SF Short Stories

God of the Naked Unicorn by Richard Lupoff [as by Ova Hamlet1] (Fantastic, August 1976) is one of a series of author parodies—although this one doesn’t concentrate one writer but mashes up Dr Watson and various pulp action heroes.

Illness in a Word by R.

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury (The Saturday Evening Post, September 23, 1950)1 opens with a concerned Lydia Hadley telling her husband George about what is happening in their house’s nursery, a holographic/sensory play area for their two children, Peter and W…

Lucie Loves Neutrons and the Good Samarium by Thoraiya Dyer (Clarkesworld #219, December 2024)1 opens with Izzy (the main character) with her wife Lucie at their house in France: Izzy simultaneously adores the French farming village, because stepping into…

Swarm X1048 – Ethological FieldReport: Canis Lupus Familiaris, “6” by F.

An Intergalactic Smugglers Guide to Homecoming by Tia Tashiro (Clarkesworld #211, April 2024)1 opens with Miko going through customs at a starport orbiting Terra Three: There are seven hundred aliens hidden in Miko’s backpack, and the Galactic Security Ag…

A Thing of Beauty by Norman Spinrad (Analog, January 1973) opens with a very wealthy Japanese businessman called Mr Ito arriving in the office of Mr Harris, an American antiquities dealer in a near future USA.

Five Fathoms of Pearls by James H.

Johnny on the Spot by Frank Belknap Long Jr.

The Scalar Intercepts by Michael Cassutt (Asimov’s SF, January-February 2024) is a brief bit of ideation more than a story, and one which sees an AI report back to other AIs about the seven hundred or so humans left alive on Earth (there had been a past c…