“The Descent of Man and Everyone Else” by John Streamas
I was one of Descent.com’s earliest customers, and surely I was first to inquire into a gap. It was only three generations into the future, this gap . . .
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.
“7Horsehead Nebula: Aboard the Canary” by Breanna Fairchild
Amelia knew there was no running away when she boarded the glorified tuna can called the Canary . . .
“The Unarmed” by Kathleen McElligott
“The Purge” took place in 2021 . . .
“The Old Bird” by J.M. Williams
The body was crumpled on the floor. Purple blood spilled away, taking the shape of a crooked tree . . .
“Throwing Snowballs at Penguins” by Caroline Bock
1.8 million Deaths. Chinese Nationals Arrested for Illegal Production and Distribution of Fentanyl in Nebraska. Borders of West Virginia Closed . . .
“Setting the Record Straight” by Susan Comford
We get a lot of bad press, you know, and none of it is warranted. For years people have been writing about “The Satanists of Kings Park” . . .
“Machine” by Ahsan Butt
M watched himself wake in a mirror. His hair was gone and electrodes circled his skull, their wires stripped and dangling like witch hair . . .
“Roll Over” by Patrick Hackeling
All truth is crooked; time itself is a circle. —Nietzsche