kowal
Uncanny
2025
ShortStory
Fantasy
1,729 words
details
"Hey cuz! It’s been too long. Love to come out and see your digs. The message hung in the air, glimmering in her Heads Up Display overlaid across the moss garden she was tending. The chill that swept over Euryale made the hair on her arms stand on end and...
Science FantasyRevengeRestrained Prose
Content warnings 2
deathsexual-violence
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : P. H. Low Narrator : Jo Moran Host : Eleanor R. Wood Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Previously published in Fantasy Magazine, March 2023 Rated PG-13 The Will of the God of Music by P. H. Low You hear the door open as if in dreaming. Back when you...
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Emily Munro Narrator : Sandra Espinoza Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Wilson Fowlie PodCastle 952: Putti Call is a PodCastle original. Rated R Putti Call By Emily Munro Hopefully you’ve never tried to stuff a struggling toddler into a dog...
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : C. J. Lavigne Narrator : Nicola Chapman Host : Tarver Nova Audio Producer : Eric Valdes PodCastle 951: TALES FROM THE VAULTS: ‘Til Death is a PodCastle original. Content note for grief Rated PG-13 ‘Til Death by C. J. Lavigne My dear Clarinda, They...
Historical FantasyFriendshipHistorical Europe
Content warnings 3
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Authors : Gregory Marlow, RJ Aurand and Jeanna Cammarano Narrators : Karen Menzel (née Bovenmyer), Rosie Sentman and Dani Daly Host : Wilson Fowlie Audio Producer : Wilson Fowlie PodCastle 950: FLASH FICTION EXTRAVAGANZA: Reapings is a PodCastle original....
Folk HorrorMotherhoodMidwest USA
Content warnings 3
child-deathdeathsuicide
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Tony Dunnell Narrator : Devin Martin Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes PodCastle 949: The Troll Road is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13 The Troll Road by Tony Dunnell Sir Lederick dismounted in the Humble Woods on the southern flank...
Fairy Tale RetellingFriendshipEarnest
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Authors : Bree Wernicke and AnaMaria Curtis Narrators : Kat Kourbeti and C. L. Clark Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Wilson Fowlie PodCastle 948: DOUBLE EPISODE: How I Did Not Make Friends With Teniel eu Letxie and The Gift of Her Light is a PodCastle...
Secondary World FantasyDiasporaTender
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : J. L. Akagi Narrator : Jo Moran Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes PodCastle 947: Why a Spider Needs a Parachute is a PodCastle original. Content notes for domestic violence and spiders. Big — friendly! — spiders Rated R Why a Spider...
Fairy Tale RetellingTrans IdentityNew York City
Content warnings 3
abusetransphobiaviolence
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Audris Candra Narrator : Zilla Paramita Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums PodCastle 925: The Immortal Rabbit is a PodCastle original. Content notes for homophobia, violence, the death of a spouse, and second-person...
Fairy Tale RetellingTrans IdentityHistorical China
Content warnings 3
death-of-a-loved-onehomophobiaviolence
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Tony Pi Narrator : S. Qiouyi Lu Host : Graeme Dunlop Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Previously ran as episode 423 and first published in Fantasy Magazine Rated PG-13 The Gold Silkworm by Tony Pi When I first became keeper of the Spirit of Grass, she...
Historical FantasyRevengeHistorical China
Content warnings 1
violence
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Jay Kang Romanus Narrator : John Chu Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes PodCastle 927: The One Who Carries Abinakhee Has Died is a PodCastle original. Content note for drowning Rated PG The One Who Carries Abinakhee Has Died by Jay...
Social SFArt And CreationPost Apocalyptic
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Authors : Rachel Gutin, Christina Trujillo and Toshiya Kamei Narrators : Jess Lewis, Sandra Espinoza and Amal El-Mohtar “Peppermint Tea” previously published by Baffling Magazine “Ghosts” previously published in Gingerbread House Literary Magazine. This...
Contemporary FantasyDiasporaTender
Content warnings 1
death-of-a-loved-one
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : A. T. Greenblatt Narrator : Tatiana Grey Host : Devin Martin Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Previously ran as episode 558 and first published by Beneath Ceaseless Skies Rated PG A Place to Grow By A. T. Greenblatt Lillian was wearing one of her...
Science FantasyFound FamilyHopeful
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Natalie Zutter Narrator : Valerie Valdes Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes PodCastle 930: Parsley Girl, Parsley Girl, Let Down Your Trichobezoar is a PodCastle original. content notes for pregnancy loss, post-natal depression, and...
Fairy Tale RetellingMotherhoodHistorical Europe
Content warnings 3
body-horrormental-illnesspregnancy-loss
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Kelsey Hutton Narrator : Christiana Ellis Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Originally published in Zooscape, Issue 23, April 15, 2025 Rated PG Birds of Fortune by Kelsey Hutton Water droplets still glistened on each...
Secondary World FantasyMotherhoodWhimsical
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Anna Kahn Narrator : Nicola Chapman Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes PodCastle 932: Carina is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13 Carina by Anna Kahn “I’ve had a baby. Still feels strange that you don’t know that — I’ve been looking...
SlipstreamFriendshipHistorical Europe
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Xander M. Odell Narrator : Sean D. Sorrentino Host : Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer : Eric Valdes PodCastle 933: TALES FROM THE VAULTS – Ink is a PodCastle original. Rated R Ink by Xander M. Odell A woman stood at the tattoo parlor’s door. Small,...
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : C. T. Muchemwa Narrator : Munashe R. Goromonzi Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Wilson Fowlie Previously published by FIYAH 33 (February 2025) Content note for gore Rated PG-13 The Inheritance by C. T. Muchemwa Taona did not shed a single tear...
Folk HorrorFatherhoodDread
Content warnings 3
deathgoreviolence
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Beth Goder Narrator : Tatiana Grey Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published in Strange Horizons, February 2025 Content note: spiders Rated PG Arachnomorphosis by Beth Goder At night, Olivia becomes a...
Contemporary FantasyFriendshipTender
Content warnings 1
mental-illness
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Mar Vincent Narrator : Rosie Sentman Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Wilson Fowlie PodCastle 936: Ananconfabulation is a PodCastle original. Rated G Ananconfabulation by Mar Vincent Our homes are buried, so we built tunnels. From Tomas’ window...
DystopiaFound FamilyPost Apocalyptic
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Victor Forna Narrators : Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Munashe R. Goromonzi, Wanini Kimemiah, Tahnia Barrie, Soila Kenya and Opie Ogundiran Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Previously published by Apex Magazine Rated PG Kɛrozin Lamp Kurfi...
MetafictionalArt And CreationWest Africa
Content warnings 1
violence
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Anne Ivy Narrator : Elizabeth Green Host : Alicia Caporaso Audio Producer : Wilson Fowlie Previously ran as episode 292 and first published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Read the full text here! Rated R Read the full text here! The post PodCastle...
Science FantasyRevengeSlow Burn
Content warnings 3
goresexual-contentviolence
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Amanda Helms Narrator : Stephanie Malia Morris Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes PodCastle 939: The Worth of Ashes is a PodCastle original. Content notes for death of family members to illness (off-page), grief Rated PG THE WORTH OF...
Secondary World FantasyMotherhoodTender
Content warnings 2
death-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : André Geleynse Narrator : Rae Lundberg Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Previously published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #433 Content note for suicide attempts Rated R Last Train from Deadwall PART ONE of Two by André Geleynse...
Science FantasyClass InequalityBleak
Content warnings 3
body-horrorsuicidewar
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : André Geleynse Narrator : Rae Lundberg Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Previously published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #433 Content note for suicide attempts Rated R Last Train from Deadwall Part TWO of Two by André Geleynse...
Science FantasyCorporate PowerBleak
Content warnings 3
body-horrorsuicidewar
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : C. L. Clark Narrator : Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali Host : Wanini Kimemiah Audio Producer : Wilson Fowlie Previously ran as episode 519 as a PodCastle Original Rated PG-13 Burning Season By C. L. Clark It was burning season in Rashid. Again. Even in the...
Historical FantasyColonialismBleak
Content warnings 3
deathviolencewar
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : T. R. Steele Narrator : Jordan Kurella Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes PodCastle 943: At Death’s Door is a PodCastle original. content notes for suicidal ideation and second-person narration Rated PG-13 At Death’s Door by T. R....
Contemporary FantasyTrans IdentityMetafictional
Content warnings 2
mental-illnesssuicide
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Stephanie Burgis Narrator : Tina Connolly Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Wilson Fowlie Previously published in The Sunday Morning Transport March 2, 2025 Rated G Mail-Order Magic by Stephanie Burgis Shopping online during a bout of brain fog...
Contemporary FantasyQueer IdentityMidwest USA
Content warnings 1
illness-and-pandemic
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Merc Fenn Wolfmoor Narrator : Sandra Espinoza Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Previously published in Apex Magazine (2021) Rated PG-13 Gray Skies, Red Wings, Blue Lips, Black Hearts by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor A girl has lost her soul...
Secondary World FantasyGuiltBleak
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
PodCastle
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Charlotte Ashley Narrator : Tatiana Grey Host : Ziv Wities Audio Producer : Wilson Fowlie Previously ran as episode 517 and first published in Fantasy & Science Fiction. Rated PG-13 A Fine Balance By Charlotte Ashley My mistress, Shoanna Yildirim,...
Social SatireClass InequalityDefiant
Content warnings 3
deathgoreviolence
Remy Nakamura
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Remy Nakamura Narrator : Roberto Suarez Hosts : Valerie Valdes and Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Impossibility Crow was originally published as Escape Pod episode 557 on January 5, 2017. Includes violence and swears. Impossibility...
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Meridel Newton Narrator : Alexandra Rose Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 1054: Takahata-fudo is an Escape Pod original. Takahata-fudo by Meridel Newton If you walk far enough along the old Keio line rail tracks to...
Ethan Ham
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Ethan Ham Narrator : Elie Hirschman Host : Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Escape Pod 1053: The Game of Possibilities is an Escape Pod original. Ethan Ham https://www.ethanham.com/index.html?second-edition Elie Hirschman...
First ContactFatherhoodEarnest
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Kameron Hurley Narrator : Ibba Armancas Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “When We Fall” was originally published on Kameron Hurley’s Patreon, and also featured in Escape Pod 611 in January 2018. Intense, life-threatening...
Space OperaAI PersonhoodDeep Space
Jo Miles
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Jo Miles Narrator : Julia Rios Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Escape Pod 1051: You Have Arrived at Your Destination is an Escape Pod original. You Have Arrived at Your Destination By Jo Miles It starts with an accident. A dreary...
Magical RealismCorporate PowerWhimsical
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Sylvie Althoff Narrator : Jess Lewis Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 1050: Freebooter is an Escape Pod original. Moderate use of harsh language. Freebooter by Sylvie Althoff The pirate bot was easy to miss....
CyberpunkTrans IdentityDefiant
Content warnings 1
violence
Kiran Kaur Saini
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Kiran Kaur Saini Narrator : Kaushik Narasimhan Host : Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Amrit originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2023. Kiran Kaur Saini https://kirankaursaini.com/ Kaushik...
AI FictionFatherhoodRestrained Prose
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Aimee Ogden Narrator : Isaac Harwood Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “What Any Dead Thing Wants” originally appeared in Psychopomp (February 2024) Copious helpings of harsh language descriptors found here. What Any Dead Thing...
Science FantasyCorporate PowerDarkly Comic
Content warnings 1
violence
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Aimee Ogden Narrator : Isaac Harwood Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Copious helpings of harsh language descriptors found here. Don’t miss Part 1: Escape Pod 1026: What Any Dead Thing Wants (Part 1 of 3) What Any Dead Thing...
Science FantasyCorporate PowerSlow Burn
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathgore
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Aimee Ogden Narrator : Isaac Harwood Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Copious helpings of harsh language descriptors found here. Don’t miss Parts 1 and 2: Escape Pod 1026: What Any Dead Thing Wants (Part 1 of 3), Escape Pod...
Science FantasyColonialismDefiant
Content warnings 1
death
Myna Chang
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Myna Chang Narrator : Amanda Ching Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Graduated Justice originally appeared in Translunar Travelers Lounge, February 2025. Graduated Justice: An Amelia Li Mystery By Myna Chang I was leaning against...
CyberpunkCorporate PowerSardonic
Content warnings 1
death
Rodrigo Culagovski
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Rodrigo Culagovski Narrator : Julia Rios Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Escape Pod 1030: The Smell of the Planet I Was Born On is an Escape Pod original. The Smell of the Planet I Was Born On By Rodrigo Culagovski There are two...
Social SatireCorporate PowerSardonic
Content warnings 2
deathwar
Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko Narrators : David D. Levine and S.B. Divya Hosts : Alasdair Stuart and Tina Connolly Audio Producers : Summer Brooks and Adam Pracht Escape Pod 1031: The Anatomy of Miracles (Flashback Friday) is an Escape Pod original....
First ContactGuiltFragmented
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
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Author : Victoria N. Shi Narrator : Tatiana Grey Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “milt” first apeared in Fission #5 by the British Science Fiction Association (June 2025) Contains Injury/body horror, climate grief, implied sexual...
BiopunkRevengePost Apocalyptic
Content warnings 3
body-horrorsexual-contentviolence
G. M. Paniccia
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : G. M. Paniccia Narrator : Christiana Ellis Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Escape Pod 1033: The Automatic Grocery Store is an Escape Pod original. The Automatic Grocery Store By G. M. Paniccia It took thirty-six days, four...
Social SatireArtificial IntelligenceRestrained Prose
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Jacob Seinemeier Narrator : Elie Hirschman Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 1034: “An Honour to be Nominated…” is an Escape Pod original. Mild profanity “An Honour to be Nominated…” by Jacob Seinemeier TRANSGALACTIC...
Social SatireArt And CreationSatirical
Kelly Robson
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Kelly Robson Narrator : Ibba Armancas Host : Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer : Adam Pracht We Who Live in the Heart originally appeared in Clarkesworld, May 1, 2017. We Who Live in the Heart By Kelly Robson Ricci slipped in and out of consciousness...
BiopunkClass InequalityRestrained Prose
Kelly Robson
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Kelly Robson Narrator : Ibba Armancas Host : Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer : Adam Pracht We Who Live in the Heart originally appeared in Clarkesworld, May 1, 2017. We Who Live in the Heart (Part 2 of 3) By Kelly Robson (…Continued from Part 2)...
BiopunkClass InequalityIntrospective
Kelly Robson
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Kelly Robson Narrator : Ibba Armancas Host : Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer : Adam Pracht We Who Live in the Heart originally appeared in Clarkesworld, May 1, 2017. Quantum Superposition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_superposition...
BiopunkGuiltVisceral
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : ace tilton ratcliff Narrator : Jordan Kurella Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 1038: Meet the Mets is an Escape Pod original. Contains brief moments of violence and bigotry towards a transgender character Sponsored by...
First ContactTrans IdentityNew York City
Content warnings 2
transphobiaviolence
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Tim Pratt Narrator : Isabel J. Kim Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “The Many Rebirths of Karina Morita” first appeared in 2025 on Tim’s Patreon Sponsored by Mixtape Stories The Many Rebirths of Karina Morita by Tim Pratt My...
Science FantasyClass InequalitySatirical
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : S. C. Mills Narrator : Hugo Jackson Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 1040: Gods and Spirits Our Witnesses is an Escape Pod original. Loss of an infant Sponsored by Mixtape Stories Gods and Spirits Our Witnesses by S....
Science FantasyClass InequalitySecond Person
Content warnings 1
child-death
Sharon Joss
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Sharon Joss Narrator : Torin Andrus Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Love in the Time of Dust and Venom originally appeared in 2013 Fiction River – Time Travelers. Includes a form of assisted suicide. Sponsored by Mixtape Stories...
Social SFDiasporaRestrained Prose
Content warnings 2
death-of-a-loved-onesuicide
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Premee Mohamed Narrator : Dani Daly Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “More Tomorrow” was first published in Automata Review, March 2018, and previously published as Escape Pod 713, in January 2020. A few grade-A curses. More...
DystopiaGuiltPost Apocalyptic
Content warnings 2
body-horrorviolence
Sierra Bibi
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Sierra Bibi Narrator : Laurice White Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Escape Pod 1043: The Smokejumpers is an Escape Pod original. Includes wildfires and peril. The Smokejumpers By Sierra Bibi When Fern jumps from the plane into...
Near FutureSacrificeSlow Burn
Content warnings 1
death-of-a-loved-one
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : S. L. Myers Narrator : Dani Daly Host : Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 1044: Rhona’s Tavern and Spacetime Portal is an Escape Pod original. Occasional use of harsh language Escape Pod is proud to say that we have...
Science FantasyClass InequalitySardonic
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
Frank Baird Hughes
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Frank Baird Hughes Narrator : Jairus Durnett Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Escape Pod 1045: The Graduates of Formost 891c is an Escape Pod original. Contains examples of animal surgical modification. The Graduates of Formost...
Social SatireMentorshipWhimsical
Content warnings 2
animal-harmdeath
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : James Dick Narrator : Abra Staffin-Wiebe Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “EDIE” was previously published in Analog Science Fiction & Fact (January/February 2023) EDIE (Part 1) by James Dick High above Europa, a lonely traveller...
First ContactArtificial IntelligencePhilosophical
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : James Dick Narrator : Abra Staffin-Wiebe Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “EDIE” was first published in Analog Science Fiction & Fact (January/February 2023) Don’t miss Part 1: Escape Pod 1046: EDIE (Part 1 of 2) EDIE (Part 2)...
First ContactArtificial IntelligencePhilosophical
Rati Mehrotra
Escape Pod
2026
♪ audio
details
Author : Rati Mehrotra Narrator : Joe Moran Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Adam Pracht The Library of the Apocalypse was first published in Clarkesworld, May 2025, Issue 224. Includes death and cursing. The Library of the Apocalypse By Rati Mehrotra...
Science FantasyFound FamilyBleak
Content warnings 3
deathviolencewar
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
“The Song of the Living” was originally published in 2025 in an anthology Tonja edited titled, “If Fists Could Speak: A Black Speculative Fiction Anthology” CW: harm to animals Please see the host commentary below for notes from the author. When the trees...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
PseudoPod 1038: Red Ripper is a PseudoPod original. C/W reference to alcohol and drug abuse Listen, I could still stretch half you pups if I felt like it. Sit down and learn something about the business. Did I ever tell you about the Red Ripper? I got a...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
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“Playing Tricks” was first published in It Was All A Dream: An Anthology Of Bad Horror Tropes Done Right, edited by Brandon Applegate, and later in Angela Sylvaine’s collection, The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls C/W: mental illness, gaslighting, child...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
PseudoPod 1036: A Greater Dark is a PseudoPod original. C/W: Xenophobia, gun violence, harm to animals Gray sheets of rain as the door bangs in, Willard and his men materializing in that opaque haze and shaking the wet from their long coats. They assess...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
“Interstate Mohinis” was originally published in Diabolical Plots (June 2023) C/W: sexual violence, cannibalism, reference to drug abuse In the way of Death runs the Vaitarani river. We are flayed open to its woe. We are always aware of its currents in...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
PseudoPod 1034: Only In The Dark is a PseudoPod original. The crackling sound of static fills the room as the screen lights up. We see a simple landscape with some rocks and trees. The outline of a bird appears, its wings flapping softly. The bird takes...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
“Devil Is Fine” was first published in Cosmic Horror Monthly, in January 2025 C/W: strong body horror, gun violence, animal harm Author notes: “I was still pretty drunk on the experience of playing Red Dead Redemption 2 when I wrote this story and wanted...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
“A Rose For Emily” was first published in The Forum, April 30, 1930 C/W for racial slurs [n-word], mental illness, misogyny, homophobia and Spoiler poisoning [collapse] I When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
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“Tailpiece” first appeared in More Ruthless Rhymes, 1930, and “The Second Awakening of a Magician” first appeared in The London Mercury, November 1930 C/W: fire My son Augustus, in the street, one day, Was feeling quite exceptionally merry. A stranger...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
“The Book” was first published in 1930 in The London Mercury and later collected in The Weird (Tor Books, 2012) CW: harm to child/animal, reference to suicide On a foggy night in November, Mr. Corbett, having guessed the murderer by the third chapter of...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
“The End Of The Story” was originally published in Weird Tales, vol. 15, no. 5 (May 1930). Link: Weird Tales original text Original layout from Weird Tales The Emperor of Dreams documentary Best collection of Smith’s poetry The following narrative was...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
‘Faith, Hope and Charity’ was first published in Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan, April 1930. C/W strong violence, racist language Here’s a link to the Archive.org of the original text:...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
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PseudoPod 1015: What Haunts the Newbuild? is a PseudoPod original. When the Night Comes Out If the dead who loved her haunt an old home’s bones, what haunts the newbuild? What makes her creak and moan? Every house is a violence—and a weathered house knows...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
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“Left by the Tide” first appeared in Weird Tales, March 1929 “Sirens Chasing Sirens” first appeared in The Gateway Review back in 2018 “Dread and Faith” was originally published in February 2025 in Blood Lust from Black Hare Press Far from the frenzy Of...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
PseudoPod 1017: In the Hands of a Different God is a PseudoPod original. C/W for body horror, child abuse/neglect, implied homophobia Jim Kristofic novels Coyote Stranger The Sundown Killers Why Miitaries Must Destroy Cities To Save Them (Add your own air...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
‘The Polyamorous Heart of Death’ first appeared in the anthology And One Day We Will Die: Strange Stories Inspired by the Music of Neutral Milk Hotel CW: 2nd person PoV, transphobia, implied necrophilia The Neutral Milk Hotel The music track that inspired...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
‘Superstition’ was first published in the anthology 120 Murders: Dark Fiction Inspired by the Alternative Era Remote Viewing Clerks 1 Donnie Darko The Destructors Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand by Primitive Radio Gods The...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
PseudoPod 1020: Walking Tour of Scarborough in Nuclear Winter is a PseudoPod original. Rogue One final scene 30 Days Of Night trailer From the author: “All of the landmarks in this story are real places in Scarborough, where my mother grew up and where I...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
‘Bad Doors’ was originally published in Uncanny Magazine in 2023, and was a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. C/W: pandemic, family and animal disappearance/death The country was at just over ten thousand deaths the morning that the door...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
‘All the Good You Did Not Do’ originally appeared in Apex magazine in November of 2023 C/W: reference to PTSD, depression When the doors slide open, the screams escape. Saul is summoned from his security podium by the researchers’ howls, and he slides in...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
PseudoPod 1023: Grandifolia is a PseudoPod original. C/W: Emotional control, intimate partner abuse The first time I do everything the way I’m supposed to. I wait for the new moon and walk into the woods at midnight. I carry a jar of pig’s blood and wear a...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
“Witchcraft” was first printed in Ornaments in Jade, 1924 “How I Turned My Little Brother Human” was first published in Shaky Pictures of Vanished Faces, edited by Eric Raglin, in September 2025 “Visit Seahaven” was first published in Factor Four magazine...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
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PseudoPod 1025: Impostor Syndrome is a PseudoPod original. The Mighty Boosh-Back to the Crunch Looking back, the first red flag was during the job interview, when Chad said their target demographic was males, ages thirteen to seventeen. “That’s pretty...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
PseudoPod 1026: Thoughts and Prayers is a PseudoPod original. C/W: Gun violence, school shooting https://www.npr.org/2025/09/08/nx-s1-5317647/school-shooting-industry https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/school-shootings-database/...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
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PseudoPod 1027: This Thing of Darkness is a PseudoPod original. C/W: grief, approaching death Nissa Harlow: nissaharlow.com Tina Connolly: tinaconnolly.com ‘Don’t Put a Rug on a Polished Floor’ public information film Scarred for Life on Bluesky:...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
“All The Eyes That See” was originally published in Cosmic Horror Monthly issue #42 (ed. Charles Tyra, December 2023); it also won the 2023 Australian Shadows Award for Short Fiction. C/W: child abuse, domestic abuse From the author: “This story is me once...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
PseudoPod 1029: Feeding the Choke-Tree is a PseudoPod original. Okja “Straws,” I said. “Why straws?” “Because they’re cute, obviously,” said Foreman. “Don’t you think?” I squinted at them. Nearly a dozen were inching around his feet. As I watched, one...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
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PseudoPod 1030: Keeping Up With the Conan Doyles is a PseudoPod original. C/W: disordered eating, fat-shaming May 22nd is Conan Doyle’s birthday and Sherlock Holmes Day Jess Whitecroft’s Patreon Cautionary Tales: Photographing Fairies From the Journals of...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
“Her Skin” first appeared in the anthology, They Walk Among Us: A Collection of Utah Horror (42 Books, April 2020). C/W: intimate partner abuse/control Notes contain possible spoilers: see Host Commentary below He found her in Hells Canyon. After that, my...
Pseudopod
2026
♪ audio
details
PseudoPod 1032: Flash on the Borderlands LXXVIII (78): Terraeque urbesque recedant is a PseudoPod original. C/W: racism, xenophobia, road death From the author: “Othertongue” began as a pastiche of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space,” provoked by...
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Sheridan feels his life force ebbing away, and invites some old friends for a final gathering... The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Sleeping in Light” appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Let this be your reminder to watch the other Dark Matter (the one that was on Syfy) The post <i>Dark Matter</i> Ventures Into Uncharted Dimensions in Season 2 Trailer appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
He steals data. In cyberspace The post First Trailer For Apple TV’s <i>Neuromancer</i> Looks Really, Really Promising appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Familiar images seemingly hide a re-imagined story The post High School Remains Hell in the Teaser for Mike Flanagan’s <i>Carrie</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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It's the grumpy one and the even grumpier one! The post <i>Lanterns</i> Trailer Reveals Manhunters, Sinestro, and a Much Bigger DC Story Than Expected appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Well... that ended badly. But on the bright side: mystery eggs! The post No Glory, No Songs, Only Butchery: <i>House of the Dragon</i>, Season 3 Episode 6 appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Real-world solutions might be expensive or politically unpopular, so why not take a page from SF? The post Solving Population Decline Through Science Fiction appeared first on Reactor .
Christina Orlando
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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The Unicorn Hunters is a driving, atmospheric fantasy that will entice you and then not let go. The post Sovereign of a Lost Land: Katherine Arden’s <i>The Unicorn Hunters</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Emmet Asher-Perrin
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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We keep equating cowboy archetypes with machismo, when the image an "equestrian" evokes these days looks far different... The post <i>Star Trek</i>’s Christopher Pike Is a Horse Girl appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Let's talk about the latest celebrity animal sensation The post The Summer of Jimothy appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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She is really not the answer!! But you'll find that out soon enough. I hope The post <i>The Vampire Lestat</i> Becomes <i>The Queen of the Damned</i> for Season 4 appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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The series' seemingly villainous take on Korra certainly feels like a red herring The post <i>Avatar: Seven Havens</i> Trailer Leaves Us Asking, “What Happened to Korra?” appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Hunter Schafer and Michelle Yeoh star in a bold new Blade Runner story The post <i>Blade Runner 2099</i> Trailer Finally Reveals the Show’s Plot appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Princess Donut has been cast before Carl himself The post Peacock’s <i>Dungeon Crawler Carl</i> Series Has Found Its Princess Donut appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Sauron-maxxing (sorry) The post <i>The Rings of Power</i> Season 3 Trailer Is All About Sauron appeared first on Reactor .
Emmet Asher-Perrin
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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How is Xavier holding up given a certain someone's death? Not well. The post <i>X-Men ’97</i> Heats Up With New Mutants, New Uniforms, New X-Corp and More in “Danger.Exe” appeared first on Reactor .
Emmet Asher-Perrin
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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It's season four and we're so back. The post A Commander of Mars — <i>Star Trek: Strange New Worlds</i>: “Valles Marineris” appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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How Mike Flangan plans to generate some sympathy for the devil in his Carrie miniseries The post Mike Flanagan Doesn’t Want You to Hate Carrie’s Mom in His <i>Carrie</i> Series appeared first on Reactor .
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Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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The trailer for Zach Cregger's next movie shows why he was drawn to this project The post <i>Resident Evil</i> Trailer Looks Nothing Like the Games, But Feels Exactly Like Them appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Roger Corman presents the male gaze at its most jaundiced and bloodshot. The post <i>Sorceress</i>: A Low Point in Sleaze-and-Sorcery Sexploitation appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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In a hundred different ways, this movie teaches both children and adults how to hope. The post The Unfailing Optimism of <i>My Neighbor Totoro</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Clever books, delightful comics, and the best TV show ever will always be here for you! The post Finding Joy with Jimothy, Genre Hijinks, and <i>Pushing Daisies</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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This time, it's no pottery accident The post It’s Hard for a Thespian on the Mean Streets of Gotham in the Trailer for <i>Clayface</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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It's 10 pm. Do you know which dinosaurs are eating your children? The post It’s Not a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood in the Latest Trailer for <i>The End of Oak Street</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Jimothy the raccoon's cultural takeover has reached another milestone The post Jimothy the Raccoon Has Been Added to Dungeons & Dragons appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Arthur's confession reaches its conclusion, 100 years in the future... The post ROUSes Abound: Stephen Graham Jones’ <i>The Buffalo Hunter Hunter</i> (Part 12) appeared first on Reactor .
Stefan Raets
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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A group of friends must confront questions of identity, aging, and desire during a vampire infestation in an isolated Californian desert. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>Tapeworm</i> by A.P. Thayer appeared first on Reactor .
Vanessa Armstrong
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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“We want to show you the thing that you don’t know” The post <i>Star Trek: Strange New Worlds</i> Showrunners Tease How Series Ends for Non-Canon Characters appeared first on Reactor .
Leah Schnelbach
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Are you defying the gods, or betraying them? The post The Eyes of Athena and the Disenchanted World of <em>The Odyssey</em> appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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John Boorman brings us guns, sex, giant stone heads, and Sean Connery in a wedding dress. The post <i>Zardoz</i>: …What the F*ck Did I Just Watch? appeared first on Reactor .
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Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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AI has no morality at all — that's precisely what makes it so dangerous. The post HAL Is Not an Evil Robot — He’s an Amoral One (and Why That Distinction Matters) appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Ten great SFF stories featuring fox spirits, dystopian puppets, and TEETH The post Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: June 2026 appeared first on Reactor .
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Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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In 1926, five women disappeared from a remote island in Vermont. Now, one hundred years later, it’s happening again. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>The Unknown</i> by Riley Sager appeared first on Reactor .
Stefan Raets
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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As chapter one of Towers of Midnight begins, Rand is coming down the mountain… The post Reading The Wheel of Time: Rand, Perrin, and Galad Level up in <i>Towers of Midnight</i> (Part 3) appeared first on Reactor .
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Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Marvel Studios returns to San Diego Comic-Con as we (hopefully) get a better look at the future of Star Trek The post San Diego Comic-Con 2026: Every Major Panel To Watch For appeared first on Reactor .
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Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Can Morph and Wolverine overtake Magneto and Xavier for the most subtext of the X-friends? The post Subtext and Tragedy Dominate the Latest Episodes of <i>X-Men ’97</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Nobody is getting inside this heart!!! The post The <i>Other Mommy</i> Trailer Contains a Sneakily Effective Jump Scare appeared first on Reactor .
Vanessa Armstrong
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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“It was a little bit like Sixth Sense… ” The post The <i>Star Trek: Strange New Worlds</i> Carol Kane Episode We’ll Never Get to See appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Avengers: Doomsday's "Infinity Vision" tickets are selling fast, but the format is really more of a marketing tactic The post Why <i>Avengers: Doomsday</i> Is Being Shown in “Infinity Vision” Instead of IMAX appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Thoughts on finally reading the novel that inspired a pop culture phenomenon... The post You’ve Seen the Movie, Now Read the Book: <i>Planet of the Apes</i> by Pierre Boulle appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Face ... off? The post Adam Scott and Two <i>Severance</i> Colleagues Are Teaming Up to Develop a New Sci-Fi Series appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Sheridan and Delenn prepare to leave Babylon 5 for Minbar The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Objects at Rest” appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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If anyone sees Alan Cumming, tell him we miss him The post Every Major Character Missing From the <i>Avengers: Doomsday</i> Trailer appeared first on Reactor .
Christina Orlando
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Get swept away with these 16 romantasies! The post Kitchen Witches, Floating Islands, and Enchanted Swords: Romantasy Report for July and August 2026 appeared first on Reactor .
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Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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He-Man, he streaming The post <i>Masters of the Universe</i> Gets Second Chance on Streaming Later This Week appeared first on Reactor .
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Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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White Worms, deadly butterflies, and some significant departures from the source material... The post Rushing Headlong Toward a Terrible Fate: <i>House of the Dragon</i>, Season 3 Episode 5 appeared first on Reactor .
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Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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It's gonna take a minute for these Avengers to assemble, no? The post The <i>Avengers: Doomsday</i> Trailer Is Here To Remind You How Many People Are in This Movie appeared first on Reactor .
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Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Who needs words when you have attitude? The post The Sassy Horses of Disney Animation appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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The too-short season comes to a close in appropriately dramatic fashion The post <i>The Vampire Lestat</i> Goes Deep and Dark in “The Failures” appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Who will step into Kratos' powerful boots? The post <i>God of War</i> Will Have a New Lead After Ryan Hurst’s On-Set Injury appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Whose Enterprise is it anyway? The post <i>Strange New Worlds</i> Season 4 Episode Titles Include an Intriguing <i>Next Generation</i> Reference appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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What do cheetahs and genetic bottlenecks have to do with interstellar colonization? Glad you asked... The post The Fermi Paradox, Percolation, and Inbreeding appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Plus: Major outlets are apparently still shocked that women read fantasy The post What to Watch and Read This Weekend: The Air Is Smoke, the Lettuce Is Bad, but the Vampire Is Lestat appeared first on Reactor .
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Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
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Sorry to everyone who's not in NYC or LA The post <i>Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender</i> Heads to Select Theaters as Tickets Go on Sale appeared first on Reactor .
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Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
From evil twins to alter egos that take on a life of their own, you're always your own worst enemy... The post Five Books About Battling Doubles, Doppelgängers, and Clones appeared first on Reactor .
Stefan Raets
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
WARNING: MAY CAUSE REBELLION, RADICAL GARDENING, AND ROMANCE. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>The Divine Gardener’s Handbook</i> by Eli Snow appeared first on Reactor .
Leah Schnelbach
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Oh no, not the secret THIRD identical sister! The post The Dangers of Dating: <em>Deadly Attraction</em>, <em>Double Date</em>, and <em>Killer’s Kiss</em> appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
"I think, for the weirdo work, it is an unprecedented time." The post Artist Trevor Henderson on the Siren Head Movie, the <i>Backrooms</i> Phenomenon, and the Benefits of Scaring Kids appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Be it a supernatural curse or ennui-driven insomnia, messing with someone's ability to sleep can have dire consequences... The post Five SFF Works Based Around Sleep or Sleeplessness appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
The real odyssey are the tickets we tried to get along the way The post IMAX Says It Can’t Build More 70mm Projectors for <i>The Odyssey</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Our summer reading picks include swoon-worthy romantasy, cutthroat competitions, and creepy small towns... The post Most Anticipated Young Adult SFF/H for July & August 2026 appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
You'll be able to stream 2026's biggest surprise hit later this week The post <i>Obsession</i> Gets a Surprise Streaming Release Date on Peacock appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
The delay comes with new footage from Matt Reeves' "camera test" The post <i>The Batman Part II</i> Will Skulk Into Theaters in 2028 After Release Date Delay appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
One must always keep their promises — even from beyond the grave... The post The Perils of Flame-Colored Hair: Marjorie Bowen’s “The Bishop of Hell” appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Please give all these people Emmys already The post <i>The Vampire Lestat</i>’s Live Concert Will Stream on AMC+ appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Saddle up for a deep dive into the making of an iconic sci fi Western and its intriguing cinematic legacy... The post <i>Westworld</i>: It’s All Fun and Games Until the Robots Start Shooting appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
The director explains how his version of The Odyssey finally helps bring the story to life The post Christopher Nolan Says <i>The Odyssey</i> Addresses a Fantasy Movie Gap “That Hadn’t Been Filled” appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
It'd be cooler if it were a Cassandra Nova movie The post <i>Loki</i> Creator Michael Waldron Is Now Developing a <i>Nova</i> Movie for Marvel appeared first on Reactor .
Stefan Raets
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
A tantalizing pact between an ordinary woman and the silver-tongued son of the Devil is all that stands between Britain—and all hell breaking loose. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>Demons and Diplomacy</i> by Megan Frampton appeared first on Reactor .
Stefan Raets
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Galad leads seven thousand Children of the Light through a deep and large swamp, taking a path deliberately chosen because it seems the least likely place for Asunawa to be looking for them. The men are struggling in the heat and the mud and the insects,...
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Exploring the history of the ocean, the critical environmental threats if faces, and strategies and solutions for its future The post Voracious Urchins, Angry Orcas, and Tuna Conspiracies: Helen Scales’ <i>What the Wild Sea Can Be</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
The change to Rhaena's story could hint at bigger changes to come The post Why <i>House of the Dragon</i> Season 3 Changes What Happens to Rhaena appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Notes on Hightower ethno-supremacy, surprise pregnancies, and a focus on the smallfolk in Tumbleton... The post A New Villain Shimmies Into the Dance: <i>House of the Dragon</i>, Season 3 Episode 4 appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
G'Kar prepares to leave Babylon 5, while Garibaldi receives word of an assassination plot. The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Objects in Motion” appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
The Peacock series will re-imagine the story of Pamela Voorhees The post <i>Crystal Lake</i> Teaser Trailer Feels Closer to <i>Widow’s Bay</i> Than <i>Friday the 13th</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
What are your favorite stories about kids caught up in zombie outbreaks, hauntings, demonic possession, and the like? The post Five Horror Books Featuring Child Protagonists appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Different Star Wars stories inhabit different genres — that understanding is key to appreciating each new chapter. The post From Fairy Tales to Spy Thrillers: The Many Genres of Star Wars appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
The nightmares will continue until morale improves The post Paramount is Remaking <i>A Nightmare on Elm Street</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
What seems to be a fairly standard talking-animal fantasy turns abruptly into science fiction. The post Rise of the Super-Rodents: <i>Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
The Shunsuke Tada-directed series will soon be available on Disney+ The post <i>Star Wars: Visions</i> Spinoff Series <i>The Ninth Jedi</i> Gets First Trailer Ahead of August Release Date appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Someone needs to tell Lestat to quit doomscrolling The post <i>The Vampire Lestat</i> Goes for the Throat in “Montreal” appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
The trailer transcript is like 40% bleeps The post We Finally Know the Plot of <i>Digger</i> Thanks to a Trailer of Tom Cruise Shouting at an Iceberg appeared first on Reactor .
Leah Schnelbach
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
It turns out there are a LOT of uses for fountain pens. The post <em>Evil Dead Burn</em> Is an Extreme, Gruesome, Darkly Fun Addition to the Series appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Plus: Come for the Hugo finalists, stay for the divisive reviews The post What to Watch and Read This Weekend: Against My Better Judgment, <i>Silo</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Meyer looked elsewhere for his Star Trek inspirations The post <i>Wrath of Khan</i> Director Nicholas Meyer Talks About How He Found His Way Into a Series He Didn’t Get at All appeared first on Reactor .
Vanessa Armstrong
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
I volunteer to be seated The post All Five Hunger Games Movies Will Be in Theaters in September appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
“What town *doesn’t* have a checkered past?” The post Backlist Bonanza: 5 Book Recommendations Inspired by <i>Widow’s Bay</i>’s Most Quotable Lines appeared first on Reactor .
Vanessa Armstrong
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
What’s beneath that orange unicorn suit? Is it even a suit??? The post <i>Buddy</i> Trailer Teases a Kids’ TV Nightmare From <i>Too Many Cooks</i> Creator Casper Kelly appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
A deeply flawed, fascinating, and visually stunning film from director John Boorman. The post <i>Excalibur</i>: An Epic Tale of Swords, Sorcery, and Baffling Tonal Shifts appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
We just make the WORST choices The post Godzilla Faces a Terrible Human-Made Weapon in the Teaser for <i>Godzilla Minus Zero</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
I thought I knew what to expect, but there's so much I didn't understand about this game... The post Late to the Party: On Finally Playing (and Loving) <i>Final Fantasy</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
The collection will look to address a "steady decline in the number of Best Of anthologies being published" The post <i>Locus</i> Magazine Will Publish a New SFF Anthology appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
We certainly HOPE this movie is as good as it looks, ha ha ha The post Na Hong-jin’s Alien Film <i>Hope</i> Gets Another Delightfully Chaotic Trailer appeared first on Reactor .
Stefan Raets
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
An achingly romantic, slow-burn love story set in a sumptuous world ruled by magical perfume. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>Immortal Rose</i> by Alexandra Bracken appeared first on Reactor .
Molly Templeton
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
Just look at that stunning stoner garbage bag couture The post The (Talking?) Cats Are in the Bags in the Trailer for <i>The Wrong Girls</i> appeared first on Reactor .
Matthew Byrd
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
A cast guide for everyone who kind of remembers reading The Odyssey in school but also not really The post Who’s Who in <i>The Odyssey</i> Cast: Every Actor and the Mythological Character They Play appeared first on Reactor .
Sarah
Reactor (ex-Tor.com)
2026
details
The Cat-Man returns as Good Stab's confession draws to a close... The post Cleaning After Confession: Stephen Graham Jones’ <i>The Buffalo Hunter Hunter</i> (Part 11) appeared first on Reactor .
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