Joiner and Rust
An aging robot, on a journey to visit a friend, reflects on their adventures together.
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Read Reactor’s award-winning original short stories, novelettes, and poetry, peruse reprints of classic stories, check out excerpts from new novels, and more!
Our Award-Winning Original Stories
Read free short fiction from sci-fi/fantasy from your favorite authors and brand new voices. Exclusively on Reactor.
Download Reactor Original Short Fiction Highlights 2025!
Our new bundle gathers a selection of this year's stories in one easy-to-read place.
All of Reactor’s Short Fiction in 2025
The real 6-7 is the stories we read along the way...
All That Means or Mourns
Transformed by a broad-spread fungal infection that connects humans with nature, one woman feels...
Regarding the Childhood of Morrigan, Who Was Chosen to Open the Way
A child who falls through the cracks in a world run by machines and politics, might be the savio...
The Belle of the Ball
In a future where people can travel back in time and do anything they want without consequences,...
Barnacle
An older medic with scant resources fights to support her community as they survive life behind...
Timelike Curves, Spacelike Curves
Is it bad to cheat on your boyfriend with the fabric of space and time?
Phantom View
A disabled son care-taking for a disabled father tries to understand the mysterious blur hauntin...
Where the Hell Is Nirvana?
A minor deva drudging away in the gleaming offices of Buddhist heaven discovers there are easier...
Excerpts
Read an Excerpt From The Hospital at the End of the World by Justin C. Key
In a near future where artificial intelligence runs the world, a medical student must unravel fa...
Read an Excerpt From Pedro the Vast by Simón Lopez Trujillo
Humanity has encroached a step too far into the natural world, and a deadly fungus mounts its ow...
Read an Excerpt From Twelve Months by Jim Butcher
Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, has always managed to save the day—but this t...
Read an Excerpt From Queen of Faces by Petra Lord
A desperate girl at a cutthroat magical academy faces a choice between life and death: become an...
Reprints
Some Ways to Retell a Fairy Tale
There's more to “once upon a time” than meets the eye...
The Woman Carrying a Corpse
We’re excited to reprint “The Woman Carrying a Corpse” by Chi Hui, translated from Chinese...
The Stars We Raised
We’re delighted to share “The Stars We Raised” by Xiu Xinyu, translated from C...
A Dream of Electric Mothers
We're excited to reprint "A Dream of Electric Mothers," the 2023 Nebula Award–nominated novelett...
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