Introduction Zhou Wen's novelette "The Girl Who Stole Life," translated by Xueting C. Ni and published in Asimov's Science Fiction (May/June 2026), represents a significant contribution to the growing body…
Asimov's, May/June 2026 The story opens with an unnamed narrator standing in an ominous alley, the scent of decay seeping from behind a door, contemplating a woman whose choices led…
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…
Introduction Cecelia Holland, whose career spans more than six decades of historical and speculative fiction—her debut novel The Firedrake appeared in 1966—brings to "Hot" (published in Asimov's Science Fiction, May/June…
Asimov's, May/June 2026 “Hot” is a climate collapse novella set in the near-future California coast, following Francie Beuerlein, a teenage girl navigating civilizational breakdown during a catastrophic, lethal heat wave.…
Introduction Stephanie Feldman's "Half Inside the Spirit Box," published in the May/June 2026 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction, arrives as part of a body of work distinguished by its commitment…
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.…
Asimov's, May/June 2026 Elena, an entomologist at a Sydney university, wakes in the middle of the night in anaphylactic shock — swollen eyes, constricted throat, collapsing blood pressure. Her partner…
GigaNotoSaurus, April 2026 Amelia Hunter runs her family’s magical farm alone, tending cockatrices, phoenixes, strix birds, enchanted beehives, and an animated scarecrow named Poppet. She prefers the pre-dawn dark and…
Lightspeed, April 2026 Part 2 opens with Six-Gun returning to New Providence to find the town has turned against her. Beauchamp has spent the day working his influence, the sheriff…