“Fernie” by Angela Liu – 3.6
Adventitious, April 2026 “Fernie” is a dual-perspective short story told in alternating voices: a lonely, precocious little girl named Sally, and a sentient ancient fern she befriends during a family…
“Ma’anu Wei: What We Know Thus Far” by Eliezra Schaffzin – 3.8
Kaleidotrope, April 2026 The story is structured as a pseudo-scholarly dossier, narrated by an unnamed collective of researchers — scientists or academics of some institutional authority — who are piecing…
“Diamonds” by Grant Stone – 3.8
Kaleidotrope, April 2026 The story is told in second person, a technique that places the reader inside the fractured consciousness of an unnamed intelligence operative — someone who exists, as…
“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 —…
“A Tree That Can’t Be Chopped” by Timothy Mudie – 3.5
Kaleidotrope, April 2026 The story is narrated by Brinnen Ott, a mill worker at a frontier timber company town built on the edge of a vast, ancient forest. Brinnen’s closest…
“Underneath the Underneath” by Audrey Zhou – 3.7
Strange Horizons, April 2026 Mina is a woman from elsewhere—a seafarer’s daughter who came to Dragon Pass Island when her family’s trade ship was wrecked at its port and who…
“Unspeakable Knowns” by Donald McCarthy – 3.5
Asimov's, May/June 2026 The story unfolds in first person through the voice of an unnamed Secretary of Media for Maldrove, the oldest human colony world, distinguished by its pervasive red…
“The Language of Machines” by Betsy Aoki – 3.7
Asimov's, May/June 2026 The story is narrated by Rach, one of the New Humans — beings engineered by sentient spiral machines from the corpses of Old Humans who once tore…
“Sophie Simpson’s Whizz-Bang Day at World War I” by Dale Bailey – 2.9
Asimov's, May/June 2026 Sophie Simpson is a sharp, plain, perpetually skint girl from a single-parent household who wears her cousin Mary’s ill-fitting hand-me-downs and eats cheese and pickle sandwiches every…
“Half Inside the Spirit Box” by Stephanie Feldman – 4.0
Asimov's, May/June 2026 The story opens on a pier in Atlantic City, where Winston Montecarlo — the famous “Handcuff King” — performs a shackled ocean plunge before a rapt crowd.…