Dec. 2024 (Issue 175)

We have original science fiction by Pat Murphy (“A Catalog of 21st Century Ghosts”) and Gene Doucette (“Get Hyped!”). We also have two terrific flash pieces: “Inside the House of Wisdom” from Tamara Masri and “What We Plan To Do To You” by Adam-Troy Castro. Plus, we have original fantasy by Melissa A Watkins (“Ol’ Big Head”) and Cressida Blake Roe (“The Godhood of Ima Day”). We also have a flash story (“Sleeping Beauty and the Restless Realm”) from Lincoln Michel, and another (“Three Birds That Came Out of Grayson Huff and a Bunch More That Fell from the Sky”) from David Anaxagoras. All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with book reviews from our terrific review team.

Cover art by Tithi Luadthong (aka Grandfailure)

Dec. 2024 (Issue 175)

Editorial

Editorial: December 2024

by John Joseph Adams

Be sure to check out the editorial for a run-down of this month’s content and all our new and updates.

Science Fiction

Inside the House of Wisdom

by Tamara Masri

This is the eighth floor of the Al-Ahli Memorial Library, my favorite place in the building. When the elevator door opens, it’s like walking into a quiet circle of glass. So, as we walk, I’m going to whisper. People are reading, writing, drawing—it’s such a beautiful place to work.

Fantasy

Ol’ Big Head

by Melissa A Watkins

Author spotlight

So I guess if I’m gonna tell you about the ghost, first I have to tell you why I had to go all the way to Mama Tee’s house in the first place. Basically, this one day last summer me and my boys were just chillin in the parking lot of the rec center. We […]

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Melissa A Watkins

by Mayookh Barua

You have to laugh to keep from crying—policing injustice, ghosts, family estrangement, adultification, systemic racism—none of that is funny. But hard things are made more bearable by sprouting a little seed of joy in your heart and watering it with laughter at the absurdity of every unfair thing.

Science Fiction

A Catalog of 21st Century Ghosts

by Pat Murphy

Author spotlight

On the high plains of Kansas in a tiny town worn down by drought, I stop at a roadside diner. When I ask for water, the waitress pours me a glass of ice water, presenting it with obvious pride. “We have our own well,” she says. “And the wind turbine on the roof keeps the freezer going.”

Fantasy

Sleeping Beauty and the Restless Realm

by Lincoln Michel

The beautiful princess was cursed by a wicked fairy to sleep for a hundred years. She slumbered in a bed of silk in the golden castle surrounded by tangles of briars and roses on the top of the hill. Nobody much cared. Why should the villagers have felt bad for the magically slumbering princess?

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Pat Murphy

by Mayookh Barua

I gave my character Sandy a bicycle because riding a bicycle connects you to the landscape you are traversing in a way that driving a car does not. You feel each hill; you rejoice in each valley. You have the time to appreciate the land. When you’re on a bike, you can’t rush the journey.

Nonfiction

Book Review: Translation State by Ann Leckie

by Chris Kluwe

Chris Kluwe shines a light on a work that might have been a bit overlooked earlier this year: Translation State by Ann Leckie.

Science Fiction

What We Plan to Do with You

by Adam-Troy Castro

The good news is, we have no intention of killing you. We know that this is no relief to you. The inherent feature of a position that begins with, “The good news,” is that the bad news is coming and that it usually possesses sufficient substance to be a fool counterweight.

Fantasy

The Godhood of Ima Day

by Cressida Blake Roe

Author spotlight

When they take the god out of you, you wonder at first if you’ve been killed, but it wasn’t very well done, and you wish someone would hurry up and finish the job. You were strapped down and touched with fire from shoulder to hip.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Cressida Blake Roe

by Mayookh Barua

Back then, communing with the divine was couched in images or metaphors of violence: you have these accounts of wounds, being pierced or attacked. But such is the nature of divine violence that it’s transformative, illuminating. In the context of this story, though, it’s also shoved up against a more earthly, clinical violence.

Nonfiction

Book Review: Mechanize My Hands to War by Erin K. Wagner

by Melissa A Watkins

Melissa A Watkins dives into Erin K. Wagner’s new novel Mechanize My Hands to War—which proves deeply nuanced and thought-provoking. Find out if it’s your next read!

Science Fiction

Get Hyped!

by Gene Doucette

Rachel knew Jacko Hype before just about anybody. That’s what she told people when they asked what made her some kind of expert; she knew who he was, what he was, and what he was not, because she met him first.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Gene Doucette

by Alex Puncekar

The current iteration of AI that everyone is talking about right now isn’t actually “artificial intelligence;” it’s rebranded machine learning, which is very much not new. “AI” is, to me, a marketing scheme, not a technological breakthrough.

Fantasy

Three Birds That Came Out of Grayson Huff and a Bunch More That Fell from the Sky

by David Anaxagoras

I was on the school bus when the second bird came out. The bus struggled up Trabuco Hill Road. Gears ground. This was the part every day when we all joked about getting out to push. Another year and I’d have my driver’s license. Then no more bus.