An "alien invasion" issue featuring 50,000 words of fiction from the United Kingdom, Russia, USA, China, Sweden, and Italy.
The fall issue of
Future Science Fiction Digest is packed with fifty thousand words of fiction
from the United Kingdom, Russia, the United States, China, Sweden, and Italy.
The primary theme
for this issue is “Alien Invasion.” While this theme may evoke
well-worn tropes from military science fiction novels, games, and movies, I
thought there were quite a few novel and interesting ways to approach the
subject, and our writers didn’t disappoint....
THEY ARE COMING
Teshana Wright
Gizmodo.com
Darlene
McKinnon saw aliens long before the rest of us did.
Fifteen
years ago she was serving as a helicopter mechanic at Nellis AFB, making
regular flights back and forth to the Creech UAV base....
Goshka fell asleep on the tram and refused to wake up when we reached our
stop. Marina had to carry him as she squeezed through the crowd on the packed
tram toward the exit. I struggled to keep up, wrangling my bag and a pair of
suitcases....
So, after my grandfather
conquered Belloq IV, and my father subjugated the entire Karolian Empire, it
was my turn.
Of course, I’d known it for
years. You don’t grow up as the eldest male in the bloodiest family in an
entire galactic sector and not have some notion of what the future holds for
you....
The Third Incubation of
Peacocks, afternoon.
I write this from a lily pad
floating on the North Pole. I came here to ponder mushrooms; I find it helpful
to think about dark things in bright places. Kaida has scolded me for wading in
the algae pools, and I understand how important they are to our oxygen cycle....
Podcast of “You Came to the Tower” by Shaenon K. GarittyNarrated by Wulf MoonCover art by Tomasz MaronskiMusic track sampled from “Wrapped in Dreams” by Frankum and Frankumjay, used under a Creative Commons license....
Yellow
is the breath of the dying.
On
the seventh day after Dandan drank the paraquat—a pesticide that had recently
become tragically popular for suicide attempts, as well as the cause of too
many accidental ingestions by children—her skin grew sallow and her breathing
grew rapid and weak....
The
moon shone green below us. It wasn’t far now. I really ought to have prepared
for insertion, but I had difficulty tearing myself away from that powerful
vista. There was something captivating about the unending forests. At the same time, I was aware of what
awaited us there....
For the third trial, AmaBaba flies me and John to their
Seattle headquarters. That way, he and their boxing computer will have the same
lag between conducting a virtual maneuver and a bot actually performing it. I
suppose they could have brought the computer and us to the warehouse, where the
lag would be minimized, but AmaBaba probably wants to maintain a home field
advantage—as
well as not go all the way to Bessemer, Alabama....
“Blessed are the
lazy,” said Joseph Synczlowieczy, the so-called messiah of the Thirteenth
Colony, “because they don’t fight wars, they love the idleness of reading, and
indolence feeds the ingenuity necessary to preserve it.”
Somebody laughed
from the aisles, but others hung around to listen to him willingly, rolled up
like doughnuts on their gravity-controlled gurneys in the rehabilitation ward....
An “alien invasion” issue featuring 50,000 words of fiction from the United Kingdom, Russia, USA, China, Sweden, and Italy.
Table of contents
The fall issue of
Future Science Fiction Digest is packed with fifty thousand words of fiction
from the United Kingdom, Russia, the United States, China, Sweden, and Italy.
The primary theme
for this issue is “Alien Invasion.” While this theme may evoke
well-worn tropes from military science fiction novels, games, and movies, I
thought there were quite a few novel and interesting ways to approach the
subject, and our writers didn’t disappoint....
THEY ARE COMING
Teshana Wright
Gizmodo.com
Darlene
McKinnon saw aliens long before the rest of us did.
Fifteen
years ago she was serving as a helicopter mechanic at Nellis AFB, making
regular flights back and forth to the Creech UAV base....
Goshka fell asleep on the tram and refused to wake up when we reached our
stop. Marina had to carry him as she squeezed through the crowd on the packed
tram toward the exit. I struggled to keep up, wrangling my bag and a pair of
suitcases....
So, after my grandfather
conquered Belloq IV, and my father subjugated the entire Karolian Empire, it
was my turn.
Of course, I’d known it for
years. You don’t grow up as the eldest male in the bloodiest family in an
entire galactic sector and not have some notion of what the future holds for
you....
The Third Incubation of
Peacocks, afternoon.
I write this from a lily pad
floating on the North Pole. I came here to ponder mushrooms; I find it helpful
to think about dark things in bright places. Kaida has scolded me for wading in
the algae pools, and I understand how important they are to our oxygen cycle....
Podcast of “You Came to the Tower” by Shaenon K. GarittyNarrated by Wulf MoonCover art by Tomasz MaronskiMusic track sampled from “Wrapped in Dreams” by Frankum and Frankumjay, used under a Creative Commons license....
Yellow
is the breath of the dying.
On
the seventh day after Dandan drank the paraquat—a pesticide that had recently
become tragically popular for suicide attempts, as well as the cause of too
many accidental ingestions by children—her skin grew sallow and her breathing
grew rapid and weak....
The
moon shone green below us. It wasn’t far now. I really ought to have prepared
for insertion, but I had difficulty tearing myself away from that powerful
vista. There was something captivating about the unending forests. At the same time, I was aware of what
awaited us there....
For the third trial, AmaBaba flies me and John to their
Seattle headquarters. That way, he and their boxing computer will have the same
lag between conducting a virtual maneuver and a bot actually performing it. I
suppose they could have brought the computer and us to the warehouse, where the
lag would be minimized, but AmaBaba probably wants to maintain a home field
advantage—as
well as not go all the way to Bessemer, Alabama....
“Blessed are the
lazy,” said Joseph Synczlowieczy, the so-called messiah of the Thirteenth
Colony, “because they don’t fight wars, they love the idleness of reading, and
indolence feeds the ingenuity necessary to preserve it.”
Somebody laughed
from the aisles, but others hung around to listen to him willingly, rolled up
like doughnuts on their gravity-controlled gurneys in the rehabilitation ward....
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