233 free-to-read stories tagged “Hopeful”
The narrator is a witch who works in a public library somewhere in the rural American South. Her job is to get patrons the books they need, but a lonely teenage boy poses a challenge.
child-abusedeath-of-a-loved-onemental-illnesssuicide
LT is ten when the alien seeds fall, and he spends the rest of his life studying them as they take over more and more of the planet.
death-of-a-loved-one
Tabitha has been walking a long time, trying to wear out seven pairs of iron shoes; Amira has been sitting alone on a glass hill that suitors try to climb.
abuseviolence
As civilization is dying on Earth, a woman building a monument on Mars by remote control gets a message from a Mars colony long thought to be dead.
child-deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemicwar
In the ruins of far-future Earth, Mink’s tribe desperately needs the resources of a large building that vanished humanity left, but she needs to purge it of “ghosts” first—and it has lots of them.
deathillness-and-pandemicviolence
"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...
deathillness-and-pandemicviolence
The ship hadn’t activated Bot 9 in a long time—it’s an unstable model—but in a desperate situation it needs all its resources. And how much trouble can it get into hunting down a rat?
deathviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
death-of-a-loved-one
Even the ghosts have abandoned the ruins of the space station once known as the City of High Bells. All but the faithful temple cat, who sees a starship reenter the system after many long years.
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolencewar
"I have been activated, therefore I have a purpose, Bot 9 thought. I have a purpose, therefore I serve. It recited the Mantra Upon Waking, to check that it was running at optimum physical efficiency, then the Mantra of Obedience, the Mantra of Not...
deathviolence
"My dear Cara, Thank you for sending me the photos, I never thought I’d feel this way again. But the pictures help. They really do. I can’t stop looking at them. Thank you for scanning and emailing them to me. These photos and our old videos are all I’ve...
"So, hear nah. This is how it happen. Was years after Malcolm pass through and wash away a lot ah we little islands coasts, and mash up so much ah Florida and Texas and them places, and people say they ain’t waiting for no next storm like that one, and...
death-of-a-loved-one
"The first Martian War was won not by man, but microbes. The second we fought with Martian weapons that nearly broke the world. The third invasion we stopped by our own hands, using magic.” —Wei-Yin Sun, Imperial Historian in the Court of the Empress...
deathwar
The aliens invited one human to their library 32.5 light-years away, and Hazel hopes to find lost research that might still save the Earth from final ecological collapse. If she can get in, that is.
deathpregnancy-loss
Until a visiting starship arrived, the other mermaids thought Essarala was silly for wanting to explore the galaxy.
death
When the the elitist institution of Ozymandias Academy and its headmaster, Vamon Kinctuarin, can't find a solution to the city's worsening drought, 2 self-taught magicians, Noah and his partner Manny, take it upon themselves to find a solution to the crisis.
A young hustler discovers that he's supposed to play a big role in transforming New York from a city to a City. If he can survive it.
deathracismviolence
When Megian sets out her homemade book exchange, a mysterious neighbor starts trading objects and art for the books, but some of the items don’t seem to come from this world at all.
war
Despite not being a telepath, Calla worked out a way to play chess with her captor, Major Larn, during the recent war. Now they're going to finish their game.
deathmental-illnesswar
"A ship glides through the night, behemoth mother, swollen with ten thousand human lives. Her path is a single shining vector. There has been no stopping, no rest for the decades she has traveled, and there will be nothing but void for the two years to...
child-deathpregnancy-lossviolence
"Everything Anton owns goes in one black trash bag. His ratty yellow sketchpad, which he bought to draw the other familiars when he moved here, and only ever used three pages of. The few shirts and khakis that he paid for with his own money, before Mr....
abusesuicideviolence
"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,...
As the Cold War stalls and the threat of nuclear warfare dominates the news, small-town misfits Laurie and Fell bond over a shared love of music and the mystery of the erratic radio messages that hint at the existence of a future worth reaching out for.
Madeline is having an adverse reaction to an experimental drug--she revisits episodes in her past.
"Atop a ladder was Naeto, reaching for the lights. The lights flickered as his touch neared. Down below, Gozi held the ladder, rooting it to the ground. A small breeze came, and the ladder tilted, and the ladder swayed, but Naeto did not waver. Gozi was...
"When her bell sounded at midnight, Firion the wizard grasped her stoutest staff (crowned, for non-magical reasons, with a razor-sharp chunk of amethyst) and put her lips to the doorjamb. “Who goes there?” Nothing but the slap of rain against stone, like...
When Hurston Hill is threatened by a suspiciously powerful urban development firm, Miss l’Abielle steps up to protect her community with the help of a mysterious orphaned girl in this charming follow-up to “St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid”.
"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...
abuseillness-and-pandemictransphobia
"Okay, so you know those things they sell called ‘useless machines’?” the inventor says. He is smiling. Of course, the boy knows them; he’d briefly had one that had been plucked from his bedroom floor and relocated into the inventor’s basement workroom...
body-horrorviolence
When you were eight, the haunted house changed your life. Twenty years later, you’re determined to study it, but it’s determined to change your life again.
child-deathdeath-of-a-loved-one
Jamie’s a non-binary teenager in a small town, but they remember at least a dozen past lives, one of which relates to a forty-year-old murder.
violence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
"Darius sells three pocket robots on the first Tuesday of October, and another three on Wednesday. At this rate he’ll be able to pay for his legs by Christmas. He does lose one robot to theft: someone figures out how to jimmy open the door of the display...
"Brother-Adita paused at the top of the ridge and rotated one eye to take in the shells climbing the path behind them. They gestured beyond them with a limb, a habit picked up from their young, excitable sibling. “Quarter-march, west-north-west,” came...
deathslaveryviolence
All its life, a small monster with emerald scales has been a source of never-ending food to larger and more powerful creatures who feast on the small monster’s limbs each time one regrows. This is the story of how the small monster meets an industrious...
abusebody-horrorchild-abuseviolence
Approaching 50, Mabel decides to become a glass bottle dancer. She tries to hide it from her family, but the local cockroaches notice it for sure when she gathers up their bottles, and they’ve got dreams too.
When other girls catch fairies, they wish for beauty, but Amelia just wants to do well on her science project.
Sister Nadine sits in her cell at the church and offers wisdom to any of the townspeople who come by. But she’s starting to see things that suggest the world isn’t quite what it seems to be.
Ben’s parents send him to a special camp for gifted students, but the camp rules are very strange and one of his classmates is so weird he wonders if she’s from another planet.
deathviolence
"I express greetings and most joyful salutations! I do not mean to interrupt you if you wish to be without company. It is only that I noticed you have been drifting alone for six flares of star-home-past-great-star-birthplace, and that is many flares! Your...
"I don’t know if I can die. Maybe when this comet reaches the sun, I’ll keep right on being. Or maybe then, finally, after so long, I will stop. I am not ready to find out. I want to be immortal. To never die as those on your planet do. This place isn’t...
deathviolence
After a full memory wipe, Wash moves in with his family and tries to get to know them again with the shadow of his unremembered crime hovering over him.
When the princess marries, Amira’s duty to her will end and she’ll be free. But she doesn’t want freedom on those terms.
body-horrorviolence
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.
deathillness-and-pandemic
During a flu epidemic, the narrator uses her cooking blog to tell the world about how she and her family make do on short rations.
death-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
An older medic with scant resources fights to support her community as they survive life behind the company wall.
sexual-violenceviolence
"Hunter’s Moon rises fat and golden over the burned-out husk of the CN Tower. Excitement ripples through us, making us forget, for the moment, the hunger that gnaws our insides. The sign for the Library appears only on clear, full moon nights, and it’s...
deathviolence
"Jay scrubs at the blood spot on her tennis shoe with her thumb and a gob of spit, hurried by the knowledge that Hardy will be there any moment. It’s swelter-hot on the gravel back road, and she’s doused in the sound of cicadas from the forest behind her...
deathviolence
Misunderstanding threatens a commune whose survival is dependent on precise communication with another species…
death-of-a-loved-one
"Can someone get the doors? Thanks. Please remember we’re on an honor system for chairs—if you’ve eaten today, please leave them for someone who hasn’t. We don’t need another fainting incident. First of all, if you’re looking for a technical look at...
"Holli was hanging upside down off the edge of her flimsy folding bed, watching goretoons in her goggles, when Puck the Pirate showed up again. Ahoy, Holli! Guess what? His red-cheeked puppet face swelled, blocking out the show, which annoyed Holli until...
deathviolence
"There’s nothing quieter than the sound of dreams not coming true. The moment when reality sinks in and Gwen realizes she’s never going to have the one thing she’s been yearning for since high school—the thing she made so much space in her life to...
"I tell Mateo to meet me at a wine bar. It’s a quiet, low-key spot—ideal for first dates, because it’s easy to make a speedy exit in case the red flags start flying—or worse, if the men in blue come knocking. It’s been over an hour, and we’re on our second...
Alice prefers to stay in human form, but one of her own kind is after her seeking vengeance, and she’s got to find a way to protect herself before he finds her.
violence
When Suss is human, she’s in awful pain, but when she’s a wolf, she keeps getting in trouble. She has friends, but people are getting tired of it all.
animal-harm
Intensifying earthquakes are gradually destroying the world, but Marina still has her art, and Elodie is building a robot.
deathmental-illnesssuicide
Two top-notch time-travelling assassins get an assignment to expose a corrupt aristocrat by killing a magistrate and later bringing her back from the land of the dead.
deathsubstance-useviolence
We follow this history of black people from prehistoric Ghana all the way to a lunar colony.
abuseracismslaveryviolencewar
Bilqis, the only real doctor in a dying community of religious exiles, finds something strange when she examines a pregnant woman.
pregnancy-loss
This story follows Amir and Mani’s careers starting when they’re teenagers in water-starved Beirut.
sexual-content
The time travelers across the road think they’re being clever, but Jade’s family spotted them right away. Even so, they’ve got a daughter her age, and she wants to make friends.
A young, newly minted witch meets an equally green knight, and they go off together in search of dragons.
abuseviolence
Raised by her grandmothers, Aviya thinks about her future, and thinks about trying to find the source of a magical scrap of "cloth of the wind."
death-of-a-loved-oneviolence
Perihelion and its crew embark on a dangerous new mission at a corporate-controlled station in the throes of a hostile takeover…
child-abuseviolence
"We watched the stranger fall from the sky. Our daughters sent us frantic signals as they tracked her burning trail. She crashed on the beaches by the deeper ocean, her once beautiful white and silver carapace blackened and bent. Her lights flashed once,...
"There are seven hundred aliens hidden in Miko’s backpack, and the Galactic Security Agent currently studying her passport (hopefully) has no clue. The agent is an alien themselves, some tentacular species with assistive devices hooked into its uniform to...
"Fejértorony There’s dysphoria, and then there’s turning into a mid-size city. But sometimes you try male, you try female, you try different kinds of nonbinary and it only makes you realize that something still doesn’t quite fit, something fundamental....
racismviolence
"Muna shuts the storeroom door as quietly as she can. Holding a just-waxed bundle of letters to her chest, she sticks out her head to check the bookshop floor. If she walks between the shelves on the far right, she can slip out unnoticed in ten heartbeats....
"Metal parts that survived fire and shrapnel are no match for the saltwater rushing through the gaps in my armor, spilling between gears and wires, tainting my battered shell with the inexorable creep of rust. Corrosion is a ruthless god. The waves surge...
deathwar
"Modern bodies are made in large quantities. Factories line the edge of the Fissure Basin. Workers scoop sand and mud into large churning vats, feeding extruders that empty into molds in the standard shapes. Factory supervisors smooth out imperfections and...
death-of-a-loved-one
"The mouse looked at me. I looked back. It clutched a shiny blue marble in its front paws. It wasn’t a surprise that the mouse was floating peacefully in midair. Mice adapt quite well to zero gravity, and this particular mouse had been bred, born, and...
"Yennie glanced out the window. An ice storm, a froth of glassy dust, was blowing in over the bone-colored hills. He was on Enceladus; his therapist was on Mars. He wanted to describe how sometimes his body felt hollow, and other times he felt his skin...
On his deathbed, a man implores his son to visit his plaque at their ancestral temple—which appears to exist in virtual reality.
When the Dynast dies, his daughter Lin flees before her older siblings can kill her. She has a place of safety in mind, but she’s never been there herself and needs help to get in.
deathviolence
Glenn and Vivian are Berkley students with a good thing going up until he finds out what she really does for a living, and it’s literally out of this world.
When Seth’s boss breaks her leg, he’s called in at the last minute to narrate the live feed from the Titan probe.
Attacked by endless flocks of ravens, the Bjebu people flee their village to a strange place controlled by a strange god, who grants them safety in exchange for “three offerings of sorrow.”
deathviolence
Eva and Didecus lived together happily in exile on an obscure planet, but they were important people once, and the universe has a way of coming looking for important people—even when they thought they were retired.
deathslavery
Since her cancer, Sydney has just been drifting through life, but when she lets a friend move in, things change in an unexpected way.
illness-and-pandemic
Jeri’s ready to trade her old spaceship for a new, more efficient model, but she loved her old ship and wants to be sure she doesn’t end up scrapped for parts.
violence
A woman found an alien space probe in the dry valleys of Antarctica, and three generations of her family try to decide what it really means.
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
death-of-a-loved-one
Gina and Bruno are supposed to manage the town’s factory, but someone keeps trying to steal their robots.
Author : Eden Royce Narrator : Laurice White Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes PodCastle 914: The Magnolia Returns is a PodCastle original. Rated PG The Magnolia Returns By Eden Royce The Magnolia blooms out of nowhere at any time of year it...
abusebody-horror
In a corporate-run dystopia, a trans girl plucked out of poverty to give birth to a clone meets her replacement.
body-horrorpregnancy-lossviolence
"On the high plains of Kansas in a tiny town worn down by drought, I stop at a roadside diner. When I ask for water, the waitress pours me a glass of ice water, presenting it with obvious pride. “We have our own well,” she says. “And the wind turbine on...
death-of-a-loved-one
"Long before you came along, I was myself just a seed in Raffa’s pocket, something she fumbled with as she stepped on the plane, her other hand clutching her mother’s. Small as I was, I sensed her fear. I tried to hum reassuringly. Above the ocean, I...
abusedeath-of-a-loved-one
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
"I have been activated, therefore I have a purpose, Bot 9 thought. I have a purpose, therefore I serve. It had a lengthy list of Mantra subroutine sets to run after its usual initialization check, and it noted the addition of even more since its last...
"Herein is the account of the evening the crew of the Forever Trying invited the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries into our home. I, Felix, Chronicler of the ship, endeavor to capture a true and accurate record of transpired events on...
"The last nectarine from the spaceship glistens in Riley’s palm, an imperfect globe smelling like summer. She nestles among the blue-tinted ferns of Ekara C, cupping the nectarine like a tiny sun. The first bite is primal, her mouth swollen with juice that...
"When the sparkling golden glow fades and my skin stops feeling like mites are crawling all over it, the Room is gone, and I am shivering in a vast bright chamber and strange people clad in orange, red, and blue pajamas are asking me how I am. I don’t know...
"Nostalgia died a quiet death, wrapped in cellophane and power cords. The future had killed it. The ghosts of yesteryear’s fragrances no longer haunted, no longer hung and clung to the passersby. Instead, those ghosts lay shriveled like salted slugs in the...
Author : Kel Coleman Narrator : Hollis Monroe Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums Delete Your First Memory for Free was originally published in FIYAH Magazine Issue 17 (January 2021). Delete Your First Memory for Free by...
"Ursa Major got right the fuck out of our universe on the very afternoon she learned there were other options. It was the lucky break of her life that she just happened to be there, a short sprint from one of those points where the alien aethertrain...
"I was told I must swear fealty to William the Bastard. He had taken England, made himself king, fealty was required. But I did not swear and none could make me. He could kill me, or rather order his men to kill me. But he would not, because he wanted to...
violence
"I hate Original Diana immediately, or at least I want to hate her. Nothing should surprise me about her appearance, yet I’m embarrassed to be excited to look like her when I’m in my forties. My cheeks get hot when I think about how I held out a shred of...
abuse
"I called it "yearning" at first, but by the time word had spread to all twenty-two of us croppers, a divide had resulted: half called it firesouling, and half called it firesailing."
sexual-violenceviolence
An escaped droid with a downloaded human mind crashes on a hostile planet, where she finds an alien artifact and desperately tries to convince it to help her.
"They say the universe was created when a Giant lit a matchstick. That her great sigh fanned the flames that danced and wept into stars and constellations. They say some seas are blue and Slugs are naturally submissive. They also say that I cannot exist....
child-death
The narrator tries to find the path to the impossible ocean at the top of the mountain to dispose of the ashes of his/her parents, but there are obstacles in the way.
deathdeath-of-a-loved-one
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
A robot music performance aims to teach human beings that robots deserve to be treated as people.
death
Val leads an almost solitary life keeping the lighthouse at an inland lake. A man needing help with his magic interrupts her routine and brings unwelcome reminders of the life she lost.
In a storm, in an alternate 1890s South Pacific, their airship crashes on a Pacific Island occupied by surprisingly high-tech natives.
The narrator wants to spend the last hours before the asteroid strike with her parents, but she runs out of gas in the middle of South Dakota.
Electricity does strange things around Arthur, especially when he gets excited. He's excited about Christina, so their first date is going to be a real adventure.
sexual-content
"Carlo checked his rearview mirror, gravel flying as he tore over the road. He didn’t know why the Cappelli Verdi were after the woman in the back of his van, clutching a hemp blanket around her shoulders. All he knew was that he needed to get out of town,...
"The Starsinger, the Starsinger, the Starsinger, he sings. His histories have long been recorded—in every pit stop he has visited. In every station he has stayed. It may be just a minute of the traffickers slapping the Bini out of his mouth, or them...
child-abuseslaverysuicide
"When I leave home at seventeen, my mother tells me three things. Not to care too much. To keep my gift a secret. And to get used to being alone. “You’ll see what it’s like,” she says. “Out there in the real world.” None of this is good advice."
"I was no friend to the god of high places, of peaks and spires and rope bridges over narrow canyons, and I had no reason to expect that he was a friend of mine. But my mother kept asking, what could it hurt to ask for his favor. What could it hurt to try....
"Elodie finds a pair of old opera glasses in the empty husk of an abandoned silo. The gleam of the metal catches her flashlight beam and throws it back, and Elodie squats and fishes out the glasses with tentative fingers. The silo is huge and dark around...
"April, Mawlamyine. The Shepherd leads her flock through a city half overgrown with weeds. Weeds overwhelm the railway bridge, covering its deck. The pink wood sorrel has taken root in the road’s cracked flower beds, depending on the lay of the terrain to...
death
"It’s my twelfth birthday and we’re all waiting for Wormwood and everyone is here and I mean everyone. Me and Mom and Dad and Big Pa which is my grandpa who was the strong man at one of the last traveling carnivals in America, and Bigfoot of course, and a...
"It’s only after they’ve loaded the moving truck halfway with boxes that the parents finally notice Parker’s gone. They spend three days yelling for him. Mom waits the longest, wanders the farthest into the forest in the dark. Her voice is a plea, an...
death-of-a-loved-one
"When I was young, I used to fray apart my mother’s tales, seeking the threads of their structure. They were journeys, always, and marked by transition-places: doorway, gate, river. On the other side, someone offered the rules of this new environment. I...
violence
Emotional Resonance By V.M. Ayala Arbor’s favorite part of a mission was always the first view of a planet. Even after seven hundred years of being a giant robot, it never got old. Green and blue clouds churned over purple seas, imposing storms that...
deathviolence
"My dearest Evie— I am so terribly sorry, my darling daughter, but by the time you read this letter, I will be gone. I wish I could have delayed my departure long enough to attend your high school graduation as I always promised I would, but the timing was...
death
"Azahn had been the ninety-third Imperial Foresight to the Dynasty of Silken Flame for only three weeks when he was forcibly retired. His body had been blessed by the holy waters of the Sky-Vein River, and he had earned the named-blade Stalwart Thy Mind,...
death-of-a-loved-one
"Mom—” “I swear, Mal, I don’t know whether to be proud of you or horrified.” I held the phone away from me. I didn’t even have it on speaker, she was just that loud. If people around me started getting horrified, I wouldn’t be able to go through with this....
"War meant a new life for refrigeration unit B3RT4A—or Bertha, as her now-dead family liked to call her, before they’d been buried in the rubble of their kitchen. It meant she had to listen to the bomber-planes flying overhead day and night, had to hide in...
death-of-a-loved-onewar
"Mom always insisted everyone is family at Tollnacher Stimmacher, but I’m the only one she ever adopted. Twenty-five years ago, I was an orphan on the Earth colony, Lulularia. Mom raised me as her own despite my being human and her being a robot. Ever...
"The minister’s wife arrives at the Bahrain Ministry of Nanotechnology in a black limousine with dark, tinted windows. She normally eschews the hijab, but today, she’s wrapped in a black abaya with a full face covering, a useful method of concealing her...
deathillness-and-pandemic
"Witchcraft is a gift. Imelda would wave her steel spoon at Mercer and insist on this as he measured ingredients for her, whether she was boiling potions or a pot of farfalle pasta. Watch the salt, a teaspoon only, never pour too much. Don’t overheat the...
death-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
"The nitrogen was rising in my aeration basins as an autumn wind scattered crimson leaves on the water. It was a chill wind for this time of year, when the late rays of the farsun normally add a final burst of summer; it was going to be a long, cold...
violence
"The emergency call came in before the seagulls had even started crying. It found Quinn lying sleepless on the leaky air mattress she’d set up in the back of the shop... She fumbled for her phone and raised an eyebrow at the severity rating the user had...
Trina Nelson is a pretty, popular sixteen-year-old high school student whose idyllic life took a turn for the tragic because of the Wild Cards virus. Now, she wants nothing more than to live out her days in the shadowy anonymity of the Jokertown on the...
death-of-a-loved-one
"The wide yawning sky. We stare at unfamiliar stars, seeking familiar patterns in their strange configurations. Here is a cup and there a bear. A queen reclined and all the fish in the endless seas. The universe is more boundless than we know. Maybe than...
"Michael is afraid to go farther. Pudgy pushes him on. They walk through the shrouded city, the sound of footsteps all but obscured. Pudgy holds hard to the band of the broken fedora that perches crooked atop Michael’s bent head; the knees of Pudgy’s...
When Astrill finds a cat-like alien attached to the outside of their spaceship, things get complicated for him and the other smugglers, and the more they learn about their visitor, the worse it gets.
"The air over Chicago was thick with drones. There were at least two dozen I could see from the beach. Most were small, no more than slow-moving specks against the clouds, probably simple reconnaissance units. But at higher altitudes the big Venezuelan...
deathviolence
In the ruins of a dry, blasted Australia, Edward looks after an abandoned nine-year old girl as they travel in search of an old reservoir.
deathviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
abusedeath
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 an alternate 2018, A teenage roadie at a Who concert risks his life by using his sonic ability to try to save lives when a fire engulfs the building.
substance-useviolence
A young man enjoys his life in 22nd-Century Canada, but he’s anxious that no one find out he used to be a slave.
slavery
In the Third World, a teenage girl sees her whole family killed and flees with her brother. In Washington, an old woman gradually gives up on life. Somehow, their paths cross.
deathillness-and-pandemicwar
The Great Freeze has left the Earth almost lifeless for 20,000 years, but robots have awakened a genetically modified human to start a warming process—if they can figure out how to.
death
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
The godling of Town H sits in her office, depressed because with the bankruptcy of the company, her town is almost dead. But she has to rouse herself because something is attacking the town, and her people need her.
illness-and-pandemic
Two children and their aunt travel across the ruins of war-torn India in search of a camp where there’s food and security. But something deadly is waiting for them.
violencewar
The Owen corporation has brought some dinosaurs through their “gate,” and Dr. Crimshaw thinks she can use sign language to communicate with one of them.
A retired superhero and a conspiracy theorist join forces to gather evidence against a mobster who’s trying to force their friend to sell her property to him.
violence
A few years ago, the Gray Sun killed millions to silence the subversion of Li Sin’s revolutionary poetry. Li Sin faked their own death to escape, but somehow the Gray Sun learned the truth, and now it hunts again.
deathviolence
After an epidemic killed off half the Earth’s population, Enfys wanders around a depopulated Europe, live blogging the experience and looking for tampons.
deathillness-and-pandemicviolence
Toby exchanged his dying teen body for command of a lunar spaceship. He’ll make history if he succeeds, but he’s still just a kid, and it’s dark, cold, and lonely out in space.
A doomsday weapon has changed the laws of physics on Earth, and most of the population has perished. Liyana spends her time trying to have a baby and studying elephants, who have started to spontaneously combust.
deathpregnancy-loss
Zhang Xuan steals a starship to go hunt for her brother Kai, who went off to look for living alien civilizations in the galactic core and never came back.
Chenguang and her new partner find something unexpected during a survey of an abandoned world lost to pollution a long time ago.
It has only been five years since The Fall, but the clinic where teenage Kath works is the only medical service for two hundred miles.
Little Kalyani might be autistic, but no one in her village knows what that means. A passing sage offers her a boon, but it’s not at all a cure.
35 / F / Lane's Creek, Oklahoma By Hans Ege Wenger Sandra loaded. Boxes and pallets, mostly. Full of avocados, computer chips, plastic toys, etc. All carefully placed by her rubber-faced grippers into the trucks that darted in and out of the warehouse...
In early 19th-Century New Orleans, a teenage boy learns he can fly, but doesn’t understand why he must keep it a secret.
sexual-contentslaveryviolence
“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. […]
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...
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, […]
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 : 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...
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...
transphobiaviolence
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...
death-of-a-loved-one
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...
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)...
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...
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...
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...
deathviolence
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...
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...
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...
mental-illness
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...
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...
death-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
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...
illness-and-pandemic
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...
racismviolence
After a months-long drug-fueled party across Europe, I found myself homeless in the town of Portishead, abandoned by my so-called friends and estranged from my family. Some bad luck, but mostly my own fault. I thought back to my days as a Harvard student,...
substance-useviolence
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 […]
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...
sexual-content
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.
"At night, Olivia becomes a spider. She scurries down San Francisco streets, floats gently between cotton-candy-colored houses, and hides behind signs for trendy restaurants, like Trough and Instance. By day, she works as a software engineer for a company...
mental-illness
Death by Pink in the Lollipop Apocalypse By Ryan Cole In the dark of her bed, curled up in her sheets, Susie tried to hide from the next few days and the reckoning they’d bring: of prom and graduation and the dozens of goodbyes she’d have to force herself...
body-horrorhomophobia
Author : Elly Bangs Narrator : Christiana Ellis Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Space Pirate Queen of the Ten Billion Utopias” was first published in Lightspeed Magazine in November 2021 Copious amounts of casual strong language. This...
Author : Marie Vibbert Narrator : Isabel J. Kim Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Knit Three, Save Four” first appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction (November 2019) Knit Three, Save Four by Marie Vibbert The ship was two days overdue for...
Baron Quits The Payloaders By Renan Bernardo This story starts with a gig. Half a million people from all corners of the galaxy, hands in the air, heads banging to our vibrant noise. You probably saw the venue on some feed already. It’s the Amplitude, our...
deathdeath-of-a-loved-onepregnancy-loss
Author : David DeGraff Narrator : Brian Lieberman Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Mackson’s Mardi Gras Moon Race” originally appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Mackson’s Mardi Gras Moon...
death
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...
Oak Hill Lane By Alasdair Stuart The day the world ended, Scotch picked a fight. Not that there was much choice. Two fellow Canary Detailers, heads full of redtop bigotry and guts full of Tesco beer, had jumped Scotch’s work partner Billy the previous week...
homophobiaviolence
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...
illness-and-pandemic
Peace by Piece By Erin Cairns Frank thought all the battle-drones had been deactivated. Certainly, none of them had ever looked around with curious little twitches of their front-facing cameras before. This one whirred and clicked like an anxious bird,...
Author : Dale Smith Narrator : Louise Ratcliffe Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Joy” was previously published in Interzone Digital (June 2023) Joy by Dale Smith Joy knelt on the promenade, shifting the rifle into her shoulder to get a...
Twilight By Lilly Harper Like the tide going out, the dream slipped between her toes and carried with it the smell of petrichor and the sound of birdsong. Even without knowing she was dreaming, she had known she was waking up; the subliminal chatter of her...
Holding Patterns By Jennifer Hudak I dream about the trees sometimes. I think we all do, even though none of my generation were alive when the forest was actually growing. We don’t dream about them the way they are now—stunted and dormant—but the way they...
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...
Nerves Into Circuits By Lyra Meurer Metal arms descend to press skin-soft conductor strips over my shoulders. The Neurasuit has been in warming mode for a few minutes–my overwrought senses accept the lines of heat like a gift. Despite my anxiety for the...
body-horrorsuicideviolence
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...
The Carina Nebula By Kelsey Hutton I heard the soft shit shit shit just when I’d almost floated past the blue hatch door that led into some kind of storage room. I had to laugh. I mean, how many times have I said that? Plus the voice sounded older, a...
Author : C. H. Irons Narrator : Elie Hirschman Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 922: The Last Oracle of Atlantic City is an Escape Pod original. This episode is sponsored by The Theater of the Midnight Sun podcast:...
Author : David Hankins Narrator : Eric Valdes Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Felix and the Flamingo” was originally published in the anthology Murderbirds (January 2023). To learn more about Bruiser the Rat, check out “Milo Piper’s...
animal-harm
Summitting the Moon By Pragathi Bala T-7 days The moon Landed, the Rut appeared, home equity plummeted, jobs disappeared, and Ghis liked riding the moon. It was the last item on this tragic list that her wife couldn’t accept. It was the leaf that broke the...
pregnancy-loss
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...
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 : Erin Brown Narrator : Cherrae L. Stuart Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Skyscrapers That Twist to the Sun” appeared in Fantasy Magazine Issue 87 (January 2023) Skyscrapers That Twist to the Sun by Erin Brown Shaundra took the...
Vault (Part 2 of 2) By D.A. Xiaolin Spires (...Continued from Part 1) “Lukas?” Chenguang’s voice echoes in this expanse of dark. A vortex of light opens to her right and she sees a warped head and legs emerge from a point in the dark. It’s Lukas. As he...
Author : Julia Rios Narrators : Abra Staffin-Wiebe and Tatiana Grey Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “To Catch a Flieff” was originally written as a bonus for backers of the Bridge to Elsewhere Kickstarter (an anthology of stories set...
Authors : Sarina Dorie and Addison Smith Narrators : Tina Connolly and Andrew K. Hoe Hosts : Alasdair Stuart and Kat Day Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 965: T-Rex Tex Mex / Mother Death Learns a Trick is an Escape Pod original. T-Rex Tex Mex by...
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...
deathviolence
Like Stars Daring to Shine By Somto Ihezue When the boy opens his housing unit’s steel door and the incandescent lights pour into his face, he does not blink away. “Little suns” — this is what everyone calls them. The massive disks hover in the atmosphere,...
Author : Avi Burton Narrator : M. Darusha Wehm Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 879: Triptych is an Escape Pod original. Content warnings for gender dysphoria, and threats of gun violence Triptych by Avi Burton Delaney didn’t...
transphobiaviolence
Author : Lavie Tidhar Narrator : Kyle Akers Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks This story first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (December 2020) Wild Geese by Lavie Tidhar With rustling wings the wild geese fly Round...
deathviolence
Author : Linda Niehoff Narrator : Heather Thomas Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 883: Just Us and the Mannequins is an Escape Pod original. Brief mention of suicidal ideations Just Us and the Mannequins by Linda Niehoff It was...
suicide
Author : Andrea Phillips Narrator : Julia Rios Hosts : Valerie Valdes and Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks The Revolution, Brought to You by Nike originally appeared in Fireside Magazine in February 2017 and first played on Escape Pod Episode...
violence
Author : Derrick Boden Narrator : Valerie Valdes Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks This story originally appeared in the August 2022 issue of Clarkesworld. Migratory Patterns of the Modern American Skyscraper by Derrick Boden They call it...
A Layer Thin As Breath By T. K. Rex “Valley. Can you still hear me?” Julian’s voice filtered through her dying radio. The Prince of Cats was a speck of light, dimming through the gold-grey film that, atom by atom, was devouring her helmet. Valley tried to...
body-horror
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...
death-of-a-loved-one
Driftwood in the Sea of Time By Wendy Nikel They'd warned us about the paradoxes, but humanity has always had a way of ignoring the things we don't want to think about and disregarding the parts that don't align with how we want the world to operate. One...
death-of-a-loved-one
#buttonsinweirdplaces By Simon Kewin The buttons started to appear on the last day of April, 2022. A six-year-old boy from Nairobi, Jomi Mbenzi, was perhaps the first to spot one. Dawdling along behind his mother, her swaying yellow-orange dress and the...
#buttonsinweirdplaces (Part 2 of 2) By Simon Kewin (... Continued from Part 1) The news the following morning was bad. An explosion in the middle of a market-square in Libya had been variously blamed upon a suicide-bomber and upon over-zealous security...
violence
Author : Ava Kelly Narrator : Ben Gideon Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “The Confessionist” was previously published in the anthology: Community of Magic Pens, edited by E.D.E. Bell, released May 2020 by Atthis Arts The Confessionist...
Author : Tim Pratt Narrator : Amy H. Sturgis Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks This story originally aired in Escape Pod 622 (April 2018) Some cursing. Suggestions of violence and death. Anna and Marisol in Time and Space by Tim Pratt The...
deathhomophobiaviolence
Harvest the Stars By Mar Vincent The summer Sif turned one, the starships were ripe on the vine. They hulked in fields ringing the town where Tuja had always lived. A place far from big cities, where the starlight they fed on came pure and bright. “The...
Author : Tina Connolly Narrator : Bria Strothers Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums Lions and Tigers and Girlfriends, Oh My! originally appeared in Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology in October 2020. Lions and Tigers...
Build-A-Body By Avi Burton When I was eighteen, I ordered a body off the internet. It was actually kind of easy. I was old enough to remember when the first successful human transfer was performed— the consciousness of a paralyzed young man was dropped...
mental-illness
Author : Lia Swope Mitchell Narrator : S. Kay Nash Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums “Rena in the Desert” was previously published in Asimov’s (March/April 2020) Contains harsh language Rena in the Desert by Lia Swope...
transphobiaviolence
Vi'hun Heal By Michelle Tang The entrance panels, currently assuming the appearance of Earthian saloon doors, slid open. I rippled a welcoming cadence of light beneath my skin, and then, seeing the newcomer was human, made my best approximation of a smile....
goreslaverywar
Author : Phoenix Alexander Narrator : Nicola Chapman Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums Escape Pod 832: Mouthfeel is an Escape Pod original. Mouthfeel by Phoenix Alexander 2050 After she left him, he found cells of hers...
Author : R.S.A. Garcia Narrator : Maxine Moore Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine (Issue 172, January 2021), and is a finalist for the 2022 Ignyte Award for Best Novella...
slaveryviolencewar
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...
An Incident on Ishtar By Brian Trent Her family tried very hard to never use the word “crazy” with her. So therefore, they didn’t say it was crazy that she was applying for a Venusian post as Tier 3 Balloon Specialist. She tried explaining her reasons to...
violence
Any Other Customer By Rachel Gutin Lewis was poking at his tablet, trying yet again to open the training module from Station Commerce, when the sensor above his shop door chimed. “Not now!” he snapped without looking up. “But… but I….” Blast it! His tailor...
Author : Gwynne Garfinkle Narrator : Alethea Kontis Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in GigaNotoSaurus (March 2020) Contains cursing and discussions of sex. A Wild Patience (Part 3 of 3) by Gwynne...
abuseviolence
Author : Merc Fenn Wolfmoor Narrator : Justin C. Key Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums Escape Pod 778: The Machine is Experiencing Uncertainty is an Escape Pod original. The Machine is Experiencing Uncertainty by Merc...
violence
Heard, Half-Heard, in the Stillness By Iona Datt Sharma Ekta’s Dadi could tell the future. She didn’t read the tea leaves, or make or lay bets on the cricket. But she booked the photographer the week before the news came of Purnima Didi’s engagement. She...
A Dragon in Two Parts By Kiya Nicoll “‘Shed your skin and spread your wings to fly’,” I read off the sign. The letters were done in a sort of swooshy font and punctuated by yellow and blue yin-yangy things at either end. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable...
suicide
When she’s not helping study a giant alien artifact, Neela enjoys ice skating on Europa’s endless ice plains.
The Sun From Both Sides (Part 3 of 3) By R.S.A. Garcia (Continued from Part 2 - Escape Pod episode 758) "Grandmaster Lucochin." He started awake, his hand tightening on something. Someone. The Knight hung motionless over him. He had it by the throat, his...
slaveryviolence
Give the Family My Love by A. T. Greenblatt I’m beginning to regret my life choices, Saul. Also, hello from the edge of the galaxy. Also, surprise! I know this isn’t what you had in mind when you said “Keep in touch, Hazel” but this planet doesn’t exactly...
pregnancy-loss