“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…
Neurological Trespass and the Politics of Cognitive Capital: A Critical Review of Zhou Wen’s “The Girl Who Stole Life” (2026) – 4.0
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…
“The Girl Who Stole Life” by Zhou Wen, tr. Xueting C. Ni – 4.0
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…
“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…
“Hot” by Cecelia Holland: Survival, Becoming, and the Ethics of Care in the Climate-Collapse Novella – 4.3
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…
“Hot” by Cecelia Holland – 4.3
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.…
Performing the Self: Identity, Performance, and the Limits of Exposure in Stephanie Feldman’s “Half Inside the Spirit Box” – 4.0
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…
“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.…
“Alpha Gal” by Greg Egan – 3.8
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…
“House of Honeyed Soil” by Natalie Wollenweber – 3.8
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…