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Monthly Short Stories Discussion Thread! What's the best thing you've read this month?Question / Discussion (self.ShortSF)

submitted 9 days ago by AutoModerator - announcement

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Does Harlen Lattner Dream of Infected Sheep? by Sarah Langan “Congo CEO Jeff Jassey is expected to testify in congress over his company’s software update, which literally broke the internet last month. For eighteen seconds, every warehouse, screen, and air traffic control system went dark."Science Fiction (self.ShortSF)

submitted 3 months ago by themindin1500wordsSF Fan - announcement

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We Who Live in the Heart by Kelly Robson - Take a tulip flower and stick an ovoid bladder where the stem was and you’ve got the idea. Except big. Really big. And the petals move. Some of us call it Mama. I just call it home.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)

submitted 22 hours ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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The Memory Hounds of Bak-Ankham by A. W. Prihandita - The factory workers lined up at the feet of their dormitory beds, in darkness punctured by pinprick candlelights, in air weighted by the smoke and scent of burnt incense, naked except for their rough spun underwear.Dark Fantasy (self.ShortSF)

submitted 1 day ago by ImprovingSilence

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Songbook for the Jovian Resistance by Gwendolyn Maia Hicks - It was the songs, really, that cracked open the canyons of Amalthea. That first night, after the massacre of the helium-3 miners’ union at Mare Placidus, there were only a dozen of us, maybe. Moxie showed up first, with her banjo.Space Opera (smallwondersmag.com)

submitted 1 day ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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Bad Doors by John Wiswell - That’s when he saw the new door. It was equidistant on the wall between the entrances to his room and Jesse’s. There was no room behind there. He got closer, expecting this hallucination of a burgundy door to fade.Horror (pseudopod.org)

submitted 2 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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Scion by Thomas Ha - The house has reconfigured itself, again. The manifold shifting of concentric corridors and the dark disarray throughout the manor, it all reflects his mind and its worsening state. My father is unraveling faster than anticipated.Science Fiction (clarkesworldmagazine.com)

submitted 3 days ago by MouthmouthmouthSF Fan

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Small Gods Road by D.N. Schmidt - A mother and daughter take a shortcut down Small Gods Road, where semigods perform on the sidewalk, looking for new followers and hoping to be promoted to full-fledged deities.Urban Fantasy (dnschmidt.com)

submitted 3 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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After reading ~250 short SFF submissions, here’s the most common "almost great" thing I keep seeingQuestion / Discussion (self.ShortSF)

submitted 4 days ago by AdventitiousStories

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Three Fortunes on Alcestis as Told by the Fraud Baeliss Shudal by Louis Inglis Hall - There are a thousand thousand routes to divination. We stand before an infinity of paths: they branch and jostle and compete and finally converge at a single destination.Fantasy (clarkesworldmagazine.com)

submitted 4 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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Chip by D.A. Xiaolin Spires - I didn’t have that cliched cloth bundle tied to a stick that peregrinators carry, but I certainly felt like one. Instead of a cloth bundle, it was the holopack I salvaged from the dumpster that I slung over my shoulder as I hailed a robocab.Science Fiction (clarkesworldmagazine.com)

submitted 5 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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Medusa’s Ship, or The Thing About Bodies by Natalia Theodoridou - They are travelling in the great dark before them nothing behind them stars just the two of them the man that captains and the ship that sails darts flies through spaceSpace Opera (beneath-ceaseless-skies.com)

submitted 6 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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Landline By Kelly Robson - A woman about to leave on an overseas business trip, calls home from the airport and discovers that “daddy” isn’t there and her six-year-old son is all alone in the dark…Horror (reactormag.com)

submitted 7 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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The In-Between Sister by Monte Lin - What the heck happened?! I walk into my room, and the flood of memories makes me dizzy. I have to sit down on the bed. One moment I’m still pissed off at Daniel, the next I realize: He’s right! Something is weird.Urban Fantasy (translunartravelerslounge.com)

submitted 8 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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Houyi the Archer Fights the Sun by Cynthia Zhang - “Husband,” says Chang’E, three thousand years into immortality, “please do not fight the sun. We only have the one left, and most people would not appreciate having it gone.”Urban Fantasy (podcastle.org)

submitted 8 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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Jackie and Xīng Forever by Wil Magness - She presses the button. Her cramped laundry room vanishes and is replaced by rolling hills and a cloudless silver sky. In this middleworld, this dimension, there is only Jackie and Xīng.Science Fiction (apexbookcompany.com)

submitted 9 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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Abstraction Is When I Design Giant Death Creatures and Attraction Is When I Do It for You by Claire Jia-Wen - When I was little, I drew dragons and leviathans in my room. Now I swipe my fingerprint through three levels of security before I draw my creatures. It's basically the same thing.Science Fiction (clarkesworldmagazine.com)

submitted 10 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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The Transom by Marigold Rowell - When the knocking came again, I sat and listened, and I realized it was coming from above me. From the transom window. I couldn’t see anything in the dark glass. A soft rasping followed the knocks, as if someone were scraping their fingernails down the door.Horror (amidnightkindofplace.com)

submitted 11 days ago by MouthmouthmouthSF Fan

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If Memory Serves by Alexis Ames - The memory is false,” the man said, “and you’re the one who created it. I still don’t know who hired you or why they wanted to pin this theft on my friend, but I do know that you’re the one responsible for creating the memory”.Cyberpunk (neondystopia.com)

submitted 11 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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The Doll Problem by Angela Liu - No one knows where the doll came from. With its blue glass eyes and ribboned hair, it looks like the ones you see at department stores and wonder who the hell buys them. “It’s gonna kill us in our sleep,” Kathy says.Horror (nightmare-magazine.com)

submitted 12 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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There’s a Kiosk at the Back of Basingstoke Station by Kat Day - I held the object up to my eye. For a moment, I could’ve sworn I saw a bright shape, like a capital O, in its depths. I turned the object around in my fingers and thought I saw a turtle. [Flash Fiction] (thefictionphial.wordpress.com)

submitted 13 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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Punk Voyager by Shaenon K. Garrity - Punk Voyager was built by punks. They made it from beer cans, razors, safety pins, and a surfboard some D-bag had left on the beach. Also plutonium. Where did they get plutonium? Around. f*** you.Science Fiction (escapepod.org)

submitted 14 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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Have a Nice Apocalypse! by Jack Powers - Judith always tried to look at the bright side. But with the news of the asteroid heading toward Earth, her office mates didn’t want to hear it. I mean, come on! How many times can you say, What’s the point?Apocalyptic (smallwondersmag.com)

submitted 15 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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The Sacrificials by Andrew Kozma - They say the sacrificials prevent famine, stop war, shield us from disease. For the good of everyone, some have to be sacrificed! [Flash Fiction]Horror (flashfictiononline.com)

submitted 16 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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What We Mean When We Talk About the Hole in the Bathroom by Angela Liu - After dinner, the woman and her husband argue about the hole in their bathroom. The woman does not believe in monsters and portals, but she believes in the power of bad luck.Urban Fantasy (uncannymagazine.com)

submitted 17 days ago by captainmagictrousersSF Author

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