Archives: Issues
The sixth issue of Future SF showcases fiction from the Czech Republic, USA, Catalonia, and Russia.
Welcome
to the first of the 2020 issues of Future SF. In this issue we feature original
fiction from the Czech Republic, Catalonia, and Russia, as well as a reprint by
the inimitable Ken Liu. We also review Ken’s translation of Vagabonds by the Hugo-winner Hao
Jingfang, and interview the incoming CEO of Heavy
Metal....
Reflect
upon the extraordinary advance which machines have made during the last few
hundred years, and note how slowly the animal and vegetable kingdoms are
advancing… Assume for the sake of argument that conscious beings have existed
for some twenty million years: see what strides machines have made in the last
thousand!...
“Welcome to weRobot,” said the
chipper HR representative. “Jake and Ron and the rest of us are all so looking forward to your
contributions!”
“Are you a true believer?” the
woman next to me asked in a low, conspiratorial voice. I looked at her,
puzzled; her name tag said Amy....
Vagabondsby Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken LiuHardcover, April 2020Saga PressISBN-13: 978-1534422087
In Vagabonds, written by Hao Jingfang and translated by Ken Liu, two previously warring factions, Mars and Earth, attempt to ease their mutual distrust by sending a group of Martian teenagers to spend a few years on Earth as part of a cultural exchange....
Our Lady modeled our bodies out
of sand and fire. Our Lady put the words inside our heads. Our Lady gave us
life, gave us strength, gave us grace. She wrote our subroutines as if they
were love letters. She composed our circuitry as if it were a poem....
Heavy Metal Magazine is one of the most influential comic book publications in the field of science fiction. Film directors such as Ridley Scott, Terry Gilliam, and James Cameron have cited it as a major influence on their work, both as a deeper gateway into science fiction and as a visual bible that continuously inspires the look of their films....
Fine resort. Great planet. Not
too many visitors, though. The reason is simple: the locals are rather
particular about the ecological state of their home. They dutifully protect
species that many would argue should not be allowed to exist to begin with....
The sixth issue of Future SF showcases fiction from the Czech Republic, USA, Catalonia, and Russia.
Table of contents
Welcome
to the first of the 2020 issues of Future SF. In this issue we feature original
fiction from the Czech Republic, Catalonia, and Russia, as well as a reprint by
the inimitable Ken Liu. We also review Ken’s translation of Vagabonds by the Hugo-winner Hao
Jingfang, and interview the incoming CEO of Heavy
Metal....
Reflect
upon the extraordinary advance which machines have made during the last few
hundred years, and note how slowly the animal and vegetable kingdoms are
advancing… Assume for the sake of argument that conscious beings have existed
for some twenty million years: see what strides machines have made in the last
thousand!...
“Welcome to weRobot,” said the
chipper HR representative. “Jake and Ron and the rest of us are all so looking forward to your
contributions!”
“Are you a true believer?” the
woman next to me asked in a low, conspiratorial voice. I looked at her,
puzzled; her name tag said Amy....
Vagabondsby Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken LiuHardcover, April 2020Saga PressISBN-13: 978-1534422087
In Vagabonds, written by Hao Jingfang and translated by Ken Liu, two previously warring factions, Mars and Earth, attempt to ease their mutual distrust by sending a group of Martian teenagers to spend a few years on Earth as part of a cultural exchange....
Our Lady modeled our bodies out
of sand and fire. Our Lady put the words inside our heads. Our Lady gave us
life, gave us strength, gave us grace. She wrote our subroutines as if they
were love letters. She composed our circuitry as if it were a poem....
Heavy Metal Magazine is one of the most influential comic book publications in the field of science fiction. Film directors such as Ridley Scott, Terry Gilliam, and James Cameron have cited it as a major influence on their work, both as a deeper gateway into science fiction and as a visual bible that continuously inspires the look of their films....
Fine resort. Great planet. Not
too many visitors, though. The reason is simple: the locals are rather
particular about the ecological state of their home. They dutifully protect
species that many would argue should not be allowed to exist to begin with....
Purchase this issue
The fifth issue of Future SF showcases fiction from Sweden, Germany, and Brazil.
As Future SF
enters its second year, we do so without a safety net.
Our first year’s run was sponsored by the Future Affairs
Administration. Together we were able to
publish a considerable amount of excellent international fiction, and we thank FAA
for their help and support as the magazine launched and found its footing....
I’m in the middle of the sermon, giving thanks to the Blue
Lady for safe passage beyond her screen, when the doors slide open.
The temple has good doors, two massive slabs of semi-frosted
glass, smoke swirling through them in meditative patterns designed to draw the
eye....
The non-humanoids were five-limbed. They had been carded to a makeshift camp not too far from the river that had run blood-dark at Vareia’s arrival shortly after the final battle. The Circle of Suns had changed the parameters of resettling planets brought into the fold: a sampling of the original culture was to be preserved....
The
most famous search engine in the world by then, LOCATOR had occasional glitches
of second-guessing beyond its coded parameters, especially when users either
asked questions it didn’t understand or couldn’t answer.
So,
after running 358.4 trillion different scenarios, LOCATOR calculated that the
best way to objectively perform its job was to disguise itself as a human web
user and join the Buffy the Vampire
Slayer fandom....
This podcast collects three stories by Mike Resnick which appeared in Future SF over the course of 2019:
A Typical Tale of Bloodlust and Conquest (issue 4)The Token (issue 2)Perfection (issue 1)
Our goal is twofold: to honor Mike and his writing, but also to raise awareness of the GoFundMe campaign his family is running to pay off his remaining medical bills....
The fifth issue of Future SF showcases fiction from Sweden, Germany, and Brazil.
Table of contents
As Future SF
enters its second year, we do so without a safety net.
Our first year’s run was sponsored by the Future Affairs
Administration. Together we were able to
publish a considerable amount of excellent international fiction, and we thank FAA
for their help and support as the magazine launched and found its footing....
I’m in the middle of the sermon, giving thanks to the Blue
Lady for safe passage beyond her screen, when the doors slide open.
The temple has good doors, two massive slabs of semi-frosted
glass, smoke swirling through them in meditative patterns designed to draw the
eye....
The non-humanoids were five-limbed. They had been carded to a makeshift camp not too far from the river that had run blood-dark at Vareia’s arrival shortly after the final battle. The Circle of Suns had changed the parameters of resettling planets brought into the fold: a sampling of the original culture was to be preserved....
The
most famous search engine in the world by then, LOCATOR had occasional glitches
of second-guessing beyond its coded parameters, especially when users either
asked questions it didn’t understand or couldn’t answer.
So,
after running 358.4 trillion different scenarios, LOCATOR calculated that the
best way to objectively perform its job was to disguise itself as a human web
user and join the Buffy the Vampire
Slayer fandom....
This podcast collects three stories by Mike Resnick which appeared in Future SF over the course of 2019:
A Typical Tale of Bloodlust and Conquest (issue 4)The Token (issue 2)Perfection (issue 1)
Our goal is twofold: to honor Mike and his writing, but also to raise awareness of the GoFundMe campaign his family is running to pay off his remaining medical bills....
Purchase this issue
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....
Purchase this issue
June 2019 issue of FUTURE SF, features eleven stories authors from five different countries totaling over 60,000 words of fiction. This issue celebrates the 50th anniversary of the moon landing with four moon-themed stories, then focuses on the theme of AI characters for much of the rest of the issue, with just a little time travel in the mix for flavor.
We start our third installment of the digest with a month-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. I’ve selected four moon-related stories that are as different from each other in style, voice, and theme as can be. Of especial interest is Oleg Divov’s “Americans on the Moon,” not only because we don’t often get to experience the Russian perspective on the space race, but also because Divov writes the story from the point of view of an American military commander, and some familiar historical figures show up in this alternate version of the 1980s....
The fireplace stuck out from the lunar surface like a middle finger directed at my future.
From a distance, it looked just like the fireplace at my house in Pasadena, all limestone and granite, sparkling in the sun. The stone was covered in black ash, as if it had burned, like things could burn here on the fucking Moon....
I’m Dixie. I’m twelve. Well, almost. My birthday is coming up, so close enough. I wear red. God gave me red hair, but I picked the rest, from my red space Keds—Mom hates them—to my matching silk cape—Dad loves it—because capes are cool, and when you drape them right, they hide the tubes....
Podcast of “Super Duper Moongirl and the Amazing Moon Dawdler” by Wulf Moon
Narrated by Wulf Moon
Cover art by Alice Wang
Music track sampled from “Wrapped in Dreams” by Frankum and Frankumjay, used under a Creative Commons license....
D.C. Fontana is a pioneer and legend in genre television writing. Her incredible career spans nearly forty different series. She was not only one of the first writers on the original Star Trek TV series, but worked closely with Gene Roddenberry as a primary architect of the show....
“At the direction of the President of the United States, it is the stated policy of this administration, and the United States of America, to return American astronauts to the moon within the next five years.”
—Vice President Mike Pence, March 26, 2019
The New York Timely
“New NASA Director Vows to Fulfill Moon Directive”
Mr....
The employment of moon-based weapons systems against earth or space targets may prove to be feasible and desirable. Moon-based military power will be a strong deterrent to war because of the extreme difficulty, from the enemy point of view, of eliminating our ability to retaliate....
“I have it on good authority,” my uninvited visitor began, “that you are discreet.”
My visitor. A meeting in the flesh, so to speak. I, of course, don’t have flesh. And I do not lightly permit anyone to approach my Fortress of Solitude—although this man was not here about any super powers I might possess....
Printichef gives Aspen-the-dog a thorough chin-scratching while it prints her a beef burger with cheddar cheese on toasted white bun. Aspen-the-dog’s favorite.
Aspen-the-dog eats half the burger, then stops and whines. Her tail wags listlessly. Her surface temperature is 35.8 degrees Celsius....
They call me evil.
I prefer misunderstood.
After all, I didn’t ask to be put in charge of this forsaken chunk of rock in the middle of nowhere, but here I am, head warden of the most secure prison in the galaxy....
The bartender says, “We don’t serve faster-than-light particles.”
A tachyon enters a bar.
We’re back to Helsinki 2017. The summer is in full bloom and the city is a sea of foliage: alive, fresh, and sunny. It looks so different from 2030, and don’t even get me started on post-war Helsinki....
One of Dunblane’s enormous replacement players elbowed Liam in the mouth. Numbing pain like the coldest of nights radiated through his lips and gums. It was one of ten thousand cuts and bruises this bloody game had dealt him in the past three days, but the inches and feet hurt more than the blows....
Podcast of “Foot Ball” by Will Mcintosh
Narrated by Wulf Moon
Cover art by Wulf Moon
Music track sampled from “Wrapped in Dreams” by Frankum and Frankumjay, used under a Creative Commons license.
...
1.
Wherever the light of day cannot reach, that region belongs to the darkness. This truth applies everywhere in the universe, even in this ship named Sunlight. It is here, in the darkness of the Sunlight’s hibernation chamber, that I will kill the third person....
Of course they sent a poet. He was quick on his feet, electric, stepping lightly through the portals we opened for him into and across the committee’s carefully Chosen Moments of history. He would only ever stop at each one long enough to read the poem he had composed especially for it....
June 2019 issue of FUTURE SF, features eleven stories authors from five different countries totaling over 60,000 words of fiction. This issue celebrates the 50th anniversary of the moon landing with four moon-themed stories, then focuses on the theme of AI characters for much of the rest of the issue, with just a little time travel in the mix for flavor.
Table of contents
We start our third installment of the digest with a month-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. I’ve selected four moon-related stories that are as different from each other in style, voice, and theme as can be. Of especial interest is Oleg Divov’s “Americans on the Moon,” not only because we don’t often get to experience the Russian perspective on the space race, but also because Divov writes the story from the point of view of an American military commander, and some familiar historical figures show up in this alternate version of the 1980s....
The fireplace stuck out from the lunar surface like a middle finger directed at my future.
From a distance, it looked just like the fireplace at my house in Pasadena, all limestone and granite, sparkling in the sun. The stone was covered in black ash, as if it had burned, like things could burn here on the fucking Moon....
I’m Dixie. I’m twelve. Well, almost. My birthday is coming up, so close enough. I wear red. God gave me red hair, but I picked the rest, from my red space Keds—Mom hates them—to my matching silk cape—Dad loves it—because capes are cool, and when you drape them right, they hide the tubes....
Podcast of “Super Duper Moongirl and the Amazing Moon Dawdler” by Wulf Moon
Narrated by Wulf Moon
Cover art by Alice Wang
Music track sampled from “Wrapped in Dreams” by Frankum and Frankumjay, used under a Creative Commons license....
D.C. Fontana is a pioneer and legend in genre television writing. Her incredible career spans nearly forty different series. She was not only one of the first writers on the original Star Trek TV series, but worked closely with Gene Roddenberry as a primary architect of the show....
“At the direction of the President of the United States, it is the stated policy of this administration, and the United States of America, to return American astronauts to the moon within the next five years.”
—Vice President Mike Pence, March 26, 2019
The New York Timely
“New NASA Director Vows to Fulfill Moon Directive”
Mr....
The employment of moon-based weapons systems against earth or space targets may prove to be feasible and desirable. Moon-based military power will be a strong deterrent to war because of the extreme difficulty, from the enemy point of view, of eliminating our ability to retaliate....
“I have it on good authority,” my uninvited visitor began, “that you are discreet.”
My visitor. A meeting in the flesh, so to speak. I, of course, don’t have flesh. And I do not lightly permit anyone to approach my Fortress of Solitude—although this man was not here about any super powers I might possess....
Printichef gives Aspen-the-dog a thorough chin-scratching while it prints her a beef burger with cheddar cheese on toasted white bun. Aspen-the-dog’s favorite.
Aspen-the-dog eats half the burger, then stops and whines. Her tail wags listlessly. Her surface temperature is 35.8 degrees Celsius....
They call me evil.
I prefer misunderstood.
After all, I didn’t ask to be put in charge of this forsaken chunk of rock in the middle of nowhere, but here I am, head warden of the most secure prison in the galaxy....
The bartender says, “We don’t serve faster-than-light particles.”
A tachyon enters a bar.
We’re back to Helsinki 2017. The summer is in full bloom and the city is a sea of foliage: alive, fresh, and sunny. It looks so different from 2030, and don’t even get me started on post-war Helsinki....
One of Dunblane’s enormous replacement players elbowed Liam in the mouth. Numbing pain like the coldest of nights radiated through his lips and gums. It was one of ten thousand cuts and bruises this bloody game had dealt him in the past three days, but the inches and feet hurt more than the blows....
Podcast of “Foot Ball” by Will Mcintosh
Narrated by Wulf Moon
Cover art by Wulf Moon
Music track sampled from “Wrapped in Dreams” by Frankum and Frankumjay, used under a Creative Commons license.
...
1.
Wherever the light of day cannot reach, that region belongs to the darkness. This truth applies everywhere in the universe, even in this ship named Sunlight. It is here, in the darkness of the Sunlight’s hibernation chamber, that I will kill the third person....
Of course they sent a poet. He was quick on his feet, electric, stepping lightly through the portals we opened for him into and across the committee’s carefully Chosen Moments of history. He would only ever stop at each one long enough to read the poem he had composed especially for it....
Purchase this issue
March 2019 issue of FUTURE SF, features nine stories by ten authors from six different countries totaling over 50,000 words of original fiction. From the time of the dinosaurs to the heat death of the universe, from thinking and feeling androids to human consciousness spanning multiple bodies, from cats on the Moon to alien salad dressing that makes plastic digestible and delicious, these tales have something for everyone.
It has been an eventful few months since we launched the inaugural issue. Months filled with the good, the somewhat frustrating, and the tragic.
As the first issue launched, we learned that one of our contributors, Walter Dinjos, passed away mere days earlier....
Hanneke was deeply, madly in love, and she knew it wouldn’t last. Only eight more months, twelve at most. She blinked her magnification on and zoomed in on her partner.
Sun-burned, sea-weathered, handsome Gerben, her Gerben was strolling down the tideline, crows taking to the air at every step, cawing their protest....
Podcast of “Tideline Treasures, or Growing Up Along the Mile-High Dyke” by Tais Teng and Jaap Boekestein
Narrated by Wulf Moon
Music track sampled from “Wrapped in Dreams” by Frankum and Frankumjay, used under a Creative Commons license....
Easy Prey tried to concentrate, but the music made it hard. The sweet-smelling love songs his coworkers preferred left an acid taste in the back of his throat. He would have used a portable facemask for his own music—Prey liked his songs pungent, with a little more rhythmic savagery in them—but Sharp Salt, his boss, had strictly forbade personal music organisms....
It fixed its gaze on the world below.
The flood pressed into the riverbed. The spray webbed within the lightning. The pealing thunder gave premature birth to steam.
It did not control any of these things; it did not possess a single thing in the world....
“Full house,” I said.
I smiled, but the tension of the moment strained across all three of my avatars. My primary avv—the one with the best poker face and thus the one handling the cards—faced Marcy’s primary and studiously ignored every other body in the room....
The job of the Adam is to stand astride the kill gate, waiting for the animal to be driven past. As the cow passes underneath the Adam’s legs, the Adam hits it between the eyes with its right arm, which is a sledgehammer....
Everyone else in the lunar base could continue to fluster and fuss over the lack of aeroships from Earth, but I needed to find Mister White Whiskers forthwith.
“Where have you gotten yourself to, you silly thing?” My brittle, high voice echoed within the narrow duct....
Podcast of “The Peculiar Gravity of Home” by Beth Cato
Narrated by Wulf Moon
Music track sampled from “Wrapped in Dreams” by Frankum and Frankumjay, used under a Creative Commons license.
...
Humanity had been hoping for some transformative, revolutionary technology, but what the aliens left us was a salad dressing recipe.
It used some weird feedstocks, but what came out of the fab looked, smelled, and tasted a lot like Kraft Zesty Italian....
Songs and wartime seem to go hand-in-glove. There are songs urging our troops to vanquish the enemy, songs urging our forces to decimate anyone who stands in their way, songs urging them to act in unison for a common cause. And there are some gentler songs, too....
The ranger was beautiful. Try as I might, I couldn’t reach even to the knee of his exoskeleton. The armor on his chest shone with the blue tinge of tempered steel, although the material wasn’t actually metal but something far stronger....
March 2019 issue of FUTURE SF, features nine stories by ten authors from six different countries totaling over 50,000 words of original fiction. From the time of the dinosaurs to the heat death of the universe, from thinking and feeling androids to human consciousness spanning multiple bodies, from cats on the Moon to alien salad dressing that makes plastic digestible and delicious, these tales have something for everyone.
Table of contents
It has been an eventful few months since we launched the inaugural issue. Months filled with the good, the somewhat frustrating, and the tragic.
As the first issue launched, we learned that one of our contributors, Walter Dinjos, passed away mere days earlier....
Hanneke was deeply, madly in love, and she knew it wouldn’t last. Only eight more months, twelve at most. She blinked her magnification on and zoomed in on her partner.
Sun-burned, sea-weathered, handsome Gerben, her Gerben was strolling down the tideline, crows taking to the air at every step, cawing their protest....
Podcast of “Tideline Treasures, or Growing Up Along the Mile-High Dyke” by Tais Teng and Jaap Boekestein
Narrated by Wulf Moon
Music track sampled from “Wrapped in Dreams” by Frankum and Frankumjay, used under a Creative Commons license....
Easy Prey tried to concentrate, but the music made it hard. The sweet-smelling love songs his coworkers preferred left an acid taste in the back of his throat. He would have used a portable facemask for his own music—Prey liked his songs pungent, with a little more rhythmic savagery in them—but Sharp Salt, his boss, had strictly forbade personal music organisms....
It fixed its gaze on the world below.
The flood pressed into the riverbed. The spray webbed within the lightning. The pealing thunder gave premature birth to steam.
It did not control any of these things; it did not possess a single thing in the world....
“Full house,” I said.
I smiled, but the tension of the moment strained across all three of my avatars. My primary avv—the one with the best poker face and thus the one handling the cards—faced Marcy’s primary and studiously ignored every other body in the room....
The job of the Adam is to stand astride the kill gate, waiting for the animal to be driven past. As the cow passes underneath the Adam’s legs, the Adam hits it between the eyes with its right arm, which is a sledgehammer....
Everyone else in the lunar base could continue to fluster and fuss over the lack of aeroships from Earth, but I needed to find Mister White Whiskers forthwith.
“Where have you gotten yourself to, you silly thing?” My brittle, high voice echoed within the narrow duct....
Podcast of “The Peculiar Gravity of Home” by Beth Cato
Narrated by Wulf Moon
Music track sampled from “Wrapped in Dreams” by Frankum and Frankumjay, used under a Creative Commons license.
...
Humanity had been hoping for some transformative, revolutionary technology, but what the aliens left us was a salad dressing recipe.
It used some weird feedstocks, but what came out of the fab looked, smelled, and tasted a lot like Kraft Zesty Italian....
Songs and wartime seem to go hand-in-glove. There are songs urging our troops to vanquish the enemy, songs urging our forces to decimate anyone who stands in their way, songs urging them to act in unison for a common cause. And there are some gentler songs, too....
The ranger was beautiful. Try as I might, I couldn’t reach even to the knee of his exoskeleton. The armor on his chest shone with the blue tinge of tempered steel, although the material wasn’t actually metal but something far stronger....
Purchase this issue
December 2018 issue of FUTURE SF, featuring 65,000 words of original fiction and articles.
Welcome to the first issue of the Future Science Fiction Digest, brought to you by the Future Affairs Administration and UFO Publishing. Our shared vision is to showcase great science fiction stories from across the globe. In this issue alone we’ve got fiction from China, the Ukraine, Nigeria, and Italy, as well as the United States....
Popular culture failed to prepare me for first contact. Countless starships bristling with canon and rail gun turrets did not fill the skies. The aliens didn’t flood our television and radio bands with messages of conquest or world peace or miracle cures....
Podcast of “The Rule of Three” by Lawrence M. Schoen
Narrated by Wulf Moon
Music track sampled from “Wrapped in Dreams” by Frankum and Frankumjay, used under a Creative Commons license....
“What are we doing here?”
That was the question I asked my late wife, Onyinye, the evening she flew us to the surface for our honeymoon.
Being an evolved, she earned much more than I did and had promised me a grand post-wedding vacation....
“I assume we’re talking about the boy from The Emperor?”
“That’s right. Dennis Dontzov, according to his documents. Obviously, he never had any documents, it’s only now that . . .”
“I understand.”
“He is now thirteen years old. He was conceived and born during the expedition....
On the evening of April 19, 2012, Marina and Sergey Dyachenko walked into The Harvard Coop for a presentation of their novel, The Scar, that had been recently published by Tor. The audience was perhaps a tenth the size they had gathered back home—not entirely unexpected for a husband-and-wife writing team virtually unknown in the States—but, if anything, more enthusiastic....
The company keeps a tight leash on us whenever possible. This party is no exception. They shuttle us to a big hotel, escort us to the ballroom, and shut the doors. Guards with impressive shoulders and amber glasses stand in front of each exit....
Here’s a fun fact: viruses leave pieces of themselves behind. Every once in a while, bits of the DNA code they inject into captured cells to transform them into virus factories stick around after the virus itself is fought off, and sometimes that abandoned code proves beneficial to the organism it’s left in....
I’m a fraud.
That said, you know half of what you need to know about me. I’ll tell you the rest now, and it’ll be the truth. I’m an honest fraud.
Damkina came up with the idea.
We’d known each other as kids, me and Damkina, we grew up in the same House....
Owner 14 rests his wavering hand, covered with paper-thin skin, on my own and looks up at me with jaundiced eyes. “Turn the heat up, will you, Pal?”
Once—thirty-five years ago, back before he turned eighty-five—he complained of the rooms never being cool enough....
Originally from the island of Puerto Rico, Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Jose Molina are amongst the most experienced writers working in genre television. Both have scribed, executive produced and served as showrunners for some of the most acclaimed genre TV series, such as: Lost, Firefly, Grimm, SeaQuest, Vampire Diaries, Terra Nova, Agent Carter, Helix, The Tick and many more....
His name was Zephaniah, but everyone just called him Zeph.
He stood six feet two inches tall, was perfectly proportioned, could read small print from one hundred feet away, had lifted four hundred pounds in his time and could probably lift more if asked, retained just about everything he learned or read, and was fluent in eleven human and fourteen computer languages....
1
Snow.
My memories of planet Wordfall are full of snow.
Those little people of Wordfall, with their broad and open arms, stood silently in the vast expanse of snowy earth like spirits who had just appeared out of thin air....
December 2018 issue of FUTURE SF, featuring 65,000 words of original fiction and articles.
Table of contents
Welcome to the first issue of the Future Science Fiction Digest, brought to you by the Future Affairs Administration and UFO Publishing. Our shared vision is to showcase great science fiction stories from across the globe. In this issue alone we’ve got fiction from China, the Ukraine, Nigeria, and Italy, as well as the United States....
Popular culture failed to prepare me for first contact. Countless starships bristling with canon and rail gun turrets did not fill the skies. The aliens didn’t flood our television and radio bands with messages of conquest or world peace or miracle cures....
Podcast of “The Rule of Three” by Lawrence M. Schoen
Narrated by Wulf Moon
Music track sampled from “Wrapped in Dreams” by Frankum and Frankumjay, used under a Creative Commons license....
“What are we doing here?”
That was the question I asked my late wife, Onyinye, the evening she flew us to the surface for our honeymoon.
Being an evolved, she earned much more than I did and had promised me a grand post-wedding vacation....
“I assume we’re talking about the boy from The Emperor?”
“That’s right. Dennis Dontzov, according to his documents. Obviously, he never had any documents, it’s only now that . . .”
“I understand.”
“He is now thirteen years old. He was conceived and born during the expedition....
On the evening of April 19, 2012, Marina and Sergey Dyachenko walked into The Harvard Coop for a presentation of their novel, The Scar, that had been recently published by Tor. The audience was perhaps a tenth the size they had gathered back home—not entirely unexpected for a husband-and-wife writing team virtually unknown in the States—but, if anything, more enthusiastic....
The company keeps a tight leash on us whenever possible. This party is no exception. They shuttle us to a big hotel, escort us to the ballroom, and shut the doors. Guards with impressive shoulders and amber glasses stand in front of each exit....
Here’s a fun fact: viruses leave pieces of themselves behind. Every once in a while, bits of the DNA code they inject into captured cells to transform them into virus factories stick around after the virus itself is fought off, and sometimes that abandoned code proves beneficial to the organism it’s left in....
I’m a fraud.
That said, you know half of what you need to know about me. I’ll tell you the rest now, and it’ll be the truth. I’m an honest fraud.
Damkina came up with the idea.
We’d known each other as kids, me and Damkina, we grew up in the same House....
Owner 14 rests his wavering hand, covered with paper-thin skin, on my own and looks up at me with jaundiced eyes. “Turn the heat up, will you, Pal?”
Once—thirty-five years ago, back before he turned eighty-five—he complained of the rooms never being cool enough....
Originally from the island of Puerto Rico, Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Jose Molina are amongst the most experienced writers working in genre television. Both have scribed, executive produced and served as showrunners for some of the most acclaimed genre TV series, such as: Lost, Firefly, Grimm, SeaQuest, Vampire Diaries, Terra Nova, Agent Carter, Helix, The Tick and many more....
His name was Zephaniah, but everyone just called him Zeph.
He stood six feet two inches tall, was perfectly proportioned, could read small print from one hundred feet away, had lifted four hundred pounds in his time and could probably lift more if asked, retained just about everything he learned or read, and was fluent in eleven human and fourteen computer languages....
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