“Moreover,” the murderer says, downing the cup of hemlock in a single gulp, the apple of his throat pulsating beneath his unshaven bristles. “This trial is a sham, the court of a kangaroo or some such extinct marsupial, null and devoid of legitimacy, unsanctioned by apostolic or secular authority, unblessed by the council of the great leaders of the noble order, and unseen by the eyes of the gods.”...

I was not thinking about theater when Rana Guilfoyle, the noted touring actress, walked into my office. To be fair, I mostly am not thinking about theater anyway. But I was extra hard not thinking about theater today because every holo billboard in town had been announcing that Rana was gracing us with her presence, and Rana is my ex....

One Last night the capital city of Ciro was plunged into darkness. Residents ran out of their homes to find that they were not the only ones; the entire metropolis was cut off. The town of Brakia, eighty kilometers away, had changed hands several times within the past month, and the fighting was intense....

There is a stretch of mud lying beside a lazy river. It has been smoothed flat. A small boy—thin, about ten, bare-headed in the heat—selects a slender branch trimmed of its twigs, and makes patterns with its tip in the quickly-drying mud....

“Next up is Johnny Zepter.” Steve called up the figures. At her own screen, Kate opened the spreadsheet and readied herself to make notes. “This week, our good buddy Zee submitted four hundred and seventy-three stories to eight different outlets, of which four were accepted.”...

The day I turned ninety-eight, I booked a journey in one of those fancy Afterlife ships to leave Earth and life for good. Fifteen days later, I was in a hangar decked out with orchids and a lilac fifteen-hundred-foot-long spaceship with drawings of lilies and smiling planets on its hull....