A poet’s cat fights fiercely to defend him from the demons that plague him, but it’s much harder to stand against Satan himself.
Content warnings 3
animal-harmmental-illnessviolence
Earnest
95 free-to-read stories tagged “Earnest”
"During one of the much smaller disasters that preceded the really big disaster, I met a lot of my neighbors online. I can’t remember if we set up the WhatsApp group because of the pandemic or the civil disorder or both. My Minneapolis block had always...
Content warnings 3
deathillness-and-pandemicviolence
"Every sunset, Julia climbs the city her mother built. It feels enormous, on the outside. Inside, it’s cramped, a human anthill. It didn’t used to be, but Julia doesn’t remember what it felt like when there was room enough for everyone. In the locker room,...
An obsolete “Panda Pillow” finds itself in the middle of an airplane disaster, where its programming to comfort and defend doesn’t really work. Or does it?
Content warnings 1
death
A Fleet training ship passes close to a “scrapheap” of abandoned ships, and Teenage Nadim, leads a group of his friends to “borrow” a scout ship and check it out.
Content warnings 1
death
In a post-apocalypse US, Enid investigates a household that is reportedly hosting an unapproved pregnancy. Note: This story stands alone; it is not part 3 of anything.
Content warnings 1
abuse
"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...
"Jacqueline theorized how to build a private video connection for the three of us from broken baby monitors, trashed cell phones, and digital displays; I collected her shopping list from Dad’s junkyard, and Selena took Jacqueline’s scribbled plans,...
Alien technology has been a big boon for some Americans, but everyone else has slid into poverty. Little Jennie knows things should be better, and over time, she tries different ways to change her world.
Content warnings 2
child-deathviolence
Over eleven years, a farm boy grows to a man on the Canadian prairie while new technology utterly changes the world he lives in.
After a disaster in the Oort Cloud left her family penniless, young Holly works on a farm on Earth to pay for her college education while waiting for her uncles to raise funds to put the family back in business.
Content warnings 2
deathillness-and-pandemic
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 1
illness-and-pandemic
Magical Girl Antifa War Machine By Esther Alter XYLIA We were at the bottom of a hole, a new construction site that went deep into the bedrock. I was the first to touch the artifact, a thing that didn’t quite have shape or color. I grabbed it. My new...
Content warnings 5
deathgoresexual-contentviolencewar
As a new leader in an independent-minded community in the Dakotas, Tony gets the job of disposing of the body of an alien assassin. Between the locals and the aliens, things get complicated fast.
Mikkel isn't very bright, but he cleverly supplements his janitorial job by scavenging useful items his superiors discard and bringing them home to his wife--then one day he brings home a mutant baby.
Content warnings 1
child-death
"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...
Content warnings 4
deathillness-and-pandemicmental-illnessviolence
"Bek scuttled over the needle field on the Waste of Mosses, far from Roktown and the monastery in Hom Valley. Turbulent winds scattered the neat rows of falling iron carbonyl snows. The steely needles here grew jagged, making the magnetic fields on the...
"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,...
Aki has fond memories of the robot who cared for her in the orphanage, so she decides to do something when she learns they’re all being scrapped.
A combination of teenage hormones, a rare gene, and the right stressful event turns a few kids into superheroes. Liam wants to be one too.
"I was shipped to Barsaylus like freight. The ship was unmanned or, more accurately, uncrewed. Unlit, even. The aliens had given us technical specifications to build a kind of pod for my own survival, and it had taken NASA about a year working around the...
Content warnings 2
genocideviolence
"Roy Harris perched on a stool in front of his new shop door, very carefully filling in the letters that Martha had sketched out on the window. She had a steady eye for that sort of thing. He could stay within the lines, but don’t ask him to put the lines...
"Folake Adeyemi was slowly digging her index finger into the base of her afro and staring at the row of remote subsurface exploration monitoring screens when she heard the explosion. She’d let her mind wander for a few moments, subconsciously clenching her...
Content warnings 1
death
"Snow was falling in dithering flurries, spilling from the clouds like a shower of white confetti. The accumulation on the ground was already deep, and the horses pulling the sleigh were struggling, their hooves sinking into the drifts as if wading through...
"Dill.” Keith settled down next to her on the storage tub they used for a bench. “The plant was just big enough to trim.” “Ooo.” Blaine kissed him in the steam over her cup. “My man can COOK.” After two months on Mars trying to get anything to grow, after...
"Watch it, trash!” a young chemical engineer snapped as he bumped another student. “I’m sorry.” Awi Trashpusher Nonumber had a blind spot behind him. Though an adult, only four of the six eyes on his pale, skinny, cylindrical body had developed. The...
Hortensia works in the Venerean atmosphere, building a floating city, when a puncture in the aerostat threatens the whole project unless someone can patch it before a sulfuric acid rainstorm begins.
"The first time Gabriel Halstead tried to kill me, everyone thought it was an accident. So did I, truth be told. That kind of thing gets a couple people a year, even here. The number of EVAs we all do, you don’t even need a failbuddy to cause it....
"Maestro Sezan Mistro was sweating, despite the temperature in the hall, as he stepped onto the podium for the sound check. There was a lot riding on this concert. Armandi Tylo, in uneasy partnership with the Federated Governments of Earth, had spent a...
"Morag took her walking stick and set out on the Portmeirion Road. Portmeirion was behind her and she was walking back towards Pen-y-Groes, so she supposed she should call it the Pen-y-Groes Road. But Portmeirion, with all its beautiful, seductive,...
"April 1970 olded newspapers marched like soldiers in military precision across the conference table in Deke Slayton’s corner office. Headlines blared, “PARALYZED APOLLO 13 SPLASHES DOWN,” “INJURED ASTRONAUT HOSPITALIZED,” and “APOLLO IN RETROGRADE.”
"My mother was born in a place where your age and the number of trips you took around the Sun were synonymous. That changed for her once she set foot on Mars. She was thirty-two. On her fifth sol on this planet, there was a drone that went rogue for an...
Content warnings 1
suicide
"Servos whining, K3RA crouches behind the brambles and examines the farmyard. The burnt remains of a house, not unusual post-Devastation. A handpump next to a rotting well cover, scattered trash, and, jutting above some flowering bushes, a small auxiliary...
"This is Chapter Thirty or so in a whole ongoing saga that I don’t have time to get into right now. I’m jumping in at the point when my Machiavellian twin brother Charles decided to take over Mars, and I decided to help. My big failing is I never figure...
"There are nights when she twists like a tree in the breeze. Hair falling wildly in brown curls around her shoulders, she dances in the dark kitchen, dress twirling as she spins. On those nights she giggles, and asks me to play her favorite music, and...
"For Future Generations" by Rachel Gutin What do terrestrial traditions mean when you have to leave the only world you've ever known? This contemplative sci-fi explores the choices a rabbi must make for her congregation. Copyright khōréō magazine 2021....
"They have three arms, one of which, when they play against us, they tie behind their backs. They’re short and squat and look more like the basketball writ large than any kind of basketball player. They can’t dunk or even run very well. But when they play...
"Two days after my brother turned seventeen, he was gone, just like he’d guaranteed my dad. No sad goodbyes, no notes, no taking a knee in the hall before dawn to give me any good advice for high school when I got there. My mom’s story when anybody asked...
Content warnings 2
racismviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 1
racism
"On this fine November day in 1967, Natalya Orlova took the oath to become a citizen of the United States, thereby clearing her last hurdle for acceptance into the astronaut training program. After nearly three years of giving her all to NASA, today should...
Bob, one of the bat-like Zoeys on New Horizons, helped architect the peace treaty that ended the war with the humans, but some Zoeys who don’t want peace plan to use his son against him.
"There could not have been a better time to be alive. Every nation on the planet had evolved into a democracy, we hadn’t been tangled in a war for over a hundred years, and technology had removed virtually every possibility of poverty. Work if you like, go...
Despite being paralyzed on one side, T.K. insists on going to gym class, even though the other girls torment her in dodge ball. Up to the point where the tormenting brings out her specialized telekinetic ability.
In 1880s London, Sir Arthur's "Illogic Engine" has gone missing, so he seeks help from Mycroft Holmes.
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
"As much as Flash Kennedy loved to lose himself in code, he also loved the energy and buzz that came from being around people. So of course they made him the face of user testing. It only made sense, and he loved it besides. They’d already set the space...
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Jing and her father climb a mountain to find and kill a Snake-Devil that has been killing people and goats, but she’s not exactly what they expected.
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...
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...
Author : Johnny Caputo Narrator : Christiana Ellis Host : Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Escape Pod 1064: The Rewilding of Lot 4987 is an Escape Pod original. Includes several grade-A swears. The Rewilding of Lot 4987 By Johnny Caputo From...
Author : A. W. Prihandita Narrator : Tatiana Grey Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being originally appeared in Clarkesworld 218 (November 2024). Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being...
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 […]
Content warnings 2
deathillness-and-pandemic
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:...
Content warnings 2
deathillness-and-pandemic
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 […]
Content warnings 1
violence
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...
Author : Ferdison Cayetano Narrator : Trey Nakamura Host : Eric Valdes Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Previously published in The Map of Lost Places Anthology, Apex Book Company Rated PG-13 When I Cowboy in Puuwaawaa by Ferdison Cayetano When I cowboy in...
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:...
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...
Content warnings 1
war
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...
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...
The Girl Who Came Before By David von Allmen When me and my family pulled into our driveway, my five best friends were waiting in our front yard, waving glittery poster-board signs that read “Welcome Home Sam!!!” and jumping around with full-on 13 year-old...
Content warnings 2
child-deathdeath-of-a-loved-one
Once Abandoned By A.P. Hawkins Sappel whistled as he walked to the construction site, the sound echoing off nearby buildings in a muffled way. It was early spring, and the city was bursting with the vibrant green of new growth. Wild edibles sprouted from...
Author : Merc Fenn Wolfmoor Narrator : Joe Moran Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Steadyboi After the Apocalypse” first appeared in the collection Friends For Robots: Stories by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor (Robot Dinosaur Press, 2022) Steadyboi...
Content warnings 1
illness-and-pandemic
Author : P. A. Cornell Narrator : Isabel J. Kim Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 991: After the Rain is an Escape Pod original. After the Rain by P. A. Cornell I love a heavy summer storm. I love it when the rain falls so...
Author : Alexis Ames Narrator : Eric Valdes Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Sanctuary” first appeared in Kyanite Press, Winter 2020 Don’t miss “Sanctuary, Part 1” Sanctuary (Part 2) by Alexis Ames 3. Eilan slept for thirteen...
Author : L. S. Johnson Narrators : Nicola Chapman, Matt Dovey and Peter Seaton-Clark Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by G Is for Ghosts, Poise and Pen Publishing Content warning for era-specific...
Content warnings 3
deathhomophobiasuicide
Author : L. S. Johnson Narrators : Nicola Chapman, Matt Dovey and Peter Seaton-Clark Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by G Is for Ghosts, Poise and Pen Publishing Content warning for era-specific...
Content warnings 3
deathhomophobiawar
Author : Mitchell Shanklin Narrator : Elie Hirschman Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums PodCastle 891: Trending Now! Help With Legal Fees for Reluctant Swordsman is a PodCastle original. Content warnings for child...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorself-harmviolence
Author : Dani Atkinson Narrators : Andrew K. Hoe, Kitty Sarkozy and Katherine Inskip Host : Eleanor R. Wood Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously ran as episode 722 and first published by Daily Science Fiction Rated PG-13 Said the...
“How to Pass as Human”: a Quantum-Encrypted Listicle on the Synthetic Consciousness Subnet By Raiff Taranday QUERY: Locate file 8548.213 (“How to Pass as Human”) WARNING: File 8548.213 (“How to Pass as Human”) has been flagged by the Synthetic Regulatory...
Content warnings 1
sexual-content
Author : Tony Dunnell Narrator : Bryce Dahle Host : Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 934: The Alien in My Bathtub is an Escape Pod original. If you aren’t familiar with Locus Magazine, they’re a respected website, magazine, award,...
Alternate Cover: Pantone Sunset By Marie Vibbert Stacey reads a comic book. It’s about a robot lady, but not like her. This robot lady has exposed gears and metal rods in her arms and wears a metallic bikini as she solves crimes. The colors are...
How to Keep Your Cool If You're a Mech First Day on the Job (Part 1 of 2) By Vera Brook Damn, the exoskeleton was hot. Two minutes strapped into the smart harness with its thick exospine and the oversized, carbon-fiber limbs that grew from it, and sweat...
How to Keep Your Cool If You're a Mech First Day on the Job (Part 2 of 2) By Vera Brook (...Continued from Part 1) Jenna gave herself a few moments to seethe in silence before she spoke, to make sure her voice was calm. “I can’t move.” “Did you hear that?”...
A Foundational Model for Talking to Girls By Brian Hugenbruch “Hey Marty,” Mom asks, “got a moment?” I cringe whenever Mom's voice has that tone to it. I don’t know what she’s going to say; but if I’ve learned anything in my thirteen years on this...
Author : Craig Church Narrator : Rosie Sentman Host : Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 972: The Bargain of Death and Saint Nicholas is an Escape Pod original. The Bargain of Death and Saint Nicholas by Craig Church “What’s your...
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
Author : Peter S. Beagle Narrator : Barry Deutsch Host : Matt Dovey Artist : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by The Raven, and as PodCastle 037 Rated G Gordon, the Self-Made Cat by Peter Beagle Once upon a time, to a family of house mice...
Author : Matt Dovey Narrator : Matthew James Hamblin Host : Eleanor R. Wood Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums PodCastle 856: TALES FROM THE VAULTS – Clouds in a Clear Blue Sky is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13 Clouds in a Clear Blue Sky By...
Content warnings 1
death-of-a-loved-one
Author : Sonia Sulaiman Narrator : Peter Adrian Behravesh Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Artist : Iasmin Omar Ata Discuss on Forums Previously published in the collection Muneera and the Moon: Stories Inspired by Palestinian Folklore,...
PseudoPod 951: Last Supper is a PseudoPod original. CW: Thanksgiving dinner drama “Last Supper” is a follow-up to “Licking Roadkill”, which previously appeared at PseudoPod (ep 786, Nov 2021) and in the collection A Meeting In the Devil’s House. From the...
Content warnings 3
deathsubstance-useviolence
Author : Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe Narrator : Somto Ihezue Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Harvest Moon” was previously published in Solarpunk Magazine Harvest Moon by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe “We cannot sustain the farm, Gozie.” I don’t like the...
Content warnings 1
death-of-a-loved-one
Authors : C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner Narrator : John Bell Host : Alex Hofelich Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Originally published by Charm, October 1944 Rated PG Housing Problem by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner Jacqueline said it was a canary, but I...
Author : Maria Brekke Narrators : Eleanor R. Wood, Kaitlyn Zivanovich, Eric Valdes, Devin Martin, Srikripa Krishna Prasad, Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Matt Dovey, Tierney Bailey, Emmalia Harrington, Sofía Barker, Julia Patt and Kiran Kaur Saini Host : Matt...
Author : Damini Kane Narrator : Peter Adrian Behravesh Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums PodCastle 817: Creatures in the Walls is a PodCastle original. Content warning for child abuse Rated PG-13 Creatures in the Walls by...
Content warnings 1
child-abuse
The Heroine Kokofe By Ife J. Ibitayo Kokofe awoke an hour before dawn, crusty-eyed and groggy. She wobbled to her feet and washed her face. Her simuclip projected her reflection before her eyes. Already dressed, her pink all-weather blouse draped over her...
Content warnings 3
deathgoreviolence
Author : Laurence Raphael Brothers Narrators : Adam Pracht and Summer Brooks Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Houseproud” originally appeared in the SciFutures “City of the Future” anthology and also won the Berkeley Machine Intelligence...
Pen Pal By Grant Canterbury December Third, 1996 Meliari Thulissia General Delivery Tharsis Station Dear Meliari, Hello!! My name is Mary and I am nine years old. I got your name for a pen pal and they said you were the first pen pal on Mars. This is the...
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
Mathematical Revelations By Helen De Cruz I have never had a Mathematical Revelation in my life. I am presently thirty-eight years and three months old; the first strands of gray have made their hesitant debut in my dark brown hair. I have been a Priestess...
Author : J.T. Greathouse Narrator : Carlo Matos Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Originally published in Deep Magic. Rated PG-13. An Empty Cup by J.T. Greathouse 1 Eshi the Boy As for every child of the...
Content warnings 1
death-of-a-loved-one
Author : Stephanie Burgis Narrator : Pippa Alice Stephens Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published in Consolation Songs: Speculative Fiction for a Time of Coronavirus Rated PG-13. Love, Your...
Content warnings 1
sexual-content
No Spaceship Go By Annie Bellet The boys lay on their backs side by side staring up through the open roof of the abandoned building. Dylan clutched Meek's hand in anticipation as the ground shook and a roar filled the air. Tiny pebbles danced up from the...
Author : Teresa Milbrodt Narrator : Summer Fletcher Host : Sofía Barker Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Originally published in Pleiades: Literature in Context. Rated PG-13 White as Soap By Teresa Milbrodt I’m not sure what to...
Content warnings 1
animal-harm