“Worlds Over The Edge” by Caleb Coy – 3.4
Ember Journal, 2025 Rila stands at a seaside bluff, methodically hurling marbles into the ocean below. Each one vanishes over the edge with a small clatter on the rocks —…
“The Soundtrack of My Afterlife” by P. A. Cornell – 4.6
Adventitious, February 2026 This quietly moving novelette is narrated by Red, a 1972 Mustang who is, in fact, a reincarnated human soul. Red has no clear memory of his previous…
“Six Sides of a Fairy Tale” by Audrey Zhou – 3.5
Lightspeed, February 2026 “Six Sides of a Fairy Tale” is a second-person fantasy story told from six distinct perspectives, each labeled like the facets of a geometric shape. The central…
“Dream Destinations (From the Lost Traveler’s Tour Guide)” by Alexander Weinstein – 2.9
Lightspeed, February 2026 “Dream Destinations” is a work of speculative fiction framed as a travel guide to impossible, surreal locations on a mysterious eighth continent that has suddenly appeared on…
“Hollow in the Hope” by Aimee Ogden – 3.7
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2026 This science-fantasy novelette weaves together two parallel narratives across vastly different eras, united by a single devastating premise: parents who sacrifice their children to appease…
“Bloom Where You Are Planted” by Melanie Mulrooney – 4.1
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2026 In a speculative society where women grow literal flowers on their bodies — a phenomenon overseen by a bureaucratic “Scent Authority” — social status is…
“Of Two Bloods” by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward – 3.8
Reactor, February 2026 Set in late 19th-century Boston, “Of Two Bloods” is a clever homage to Sherlock Holmes told through the lens of two unconventional medical students navigating racial prejudice,…
“When the Land Speaks” by Ikechukwu Henry – 3.3
Translunar Travelers Lounge, Issue 14, February 2026 In Ikechukwu Henry’s speculative short story, a nomadic settlement lives atop a vast, living creature called the Great Wanderer — an enormous land-beast…
“The Wheelchair God of Ibadan” by Bella Chacha – 3.6
Translunar Travelers Lounge, Issue 14, February 2026 Chief Adewale is a seventy-two-year-old retired tailor in Ibadan, Nigeria, who has used a wheelchair since childhood after contracting polio. Despite his disability…
“The Garden of Living Flowers” by Tunvey Mou – 4.8
Translunar Travelers Lounge, Issue 14, February 2026 Shaili is an apprentice apothecary without green-magic — a rare and shameful lack in a family of celebrated green-mages — working under her…