Current Issue Highlights
September/October 2024
Our special Slightly Spooky September/October 2024 issue is jam packed with spooky tales. “The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea” cast judgment in Naomi Kritzer’s disquieting novelette set on the New England coast; Stephanie Feldman spins a truly terrifying short tale about “Bachelorettes on the Devil’s Dance Floor” in an odd German village; and Susan Shwartz’s strange story combines operatic lore, a WWII battlefield, and “Project Fafnir.” Perfect tales for an eerie fall evening!
Spookiness permeates new author Zohar Jacob’s NASA ghost story about “An Unplanned Hold”; electronic ghosts play a role in new author R.P. Sand’s “Eternity Is Moments”; it’s all science fiction in new author Betsy Aoki’s novelette about an alien invasion, game design, “And to Their Shining Palaces Go”; while new author Anita Vijayakumar enchants us with “Bitter Chai, Sweet Chai.” Robert Reed’s chilling novelette relates “All the Homes of Terror”; Ray Nayler exposes a bleak truth in “A Gray Magic”; a charming ghost is present in “Art Deco Farmhouse, Original Hardwood Floors, Slightly Haunted” by Alice Towey; “Heartshock” is a deeply disturbing far-future hard SF tale by Nick Wolven; James Patrick Kelly explores the reality of dating a hive mind “In the Dark”; and there is much that is unforgettable about Robert R. Chase’s “Lost Recall.”
Robert Silverberg’s Reflections considers “The Man Who Saw the Future”; James Patrick Kelly’s On the Net reveals “The Music of the Future”; Norman Spinrad’s On Books introduces us to “Citizens of the Galaxy; Kelly Lagor’s Thought Experiment amuses and unsettles us with “Nuclear War, Satire, and the grotesque in Dr. Strangelove”; plus we’ll have an array of poetry and additional features you’re sure to enjoy.
NOVELETTES
Heartshock
by Nick Wolven
At first Maya can’t figure out what’s happened. Then, when the shock fades, she can’t believe it.
The world is throbbing, shooting pain through every nerve, and Maya’s whole existence, at the moment, is dark. Then she starts to hear chatter, human noise, shifting bodies. Plus a screaming of alarms. And feels pressure.
A hand on her shoulder. Firm.
“We did it.” Astrid’s voice is like something high and far away, a star far north of the galactic plane. “It’s over, Captain. We won.” READ MORE
SHORT STORIES
Bachelorettes on the Devil’s Dance Floor
by Stephanie Feldman
In spring, on the eve of Saint Walburga’s Day, the witches gather in the mountains of Central Germany to celebrate the devil.
So says the hotel concierge. He also says there will be vendors, performances, and huge crowds. The three American girls should walk; the route to the festival site, the Devil’s Dance Floor, is easy.
“How did you not know?” Elle, the best friend, complains. “And it’s our last night.”
“There was nothing on the website!” Bea, the sister, cries.
“It’s spontaneous!” Angie, the bride, insists. “I wouldn’t want anything else.” READ MORE
POETRY
In a Vial on the Windowsill You’ll Find It
by Marisca Pichette
This morning I wrote to the bees:
I’m bleeding my eyes for summer,
my skin your favorite texture: READ MORE
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial: Magnifique!
by Sheila Williams
I had a stunning experience at the 2022 World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Erle Korshak, art collector and SF publisher, had been named a Chicon 8 Guest of Honor. Alas, Erle died before the convention took place. Erle had amassed a collection of Illustrations of Imaginative Literature. This collection was enriched and expanded by his son Stephen, who is also an art collector. In tribute to Erle, an awesome sampling of the Korshak Family Collection was on display at the convention. READ MORE
Reflections: The Man Who Saw the Future
by Robert Silverberg
Will F. Jenkins (1896–1975), who wrote under the pseudonym of “Murray Leinster” throughout his long career, would be on nobody’s list of the top ten science fiction writers today, but he was a considerable figure in his day, which lasted from the 1920s into the 1960s. He will always be remembered for one classic story, “First Contact,” the story that gave us the translating-machine concept and is still being reprinted regularly in anthologies. READ MORE
On Books: Citizens of the Galaxy
by Norman Spinrad
When I was about ten years old it was a scientific belief that our Solar System was the result of a rare collision of our Sun with another star. I was already writing speculative fiction, and indeed humans had reached the Moon in 1969 before other solar systems began to be discovered in 1992. READ MORE
On the Net: The Music of the Future
by James Patrick Kelly
soundtracks
Although science fiction writers deal in the strange and imaginary, we draw from commonplace raw materials. New science and tech often provide a spark, as do certain philosophical conjectures that have been debated since Socrates schooled Plato. We develop characters based on people we know or have read about, although often they are so composite that they are unrecognizable to any but us. READ MORE