“Virtually President” by John Joseph Ryan
The president’s national security advisor delivered the words she had dreaded hearing: “Madam President, I’m afraid you can no longer safely appear in public.”
Category: Fri-SciFi
Fri-SciFi: Original Speculative Fiction
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon is a rare literary science fiction novel set in a future universe so gorgeously described and perfectly self-contained—and yet so harrowing and cruel—that its only parallel universe is our own.
Solomon’s novel inspired us to create Fri-SciFi—our new flash fiction series.
We’ve been through the past, and we haven’t really learned from it. The present? We’re too busy attempting to survive it. So we’re asking you to provide us a glimpse of what comes next. Illustrate the essential choices we must make in the present that will lead us to your brilliant utopian future. Or, if you cannot anticipate utopia, provide us instead with your cautionary tale. Show us where we will fall if we—when we—fail to alter our course.
Fri-SciFi stories are published on Fridays because we expect we’ll need the weekend to contemplate your vision.
“Notes of an Undead Son” by John Vercher
I am the enemy of those of blood and breath.
“Fifth: You Shall Not Waste” by Piero Schiavo Campo, translated from Italian by Sarah Jane Webb
The year is 2078. Rampant consumption has succeeded in burning a hole through the ozone layer.
“Debris” by Vanessa Kittle
“Droplets of liquid methane began to splash on Glin’s bald head . . .”
“The Meek” by Jedah Mayberry
The year is 2078. Rampant consumption has succeeded in burning a hole through the ozone layer.
“Monkey See, Monkey Do” by Alicia Hilton
“The chimpanzee with a bandaged forehead grabbed a hypodermic needle . . .”
“In the Cloud” by Mark Budman
“Good morning, love. I guess it’s morning, though it’s hard to tell. It’s just too dark all the time now . . .”
“Tennis” by Michael Morshed
“Fifteen-love,” Georgia says then serves.