“Gumchew” by Zack Be – 3.5
Asimov's, July/August 2026 Harlan Bah drives his elderly father, Simeon, to a Fed-Corp clinic in a frozen Center City to finally get "gummed" — a childhood-standard neurogel brain implant that…
Brother Adalbert’s Last Shift by Karol Lagodzki – 3.7
In a domed underground city called New Chicago, built after the surface became uninhabitable, Brother Adalbert spends his final day as caretaker of a single ancient oak tree enshrined in…
“Magical Girl Eater” by Angela Liu – 3.0
Uncanny, July/August 2026 Kelly, the story's narrator, is one of four young women — alongside Annie, Mako, and Lin — who begin fighting crime as self-styled Magical Girls, first as…
Academic Review: “A Flame in the Dark” by Sam W. Pisciotta – 4.0
Asimov's Science Fiction, July/August 2026 Introduction Sam W. Pisciotta's "A Flame in the Dark," appearing in the July/August 2026 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction, represents a carefully constructed intersection of…
A Flame in the Dark by Sam W. Pisciotta – 4.0
Set in 1775 in the American wilderness, A Flame in the Dark is told through the journal entries and letters of Annette Lacroix, a French naturalist living on the frontier…
“Sarah’s Laugh” by Melissa A Watkins – 3.8
Lightspeed, May 2026 The story is told by a woman walking a young Canadian scholar through what used to be San Francisco — now called Sarah’s Haven — on his…
“Year of the Tangram” by Ichabod Cassius Kilroy – 3.1
GigaNotoSaurus, May 2026 Structured as a calendar year running from April to April, “Year of the Tangram” follows Kai, an eight-year-old autistic boy navigating the twin pressures of a suffocating…
“The Scent of Memory” by Zhao Haihong, translated by S. Qiouyi Lu – 3.8
Clarkesworld, May 2026 Shijun wakes on a Greyhound bus crossing the Canadian Rockies, an amber bottle of perfume in his bag and a message from his friend Jiayuan flashing on…
“The Profitable Sentience of Household Goods” by Louis Inglis Hall – 3.4
Clarkesworld, May 2026 The story unfolds as a series of monologues addressed by a refrigerator — designated “Buddy” — to a newly activated light switch on its first day of…
“Paper Airplane Poet” by Sheri Singerling: A Scholarly Review – 4.0
Introduction Sheri Singerling's novelette "Paper Airplane Poet," published in Clarkesword, operates as a companion piece to her debut novel Blessed is the Rot (Book 1 of the Bit trilogy), set…