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Carolyn Ives Gilman

5 free-to-read stories indexed on Quasar

Umbernight

Carolyn Ives Gilman Clarkesworld 2018 Novella SF Colony Adventure 18,059 words

The colonists on Dust usually hunker down for their years-long winter, especially when the companion star, Umber, blasts the surface with radiation, but a critical package from Earth needs to be retrieved now.

First ContactColonialismBleak

Content warnings 4

body-horrordeathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence

Touring with the Alien

Carolyn Ives Gilman Clarkesworld 2016 Novelette SF 11,819 words

Months after mysterious aliens scattered their spacecraft across North America, no one has a clue what they want. Avery knows what one of them wants, though: it wants a tour.

First ContactColonialismMidwest USA

Content warnings 3

animal-harmdeathdeath-of-a-loved-one

The Tinker and the Timestream

Carolyn Ives Gilman Analog 2023 Novella Science Fiction 18,141 words

"The Taghrib Colony had existed for almost two hundred years, and all that time it had been waiting to die. Then one night Rustem, tinker of Biskra, discovered a nova in the sky. The beautiful, deadly sun had just gone down, and the twilit air was...

Exile's End

Carolyn Ives Gilman Tor.com 2020 Novelette Science Fiction 13,385 words

Exile’s End is a complex, sometimes uncomfortable examination of artifact repatriation and cultural appropriation. An artifact of indescribable and irreplaceable beauty created by an “extinct” culture has been the basis of another culture’s origin stories....

Diaspora SFDiasporaPhilosophical

On the Shores of Ligeia

Carolyn Ives Gilman Lightspeed 2019 ShortStory SF Adventure 7,214 words

When Seth’s boss breaks her leg, he’s called in at the last minute to narrate the live feed from the Titan probe.

First ContactColonialismHopeful