Rocket Stack Rank™ (RSR) aims to help casual SF fans find and discuss great original short fiction. It reviews science fiction and fantasy short stories, novelettes, and novellas, and publishes articles of interest to fans.
(SF Thriller) Mord is an AI that controls a starship, but the population is dropping as more and more passengers commit suicide due to ennui. And the problem seems to affect all systems everywhere. (4,759 words; Time: 15m)
(Alien SF) A race of intelligent lizards prepares their conquest of the Solar System, but one of them is a dissenter with a plan. (3,983 words; Time: 13m)
★★★★☆Persist with this one; there’s more here than meets the eye.
(SF Thriller) It all started when Perry tried to call customer service to cancel his account, but the online system was amazingly persistent in finding ways to discourage him from that. (2,731 words; Time: 09m)
(SF Drama) Jonquil works with genetically engineered people who helped terraform the solar system but who, now that they’re not needed, are warehoused on Mars. Today he’s looking for a missing girl. (3,519 words; Time: 11m)
(SF Drama) Mary works the docks in Cleveland, OH, which means managing the robots. She’s investigating why a robot that’s was disconnected from the network didn’t trigger an alarm. (2,453 words; Time: 08m)
(Generation Ship) Zarah notices that one of the other kids in school is struggling with the steady increase in sulfur in the ship’s atmosphere, and she’s determined to help him. (2,439 words; Time: 08m)
(Hard SF) A Ph.D. student struggles to figure out why her fermented cabbage experiment has produced a result that’s almost as acidic as car-battery acid. (3,121 words; Time: 10m)
(Space Opera) Dr. Chaz is assigned to investigate an AI unit that’s suspected of having become intelligent—even though that’s supposed to be impossible. (11,796 words; Time: 39m)
(Exploration SF) A relativistic starship takes a detour to visit an anomaly the size of a planet with a fraction the density—a possible alien starship. (13,848 words; Time: 46m)
(Colony SF Thriller) Bob, one of the bat-like Zoeys on New Horizons, helped architect the peace treaty that ended the war with the humans, but some Zoeys who don’t want peace plan to use his son against him. (20,425 words; Time: 1h:08m)
This is a sequel to the author’s novel, “Night Ride and Sunrise.” I read this novella without having read the novel, and didn’t get the feeling I was missing anything. However, I did decide the novel sounded interesting, so I bought a copy and read it after I finished the novella. This novella is full of spoilers for the novel. That said, I did enjoy the novel a lot, but I’d advise reading the novel first; it’s worth it.
(Lunar Colony) A young woman on the moon loses faith in her Father’s odd religion, but even though she moves to Farside, he still has a hold on her. (2,137 words; Time: 07m)
(Alien SF) When Bret almost dies in a storm, he finds himself in a part of the continent that holds creatures that supposedly died out ages ago. (9,369 words; Time: 31m)
(Mars Colony Thriller) A series of “accidents” on their Martian homestead make Banner Goodman and his teenage son think someone wants to take their land—even if it kills them. (12,377 words; Time: 41m)
