Stories of soulful cars, interplanetary exorcists, fanfictional academic rigor, accursed family histories, star-courting skyships, earthy roots growing in the deep, kraken hunters with existential crises, infinite carousels, devious fox spirits, robot prison breaks, and one antique teapot that should not be in space.
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Issue 0ne
Novella
What Any Dead Thing Wants — By Aimee Ogden
In this haunting Nebula nominee, a battle-scarred interplanetary exorcist hunts ghosts across hostile world until one possession exposes a secret powerful enough to erase the rules that keep the dead contained. Hunted by both the living and the dead, she must decide whether to silence the truth or unleash it, knowing either choice could doom entire planets.
Novelette
The Soundtrack of My Afterlife — By P. A. Cornell
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Red doesn’t remember anything before dying. He doesn’t know why he’s been reincarnated as a ’72 Mustang or why he can sometimes change the radio station when it’s belting out disco. All he knows is that he loves the teenager who fixed him up and would do anything to protect her, no matter the cost.
Editorial
This won’t exist yesterday: A warning to time travelers from the editor
Just know, if you intend to go to yesterday, you’ll struggle to find this again.
Short Stories
We’re lucky to still have this scholar’s eye view into the most important literature from our time to survive into the deep future: spicy Bella Swan fanfic. What endures is what defines.
This is Why Magical Realism and Family Tree School Projects Shouldn’t Mix — By Abigail Guerrero
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Clarita has a fascinating family history, which may or may not explain why she has hooves. Yes, the rumors your abuela told you about the Villalbas are true.
A Húlíjīng Always Keeps One Tail Hidden — By Melissa Ren
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After a tragic accident, a grieving woman is so desperate to get her dead sister back that she makes a last ditch deal with a devious fox spirit.
What A Name Does Is Let You Leave — By Meagan Kane
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On a radiation-blasted prison station over Io, a three-legged synthetic is on the verge of helping the human they love escape when a key co-conspirator gets deactivated. With the AI warden closing in, can they sabotage the station and steal a ship before the guards, the corporation, or the planet Jupiter kill them all?
Hunter Mother Sailor Wife — By Catherine Tavares
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When a kraken surfaces off a family transport, a retired hunter must choose between staying belowdecks with her children or taking up her harpoon for the fight.
Flash
As Yoona pilots the Bruxelles through the Kuiper Belt, she discovers something porcelain and covered in blue dragons that couldn’t possibly be out among the stars. Then, things get weird.
The Furthest Point — By Alethea Paul
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Listen up, and you’ll hear the tale of serving aboard The Apogee as it sails among the clouds, powered — some say — by the stars. Rough skies ahead, me hearties.
To Devour Your Own Name — By Katlina Sommerberg
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Spat upon for her carnivorous nature, a hyena mounts a screaming carousel built of bone, gods, and devouring hunger. As the ride strips her bare, she must either deny her essence forever or consume the divine to become something sacred.
A Place to Grow — By Sarah Grace Tuttle
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Driven underground by scarcity and grief, a living thing abandons the light and learns to thrive in silence and darkness. Long after they stop caring about the surface world, their persistent, patient growth becomes an unexpectedly potent force.
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