February 1, 2023 Fiction “Always Become” (excerpt) When I could move, I unstrapped myself and crawled out of the wreckage. The air was thick with ozone and vaporized coolant. With the electrical storm still raging overhead, I… Read More
February 1, 2023 Fiction “Tophet” (excerpt) Parker Lonergan stampeded into the foreman’s trailer, all flared nostrils and wide eyes, looking like a man in search of something to trample. He was dressed in a tuxedo jacket,… Read More
February 1, 2023 Fiction “Lesser Saints of the Apocalypse” (excerpt) “Invocation and Intercession, this is Gondulphus, can you hold please? Thank you.” The elderly monk stabbed a button on his phone and a fifth blinking light joined the previous four. … Read More
February 1, 2023 Fiction “Bête Noir” (excerpt) The firewatch tower stood on spindly legs, a skeletal silhouette against the late afternoon sky, high atop a narrow peak overlooking the fir-blanketed Coastal Range. Reaching it entailed three hours’… Read More
February 1, 2023 Fiction “T-Bird” “Inti’s arsehole, it’s hot.” Mariel unzipped her crimson jumpsuit to a few centimeters above the navel and wiped her brow with the back of her mechanical hand. Though her perch—astride… Read More
February 1, 2023 Fiction “Eating the Aleb” (excerpt) Soft One was standing in the corner silently when Polav entered his field office in the enclave. The aleb were a genderless, warm-blooded species of smooth-skinned hexapeds inhabiting the fourth… Read More
February 1, 2023 Fiction “A Movement of the Earth” (excerpt) The caravan was nearly in good order. Zaditha climbed the tall dune to where her father stood, using sideways steps like he had taught her to prevent sliding in the… Read More
February 1, 2023 Fiction “Man in the Middle” (excerpt) Vasil had flatlined for eleven minutes by the time the EM Assist drone arrived. Lying limp in the street, as a low bank of oily cloud drizzled condensate across his… Read More