“I Spin Records Into Gold” by Daria Lavelle – 3.7
Reactor, April 2026 “I Spin Records Into Gold” by Daria Lavelle — Reactor, 2026 Eddie is a engineering student turned reluctant roadie, a man who abandoned a clear-eyed future —…
“Tatterdemalion” by Michael Cisco – 3.5
Reactor, March 2026 Presented as a traditional folktale from the fictional Alak Empire, “Tatterdemalion” is framed by an introductory scholarly apparatus explaining its cultural context before the story proper begins.…
“Cutting Corners” by Yoon Ha Lee – 3.5
Reactor, March 2026 In the interstellar war between the nation-states of Hausse and Lyonesse, spacecraft have long been piloted by “deuces” — artificial intelligences so costly to develop and integrate…
“Blade Through the Heart” by Carrie Vaughn – 3.5
Reactor, March 2026 Commander Graff of the TGS Visigoth arrives on a feudal planet mid-war, perched with his two-person crew — the sharp-tongued Xun and the steady Brown — atop…
“Deathcap” by Lara Elena Donnelly – 3.3
Reactor, February 2026 Note: This story contains descriptions of sexual assault.“Deathcap” is a tense, claustrophobic science fiction short story set aboard a doomed spaceship overrun by a parasitic alien creature.…
“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,…
“Agency” by George Sandison – 3.2
Reactor, February 2026 Francis is an estate agent in financial freefall, scraping together his salary to service debt while showing rental properties across the United Kingdom. What his colleagues Misha…
The Spew by Jeffrey Ford – 3.7
Reactor, January 2026 Eben Cull, an unemployed warehouse worker desperate for money, responds to a mysterious “WRITER WANTED” ad and meets Arathusia, a peculiar woman with raven-black hair who possesses…
Joiner and Rust by Lavie Tidhar – 4.3
Reactor, January 2026 In this poignant science fiction novelette, an aging robot named Rust journeys through rural China to visit an old friend, Joiner, carrying a watermelon as a symbolic…