The Shape of Gifts, by Natalia Theodoridou

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Modern Fantasy) An ancient oracle living in our world struggles with the compulsion to deliver prophecies that no one will listen to—especially prophecies of the end of the world. (6,938 words; Time: 23m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

The Staircase, by Stephanie Feldman

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Horror) Five teenage girls explore a mysterious staircase to nowhere on a hill. Rumor has it that some who walk down it never come back. (4,335 words; Time: 14m)

Crawfather, by Mel Kassel

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Horror) The annual family get together involves a dangerous hunt of a gigantic man-eating crawdad. (4,024 words; Time: 13m)

A Bridge from Sea to Sky, by Bennett North

[F&SF]

★★☆☆☆

(Hard SF) When a collision almost severs the space elevator, Aoife and her coworkers struggle to try to save it—even though Earth is thinking of defunding it. (5,821 words; Time: 19m)

Madre Nuestra, Que Estás En Maracaibo, by Ana Hurtado

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Horror) Yesenia comes home to help care for her dying grandmother, an old woman who spent her life praying for the dead in Purgatory. Which turns out to have consequences. (3,419 words; Time: 11m)

Bible Stories for Adults No. 37: The Jawbone, by James Morrow

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Biblical Pastiche) In which the Angel of Death gives a salty account of the career of Sampson, Judge of Israel. (6,020 words; Time: 20m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

It will help to review a summary of the Sampson story before reading this.

Last Night at the Fair, by M. Rickert

[F&SF]

★★★★☆ Deeply moving, reminiscent of Ray Bradbury.

(Uncanny Fantasy) An old woman remembers the last night of her childhood, when she and her future husband snuck out of the house to visit the fair on the last night. (2,467 words; Time: 08m)

Recommended By: 👍RHorton.r+1 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

Knock, Knock Said the Ship, by Rati Mehrotra

[F&SF]

★★★★★ Solid Characters, Interesting Plot, Heartwarming.

(SF Thriller) Deenu, a refugee from the destroyed Lunar colony carrying a debt she’ll never pay back, works a dead-end job on a slightly shady cargo ship with a slightly unhinged AI. And then the cops show up. (5,708 words; Time: 19m)

Recommended By: 👍MHaskins+1 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

The Monsters of Olympus Mons, by Brian Trent

[F&SF]

★★★★☆ Plenty of Twists and Excitement

(SF Thriller) In the midst of a Martian Civil war, a wounded old man finds three monsters playing cards outside the abandoned Museum of Colonization, and he asks for their help. (8,370 words; Time: 27m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+2 (Q&A)

'Omunculus, by Madeleine Robins

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Steampunk Pastiche) A professor Henry Higgins attempts to train an automaton named Eliza to speak proper English and behave like a proper lady. (8,155 words; Time: 27m)

Recommended By: 👍RHorton.r+1 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

You don’t really have to be familiar with “My Fair Lady” to enjoy this story, but it definitely adds to it.

All Hail the Pizza King and Bless His Reign Eternal, by David Erik Nelson

[F&SF]

★★★★☆ Some Laughs and Excitement, Topped with a Little Horror

(Horror) Melissa isn’t happy about her daft sister-in-law buying a derelict restaurant where the last owner killed and cooked his wife 20 years ago, but it’s worse than she thinks. (12,264 words; Time: 40m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

Spirit Level, by John Kessel

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Horror) In the middle of the night, the ghost of Michael’s ex-wife confronts him in his parents’ old house—which is weird because she isn’t even dead yet. (9,747 words; Time: 32m)

Recommended By: 👍RHorton.r+1 (Q&A)

Another F*cken Fairy Tale, by M. Rickert

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Fairy Tale) At 98, Lucy is a bit forgetful, but she’s quite sure it’s a real fairy she found on the beach outside her cottage, even if it does have a rather foul mouth. (3,527 words; Time: 11m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

In the Eyes of Jack Saul, by Richard Bowes

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Dorian Gray Pastiche) In the world of Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, a young male prostitute makes his own plans to take Dorian down. (3,609 words; Time: 12m)

An Indian Love Call, by Joseph Bruchac

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Modern Fantasy Adventure; Billy and Arlin) Long-suffering Billy finds that his talented but impractical friend Arlin has managed to mix pheromones to attract something like a sasquatch to the reservation. (5,785 words; Time: 19m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

Although this is one of a series of “Billy and Arlin” stories, it’s completely self-contained.

Warm Math, by Rich Larson

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(SF Thriller) An escape pod with two passengers needs just a bit more reaction mass to reach safety—an amount about equal to the mass of a person. (3,250 words; Time: 10m)

Since this story plays with the concept from “The Cold Equations,” by Tom Godwin, it might be worth reading that story before this one. Although considering how wrenching that story is emotionally, you might want to wait and read it after.

Eyes of the Forest, by Ray Nayler

[F&SF]

★★★★★ Plenty of excitement in a beautiful, deadly setting.

(SF Adventure) To become a Wayfarer, Sedef needs to master the dangers of the forest on her planet, which kills anything that doesn’t glow. And she has to survive an emergency run, seven hours each way, alone. (5,667 words; Time: 18m)

Recommended By: 👍RHorton.r+1 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

Hornet and Butterfly, by Tom Cool and Bruce Sterling

[F&SF]

★★☆☆☆

(Dystopia) When a storm destroys his raft city, former supersoldier Hornet struggles to escape with his life, but the “Butterfly” creature he helps emerge makes things even more complicated. (6,441 words; Time: 21m)

Who Carries the World, by Robert Reed

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆

(Space Opera; Great Ship) It’s not a big deal when Perry dies in the avalanche. It’s just a little death, but the person who digs him out and puts him back together has been missing for 12,000 years. (10,144 words; Time: 33m)

Recommended By: 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

Birds Without Wings, by Rebecca Zahabi

[F&SF]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Horror) A young couple hitchhiking across Spain has to worry about “shifters,” a threat much worse than random psycho drivers. (7,399 words; Time: 24m)

Recommended By: 👍RHorton.r+1 (Q&A)