"You see them, the shadows, everywhere. They look like the person you knew, maybe someone you were related to, maybe someone you loved. Always someone you lost. But they aren’t that someone. That’s the infuriating and the comforting part. They can’t be...
Redemption
39 free-to-read stories tagged “Redemption”
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
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
"The rocket ship blasted off from the Devereaux Airstrip on the outskirts of Ottawa and headed straight into the stratosphere. Ruth Mulu, one of four passengers, stared at the cappuccino machine and tried not to throw up. Adeline Devereaux, the Canadian...
Content warnings 2
homophobiasexual-violence
To return to power, the godlike Hollow Ones recruit Spear to kill the Great Beasts that hold the laws of reality in place, and Hark to cook them so they can absorb their power. Only one remains before the end of the world as they know it.
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
"Pusetso’s research assistant lay in pieces on the floor with his head between his chest, back open, cracked solar panels splayed on the office table. A mess of tangled multicolored wires dangled from the bottom of his torso—rainbow innards. His legs, the...
Content warnings 1
violence
"Tarma had only just begun the Widow Fenton’s flax when the Shadow Undying rose once more. At first she thought that the shutter on the upper window must have come unwedged, since the light shouldn’t have failed so early in the day. But the unholy chanting...
Content warnings 1
death
"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...
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 1
abuse
Original humans killed off all the people on Karalang 15,000 years ago, but the captain of Karalang’s last surviving warship just woke from cryosleep to get his revenge. But there’s an intruder on the ship.
Content warnings 3
deathgenocideviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
"Inevitably, they found her. She came back to her tiny apartment and clicked on the light to find a massive young man, wearing the signature black jeans and sweatshirt of Combine, standing in her living room. The dim light glinted off his earpiece, the...
Content warnings 2
child-abuseviolence
"Dominic Vadas hadn’t set out to break records. Hadn’t intended to become the furthest outpost of humanity in existence, or famous in any way. He’d simply wanted to slip away from the rest of humanity unnoticed. One billion miles from Earth, 2.5 hours of...
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
"Police detective Hector Kovack couldn’t take the bullet back. He lay in the gray, predawn ooze of a hungover Martian Tuesday morning, twisting the thought with all his might. Or trying. Drunk, hungover or sober, the truth wouldn’t twist. No matter how...
Content warnings 2
substance-useviolence
"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....
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 3
deathracismviolence
"The aftermath of the great war deposited me on a breathtaking port city called Aeskir, on a dazzling world called Aevii. This was about as fine a place to end up as I could have hoped. Many thousands of worlds across human space had been scoured of life...
Content warnings 2
genocideviolence
"Ambassador Porleth Heng considered herself a blessed woman. Unlike most members of the Confederate Diplomatic Corps, who had indentured themselves to that service out of economic hardship or an ache to escape the terrible conditions on their respective...
Content warnings 2
deathsubstance-use
"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...
"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...
"Clouds rolled across the evening sky, dark and low, dragging rain behind them. Desert washes ran dirt-red, and rocky mesas shone wet when lightning flashed. Rainwater frothed down the narrow slot of Sheep Drop Ravine, a chasm with overgrown edges that had...
Content warnings 2
substance-usesuicide
"They didn’t believe me," I said. “They didn’t believe that I wasn’t supposed to be here—that I woke up wrong.” I lost track of time again. My attention shifted toward the floor, drawn to a crack in the tile. It was causing quite a ruckus in my mind. The...
Consumed with guilt for being the sole survivor from her home dimension collapsed, Angel scrapes by in our world, living with a ghost, working as a janitor and doing limited magic on the sly.
Content warnings 1
substance-use
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Congratulations on your Magic Sword"! For all inquiries as to its powers and perils, please consult the Virtue Exercises Manual". However, we know new users sometimes get in over their heads. That’s why messages like this may appear on your blade. If you...
Author : Jeff Soesbe Narrator : Mur Lafferty Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 1063: Modern Birdwatching is an Escape Pod original. This episode is sponsored by Sleepphones! Use code ESCAPEPOD and get 10% off your purchase....
Green Plumed Orbital Line A; viridis metamorphos A Common sighting; Flies along the forty-fifth latitude every 12 minutes Traveler’s addendum: Last functional line along a northern latitude; southern latitudes TBD My crawler runs out of energy as I reach...
Content warnings 1
abuse
Rachel sat at the edge of the sparkling pond in the secluded glen that had taken her five years to find. The air smelled of roses and lavender and pine. Tiny white sparks, like fireflies, floated upward, almost as if they were watching her.
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...
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...
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.
This episode features "When You Give a Dokkaebi Taco Tuesday" written by H.H. Pak. Published in the August 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
Content warnings 3
abuseviolencewar
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.
Feng, once indentured to the university in return for her studies, accompanies the Professor who bought her debt to the mountains. There, they expect to find a rare and tragic treasure: a dead dragon. This is Part 2 of "Dragonsworn" by L. Chan, the first...
Content warnings 3
deathviolencewar
In "Rattlers" by D.K. Lawhorn, dance and music mark the end of exile for two former outcasts once betrayed and hunted by the same allies who now seek to make amends. Copyright khōréō magazine 2023. Story by D.K. Lawhorn , edited by Rowan Morrison. Audio...
PseudoPod 811: No One Really Lives Alone is a PseudoPod original. When the priest comes to your house to vanquish your demons, draped in ancient symbols with pockets of holy water oozing from her like sap, don’t ask who sent her. She’ll mark your doorstep...
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathviolence
“Flickering Dusk Of The Video God” was originally published in the 2020 anthology Monsters, Movies & Mayhem A fresh burst of white noise roars through my head and jittery tracking lines wiggle and squirm through my vision again, even worse this time. The...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence