Lily
Reading Time: 15 minutesWhen this narrator finds his “special lady,” he is swept away with her beauty and perfection. However, she has a hidden secret and events become increasingly bizarre until he finds out the outlandish truth about her.
A New Home
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhat makes a house a home? In the future, we might not have to be the ones who decide that.
New apps can be controlled by your thoughts
Reading Time: 2 minutesDevelopers can now create apps controlled by a user’s thoughts. Yup, you can operate computers, lights, TVs, music, games with your mind — as long as you’ve got a little lighter-sized device strapped to your head.
Concerto
Reading Time: 4 minutesA haunted musician is compelled to make music for creatures he finds in the shadows…
Even Black is Bright in Oz
Reading Time: 5 minutesToto doesn’t understand why Dorothy ever wanted to leave Oz, so he finds a way back.
A Pleasant Walk, A Pleasant Talk
Reading Time: 5 minutesWho are they what do they want with us? We bring you the breaking news.
Bellatrification
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn a society where everybody is beautiful, physical imperfection becomes a career move.
Refugee
Reading Time: 17 minutes“A unique, bizarre talent” was how critics described Timera Lovich and her wildy speculative poetry. But even she didn’t know the true genesis of her imaginary tales until she realized she wasn’t who or what she thought she was. Until it was too late.
Alien Fugitive
Reading Time: 12 minutesQuinn Baxter escaped from a tyrannical government and finds that he is now an alien fugitive on the run from his planet’s security squad.
The Howler on the Sales Floor
Reading Time: 8 minutesA hellbeast stuck in a crappy office job struggles to comply with his sensitivity training.
Maize
Reading Time: 21 minutesFor Althea Stagg, demigod detective, family history and mythology are often the same thing. So it comes as no surprise to her when a case leads her to a corn maze, and the monster that stalks its prey within.
Second Bite
Reading Time: 4 minutesA dentist with a dark family history receives a request to fit a patient with a very unique set of teeth.
Safe Harbor
Reading Time: 12 minutesA story about a young woman’s journey to find her true identity after her mother dies. It’s also a story about love, Mother Earth, and living without fear.
Review: Reception by Kenzie Jennings
Reading Time: 3 minutesJenning’s debut novel stands out against her peers in a horrifying examination of family intersectionality, mental trauma, and compelling story-telling.
‘Illidan: World of Warcraft’ — Sympathizing with the Devil
Reading Time: 2 minutesIn William King’s tie-in novel, you can explore one of the World of Warcraft’s most cold-blooded villains, a night elf who goes by Illidan Stormrage.
‘Illidan: World of Warcraft’ — Sympathizing with the Devil Read More »
Excerpt: Krim Times
Reading Time: 8 minutesOnce upon a time, there was a virtual world that was almost, but not quite, completely unlike 1500s England. The assassin peered out from the window overlooking Leadenhall Street. It was mid-day and there were plenty of targets. Local residents, mostly, but also a fair number of tourists and would-be adventurers looking for quests. The
Nade
Reading Time: 8 minutesAn arid world is ruled by the five beast-gods, human-animal hybrids with mysterious powers, but also, increasingly, by the despotic Daonais and their loyal servants. Nade she has no memory of her past but is pursued through an inhospitable desert.
Pandemic Bingewatch: Away
Reading Time: 2 minutesUpdate: Netflix is not picking up Away for a second season. I have to be honest. I’m not really the target audience for Netflix’ new science fiction drama, Away. Yes, it’s about humanity’s first manned mission to Mars. And yes, it stars Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank. Both of those things are great. But it’s
The Hungry Ones
Reading Time: 15 minutesA woman with no memory wakes up in a city with no history. The city is alive. Among skyscrapers of flesh and bridges of bone, Kora hunts for her identity and for the forbidden food she craves: a predator and prey at once.
Preview: BBC takes on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld
Reading Time: 3 minutesBBC America just released the first video previews of “The Watch,” a series based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, and it’s not looking at all like what people were expecting.
Preview: BBC takes on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Read More »
Milagro
Reading Time: 11 minutesJimi awoke, moving only her eyes. It was something she learned from Lonny. He called it pulling together the threads of your life before you start moving around. It’s a focusing thing. She reviewed what she could do this day to make her dreams come true. Life is more manageable if you start each day
Pandemic Bingewatch: ‘What We Do In the Shadows’
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhat if “The Office” was staffed by vampires? Here’s the answer, folks.
Pandemic Bingewatch: ‘What We Do In the Shadows’ Read More »
New VR camera delivered to space station
Reading Time: 2 minutesA new virtual reality camera was successfully delivered to the International Space Station today and will allow the astronauts to film spacewalks in VR.
Quietly, Ross
Reading Time: 13 minutesTen-year-old Ross stopped sleeping when a rat-that-was-more-than-a-rat crept from his closet every night.
Artificial Intelligence experiments produce satisfyingly bizarre results
Reading Time: 2 minutesCome have a laugh with Dr. Shane.
Artificial Intelligence experiments produce satisfyingly bizarre results Read More »
Heaven’s Shutting Gate
Reading Time: 7 minutesA time traveler decides to rid history of serial killers. Men like Manson & Bundy prove easy, but just how does one track down Jack the Ripper?
The Church of the Written Word
Reading Time: 2 minutesI slip into the confessional booth and sit down on the pale green cushion. It’s a peaceful place redolent of oiled wood, clean old ladies, and thousands of years of tradition. On my right, where the outline of a priest will appear, is a beautiful screen of elaborately carved wooden filigree. Before he arrives, I feel tranquility like in no other place on earth.
The priest appears. I can tell from his voice he is younger than I would like. As is traditional, I start the session.
Resources for writers
Reading Time: 4 minutesOur master list of best resources for writers of fantasy, horror and sci-fi.
The Revenge of the Trees
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe Dutch Goose is one of those cozy little bars in the neighborhood surrounding MIT. It’s a place where you can pick up a sandwich on the way home from campus or have a few beers while doing homework. Couples drop by to have a quick drink before their special event. It’s the kind of
Six things we will do with Elon Musk’s Neuralink, according to sci-fi
Reading Time: 4 minutesLast Friday, billionaire inventor Tony Stark — I mean, Elon Musk — showed off progress on his latest project, the Neuralink.
Six things we will do with Elon Musk’s Neuralink, according to sci-fi Read More »
‘The Killing Moon’: Where Dreaming Means Death
Reading Time: 3 minutes If you live for reliable magic systems that still feel otherworldly and strange, then the Dreamblood duology is for you.
New Terry Pratchett book out today
Reading Time: 2 minutesTerry Pratchett is one of my all-time favorite authors, and even though he died five years ago, a new book is now out, a collection of never-before-published short stories he wrote for local newspapers back in the 1960s and 1970s.
HBO VR events and concerts start today on VRChat
Reading Time: 2 minutes“Garden of Eden,” the first in a series of three live VR art explorations, concerts, and shows organized by HBO, kicks off today at 10 p.m. Eastern time on VRChat, a social VR platform.
HBO VR events and concerts start today on VRChat Read More »
Brandon Sanderson’s writing lectures are free on YouTube
Reading Time: 2 minutesSci-fi and fantasy author Brandon Sanderson’s 13 hour-long “Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” lectures are up on YouTube.
Brandon Sanderson’s writing lectures are free on YouTube Read More »
Scientists: ‘Oumuamua may be alien after all
Reading Time: 2 minutes‘Oumuamua, a weird interstellar object that was discovered passing through our solar system in 2017, might be alien after all.
Wormhole travel could be possible, scientists say
Reading Time: < 1 minuteAccording to new research, it’s possible that we could have wormholes large and stable enough for humans to be able to travel to distant stars.
Wormhole travel could be possible, scientists say Read More »
Season 2 of ‘Umbrella Academy’ Outstrips the First
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe “Umbrella Academy” series is worth your while if you love wacky, unique, funny stories that stretch the boundaries of genre and convention.
Season 2 of ‘Umbrella Academy’ Outstrips the First Read More »
Could Science & Technology Allow Us to Cheat Death?
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhat if one day we could cheat death? What if we could live longer – possibly forever? And if we could, would we want to?
Could Science & Technology Allow Us to Cheat Death? Read More »
A new quantum paradox throws the foundations of observed reality into question
Reading Time: 6 minutesA new paradox in quantum mechanics – one of our two most fundamental scientific theories – throws doubt on some common-sense ideas about physical reality.
A new quantum paradox throws the foundations of observed reality into question Read More »
Lava tubes on the Moon and Mars could be our future homes
Reading Time: 2 minutesLiving on the surface of the Moon, or of Mars, is dangerous. The lack of a protective atmosphere means that radiation is a constant hazard, for example. Lava tubes can be the solution, scientists say.
Lava tubes on the Moon and Mars could be our future homes Read More »
Nikola Tesla: The extraordinary life of a modern Prometheus
Reading Time: 6 minutesTesla was a real-life Prometheus: the mythical Greek titan who raided heaven to bring fire to mankind, yet in punishment was chained to a rock where each day an eagle ate his liver.
Nikola Tesla: The extraordinary life of a modern Prometheus Read More »
Netflix sends Hilary Swank ‘Away’ to Mars
Reading Time: < 1 minuteNetflix’s new show “Away”, the first 10-episode season of which drops Sept. 4, takes a realistic, personal approach to the first manned trip to Mars.
Flash fiction submissions due Nov. 1
Reading Time: 2 minutesFlash fiction submission deadline is November 1.
55 Years Later, ‘Dune’ Still Rises
Reading Time: 11 minutesAs Dune continues to work its way back into the social consciousness, I believe it is worth revisiting some of the novel’s core themes, and considering them in the light of 2020.
Metaphors be with You
Reading Time: 3 minutesNeville Schroeder was a fireplug. He stood barely five feet tall, red, shabby, and pedestrian. Professor Connelly towered over him, a giant oak tree of a man with a silk paneled vest, tweed coat and tie, expensive glasses, and a neatly trimmed beard.
A Drama in the Air
Reading Time: 23 minutesWe were to start at noon. The impatient crowd which pressed around the enclosed space, filling the enclosed square, overflowing into the contiguous streets, and covering the houses from the ground-floor to the slated gables, presented a striking scene.
The Evil Eye
Reading Time: 26 minutesThe Moreot, Katusthius Ziani, travelled wearily, and in fear of its robber-inhabitants, through the pashalik of Yannina; yet he had no cause for dread.
Silence
Reading Time: 5 minutes“Listen to me,” said the Demon as he placed his hand upon my head. “The region of which I speak is a dreary region in Libya, by the borders of the river Zaire. And there is no quiet there, nor silence.”