"The air in the classroom was warm and still, the teacher’s voice a lullaby, with stress falling on syllables like the patter of sparse, heavy raindrops on the roof tiles. Omar fought to keep his eyes open, reading the words on the blackboard backward to...
Greg Egan
11 free-to-read stories indexed on Quasar
Adam has 70% of the memories of the man who created him, but something vital is hiding in that missing 30%.
Content warnings 1
death-of-a-loved-one
Dan loses his job and goes looking for something that hasn’t already been automated away. There’s not much, and what he does find is rather strange.
Astronomers spot what appears to be a new cluster of stars, except that it’s growing hour by hour.
An Australian detective investigates a woman who apparently killed her husband and children before disappearing.
Content warnings 3
child-deathdeathviolence
"When the vault in the abandoned coal mine collapsed, it took four days for the engineers to complete their inspection and certify that it was safe for law enforcement personnel to enter the site. Beth drove out from town with her deputy, Ken Osgood, and...
"Tirell stood on the platform at the edge of the forest, looking out at the banks of red clouds. As he waited for Anna’s glider to come swooping down, his eyes were drawn to the swirling patterns below, where stronger winds set the thicker clouds roiling,...
Sentient characters in a massive online multiplayer game exploit a flaw in the operating system to escape to a safe place that’s only rumored to exist.
"He supposed he must have been daydreaming, but whatever pleasant distraction had occupied his thoughts a moment before, it was gone now. In fact, he could not recall the state of mind from which his mind had wandered, though he must have been paying...
"Jesse mopped up the gravy with the last of his bread, gulped down a final mouthful of tea, then took his mug, plate, and utensils into the cooks’ tent. Henry looked up from the dishwashing tub and nodded to him amiably. “What have they got you on now?”...
A family has problems when their little daughter falls out of sync with the usual times everyone else wakes and sleeps. But it’s not just her.